I just watched the surviving episodes of The Daleks' Master Plan and the lone one from The Celestial Toymaker.  Which means I've finally seen serials with Steven, Katarina, Sara Kingdom, and the Meddling Monk.  Now I kinda want to see the Monk again.  Was he really the Whoniverse's first Time Lord other than the Doctor?

We watched Office Space for Geek Night last night.  It was great.  While my own place of work in nowhere near that bad, I can see shadows of Initech in many places and many people I've encountered in my life.

Spent most of the day washing things.  Took my quilt and a new thermal blanket to the laundromat along with my usual laundry.  Which was expensive to wash, but needed to be done.  And I washed my silk robe. 

Y'know, that silk robe was probably the smartest $50 I ever spent.  I bought it about five years ago, when I was still a broke college student, but I needed a new robe and I'd seen that one at a store in the mall that was all oriental stuff, and it was soft and huge and silk, and reversable to boot, so I saved my money for it.  'Cause I swear, most women's robes stop way too high up, or are made of stuff that's too heavy or too light, or are frumpy housecoats, or are all of them together.  This thing covers all of me, almost down to my ankles, and it's a heavy twilled silk which is comfortable in all seasons, and which packs very small, and is washable, and has dragons embroidered on it.  And unknown Korean characters, which for all I know say, "Stupid Americans will buy anything," but I don't care.  For the sheer usefulness of it, for the fact that I wear it every single day, and that it remains gorgeous, it was totally worth the money.

And, um, I have a bit of a question about ( a slightly embarressing hair problem. )

For those of you who weren't paying attention (and I both envy and applaud you), the Dow fell over 600 points today, which, given the level it was at this morning, is about 7%.  And while I can calmly call up a hundred-year history of the Dow and wonder vaguely what it was doing above 10,000 to begin with, most of my coworkers are more concerned with it losing 40% of its value over the course of a single year.

In fact, our company just instituted a hiring freeze, a salary freeze, an incentives freeze, and the end to several perks.  (My coworkers immediately volunteered to give up the Winter Dinner, since it's expensive and nobody really likes it anyway.)  We aren't like some financial companies that take a percentage of investment profits, we actually make all our money in fees.  But quite a few of our clients won't be turning a profit this quarter (or next, I'm betting), and therefore it may be difficult to convince them to renew their contracts.

I feel oddly disconnected from all this.  I may not be rich, but I remember how to live poor, and as long as I have family and friends I'm not terribly worried.  And like I said last week, what are we trusting in, anyway?

The old hymnwriters understood it better than we do today: there is no safety or security outside God.  If it takes a Depression to work that out, well then, we're just being the same thick humans we always were.

Hidden in the hollow of his blessed hand
Never foe can follow, never traitor stand
Not a surge of worry, not a shade of care
Not a blast of hurry touch the spirit there.
Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed
Finding, as he promised, perfect peace and rest.

It's going to be tough for awhile at work, anyway.  We're the sort of workplace that will band together when threatened, but there will be stress all 'round.  And I've not long become aware that I pick up on everyone else's emotions and really have no filter against reacting to them.  May God give me enough peace to share with those who're gonna need it.

One of my duties during quarter end is to run performance numbers on all the accounts, which is a tallying up of how well said accounts did during the last quarter/year/five years/etc.  It helps me find discrepancies in prices, weird transactions, and wrong dates.  It also clues me into boneheaded investment strategies.  Some you can tell are self-inflicted, like the geniuses who have everything in a single stock.  But the clients don't always have a choice, if they're following the advice of some financial advisor.  There was one set of accounts that I'm betting all had the same rep, who was brilliant enough to invest most of their money in financials.  I'm really hoping that the clients don't waste any time firing him once they see their statements.

And now for some thoughts about faithfulness, or ( the lack thereof. )  I dunno about y'all, but it kinda turns the day around for me.

Especially when my head is dazed by Quarter End and I fear that my slumber will be plagued by Little Numbers That Will Not Reconcile.

(So far I have escaped such nightmares.  In fact, last night I had a really pleasant - if complicated - dream that had Sarah Jane in it, and a TARDIS, even if they weren't terribly important to the plot - well, Sarah Jane was, but not for being Sarah Jane - and which was altogether odd, because I rarely dream about someone else's stories, but it was vivid enough that it took about ten minutes after waking to bring my brain back into the Real World.  But I felt better.)

Well, now.  I ought to go to bed.

So my dad tells me he was tempted by a cat recently.

Since Olympia died nearly four years ago, my parents were pretty adamant against getting another cat.  They just didn't have time, it would be a bother if they travelled, cats leave hair everywhere, etc etc.  But then my dad saw a rescued cat at Petco (apparently he and Mom are wanting to get fish - moreso than a cat), and he told me how beautiful said cat was, with unusual orange and grey splotches.  "I thought you didn't want another cat," said I.  "Yeah," said Dad, "but we're starting to bend."  Then, a moment later, "If we did get a cat, and went on vacation, would you look after it?"  "Sure!"  "Hm.  We're gonna have to keep that in mind."

Last night was our Contemporary Worship night, and I was one of the singers.  I got to do a short solo, and decided to experiment with a different vocal style, which worked pretty well.  But more than that, it was a wonderful night, and apparently just what I needed.  Refreshing. 

I would post more, but I am already thwarting my cunning plan to go to bed early, so this must be all.  ::sigh::

Hi.  I'm hiding under a rock.

::hides::

Is Quarter End over yet?

Am about to leave for Robyn's baby shower.  Talked with her mom today and commisserated on how incredibly weird it is for Robyn to be pregnant.  It's weird for me as her oldest friend, but how weird must it be for parents when their own daughter, who they raised, who they knew through all stages of life, is having a baby of her own? 

Weird, weird, weird.

Must go.

Y'know, after all that brouhaha about the stockmarket going down 700+ points on Tuesday, did you notice how nobody mentioned that it went up 500+ points on Wednesday?  'Course not.  Good news doesn't sell.  The markets are irrational and inefficient (prompting Warren Buffett to remark once that if the markets were rational, he'd be penniless) and prone to bouncing when they've fallen far.  If you measure the DJIA in months and years instead of days, it looks very different, and when you use things like context and percentages and historical statistics, it looks way less scary.  But again: not exciting enough for news.  In fact, I'd be willing to bet that a lot of news wouldn't be "news" if you put it in the right context.

This cynical post brought to you by the Onset of Quarter End.

Am working on homework.  Blaugh.  It's not actually that hard or anything, but oh I wish I didn't have to do it.  Not this week, anyway.

Back to work...

I am slightly drunk on the fact that the $700B bailout failed.  Yes, yes, I know the Dow dropped 700+ points today - it was fated to react that way the moment Warren Buffett bought that tasty slice of Goldman Sachs: everybody assumed that if Buffett was betting on GS, then the bailout was a sure thing.  But a 7% drop is not a crash, it is not the end of the world, and chances are that by the weekend, the Dow will have cut that loss a good bit.  Meanwhile, we have not socialized our banks, loads of angry underlings will want to revolt against reckless CEOs, and life will go on.

Honestly.  I would look out the window today and see a truly lovely day: the sun has set now, but it's still a fair night, with a cool breeze to herald fall.  The Dow dropped 7% today, but tomorrow stores will be open and farmers will keep harvesting their crops, and schools will be in session, and business will be done.  Even if we somehow find our way into a depression, the sun will still rise, the rain will still fall, and nothing as ephemeral as finance will last.  I think it's human nature to keep panicking about the end of the world, however it's brought about.  Through politics, money, religion, and who-knows-what-else, we keep panicking.  It makes me think.  What kind of foundation are we standing on, that such things can make us run about like chickens with their heads cut off?

( Trust in what now? )

I just wrote all my congressmen about the $700 billion bailout currently being discussed.  To the effect that I really, really don't want it passed, on account of it being a supremely stupid idea.  If I've learned anything in my life, and in the past two years working in finance, it's that the only way for businesses to stay honest and profitable is for them to fail if they don't.  I don't care if we end up in a depression.  I like that better than adding to the national debt and letting irresponsible businessmen off the hook.

Argh.

Two funny cakes are baking in the oven.  I hope they turn out.

Haven't written much lately.  Mind is kind a PBBBB, and will continue to be through the impending Quarter End.

Prayers and sympathies for Finland tonight.  I suppose there's gonna be a big brouhaha about the police having already questioned the gunman, but the point is, people died. 

That's a strange thing about our culture anymore: people around the world hear about it.  And perhaps it can lead to people despairing of all the violence, but it also means that Finland can know that those people around the world have heard and can offer their support.

Worst way in the world to get your city on international news, though, I tell ya what...

So I finally got my mom's funny cake recipe to make for work.  My coworkers (well, mostly Jason) keep bugging me to make peppernuts, which I will not do "out of season."  So I figured I'd give them something else they'd never heard of, i.e. funny cake.  (The link is to a recipe not unlike the one my mom just sent.)  Apparently it's called funny cake because it is a cake masquerading as a pie.  I get the impression that it's something someone invented to use up extra ingredients, and it's really quite good.

And if my coworkers complain, I'll tell them I could've made borscht.  (Well, I don't know if I could, and I wouldn't want to anyway, but it's nice to have a threat.)

Does anyone else find that plastic-framed glasses get smudged way more often than wire frames?  'Cause I swear, these frames of mine (which I think are just perfect, otherwise, BTW) are constantly in need of cleaning, way worse than my old wire frames.

(Icon is the wire frames.  It's a bit old now.)

I'm always mildly curious about the different networks my laptop's wifi can detect when I send it searching.  Especially around home.  There are a grand total of ten wifi networks available to me in my bedroom, three of which are unsecured, and one of those I pick up at full strength.  :-)  Good thing ours is secured.  But I do wonder who else is broadcasting, and where from.  Each one represents somebody somewhere, their life and their work, and I just catch the edge of it.

Catching the edge of lives... ( Do we dare show the whole picture? )

In other news, I've been rewatching old SG-1, and... I guess I never realized that Daniel was already snarking, albeit quietly, as early as Season Three.  ::loves Daniel::

And I think my icon suits the essay, actually.

And C.S. Lewis is wrong: sometimes I like to read the essays.  I suppose it depends on the essay.  I like my own essays, and you lot can do some amazing essays, and I love reading those.  Hm.

Never ask God to give you a challenging day unless you mean it.  It's not noon yet and I'm already wondering what I got myself into, and how badly I can screw it up.

In other news, I have class today for five hours.  That's one class, five hours long.  Who dreams up these things?  At least this time, I'm being smart and bringing my laptop.  The brain, it cannot handle such concentration without distractions.

Saw Supernatural.  Quite a nice season opener, all the way around.  Bobby remains awesome.  But I think I shall feel the need to smack Sam a few times this season.

Quote from LotR when you read this

 "Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear; nor are they one thing among the Elves and Dwarves and another among Men.  It is a man's part to discern them, as much in the Golden Wood as in his own house."  --Aragorn, The Two Towers, "The Riders of Rohan"

And I totally forgot that today is Talk Like A Pirate Day.  Arrrr!

So I sent my Grammy an email (we got her an email-to-fax-and-back service called Celery so we could do such things) of all my liner notes from my senior recital.  She has a DVD that we sent her of said recital, and she loves listening to it, but didn't know what the songs were called, or any translations for the foreign language ones.  It was interesting, going back through that recital and remembering what all I did.  (I still wish I hadn't completely messed up on "Love's Philosophy" - it has two verses, and I accidently started with the second one.)  I hope the liner notes help.  At least, now she knows what I was singing about.

The day is lovely here.  I have two windows open.  Am very, very glad I took today off: I did my laundry, bought new tires, met my mom for lunch, and bought groceries.  The tires were expensive: $400 plus tax and stuff.  This is partially because they have to be low-profile.  But they are much quieter than the cheap things I had before, and I will be very thankful for them come this winter.  Cheap tires + snow = scary scary driving.

On Facebook, my brother and I were trading quotes from The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra and completely confused my mom.  That happens.

O hey!  I'm sitting next to my bookshelf now!  Which means I can update my Visual Bookshelf on Facebook using some reference other than my memory.

So the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 500 points today, on news that one major bank is going belly-up, and another is being bought out.  For a bit of perspective, the Dow hasn't lost that much in one day since September, 2001.  It will be interesting to see how people react, and who panics.

If anyone out there is worried about their own bank, my best advice is to quietly and calmly try moving their money to a credit union.  They're very conservative in the way they handle assets and things, and they're non-profit.

The worst part of this?  Knowing that the entire mess is pretty much everyone's fault.  Hmmm.

galpalficathon has some truly, truly inspired prompts.  It's awesome enough, devoting a community to fics about female friendships.  But check out this one for a Doctor Who/Futurama crossover:

"Leela and Leela / hand to hand combat."

I mean, okay, somebody had to say it eventually, but there are others.  Many, many others.

(also like the one for Stargate SG-1/Farscape, for Oma Desala and Zhaan.)

I am very close to writing a full-on rant about how much I hate partisan politics and the mudslinging between the two parties.  Something, somewhere, is going to send me screaming over the edge, and only an LJ cut is going to spare you guys from the full force.  Argh.

Spent the late morning/early afternoon wandering through the little town where my Grammy lives.  There's lots of little shops there, and several antique dealers.  Didn't find any hymnals, which is what I was hoping for, but I did pick up a linen handkerchief for $2.  And I had lunch at a local deli.

This evening we'll be celebrating Micah's second birthday at my cousin's in-laws' house.  Which should be fun, if only for Micah.  And cake.  Mustn't forget the cake.

The weather is warm and humid, but not bad, and it's September, so it shouldn't get too hot.

You guys have to see this, a homemade episode of Doctor Who featuring cardboard Daleks and two VERY cute little boys as the Doctor and Captain Jack:



The scary part?  The special effects are about as good as a lot of Classic Who.  But, man I wish I could have done this sort of thing as a kid!