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2003-01-14 - 9:59 a.m.

"So...Gorm...whatcha been doing of late?"

Amazingly enough, the last couple of weeks has been an amazing combination of "Not nearly enough" and "Far, far too much".

It started out with me damned near quitting my job last week, because my supervisor doesn't know how to supervise her way out of a wet status report. I'm salary, which is *supposed* to mean "I have a job to do, I get paid to do that job, whether it takes me 30 hours a week or 70", but in this firm it means "We get to demand 40 hours of your time, and more if we want it...oh...and we don't have to tell you when we want it, just drop your plans and do what we tell you when we tell you to."

The most recent example...the programming team, which I am a member of, is responsible for generating reports and cutting checks for the Claimants in the Class Action Lawsuits we manage the Trusts for. By and in large this is a relatively easy thing. We were making a large payment last week to a number of people, and the Lawyers here kept changing the list of people, the amounts they were getting, and the reports they wanted.

At the same time, they were telling the programmers "You aren't being responsible for your work"...neat trick...but I'll get over that.

So at 4:45 on Wednesday, just when I'm starting to get ready to do my end of day reports and start getting ready to leave, we get an e-mail..."None of the programmers can leave until we have the Payment Reports balanced".

Which took until 10:30 PM.

Never mind that Rhiannon and I had Dinner Guests coming on Thursday who we wanted to clean a bit for. Never mind that I have responsibilities to the SCA (which I phrase artfully as "I'm an officer for a Non-Profit Historical Recreation society, in charge of helping people research historical names, and I have to prepare a report this month"...deflects most of the "You're doing what?" questions...). NEver mind that I live 45 minutes away. Never mind that we have two dogs who can handle being crated from 8:00 AM to 6 PM fairly well, but not adding an extra 5 hours onto that. Never mind that Rhiannon and I only have one car, so she is stuck here as well. Just "Stay".

Oh well...at least I get paychecks every couple of weeks...not everyone can say that.

Then 12th Night prep happened. Last year's 12th Night was when I stepped up to the Golden Dolphin position. Next year's 12th Night will be when I intend to step back down. So, this 12th Night marked the halfway point in my tenure. I'm on the downward slope now, and I'm grateful for that. I've finally gotten systems in place that let me handle the workload fairly adequately (am I perfect? No...but I'm not expected to be either.) So hopefully this coming year will be a bit smoother than last year. We'll see, I guess.

12th Night itself was good. Too crowded but good. Got a chance to speak briefly to Rhiannon the Herald about things. It's good to have a Peer to bounce ideas off of, get suggestions for things to do, and the like, and she's being more helpful than I have any right to demand in that role. That's probably why she's a Pelican, or at least one of the reasons. Someday I wanna be like her.

Saw two of the three Courts (never heard the announcement for the middle one...). Saw lots of folks get awards. That's always cool. It must be great to be able to be the person in the big chair seeing the happiness on people's faces when they get the award...Makes me want to try and become Baron someday. I know I'll never be King, because I'll never be that good of a Heavy fighter (if only because I'm not willing to devote myself to it *that* much), but Baron would do, I think...something else to consider, I guess.

Two weekends ago I worked on my first "real" casting projects. By which, I mean the first molds I made that I went all the way through the process from cutting the slab through tracing the pattern, leveling the depth, doing the test pours, tuning the mold, and saving a piece when I was done. Actually did two separate pieces, one is an attempt at a Pharos medallion (Caer Mear Baronial Service Order), which is basically a tower with a flame on top of it.

Some issues with that piece...I can't get the crennilations (sp?) of the tower to work the way I want them to yet...those are very fine details, and I can't do the masonry to save my life. See, when you're carving a mold you're making the negative image, so the lovely mortar lines on the tower aren't just simple "scratch in a straight groove", you actually have to scratch out the bricks, and leave the mortar line. How you do that precisely enough, I do not know yet. I have enough problems levelling the piece...but then, if it was easy, everyone would do it.

The other piece is my fetterlock. I've been looking for a badge for a while, and I've basically clung onto that, since it's actually in my family's Arms, although in a different color. I like it, and I think I'll go with it. This piece is a lot easier, so it's working out well. I think I have a mold I'm happy with.

The next project is redoing the coat of plates for my heavy armor. At the fight practice after 12th Night, I found out exactly why the shots to my left hip hurt so much (almost paralyzingly so...not really, but it feels that way). My coat of plates buckles on the left side, and was made for someone broader across the shoulders than I am. So, what ends up happening is that when I take my stance, there is a lovely triangle right at my left hip where there is no armor at all, the leg armor stops below it, and the coat of plates gaps open. And this is a spot that I have tremendous difficulty blocking...so I get hit there a lot...and that hurts more than I want to admit.

So, the coat needed to be redone anyhow, since it's Red, and my Color is Blue, and it was too big anyhow, so, we're patterning off of it, and I'm going to see about getting it to fasten in the front instead of the side. I figure that way that triangle should be covered. Rhiannon's a bit worried that it might cause gaps to happen along my ribcage, which would be bad, but I'm sure we can work out something to fix that. Hopefully that will fix that problem. I don't mind getting hit. It doesn't hurt when I get hit in the arm, or the head, or even the back, but that one spot has *always* been troublesome...maybe this'll help.

Last night was bowling in the company league. I stunk up the joint worse than an unwashed garbage truck. Fortunately, Rhiannon decided that this week was when she was going to make the great leap from a 50 average to a 90, so it made up for the fact that I went from my normal 130 down to a 110. That's teamwork for ya :)

OKay...that's about enough...time to get back to work.

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