Janet's crazy world

PLEASE NOTE:

Due to recent changes in LiveJournal policies regarding what is and isn't acceptable content, I am no longer posting to this account. If you'd like to read my posts, you can check out the RSS feed of my off-LJ journal on LJ at kadiera_qsd, or you can stop by my site, kadiera.quicksilverdragon.com.

There *are* filters over there, but you have to sign up for an account and ask to be on the filters to read them, and you will have to read using an RSS feed reader that allows authentication, such as FeedReader or NewsGator - google reader doesn't support authenticated feeds at all.

I really hate having to do this, but I've become convinced that it's important to know where my data is, and not have random decisions made about whether or not my postings are appropriate - not that it's been an issue for me to this point, but that sooner or later, one of my more obscure and/or less socially acceptable interests will become an issue for the owners of LJ.

I know y'all thought I might have given up on this, and I did end up changing the scope of the project. But I am still of the opinion that I can't trust LJ anymore. This weeks' changes to eliminate basic (ie, non-ad-supported free) accounts without telling anyone, against the advice of the advisory board, and the discovery that there is now nothing unsavory on the top interests list (fanfiction is gone? depression is gone? what the hell??) just further re-inforce that a Russian owned LiveJournal is no better than the 6A owned LJ, and is quite possibly worse, given what we've seen thus far.

So...I've archived my entire LJ, and will likely import it to the new site eventually - dealing with the filters on nearly 3000 posts is just too much to deal with right now, and now that I know how to do it, it's not at all scary, just time consuming.

I'm keeping this account to read posts over here - though I'm also planning to implement my own RSS aggregator on my new site, which will let me read your LJ entries over there :-)

If you're interested in keeping up with me, since I don't plan on making many more posts here, you can subscribe to the feed via LiveJournal (one of the last things I'm doing before my paid account runs out) - kadiera_qsd   or you can visit the site, and use your own preferred RSS option, http://kadiera.quicksilverdragon.com

Anyway. Off to continue saving my pics from the scrapbook, and to download all my user icons before my paid account runs out next month.

And have I mentioned that yesterday it was (barely) warm enough for a walk, so I walked to the store for a few things last night? I really prefer my walks outside to in the shopping malls or on the treadmill, and I'm hoping this weather holds for a while - maybe I can get a few more walks in this weekend.

I got a promotion!

It comes with a really really nice raise, effective July 1, which will make the budget very very happy.

I also got a much better bonus than I was expecting, which comes with tomorrow's paycheck. That's already earmarked for debt reduction, but the fact that it's almost 4 times what I expected just makes that better.

Not that I need a new project, but I'm thinking of doing some container gardening this year - easy things, like tomatoes, lettuce...maybe some hot peppers for melstav  ...maybe more if I get ambitious. I'm also thinking about planting strawberries & blackberries in the yard behind the shed to go with our mulberries, and actually attempting to do something with some portion of the zillions of mulberries we have off the trees every year, and a few herbs that we eat a lot of. I'd rather eat things that I know where they've been, and it'll be somewhat cheaper in the long run anyway, especially given that much of our diet these days is fruits & veggies.

Given that I'm pregnant, I doubt I'd manage real gardening this year, which sounds suspiciously like work anyway - too much bending and up-and-down this summer will likely not be fun :-)

Thing is, even though we've now been here nearly 8 years, I just don't get gardening in Michigan. In Missouri, we'd be getting seeds this week because you start planting at Easter :-)

So, advice from those of you up this way would be good - when should I start hitting the farmers' markets for pre-started plants? When can I actually plant stuff? Are there things that just don't work here?

Ganked from mseuphrates  ....OMG you have to read this. 

Just make sure you put the beverage down and swallow what's in your mouth first.

Cephalopod Surprise!

sigh. I am sitting at my desk, in a not terribly comfortable chair, in a room that's entirely too warm, attempting to write the first draft of a publishable technical paper, and in part referring to previous work by a Russian co-worker with less than adequate English writing skills, with no caffeine (saving that for later) or silly putty. 

At least I convinced Windows Media Player to give me something to listen to so that I could drown out the 1001 distractions around me in the office...

There is much drama and angst here at WeBuildCars. 

We're on to yet another re-org, and yet another move. 

Our little department, which has made a huge impact on quality and performance of our system in the 5 or so years we've all been together as a cluster of engineers in close proximity (so we actually have to talk to each other), will be split up - we're not moving together,  nor are we being moved to sit with the programs we're responsible for...we're apparently just moving to fill random empty desks in the building across the parking lot. 

When we moved to this building a couple years back, it was because there wasn't room for us in that building, so I guess they've convinced enough people to quit or retire to make space for us.

My observation for today:  It doesn't matter.

Yes, I spend an inordinate percentage of my life here. Much more than I'd ever really prefer to. But in the grand scheme of things, if this is what the bosses want (even if we disagree), it doesn't matter. It doesn't change the world. Doesn't change who we are. It changes what we're responsible for doing, and takes away some of the tools we feel make doing this job more efficient, but....when you look at the big picture, if any one of us died tonight, our thought would not be, "I wish they hadn't made that organization change. I wish they hadn't moved my desk."

So, while I commiserate with my coworkers...I try not to add too much to their angst. Where we sit doesn't matter, and what we're asked to do doesn't matter either - it often seems to me that jobs here are all equally good and equally bad, and it's really about what you make of your job that affects your happiness.

Have I mentioned that melstav  is made of awesome, and we now have books on our website?

We have back-issues of Cup of Wonder and most of the non-fiction catalog from Immanion Press - it'd be all of it, but something appears to be off with the upload, including Manifesting Prosperity (most of the way down the first page of listings), which includes an article from me! 

In the next few week's we'll also be adding IP's fiction catalog.

This is the kind of thing I wish more Pagans understood.