...ohhhh....

This is basically just a bunch of grumbles because I'm feeling tired and off. If you'd rather skip it, please feel free - I am not sure it's interesting to anyone but me (in fact, I strongly suspect it isn't).

( On the other hand, feel free to read on.... )

Pretty!

And, for the other (and more cheerful) side of my day, it's supposed to rain today. It looks like it's supposed to rain, too, which is always a plus. It's soft and grey and the road's surface is very very dark even though the painted lines, and the sidewalk next to it, are very bright.

I love this sort of smothered daylight. It's just glorious. And I'm looking forward to the rain...if it starts while I'm at work, I may take a break and go stand in it anyway, honestly.

It's been cooler lately. They say we've been down in the 40s at night. This is the Oregon I know and love: adaptive (and massively cooler at night than in the day, when it wants to be - heh).

It hasn't been feeling like home, for a couple weeks, until the past three or four days. But it is. It's home again.

And it's raining, lightly. Hmmm. Excuse me....

The Inflatable Dummy Phenomenon

My boss was just in my office a bit ago. He stood in the doorway, and he talked about what he's working on right now, and I still have no idea what the issues are. Something wasn't working; something had him frustrated. But he never finished a single sentence, more than two or three words, so I have no clue what.

He would start to say something, and then cut himself off, or lapse into silence. "The problem is--" "--but it could--" "--no, that doesn't make sense...." (That was probably the most coherent thing he said.)

He was there for a few minutes, but I don't think you could fill a paragraph with what he said. Then he switched to another topic, discussed HTML forms, and walked off. At least, I think he switched topics.

I'm used to classic "inflatable dummy" situations, as he refers to them. This was way, way overboard. Normally, I have no problem understanding what it is that he's going through, even if I'm not contributing anything other than my ears. This time...well. I hope he worked it out, but I'm not even sure of that. Heh.

"Inflatable dummy" syndrome, by the way? Is his reference for the way that you seem to get through so many problems if you can only talk them out. You don't actually need the input of the person you're talking to in those cases, because you solve the problem in the act of talking it out. It doesn't matter, except to your own perceptions and thought processes, if you talk to a coworker, a cat, or an inflatable dummy.

I find this very amusing. It's an apt description of the process. And yet, at least for me, it does matter (to my own perceptions) that it be a person...if I were actually talking to an inflatable dummy, I would spend too much time worrying about the fact of what I was talking to.

Besides, how would we explain having them in the office?

My office is too cold.

I just heated up a bag of microwave popcorn, and when I finished it, there were a number of unpopped kernels (choice: scorch most of the popcorn, or leave a bunch unpopped? - easy one). And it felt so good to pick up a handful of them and let the warm grease-and-popcorn soothe my hand....

Right. Time to turn the temperature up a little.

Plans, hopes, dreams.

She accepted. I wasn't sure she would, but she accepted; Ashes has a new wizard for the changeling sphere (our previous one got swallowed whole by RL and just did not have the time for it).

We got the person I hoped would get the position. Oh, there were other people I think could have done it well; except they didn't have time. And I'm sure there were others who could have done it well, but whom I simply didn't know.

We have a Rainbow. And I'm happy, because the sphere was starting to feel like it was going to just collapse under the weight of its own fears and despair at being left to float. Or maybe I'm just melodramatic, and saw the down moods by contrast to my own hopes.

Either way, it turned out well. We're moving forward. I think we're moving toward becoming what we hoped to be, what I hoped we would be. Setting out more clearly the roles expected of us as staffers, the ways we will do things.

I just outlined my role. It's not as full of variety as someone heading up a roleplay sphere. But it's enough to keep me busy. I can't do this as a one-woman job, but then, I don't have to. We'll get it all sorted out. Someone for inspections - at least one to help with inspections. The grid descs. Tweaks. Putting stuff in place.

It's all good. We're going some place, and it's a good place.

And now I'll go from dream to dream, because it's late, and I have the feeling this is growing less coherent by the word. :)