Ccancho: Like the infamous kancho, only performed with any random handy piece of wood.

To quote Carlos, "Man, you just took 7 11/16 inches of hard wood! Disgusting!"

I could probably write an entire book about the anal fixation around here, but I don't think anybody needs to have that much mental scarring.

Also, remember kids: Chisels are very sharp, as Shawn found out today. Nice gash across the palm right near four fingers, all the way to the bone. Missed all the tendons. "Damn dude, you got lucky!" says everyone.

I'll stick to trying to cut my fingertips off, thanks.

So it turns out that yesterday's post was Post #500. For whatever that's worth.

As for the obligatory work comments, well. I always think of it like this image here. Whenever we get those big 77 door units with the double arched panels, God just starts preemptively killing kittens. We did two of them today, so you can imagine how that went.

Soon, soon, I'll be leaving...

Imagine that you are at work. It is very hot at work. About 100 degrees worth of hot. It has been this hot for about ten hours.

Suddenly, you are handed a grape popsicle. It is, by far, the best grape popsicle you have ever had in your life. No other grape popsicle can possible approach the greatness of this grape popsicle.

Frozen treats for the win.

So I was going home yesterday, and I went across the railroad tracks, and I'm most of the way across when I realize the gates are lowering. This is multiple times I have done this now. Without even noticing. Only at CC.

Also for today:

Times tape balls thrown at: Too many to count
Times hit in glasses with tape balls: ~10
Times poked in ass by random objects held by Carlos: Way too many to count
Panels sanded: Multiple hundreds
Times someone said "fuck": Numbers do not go that high

And a scene from break, wherein we are talking about Phantom Menace:

Everyone: Yeah, that movie sucked. It sucked hard.

Shanna: Yeah, but at least it had Jar-Jar in it. That was redeeming.

*time stops as everyone turns to look at Shanna*

Everyone: Uh...no.

Shanna: What's wrong with Jar Jar?

Everyone: Where do we even start?

Though to his credit, Jar Jar didn't randomly fly the spaceship to the other spaceship by hitting random buttons, shoot down a bunch of guys, then blow up the enemy ship, all hitting said random buttons.

And on a rather heartening note:

Pam: *throws bag of gummi worms on table, leaves*

Everyone: *eyeing gummi worms*

Me: Yeah, that was dangerous. *starts eating gummi worms*

Everyone: *joins in*

Pam: *comes back* Where'd my gummi worms go? You didn't eat them, did you Erik?

Me: Actually...

Pam: Oh well, you never eat anything, so it's ok. Besides, I only have a week to fatten you up! Want some chips or some donuts or something?

So we see that I have discovered the secret to free food. However, deer cavortation still eludes me. And CC is still to cheap to get some robot slaves.

Let us just say that I'll be fortunate to be leaving my job before we get day after day of real bad heat. Because wow does that place suck when it's hot out.

For today's work quote...

Me: *placing cut and sanded rails back on cart of rails*

Joel: Why can't you sort those out and put them on the stiles?*

Me: Because I'm totally lazy.

Joel: Oh! I see why you're going back to school now! You're a lazy motherfucker!

Brian: Nah, he's really going back for the sorority chicks!

* - Which is what we do, only later.

(Management would like to note that yes, it is lazy, and no, not sorority chicks, unless you can somehow find me one that has a brain... Too, this one conversation so perfectly sums up most of what work conversation is about.)

On the one hand, getting off from work at 1 is awesome.

On the other hand, dentist appointments are not so much. To the tune that I hurt so much, I got home and went to bed at 6, and slept until my normal 5:30 wakeup. Because ow. Those needles are bad news.

So, with reference to this thing I said to Whir a ways back, I totally crit failed on the Train Encounter Table this morning.

Me: *driving past side street, sees train* Well, that's going to be bad.

*drives up to intersection*

People: Yeah, we're totally backed up to the intersection from the tracks.

Me: Yes, but you will make room for me anyway.

Train: Done now, have fun at work.

People: Score! *they go*

Train #2: Huzzah!

Me: Well, we're all late for work NOW.

Train #2: Yes. And just to make sure you are, I'm going to just stop here for a few minutes.

People: That's so totally lame of you, train.

Train #2: I know. I'm such a dick.

Carlos: "You've been lying to me! You ain't going to Connecticut to go to graduate school, you're going to Connecticut to be a pimp!"

Dammit, he's on to me. Unfortunately, I'm going to need to invest in some hos. Also a car. I love my car, but pimpmobile it is not.

My job is a strange place.

I gave my notice today. Wai~.

Quoth Pam today: "It's this place. It does something to us. I used to be Mary Poppins. Now I'm Mary Poppins on crack."

So sorry, but during my entire week off from work, I really had better things to do than blog. Things like play a lot of Neverwinter Nights and Civ, and read lots of books. But I shall describe these things unto you, O readers, and that's pretty much going to have to hold you for a while, though I will mention that it was hard not to just up and quit today at work, after tasting all that time off. If I wasn't leaving in 3 weeks anyway, I may have.

So, Shadows of Udrentide, here. The first Neverwinter Nights expansion, which I'm pretty much playing because Cole was like "Dude, the NWN xpacks are so cool!" Because to say I thought NWN sucked is a little bit of an understatement. I mean, yes, it was directly competing with Morrowind, but seriously, guys. You're Black Goddamn Isle here. I can't believe your singleplayer game sucked that hardcore.

Fortunately, Shadows makes up for that by actually being fun, and actually having a plot I didn't hate, and Deekin the kobold bard, who's the funnest NPC this side of Minsc. It's still not Baldur's Gate 2, or even Baldur's Gate, but it's fun.

I'm still weeping for what NWN could have been, though. Maybe when NWN 2 comes out. And we'll see how I like Hordes of the Underdark, though thus far it's a little too Icewind Daleish for my tastes.

...Yes, I realize an entire two of my readers have played Icewind Dale. However. We pride ourselves in obscure geekery around here.

As far as books go, we had a conversation today at work:

Shanna: "Yeah, I had a bunch of stuff to do, but really I spent the whole week reading. I read like four books."

Me: "That's exactly what I did."

So Tom Brokaw's The Greatest Generation was good, in the same sort of way that listening to your grandparents talk about how it was back in the day is cool, because that's pretty much what the book is. If it gets maybe a little too worshipful sometimes, well, whatever.

And if the tapeworm kingdoms of yore were cruising around fighting pagan invaders of Britain in shield walls, Bernard Cornwell would be the guy to write about it. The Last Kingdom is more King Alfred vs Vikings than tapeworms, but it's still got shield walls and pagans, it's a good fast read, and it makes me want to go play Barbarian Invasion again.

I thought Bury Us Upside Down was an interesting book, because I generally find the air war over Vietnam to be an interesting subject, and because it's well-written and covers a lot of interesting (likely only to me, I admit) things about what forward air controllers do and how the air over North Vietnam worked.

We all pretty much figured out that Mark Bowden was the man after we saw Blackhawk Down, and so I picked up a couple more of his books (there are several, I am delighted to find). The first of them is Killing Pablo, about the hunt for the Medellin Cartel head Pablo Escobar in Columbia. Think Clear And Present Danger, here, complete with Delta Force guys maybe maybe not having a hand in killing the guy. Interesting stuff. I'm a little ways into Guests of the Ayatollah, about the Iranian hostage crisis, and so far it's shaping up to be a very good book indeed.

There were also interesting things involving hobgoblins and lizardmen, but I think the people who care were either there, or have heard about it already, so.

Also, I was sick over the weekend. Don't do this. It's bad. Just so you know.