many things at once

It's 72 F in Texas, after hitting a boggling 17 F a week ago, which I get is nothing compared to the Deep South and Northern US, but was in a word freaky.


Like much of the South and Southwest, we really don't have clothes for this; we weren't in danger of dying of hypothermia, no, but to be honest, most of us who have lived in central and southern Texas all our lives really, really had no idea how to deal with this. I own two coats and while one I bought specifically years ago to visit svmadelyn in Chicago during winter with Child so I knew it would be okay, my other is a calf-length leather one my grandmother gave me for light chills and to look epic when correctly positioning oneself in a mild wind. Child hates coats altogether and owns one (again, suitable for a regular Texas winter and cosplaying Hetalia's AU Punk!America, don't ask), because he doesn't get cold easily, so it was kind of lucky school was out and he could hover under piles of blankets.


Reading about Atlanta and Nashville and Winnipeg (aka, The Place That Got Colder Than Fucking Mars, Holy Shit) and checking in with friends in New York and Chicago (IM: "TELL ME IF YOU ARE A POPCICLE PLEASE"). Luckily, cousins around the country checked in with various relatives--some for the first time in about a decade--to announce they were still alive and give us a narrative of their lives and times, so apparently the Polar Vortex brought family together. I honestly had no idea some of my great-aunts and uncles were still alive, or that they knew who we even were, since the last conversation I remember having with them was about thirty years ago at my paternal grandfather's funeral. They are all well and my, it's cold.

Work

At the moment, not much, but that changes as of these coming weeks. We're doing an Oracle update, which means a full--and I do mean full--regression of all functionality, which includes SQL queries for database functionality, which as I foolishly learned SQL, I may also be called in for that. One of the big problems that came up during downtime was database mismatching, which is kind of the nightmare scenario for testing.


From our side, there's no way to tell if a client's information isn't being updated properly unless we check all the possible tables their information is in and look for discrepancies. Which is easy or at least fairly straightforward, except the last time I ran an exclusion statement to get the ones with blank spaces in one field where there should be data, the ETA was fourteen hours. I can't imagine doing that with infinite fields, or finding mismatches. Mine specifically was looking for clients with online accounts and discovering that while one table said they definitely didn't have them, a second one said they definitely did, and the third one would let us make a new one (IT SHOULD NOT LET US DO THAT WHEN THERE IS A CONFLICT) because, I assume, it was confused. I was told the terminology for this happening that involved many words--all of them scared me badly for a whole build of regression testing.


Learning SQL seems to have been a mistake; now I know enough to worry about a whole host of new things and how they can go tragically wrong.

Music

Because I need to cheer myself up. These are exclusively by way of Pandora, because I ended up buying a subscription and now wonder how I lived without it. And so revoltingly easy to buy a track when you really like it. Damn them.

Sooner or Later, Matt Kearney - he seems to be growing on me, no idea why. Maybe it's the striped shirt?

Wrecking Ball, Miley Cyrus - Dude, judge away. I can't even tell why I like this one, but it got into my work playlist somehow. Goddamn Pandora.

End of All Time, Stars of Track and Field - Okay, I forgive Pandora everything; I love this song. It drew me in a week before Christmas and went onto my home playlist for regular melancholy brooding at the stars and whatnot.

What a Shame, Shinedown - I think they're officially hitting critical on the number of tracks to qualify as a favorite band. The only thing that makes sense is that I need a harder rock presence in my life or something to leaven out the alt. I have no idea.

Face Down, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Another Pandora find. It's definitely not subtle, but the beat is seriously awesome.

Show Me What I'm Looking For, Carolina Liar - I love them. I love them.

I Lived, OneRepublic - So continues my shocking descent into loving OneRepublic. It only took like, ten years?

Comments

[domarzione]

Ah, Shinedown. I had 'Fly from the Inside' and 'I Dare You' on my iPod forever, but while they each show about 60 plays a piece, I also see that the last plays were in autumn 2011. But they still would probably end up on an MCU playlist if I were putting one together; they have the same feel as the other tracks that get put on the real ones.

(An MCU playlist might actually be fun. Some 1940's stuff for Steve, classic hard rock for Tony, some '70's rock because I gave Natasha a taste for it and she got it from Clint, who also doesn't mind a bit of country, some meditation tracks for Bruce like throat singers or whatnot, and some ridiculous bubble gum pop for Thor because he isn't going to be ashamed of liking Miley or Britney or Tiffany or Debbie Gibson.)

[seperis]

Shinedown is very MCU, now that I think about it. I think "breaking inside" was my gateway to them, which introduced me to Breaking Benjamin, 32 Leaves, 3OH!2, Hurt, and 10 Year in a degenerating cycle of guitar riffs and playlists with an identity crisis.

(An MCU playlist might actually be fun. Some 1940's stuff for Steve, classic hard rock for Tony, some '70's rock because I gave Natasha a taste for it and she got it from Clint, who also doesn't mind a bit of country, some meditation tracks for Bruce like throat singers or whatnot, and some ridiculous bubble gum pop for Thor because he isn't going to be ashamed of liking Miley or Britney or Tiffany or Debbie Gibson.)

Thor awesome like that. I can see him enthusiastically singing along to any give Hot 100 hits because of course he does. I wondered in your fic if he did audiobooks, considering his English language reading isn't that great yet; for some reason, nothing quite amuses me as much as imagining him zipping through the bestsellers list and approving of Midgard's regard for Agatha Christie and Georgette Heyer. Something tells me he'd instinctively get the Regency era.

[domarzione]

Oh my god. Thor and audiobooks is brilliant. He comes from an oral tradition of storytelling, above and beyond literacy issues.... Hrmm. There may be a story here. (With credit, of course.)

[seperis]

And my work here is done.

(PLEASE WRITE THIS. I WOULD LOVE TO SEE WHAT THOR WOULD READ AND HOW HE'D DISCUSS IT WITH OTHER PEOPLE.)

Actually, I would be hugely fascinated with what he gravitated to, especially considering that he does come from an oral tradition, which has very different rules of engagement in storytelling, especially as by nature it's both literature and an art in itself. I have so many feelings on this, it's ridiculous.

[hypertwink]

Mat Kearney is a remnant of my being so into Grey's Anatomy during the early years, when the cast was young and Shonda Rimes wasn't such a jackhole.

I wish I could say that all her antics has turned me off her music but I think one of the Jonases encapsulated it perfectly with "Her album went number 1, didn't it?" But I think that Wrecking Ball would still be a hit even without the naked, sledgehammer-licking shenaningans.

I still have a love-hate relationship with Ryan Tedder lol

[seperis]

Wreckling Ball I like enough to be deeply grateful I didn't watch the live performance and have no desire to see the official video. I know just enough to be certain it won't add to my enjoyment at all.