Technical Difficulties on Wednesday

A couple of days before Thanksgiving, I was on my lunch break working on my Christmas list. And suddenly my brand new Palm stopped working. The screen no longer responded to touch, even after two re-sets. It went back to the factory for repair on Wednesday of this week.

That morning I came back into the office after taking a snow day, and my laptop -- which I presume had been sitting quietly in its docking station while I was gone -- could not get a connection to our system. "A network cable is unplugged" the message said. So I checked the cables. No, they were not unplugged. Not at the docking station, not in the wall. I took the laptop out of the docking station, connected the cable directly to the laptop. Still no joy.

So I moved into Jeannie's old office -- the corner office, with the lovely view -- and used the docking station there while I waited for IT to send someone to fix my problem. And then I found out that my dedicated printer is suffering the same issue. I suspect someone inadvertently turned off the ports I'm plugged into -- but since the guy they assigned my case to is in California it's not something that could be easily checked. Hurmph.

Meanwhile, someone kindly reminded me yesterday that I have wireless capability, and can connect to our intranet that way. Oh yeah!

And Wednesday night -- uncrowned_king, the Daughter and I were watching Firefly ("Jaynestown," to be specific). That was the last episode on Disc 2. A vote was taken and the winners decided we wanted to watch Into the Woods (recently re-purchased because I can't remember who borrowed my copy more than a year ago). Out of the two-month-old-DVD-player came Firefly, in went Into the Woods -- and the DVD player stopped working. When a disc gets put in, it starts to spin up, then shuts itself off. Doesn't matter which disc. Still haven't figured out that one.

Why are so many of my gadgets suddenly going on the blink??

I'm going to be extra nice to my Dash and my iPod for a while.

Nominated, continued

When I got back to work and managed to reach the system (see previous entry), I was able to access the text of the nomination for the company award. It was anonymous, but the content made it clear who it was: a relatively new employee who had experienced some complications in his early days which I had resolved for him. Easy stuff. No big deal. It's the kind of thing that usually would rate a thank you note or a Certificate of Appreciation (which we have online for occasions just such as these -- you fill in the blanks, and the system sends a print-and-display copy to the person you're thanking and to his or her supervisor).

But this guy evidently really appreciated what I had done and my friendly attitude and smile. And he probably isn't fully aware of other forms of recognition, and we also had the email come out announcing last quarter's award winners. So he nominated me.

I had a brief chat with my manager about it yesterday. He agreed with my assessment that what I had done wasn't actually award worthy, but hey -- it was nice that the guy did it at all. And the nomination makes me eligible for our division's own quarterly award, and who knows -- maybe they will take this opportunity to acknowledge me that way.

But in the meantime, I'm finding out that I'm not particularly enjoying project management. Not the projects I'm doing right now anyway.

Spirituality

It's been forever since I've written anything about my spiritual life, or anything but everyday work and home issues. My life is full and happy right now, and my spirituality more quiet and hands-on, less seeking and intellectual than it has been for most of my life. But I miss writing about it and connecting with my friends here on that level.

There's also a growing element that's related to my sexuality -- which is something I've yearned for for a long time -- but I'm so much in the midst of experiencing and exploring it I'm not doing a lot of thinking about it yet. And there's so much intimacy involved that I haven't even begun to reflect on what can be shared in this forum, even filtered.

Then again: this "lack of thinking" and "less intellectual" aspect of it could be a very good thing.

I just miss talking about it with my friends here. And I feel like my journal is a less interesting and vital place than it used to be.

Firefly Quiz

No "wooing women" is not my strong point!
You'll notice this result tied with Book -- which happens to be _storyteller_'s result as well. I was telling someone just the other night that while I really love the women of Firefly, I have more in common with Simon and Book.

Although pretty much all the women on my Friends list have scored as Zoe.

Your results:
You are Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic)

Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic) 75% Derrial Book (Shepherd) 75% Inara Serra (Companion) 60% Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic) 60% River (Stowaway) 50% Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command) 45% Alliance 45% Malcolm Reynolds (Captain) 40% Wash (Ship Pilot) 35% Jayne Cobb (Mercenary) 35% A Reaver (Cannibal) 5%

Medicine and physical healing are your game, but wooing women isn't a strong suit.

Click here to take the Serenity Personality Quiz

Shout Out

Dear Tavia:

Saw this today and thought of you:

Let's not let morality stand in the way of a good plan.

*kisses,

Jehanne