和 敬 西 洋

So, work IT went from 'oh, right, we have free-range internets around here somewhere' to "We are watching YOU! 2+2=5" in the space of about two days. (Webnanny settings used to be REALLY tame - blocked social sites like myspace, and keywords like 'adult' or 'lingerie' or 'games'. Simple, logical. Now I can't even get into things like Google Documents because they've included the keyword 'personal' in there, but Calendar and Mail are fine. Bizarro. The unit manager even said that we may have to email to have things un-blocked for WORK purposes. How is this process improvement, again? o.O: [Snide note: I know which department has/had the worst offenders, and they have the highest turnover already, not to mention the most infractions of other parts of the handbook. I may try and check a few forums on my breaks, but I'm not streaming video and music and wearing jeans on a Tuesday and generally making the corporate office look like a high school gone wrong.] )

Clearly, they are a bit sheepish about putting in a national-company-wide VoIP system (among other modern technologies) and not upgrading the capacity of the lines (this plus a planned scanning-to-the-network plan, going paperless, etc... and we're still using a single T1? Seriously?) and instead getting Very Stern at us instead of just quietly fixing the problem. Huh.

Which means that now I can't even check stuff at lunch breaks. Boo. (I rather liked my mid-morning break for wecomics and coffee. It was quite pleasant, and reduced the miserable monotony of clerical stuff that comes across my desk. Not to mention the much-needed dose of humor to make it to lunchtime, some days.)

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Also, I had some Nifty and Deep Thoughts about seeing Liza Dalby on Tuesday evening, but for now I'll sum up: I looked pretty kimono-HIME fierce, I thought, and I DIDN'T make a complete and utter fool of myself (just a bit of an idiot, the usual stuff, like babbling too much). Also, I wasn't the only person in kimono. Just the only person who qualified for the 'before' part of the Kitsuke What Not To Wear (Kimono Purists' Edition). :D (I also got home just before 2am and had to get up for work by 7am, so I'm not really entirely coherent at this point.) Buying the hi-tops was TOTALLY worth it. :D

Pictures later - they're still on the camera and my computer is having a LOT of trouble tonight. I wonder if buying another 500MB RAM card would be an investment to stave off this poor thing's death just a little longer... I've got 720 total right now, but not a lot of disk space. It's a bit hit-or-miss, I think.

So, I'm going to go see Liza Dalby on Tuesday! ^__________^ Awesomeness. (I need to reread Kimono tomorrow night so I don't look like a complete dunce, since it's been about 7 years since I bought the paperbacks in the British Museum bookstore...)

I was going to wear a relatively formal komon ensemble with my latest obi acquisition, but I couldn't quite make it all 'match' right, and gave up. I'm going to wear a poly unlined (that's heavy enough to be double-lined! oops.) in a casual wavy stripe, and my purple-grey Chucks, and a newsie cap (borrowing a page from the IG Forums' Lyuba-chan) and a casual hanhaba obi that has butterflies and whatnot on it. (My collar, sadly, will be boring and white, as I don't have the fun fabrics available to coordinate something in bubblegum pink and/or polka dots.) Since, yanno, it's a 2+ hour drive up to Santa Barbara and I'm going to make a day of it with tsuji-kun anyway, why worry about silk and a taiko knot (and the fact I can only stand wearing zori - even my broken-in comfy ones - for about two hours? I may as well be comfortable. :D

(I *am* tempted to get the Airwalk 'Tattoo' slip-ons that the Payless.com site is showing, if the local store has them, only because I like the look and I'd probably wear them all the time anyway, rather than just for my 'funky' kimono ensemble plans... But they're money I shouldn't be spending, so... erk. Dilemma. Look awesome without spending anything, look awesome-r and spend $25. *flail* )


Anyone ever wash tennis shoes in the machine? Do they come out all right? Mine are a bit dingy, but I'm worried that because of their age they'll fall apart in the wash, too. Hm. (And I am NOT going to try and battle the Block's crowds, assuming the Converse store is even still there.)