Gwnewch y pethau bychain

Month: January 2003 Page 1 of 2

First Lines (with a twist)

So I really liked the first lines from books meme, so here are ten. Note that these are not necessarily my ten FAVOURITE books, since a) I couldn’t quantify what my ten favourite books are, and b) I don’t necessarily have them all at hand. Also, some of my favourite book shave boring first lines, and what fun is that.

To make this even more fun, I’m not going to tell you what they are! Well, ok, I will, but not right away, and you guys can have fun figuring them out. Some are well-known, some less well-known, but I recommend every book I put on here. Go read them.

  • It was starting to end, after what seemed like most of an eternity to me.
  • A great city is nothing more than a portrait of itself, and yet when all is said and done, its arsenals of scenes and images are part of a deeply moving plan.
  • “Are we all now present?” the Master enquired, squinting over the top of his gold-rimmed spectacles.
  • By day, the Nicollet Mall winds through Minneapolis like a paved canal.
  • She had been running for four days now, a harum-scarum tumbling flight through passages and tunnels.
  • Years ago, when you were a kid and I was a kid, something changed in America.
  • “You can always find somebody stranger than you are in Athens,” Jay Madison’s girlfriend had told him.
  • First came the routine request for a Breach of Privacy permit. A police officer took down the details and forwarded the request to a clerk, who saw that the tape reached the appropriate civic judge.
  • When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.
  • The year Janet started at Blackstock College, the Office of Residential Life had spent the summer removing from all the dormitories the old wooden bookcases that, once filled with books, fell over unless wedged.
  • The Weekly Meme

    Taken from gridlore:

    1. What do you call me? or What do you think of me as?
    2. What song makes you think of me (if one does), and why? or What would be my theme tune?
    3. If you could give me one present, what would it be?
    4. What one thing/event do you associate with me?
    5. How well do you know me?

    Work Rant

    So I’ve just come in the door, getting set up and assessing the Issues of the Day, as I do every morning, when I have what seems to be a typical conversation on ICQ with someone in the Support office:

    Support Tech:
    Heya Rob……..Steve is waiting so give me the heads up when and if you want me to conference the call.

    Rob:
    am i supposed to just magically know what you’re talking about 🙂

    Support Tech:
    well [co-worker] told me you were aware of what was going on with [customer]

    Rob:
    well, that helps. [Tech’s name], I know approximately 4,512 people named “Steve”. I deal with multiple issues every day, every hour, often in bunches at once. please let me know exactly which issue you’re calling me about when you call, because I can’t keep all of them straight with shorthand. 🙂

    I swear, it’s not enough to be a miracle worker, you gotta be psychic too.

    Psychological Cluttergathering


    Two traveling monks reached a river where they met a young woman. Wary of the current, she asked if they could carry her across. One of the monks hesitated, but the other quickly picked her up onto his shoulders, transported her across the water, and put her down on the other bank. She thanked him and departed.

    As the monks continued on their way, the one was brooding and preoccupied. Unable to hold his silence, he spoke out. “Brother, our spiritual training teaches us to avoid any contact with women, but you picked that one up on your shoulders and carried her!”

    “Brother,” the second monk replied, “I set her down on the other side, while you are still carrying her.”

    kitanzi and I had some fascinating discussions last night about fears and emotional triggers and learning from the past. And while she’s right that one must hold dear the lessons one learns from one’s experience, it’s also important to let go of the weight those experiences brought upon you in their time.

    I left school and moved to Georgia when I was 19 years old, for reasons that at that time seemed important to me. I quickly found myself trying to hold together a household with all the financial burdens that entailed, and supporting another person who seemed to grow less and less enchanted in me, and less and less interested in the life I thought we’d lead together. Many of the things that I thought I would do as my 20s unfolded were never realized. I missed the opportunity to travel, to meet and experience new people, to explore myself, because I had voluntarily delivered myself into this service, and because of the fears and emotional triggers that are a fundamental part of what makes me me, I could not easily walk away from it. It took turning 30 and vowing not to waste another decade of my life as I’d wasted the one before to finally start seeking a path out, and another eighteen months before I’d finally realize that escape.

    This is history. One the one hand, it’s no more relevant to my life today than the Hundred Years War is. On the other hand, these are the experiences that shaped me, and which shape my needs and desires.

    It’s time to let go of the resentment and regret of those lost years. This is, of course, easy to say and harder to do. I cannot change the choices I made–in fact, I would not change those choices if there was any chance whatsoever that I would not end up where I am today. And if I spend my 30s trying to capture the lost opportunities of my 20s, all I end up doing is missing my 30s, and won’t find myself in any better position at 40 than I am today. Yesterday is for reflection, tomorrow is for hopes. Today is for living.

    If the life I led was the one I had to lead to find myself where I am today, then it was all worth it, and all the what-might-have-beens are merely pleasant diversions to contemplate in an idle moment.

    I’ve carried her across the river long enough. It’s time to put her down.

    Because life is good. And I’m happy.

    Adventures in Suburbia

    Got the cable bill paid today, after some mild frustration — I called them hoping to get the automated system to get directions ot the payment centre nearby. Instead, for some reason, I ended up talking to a person, who informed me the ONLY payment center in Fulton County was at Greenbriar Mall, which is down on the south side. Now, considering that a) I’d already checked with the automated system the other day, and b) Fulton County is approximately the size of Delaware, I didn’t really believe this could be true. The web page gave me better information and I found the place easily.

    I hope this is just a result of Comcast’s amoeba-like absorption of AT&T Broadband, and that they get their customer service ducks in a row shortly.

    Oh my sweet Aunt Clara….

    This would be funny if it wasn’t so serious. (Thanks to lothie for the link):

    DoD offering admin privileges on .mil Web sites

    As a sysadmin, I just don’t have words to describe my reaction to this. Simply mindboggling.

    On the heels of reading all the polyrific fun happening at Arisia, today’s Sinfest gave kitanzi and me a chuckle:

    Delayed plans

    I had really hoped that my mother would be coming to visit us sometime during the Christmas holidays. kitanzi still hasn’t met her, and is looking forward to it; for myself, I haven’t seen her in quite a long time, though we do speak on the telephone frequently. But with this thing and that thing and the other thing, it didn’t happen. Then the first week in January, I had houseguests, then came GaFilk, so Mom made plans to come down last weekend.

    Well, last weekend there was winter weather, which, while not bad down here, was enough up in North Carolina that she decided to postpone her trip until this weekend. After all, there was no urgency attached to the visit, and this weekend was just as good as last.

    Last night, she called to let me know they’d had four inches of snow dumped on them last night, and thus she was postponing again until next weekend.

    Which is fine, really. I’m just struck by the fact that, living in the Southeast as I do, this is the first time I’ve ever had someone not be able to come and see me until “after the thaw”.

    Welcome to Livejournal…

    …Sending out a welcome to one of one of my dearest friends, Teri W. Welcome to the timesink, teri945!

    But I came here for a weekend

    I feel like the guy in the Monty Python “Argument Clinic” skit this morning:

    “That was never a weekend just now!”
    “I’m afraid it was.”
    “But I was just getting interested…”
    “I’m sorry, but if you want to go on having a weekend, you’re going to have to pay!”

    And, not being able to afford to not work, back to work we go.

    The weekend was good though. kitanzi and I were both a bit bummed about not being able to go to Arisia, where it appears a good time was being had. But we did have the consolation of a housefilk, this month at Daric Jackson’s. Daric is a local anime fan who doesn’t get to many filks, so it’s always good to see him. Small crowd showed up, but since it included Robert and Beth Cooke, neither of us were complaining. Lots of singing, even more talking (during most of which I’d have rather heard music, but that’s a danger of a small housefilk.) Kit and I did a couple of Dave Carter/Tracy Grammer tunes for Robert, who is only just becoming familiar with them (mostly through spiritdance and Filker0. I love spreading that vector. 🙂

    Sunday was housework and laundry day, though we did break it up to run off for a lunchdate. I had a craving for meat, and the chili in the crockpot wasn’t going to be ready for hours, so we went to Loco’s for buffalo wings and salad and a big steak each. Suitably stuffed, we went back home, finished up with the stuff that needed to be done, and then sat down and watched Blazing Saddles which we’d just gotten on DVD. Fun movie, though I think Kit was more amused at how much of the movie I could recite from memory than the movie itself *G*

    But today is Monday, so back to work with me. Hope everyone else had a great weekend.

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