Another day at Cadence on less than six hours sleep. I realise that my schedule is really screwed up, but I can't figure out any way to fix it. I have to work during the day, I have to go to class at night (or, in the case of last night, study for class), I have to do things on Pern (as in, I chose to take on a responsibility and I'm damned if I'll flake on it), and then there's all this troublesome social life stuff. Plus Earl, who is intermittently available and tends to soak up my every spare moment when he is. I'd also really like a chance to read more than three times a week. The only way I've found to manage all of this stuff requires minimal sleep and food... which is stupid, in the long run. For the moment, though, the trade off seems to be worth it.

I accidentally left my Pilot at home today, and I'm suffering an intense sense of loss. My little calendar! My helpful memos! I don't know how I can survive an entire day without my data. I never geek out much about hardware -- anyone who has seen my home computer knows this -- but I am an acknowledged information junkie. That's the best part of the Pilot; I can keep all my lists on it, so I know what authors to look for and what CDs I want to buy, and when I see a keen book review or something on the net I can scribble something down... yes, I know most people use paper for these things, but poking at a little screen is much more satisfying.

Part of the ongoing new-job transition thing is trying to find office supplies. My cubemate, Wes, keeps wandering off and coming back with piles of pens and thumbtacks and such. I ought to follow him on one of these excursions and find the stockpile. I need envelopes so I can mail in my WorldCon housing form and be told that they don't have room in any hotel closer than six blocks away from the main one. This ought to have been done over a month ago, but my follow-through factor has been extremely low lately.

I still can't really believe I'm going to WorldCon. I'm not even sure why I'm going to WorldCon, except that it seems like I never will go if I don't just do it. It seems like the ideal place to do heavy amounts of industry research, although this might be more useful to me if I could successfully sit down and write one of the three stories I've plotted out.

I went over to Czr and Jim's to do my homework last night, and ended up watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. To my great amazement I enjoyed it a lot. Earl may now be smug at me; he's been telling me since it first aired that I ought to watch it, and now I have to admit he was right.

Buffy has a lot of points in its favour. It has nubile young women, but they're not stupid. It has Willow, the limpid red-haired computer hacker. It has Buffy leg-sweeping demons. It has Armin Shimerman (of Deep Space 9 fame) playing the creepy principle. Plus it has witty dialogue, and this episode at least had enough plot twists to make any Babylon 5 fanatic happy. My only reservations about attempting to watch it weekly is that:

1) I have no time.
2) I despise television, and while I made an exception for Babylon 5 it took me several years to decide to do so. I'm afraid that if I start watching Buffy I'll end up watching all sorts of other things, and once exposed to pop culture my mind will rot from all the advertising.

I just noticed that it's noon. I should go grab something foodlike from the cafeteria and do another round of user calls. "Trouble Me" is on constant repeat in my brain, which is irritating since I don't actually know most of the words. I sent Czr a quote I found in CJ's journal. I wish he'd write me back and tell me what he thought of it.