evildeb, work

Workplace Euphemisms

The Man: I’m cleaning my cube.

*Jodi, Evildeb and KK giggle, because sounds like a naughty joke.*

Evildeb: Is that a euphemism?

Jodi: I’m CLEANING my CUBE. Anything can be a euphemism if you say it right.

Evildeb: Well, I’m installing Publisher.

Jodi: I’m INSTALLING PUBLISHER. Hmmmm… what would that mean?

Evildeb: It means I am wasting my time.

*Jodi and Evildeb laugh uncontrollably. Because it’s a Mocking Publisher joke.*

Jodi: From now it, is is a official. “Installing Publisher” is another way of saying you wasted time.

The Man: What would ‘Extracting a DMG file’ mean?

Jodi: Ummmm… that would mean that you had to spend considerable time in the facilities. The restroom.

*Everyone laughs because it’s a poop joke*

Jodi: You know what? I am going to share our new euphemism with the whole world!

Evildeb: Is that a euphemism?

Pretty soon I am going to have to create a jodictionary, to explain all my new words and phrases.

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Given that true intellectual and emotional compatibility are, at the very least, difficult if not impossible to come by; we could always opt for the more temporal gratification of sheer physical attraction. Love #2

Love #2

I believe that I have mentioned, in the last few days, that I have just started watching Season Four of Oz. And so has Fee. We are, more or less, in sync. So we’ve been discussing and dissecting. My absolute favorite character is Ryan O’ Riley. That is the best character ever. He’s so sneaky and manipulative; and utterly charming. He gets away with everything because he’s slicker than snot. Of course, he’s a bit psychotic, and he’ll order your husband killed if he falls in love with you. Oh, such passion! It’s ok, I don’t even have a husband. Earlier this week, I declared my love for Ryan O ‘Riley, he is my Fictional Prison Inmate Boyfriend. Fee says that he is “too cocky” for her. *snicker* cocky!

“Fee, I want to save Ryan O’ Riley from his life of incarceration and violence. I know my love will save him, it will bring him peace. If I just love him enough. And really, it’s my fault, if I didn’t make him so angry, he wouldn’t have to hit me. He apologized for it! Said it would never happen again and that he loved me. If I just learned to be sweeter, have dinner ready on time, fix myself up a bit, and never ever ever run out of beer again, we would be so happy!”

Yes, I know it’s a television show. I’m joking. Some guy ever hit me, I’d flatten him.

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Doc, I met this terrific girl and I really really really like her. But, I’m not sure if I want to love her or eat her. Love #1

Oh Valentine’s Day… love is in the air. There’s just a whole lotta love, and don’t think I am immune. I declared my love 5 times in the last week. Here is the first installment of my touching stories of love. A Valentine’s Day special, if you will.

Love #1

When people come to you with technical problems, they don’t always posses the communication skills to tell you their troubles. An example would be a customer calling up phone support and saying, “My Microsoft is broken.” You don’t know if they mean windows, or word, or office or what. Although I do live in Redmond, I don’t work at Microsoft, but I have heard the equivalent with my customers. So customers or coworkers that give clear issue statements gain a special place in my heart. After having just such a “my microsoft is broken” experience with a coworker, I was blown away by my next issue. The customer had written a 3 page letter describing, in great detail, the workflow followed to create their document. To the most minute detail. The minnie minnie minnie minute detail. The only problem was, with that much information, it was impossible for me to really understand what was going on, couldn’t see the forest through the trees and all that. And the letter had a spooky sort of cadence to it. I read it out loud to Evildeb. “It places a .5 point keyline around the graphic. It does this whenever it is told. Or it gets the hose again, doesn’t it Precious?”

Regardless, it was a thing of beauty. And I told Evildeb, “I love this guy! I love this customer! I. LOVE. THIS. CUSTOMER. This letter is priceless.”

“Why don’t you marry him then?”

“Maybe I will, except I don’t know his name, or even if it’s a man. Our love, and union, may be damned in the eyes of our current administration.”

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High stakes poker, Michaela. Bunch of stinkin’ drunk men sittin’ around a table gamblin’, smokin’, talkin’ dirty and we’d like for you to come. Interested?

I played Lunchtime Intraoffice Interdepartmental Poker today. I had not been able to play since this summer. The regulars had all received nicknames since I last played. Miss Kitty, Ace Barracuda and Boss. Here’s the thing about my Poker Playing stratagem, you will never figure it out. Never. Because it’s fluid and depends on the phases of the moon, my blood sugar level, what day of the week it is, how much sleep I had the night before, the total number of ounces of Dr Pepper I have consumed, and whether or not I want to make my co-players cry. And whether anyone has brought any candy to the table. My stratagem floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee, baby! Sometimes, I play with my cajones. I’m all up in their faces, betting hundreds with only a 6 high. Distracting everyone with my witty color commentary. Other times, I am cautious and quiet, and I use that time to learn about my opponents. But, most importantly, no matter how many times I watch Celebrity Poker, I cannot recall what one with any skill at all would do. I don’t like to be limited by the advice of experts anyway.

Today, I played with my cajones. Big bets with nothing to back it up, and for the most part, it was working. I did get pocket Ace’s, which I decided to call pocket tee-pee’s. However, I think they are called pocket rockets. At one point, I took all of Miss Kitty’s chips. And I was in the lead major. But I blew it. I lost everything. Boss took all the chips, i don’t know how, I thought I was a shu-in for Big Poker Kahuna today. Oh well, my sparkling poker personality, color commentary, and cajones did earn me my poker nickname. Miss Conduct. Can’t win if you don’t play, baby.

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Somebody grab the bleach, she’s seen the lightening.

We join Evilded and Jodi, midway through, what started out as, an actual conversation about work related items.

Jodi: Wow… you’re right, that is bad. You should write that up.

Evildeb: I’m gonna.

Jodi: Excellent, see that you do that, Deb.

Evildeb: I’m on it, Jodi.

Jodi: Good to know.

Evildeb: I am on top of it.

Jodi: Are you all over it?

Evildeb: I am on top of it and all over it.

Jodi: Like white on rice, except for brown rice which is, obviously, brown rather than white?

Evildeb: Like lightening on that one guy who played Jesus in that one movie.

Jodi: errr… What?

Evildeb: That movie, about Jesus…

Jodi: The Mel Gibson movie?

Evildeb: Yeah. The actor that played Jesus was hit by lightening 3 times. While filming the movie.

Jodi: No way… did they not see that as a sign that God was pissed off about the script? Or the direction of his character in the film?

Evildeb: No, they thought that it meant God was happy!

Jodi: Uh-uh, sorry, that was Jesus… that was the Son, and he was saying, “Wait a minute… that’s not how it happened!!”

Evildeb: Definitely unhappy.

Jodi: “Oy… you guys… hey…. LAY OFF MY PEOPLE! Quit picking on the Jews.”

Evildeb: “Lay off my peeps.”

Jodi: “Come on… give the Jews a break already.”

Evildeb: Yeah… give the Jews a kit-kat bar.

Jodi: Deb, as a partial Jew, how do you feel about that?

Evildeb: as a half Jew? I’m totally in favor of it. I love kit-kat bars. I bet my dad does too. Except he’s diabetic.

This is a transcription of a spoken conversation, as such, it has been edited to maintain flow and because there is some stuff I don’t remember. But the gist of it is there. I author of this blog takes no responsibility for accuracy with regards to the statement “that one guy who was jesus in that one film was hit by lightening three times while filming.” I asked for no verification, nor was any provided.

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On a bad day: Spoiled, Vain, Confused

My sanrio.com Hello Kitty* horoscope for today:

(February 8th) Try a new way of expressing yourself creatively. Don’t worry about making a perfect piece of art; start telling your story and it’ll go from there.

Which was a coincidence because I was just thinking about the way I blog. I don’t spend a lot of time on word-smithery when writing my blog entries. [although, I did give a serious two seconds to thinking before I came up with the word “word-smithery”] I just write off the cuff. By the seat of my pants. And other metaphors involving clothing. And I guess that’s a good thing. All the books on writing say you should start your draft off by writing without editing or critiquing. It’s just, this isn’t a draft. This is basically it. I do go up to the blog to check to see if things look ok, and sometimes, I see mistakes which I go back and fix. But that’s mostly spelling, punctuation or missing words. So I admire the blogs I read that show a great deal of care and thought in regards to the words used, the tone set. And I ask myself, “why can’t I take that time and that amount of care?” But then I see a shiny object, and I’m off somewhere else.

Wait a second… that’s yesterday’s horoscope! Sun of a bitch. [I actually typed the word “sun” and as I went to change it, I decided to leave it because your horoscope is your sun sign and there’s all this symbolism and shit. Which is really deep. Straight from the seat of my pants.]

*footnote: The sanrio.com horoscopes list my favorite things, as a Libra, to be: Winning Arguments, Designer Clothes, Sugar. I’m not sure about the designer clothes, I’m not really a clothes horse. However I do like shoes and handbags. I am in total agreement with the winning arguments and sugar.

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evildeb

You do know that…

…Evildeb only reads my blog when I tell her I wrote about her. Which I only do about a third of the time. And when she reads it, she usually comments. Because she is unable to let me have the last word in anything. If she could, she would temporarily take over my blog just for the purpose of proving that. By commenting, she is trying to leave her mark, one that says “you cannot have something that I cannot have! I won’t let that happen!” She’s so cute, she doesn’t even like blogs. Although, if she took the time to write one herself it would be entertaining, but I think she is more comfortable responding and reacting. I told her about the post from a couple of days ago, because I was unsure if I was a saint, in general, for sharing my wit and humor with my co-workers. Or if I was a saint for putting up with her. Probably the later.

This is how every argument with Evildeb goes, and keep in mind an argument can spring up from the most innocuous of comments, we argue constantly. Example:

Solution 1 in that document is wrong.

No, YOU’RE wrong.

I’m not wrong, the solution is wrong. YOU are wrong!

Your FACE is wrong!

“Your face is…” fill in the blank is the end of all arguments. Unless you want to pull out the extra ammo of “Well, your mother’s face is…” fill in the blank. But you gotta be careful with that one, because it’s only going to escalate from there. It might lead to pinching.

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books, movies and tv

What’s simpler than a potato?*

Sometimes I hate telling super active people my plans for the weekend. Because then they get all sad. The pause and say, “um.. yeah… I have no life either.” What? I never said I had no life, I simply said that I have a lot of books I want to read, a web project I want to work on, and the first two discs of season 4 of Oz from Netlfix to watch. I work with people all week long. I look forward to Jodi time. It just so happens I did not have any plans with other humans, this weekend. By choice! No life, indeed.

I just did not happen to mention the most exciting part of my weekend. I discovered that I could apply for a Seattle Public Library card, even though I do not technically live within city limits. Because I work in Seattle. I did not know that. Louise knew it, but did not tell me, because she wanted to hold her dual library card ownership over my head, belonging to both the Seattle Public Library and the King County Library. [I belong to the KCL] Well, no more… because I figured it out. Ha-HA!! Surely, if everyone knew about that part of my weekend, they would not feel unduly sorry for me. TWO LIBRARY CARDS!!! Just wait until Louise gets back from Scotland. I’ll flash that SPL card in her face.

Shut up! I did too have a delightful weekend! I like books and the library. And I definitely like season four of Oz. Although, I was a little depressed by the time I finished “Hey Nostrodamus” by Douglas Coupland. But a copious amount of web surfing and random blog reading rectified that.

*Today’s subject title is dedicated to Fee, who is watching season 4 right along with me. It’s an O’Reily quote! About a potato!

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evildeb, work

No brains, no headache…

as we like to say in my family. Which is just more proof that i have a GINORMOUS brain. Knew it all long, after all, I carry the thing around on my neck every day. But if I had doubts, my headaches could squelch them. Woke up with a pounding headache, went through my day with a pounding headache, and left a half hour early with a pounding headache. You know, one of the things that does not help a headache is sitting at the computer all day writing and researching. The funniest part about my headache…. Evildeb wasn’t even in the office today. She went down to see the babytechs with Dr. Stevil. It was quiet as a tomb in my pod today. Maybe it was evil withdrawal. I came home from work, went to bed and slept until 9. Now I’m awake and experiencing the post headache high.

Evildeb cannot sit through meetings. It is physically very painful for her. If she is not an active participant in the meeting, little pieces of her soul can be seen leaving her body… floating away from the top of her head. If you expect her to listen and retain information, you’d better make it appealing. It’s not her fault, she’s missing a certain synapse in her brain. To prolong her pain, turn the lights off and show a presentation on the wall. Even better, make it a white background, black helvetica text. That’s it. Then she will be bored, tired, antsy AND depressed. God love her. So if I am sitting next to Edeb in a meeting, and there is a pad of paper between us, we’ll often scratch comments or questions back and forth. I know it may appear rude, but believe me, I’m doing everyone a favor… keep her captive in a meeting room for too long, and she’ll try to chew her own leg off to escape. Also, it just so happens, I am also miss firing at certain synapses. By providing me with a piece of paper, and an audience, I will be more apt to keep my sarcastic, but terribly witty, comments to myself. I have Meeting Tourette’s.

Bad Employee #1: you know, i bet he folds his underwear into neat, uniformly sized underpants packets.

Bad Employee #2: you forgot to mention they are white.

Bad Employee #1: You are right of course. Resistance is futile!

Bad Employee #2: Kill the humanoid!

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books, macs

Bunch o’ links.

Just want to share with you some of the things I’ve been reading over the last day.

Can I get an amen here? Well… probably not from any of you people. But I feel all warm inside.

Please go read Debra’s letter to the people who write the Canadian Ministry. It’s genius.

I believe this is the first time I’ve ever linked to the newspaper from this particular hometown, out of many, of mine. There is a special, really really boring, place in hell for people like the Olivers, in which demons force them to live by their outrageous beliefs, keep them locked up in dark rooms, never let them read anything good, and keep really interesting secrets from them. Nobody is going to torture them, per se, they are just going to have to live in ignorance and under the laws of someone else’s beliefs. Which are truly horrible and illogical beliefs in which all human beings are seen as dirty and morally corrupt. Oh… wait a minute…. [ It also reminds me to let you know that much progress has been made on Satan’s Bookclub, on which they Oliver’s will have a place of “honor.” I finally settled on a design I like, and am planning to work on it this weekend. ]

I was reading the transcript from the live chat with Rod Nordland, Newsweek’s Baghdad Bureau Chief on MSNBC.com. I found it very interesting, and I shall present to you my five favorite answers to questions. And yes, bonus points were given for wit and sarcasm.



Hellowell, ME: why does Bush care so much about what happens in Iraq when there are so many poor, sick, poverty-stricken people in the U.S.?

Rod Nordland: Who said he cares?

Hartford, CT: If the world were ruled by “Muslim law,” what would it look like???

Rod Nordland: You mean by Islamic law? There are many different versions of that, depending on the society, the culture, the sect of Islam, and it’s a bit unfair to generalize. But I suppose one quick answer is it would be as unattractive as, say, a world ruled by fundamentalist Christian law.

Bucharest, Romania: Hi! Do you really think that democracy is the best thing for Iraq? I mean it’s obviously the best thing for some countries (like the U.S.), but is it the best thing for others? Maybe democracy and voting just doesn’t fit them, just as royalty for example wouldn’t fit U.S. And is that what democracy is all about: who isn’t like us is against us, therefore we should try to impose democracy everywhere (by force!)?

Rod Nordland: We’re going to invade Romania next, so just watch out. Belarus, they really need invasion. Moldavia, Central African Republic. So many dictatorships, so little time!

Harwich, MA: Saddam Hussein has been deposed, no WMD’s have been found, the elections are taking place, and the U.S. military is losing lives, ground, and legitimacy daily.

WHAT/WHEN IS OUR EXIT STRATEGY? Do we even have one?

Rod Nordland: It’s very simple: last one out, please turn on the lights.

AND MY NUMBER ONE FAVORITE QUESTION AND ANSWER FROM THE LIVE CHAT WITH ROD NORDLAND!

London, England: Divide and rule is what the simpleton Americans use to control other weaker nations. What a pathetic, bullying, ruthless, cowardly lot you are!

Rod Nordland: E tu madre.

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