Day: April 4, 2006

Crankypantsing

The Office Crier & Stubbies

Shelly

It’s one thing to comment to your cube neighbor about a mass e-mail. Some of them are mind-bogglingly worthy of comment. It’s quite another to go around asking folks if they got a particular message (the subject line states that it was sent to everyone on campus). I can’t, for the life of me, figure out the purpose of such an act. Why does he need to know if anyone else got the message? It didn’t come from him, so he presumably has no personal interest in whether or not certain people received it.

Another thing that bugs the hell out of me is related to answering the phone. Everyone in my section of the office shares a phone that is oh-so-irritatingly located rightbehindmydesk. Because I’m closest to the phone, I’m usually the one who answers it. If I waited for someone else to do so, I’d go insane from the ringing. All this phone answering necessitates the taking of many, many, many phone messages. Not a big deal, except that there is never a reasonable writing implement in the vicinity of the phone. There used to be a few dried up pens and a few dull pencils. I noticed today that those have morphed into a coffee mug packed with dull, stumpy, little pencil butts. WTF?! I started to take a few over to sharpen (I don’t mind stubbies, but I hate writing with dull leads), but then I realized that I’d have to sharpen all 30 or so pencils for that to be helpful. Otherwise, I’ll be playing “find the sharp pencil,” which is absolutely guaranteed to make me several kinds of cranky.

Fromme whence didst yon pencil butts cometh? I asked a coworker, only to learn that someone from another unit–on the other side of the floor!–brings them to us. Whyever the hell does she think we want stubby little pencil butts, I’ll never know. According to my coworker, the benefactress likes little pencils, and leaves them all over the damned place so that she has something to write with on those rare occasions she’s out and about. Hot buttered Christ! So we have to deal with a mug chock full of fucking pencil stubs–many of which are too short to sharpen–because she might want to use one when she’s passing through? I. Don’t. Think. So. She can take her own damned arse end of a pencil with her if it’s that important.

Letters to Esther

In OCD News…

Shelly

I’ve been continuing to research Esther’s family tree. I’ve never done any genealogical work before, so it’s been an interesting exercise. What I’ve found is:

  1. It’s addicting.
  2. It’s possible to lose an entire day without having any idea where it’s gone, and only four names to show for it. But, those four names make you very, very happy.
  3. I now know more about HTML codes for ordered and unordered lists than is probably healthy.

I’ve managed to link her to two lines that (allegedly) trace back to the 13th century, one to England and one to Scotland. Another line traces back to Ireland in the 17th century. We’re talking “came over on the Mayflower.” One line allegedly descends from Robert I King of Scotland (yes, that would be Robert the Bruce). I expect most folks, if they look that far back, are related to someone important.

This is all based on other people’s research. Or “research.” Aside from the entertainment value, I would recommend taking it with a grain of salt.