News You Can Bruise for 2001 December 11

Tue Dec 11 2001 09:51: We were recently defragmented; layoffs left big swaths of empty desks in our office, so it was decided to move everyone into one side of the building. All the engineers are sort of in one place now, which is nice, and I have a cube right by the window, which is also nice. I don't have a whole lot to say about this because my workplace is not radically different. I have less desk space in absolute terms (since before there was a big swatch of neutral zone between myself and Kevin) but it feels like more (since it's all now indisputably mine). I could go on and on about easy access to the window for brooding purposes, but it would bore you.

Tue Dec 11 2001 09:51: Today on Counterpoint/Countercounterpoint:

That was the first thing I thought when I saw Ashcroft and Ridge, that they look like two halves of the cigarette-smoking man.

Tue Dec 11 2001 09:52: I have impacted bottom wisdom teeth. They need to be removed. I think the scope of the problem is fairly well-defined--I understand it without any special knowledge of dentistry. I have a full set of head X-rays and mouth photographs which I will allow relevant professionals to peruse at leisure. Today I called the specialist who will be extracting my wisdom teeth. I had to make an appointment to have my mouth looked at (in about 3 weeks) before I can get an appointment to have my teeth taken out. Not that I want to deny the specialist a good look at my actual mouth, but is it to much to expect that the oral examination might be a mere preliminary to the actual operation and not something that requires a separate trip and a separate appointment? I don't behave like this in my work and if I was in serious medical trouble my doctor wouldn't either. Is it just beuracracy? Is the first appointment a triage appointment? I don't understand.

Tue Dec 11 2001 09:52: Yesterday, with Sumana, I watched The Great Muppet Caper and the first part of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai ("Something Happens", mocked by Sumana and her sister as "Something Something Happens"). We noticed various characteristic Muppet behaviors such as the Muppet Panic and the Muppet Walk (and the one I just realized, the Muppet Moment of Inner Turmoil That's Actually a Hand Rearrangement). Kuch Kuch was also a lot of fun. The first half of that movie is a two-hour flashback, a two-hour flashback, so it's like they made a movie and then its sequel!

Tue Dec 11 2001 10:54: For some reason I've been posting a lot of duplicate entries recently. I don't know if it's me error (the self-diagnosis of user error) or a bug in NewsBruiser which is treating edits as adds. I suspect the former.