Written flair
So much for lowering expectations and getting by on my good looks.
This note was sent to my supervisor yesterday afternoon. That, coupled with a phone call from another coworker yesterday afternoon telling me I had been at work too long and needed to go home, is making me nervous.
Speaking of cephalopods
I want one of these.
Seriously. If you order it now, it should arrive in time for my birthday.
I’m really more about the destination than the journey
There’s a lot to learn on this job. The quantity of knowledge I do not possess is large and looming; the various hoops I have to jump through to acquire it are starting to chap my ass.
I am more than happy to look things up myself. In keeping with all other aspects of my life, the less human interaction, the better. But when I have to wade through a minimum of four different names for everything, Byzantine shared drive arrangements, and a counter-intuitive internal website that has failed in every way to consolidate even one department’s information together in a useful manner, I get very frustrated. Read more
Squidtastic
First of all, this is fascinating: Colossal squid comes out of ice
Second, it reminds me of this, which cracks me up.
Third, this: “What’s the difference between squid and giant squid? The giant squid isn’t just a big ol’ version of a regular squid—it has its own genus, called Architeuthis. (There may be several species of giant squid, but no one knows for sure.) The lesser-known “colossal squid,” of the genus Mesonychoteuthis, may be even bigger and nastier than the giant squid. It has a larger beak than the giant squid and has hooks on its tentacles. While a few specimens of colossal squids have been discovered, no one has yet seen one in its natural habitat.” [via]
No, I really have no idea exactly why I like cephalopods so much, but “they’re cool” feels like the right answer.
Bonus points for mentioning early (or at all) the rule of correlation vs. causation
“Many animals can sense the Earth’s magnetic field, so why not people, asks Oleg Shumilov of the Institute of North Industrial Ecology Problems in Russia. Shumilov looked at activity in the Earth’s geomagnetic field from 1948 to 1997 and found that it grouped into three seasonal peaks every year: one from March to May, another in July and the last in October. Surprisingly, he also found that the geomagnetism peaks matched up with peaks in the number of suicides in the northern Russian city of Kirovsk over the same period. Shumilov acknowledges that a correlation like this does not necessarily mean there is a causal link, but he points out that there have been several other studies suggesting a link between human health and geomagnetism.”
[via]
Also, the graphic cracks me up for some reason.
Tired of being tired
I’m tired. I’m very tired. I don’t know why exactly. Maybe it is an artifact of the pollen, which does seem to be weighing me down this year with its fluorescent tonnage. Maybe it is the new job bewilderment stress. Maybe it is that I am not sleeping as well as I think I am.
Maybe it has something to do with eddies in the space-time continuum.1
Whatever the cause, it makes me extra inattentive and sloppy, which I do not like. I am already entirely too inattentive and sloppy on a good day. The general stupidity I have exhibited of late, particularly online, is incredibly frustrating but difficult to counteract since the tiredness–did I mention that I am tired?–makes it that much more difficult to catch the fact that I typed trunk when I meant tusk, to choose from among the numerous random examples. My response to this sort of thing is a likely irrational degree of frustration with myself and a desire to just hunker down and further limit my written communication which is, if I play it right, the only type of communication I ever have to do anyway.
I need a nap.
1. Ah, is he? Is he?
A golden bird that flies away
No one I know is on the fence about Cake. They either love them or hate them. I don’t understand the people who hate them, who aren’t at least a little enchanted by the trumpet, but I am magnanimous enough to still think of them as my friends.
