(I do have a preference, but I could might be swayed by popular opinion.)

No more NaBloPoMo. 

But at least my excuse is valid.  I’ve been suffering a severe sinus headache all weekend and didn’t even turn the computer on yesterday.  I’m still not feeling very good, so I don’t know if there’ll be the promised poll later today.

The only thing that’s keeping me motivated for NaBloPoMo is the little badge I  —> made.  Otherwise, I’d just call it quits tonight.

I’ve once again become disenchanted with my foray into reality television.  I was so mad at the shenanigans on So You Think You Can Dance (giving one dancer a bye for an injury, while kicking an able-bodied [and competent] dancer off) that I quit watching and canceled any future recordings.  And although I haven’t yet watched last night’s Project Runway, what I’ve read about how the judges treated one of the designers has ticked me off.  (And I even knew who the three finalists were.)

The Supernatural fandom is gaga over last night’s episode “Switching Channels,” but I just rolled my eyes.  Yeah, some of it was funny.  But lots of it were groan-worthy.  It was anther one of those episodes that starts off very funny and winds up very serious.  But that’s already been done better—twice.  Both “Mystery Spot” and “The Monster at the End of This Book” were far more entertaining.  In those episodes, the humor was silly (and even somewhat intelligent) without being over the top; and the finale was thought-provoking without having to elevate the characters to EPIC  PROPORITIONS.

Enough with the hammer, already, Kripke.  You too, Jeremy Carver.

On the other hand, it you want good, no, great juvenile comedy, watch the hysterically funny It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.  (Yes, it puts Community to shame.)

I somehow feel I should talk about the shootings at Ft Hood; but honestly, I wouldn’t know what to say.  I didn’t hear about it until I was driving home.  From the sounds of what I heard, at first they suspected it might be a terrorist act.  But I’m not surprised it was a soldier (with possible accomplices).  Still, that doesn’t lessen the pain the victims, family, friends and coworkers are feeling.

I work with a lot of Army soldiers and Army vets.  And all our leadership is Army, even though it’s a “joint” organization.  I would venture to say at least 75% of them have been stationed at Ft Hood at one time or another.  I imagine the the flags will be at half-staff tomorrow.

I have horrible teeth.  Not that they’re filled with cavities, theyr’e not.  But they are unsightly.  I have a cap (crown), a bridge and little teeth, all within smiling distance.  And none of them match.  So, I decided to look into cosmetic dentistry.  My hairdresser gave me the name of two cosmetic dentists, and one is even a Navy vet.  I thought about seeing her, but since (most of) the work can be done by my regular dentist (and I really like him), I had him take a look.

I just came back from my consult with him.  The bad news, it’s very expensive—even more than I thought it would be.  The good news is my insurance will most likely pay for about half of the cost of replacing the cap and the bridge.  Of course, it won’t pay for the veneers (which are even more expensive than the bridge!), but it does put a limit on how much the dentist can charge for the veneer, and that works in my favor.  Plus, there are a couple of financing companies that offer 18 months interest free payments.

What’s surprised me is how much it lifted my spirits.  By having the goal of a better smile, it seems to make work more palatable.  Like I finally have something to work for, and something to look forward to.

As for the camera, Time magazine is coming tomorrow to take pictures for an article they’re writing.  My guess is the article is about the new Cyber Command, which is being made up of NSA and my command.  They’re not supposed to show up until 5:00 pm, and I’m normally gone by then, but perhaps I’ll stick around to see what’s up.  Or maybe not.

Did you watch the V pilot last night?  Yeah?  What’d ya think?

Oh my poor kitties!  I forgot to stop by the grocery store last night.  So when I finally got home we were all out of canned treats!  Couple that with the fact they haven’t adjusted to the time change, and they were chomping at the bit.  Fortunately, I remembered tonight, and they’ve all been happily slurping up their goodies.

I’m thinking about turning in my piece of shit cell phone (Samsung Sway) and cancelling my Verizon contract. (Yes, I know I’ll have to pay a penalty.)  I’ve been looking at a couple options for a smart phone that would allow me some internet access at lunch time.  (Yes, it’s true.  I really am addicted.)  So I’m thinking of letting you all decide.  Except first I have to figure out how to do a poll here at WordPress.com  I know you can do it with PollDaddy (which Automattic now owns), but I think you have to do something to set it up, and I’m not in the mood to figure it out tonight.  Look for it this weekend.

Speaking of WordPress.com, I wanted to remind my fellow users (yes, I’m looking at you, Suzanne!) that you have to manually set your time back to Standard time.  You have to manually change your time back to Standard time.  So far, the geniuses (and I mean that with all sincerity—I’m in awe of them!) haven’t figured how to do it automatically.  Or they’re just too busy working on other improvements.

I also picked up a TV Guide at the grocery store.  (But forgot the red wine.  Maybe that’s a good thing.)  I wonder if they’ll make special mention of this week’s Supernatural, since Fangirl Says says it’s super-awesome. Probably not, because TV Guide sucks.  :Þ, take that TV Guide!

Speaking of something Sci Fi Chick/ish, does V start tonight?  Crap, it’s only Tuesday.

Gah!  I may have picked the wrong month to do NaBloPoMo.  This new job is going to be hell.  People I have no respect for telling me what to do, senseless nit-picking, repetitive “coordination,”  and long hours of… meetings!  Yep, today was another one of those meeting days.  I barely had time to get lunch, and when I did, I couldn’t eat it.  But at least I’m doing something.  Am I making a difference in the defense of my nation?  Hell, no.  I’m just coordinating massive high-level briefings that have to be pre-briefed to everyone and their dogs, and killing a lot of trees in the process.

I kind of knew what I was getting into when  I came back to headquarters.  I just have to remember to maintain my calm (and keep my mouth shut) when something stupid occurs (which is about 4 times an hour).

And, my internet access is severely limited.  I don’t have access to WordPress.com, LiveJournal, or even G-mail.  (I can get to Google, and I was able to call up Television Without Pity, but not the message boards.)  I haven’t checked to see if I can access my own website.  (Not that there’s anything there.)

The downside to this is I won’t have a lot of time for “social networking.”  Since I work on a computer all day (when I’m not going to meetings), I’m not all that enthused to get on it when I get home.  But I’ll try to stay in touch. 

It’s  a new month, a new week, and a new time zone.

Last Sunday I woke up around 7:30 feeling terrific.  Wow, I could get a lot accomplished in the morning.  Then it dawned on me.  My alarm clock had set itself back to standard time.  So it was really around 9:00 by the time I figured this out.

I bought this cool alarm clock/radio/cd player a few years ago.  It has a little chip in it that keeps track of the time, even when the power’s out.  So when the power’s restored, I never need to reset it.  And, it self adjusts for daylight savings time.  Or rather, it did before Congress decided to change DST start and end dates.  So now, instead of never having to reset my clock, I have to change it four times a year.  At least this year I realized I could simply change the time zone, rather than the time itself.  Much easier.  But still, it’s the principle of the thing.

And of course, it’s the beginning of NaBloPoMo.  So, instead of working on a blog post this morning, I passed the time creating my own little NaBloPoMo badge.

It’s been one of those morning’s that my dad always longed for on Saturday; to wake up and hear it gently raining.  Then he could just lie in bed and listen, perhaps drifting off to sleep again.  He said it didn’t work for Sunday, because he had to get up and go to church.  But our church service never started until 10:30, so I don’t know how late he was planning on sleeping.

The rain has made the birds very happy.  They’ve been chirping all morning, thoroughly entertaining the cats.

The “official” month of NaBloPoMo starts tomorrow. Actually, NaBloPoMo occurs every month, but November is the king-daddy of months.  I think it’s because it was created as an alternative to NaNoWriMo for those of us find writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days rather daunting.

I thought about doing my daily blogging at Sci Fi Chick/s for NaBloPoMo, since that blog is probably of more interest to others.  But I’d mentioned I had a novel idea (heh) , and published author Natalie has encouraged me to pursue it.  I’ve also been thinking about trying to write a memoir of my parents, so maybe this will be a good place to get some thoughts down.

And who knows, maybe I’ll (finally) get around to posting some of the essays I wrote a couple summers ago.

I started my new job today. (I’d actually planned to start Monday, but the people I needed to get with weren’t available. Then the crud hit for 3 days. So today was the real day of doing something “meaningful.”  You’ll see why the quotes in a moment.)

I wonder when I’m going to get any work done.  Here’s a list of meetings I attended today.

• 9:00: Division standup. Go over what was discussed in the 8:00 meeting with the General.
• 12:30: “Daily activity report” (DAR, because government loves acronyms) due to the guy who compiles it for the division, which will be discussed at the 3:00 meeting.
• 2:00: Prepare for the 3:00 meeting.
• 3:00: Go over what’s been done for the day.  Today’s meeting lasted for 2 hours, and I was told this was a good day.

These are the meetings we have every day.   I also had one at 10:00 and was supposed to have another at 1:00 to go over what was discussed at the 10:00 meeting.  But the guy the meeting was for never showed.  I get the impression he’s not the best time manager.

The good news is I now have a desk.  And it’s one of the nicer ones.   Not the one that gives you 25 square feet of desk space, two 12″ deep drawers and one 12″ deep file cabinet, a useless pull-out bookcase and a view of the other 60 or so people in the room.  And no place to hang your winter coat.  (I think it was built as a call center.  It really really sucks!)

Oh, and on my way home, I was rear ended.  Fuck.  (Actually thanks to the new bumpers, there was almost no discernible damage to either my or the other guy’s car—which was also a Subaru, but a little one.)   My neck is a little stiff, but honestly, that’s not all that unusual.  Still, I stopped at the drug store on the way home and picked up some heat pads for my neck and some wine to relax.  I took some Motrin and opened the wine, and plan for a wonderful Friday night of vegging out in front of the tv.

Only 94 weeks to retirement.