Today's name of the day at the ROM is Michael. Actually, it's been more like the name of the week. I've entered so many Michael's into the membership database that you would think it would go out of style. The web address of the day is definitely thejaggededgegroup.com, just for the name alone. It would have to be for the name, since there's nothing on the page yet.

I had my first Krispy Kreme doughnut today. It was... kind of tasty, but really sweet, and it had this weird texture and I didn't need to chew. I'm sorry, but... shouldn't you have to chew a doughnut? You'd think. Calvin, at work, says you should have them nuked, because 'they're just like angel wings'. I'll take his word for it. Anyway, I had said doughnut at a membership/foundation coffee mixer, or something, this morning. Of course, the point was to mingle together, but membership talked to membership and foundation talked to foundation. It's like foundation views membership as it's poor relation, or something. That said, I think it fair to point out that the coffee was quite delicious.

My commute in to the city from the Petes this morning was quite extraordinary. The sun was coming up and had cast a rosey glow over all of the clouds in the very blue sky. The light itself had that special fragility of autumn sunlight, that clear brightness that can only barely chase away the frost. And there was frost. There was a delicate silver coating over all the umber and chocolate shades of grass along the highway; with the coloured leaves above it was even more beautiful. Add to that how quickly the drive passed and how smoothly the traffic moved and I could almost persuade myself that I should move back to Peterborough and commute in to work.

Almost.

...

And, this just in: Bad news.

Your computer and Maxtor's own diagnostic tools are unable to detect
your hard drive. The clunking noise means the power is working, computer
knows that something is attached, but is unable to follow-through with
the detection process.

I tried switching ide cables, power cables, and primary/secondary
positions on the motherboard. (As well as using another computer.) The
problem is definitely the hard drive itself, which will need to be sent
to a professional recovery center if you are to recover any data.

There's http://www.cdrdatarecovery.com/ in toronto that advertises an
"under $500" special.. They might not be a bad option, since they don't
charge you if they can't get any data. Or try a big US company like
http://www.drivesavers.com/.

What a recovery center can do is replace the drive components in a
cleanroom or move the disk platters to a new drive altogether, that sort
of thing. It isn't cheap, but you have to decide how much of your
time/money your data is worth to you.

This terrible, terrible news comes straight from Derek who was doing an autopsy on Natasha. And just this time last week I was trilling joyfully about her. I should have backed up her files... I kept meaning to, but just never got around to it. I've been so busy. And now I want to cry. I guess Mom and I will discuss the options tonight.

In a pleasant moment of complete distraction, I decided to look up spider pictures on the 'net. Yep, it was definitely distracting, speaking as an arachnaphobe. I found this very nifty site that has some great information on it and especially enjoyed its unidentified spiders page. Then there was this other page about the spiders of the Dolomites, which wasn't terribly interesting, but it does sport some nice photos. My favourite is the top photograph of this page because it makes me smile. I mean, look at it's adorable face ! It's got its happy mask on. The whole reason I decided to waste time like this was because of the spider that was in my dream last night. I wanted to see if it was a real species. I'm still not sure, but I did see one spider that looked similar, at least in shape.

I had a wonderful car moment last night when I was driving home from work. I was sitting in traffic on Davenport listening to Disc Drive on CBC2, when I glance out my window at the car exactly beside me. There, stopped in traffic heading the other way, was an almost identical Subaru - a slightly later model Loyale, I think. Even the colour was almost the same. The woman behind the wheel, in her later middle age with a similar style as my mother, was looking at Scarlette with a big smile on her face. I grinned and gave her the thumbs-up, which she answered with her own. Hurray for old-school Subaru owners !

So, it turns out that the only person to remark on my entry about apostrophes and Old English was Tanya, who got quite professorish at me as she gave me a lecture about Old English vs. Middle English. Usually, such emails come from Nick, so this was a bit of a surprise. Of course, I'm opting to completely disregard her opinion, because... well, because I can. Hah ! Anyway, at least the entry sparked some controversy, though not at all about apostrophes or semi-colons. Actually, Tanya's email was quite interesting and did spark some return discussion from me. She's right, but I think I'm also right, at least to a degree, and maybe we'll have to leave it at that. The thing with history, especially the history of language, is that since no one was THERE to record it, we cannot ever know for sure. Maybe, to better qualify terms like Old English, we should make a broader scale that reflects demographic changes and whatnot.

Proto English - pre 300CE
Early English - 300-1066CE
Old English - 1066-1350CE
Middle English - 1350-1700CE
Modern English - 1700 onward
American Spelling - ongoing problem

And then anyone who deviates from said scale, can be drawn and quartered, or beheaded, or flayed, or hanged, or shot, depending on the time period they're referring to. Is that a bit over the top? Perhaps. Okay, well, I still think my list should stand. Tanya, your thoughts? ;)

Natasha's hard drive has blown. This is very bad. Very, very bad; no idea if it's recoverable. I almost went into appoplectic shock today when discussing what this could mean with my computer savvy boss. Strangely, when it happened, I was completely calm. I just shut it down and it restarted with this weird message: Boot Failure Insert Boot Disk and Press Enter. Or something to that effect. I just turned her off and then expected all to be well the following day. Sadly, this was not to be. I've now called Techknight and hopefully he'll be able to work a miracle. There are at least seven years worth of documents saved in her brain and several of them I desperately do not wish to lose. :(

Today, at work, I'm running a list. I'm checking it twice. I'm finding out who's been naughty or nice. And I can assure you that I'm ready for a stiff drink. This is hell. Calvin and I have both been working on this list of ROM volunteers trying to match them to memberships (a prerequisite to volunteering), only we seem not to be able to standardise our search techniques. I've been through this list of hundreds twice already, Calvin at least that many times, maybe more, and guess what we'll be doing together this afternoon? Yep. All over again. Feel my joy.

I'm off to Peterborough tonight, with Willi, in order to have my car worked on tomorrow. I'll take the Greyhound back to Toronto (leaving Willi with Mom) tomorrow morning in order to get to work on time. Yay? No. Anyway, on Friday night, I'll head back out to the Petes for the weekend. I will be attending the Pink Ribbon Ball in support of breast cancer research. So, I guess I will have to haunt the corn maze next year. Anyway, this will be more back and forth to Peterborough in a week than I've done since I moved out of residence at the end of my second year.

I was rear-ended again today. Yes, again. It's becoming something of a running joke only I do not find it terribly humourous, especially when the driver at fault tries to bully me. Anyway, 20 minutes late for work, but otherwise completely fine and Scarlette unscathed; it's all good.

I watched a lot of TV last night, which is quite bizarre for me, but I got a costume design done for the fan film and spent time bonding with Willi (who has finally forgiven me for 'abandoning' her when I went to the cottage) and also Nick. One shouldn't bond too closely with Nick, though, because he's liable to do something that he won't regret... but you might. He found a link to a woman reading The Canterbury Tales in the Old English. Gosh, it sounded beautiful and the language sort of permiated my skull and became perfectly understandable. I've remarked on it before, but Old English sounds a lot like Dutch.

Well, Wilson is no longer with the ROM, choosing instead, the tricky road to employment in Hong Kong. Tony Tran is up here now, and while he's a nice and funny guy, things just won't be the same without Wilson leaning around the divider saying, "Maya you so mean ! You so mean, Maya. I call you DJ Meanie because you so mean. Why you so mean to me?" What a nut. I wish him well. Apparently the job market in Hong Kong is very difficult, so he'll need all the good wishes he can get. Anyway, having Tony coming upstairs (he, like me, began with site-sales) will likely mean I'll lose some of my hours since the whole reason I've been working full-time has been because we've been short-staffed. Maybe I'll get some extra work from New Media. I hope.

To change the topic completely, a few weeks back, Rick sent me a link to the Apostrophe Protecion Society. I think he did it as something of a joke, knowing that I have a real beef with how badly abused language has become. Apostrophes, semi-colons, colons, when used incorrectly, as well as double negatives, make me crazy. Anyway, I emailed the chairman of the Society and he emailed me in response. Here is my letter to him:

...I am driven to distraction by improper apostrophe placement as well as other
common grammatical horrors. I can't help it, I was raised by well degreed
mother who also happened to teach English to functionally illiterate college
students.

Have you considered creating a sibling society about the proper use of
semi-colons? I believe that is another horribly abused punctuation mark...

His response:

...What a very encouraging email to receive. Thanks. As you say, it will be
a fight, but there seem to be plenty of people who still have respect for
grammar. I don't think I can start protecting the semi-colon, but if you
like to start an appropriate society, let me know. I will certainly join.
Best wishes - John

Isn't that neat? Now watch, everyone will start emailing me when I make grammatical errors in my weblog. I guess that's the price I have to pay. Anyway, I'd love to start a Semi-colon Protection Society. Anyone know how one does such a thing?

Apparently, Elfwood does not believe that what I do with lead miniatures is original art. Okaaaay. I'm not sure what makes them different than people having inked a work but having had someone else paint it, or vise versa. Sometimes, Elfwood's rules piss me right off. I guess my portfolio page is going to have to get a serious face-lift soon, then.

Anyway, congratulations, Rick, on your buck-and-a-half raise ! *smooches*

If Elvis is flipping burgers in the south, Ernie Coombs is alive and playing pool in Peterborough.

Another long hiatus, but another valid reason. I was in the Petes with Rick, and frankly, I was too busy to even manage to check my email, let alone write in my weblog.

We had a nice time in the Petes, despite some setbacks. I had a tetnus shot that made me feel kind of less than stellar, and all our corn maze haunting intentions were foiled when Henry (since childhood, I've given this name to my vision of the weather god) decided that the skies should open and spill forth their liquid contents. Oh well. I might manage some haunting next weekend, but we'll have to see.

There was much enjoyable socialising. On Saturday, Rick and I met up with the gang (Al, Carrie, Richie, and Bill, and many others, who do not picture in the later part of this account) at a Warhammer tourney and following that, upon discovering that nothing worth mentioning was playing at the cinema, there were drinks and food at Riley's. Rick and I played some highly humourous games of pool with Richie and Bill. Richie narrowly missed Rick's boy-bits with the cue ball, and nailed me with the chalk. I swear, it was like a war zone with balls flying everywhere except where we wanted them to go. And yes, Ernie Coombs is alive and playing pool in Peterborough. The resemblance was uncanny.

Mom had Ray over for dinner on Friday night, and though the vaccination had me feeling low, it was a good time. We ate some of the game meat that we came back with from the cottage, the venison sausages. Following that, we watched Deliverance, which oddly enough, I'd never seen. Wow. They just don't make films like that anymore. Mostly, I forgot that I was watching a movie at all, the whole thing moved so naturally. Interestingly enough, they showed it on television the following night, and we managed to tune in to the interviews following it. Ronnie Cox, the actor that played Drew, said that in the year following the film's release, 31 men died on the Chattooga river (where the film was shot) trying to re-enact the story.

Sunday was the fundraising champaigne brunch in support of the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra hosted at th'Electric City Gardens. It was amazing. The champaigne, provided by the incredibly cheap Collio Estates (they donated four bottles of not very good, ultra-affordable 'champagne'), was the only thing that was not. It was fizzy white wine that was a long way from being delicious or classy. Anyway, the food was marvelous, naturally, and there was a flutist and keyboard accompaniment who played quite pleasantly. All in all, it was a success, I think, and everyone was impressed. Good job to my mom for organising the whole thing, and to Rick (he cut off the holly from the ornaments - they were Christmas tree decorations, originally), and also to me, for sitting at the computer for a couple of hours putting together the menu cards. Yay !