(no subject)

For the third week in a row I did not manage to see Angel--damn, I wish it wasn't on Wednesday night--and hence I cannot really follow the reviews that all the cool kids are posting. I'm not anti- the show or anything, and I'll doubtless catch up on the episodes at some point, if for no other reason than to be able to fully enjoy others' vidding thereof.

I also am not joining in the "What's my brand?" meme, largely because I already have a pretty good idea of how my stories come across to others. The pithiest summary thereof, and one I cherish, came in some comments that cesperanza posted a while back about "End of the Road" -- "a great novel but really shitty escapism." So, that's my brand: "Kat Allison, bringing you really shitty escapism since 1997!" Heee.

Of course, if anyone wants to tell me otherwise -- "Kat, your stories make me think of ... a basketful of puppies on Christmas morning! A coneful of sticky cotton candy clutched by a sweet-faced child on a hot summer day! The giant squid at the aquarium!" -- well, that would be cool. Weird, but cool.

I am in the middle of a two-day training on how to use Access, so that I can take over some of the databases at work. As usual, I'm led to reflect on what a mistake it is (generally) to let software experts be in charge of training. Teaching beginners how to understand and use complex systems is an entirely distinct kind of skill from *creating* such systems, and it's one that (I say immodestly) I'm pretty good at; a couple of times yesterday I cut in and decoded the expert's explanations into terms that Hapless Lady two rows back could make sense of. Sometimes I think I should be looking into this kind of training as my next career path, for the day when I finally reach my limit with the 18-year-olds and the University administration.

Ah well, duty bellows, and off into the raw damp drizzly morning I go.