Ninjababe's Ramble

Harry Potter Moment

At work, K offered me her piece of going away fruit tart (Today is an employee's last day). I was commenting that if I ate any more, I'd spew.

It got me thinking... S.P.E.W. wasn't in the second Harry Potter movie!!!

And, then, I thought some more... I suddenly had the thought that maybe it wasn't in the second book, but the fourth.

Of course, I'm at work, so I can't pull out my books. So, I started wandering the store, looking for someone who read the books and remembered S.P.E.W.

Finally, we figured out that S.P.E.W. is in the fourth book... So, of course it wasn't in the second Harry Potter movie!

One of my lists...

I love making lists...

My current list is this: Bizarre words in Country Songs that actually work in the song...

Latte - 'Celebrity' by Brad Paisley
Sippy Cup - 'On My Front Porch, Looking In' by Lonestar
Osama Bin Ladin - 'Do You Remember' by [hell, I'm blanking] (And, he even makes it rhyme!]

There are more, but that's all I have for now...

Inspiration

So, Ith pointed this picture out to me.

Woof.

Then, I got inspired...

Since I just changed my blog look (and, I'm quite happy with it), I've just put up a test page of what it would look like...

(I need to force myself to learn CSS so I can do skins)

The bakground is actually a square made from his eyes :-)

Fan Fiction Quibble

I'm a fan fiction slut. I read fan fiction voraciously.

Well, I'm coming across a quibble of mine in just about any story where a character, who wears glasses, gets their first pair of contacts.

And, they pop them in immediately and wear them all day (or longer). Then, a lot of the time, the author forgets that the character has contacts and never mentions them again... Even when they give details of the morning and daily routine.

Why is this my quibble?

I remember when I first got contacts. Boy, do I ever!

The first day, I was only allowed to wear them for half an hour... Then, I gradually upped the wear time over the next month. And, I had to go into the eye doctor regularly to make sure everything was ok (luckily, my eye doctor including those visits in his contact exam price).

Finally... Finally... I was able to wear them for the full day.

Putting wetting drops in my eyes multiple times a day.

And, there was the pain of taking them out and putting them in. Some days, it would take me up to half an hour to get them in correctly or actually getting them out. (Now, I can do it in a few minutes.)

Not to mention the weekly enzyme removal.

After wearing daily wear for a few years, I finally went to extended wear disposables (Which means, wear for a week, leave out for 12 hours, wear for a week, throw away).

But, in 99% of the stories I've read it's like "After Doug's eye exam, he received his contacts. Ten minutes later, he left the eyeglass store with his glasses in his pocket and wearing his brand new contacts."

OK... That's enough... [deep sigh] No more ranting now.

Work Anecdotes

-So, I finally got to see what a Emesis Basin looks like. It's a kidney shaped basin that you vomit into.

It looks like a baby bedpan! It's tiny! I wouldn't want to vomit into that! It would go everywhere!

-This one is kinda gross... Extend it out if you wanna see...

The pharmacy has a patient that takes a narcotic drug, OxyContin.

This drug is a 'ghost'. After you take it, it works, but the pills end up in your stool, solid. Most people see that as a sign that it doesn't work and call their doctor, who tells them the whole 'ghost' thing.

Now, the patient in question, instead of calling the doctor, decided to take it again.

Yes, the patient dug it out of their feces and took the pills again.

Blargh!

Ta-Da!

Isn't it pretty?

Ithildin came up with the concept for this look, I ran with it.

I like it... It's dark, and angsty-like.

I saved my previous template for later use...

Update: I'd advise you not to use the 'reveal comments' for another 24 hours or so... they come up in the old color, and are not very legible. I'll work on that tomorrow evening. Going to bed now...

Robotics...

We have a totally new system at work (The manager decided to name the robot in the system 'Roberta'). It come complete with touchscreens.

Well, I've been using this program for only three days, and already, I find myself wondering why touching things on my computer at home doesn't work.

This is worse than having a mouse with a scroll wheel at work and not having one at home.

Bah...

[taps screen] why won't it bloody well work!?! ARGH!

[sigh]

Da da dum! My cat!

This is Ember, my cat. To me, she's a sweethart, to other humans in the house, she varies from nice to 'touch me again and I'll swipe you, stupid hu-man!'. To the other cats... Well, she either gets chased, or she chases them.

All, in all, she has the personality of a junk-yard dog. So, I give you, Ember, the junk-yard cat:

Ain't she cute?

Robots and Alcohol...

At my pharmacy, they put in a new filling system that includes a robot that fills the top 180 or so drugs. Today was the first day we used it.

Right before I left for home, one of the clerks came up to me and asked if I had a busy day. In response, I reached under my terminal and into the bag of stuff I got from the Safeway down the street and set a bottle of Jack Daniel's on the counter with a 'thump'. "Does that answer your question?"

I spent the morning being pulled in about 20 different directions. The trainer from the company that provides our robot told me that if I hadn't been in the advanced training class (that's for "System Administrators" only), she would have put me in because I understand the system so well. Well, every time someone came up with a problem that could be fixed (Say, we needed to add a drug to the computer database), she'd call me over to see how to do it. I'm glad she did, I used the training later that day, but at the same time, two pharmacists, three clerks, and a tech were all asking for my help. ARGH!

So, I'm now a "Technician Administrator", which means I can do everything in the robotic system (create new IDs, delete IDs, add new drugs to the database, etc etc) except check the prescription, which is the pharmacists job. Because of this, I'm now required to take my ID badge (Which has a bar code of my password on it) home with me. Can we guess how long it'll take for me to lose it? Hmmmmm? (And, at $11 a badge, it will not be pretty.) Hopefully, the fact that I clipped it to my keys will stop it from getting lost or I forgetting it.

So, here I sit with some Jack beside me. I'd prefer Scapa (Single Malt), but that isn't at the local Safeway... And, I didn't like buying a bottle of alcohol without having tried it first... So, Jack it was!

It caused quite a ripple of shock at work, that bottle of Jack Daniels did... I guess I don't look like a 'hard drinker'. One guy at work can't drink scotch... unless it's in a mixed drink. I gasped in horror and made a disgusted face when he said that. Blargh.

The Great Tulsa Adventure!

So, we drove 3985.1 miles exactly.

We broke down... 5 hours from Tulsa.

Granted, it took only a few hours to fix and it was inexpensive, but we had to wait for the part to come from Dallas.

A list of things we did (All are totally true... some are just... reported at a different angle)

-Saw multiple sites of volcanos

-Saw lots of Indian ruins

-Went to the north rim of the Grand Canyon

-Didn't see zebras (Unless you count the cows I was sure were zebras in disguise, waiting to conquer the world)

-We sang the theme song to all the Disneyland rides.

-We were offered a 4 pound steak for free.

-For one day, we ate all our food at Cracker Barrel.

-We were attacked by swarms of suicidal moths.

-I had a hairdresser who wanted to dump terrorists into the ocean to feed the sharks (Well, until I explained that sharks don't like human flesh. He thought we should feed them to the mechanical shark in Universal Studios Jaws ride.)

-Two people tried to steal our tow truck.

-We were approached by someone looking for religious converts.

-There was a Strip Tease!

-My clothes got dipped in oil.

-We were feet from an active forest fire.

-We drove through Bryce National Park. After Dark. In a full moon. Was gorgeous. (And, I kept going 'Oooooooo! Tunnel!'. I love tunnels, and there were two. One was really long (seemed to be a few miles.) And the other was basically cut from the rock and left.

-Watched CMT & GAC every night we could. Woooooo!

-By the end of the trip, I had a whole side door full of candy...

-Songs of the trip: "In Your Arms" by Shania Twain, "Beer for My Horses" by Toby Keith and Willie Nelson, "Celebrity" by Brad Paisley (love the video!), "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem" by Kenny Chesney, "Real Good Man" by Tim McGraw (Ahem... Tiiiiiiimmmmmm!!!)

Quotes:

"I don't think kung-fu action Faith would approve."
"Ehh... I can take her."

Woof! I want him to follow me around for a few hours with a boom box!

"Was it exciting enough day for you?"
"No! Where's the male stripper?"

It hit me like a bolt of lightening. But, it didn't hurt as much.

I may look hot and bitchin', but I'm getting hot and bitchy.

I don't want to go home. Well, I do, but I don't want to go to work. Well, ok, I just don't want to work.

My lap is pothole proof!

The CD player is protected by my sweater and thighs!

Drunken revelry, and, no Dave!

It's not like your pushing it into your crotch.

A little ham and cheese action going on.

They're having ham and cheese sex in your mouth.

We can go flash our piercings at the Mennonites two doors down.

You poke me, straw comes out!

Just don't dip your breast in the oil.

I know all about you, double O seven. Sex for dinner, death for breakfast. -- Frost, Die Another Day

I'm straight, but I'm not narrow. -- bumper sticker

Pictures of the trip found here

I'm Outta Here!

OK... I'm going to be gone for the next week. I'm going driving half way across the country. Vroom! Vroom!

Ninja likes to drive. But, only with cruise control. I've driven from California to North Carolina, via I-10, without cruise control. NEVER AGAIN!

So, see you guys in a week or so! (Unless I have time some night to get into the business center of the motel...)

There shouldn't be any troll problems, but if there is, please try to ignore them. I'll take care of it when I get back on...

Bye!

Lip Balm

I'm a self-styled lip balm connoisseur... I have this nervous habit of licking my lips, so I've tried every type of lip balm I've come across. Blistex, Chap Stick, Soft Lips, etc etc etc...

Then, in Cracker Barrel (An awesome place to begin with), I found the perfect lip balm.

Burt's Bees

This stuff is great! Ingredients are: Beeswax, coconut oil, sunflower oil, tocopheryl acetate & tocopherol (vitamin E), lanolin, peppermint oil, comfrey root extract, rosemary extract.

Not only does this stuff last a long time on my lips, but it has a cooling effect.

Because of my lip licking habit, I actually have 5 lip balms at all times... One for my smock at work, one for the car, one for my purse, one for beside my bed, and one at the top of the computer keyboard at home.

And, the rest of the Burt's Bees line is pretty darn spiffy too!

Muppets!

Today, I came back from lunch to a note saying:

"OOOOOO, Your hair smells nice!"

"No Gonzo NO!!! MEEP MEEP"

So, I look over to my Muppet finger puppet collection (They're from Starbucks and are all on top of stick candy) to find Gonzo molesting Beaker... Then, when I come back from doing something on the other end of the pharmacy, Kermit has gotten in on it...

I'm having fun showing them off to coworkers and hearing the "Oh my god!!!!!!"

This means I'm going to have to pull out the digital camera and immortalize this!