cue ridiculous sit-com music and nonchalant glances upward and away... picture a half dozen Monty Python types gathered, but not together, in a scene in a park with laptops and PDAs and such all nervously (which trying to be casual) whispering (though it comes out more as a yell), �Look away!�, referring to the camera and each other, at each other as the camera peers in on the scene...

and since cheating is an honorable profession in the world of Python, I now give you a recent episode from the RealTime� blog just to let you in on the visual challenges I am experiencing with this ancient computer and it's dying 21 inch monitor...

sheesh, I can't even tell what day/date I wrote the last entry I don't know how long it's been since I last typed here, but I sense a few days, at least...

that's how consistently blurry blogspot is getting on this monitor... other sites are occasionally blurry, but can be brought into clarity by right clicking... blogspot is always blurry now and will only come back to clarity half the time, if that much... sucks, but it's primarily my monitor so even though there may be something in the blogspot coding helping the blur, it's not blogspot's fault...

even this entry box is blurring to the point where I have to switch to a notepad file...

nothing I do to the monitor helps, it's just ancient and slowly failing (perhaps breathing it's last gasps, but as Rasputin's 21 incher failed suddenly in a moment within a week of getting it home, this one has been cooking great images and sites for more than a year and it's only been showing signs of dying in the last month or so... so for $60 or so, I consider myself a lucky used monitor purchaser... this weekend is the computer show... plans are to drive out there, scout about for merchandise, then drive down to the House of Blues to pick up tickets to a concert or few, then retire my driving forever, or at least until I get my license snafu straightened out...

so in RealTime�, after the last entry I continued sorting through pieces of paper, big and little, relatively important (with a few essential for life integration in this bureaucratic culture) and meaningless (filling trash bags is my latest hobby), worked and, umm, worked and filled trash bags and sorted through papers... I did stop to eat and keep Precious company (and spent a small fortune {would it be too ironic to mention I corrected a typo just now?... the word fortune was typoed as future at first, but I corrected it... read into it as you wish} on her as she does her best to not eat {amazing how a body can survive and get fat on nothing but soda and snacks} and save all the food money that her dad gave her for concert tickets... I'm not much of a discipline or control person in my real life {I just play that role in my work life from time to time, enough so they leave me alone because they think I'm anal and therefore trust I'll get the job done}, but for myself, I draw a line at routine, unproductive, or useless steps toward self-conclusion right in front if me when I have something to say about it)...

fascinating, isn't it?... life, I mean... and typoes, of course...

meanwhile, I was pondering the food I eat the other day and realized I have gone quite imbalanced in my eating habits... I must ponder more and deeper until I get to the stupidity that is allowing me to eat poorly and not exercise (some self-pathetic crap, no doubt) and then I'll have my good self-flagellation or cry or catharsis or epiphany or whatever it is I require of myself and get back to being not stupid... one thing for sure, I eat out way too often (where I could be eating salads and veggies more, but don't)... I try to stay clean and healthy throughout this life, but I�ve been slipping in focus lately... sloppy is the way these days, alas...

and then I got to thinking about how we trust complete strangers, sight unseen, to cook for us and we put whatever they prepared, however they prepared it, into our mouths and bodies... we detach so well... I mean, do we wonder if the guy touching our food washes his hands when he leaves the bathroom (or after picking his nose?) and does he use decent soap or any soap?... do we wonder how well the bowls and plates and silverware and counters and pots and pans are cleaned between cooking?... how well do they control the bugs, with what chemicals, and is everything covered when the exterminator comes?... how many health code violations have your favorite restaurants had this year?... shall I stop now?...

naaaa, I'll just complain about something else... I mean, since I'm in a complaining mood... I found these next few paragraphs in the scribble files and I'm not sure if I uploaded them in another entry, but they were written back in May on the first night at work on the new unit...

it amazes me sometimes how little energy or attention is actually devoted to the patients in this place� especially on the night shift, almost everyone rushes through their work (sloppily) and are much more interested in just chatting about anything (loudly), rather than actually being alert to potential patient needs� there are two modes, two gears� hyper loud staff basically ignoring the patients and staff fast asleep� either way, the patients are not actually supervised and are treated as an intrusion if they ask for anything�

and then after getting home and napping, I wrote this...

well ok then, a nap and then what?� a very busy week at work with three double shifts and moving of heavy objects and kicks and scraps on the hands and much grogginess, but we are now in our new unit� it stinks� literally, the sanitary habits on this side of the hospital were amazing� it does not make sense, since this is a certified hospital and we are cited anytime we violate health codes or regulations on our old unit� how they got away with this is a sign of the incompetent management here� they just look the other way too often�

again it will be mentioned in meetings by the staff who care and do the job right and again we'll see if anything changes� expect nothing, that's the best we can do� so anyway, after a week of cleaning and throwing out tons of junk and crap, the unit is beginning to look inhabitable, but it'll need some serious deep cleaning of rugs and painting (though some holes in walls still need fixing first) before it even begins to look like a hospital�

see, I can be negative about stuff sometimes... I keep these whiney writings around to remind myself so I might avoid the negativity trap... now, a few months later, the place is much better... the walls have been smoothed out and painted, everything is much cleaner, and decorations give the place a comfortable friendly look and feel... all it took was a bit of effort by the staff and why these standards are not expected from the other staff on other units puzzles me, but I stay out of the administrators business when I can and this is one point I don't bring up every meeting because picking battles wisely is essential to getting anything done in any sort of organization...

and so entries are not coming easily these days because I am spending less time than ever at the home computer and I am doing more work than ever at work and sleeping less and the home computer is dying and blah blah blah... but one of these days you'll click here and find a few dozen entries suddenly appeared as if they were always here and the sun'll come out tomorrow bet you bottom dollar...

have fun no matter what, cuz that's the best revenge... or something like that...

. o O ( NOTES ARE THE NEW HAPPY PILL ) O o .
(just let me know you were here)