apropos of anything

(I don’t want to hear ONE WORD about the kind of world I must be living in if this is the saddest news of my day.)

Yesterday Ivan told us today would be Tuba Christmas day here at work, and we greeted that news with our usual mix of enthusiasm and despair.

But then we arrived at work today to discover that Ivan had either blatantly lied to us or had been quite mistaken because the tubas, they are not here. Ken did some speedy Googling to discover the awful truth: Tuba Christmas has MOVED.

Yes, we were quite shocked and traumatized as well.

The Underground now plays host to Tuba Christmas, which means it’s now an outdoor concert. In today’s 37 degree weather (which, admittedly, is far warmer than many places, like, say, Chicago, and of course Madison, Wisconsin), I am curious as to just how many of the usual concert-goers, with their candy-cane-bedazzled sweaters and singing Christmas tree sweatshirts, are going to sit through the entire show.

We could go ourselves (the Underground is a short hop, skip, and jump away), but we’re too busy cheering the silence and bemoaning the loss of a tradition. Our poor New People, who will never get to experience to joy and horror of a hundred shiny tubas piled in the atrium while their owners stand in line for fast food, who will never be serenaded by the same hundred tubas playing “Jingle Bells” as they try to work. It is almost too sad for words.

For now, though, I have to go console Ivan, who is sitting in the corner crying because Ken ruined his Christmas.

Because let’s admit it, y’all, this is a great shot:

The man behind Saddam Hussein is his half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti. The photograph catches them just as they’re vigorously objecting to the testimony of a witness hidden behind a curtain.

(“Fears of retribution by Saddam loyalists forced the court to shield the witnesses’ identities. Witnesses are allowed to have their voices altered to hide their identities from the defendants, media and people in the visitors’ gallery — but not from the judges or attorneys,” sayeth the article linked from the above picture.)

It’s about time somebody said it.

I don’t normally talk about work on this site because that would be breaking one of the cardinal rules of blogging, and not getting dooced is always high on my annual to-do list.

But today is launch day, and for this project, on which I’ve worked for the better part of a year, for which I have of late given up my nights and weekends, my dinner parties, movie viewings, and other such shindigs, I’m going to make an exception. The product may not be perfect, but there’s still something so exhilarating about actually going live, in public, where the entire Internet can see it, that I want to say in all capital letters, LOOK WHAT I DID. Me and about a hundred other people, anyway.

Around lunchtime I took a semi-enforced break from post-launch issues to do a recruitment video. They sent me through makeup, and then I answered questions very badly for twenty minutes, pretty much guaranteeing that 99.9 percent of my footage will end up on the cutting room floor. The makeup lady was super-friendly, though, and she did the best “daytime” makeup that I’ve ever had; it’s light and barely noticeable, so I look like I don’t need Maybelline ’cause I’m just born with it.

I wanted to go shopping on the way home because I need a few things before we leave for India and because I just wanted to, but I ended up leaving work a little later than expected, which meant I’d miss maghrib and get stuck in horrible rainy-day rush-hour traffic if I went… so tomorrow, maybe. I should probably get some sleep tonight anyway, considering I woke up half a dozen times last night, worried that I’d overslept and was late for work, and for the launch.

Updated: They like us! They really like us!

You know what sucks? Sitting on the phone with your ISP for the second time in the evening (because the first call was, in the immortal words of one of my high school classmates, utterly fruitless), sounding like bitchy, blithering idiot while the tech support guy patiently eliminates all the potential causes, and then hanging up the phone only to discover your problem is back in full force, and then calling back to get a recorded message informing you that said ISP is currently “working to resolve an issue in your area” and you can expect your DSL connection to be back up at 6 a.m.

You know what sucks even more? Actually feeling like a bitchy, blithering idiot because of something somebody said or did, or didn’t say or didn’t do.

You know what sucks the worst? Knowing that the only reason somebody is making you feel like a bitchy, blithering idiot is because you’re letting them.

Thank goodness I’m not on call tonight. My DSL isn’t available.