General update

[annathepiper]

Interviews at Real this week have gone... promisingly. I just heard back from my recruiter that the team with whom I interviewed yesterday is going to keep me on hold while they finish looking at other resumes, so I'm still in the game on that one. Today's also went quite well; one of the guys I spoke with even gave me a "great job" on his way back to his cube as he handed me off to the third guy I was supposed to talk to. And apparently I'm not quite done yet--because one of the people I was supposed to talk to today was busy talking to devs for a dev position on that team, so he didn't have time to interview me. So he's supposed to call me on Thursday and we'll have a phone interview. So that's all good. We'll see what happens with it.

I read more of Mississippi Blues on the way to and from the interview, since I took the bus today, and was pleased to see the book starting to get its feet under it even if it took about a hundred pages to do so. I started hitting stretches of prose that felt more like the prose in Queen City Jazz, and got the gut reaction of "oh, THERE is why I like this author". So that's good too.

Old comment mail is starting to trickle in for me, finally, so I'll be poking at those as they come through. I've also been trying to work on the backlog of emails that actually GOT to me, so in general folks, if you see me answer something that's several weeks old, don't be surprised. It's either LJ's fault for not sending it to me until now OR it's my fault for just not getting to it yet. Blame the book. ;)

The snow from last week is gone, but it actually felt cold on my way home; it's supposed to get below freezing tonight. And we have Christmas lights* up, which helps contribute to the overall feel of "it's winter". Yay!

*I acknowledge the oddity of calling them Christmas lights despite how I'm personally more interested in Longest Night than I am in Christmas, but hey, the Murkworks is a multi-holiday household. Also, we just like Christmas lights. Because SPARKLY. Which is all I'll say about the whole alleged 'war on Christmas'.

Tuesday miles: 4.25
Miles out of Hobbiton: 525.75
Miles out of Rivendell: 67.75
Miles to Lothlórien: 396.25

Comments

[firni.livejournal.com]

I have sparkly lights up all year round on one of my display racks and our indoor ficus, because

a) I'm lazy, and
b) they're sparkly.

[annathepiper]

Testify! Sparkly is good. ^_^

[shikyrie.livejournal.com]

I got sparkly up all year round too... in my bedroom, with star trek ornaments hooked up to them

[shikyrie.livejournal.com]

Yay on the jobprospect sitiation... Hope it goes well for ya

[annathepiper]

Thank you. :)

[shikyrie.livejournal.com]

Welcum :)

[cow.livejournal.com]

I am grumpy that, for the fifth year out of six, I will be at my parents' house for Longest Night. Never any fun there.

[annathepiper]

Aww, foo. Yeah, it can be interesting trying to do Longest Night when visiting relations. Dara and I are rarely able to when we're in Kentucky visiting my kin. Sometimes we've pulled off doing it in our hotel room, but the last couple of times we've been there we've stayed at my brother's, so that's not an option.

[cow.livejournal.com]

I just realized I'm wrong! Yay! For some reason I was thinking the longest night is 23 Dec; it's 20/21 Dec. I don't leave until the 22nd, so I'll be here for it.

Now, to figure out what to do. I have a few crazy ideas to narrow down.

[annathepiper]

Dara says that the Solstice is 2pm the 21st, so by her reckoning that'll mean we'll do Longest Night over the night of the 21st/22nd.

If you're interested in joining us, let us know. :) We'd be happy to have you.

[cow.livejournal.com]

Sounds like it could be good. :) What is it that you do?

[annathepiper]

Nothing too terribly complex. Mostly it's "we stay up all night and keep candles burning", and then we just take the candles around to all of the windows when the sun comes up. Just to sort of say hi to the returning sun. :)

When we were at MurkSouth we also kept a fire in the fireplace all night, but it's just not the same at MurkNorth since the fireplaces are gas.

[cow.livejournal.com]

I would be honored to join. :) I haven't seen what backyard you may or may not have, but a bonfire could be fun, too.

(When I was first thinking about what to do, I was thinking about going to a state park somewhere and just keeping an all-night vigil outside. But...um...it's going to be cold, and I'm a Bovine of Decreasing Mass and thus vulnerable to cold.)

If there's anything you'd like me to bring, make, do, etc., let me know.

[annathepiper]

We have quite a bit of yard, but much of it is up on the hill just behind us, so there's nowhere really that we could do a decent bonfire. And there's nowhere we could really do it in the front yard, either. Heh.

In terms of Stuff to Bring or Do... you might get yourself a couple of candles if you have any particular kind you like. We've got a bunch around MurkNorth, so we should have enough to go around, but if you have any liking for any particular kinds of candles, get whatever works for you. Any snackies or drinkies you like that'll help you stay awake, think about those too. We'll have caffeine and snacks as well, but variety is good. :)

(We'll have to see how well I can do Longest Night now that I've just had a JOB dropped in my lap! Whee!)

[cow.livejournal.com]

Hmm.. according to NOAA (http://www.erh.noaa.gov/er/box/equinox.html):
Winter Solstice Dec 21 2005 1:35 PM EST

Everything I found agrees with that, which would be 10:35am PST. Does that mess with your calculations?

[annathepiper]

Ah, that DOES... Dara says that she was looking at a local site so was assuming it was local time. Yeah, so that'll make it over the night of the 20th/21st. Regardless, if you're interested in joining us let us know. :)

[cow.livejournal.com]

Works better for me; I can take off part of the 21st with much less suspicion than the 22nd. (I'm using a vacation day on the 23rd to go home to Florida, so it would look like I was sneakily adding a day to said vacation. :) )

[cow.livejournal.com]

(er, home to Michigan. Wow, old typing habits.)

[annathepiper]

Heh! I hadn't noticed! ;)

[annathepiper]

I hear ya. Things just got interesting over here with my shiny new job offer asking me to start work on the 15th, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to stay up until dawn... we'll have to see what happens. But if it winds up being you and Dara, well!

Sparkly!

[(Anonymous)]

I have all sorts of year-round sparkly..neon,argon,xenon,incandescent,LED..would like to have some tritium and phosphor sparkly, but it's expensive..but I have some europium-based glow pigment that glows a really cool shade of blue...More from the Land Of The Easily Amused..Where there's always something to do...Scott

Re: Sparkly!

[annathepiper]

Neat. :)