This showed up on my work computer this morning. I think somebody may have dropped the ball.

I’ve officially been a bureaucrat long enough that the mythical “use or lose” annual leave is a thing.

Two years ago or so, my public sector seniority became such that I hit the top tier of vacation time earnings. Combine this with the fact that I’ve swapped positions in the “company” (and even swapped companies once) so many times in the last couple of years that I spent most of my time trying to figure out which way was up in the office and needed to be present, I haven’t been in a position to take all that much time off.

As such, I’ve built up a pretty good back log of “annual leave”, some of which will go *poof* if I don’t use it before the end of the calendar year.

Those of you reading here regularly will have perhaps noticed that this lack of “break time” has taken it’s toll on me in terms of stress and such; that wouldn’t be wrong. The fact that I’m in a position to lose this vacation time I’ve earned hasn’t helped the stress any, either.

In any case, I’ve managed to sort out my schedule (having a bit of autonomy to determine what my little corner of the agency does has helped a bit here) to allow for several extended breaks to close out the year. The first of those breaks was the back half of last week. It was a nice break. I didn’t do a hell of a lot besides take care of some appointments (I’m getting new glasses, yay!) and spend some time being idle. It was nice. I think I uncoiled some of the tension springs bit.

The nicest bit, though, when I got into the office on Monday morning, I found that nothing exploded during my absence. That was novel. I cleared the email backlog in less than an hour, and there were very few things in there that needed immediate pouncing upon.

Of course, also this past week, I spent a bit of headspace marking time for the rest of the year. When I lay it out, it’s actually pretty nice:

• This week: full week, calendar is pretty empty
• Thanksgiving week: two day week, three days off
• first two weeks of December: low impact test cycle
• rest of December: not working for three weeks. Such luxury!

My thoughts right now are to do my usual end-of-year thing (just for an extra week), and not plan on going anywhere unless we make a conscious decision to do so – the best Christmas gift I can give myself is to just let go of the stress of holiday obligations and not do something unless *we* feel like it. It’s worked really well the last couple of years, and I think it’s a tradition worth keeping.

And yeah, I’ll probably see Star Wars in there somewhere…

Begun, this Christmas Coffee War has.

Really?

Actually, my favorite bit about this particular holiday “Operation Mayhem” is not that people are protesting (once again) by giving the entity that offends them more money, but that if everybody gives their name as “Merry Christmas”, no one will know whose drink is whose, and it’ll lead to further chaos and first-world suffering of those expressing their feelings of faux oppression.

One of the big political stories in the Presidential horse race late this week has been Ben Carson’s “pyramids as grain storage” theory. To review:

“My own personal theory is that Joseph built the pyramids to store grain,” Carson said in a 1998 commencement speech at Andrews University, unearthed by BuzzFeed. “Now all the archaeologists think that they were made for the pharaohs’ graves. But, you know, it would have to be something awfully big — when you stop and think about it, and I don’t think it’d just disappear over the course of time — to store that much grain.”

Now, anyone who went to elementary school for ten minutes (even in the kind of educational system Ben Carson and his ilk would create if they had their druthers) know this is completely ridiculous. Carson, despite being, by reputation, a gifted neurosurgeon, professes to actually believe this, and it’s hardly the first time Dr. Carson has held forth on bizarre theories with no actual basis in science.

Now, a reasonable person might postulate here that Dr. Carson, coming from a highly specialized field like pediatric neurosurgery, was forced by vocation to focus on a very narrow area of knowledge rather than a broader understanding of a wide variety of fields (almost certainly excluding Egyptology); and might also consider the possibility that surgeons, whose specialized knowledge gives them perceived power over life and death, and whose chosen vocation is commonly considered the epitome of difficulty and complexity, (matched only, perhaps by rocket science), might allow this practically and sociologically reinforced sense of superiority to bleed into other areas where it might not apply so aptly…

Me, I’m personally convinced that Ben Carson is actually just pulling a series of Calvin’s Dad gags on the American public.

At least that’s what I want to believe, because I don’t want to believe that someone so obviously out of touch with general knowledge and understanding of the world could be considered a Presidential frontrunner.

hey folks, I do this every year; you should be used to this by now.

It’s election day. Do your civic duty and go vote. It is, absolutely, the least you can do to fulfill your side of the social contract that is democracy (or constitutional republic-cy, or whatever it is that we have).

Yes, it’s an off-year election, and there’s nothing sexy happening in most places. My answer for that is that the non-sexy races are actually the ones that probably matter the most to you. These local elections are the ones that determine what happens in your backyard – your kids’ school, your municipal taxes, things that directly affect your neighborhood. In the scheme of things, the people who sit on your local school board have a heck of a lot more of an affect on your actual life than does the President of the United States, so it behooves you to take a few minutes (the internet makes this embarassingly easy) to know who’s on your ballot and go mark the thing at your local polling place.

for example, my ballot this year has my state legislators, school board, and a bunch of county offices. Not high profile, necessarily, but important. Other social media friends of mine all over the place have been making noise about some of their local races on the friendface this year as well. You all can’t imagine how happy this makes me feel. It gets me right in the civic duty feels.

So, y’know…go vote and stuff.

After nine hours in the car on Thursday after my trip, I had scheduled Friday off, in part because I knew I’d need a bit of a rest after nine hours in the the car, partially because we had lots of weekend stuff (see below), and also because we’re hitting the end of the year and I have use-or-lose leave sitting there I have to burn off.

Friday I took care of some things like a doctor’s appointment, various errands, and some laundry, then spent some solid decompression time working through the back half of Flash (excellent all around) and Arrow (good, but kind of dour and draggy towards the end of season) and Jurassic World (big, dumb noisy fun – enjoyed it thoroughly). I also paid bills, which isn’t particularly fun, but necessary.

Saturday was pretty busy, as all the girls were dancing at the Central Virginia Celtic Festival, which is always a good time, with lots of great music, crafts, libations, and people throwing very heavy things. The girls did a great job with their performances (although the stage was a bit small), and we got to hang out with some friends and share this bit of the girls’ passion with them (one dear author friend is researching Irish dance and the culture surrounding it for a story she’s writing, and Colleen and Mary are helping her with anecdotes and terminology). It’s safe to say we enjoyed ourselves.

We also did some shopping; I feel slightly bad about it, but I bought a very fine hat, the sort I’ve been pining for for many years, but finally found a decent deal on. I don’t feel too badly about it, it’s quite cunning (even in this crap photo), exemplifyng my roots in the community.

While perusing the jewelry vendors, my spouse and I splurged a little bit and bought new wedding bands; she’s been without one for a while now (had to be cut off due to pregnancy induced swelling once upon a time, then it was fixed, and had to be cut off again for the same reason later), and we found a couple of nice matching claddagh rings to replace the simple gold bands. We quite like them, though after wearing the same ring without taking it off more than half a dozen times for more than seventeen years, this new one feels strange; I find myself constantly futzing with it, when I’m not catching the little crown bit on things. Colleen says my behavior is “adorable”. I’m not sure I agree, but I’m sure I’ll get used to the new accessory before long.

Greetings from the mysterious mid-west. I don’t really want to be here, because I’m adding absolutely no value to this test I’m supposed to be supervising/supporting, since the guys who actually do the work have this business down. Also, I have another test going on at home that, frankly, requires a lot more attention.

I’m really only here to keep up appearances for the home office anyway. This is the project I gave up a while back, but since the new person is out, I’m backing her up. There’s really nothing for me to do here except be seen. I’m going to try to get some face time with a couple of people I have deep and meaningful telephonic relationships with, but otherwise, I’m just sitting here doing my job displaced by about five hundred miles for a couple of days.

That said, I’m just making the best of it. I’m doing what I can to smooth over some access issues for people (not that I didn’t get hung up by building security this morning myself), and catching up with tester community (who are all wonderful people), but it’s still frustrating, because I’m adding very little benefit at all (though I won’t turn my nose up at the travel money they give me). Luckily, I can pretty much do my job from anywhere, and there’s a White Castle a few blocks down the road (tasty, tasty novelty).

Though if little steam-grilled mystery meat sandwiches are the best thing I can find to get excited about, I hope you’ll all have a better week than me.

Hoping this’ll be a quiet week.

Personally, I didn’t do a heck of a lot this weekend (thanks to standing obligations being cancelled at the last minute), which was kind of a relief, as I’d been feeling a bit off, with the season change and all the work responsibilities keeping me at the office a lot more than I’d like.

I totally missed the Richmond Folk Festival (it was rainy, and probably wasn’t the best for me anyway) other than a bit of some live broadcast on the radio, but it looks like all my friends who were there had fun. Maybe next year. Also ended up missing my friends Adena and Travis getting married on Saturday (as we had pre-existing plans out of town for Saturday up until about 9:30am), though I saw them both on Sunday and wished them well. Otherwise, it was the usual stuff like grocery shopping, bill paying, and dance practice shuttles.

There was no dance event this weekend, which was nice, (though the girls are booked up each of the next two weeks for events are local irish/celtic festivals), so we got to catch a bit of a breather, take care of some house stuff, make some lasagna, and keep moving on with my Arrow/Flash binge now that the new seasons are up on Netflix.

Monday was the Columbus Day, the least significant Federal holiday (and somewhat controversial, given what we know about the history), though it meant a day off work for me, so I got to take my wife out to lunch (kinda) and do some shopping while the kids were at school. I won’t complain.

I also like the serendipitous timing of my currently reading a book dealing rather respectfully with indigenous north American cultures (while still being a rollicking little adventure with excitement and comedy) on the day that draws all sorts of attention to that subject. Wasn’t on purpose.

In a lot of ways, it would make a lot of sense to drop Columbus day in favor of a Federal election day holiday, though I expect that’s never going to happen, as it would mean three federal holidays in November, and there’s no way in hell any congresscritter is going to vote yea on the bill that cancels Veteran’s Day or Thanksgiving.

the veneration of “our military* and a day celebrating “traditional” family values is never going to trump an idea that might increase voter turnout.

Oh – speaking of politics – Tuesday’s the first Democratic presidential candidates’ debate. I’m curious to see how dynamics change once they all get a chance to talk to voters on a relatively even footing.

_______________________

* – Veterans definitely deserve to be honored, but I kind of think a day off for federal workers is a lot less beneficial than concrete things like medical, psychological, educational, and financial benefits to give them a leg up in returning to non-military life politicians keep cutting as they do things that make more combat veterans would be.

I really loved this book/experiment.

umm…..

Nothing huge or earthshattering to report or discuss, but not everything has to be, I guess, right? I mean, not everything reaches the lofty heights of green poop, now does it?

Life’s been life. I’m trying not to think too hard about workplace shutdowns in December, and I don’t expect the news media, regardless of which outlet, will report on it much until then. Still, I try to keep an eye on the competition for House Speaker, as that will likely have some influence on what happens (not that any of the names inspire much confidence in a good result). Most of my news is the relatively even-keeled NPR reporting, though I occasionally wade into the weird end of the pool and listen to American Family Radio (Bryan Fischer’s American Family Radio show coincides with my commute home when Terry Gross is wrapping her amazing voice around something that doesn’t spark my interest), and while it’s probably not good for my blood pressure, I’m sort of fascinated by how that side of the world lives. The worldview is completely different from mine, and so much of the motivation behind that flavor of conservatism is so based on fear of the other; I can’t imagine living my life constantly under the impression that the entire universe is out to eliminate my entire way of life. Also, for someone who’s fond of the term “low information media”, Mr. Fischer certainly gets a lot of objective facts wrong, or simply glosses over important concepts, particularly when it comes to government.

Oh well.

When I’ve not been delving into those sorts of weird places, I’ve been looking into others. I started watching Gotham on Netflix, and I’m finding it oddly compelling. I’m most of the way through season one now, and while the straight-procedural “Spirit of the Goat” episode is the one that hooked me, I’m staying for the overt camp; the characters chew scenery like nobody’s business, the “police” work and settings are laughable, but damn if I’m not invested. Donal Logue is a national treasure. Also, I kind of love the theory that it’s actually a prequel to Batman ’66, which makes sense in a really weird sort of way.

This past weekend, I went to an Irish Dance show my kid was dancing in out in Williamsburg. This is a once or twice a year theater show with live music (featuring most of a band I used to see on the con circuit) and dancers from my girls’ school as well as some folks from the school the guy producing/starring/etc the show runs. The dancing’s really nice, the music is pretty great (other than some of the overbearing backing tracks), though many of us agreed that the flow/throughline was off, and there’s a hell of a lot of mugging from “the guy”, who’s a great dancer and an okay musician, but when he brought out the swords and then started playing matte black seven string electric guitar and vamping in a fur and leather warrior costume, all I could see was the unrestrained id of a nerdy twelve year old who listened to way too much Richie Blackmore and was really into Michael Moorcock novels; his posing with the claymore looked like it kind of belonged in that kid’s bedroom in front of the mirror, or not unlike this. It was…weird…but impressive, and well on it’s way to being a neat show if a few changes were made, but honestly, doesn’t Michael Flatley kind of have this market cornered?

If you look over toward the left, you might see mention of some books by Kevin Hearne, collectively known as The Iron Druid Chronicles – they’re a blast, you should read them, especially if you like dogs, because Oberon the Irish Wolfhound is one of modern literature’s great characters; so much so that my friend Mikey Mason wrote a song about him, “The Wisdom of Hounds”, that totally catches the flavor. If you like stuff like The Dresden Files, you’ll love these.

And, that’s about it, really…the storm this weekend was a bust, thankfully (I was bracing for power outages); got a long weekend (thanks to the federal holiday celebrating the conquest of paradise), so hopefully I’ll catch a bit of a break…who am I kidding, of course I won’t.