Finally finished Knights of the Old Republic in Dark Side mode. It's certainly a much different ending than the cheery Light Side finale. At one point, I felt so sad over one of the choices I had to make that I played that bit over, but it ended the same way. The good thing is, I suppose, that I am too nice a person to fall to the Dark Side.

Since he didn't get to see the Light Side ending, Rob wanted to watch me finish up. "Give me an hour and a half or so," I said. About four hours later, I finally got to the final battle and was howling in frustration trying to stay alive. "I thought you said you finished this before," said Rob suspiciously. "Looks like you don't know what you're doing." He watches me lose again and again, grumbling and reloading from my last save spot.

"See all them Jedi-in-a-jar? I have to get rid of them," I explained, frantically running away from my opponent.

Rob watches a few more re-loadings complete with new swear words, then observes, "Well, no wonder you're not the Dark Lord anymore; what kind of a wimp are you?"

Men.

He is out buying a new computer chair. He leaned too far over in his and it broke. :) I'm going to take the time now to clean off my desk, hopefully locate my passport, and try to finish the last bit of our taxes. Bleech. Even though I'm using TurboTax through Vanguard online, it's still challenging for me to sit down with my little bundles of receipts and add them up into neat little categories. Next year, it'll be more challenging as I'll have to include my teachery stuff (if the class gets enough enrollment and I get to teach) as well as stuff related to my paralegal association.

In another week, our new receptionist will start working. It will be so nice to know that every day, I will be able to take a lunch break and get away from my desk without having to ask someone else to cover for me. While the guys have all be good about covering the phones, it still does seem awkward to have to ask someone before I run down to the restroom. I've taken it for granted in all my working days that I could get up and go whenever I needed to. The good news is that "holding" for the phones has enabled me to gain considerable control over my body. :) I doubt I could have sat through so many viewings of Return of the King without all this inadvertent training! Wheeee! ;)

Sometimes at work, I sing along to the radio. Since I wear a telephone headset (the type that covers only one ear), I hear myself a little differently than I do when I haven't got an ear covered. I think I'm sort of tone deaf. :/ A real shame, since I do like to sing. Listening to myself though, I don't think anyone else likes for me to sing. :)

In today's episode, I learned that I get paid to teach next quarter. What a concept! Rick, the teacher who invited me to teach, said he thinks the pay is scaled to one's experience and education. That means I'll probably end up having to pay them! Heh! Now we hope, or don't hope, that at least 15 unsuspecting students sign up for the class. If there aren't 15 students, the class is cancelled and I can sleep in but I won't get to teach.

Ooh, and I get to get free books, too. Of course, they all have to be about the topic I'm teaching, but apparently teachers can call up book publishers to request "review" copies of textbooks. Who knew?

Sushi gets to go to London. If I hadn't lost my passport, I'd love to go too. Unfortunately, I haven't got a copy of the darn thing. It's around here somewhere, but where? How annoying. I have piled up my desk such that I have not put things away, which makes me anxious. When I start to fret, Rob calls me "Monk." :)

Sheepy posted :)

Taught a class yesterday and now I'm filled with dread and forboding for the next quarter. Yesterday I had 50-minutes of class time to discuss how to select a legal specialty. It took me a half hour to breeze through everything I had to say about it, and no one in the class wanted to ask any questions. (@,@)

I used to always get irritated when a teacher didn't leave enough time for us students to grill him or her about the subject. This time, I'd planned to have about 15 minutes for rambling questions and likewise rambling (but wise and witty!) responses. After I finished speakering and said, "Anyone have any questions?" there fell a dread silence. At least, no one snored during that pause. Then a former fellow student piped up to help the cause, which allowed me to digress for a few more moments until someone else bravely asked a question, and we got to the end of our 50-minutes in time to review our pig drawings.

Which I'm not going to explain here, as I may take them to Con with me in June :)

Rob bought me a GameBoy Advance SP for my birthday, after much prodding and me casually asking, "So! Getting me a GameBoy?" I am worrying my way through Castlevania: Aria of Sorrows. It certainly is sorrowful; my own cherub, who has played it through before, refused to tell me how to get past a sticky point. He feigned amnesia, told me to look it up on the Internet, then continued to pester Rob for details on how to do something in EQ. Vexed, I snapped at him, "Why don't you just look it up on the Internet?" Men.

I spent $1,400 today.

Eeeek!

There's nothing like getting heart palpitations as you click on the PURCHASE button on something that's over a grand. I waited till the last minute to do it because half of me couldn't decide if I really wanted to spend this kind of money and the other half couldn't decide if I could afford to spend this kind of money.

However, I finally decided that not only am I going to go to the GDC this year, I am going to stay all stinking week and go to every stinking seminar/roundtable/doodad that I possibly can. I went a couple of years ago, right before I got laid off as it happens, but went cheap and didn't do all the extra sessions, then spent the last couple of days I was there kicking myself for being a cheapskate. I had a good time, met lots of interesting people and learned that there's people who make a living at games. Wow, what a concept :)

Rob said I could've gone last year, but I would have felt so guilty spending that kind of money when I hadn't a job. I feel slightly better this year because I have a job...three of them. What kind of idiot am I?! Don't answer that, Broos :P

So, I'm flying down to San Jose the morning of 3/22, then returning to Seattle on the last direct flight up on 3/26, arriving at 11PM. If I am spending big bucks, I want to spend them BIG. Now I just have to figure out what the heck happened to my hotel confirmation that I oh-so-carefully made and printed out in November and can't find now. Naturally, I have the printed copy of the reservation I don't want, and I can only hope that the reservation folks will be able to identify me by my frantic and desperate call tomorrow.

Ain't some of y'all able to go? I would love to see you guys. If I have a hotel room, it's right across from the convention center and I'm willing to share :)

It does seem rather official, all these forms to complete and the syllabus which came in the mail. Now I'm getting scared. There's stuff on this syllabus I don't even know what it is, much less how I'm going to explain it to other people. Aieee!

On the bright side, I am learning how to ask people for favors, and have already started sowing the seeds of "help me! help me!" with a couple of attorneys at work. Heidi, who's going to be my supervising attorney, was a former prosecutor. Bwahahaha! I also plan to solicit guest speakers from the private investigators who've worked on a couple of cases that I've seen flit through the office.

Tomorrow's my birthday and so Rob and I are going to celebrate Valentine's Day the old fashioned way -- Return of the King at the Cinerama! Wheee! I think it's a nice thing to not have to go out to a fancy dinner or something romantic in the particular. I like romance; I'm a hopeless romantic. But I also want it to be a personal romance, and Rob knows that I need to see the movie again on the big screen :)

Oh! the other day when I rode the bus to work, I saw a passenger a few rows up reading my newsletter! It was all I could do to keep myself from leaping out of my seat to accost this stranger and tell her, "I did that! That's my newsletter!" I don't know how I'd react if it were maybe a book with my name on the cover; after all, my contribution to the newsletter was an entirely new format and a short bit on bylaws. I didn't really write it, so it's not my newsletter. Still... it was cool to see someone else read it cover to cover.

You may call me Professor. I'll have to invest in some crisp white shirts and khaki pants, and learn how to make a radio out of coconuts.

This is what I get to teach:

LEGAL INVESTIGATION 4 credits; Prerequisite: Legal 100 or permission. Introduction to purpose and methods of investigation; practical skills of interviewing, obtaining relevant documents and information; evaluating physical and scientific evidence and planning and carrying out investigation strategy; identification of ethical considerations associated with investigation; legal analysis of problems and cases.

Now to go learn how to do some of this stuff. ;)

Well. One of my paralegal instructors emailed me and asked if I'd be interested in teaching a class at the college next quarter.

!!!

And that's all I have to say at this time.

A while back, Rob bought the boys bags with little magic tricks in them. Phil remembered his and tested some of the tricks out on me and Chris last night. He needs to work a bit on his patter :)

Philip hands me a tiny black cup with a red lid and a die, asking me to pick a number on the die, place it into the cup with that number up, put on the lid, then return it to him, which I do. Chris is working on his homework beside me. Phil then hands me a second, larger black cup with a red lid and intones solemnly, "Examine this; it's a regular cup, isn't it?" Chris and I look at the larger cup, agree that it's "ordinary" and turn to Phil, who we find holding the smaller cup in the air, tilting it and squinting to see the numbers on the die as it is now resting against the cup's red lid. Arrested in mid-motion, Phil turns back to us with a "busted!" grin on his face and asks for the other cup back. By this time, Chris and I are laughing hysterically and the trick's over.

Later, Phil taps a set of nesting boxes. "How many boxes do you see?" Phil asks Chris, indicating the stacked set on the table. "Four," says Chris immediately, earning a dirty look of frustration from his brother. Phil turns to me. "How many boxes do you think you see?" he asks. "Four," I reply, to which my aggrieved magician son responds, "How many boxes less than four do you see?"

Still later, he pulls out one of those cups for the 'vanishing ball' trick. He opens up the container, pulls out the ball and sets it beside the cup on the table. "Now you see it, and now..." he uncovers the cup to reveal a ball nestled firmly inside it! Magic! Chris and I both stare at the ball on the table, causing Phil to remember he hadn't palmed it. "Dude," said Chris as we laughed again, "You gotta learn to hide that maybe not on the table next time."

Maybe Phil's not a magician, but he's sure cute. :)

I've been interviewing potential replacement receptionists. If you'd like to apply, please review our strenuous requirements before sending me your resume and cover letter. You cannot miss our ad; it's got my name all over -- and not because I wrote it, either.

It's an interesting process to be now interviewing my own replacement. Not so long ago, I was the person on the other side of the table, sweaty palms, new suit, nervous giggle. Now I'm putting these poor, poor candidates through the same torture and it's not very pleasant for me. I gave up my list of questions after I asked one person a question and got in response a deer-in-headlights look of terror as her mind went totally blank. I know she's not an idiot, but for a moment there all conscious thought had fled and she couldn't speak. I felt like a murderer, as though I had planned to make her look bad. Hence, the question list was put away and I'm going by instinct.

Some things I recommend for job seekers, especially in this uncertain economy:

1. Please update and personalize your cover letter and resume. One applicant sent us her November 2003 cover letter and the resume was obviously out of date as well.

2. Our firm name and the hiring attorney are both listed in the ad, so there's no need to "To Whom It May Concern" us.

3. Do you want this job? Then don't be sorry you're applying. One applicant apologized for sending us a resume. Three times. In one letter.

4. Use spell check. Now, I've sent out things with a typo and smacked my forehead copiously, but now I'm seeing it from the other side of the desk and I realize that it's a show stopper -- especially when you misspell the name of the firm, or tell me that you have lots of assistnat expereince.

5. Please don't send your resume from your current job, especially via fax with their name all over it. That's sort of like sending it via mail with their postage meter. I actually have taken to opening up the document properties to see if it was homemade or done using a work computer. Sure, a savvy applicant knows to wipe the fields, but there's a lot of people who forget. If you're applying for my job on your company's dime, you will probably apply for your next job on ours (works the same way with cheatin' spouses).

6. Test your attachments before you click the send button. I suppose in a bigger firm, I'd just delete ones that cannot be opened, but I'm a curious person -- and I feel awful for these people who I cannot hire. So I emailed them back to explain how to attach a document to an email, because chances are they have never had any responses telling them they're lacking in technique.

And that's your human resources tip for the day :)

This weekend Rob finally went with me to see Return of the King. And what does he do? Express desire to see the outtakes from several different scenes, such that now I have to see the movie again without him to purge his evil, chuckle-inducing comments from my mind.

Sunday I really wanted to redo my upstairs bathroom floor. I'm not sure where the desire came from, but there I was after breakfast wandering the aisles of Home Depot, picking up a new vinyl, some caulk, and a new wax ring for the toilet that would have to be unbolted from the floor so I could vinyl beneath it. I got a nice 6x9 roll of grey-blue-green slatey looking vinyl for $16.

While I was vinyling, Rob was playing EQ. He did come up to help me unbolt one side of the toilet from the floor; the bolt had somehow slipped and we needed to dremel it off. Then he went back down to play and I scraped, utility knifed, glued and caulked away till the new floor was in :) Other than my aching shoulders, tender knees, and some odd muscle aches in my thighs, I feel pretty good about having done this project in a day. Rob helped me put the toilet back onto the wax ring last night, and I set up the shower curtain on the new sage green rod I got to sort of go with the floor.

The bathroom looks really nice, other than where I had an unsteady hand caulking it. Rob said I wouldn't need a caulking gun, but I wish I had had one. Using a squeeze tube of caulk was like trying to free-hand write "Happy Birthday" on a very, very large cake.