Category: Journal

Back from Ad Astra

I’m back from Ad Astra. It was awesome. I am very tired. I’ll deal with that shortly.

Before I do, though… I’d been pointing out the number of blog posts that [Cory Doctorow](http://www.craphound.com/), a guest at the con, was writing to [Boing Boing](http://www.boingboing.net/) as he was at the con. It was amazing. He whipped off nine posts over one hour on Saturday morning alone. While he was at a con.

I think I may have gotten a chance to see some of the process in action.

I’d followed Dawn up to her panel on classic movie monsters. Cory was in the audience. He was participating in the discussion, being sure to catch any bits of ephemera that might have popped up in the conversation. Like where the classic movie house was that was showing Godzilla movies. Stuff like that.

During most of the panel, though he had [his laptop](http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=32848) open, and he was feverishly typing. Unless I’ve got the PST->EST timezone conversion wrong, I’m pretty sure he was writing about [a Canadian kid who’s been detained by immigration authorities in the US](http://www.boingboing.net/2007/03/04/us_detains_9yearold_.html). While he was attending a panel. A panel in which he was at least somewhat attentive and engaged. More engaged than I was, at least.

The man is a machine, I swear. I am in awe of his blogging prowess.

I’m a little disappointed I missed the chance to see him get drunk at the bar.

Maybe tomorrow…

The roads out there are stupid. There’s no way I’m going to risk trying to get to Ad Astra tonight.

So I miss the party again this year. And I can’t deliver xio’s stuff. But this way both I and my car both survive to con another day.

Seriously. I was crawling at 30kph all the way along my normally five minute drive home. I had to do the pumping brake thing to stop at the only red light. Lord knows what the 401 is like right now. It’s just not worth it.

Make it stop

* God, what a mess out there.
* Drove into work late this morning. We were just having a company meeting anyway, and I can do that just as easily at home.
* Of course, there’s no way I was gonna be out there walking.
* Thank god for snow tires.
* Called roof guy. I feel we’re making real progress in our relationship.
* He’s sending a guy over tomorrow. Which is okay, I suppose. The dripping’s stopped and I don’t want some guy falling to his death in my backyard. That would suck.
* I got the ladder out last night and put it up against the roof. I guess I was thinking maybe I could clear the drainpipe or something and get some of the water moving again. Something. But I took one step on the thing and my whole brain screamed out “Jesus Christ! You’re going to kill yourself!” and I stepped down and put the ladder away again.
* I hate ladders.
* My trees survived the ordeal largely unscathed.
* Likewise, my eaves troughs are still attached to the eaves. I was a bit worried.
* Work was looking pretty good up until Wednesday when it started sucking again. Luckily, I have my quarterly review in a couple hours. This could either be good or very bad.
* I need a haircut.
* Ad Astra! Woo! I have no idea when I’ll get there.
* Okay, I’ll stop now.

Frightful

Schools are closing down, kids are calling their parents, and people are fleeing the office like mad.

God, I just want winter to be over.

I don’t care that much about the storm. It’s not going to be that much worse leaving later versus getting out now.

The annoying thing is when I left the office for lunch, it was actually kinda nice out. I needed to get out for a walk and clear my head. Because work’s being frustrating again, just when I thought I’d moved on to something better. But the farther I got from the office, the worse the storm got.

By the time I got to the Tim Horton’s on King, it wasn’t a fun or peaceful walk anymore. It was probably more stressful than staying at the office.

And when I got to Tim Horton’s and sat down for lunch, all the seats were taken except for one surrounded by idiot highschool students grandstanding over some idiot hockey game.

So no peaceful lunch for me. I got back to the office, got some chamomile tea, shut my translucent, sliding cubicle door and tried to shut out the world.

Better now, especially since it seems like most of the folks are leaving. But I’m not particularly looking forward to the walk home.