Where the Hell is June? And OPM. And IndieCrit. And the Cat.
Posted on June 3, 2003 Posted by John Scalzi 20 Comments
I try not to comment overly on weather, but come on. It’s June, and here in my little corner of Ohio, the temperature outside is 65 degrees. It was only marginally warmer yesterday, and will be only marginally warmer tomorrow. It’s also raining. I’m sorry, but my contract clearly specifies that so long as I am in the northern hemisphere, my Junes are to be warm to hottish warm (say, 75 to 90 degrees) and generally sunny. The only option not specified is humidity, which why June in these here parts is generally sweatier than I like. Even so.
If I don’t start getting some service around here, I just may take my business elsewhere. Let that be a lesson for you all.
On a completely an utterly unrelated note, I got a spot of good news yesterday from one of my employers. Those of you who read Official Playstation Magazine know that I write a column for them every other month on social and legal issues involving video games, called “Watchdog.” Well, now it’s going monthly. So for Scalzi fans, OPM becomes even more of a wacky hot value: CD reviews, DVD reviews and me acting all serious and grownup-y in my column (that’s right. I’m a magazine columnist. Stand back, y’all). Add that to the fact that it’s a damn fine magazine on its own and you’ve got yourself roughly 124 to 158 pages of fun every month. Honestly, I don’t know why you don’t just drop what you’re doing right now and race out to buy a copy. Don’t be afraid to elbow aside that twelve-year-old loitering in front of the magazine rack. You’re a paying customer!
Another quick note: I’m taking a break from IndieCrit for June, for the usual work-related excuses I provide whenever I take a break. I don’t know how many of you trundle over there for music reviews (actually, I do, because I look at the referrer logs, but never mind that now), but I guess you’ll just have to play your old records until I come back. Or let someone else tell you which music is good. But know you’d never do that. Would you? You would? And here I thought what we had was special.
Yet another quick note: Ghlaghghee likes to sleep directly in front of my keyboard. I thought this would be annoying but in fact resting my wrists on his furry little kitten body is helping me avoid RSI. He’s like one of those gel rests, in fluffy mammalian form. Try it yourself. You’ll have to get your own cat, however.
A full-grown cat does not make nearly so ergonomic a wrist rest.
Tried that last year with my pet cat (or rather, my owner cat… or, er, something). Unfortunately he’s too temperamental to accept such poor treatment.
After inflicting several scars and attempting to open my wrists, he then danced around on the keyboard as a final “screw you”, before flouncing off to get something to eat.
(he was over it and back to his normal purry self a few hours later, fortunately)
The weather here in Virginia is about the same! I am about to go out of my mind if we don’t see some extended periods of sunshine here.
A webcomic I read regularly http://www.Shaw-Island.com is written by a student in the Seattle area and evidently they are getting OUR weather! He was commenting on the same thing just the other day.
Ok. Back to the job search.
Oh, Congrats on your OPM column going monthly!
Rather the reverse here, I’m sitting at the computer, got my foot on the ground sideways, Frenzy’s leaning against it, he decides he wants to sleep and needs a pillow so he turns around, takes a chunk out of my foot so I’ll slam it down, and lies down on it. Variants may include chewing on my toe in the hopes that it’ll produce milk. One is tempted to reinvent the Cat-a-pult :P.
The cat’s got you trained well, there, Guy.
It’s 50 degrees here and raining. :(
. . .in western PA, that is.
Yes, here in the land of webbed feet, moss on ALL sides of the trees (no wussy Boy Scout direction-finding tricks here, no sir), and slugs, we’re doing a passable imitation of Arizona. And it’s getting hotter as the week progresses.
Which might be okay, but I’ll be sweating my life away in a 3-layer driving suit this week-end. (http://www.crownfox.com/racing.htm) Pity my poor soon-to-be-dehydrated self.
Neither of our cats would act as wrist rests; besides, there isn’t room for them on the keyboard shelves of the computer carts we use as desks.
Maui does like to come into the computer room while I’m working, and meow at me until he gets my attention. Then, when I turn my chair to see what he’s meowing about, he runs off. Star also comes to visit me while I’m working, and she’ll nudge my hand, or jump up onto the windowsill behind me. They’re the joy of this household, that’s for sure.
We’re freezing our asses off in Toledo, too, and it’s irritating as hell. Who’s rotten idea was this, anyway?
It was 39 degrees on the first night of this month. Admittedly, it is Chicago. It’s still ridiculous though.
My dog bumps my elbow – the one that’s indirectly connected to the mouse – just as I’m about to click. Her timing is uncanny. At 50 lbs, she’s a bit big to put on the desk. She makes a good foot-warmer though. Especially when it is 56 and raining in The Motor City. Which I don’t mind too much. I’m a computer geek, and I spend most of my time in windowless bomb shelters behind 3 layers of security. If I can’t enjoy the weather, why should any of you? /evil laugh
While I hate the rain, the temperature is great! I’m spending a second consecutive summer in D.C., and after what I experienced here last summer, I can only hope the temperatures remain low. Oh, did I mention that my dorm isn’t air conditioned?
So, the cool weather can stick around all it wants.
June’s sitting across the room from me, working on her laptop. And dude, she’s hot! So, I have no clue what you’re talking, er, writing about.
And if I would ever have even deigned to use Chingachgook (and people thought I had a wierdly named cat – Ghlaghghee?) as a wrist wrest, my wrists would have quickly become shredded flaps of flesh, tendons and skin dangling from the bone. Uh, no thanks.
I have a fairly simple rule. If I give it food, its not allowed to bite me. Violating this rule results in swift, educational retribution. And, ultimatley, much better behaved felines.
In the past month, we’ve been having Kona weather here in the islands, more on than off to call it intermitant. In general, Kona winds runs contrary to the trade winds that provide a natural air conditioner to cancel out the humidity. This morning was no exception. Your skin glistened with persperation by just staying still.
Using a cat for a wrist rest is altogether not so bad an idea, if not a little inhumane to yourself in the symbiosis. Other than that, if Sosa can use cork while in the batter’s box, than a cat next to the keyboards can’t be too much of a distraction to a writer. May even increase the yarn.
FYI…my screenreader pronounces Ghlaghghee “glog-UG-ly” which to my ears sounds like “Butt Ugly”. So at first I was like, “he named his cat, WHAT? How mean!” But he is a cute cat, so sometimes my screenreader is wrong. But it pronounces Kansas like “Cans Ass”, which I kind of enjoy.
I have never had the opportunity to use a kitty as a wrist rest, but have had them use my arms as a head rest when laying on my lap. In fact, as I type, Abby is doing a particularly good job of being a window as she paces across my desk.
Weather-wise, I have determined the cause of the semi-drought status we had here in Houston for the past month. It’s my sweetie. Not more than 15 minutes after he left on a plane to Raleigh, NC, it started raining. Up until now, Houston had been having relatively humidity-free days in the 80s and low 90s, but that would appear to be over.
The weather here is about 60 and raining… and at work the central air conditioning is on full blast because, you know, it’s June and we all need to be fifteen degrees cooler than it is outside.
For whatever reason, Minnesota weather has been awesome this spring. Forgive me for bragging – I get so few opportunities.