boron3

I know, livejournal, I've been neglecting you.
If I hadn't mentioned, Fitz is keeping me around as a full-time normal working kind of person. I'm a big kid now, with real business cards and everything. Woo. It's going to be a fun (haha) week here I'm sure, since half of the people are away on holiday and everything important that needed to be done has mostly been done. I've got to get the cover for the catalogue finished, but before I can do that I need to find out if we're getting one more sort of consignment title in. We were supposed to know a week ago, sigh.

Dragon Age: Origins has been a good time recently. It doesn't seem like it should take as much time to do things as it does, and then it's two hour later and you've advanced the plot hardly at all and used up all your health potions. Or given them away. Or sold them by accident. Durr. I've been playing for about 20 hours and have completed, I think, about 20% of the story. I do love me my long rpgs, though, so I'm not too concerned. I want to finish it, though, so I can start my next character. I think finishing it unlocks some stuff, too, which I crave.

I stopped by McNally's the other day to see S b/c I've been ferrying interns around and haven't had a chance to stop in and say hi b/c I miss her :( I picked her up a book, Keep Calm and Carry On because I thought of it earlier that day (the poster from WWII England, I think) and then saw a book with it on the cover and figured, why not? So I only saw her for a few minutes because it's X-mess in retail and S was on cash so couldn't talk. Still, good to see her, if only for a few. Need to have a Mad Men-athon with her or something.
Oh, and recognizing that the Neil Gaiman event had little support and no funding, you did well with what you had. It just wasn't streamlined is all - I did enjoy it and I would go to it again next year if you did another one :P

We're doing Christmas at home on the 24th because Laura is leaving for Australia on the morning of the 25th.. like the early morning - 5 a.m ish. So that's fun.

I need to go shopping still >_

Looking at my stats on here and it tells me I wrote an entry a day ago... which I really have no memory of doing. It's been a hectic, um... since May or so, and finally I have a minute or two to not do anything. I've "finished" the catalogue - the hard parts anyhow - I need to re-colour the thing and make some slight cosmetic changes. It's at the printer in spirit, but needs to go back again tomorrow. We took the interns out for a farewell lunch and tomorrow is our Christmas party - at the office in the afternoon - and tomorrow I've been invited to the Dundurn company party, but I don't know if I'll be able to make it.
I was at a book launch last night with Stacey, Jeff and Niki - Ali had to cancel due to boyfriend things, which is totally fine. We're going to try to get together sometime soonish, but who can say? Last night I didn't do any work at home - I just played videogames when I got home. So good. Tonight.. I should make food, though I won't neeeeed it tomorrow for lunch since we're having food here.
I'll write a real post at some point. I guess this counts. Ish.

Oiiiiii
The weekend wasn't long enough, not that I would have known what to do with it if it had been longer. Oh, wait, prolly play Dragon Age, but aside from that I mean..
The catalogue has been sort of mostly done for a few weeks now - it's little things right now that are holding things up. I need to find two pages tonight... that is, I need to make two pages come out of nowhere pretty much. Easier said than done. I've also got to punch out two ads for VOYA magazine for Wednesday. If I work on them tomorrow, then I'm out with Alison and Stacey in the evening at an event, I might be able to pull this off, but it'll be tight, I think. Sigh.
Mike, our production manager who is from the 'old school' of doing things, being reasonably old, asked if he should be watching Mad Men, since Chalmers and Amy both have told him he should, and I'm a fan so they directed him my way. It turns out, he worked at an ad agency in Canada (the biggest one at the time.. they handled GM and such..) and says that the lifestyle they talk about in the tv show is pretty much what happened - go out for drinks at lunch, sober up in time for drinks after work. Rinse. Repeat. Good to know that that stuff is all true, though I feel sorry for their livers and whatnot. Oi.
Anyhow, back to it.

I saw Ninja Assassin this weekend with Tyler, Tristan and Mina - it was a pretty retarded movie with some weird plot holes... I mean, it was fun, but totally retarded. I did love the ninja's fighting in the road getting run over by cars. And the movie just furthered the rule about ninjas. If you have one ninja, they're neigh invincible. Once you get a bunch of them, they all die pretty good. The opposite is true for pirates - one pirate is a deadman, but the more pirates you get, the more invincible they become. So one ninja vs one pirate, ninja all the way. Against an army of pirates, it'll be messy for sure. An army of pirates vs an army of ninjas, the ninjas are as good as dead.

Saturday was bust at the bookstore - Christmas is nearly upon us and people are dropping lots of money on books - good for them! Last night I was out and I've been doing some Dragon Age: Origins and working on this catalogue which is really getting me down. I have two pages of empty space now, which is sort of good - but now I need to fill the pages with something e_e;; maybe I'll find out tomorrow and everything can be reorganized. Sigh.

it's such a pain that I think of great things that I feel I need to look up online when I'm not near a computer, and have completely no idea what they are once I actually have a moment or two to do some research. Sigh.

Dear H.B. Fenn and the repackaging of Generation X:
N/T

I feel kind of like a bad person for liking this Lady Gaga song. I was doing well to only know her in the intellectual, peripheral sense - see her on magazines, and see pictures of her on the interwebs that compare her to anything from giraffes to muppets. But Bad Romance is really catchy.. and if it was done by Blut Engel or Ayria, you'd hardly know the difference. Maybe ditch the Whoooaooaoaooah's and you'd have it. Anyhow.
Been working myself silly over this catalogue. Sharon doesn't like it - it's too big and doesn't flow. This one is about three times bigger than the one before it.. so there's a lot more content to manage. Which reminds me I need to play around with it a little tonight for Holly. Durr.
So this is being cut short. Tomorrow Mina is making me dinner.
Systema was good tonight; I mean, it usually is, and it didn't disappoint.
Oh, and I got my business card holder and my cufflinks, which make me very happy. I just need to put the 'links on the one shirt that I have that can use them and I'm set :P The card holder is very shiney. Mirrow polish. Holy heck, batman.

Doc's with white shoelaces are a bad sign, right? Swastikas doodled on your hands are ok, too? Right?

Good-bye, weekend!
With the catalogue being reshuffled and about another 30 pages being added, clearly, I am not going to have enough to do this weekend. Sigh.
Being in the office is mostly counter-productive.. well, aside from being able to steal high-rez images from our servers for the covers and whatnot and I suppose being able to access our title information better here, by and large I don't get much done around here. Well, I do - just not usually the thing I want to get done. Since I am handy helpful guy and am easily coerced into helping people, be it lifting things that are unliftable or finding things or mailing things and then tracking the things that I have mailed. It's an odd life.
Also, people who I need to be here today are not.
Ah well. I guess I'm getting some things done.
I wonder if I'll get to go for lunch today. That would be nice, although I did make some more gnocci stuff last night. Mmm.

Well, I keep hoping life will slow down a smidge, and it keeps on not happening.
Last night Book City did a 25% off all books sale which was very well attended. Graeme, Marshall and myself were there until 11pm when it ended - we had two people still in the store persistently refusing to stop shopping - basically we were telling them we didn't have books that we probably had just because we wanted them to gtfo. I had a date with a mini-pitcher of beer and some wings across the street that I didn't want to be late for. And some reading, because that's how I do things.
At the Fitz front, I've gone over the pagination of our catalogue with Bill again today, adding some more titles that we had totally forgotten from our agencies. I think last year's catalogue was like 40-50 pages - this year we're pretty well doubling that. And people still haven't given me all my info. Woo. But now, at least, some people are being understanding. Not being here tomorrow or Friday would help, but I've got some stuff I need to get done here. I'm working tonight, tomorrow I'm off now, apparently, and Friday I'm working for Carol, with Graeme, who is working for Therese. I think over the holidays everyone can fuck off and I can have a few days to myself. That'd be nice.
Anyhow, got more wonderful things to do. Sorta. Like re-doing the pagination. Sigh.

I have this incredibly ridiculous nostalgia for a shirt that I owned when I was maybe 3-5 years old. I don't know if I have any pictures of me wearing it, and there is no way I'd ever fit into it again, but for some reason it's a shirt I've found myself thinking about years and years.. it probably got thrown out or, more likely, given away without my knowing.. I just remember one day wanting to wear it, but not being able to find it. I mean, really, this is something that I devote time and energy thinking about? Still? Bizarre.
Slogging away at a catalogue. 20 pages into corrections. More to do, for sure. I had to re-stlye the fonts because I didn't have the one that they had used before, and I'm not paying to get a goddamn font.
Late night a-comin'.
Last night I had dinner with Mina and we hit the Salty Dog after that and met up with some friends - it was pretty ok. I tidied my apartment a bit today. There is too much to do and not enough to play video games in that time. Sigh.

I might die of a nerd-boner.
And Bill, I downloaded Torchlight. Pretty good time so far :)

Whoever though that this was a good idea.. I mean, just damnit, man. Who calls the police because their child won't take a shower before bed? Can you even do that? I mean, sensibly? Sigh.

Last night my mom called me to tell me that my uncle Arnie has leukemia - he'd been sick for a few weeks or something like that and they took him to the hospital and that's what they found out. It's been a bad week, I guess, in people being sick with stuff. Kyra's baby, Gnat, has.. type 1 diabetes? I might be remembering her blog post incorrectly.
So that was a bit of a shock - when my mom called to tell me she has bad news I really didn't know what to expect. Durr.

Anyhow, this feels like it might be a lazy Friday. I am probably going to be busy all weekend. Poop.

This is totally disgusting.
See that teddy bear on the side? The placenta teddy bear looks nothing like it.
Barf city.

I think any time This Guy shows up in the news, you're probably in for an ok time.
Unless you're invited to one of his parties (see above link) in which case, you'll get a lecture and a Koran and an invitation to convert. No miniskirts, plox.
I mean, it's a bad time, unless you're me and you're into getting busted by chicks like this becuase I could go for a misdemeanor or something right about now. lol. I kid. Still, no lady cops pull me over, because I'm going to jail, just not for whatever you pulled me over for.

I had pretty much the worst start to a day that you can hope for. I went to bed at 3, working on this catalogue... woke up at 7, zipped off to work, started printing my catalogues, when Bill asked about a book I had taken home to write a TIP sheet for over the weekend. Did I have it? No - it was big and I would have had to carry it to my house etc - but it's one of only a few of this book in the world, so yeah, could you go get it right now please? So I did. Fighting traffic back into the city = not a great time. Still, I got it back in time for that part of the meeting. Sigh.
Day one of the sales conference is over. I'm going to bed pretty much now because I need to make up for lost sleep.
And I'm a cooking genius. And impulsive, but in an excellent (see: delicious) way.

Odd people abound. But then, I take extremely polite people to be a little strange. When someone 'respectfully asks my first name' small alarm bells go off. But he could be really just a nice guy. When he asks the meaning of the name and its origin, again, eyebrows go up. Meh.

I dreamed last night that J was stuck in a tree on a hill that was on woodbine that doesn't exist. I'm interpreting it as woodbine anyhow - I don't think it was really, but anyhow... I had to go get him because he's a massive coward... but... there were big wild cats that were running up the street. Tigers and cheetahs, I think. And some more on the top of the hill, lazily looking at me. But I had to get my baby, so I did :P Not a whole lotta sense coming from that.

I'm at Book City, and it's been an oddly busy opening half-hour.
Santa Claus parade tomorrow. People are getting in the spirit or something and spending.

Ah, internet, I've missed you at home.
It's been a busy week - I've been working on a catalogue for Fitz for most of the week, stopping by the office long enough to steal files, do some stuff, and typically get roped into doing something else. Today I went in for the whole day, because I needed as much info and files as I could get, and sometimes being there reminding people that you need their stuff is the best way to do that. Still, today went late as everyone is scrambling to get their stuff in, and that being said, we didn't get a lot of it in. So... that's not my fault, I don't think.
I'm working tomorrow, of course, and Sunday from 12-8 for Graeme, which I'm regretting now, because I'd really rather be doing a catalogue.. well, I'd rather not, but I'd rather not be working the weekend.
I went to the Real Jerk and grabbed dinner because there was no way I wanted to cook tonight - I skipped on lunch because I was busy.
I just caught the last episode for season 3 of Mad Men. :O

My internet is pooched at home right now - the free connection I've been stealing seems to have disappeared or had (gasp) a key put on it so I can't just use it whenever I want... which means I'll have to get my normal internet figured out.. crappy crap. Ah well. So I'm stuck using it at work... which isn't so bad.
While receiving books at work the other night, I had a cookbook that I flipped through and for whatever reason, I saw a recipe for corn chowder and decided that I was going to make some. I didn't follow that recipe since I think it was a super-healthy cookbook and who needs that, so I dug around online for a while until I found one that I liked - it was corn chowder with potatoes and sausage, mm. So I went out and bought ingredients and such and stayed up late making it, with J helping me eat the sausage after I had finished cooking it. Pretty mad tasty.
Going to see Cirque du Soleil tonight, which should be fun.
I'm going to talk to Sharon tonight - they want me to get this catalogue done by teh 16th and I really have no way of getting that done here at work. I mean, this morning no one is around, but I know that as soon as people start to trickle in, I'm going to have other people to do stuff for etc etc and meetings (shit, there is an Ingram meeting today..) that all get in the way of getting stuff done. Blah.