$2264.
That’s the difference in my gross income between 2008 and 2009.
Negative difference.
At least I have a job, yes, I know. But.
Month: January 2010
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Stick a fork in me.
I was going to be posting more often, I really was. And then work came along and got insanely busy.
It’s kicking my ass, no kidding. I end my workday with barely enough coherence and/or energy to accomplish anything. I’m barely getting comics up in time (compare to my previous standard of being at least one comic ahead at all times). I’m not doing much of anything anymore.
We need to either get less busy at work or hire someone. At this rate I’m going to achieve total burnout by my birthday. Well beforehand, actually.
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Clear Your Cache!
I couldn’t just send out an all-staff email to say, “Hey, I upgraded ConnectWise, you need to clear your cache before signing in, like usual.” Oh, no. Nothing so… mundane.
No, I sent this email instead:
With apologies to Howard Ashman
Clear your cache! Clear your cache!
Lest your PC you will crash.
“Try new features,” say the preachers,
“You’ll be working in a flash.”
Saving tabs up for grabs,
We’ve enhancements by the slabs.
With new trickses and bug fixes,
Here and there in dribs and drabs.
So now it’s time for bed;
This song’s been killed quite dead,
But clear your cache!
Clear your cache!
Clear your cache!and that’s about all of “Be Our Guest” that I feel like butchering, late on a Tuesday evening.
Thank you, and good night.
Am I a weirdo, or what?
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They Grew On Me
As I listen to Midnight Oil’s Redneck Wonderland album through (chosen to be the background music while I work on a software upgrade… yes, at 9:30pm…) I realize that back when I first picked up the CD, I didn’t actually like it very much. I thought it was too rough, too hard, too different from the Oils’ sound of the previous several albums.
Now, however, I think of it as among their strongest work. It’s still as musically dense as I like things, but it has more vim and vigor than the softer, twangier material they’d been putting out for a while there. Really, if Diesel and Dust is the only Midnight Oil album you own and you’re wondering what else to pick up, you could do far worse than RW. (Uh, avoid Capricornia, though. Subsequent listening sessions have not endeared that record to my ears.)
What other albums sound better now than when I first listened to them?
Duran Duran’s Astronaut, most assuredly. I wrote a pretentious, faint-praise lump of a review back when the album came out (and there’s a reason I don’t do those anymore), and after those initial few full-record sessions I determined that the first four tracks were all that was worthwhile, there.
Oh, how wrong! “Nice,” “Finest Hour,” “Taste the Summer.” I’d put those up against anything Duran Duran have done before or since, never mind those first four cuts (which I still love). Even “Chains” is a fairly decent little piece. Mind you, I’m still not overly fond of “Bedroom Toys” or “Still Breathing,” but to have written off the entire back two-thirds of the album? What the hell was I thinking? What was wrong with my head? Wow.
I only have the one album from Filter but somehow, some time over the last few years Title Of Record went from being “that record with ‘Take A Picture’ on it” to “this is one of the best rock albums I’ve ever heard.” No, I’m not kidding. I don’t love every song unreservedly, but there’s not a track on there that I’ll skip under any circumstances (random playlist action, playing the album through, whatever). “It’s Gonna Kill Me,” “I Will Lead You,” “Skinny,” the nearly eight minutes of “Welcome To The Fold” to start things off… yeah. Great damned album.
So, if anyone’s still with me after all this time: What albums started out “meh” and grew on you to the point of being all-time favorites now?
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Junk Reshuffled
Yesterday, my contribution to the improvement of my living space consisted almost entirely of replacing the old tub mat with a handful of rubber duck-styled mini-mats. Yes, now there are duck eyes watching me bathe. C’est la vie. At least that mildewed old ugly mat is in the trash, finally. (Turns out that the bottom of the tub isn’t all that slippery normally… I just like having some extra insurance on that front. I nearly made a mess of things during one of my first showers here, owing to my complete lack of physical grace.)
Today I rearranged a bunch of junk… hard drives into a drawer, computer parts into the container set aside for that purpose, cards-and-letters into the newly-assembled Ikea cardboard drawer thingy, and so on. Also, a fair bit o’ junk’s been just plain thrown out. Hooray, me.
I didn’t get any comics done. I have one pending for Monday already so I’m not really hurting on that front, though. I’d have liked having a couple more in the buffer but I think the tidying up in my living space was a better use of my time overall.
And that nearly concludes my three days of vacation time from work. Am I ready for Monday? Of course not, but I’m at least a bit more rested and relaxed than usual…
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Sprucing Up The Living Quarters
I spent a bit more than I originally intended (thus, my “spending” budget for January is already shot the day I get paid) but…
- I have a standing lamp, complete with “reading” lamp off the side, filled with those “Reveal” branded CF bulbs. I can now offer lighting options between “puny, dim touch lamp” and “ZOMG the room overheads are bright, man.” It’d be outright unbearable in here if I turned on the standing lamp, the overheads and the gooseneck “webcomic lighting” lamps, but at least I have options.
- After many long years of devoted service, the rubber-duck shower curtain has seen its last bathing. In its place goes a proper liner-and-curtain combo, the curtain in a very stylish black fabric with narrow vertical stripes.
- Nothing to do with home decor, but I finally replaced the cutting heads in my electric shaver. Less sandpaper-face = Good.
If I can work up a bit more energy then I’ll see about hauling away a bit of the unused, pointless clutter in here with an eye toward picking up another bookshelf (or two?) next month… if nothing else, I need shelves for the growing flock of rubber ducks!