I’m a nerd

Quick update:

Work yesterday was long. The planting was fairly tiring (I assisted with 5 or 6 trees, though we planted 32 total), but the kids that were helping were really good workers and never seemed to get tired. It would have been better if it hadn’t been drizzling the whole time though, but it definitely could have been worse. My supervisor has been really stressed out lately because she’s recently been given a few new responsibilities that she’s having a hard time with. She’s been taking her stress out on us but I’m trying not to take it personally (I’ve been getting the impression that she has been talking to me like I’m incompetent over the past few days, almost being disrespectful). I don’t really want to make a big deal out of it, but that is the kind of thing that really bothers me sometimes because I take it personally no matter what.

Autumn gave me a cupcake she had knitted while I was in Indiana. I decided that the cupcake’s purpose should be to sit near the computer at work and watch us while we database. People liked the cupcake, so I set out on the grueling task of finding a name. I immediately start thinking of names of philosophers (because their names are usually fairly bitchin’), and came up with a few before I decided on one that was acceptable. I started out with Diogenes (my favorite asshole ancient!), went from Schopenhauer to Arthur, briefly to Kierkegaard and Rousseau, briefly entertained Anaximenes and Anaximander, settled for awhile on Xenophanes and finally ended up with Empedocles. This really shouldn’t be a surprise as Empedocles is my favorite ancient philosopher (and I once named a cat after him) and his 5th Century BCE ideas are so damn interesting; particularly his attempt at describing the Origin of Species by the work of 2 forces, Affection (or "Love") and Strife. These forces act upon the four "roots" (fire, earth, water, air) that the world is made up of, and the amount of Affection or Strife present at any given time dictates what/how the world is and the form of the creatures in it. (I really am not describing this idea very well here, sorry, but it does remind me of the "Origin of Love" song found in Hedwig and the Angry Inch; specifically, the idea that the two sexes–or two beings of the same sex– were originally combined and then became separated).

 Here is a brief explanation of some of his ideas if you’re bored or something.

He is also interesting because he was supposedly really arrogant, wore purple and purported to be a god. Legend has it he died after jumping into a volcano, wanting people to think he had floated off to heaven or something but was discovered because he left one of his sandals behind.

Anyway, Empedocles the Databasing Cupcake.

I have to be into work at 730 this morning because we have a tree delivery at 8am. This would usually be fine, but we aren’t allowed to park anywhere near our office, and parking is going to be really hectic for the next 6 weeks. Why? Because Cirque Du Soleil is literally RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET. This itself is kindof awesome, but now it’s just a huge inconvenience because we are going to have to park a long ways away and walk to work from there. This means it’s really impossible to tell what time we’ll need to leave to show up on time, because there isn’t a parking area that’s reserved specifically for us. I’d be a little more patient if the city was kind enough to give us tickets, but they aren’t (so I’m not).

But yeah, right across the street there are huge blue and yellow striped tents. The show actually starts today, so working downtown is going to be a freaking madhouse.

Last night at work I went to the monthly OCF movie night. It was about genetically modified foods, the war over whether those foods should be labeled, etc. It basically made me not want to eat anything ever again.

Hmm, what else? Oh, the guy I mentioned in the last entry never ended up messaging me again. Oh well, it’s probably for the best because I can go on and on about the topics he brought up.

Okay, I said this would be a quick update so I’m going to end it now. I should be sleeping anyway, but I woke up because I had a dream I was making the drive from LA-ish to San Jose, suddenly became intoxicated and drove off a cliff thing. Anyway, back to sleep.