serinde

elibalin: Any progress?
serinde: *hand waggle* Gettin' somewhere.
serinde: I am getting yucks out of Star Wars Name Generators, though.
serinde: "Arwen Taurendil" ? O RLY.
elibalin: Um. Right.
elibalin: The good thing is, nothing sounds wrong.
serinde: "Eckle Arlos" !
serinde: "Fable Su" !
elibalin: My character in KOTOR is "Sledge Harbatkin".
serinde: Hee. Did you make that up or pick the random offering?
elibalin: I made that up.
serinde: See? CAN'T TELL.
elibalin: This is a world in which "Rash Bag Pooop'u" is a perfectly reasonable name.
serinde: We are not allowing Gungans.
elibalin: "No! The dread Sith Darth Wonga Wonga Wonga Wonga Wonga Wonga Wonga Ned."
elibalin: Actually, I kind of like the idea of "Darth Ned".
elibalin: He wears sweater vests!

Snapped awake this morning from a dream in which I was managing a desktop support team at NBC, and saw a call come in for an issue that I said "oh well I'll take this one", because it was put in by Jensen Ackles[1], who needed some sort of phone or VOIP or something attached to his computer. And I go to his office, which was also his apartment[2], prepared to dazzle with my l33t sk1llz, only to find he is running some wacktastic OS I had never heard of, hight "TCH", which acronym I knew in the dream but can only remember now that it stood for Total Control {Something}. And this OS was as obfuscated in its workings as early MacOS or OS/2, and I was fighting through screens of icons and could not get to anything that would actually let me look at what the damn thing was doing under the hood. And my brain cried out unto the silent spaces, "who the fuck would run this piece of shit, and why?" but my mouth spake only "This may have a compatibility issue, let me research a bit and get back to you".

Also, for some reason, he was splitting his space with Spock. Not Leonard Nimoy, mind you, but Spock.[3]

[1] Is he even on any NBC shows?
[2] I don't think I need Freud to figure that bit out.
[3] And they were IM'ing back and forth. There is little that is more weird than the thought of Spock on IM.

elibalin: Speaking of abysmal movies, we eventually need to grit our teeth and watch "The Spirit."
syringavulgaris: Yes. We do.
syringavulgaris: Alas, The Goddamn Spirit is not on streaming. I can add it to the regular disc queue, though.
syringavulgaris: Though one sees all kinds of random shit when searching for "spirit".
syringavulgaris: Vide:
syringavulgaris: "She was a shy country girl who would become "the People's Princess."" um what
elibalin: What masterpiece be this?
syringavulgaris: "The Spirit of Diana".
elibalin: GAaaaAAaaAaaaAAAAaAAh.
syringavulgaris: There are actually two movies of that name, because we are sinners in the hands of an angry God.

syringavulgaris: !!!
syringavulgaris: Nigella has a recipe that she came up with after having Nobu's cod-in-miso.
elibalin: Nifty.
syringavulgaris: And it's scaled for 1 or 2 people.
elibalin: SUBSCIRBE!
syringavulgaris: I don't know what mirin is. Please hold.
syringavulgaris: Oh, it's like sake with a lower booze content.
elibalin: "O'Doul-San"

syringavulgaris: Harrumph. Someone has the band name "stellastarr", I see.
syringavulgaris: Which means that "Stella Starr and the Funboy Two" is off the table.
elibalin: So that makes four people who like "Starcrash."

...is irony, it would seem. I have just heard a contest announced over the airwaves, in which one can win a trip to,

wait for it,

Cleveland.

syringavulgaris: I have been New Facebook Interfaced.
syringavulgaris: Do not want.
elibalin: See? S'horrible.
syringavulgaris: How the sodding fuck do we change settings for our "new" "home page"?
elibalin: I have no idea. As far as I can tell, we don't get to.
elibalin: I'd like to make the whole right-hand column go away.
syringavulgaris: "Since News Feed is now a filtered stream showing real-time posts from your friends, the old news feed preferences page is gone. You can remove friends from the News Feed list (and therefore from your default stream) simply by clicking the "X" that appears when you hover over their story in your stream. You can always click on "See Hidden Friends" to see which of your friends and Pages have been removed from your News Feed filter. Simply click "Add To News Feed" to include your friend or Page in the filter."
elibalin: Not helpful.
elibalin: So, you can either have a wall of trivial spew, or you can shun people, but still have half a wall of trivial spew.
syringavulgaris: Yes.
elibalin: So this is Web2.0.
syringavulgaris: It might be Web2.5.
elibalin: Fuck you, Future.

So, coming to Chez Nous, one ordinarily takes the Dover train. However, my usual train home is not the 5:47 Dover train, but rather the 5:50 Gladstone train. I know this perfectly well, and yet, tonight, managed to have a brain fart and got on the Dover train. (Which I should not have been able to, as it was at that point 5:49.) I noticed this as I was on it & making my way forward to get a seat, when they announced it on the internal speaker; at which point I cussed, turned around, and started running back to the doors...which were already closed. And yet the train was not moving. The conductor said he could not open the doors and went on about how "they announced the train three times..." (WELL, ASSHOLE, I'VE BEEN ON IT UNDER A MINUTE.) Fine, whatever. I was increasingly peeved as we sat there for close on ten minutes, but phoned nedlnthred to find out where I was going. I figured it was not the end of the world, as one can generally change at Newark for a more useful train.

Much to my horror, however, this proved to be the express train. Which first stop is Maplewood. I didn't even know where Maplewood is. As we were discussing this turn of events, Captain Railway comes through again, taking tickets; I had out my monthly pass and just was holding it in the traditional Leaving Visible For You Whenever It Is You're Gonna Look At It fashion that is customary on NJ Transit, and eventually in the middle of my gibbering convo with Beth I realize that he's standing there looking at me. I have her hold a sec and ask if he's here for me, whereat:

Schmucky Conductor: "That'll be $1.75."
Your Humble Correspondent: "........what"
SC: "$1.75. Your pass is only to Brick Church"
YHC: "Wait, you're now going to charge me for getting on the wrong train?"
SC: "Yes, that's the NJ Transit rules"

Now, let me pause here to point out that the conductors have a lot of latitude. I have frequently seen them not charge at all, accept lesser zones to go to a greater distance, not charge step-up fees, charge random amounts of step-up fees...it's not like working retail where your register must be balanced at the end of the night. This clown knew damn well I was on the wrong train, didn't want to be on it, didn't want to be going where I was going, and he deliberately did this anyways.

I, of course, had no cash, as is often the case. (Somewhere, audiovile is chortling and having a giant I Told You So.) I was about to say "FINE PUT ME OFF ON THE NEXT STOP" when the fellow standing across from me said "Please, allow me..." and presented $1.75 to the Myrmidion of the Rails. Who had just enough cognizance to look slightly abashed, but took the money.

Naturally, I thanked my kind savior fulsomely, and we chatted for the rest of the ride. He did take the opportunity to mention his e-commerce web site, and gave me his card, but I think that's no less than fair. (He assumed that I was a lost City girl faring into the wilds of Noo Joisey, and I did not disabuse him of this notion, as it was far less embarrassing than reality.) We got to the station, Beth picked me up, and now there is fire and blackened salmon and what-not.

So, yes. Absolute fuckheadery, but an opening for an act of random kindness, which made me feel a deal better about the universe.

So, I've registered for a class, which means I now have a bill. It's free for me, as an employee of a particular flavor, but until the papers are pushed the bill does indeed show my tuition. It also shows my application fee (they don't actually charge it until you're accepted and actually taking courses, which is unusually kind of them), and...the Student Technology Fee.

My salary is paid out of the Tech Fee.

I'm paying myself.

For some reason, "Court of the Crimson King" is showing up in iTunes as being by Steve Hackett. Which, yes, I hear tell he covered it, but this is unquestionably the original version.