Things I bumped into today

[handslive]

Neil Gaiman has a link to Will Shetterly's blog. I think I've only read one of Shetterly's books (Witch Blood) but it was a fun read with more detail and texture than I would have expected from what, really, on the surface looks like a cheap pulp novel involving magic and martial arts. Anyway, Shetterly has some very interesting things to say about writing on his blog, so I've added to my list of things to read first thing in the morning.

The folks on Aikido-L went on a tear and filled the list up with White Trash Haiku. I get the impression that this meme was passed from some other forum, but I forget which one. It produced some real gems:

Brooklyn Haiku:
Sitting on the stoop
Drinking from a paper bag
Who asked you, asshole?

That one was from Janet, of course.

Set up lab, again
Airstream lost in fire, eyebrows too
Meth can be tricky

That one was from J. Toman of all people. I had a reaction to seeing so much haiku in one place and posted a villanelle instead. Not a very good one. I think the basic idea would have been better as a sestina. In fact there are good reasons to explore the whole "red neck" notion of sestina writing. :-)

And on the bus on the way home there were two guys talking across the aisle from me. I swear I think I'd heard they were doing this in town, but it was news to me just then. Take 4 playwrights, 4 actors, 4 directors, 4 set designers (or something). Write 4 plays and perform them. In one day. Those wacky Edmontonians.

We've got Performance Objectives at work. One of them is a percentage of time that my work should be billable. Keeping in mind that I haven't had useful work to do in any quantity since November. (Honestly, I think I billed out 4 hours this week.) So how many weeks can that go on for before it's impossible, really really impossible, to be 78% billable for the YEAR?!? It's always nice to be given objectives tied to my performance review each year that are frigging impossible. Last year they only asked me to get a certification that doesn't exist. The frustrating part is that, until this year, I could have blown over 100% pretty much every single other year thanks to overtime.