December 2003 Archives

I really should not work at home.

Wait, no. I really do not work at home. It should be painfully obvious that I am focus challenged by the fact that I am blogging when I could be writing the article that is already infringing into my day off.

I am a deadline person - deadlines are cool. They are scary and always too soon, but way cool, because I meet them. When I don't have a firm one I'm screwed. I can't make one up for myself, because I know I've made it up for myself, and then it's just a game of Make A Deal with myself (one more cookie...five more minutes...I just want to read a NYT article, it's educational, see?...if I can just have this cup of coffee I will have so much energy and everything in the world will get done - in five minutes!).

It's a horrible game.

I was completely stonewalled at work, staring a blank screen until I realized I'd done nothing. I packed up and came home, thinking about the article the whole way so that when I sat down inspiration would gush out of my fingertips the way ink does one of those messy fountain pens.

I changed into PJs. Note to self- making self more comfortable does not help productivity.

I had a cookie. BK just sent them and they're yummy and I went to the gym today, leave me alone.

I made coffee. Like I need it at 2 am.

I opened my computer.

Doom.

E-mail, and leaky, and web sites to check and things to read and too many distractions.

And now I'm blogging.

Because if I blog, for five minutes, my mind will be clear and I can start to write. Well, I'll have a cookie and start to write. If I have a cookie and write three paragraphs I'll reward myself with some emailing. If I email four people I'll have been productive and then I will be on the clear rails to finishing my article. If I finish my article before 6am I can get the gym at 12 tomorrow. If I get to the gym at 12 tomorrow, I can be back by 2 and shower and get to the office to go over the pics with my editor so the article can run Sunday. Then I will have time to get ready for New Year's Eve.

When did this start to resemble Adaptation?

A cookie, and four emails.

Maybe five.

Then I can write.

(*this post has been edited because I realized years later that I'ma moron who called it "osama" and not "saddam." DOI.*) They caught the bastard.

And my mom's friend Jackie's son is in the infantry division that did it. How about that for a career achievement.

It's one of those mornings you sit in front of the television and watch history happen. Or what happens when history happens.

It’s 6:45 a.m. and my house is quiet. Kirky told me to get some sleep, and the ache behind my eyeballs agrees. But I’m wired. We just had eight people working like house elves - yes Hermione, I mean it – on the remainder of the Leaky T-shirts. Packing, labeling, shipping, taping, recording, sorting, folding, cramming, loading, lifting, driving. And now it’s done, and my friends, who didn’t have to do a damn thing to convince me, have again proven how amazing they are.

We expected to sell around 200 or so shirts for this drive – we ended up selling 800.

Doing so through some easy manufacturing online place like CafePress would have cut the profit down to $1 or maybe even less a T-shirt, for the same price, which is ridiculous. We can’t donate a significant amount of money to charity like that. So we decided to do it all ourselves, and in so doing gained $6 per shirt in base costs alone – or so we thought.

Our shirt manufacturer shaved an extra dollar off the price of each shirt, tax, screening fees and any extra allowance for the many XL, XXL, and XXXL shirts we ordered.

That’s $1200 in cost. That’s a $1200 donation.

Then the lovely donors just thought they’d throw in an extra fifty cents here, dollar there, round out their $13.50 order to $20, tack on an extra $50. Those penny tosses worked out to over $1100. in added donation.

We didn’t account for PayPal fees, so we were docked a bit – but shipping worked out to less than we had originally been quoted. At $.50 less for half the shirts, and a whole $2.00 less for some others, it adds up to at least an extra $500 in donations – or at least in making up what greedy PayPal took.

And handling, well that wasn’t free, but it didn’t cost anything. We worked our butts off tonight, and Meg (and I, but to a lesser extent) has been busting her bum for weeks. And every time I tore off a label or someone struggled with packing tape, or we complained that a mistake had been made and we had to check 200 orders, I thought, well, there’s a dollar saved in fees, that’s one more book for a kid who needs it. And I picked up the next package. As I’m sure my friends did.

I’ve lost count, I have no idea how much we’re going to end up donating to Book Aid. It’ll be up on leaky soon.

That my friends would come out for a weekend and spend the entire night slaving over packing materials instead of sleeping, and do it cheerfully and swiftly, is just unbelievable.

So unbelievably tired – I am so tired – I’m going to bed. Right now.

I can't believe I didn't know this existed until tonight. And of COURSE she found a brain in a jar. Of course.

If you don't know, Maureen is one of the funniest people around. Go read her. She'll be in my links as soon as I can get up the energy to change all the stupid pages. And I have to fix Kristin's link. I know, stop telling me, I know.

I'm copying Meg, which anyone who likes words should do. My palm reading:

Your Life Line reveals that you are a very passionate person that possesses an imaginative and romantic nature.

Passion - check. Some might call it obsession. I prefer the term passion.

Imagination - check. I imagine I'm not obsessive.

Romantic - check, a lonely check. My romance exists in my imagination.

Your Head Line reveals that you lack confidence, but have a sense of grievance. You carry a chip on your shoulder, but will vent this emotion through participating in political activities.

I do lack confidence. Big time. Shh, that's a secret. A sense of grievance...not sure how that leads from lack of confidence but all right... The chip on my shoulder only relates to certain things, like the fact that I can't sing or that model-thin has become beautiful in today's world. Political activities? Um...no. Wait, I did make buttons for a councilman once...

Your Heart Line reveals that you have a masculine nature and are easily aroused by your own desires. You are able to maintain a good balance between the physical and emotional sides that accounts for your warm and generous disposition.

I have a masculine nature? Er, okay. In a totally nonsexual way, yes, I am easily aroused by my own desires. I get worked up when I really want to do something. And yay, I'm warm and generous! Cool.

Your Fate Line reveals that you will have an early and independent start to your career, and will be successful in your life's work.

My first piece of journalism was written in high school, the building up of the HP site with sources and actual reporting was indpendence I suppose, but that's just born of my desire to do things. I can't sit still - this morning I've been working for 2.5 hours even though yesterday I worked (real work) for 15. If that means I'm going to be successful, it also means I'm going to wear away the skin on my fingers.

Your Sun Line reveals that a love affair or marriage will have a very positive influence on your career. Due to this, you will achieve happiness and material success later in life.

That means I'm going to do an expose, tabloid style, of a love affair? Oooh. Actually, I think one marriage has had a very positive influence on my career: my parents'. They're not a perfect couple but they work hard for what they have, and it says a lot about how important it is to work at things. If they are where I get my work ethic, then yes, I will be successful.

You have a Fire hand. You are a person who is restless, outgoing, ambitious, confident and at times promiscuous. Your optimal career choices are to work as a lawyer, politician, entertainer, and an athlete in non-contact sports.

It just said I didn't have confidence, now it says I do, unless I misread my hand. Lawyer, politician, entertainer or an athlete in non-contact sports - well, yes. As a journalist I'm all of those things.