elanya

Today I filled in for a class, giving a tour and showing people the database at my old work.

The database, I would like to note, is not finished and doesn't work. Well, you can't use it to add live data. I have no idea what the proff/director thinks he is going to have people do with it. I told them that if the idea was to help SA, then what they could do, practically, was physically put codes on objects. If the purpose was to help them get familiarized with how archaeological data is organized, then putting info into the testing database could be useful. I don't think he actually understands that you can't use live data in the test database, because they use different pools to draw their unique numbers from - so if you have assigned an object, or a box, a code in the live database, it won't b recognized in the test database, and vice versa. And you can't even import other information, necessarily, because if the forms change or get renamed, information gets orphaned and it throws errors at you. And also there are so many bugs in the test database still that it was painful to try and show it off :p I did what I could :p

I wound up eat out for lunch and dinner - a burger at 5 Guys for lunch, and then a salad with grilled chicken and smoked bacon for dinner at the Early Bird. And then a bunch of junk (pop corn and a brownie sundae) at knitting. Knitting was fun - there were a few new people - and I got bunch done on my sock.

Also this morning I woke up to unexpected kitty cuddles, so that was nice :3 Apparently kitty was out roaming, so BiL opened my door to see if he wanted to come in. The downside was the allergy attack that came later, and having to wash my quilt and vacuum in my room. Stupid allergies :/

Today I got the official word that I didn't get the job with Parks Canada I'd applied for. that took.... almost a year. 10 months. A really long time. I emailed to ask why I wasn't selected, and apparently the hiring manager will send me something, so I might at least learn something from the experience.

I did get together everything I need to apply to the local job, at least, including securing references. I am going to get one from the curator at the museum, as she knows me and has a general sense, at least, of what all I was doing at SA. I also learned today that people are using my workflows and are pleased to do so, so I'm super happy about that. I kind of worried that once I left no one would pay any attention to them :3

Today was also the day that we got a box in the mail of Things that used to belong to Balthcat. Not a lot of things - but he used to collect cat figurines, and the friend who was helping his mother asked if she could send some to his close friends. In a few cases, they were ones we had given him... I got back a miniature venetian mast shaped like a kitty face that I'd bought him when I was in Venice in....2002? I also asked if I could have his fountain pens if no one in the family wanted them, which apparently was the case. One of them leaked in transit, and now I am covered in black ink. I also made, when I first moved away from my hometown friends, little 'tokens' to give them, and I gave one to cat. Since they found it, I asked if I could have it back rather than it getting tossed away. It is the sort of thing that wouldn't have any value to anyone else. Also, now it is spattered with black ink. I'm okay with that; it was his ink after all.

Today was the first session of Diablotin since Cat died. We didn't think it was right to ust end the game, but we talked about how to handle his character. it was ore informal and low pressure than most of out sessions (though a lot of work for our GM, for various reasons). It went okay. I didn't find for myself that it was worse than any of the other holes he's left behind. I still haven't gotten his dice script working, which makes me sad, but we have an interim one, at least. It is not as useful for various reasons, but it should help me get a better idea of what I need to fix in his.

Other than that, I've started a new shawl, which is coming along. My shoulder and hands are sore though so I may need a knitting break for a few days. Fortunatley I have a lot of other things to work on... But now, bed.

I am doing better today, and am mostly just tired, which is probably the result of being sick again. I blame winter + travel + riled allergies. It isn't so bad and hopefully won't get any worse. At least by the time I'll be going back to volunteer at the museum next week, I shouldn't be contagious. Sorry, Windsor peeps, no guarantees for you.

Earlier today, I went and found the last (I hope) of Cat's irc friends and let them know. There were a few groups there that overlapped quite a bit, so I'm hopeful that the news will spread to anywhere else it hasn't reached yet. I also set an email that people could contact if they wanted to leave condolences to his family or get in touch with me for any reason. It was not as bad as I had expected, but some people were quite shocked. I feel much better for having made the effort. There is still one channel where I haven't had any response, but I'll keep looking there for life... I suppose I could leave my message for the idlers but I'd rather know that at least one live person will see it.

Hopefully now that I'm finished that I can move back on to some other things. I'm still working on my glove, but I need some advice on making the finger caps that I'm probably not going to be able to get right away, so we'll see how far I get on my own. I need to work on Chocolate Box, and I need to work on a cover letter. I have a little over a week left for those, at least. And a mostly empty afternoon on my own, at that.

This is one of those entries i am probably going to have to force myself to post rather than just delete. But I haven't posted anything in 5 days, as I've been away. I did write some paper journal entries on...less than half...of those days. Ugh. I had good intentions, I just didn't have a lot of time to myself, and not a lot of emotional energy.

The service was nice - an informal drop-in sort of thing for people to come see the family and such. I think it was a lot more work for them emotionally, especially Cat's mother and grandfather, than they probably needed. Just a lot of people to talk to and so on. I saw a few people I hadn't seen or talked to in years, and met some more relatives and co-workers. There were pictures up, and some figurines we'd brought from his house, and a slide show of pictures. Afterwards, a bunch of us went to the Diplomat, which is a 24hour Chinese-Canadian restaurant where we used to make many a late night foray. They did some renovations to the place since we used to be there all the time, but it was the same as the last time we went as a group which was about 2011. the food was pretty much the same, though they have really changed their soup portions and now they are huuuuge. This restaurant is responsible for my disappointment that sweet and sour chicken doesn't come as battered chicken balls everywhere. They also have some pretty good cakes and cheesecakes, though they didn't have the one that Pretentia wanted.

It was really really nice to see her, and to be there for her. She and Cat were closer than siblings in a lot of ways, and I know she is totally devastated. She is also closer to the family, and has been helping Cat's mother with a lot of things. I did go up to his place a few times with her, and we checked in on the kitties (so fat.... so so so fat), changed their litter, fed them, petted them. We did some nominal tidying to start (some had already been done), but I ran a load of dishes through the dish washer, and such. I compiled some notes from IRC friends who has messaged him there before he fell offline (;_;) for his mother, and took down some information about some other servers where he may have spent time so I can let people there know as well. I think all the major place have been contacted though. His mother has basically given us (his friends/online friends) leave to deal with his computer/online things as we see fit, but unfortunately it isn't all that simple, as there is money and authority involved, and as the executor of his estate, there will be things she has to handle at least initially. Things like pics accounts set to automatically renew, and his websites and all of that :/ I made sure to upload some of his one page sites into the wayback machine, and will probably let them go. But the wiki we have used for our games for the past ten years is in his name, and that needs to get sorted out. I also tried to copy the dice rolling script that he wrote and that we used for a lot of out online games..... but I can't get it to work :( I really want to have that available still, as something that he made for us.

Anyway. I flew back to Ontario on Monday night, into Hamilton, then drove an hour and a half to London, and then left again for Windsor, where I am now. I'd told Nary I would come spend a few days with her when I got back, since she couldn't come to the memorial, so here I am. I wish I had brought my dog though. I miss her fuzzy face - someone else's dog s not *quite* the same, even if they are a very nice giant fluffball, as Argo is. I also feel guilty because I had originally told my sister that I would go with her when she went to get her tattoo today (and then leave early to get the kids after school), but there was some miscommunication about the fact that I was going *and* I had completely forgotten that it was this week (despite remembering last week? I don't know, my brain has been a mess). And I don't know, I'm just feelign very stressed out.

I had a lot of stressy dreams last night, mostly Larp-contexted. I think probably because I realized that I am missing an event this weekend that I had hoped to get to, as it seemed like a nice casual opportunity to rp, and the single day events are generally easier for me to get to, so meh. But it was a lot of things like.... my tent was covered in giant angry bees/hornets that were also dying, so I couldn't get into it and then I had to be careful, I'd forgotten all my gear, or had gear for the wrong character, or I tried to borrow stuff from my sister without asking and she was cranky with me (deservedly). I don't remember them super clearly, because I kept waking up in the middle of the night (or partly waking), and then trying to go back to sleep, so it is more like a string of snippets I only half remember than anything coherent. The tent was exactly my tent from my last summer at the buttermilk excavation, when I borrowed Brad's tent, set in the same copse of trees and covered with a tarp sunshade in the same way. The bees/hornets were the length of my palm. I could probably describe some of the larp clothes I had and didn't have. One of the characters I had was entirely a dream fabrication, and they wore this cool leather dress/bodysuit sort of thing that was so unique I couldn't wear it for my real character (Zia). I don't remember anything else about them.

I have things I should be doing, and things I could be doing, and I'm not doing anything. On the one hand it is nice to have some alone time, on the other hand, I am missing having my own space today. It is grey and blah out and I basically feel the same way. I feel like I'm living in other people's lives without actually living my own, and I feel frustrated and tired and stuck. But I also want to be left alone, and not have to talk to anyone unless I want to. Meh. I'm going to do some knitting and see if I feel any better after that.

What do you do when you learn that someone who has been a close friend since High School has suddenly died? When you don't live anywhere close? When his name is still sitting there in the IRC channel where you hang out every day, and have for decades?

ETA (because I keep thinking it): I guess today was a day for endings, and ghosts, afterall.

( The first part of this entry is cut for animal-related TMI! )

And that was the night of the Rat :p The family should be home in the next few hours, and before that I have some more cleaning/tidying to do:

Bed Laundry - in the washer - last load in the dryer = done enough
Clean my bathroom
Trash
dishes (wash hand dishes, deal with dishwasher) - about to start this, then maybe I will take the dogs out for a short walk? No walk, timing too uncertain.
vacuum the couch and chair where there have been illegal dogs.

I've already swept the floors and started consolidating my things, but I have more things to consolidate as yet.

Better get cracking, so off I go!

Now I wait... Until tomorrow. I got my dates wrong -_-

How fucking hard is it not to close a fucking door? how fucking hard is it not to close a fucking door what that is the ONLY THING I ask you to take fucking care to do? And when you know that the cat's litter box is in there? Andf when you know we are both going to be gone for three days?

FUCKING PISSED.

I really want to take a shower but the bathmat upstairs is covered in cat shit and cat piss, and if we're lucky it hasn't seeped through the crack in the grout and the smell might ever come out ever.

Look at this face:



She needs a home! She is very sweet and will follow me around, even with Jola (who she is a little unsure of, probably since JJ treed her the other day - she just wanted to say hi!), and will let me pick her up. I really can't afford the start-up fees for a new cat atm though - the best I can do is continue to feed her while she comes around, and try and get her spayed eventually at a cheap clinic :/

Moooooar kity pics!

I don't know what it is about my house. Maze was not the first cat who decided that they wanted to live with me - really he's just the first I accepted. Now there is another - a fluffy little grey, white and peach calico. She is superduper sweet. She let me pet her and give her scritches. She tried to come in to the house, but I don't think that would be a great plan, as I don't know how healthy she is. So, instead I fed her. She was camped out on my stairwell when I left for work.

I think I have seen her around before, with a littermate (a fluffy orange tabby), but he was nowhere around today. The pair of them were stalking Jola a few weeks ago when I took her out at night. She let me pet her then, although the orange was more skittish.

She isn't anyone's cat at the moment, though she may have been before... She's not people shy, at least. her fur is a little matted in places, and she is dirty, but otherwise she seems in good shape.

So - anyone for a kitten?