My coworker told me this story. Her friend has a kid who is 6, and he lost his tooth, as many 6 yr olds do. He didn't believe the tooth fairy existed, so he decided to hedge his bets and try and trick and/or scare her when he lost his tooth. He took a fake finger, stuffed his tooth inside it, and left the finger under his pillow. The next morning, the finger was still there, with $1 rolled inside. I love that family.

In other news, I was on vacation, where I saw all my reader(s) at a wedding. I am currently composing my travelogue and may just have to put it up here, though that's a lot of 9pt text for anyone. Too bad. Rich makes us read his winky stinky little low-contrast words.

In even other news, the generalized terror in our office has ramped up a bit. Now the supervisors are being watched! It's bad enough that we can feel the cold red eyes of the laser cannon on the backs of our own necks, but how can we feel safe when even the supes are all a twitter in panic. While I was out of town, my supervisor went in for stomach stapling, and my former deskmate is now my supervisor, which is cool. Today another one resigned all of a sudden, and the other one is off on a special project. I smell sulfur coming from somewhere and I can't figure it out. Even the mice that live in our drawers are scared.

  posted by Cinerina @ 4:14 PM

 
Since I am so damn busy, I am gonna recycle actual news until I can get caught up and then catch you up.

Offbeat News CNN.com

Scientist burns penis with hot laptop
Friday, November 22, 2002 Posted: 2:33 PM EST (1933 GMT)

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Laptops have always been a hot item but a 50-year-old scientist didn't realize to what extent until he burned his penis.

The previously healthy father of two remembered feeling a burning sensation after he had been writing a report at home for about an hour with the computer on his lap.

He noticed a redness and irritation the following day but it wasn't until he was examined by a doctor that he realized how much damage had been done.

"The ventral part of his scrotal skin had turned red, and there was a blister with a diameter of about two centimeters (0.8 inches)," Claes-Gorn Ostenson, of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, wrote in a letter published in The Lancet medical journal Friday.

Two days later, the blisters broke and the wounds became infected and then crusted but after about a week the unidentified scientist was "healing quite rapidly."

Ostenson noted that the computer manual did warn against operating it directly on exposed skin but said the patient had lap burns even though he had been wearing trousers and underpants.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2002 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

  posted by Cinerina @ 4:18 PM

 
Someone please send me some fucking money!

  posted by Cinerina @ 6:52 PM

 
The Sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper the sniper. That should increase my readership.
Now go vote.

  posted by Cinerina @ 3:27 PM

 
I used to work at Power Computing, which was the largest and most successful (by rook standards) Mac clone manufacturer, based in scenic Round Rock, TX. The storis around Power could fill a novel but as Halloween has just passed I will stick closer to those stories. Remind me, Gentle Reader(s) to tell you about Farokh Lam and the Duplicitous CIO.
Austin/Round Rock being the epicenter of the largest urban bat colony in the western hemisphere, bats as the most agreeable pests next to geckos are a common phenomenon. Add to that that our last and greatest facility was in an old-style Wal-Mart (abandoned for a new, shiny Super WalMart across the highway) dubbed PowerMart, with warehouse high ceilings and lots of imperfectly sealed cracks and crannies. So we had bats. Not many, and not often, though I am sure countless fuzzy brown freetail corpses resided back in shipping's dark corridors. Occasionally a bat would get in, and be aurally blinded by the deafening super-sonic scream of our PowerWaves and PowerCurves and PowerTowers and fly about frantic to find an escape. This happened just enough that it was normal business to STOP business and go catch them and release them. Yes, yes, I know the first rule of bat welfare is don't touch a bat on the ground; but these were FLYING, man. Rennie Riggs brought in a swimming pool net and I proved myself the most adept at bagging and releasing the bat safely to the outside. Can I tell you, these bastards are fast?
Picture me if you will, 12 foot net in hand, running across the tops of desks and cubes after a 5" blind panicking creature, and you got comedy. Good times.

My friend Rich (aka you) has a "pithomatic" on his inspiring blog site that reloads a new pithy quote with every refresh. Today he graced me with "Nothing is more precious than teeming, overpopulated, resource-destroying human life. - The Onion" I wanted to share.

Soon comes vacation and the senioritis is already unbearable. If it weren't for the voracious candy-consuming mania of my office, I would not have the caffeine or the sugar to survive the week.
Halloween was fun too. As a grownup that is.

  posted by Cinerina @ 3:24 PM