I haven't been smiling in pictures lately. Unfortunately, since I'm not terribly photogenic to start with, and I've been a bit cranky for the past couple of years, from the wrong angle the pictures come out creepy-looking. For example, in this photo it's more than a little difficult to tell I'm actually having a great time (at my birthday dinner yesterday). So I took myself a less threatening picture:

There are a lot of different ways to lead people effectively. None of them involve telling everyone how incompetent you are. Save the self-deprecation for a different venue.

In the Art Department: Chewbacca's blog. I think. I don't know exactly what's going on there, except it feels substantive and makes me laugh.

Apparently something about my new house makes me more reluctant to fold laundry. Come to think of it, I think it's the fact I don't have anywhere to put my clothes.

I've realized (finally, perhaps one or two girlfriends too late in the process) that some of the external signs of growing up will suit and serve me better: a new bed, maybe a chest of drawers (for the aforementioned homeless clothing). Also thank-you notes and tucking my t-shirts in, though the latter is vanity as much as anything else, unless and until I lose twenty pounds of fat. It feels better, too, a bit tidier, which makes a subtle change in impression around the office. The current job is thankfully not as keyed in to clothing as my last job, where they were also keyed in to being at the office by 9am and staying until 5pm (and underpaying you, the fuckers); but the dynamics of conflict at this job are even more subtle and complex that at most other places, and tucking my shirt in makes just enough difference in my confidence level and how people react to me to be worthwhile.

I got to be useful again at work this morning. I'm turning into a darned ninja, I tell you.