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February 12, 2002
A few things to say
I see I've been a little lax about posting in recent days. I'm not going to promise that it's going to get better because, truth be told, beyond this week it'll likely get worse before it gets better again. Or maybe a bit of better-worse-better, or worse-better-better, or better-better-worse, or I-can't-believe-it's-not-better. To Hell with it. Here's what's going on:
• Ken Lay is an ass. Screw the hearings. Let his people and his shareholders get a day for a participatory public flogging. Sell of one of his mansions to pay for their flights in.
• The judging in the Pairs Figure Skating competition was patently horrible. Kudos to the skating team for being as noble as they have been in the face of it all and all the inane questioning that seems to be there just to goad them into being bitter and angry. I don't know if any kind of inquiry will make things better or if anything will actually change. This was one of those cases where I really wish my cynicism hadn't been proven to be correct. It's like the Bourne-Kratz Ice Dancing silver medal back in Nagano 1998.
• I have a vacation coming up and I can't believe how stressed I am about it. I have so many things that I need to wrap up and pass off to others before I can go on this vacation in peace. Where am I going? Hong Kong, with a four day side trip to Beijing. I'm going there in the mass family gathering to join Grandmother for her 85th birthday (26 February, wish her long life) and for my cousin's wedding on 2 March. Somewhere in there, I wonder if anyone will remember my birthday on the 24th. The plan was to go for two weeks, returning on 3 March. Unfortunately, that's changed with the next item.
• This is a close tie with something else, which I won't go into, for the most stressful thing that's happening to me at the moment. I had been bugging the powers that be to renew my work visa for six months now, possibly more, and ultimately, it has come down to action within the last month of my current visa. Even expedited, the paperwork won't reach the INS until Friday. The official turnaround is fifteen business days, but the attorney thinks that ten days is more typical. That means that 4 March would be the earliest that they expect to be able to get the approval paperwork for the extension back from the INS. It would take another three days to get the I-94 departure record that I would need to re-enter the country. It would take another two days to FedEx the I-94 to me. So now, instead of going for two weeks, I'm looking at three, in the best of conditions. That means I lose a week of work and it's going to be even harder to meet my quota for billable hours this quarter, which means I'll really have to bust ass in March. Moreover, it's going to be really interesting to see what ends up piling in terms of mail and bills and crap, plus the additional days of pet sitting that I'll have to pay for to have the cats tended.
• Given the above, I had to suck it up and accept the fact that there's no way I could afford to go to AmberCon US, both in money and time, now. I'm really glad that, with prior arrangements, my friend J. P. won't be left completely in a lurch, though it does mean he'll have to GM the game we were going to run on his own. It'll also mean I'll miss out on seeing all of my friends there. I hope that most of them will be able to attend AmberCon North in September.
• And I've got an annoying head cold.
• And laundry that needs doing.
• And dry cleaning that I hope to be able to get back before I leave.
• And I can't find my Robin Wood deck.
• But I got a kickass set of rolls for Abilities for a possible new D&D3 character (18 18 16 15 14 14).
Okay, that wasn't really enough to offset the rest of it. I think it's time to call Mom.
Posted by KinCross at February 12, 2002 09:06 PM