Sjorgrens, Space and Shocking News

The word of the week is Homunculus. 

Aug 29 - Past Poetry, For The Future 

Today something bubbled up from my subconscious, taking over my fingers and typing itself out on my screen in a matter of minutes. A combination of creativity and emotional purge wrote itself in striking words that spoke so true: 

I have stood in the darkened ruins of my home,

Seen the changes choice and fate have wrought.

Felt the calm hand of duty point for me to roam,

And journeyed long towards what I have sought.

Summer's breeze is light upon my hollowed cheek,

Her gentle hand caresses my graying hair,

And turning my face towards what I now can seek,

Lifting most of the burdens I've had to bear. 

This speaks of my past, of my present and of my future, all at once. I'm pleased with the words that wrote themselves, as they show I've worked through where I've been and am now working on where I will be going. Towards an unknown future, but coming through all that I've had to deal with, I am hopeful that that future will be a far more positive one that I could have seen ten years ago. 

Aug 30 - Noyse? 

Catching up on things stinks... even moreso when it has to do with your neighbours. Specifically, the lady upstairs: today we had a meeting with the head of the rental agency that our unit is managed by. We calmly expressed our concerns over the course of a half-hour, and were impressed by how well said head listened. At the end, he said that he completely believed our issues with the noise from upstairs are valid, but that he needs more than our word to go on. So from today, I have set up a USB mic in contact with the condo ceiling to record the massive noise disruptions that happen every few days. We'll see how well those recordings turn out; if they're still too faint I will look into getting a contact mic designed for that sort of thing. My parents and I just want an end to the constant moving-in noise that the woman upstairs generates from what we can deduce is running a business from her home. We've no issue with that in itself... just the sound of her carrying TONS of extremely heavy objects she stores in the condo to her front door and back, for hours a day. It's excruciating to sit under and should not have to be borne by people like ourselves who have to leave our condo to keep our sanity - no earplugs or normal music can block out the sounds. 

Aug 31 - Space Conquest! 

I did some more running around today; it took me two hours to find a lightbulb, if you can believe it. Seems that the light in my shower is rather unique, so I ended up driving to Victoria to get one; it was cheap, fortunately, but waterproof. Feeling rather frustrated after that, I spent a few hours on the balcony enjoying the weather and reading part of Perdido Street Station by China Mieville( good SciFi! )on my last day of vacation. Then I headed indoors... to play video games. For once, I had an entire evening to devote to playing a solid single-player session of Sins Of A Solar Empire, a game of interstellar conquest for the PC. I absolutely love this 'space genre' of RTS game, hearkening back to the days of Homeworld( LOVE THAT GAME! ). Many hours later, I had finally beaten back my foes to their homeworld... and then I sent in the fleet of capital ships to finish them off. It was my first single-session win in many years( of not playing in one go )so I was really happy when I went to bed - it's not every day you conquer 3 solar systems! 

Sept 1 - First day back at work 

Going back to work was surprisingly less painful than I thought it would be today; I arrived to find the place in great shape, as I expected, thanks to the stellar staff I have. There were hundreds of emails to catch up on and a ton of paperwork, but I expected that as well and dug in with a vengeance. Thankfully most things were cleared up by the end of the day, but alarmingly there was no sign of ANY of the initiatives that head office said they were embarking on over a month ago in July - not good. It remains to be seen if they are going to walk the walk, not just talk it... BUT, there's some good news as well. Seems that a trainer position has opened up for BC just today, so I called the head of HR and she was absolutely thrilled to hear I was interested! There's nothing concrete yet, but it MIGHT mean I can get out of the branch manager gig and finally put my decade of experience to use training people up into star performers, as everyone who has seen my trainees constantly tells me how great they are. Here's hoping for more news soon! 

Sept 2 - International Bacon Day! 

Could it be? An entire DAY devoted to the meaty taste-treat that is bacon? Yes, it's true - TODAY is International Bacon Day! Thousands across the world celebrated the unofficial holiday today by cooking up a sizzling side of bacon-y goodness. Hundreds of websites, including Wired and ForeverGeek posted articles about bacon... it was a smashing success and a holiday celebration I hope will spread further as time goes on. After all, it's BACON, people...

That's all I've got on bacon today. You should be celebrating, not reading about it!

Sept 3 - Sjogren's, my mother's affliction 

A entry worthy to mention today: Venus Williams revealed she has been struggling with a rare disease called Sjogren's, which affects the levels of fluids in your body - in essence, you dry out. My mother also has this disease, which has complicated her life quite a bit as it has progressed; there is no cure, as yet. It's subtly debilitating and requires constant monitoring, though it is not immediately life-threatening by itself. Instead, Sjogren's affects your quality of life in many ways, creating difficulties such as reduced eye function and a sensitivity to things like fragrances, sometimes severely so. I'm pleased in a horrible way that Venus has gone public with her illness, as it is a disease that few people know about and fewer still understand; my mother has had to educate more than one physician who was unaware that Sjogren's was more than a name in a textbook. 

Sept 4 - WHO is in the hospital??? 

After work today I attended a BBQ being held by a good friend, who used to be a co-worker at MMart and wisely left recently to keep their sanity. There were quite a few other current and ex-MMarters there too, whom I enjoyed a few hours chat with outside around a plastic bag with a flashlight in it to simulate a campfire. We talked of many things, some personal and more than a few funny and ended up sharing YouTube videos on my tablet - favourites were 'LLamas with Hats' and 'Charlie The Unicorn' among other offerings. 

BUT: At the BBQ, I was shocked to hear that one of my staff was hospitalized yesterday, having become so dehydrated after a few days of illness that she had to be admitted to the local emergency ward! She is apparently stable, but I am extremely worried and will be visiting her tomorrow ASAP to check up on her - this is totally out of the blue and I'm not going to sleep well tonight at all, knowing she is in the state she is in. Not good, not at all. Thoughts and positivity all on her swift recovery!!! 

Ah, crap. Here I thought I'd be enjoying 3 days off with perfect weather and I find out that someone I care about is in hospital. Goes to show you that life never really lets you relax when you want to... but with good reason sometimes. Right?