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Assorted bits and pieces from the past week or so (some good, some not):

• Various difficult emotional things I'm not gonna talk about here.
• Arrived at work the other day to find that my two big flat-panel monitors had been replaced with two even bigger flat-panel monitors. I've never had a 24-inch monitor before. It's enormous. I can't look at all of it at once--if I'm looking at something on the left side, I have to turn my head to see the right side. I'm very pleased, and a little intimidated.
• Sunshine has been lovely. Today I had lunch facing into the sun, which calmed me down and cheered me up considerably.
• Been mostly working 10+ hours a day, getting home much too late, staying up way way too late, getting up late, repeating.
• On the plus side, much of that work time has been productive. On the minus side, not quite as productive as I was being a couple weeks ago; must boost productivity if I'm to hit my dual deadline in a week. Am expecting to work through much of the weekend, but we'll see.
• My birthday is this coming Tuesday. Last year, as of early March I was planning to have a combined birthday/housewarming party in late March, but by the time late March rolled around there was no way I could cope with that. This year, as of early March I was planning to have a birthday party in late March (I think two and a half years is too late to have a housewarming party), but I didn't actually do any planning, and I don't really have time to have a party this weekend anyway, or energy for one. I may try to have one in a couple weeks, or I may just give up on it again.
• Have continued to be generally glum and grumpy. At a meeting at work the other day, about four times in ten minutes I started to say something, got halfway through a sentence, and then someone on the remote end of the videoconferencing system just started talking. Eventually it became clear that they couldn't hear me talking at all, so hadn't known I was saying anything. They were suitably apologetic (and it was totally not their fault), but it still made me angry and upset for hours afterward. (Contributing to my upsetness was the minor argument I got into with someone toward the end of the meeting, about principles of good CSS design. But I probably wouldn't have gotten as snippy as I did in that argument if I hadn't already been in a bad mood from the earlier videoconference thing.) I think I can safely conclude that I really hate not being listened to, even when it's not at all the non-listener's fault.
• Spent a while, very late on Saturday night, poking around in LiveJournal, only to discover that half my friends are going through assorted difficulties, ranging from cat illness to breakups to assorted rough times regarding jobs (or lack thereof) to trees falling on cars. :(
• Spent some time today being sympathetic to someone telling me about their rough day (it was a rough day of a sort that I've had far too many of myself), which didn't exactly cheer me up but did at least make me feel like I could be somewhat useful to someone. And I later got a nice note thanking me, which did cheer me up.
• Skipped two opportunities for free ice cream today. Was very tempted, but am trying to cut back on sweets and snacks, and anyway I enjoy ice cream more in hotter weather.
• Tried to upgrade to Dreamweaver 8. Got all the way through the process of buying it, then discovered that it required me to enter my serial number from the previous version. Which I can't find. It doesn't display in the About box, and I can't find the actual boxed software with the CD in it. I called Macromedia/Adobe support, and the woman there said she would get back to me by the end of the day. That was Monday morning. It's now late Thursday night and there's been no response. I tried calling again Tuesday morning and was basically told that customer service couldn't do anything but wait for their superiors to get back to them. Grr. I'm tempted to point out my name in the About box and see if that helps, but I already told them I used to work there and that didn't seem to make a difference.
• Finally ordered the VAIS SoundLinq SLI iPod adapter for my Prius. I got tired of waiting for the allegedly better (but perennially vaporware) model from Coastal Electronic Technologies. The VAIS order page says it takes 2-3 weeks due to high demand, but they actually sent it out that evening, and according to UPS it should be arriving on Monday. A nice birthday present. Of course, I'll still have to install it, but I'm told that it comes with very good directions and that it's relatively easy to install it with only minor damage to one's hands.
• Speaking of iPod accessories, I'm planning to buy the Rain Design iWoofer, but I'm waiting for reviews. But it looks mighty cool. And looks are the most important thing in a sound system, right?
• Recently had the opportunity to talk for a few minutes with the United States Registrar of Copyrights. The fifteen-year-old copyright zealot in me got a little fanboyish, but I managed to have a reasonably coherent (and balanced) brief conversation, starting with my more or less giving a 30-second summary of a journal entry on the subject from a few years back. Perhaps more on this eventually, but definitely not tonight.
• Finally queried Andy Cox about the story I submitted to Interzone via papermail from Glasgow back in August. Apparently it never reached him. All that fuss and running about, getting the printouts and going to the post office and everything, all for naught. Alas. It seemed like such a clever idea at the time, submitting to a UK magazine while actually in the UK. Oh, well.
• Helped Mary Anne re-set-up the DesiLit blog on their new server. (Btw, DesiLit is looking for a webmaster.)
• Received a papermail invite to my 20-year high school reunion, to be held in a few months.
• Finally watched L'Auberge Espagnole with Kam (it had been sitting around for a month or two waiting to be watched, and that's not counting the almost three years since we tried to see it in the theatre). Also watched In the Heat of the Night and read Howl's Moving Castle. Enjoyed all of those things to one degree or another; didn't really love any of them, but all were worth the time invested. Perhaps more detailed reviews to follow, perhaps not.
• Speaking of reviews, forgot to mention that my long-delayed review of the excellent comic book Y: The Last Man went up at SH last week.
• Realized yet again that it's way too late for me to be writing journal entries, and determined to go to sleep.