All wrapped up in one post.

[mandolin]

First off, it's late, but happy birthday to tptigger. *hugs*

Been very busy today what with catchup prior to the build, picnic stuff, and apartment recovery. Got a reminder of why I haven't gotten much done lately.

06:00 - Sleepwalk to alarm, slam it off, fall back on bed.
06:15 - Pry self out of bed and turn on alarm. Dress, fix hair so it doesn't look like overgrown Chia Pet, eat fruit and head out door.
07:00 - Run back in to get the Ireland photos on CD.
07:15 - Get to work despite having to take the back way.
08:00 - Grab actual breakfast. Drop off mail. Go back to cube and review defects.
09:00 - Get grocery order for my pickup run for picnic next week.
10:00 - Development status meeting. Cross coverage coordinator: "You were out last week?" (Would be offended, but this is a good sign since my absence caused no crisis and a co-worker kindly covered for me.) Find out that team leaders want to be CC'ed on all my communication with validators on what the heck their defects are really addressing. Oy.
10:45 - Escape meeting. Donate Blarney Castle postcard to co-worker's wall of postcards. Start forwarding all e-mails from morning with validators to team leaders. Call Target; yes, their digital printing machine is working and they can take photos. Yay.
11:00 - Drop everything for department-wide mind teaser contest via e-mail (the only contest I'll be any use for).
11:20 - Get disgusted when someone in another division beats me to it anyway.
11:30 - Mom calls. Get time for BWI lift specified. (Hey, they took me down to OC to get my car, I can give Mom and Chris a lift to the airport.)
12:00 - Volleyball. Yay for the court out by the cafeteria.
12:45 - Change and go back to work. Nuke leftovers for lunch. Go over grill schedule and peruse more defects. Go to ATM and get money I owe the picnic coordinators for ticket money I collected.
13:30 - Can't find either person to give cash to. Put cash in envelopes and hold on to them as I go back to work.
14:00 - Waiting on responses from validators. Run through grocery sales and coupons to restock my almost-bare fridge.
15:00 - Ask section lead about release notes. Turns out my JSP release notes consist of only TWO items total. Ha.
16:15 - Found one of the coordinators, and give her the money.
16:45 - Finally get out of work. (At least I got a credit hour.)
17:00 - Go to Target. Apologetic salesperson tells me that now they can only take 40 digital prints at one shot and he is not permitted to hold my CD overnight; manager's orders. Manager gets a polite note explaining how ridiculous this policy (which is advertised NOWHERE around the photo lab) is and why I am going to Wal-Mart.
17:10 - Look up Wal-Mart in phone book. No such restriction there. Yay!
17:40 - Get to Wal-Mart. Drop off photo CD. Leave Wal-Mart.
17:55 - Finally get to Weis. Take order to customer service. Asst. manager peruses it and says he'll call me with estimate tomorrow at work.
18:25 - On the way out, run into senior manager. Find out I need to get letter w/ official letterhead and they'll take $20 off our order. Pay for food, although my $20 bill vanishes and I need to count out my change.
18:45 - Get home. Unload. Go walking.
19:45 - Go back in. Make dinner. Eat dinner. Clean up after dinner.
20:30 - Dub tapes, fold laundry, pick things up, clean kitchen floor, not necessarily in that order and in some cases all at once.
22:30 - Finally post to LJ. Still need to shower.

As you can see from the above, I've been a bit busy, so there will be no Ireland commentary today. Tomorrow, perhaps.

Finally, this one goes out to any crossover fanfic fans out there in general:

Couple months ago, I was sorry to see that Ecolea's "Wither, An' Thou Goest", a fabulous Highlander/Charmed crossover, had vanished from the Net. So, too, had her website. Couldn't find out why. (This is the author of the "Changing of the Guard" Stargate/Highlander series.) Anyway, I was distracted by Otakon, my car, and then Ireland and forgot about it for a while.

This morning, I ran a search for her pen name again, and came across a site with the following message:

"6th August 2003: I have heard that Ecolea has tragically committed suicide. We will all mourn her passing. Though her home page has been taken down, her work still lives on in other archives."

Say what?

I'm not saddened by this. Not yet, that is. I'm too confused to be. Because I have no way to figure out if this is true, and if it is, I don't get why there's so little trace of her memory and of what happened to her on the Net. (Sorry, but the website of a friend I knew in college stayed up for a solid year after she was killed at the bequest of her parents - and that was a GEOCITIES page, which is saying something. To see so little in support of this only a month or two after the fact boggles the mind.)

See, the only mentions of her passing I can find are notes like the above, saying they've "heard" that she's passed away. Nothing else remains, and some anonymous person posted in her guestbook (which, unlike her site, still exists) that she's not dead. So what's the truth? Anyone know?

That's the problem with the Net sometimes: it's sometimes impossible to verify stuff like this, it really is. And when you're not sure that something this tragic is true, it's just... I don't know what to think or how to feel. I really hope it's a hoax. I really do. But I don't know.

EDIT: The Wayback Machine gave me a clue. I think it's true. Dammit.

Now I really need to get to bed.

Comments

*hugs*

[tptigger.livejournal.com]

You had a rough day.

Thanks for the birthday wishes. :)

Re: *hugs*

[weirdweb.livejournal.com]

Nah, not a rough day at all, just a busy one. :)

And I'm more confused than depressed about the news about Ecolea, really. It just got me thinking about the nature of the Net and how hard it is to verify something like this.