To Do List - for
To Do List - for Thursday, April 17:
- Get a Job.
- Figure out this @#$@#% Movable Type. I'm a software designer, so I'm hardly a complete software illiterate. And I was working with UNIX, oh, um, during Ronald Reagan's first term. It's not like the concept of configuring an application is totally foreign to me. But you'd think after all these years that someone in the world of open source software would figure out how to write installation instructions that weren't almost completely opaque to people who don't speak Klingon as a second language.
- That job thing again. I have two interviews on Friday, unless plans change. They often do - each interview has been scheduled for at least two different times and places so far.
- Teach Rachel Lucas a new imprecation. Don't get me wrong, I love Rachel's blog. But the standard term for anyone Rachel doesn't like is "Assclown". This is one of those terms that make me wonder if someone is a native speaker of English.
English has a long history of the imprecative contraction - but there are rules. All imprecative contractions are constructed like a good chinese dinner - take a word from List A, add a word from List B.
- List 1: S___, P___, D___, F___, T__, D_u___, C__, S_u___, A_s, Sp___, W__, H___ or Semprini
- List 2: -nozzle, -stick, -nugget, -poke, -face, -bag, -toes, -mantle, -jinsky or -monkey.
So if you see this, Rachel - keep up the good work, except for "Assclown". Work=good, "Assclown"=bad. - Get out of warblogger mode. Write about some good Minnesota politics.
- Find some good Minnesota politics to write about. Oh, there's plenty of politics to write about - but the budget squabble is about as sexy as a slinky redhead sidling up to you in a nothing-to-the-imagination red cocktail dress and telling you that not only does she sell insurance, but she's also a Jehovah's Witness who has some literature she'd like to...
(Please don't construe that as a slap against JWs, OK? Honest. It was a slap against redheads that sell insurance).
- That job thing again. Not to complain, but this is not only the longest I've been out of work in my life - this is longer than all my other out-of-work stretches since college, combined. I hate to use the "d" word lightly, but it is a tad depressing. I'm not someone who lies about gracefully - and indeed I'm not lying about at all. In three months, I can count my hours of daytime TV on one hand, and give you three fingers' change. I'm on the phone, or interviewing, or working on little freelance contracts, all. the. time. Gaaah. It's gotta end one of these days.
OK, I'm done now.
- Work on lung power. I've been taking bagpipe lessons - indeed, if you've ever been interested in bagpipes or highland drumming, these people offer free lessons, and they're mighty good, plus you might meet me. Anyway, the other night I broke my reed, the one that came with my practice chanter. I bought a new one from the guy who supplies them. I cinched it in there, and started to play...
WHOAH! It was like trying to blow air between a couple of 1x8s - and oak ones, at that. My chanter, which used to sound like a calf trying to yodel "Drowsy Maggie", now sounded like an outboard motor trying to hum "Drowsy Maggie".
I blew harder, and it started to sound better - like a real chanter, even! And for about four times the lung power that I'd had to use before!
Anyway, it's all about practice. Whew.
- Start planning my house-warming party. For October. Assuming I have a gig by then. Yes, I've lived here for ten years - but between having babies and changing jobs and getting divorced, I/we/I never actually wound up having a housewarming. I've been dying to.
Which, unfortunately, involves:
- Cleaning the house. When I'm out of work, it'd be an understatement to say I concentrate on job hunting. It's pretty all-consuming. So the house is kind of a mess.
- Make fewer lists.
That should tide me through today.
Oh, yeah:
11. Get some sleep. I've been up for hours, prepping for an interview. Gaaah.
That is all for now. Carry on.
Posted by Mitch at
April 17, 2003 05:58 AM
