Seasonal Affective Disorder, Xmas music, consumer musings

As we move in the dark time of the year I note that I become a bit moodier, tending towards negativity and depression.  Psychologists have branded this, when it becomes deabilitating, Seasonal Affective Disorder. 

I don't think that SAD is unusual.   People who don't become a bit depressed in the cold black of Michigan's late fall, winter and even early spring are the odd ones.    Good to have them around though, to help cheer up the rest of us.  

I've wanted to do something mean to my co-worker I occasionally share the phone room with, though.  Her insistence that it's time to listen to Xmas music is like chalk on the blackboard.  Too many retail jobs as a teen listening to the sickening, vaguely religous pap that passes for holiday music has made those songs abrasive to me.  And WNIC, Detroit's "official" Xmas music station, plays the same dozen songs over and over again.  It's enough to make me want to go out and create a true Black Friday.     I have visions of filling the fire sprinklers in the stores with foul smelling substances that brand them as the consuming fools they are.  And like the bog of eternal stench, it would last FOREVER!

Of course, I am tempted by a couple of sale items that I saw in an ABC Warehouse ad, so I could be one of the stinking consumer masses.  ;)  Not tempted enough to go out on Friday, though.
 

Another irregular (audible) book review

I seem to have switched my reading habit for a listening habit lately.  I can listen to a story while doing my strolls during work breaks, and at the gym.   And its easier to listen to a story while eating lunch than reading one.  

I just finished Metatropolis, which I believe is only available on audio download at this time.   I liked both the concept, near future city extrapolation by some top notch authors in a shared world, and the execution of the concept.  John Scalzi was the ringmaster, announcing each story.    I normally don't download audio books, but my mother-in-law gave me an Itunes gift card, and it was only 5.95, not a huge investment if I didn't like it.

In addition to the high quality of the stories, the readers were also excellent.  Three were actors from Battlestar Galactica.  Of the other two, I immediately recognized Scott Brick.   I don't know Stephan Rudnicki, but he has a good reading voice and does a believable Russian accent.     I had a minor quibble about how Jay Lake ended his story, it felt like he rushed through his final scene.  But that didn't detract from the story.   Michael Hogan, Col. Tigh from BSG, was the perfect reader for the story, too.    

Marquis de Carabas is the new Doctor!

As seen on matociquala 's LJ.    A new Doctor, you say?   Cheerio!

Level of stupidity this afternoon reaching danger zone

If the patients calling this afternoon get any stupider, I'll have to wipe off the drool running out of the phone.  These idiots make the mentally impaired look like geniuses.