Fatale Abstraction

Did you know the postal service will deliver bees and chicks and insects? It's true.

Once when I worked at the Dallas Bulk Mail Center, somehow a huge crate of baby chicks got broken open, and everyone was scrambling to find all the little chicks and scoop them up. All the machinery in the building was shut down, all the forlkifts and jitneys quit moving and even the tow-line was turned off so people could listen for and find the little escapees. It was weird to be in such a cavernous place and hear the sweet little "cheep-cheep" of the chicks. I hope they didn't end up in the dead letter office in Atlanta, but there's no telling. It was kind of nice, the unexpected break, and something organic and innocent disrupting a big bustling brutal network of machinery such as that facility.

More on that crap job some other time.

Real estate school is fascinating. It's probably worth it for just about anyone to take this class at least once - I know that even if I never sell a house, I'm going to be more in control of the process if I ever buy another house for myself.

I thought the instructor was fantastic, because she's had 40 years in the business and did a lot of tough talking. Some people didn't come back after the lunch break. She talked of unscrupulous lenders (like that's a surprise?!), fraud-prone brokers and agents, and how the industry has a bad reputation with people. Crap! So, I'm going to be reviled on par with a dentist? What fresh hell, indeed?

Oh well. Anyway, she was an engaging instructor and I never nodded or drooled or fell over as I rather expected. This next couple months will be a bit of a grind, but perhaps not so bad as I feared.

ROME SPOILERS ALERT! Highlight if you want to read about tonight/next week.
Wow, Rome is getting pretty wild, eh? So the servant girl is going to die from the poison Servilia's boy put in the soup, Atia is going to torture him, and Servilia's number is finally going to be up. I suspect that this time Atia won't simply leave Servilia naked, on foot and humiliated in the streets of Rome like last time - I'm expecting capital punishment ordered by the mother of Caesar. Two fully nekkid principal actors - male yet - count 'em, and nary a tit in sight - here's to equal time! Also, next week, they will finally unveil the later model of Octavian/Augustus. It's kind of a pity they had to change actors - I thought the young guy was doing a masterful job of kicking ass in the brainiest way possible, but I suppose legions wouldn't have responded well to orders from someone whose testicles might not have dropped yet, so there you are.

I thought it was hilarious how Atia talked trash about Octavia slumming with a mere merchant's daughter right in front of the girl - Atia really is the most delicious bitch. I don't think there's a nerve in her body - she must have the limbic system of a squid. Wonderful. Anyway, I think it's probably a bad sign that Octavia has taken up smoking herb. Then again, life for women at that time was either incredibly dangerous, boring, or both, and probably getting stoned would take the edge off, I'm guessing. Smoke 'em if ya got 'em!

Pullo and Lucius got into a scrap, and it looks like Lucius has trotted off to Gaul with Mark Antony, and of course, Pullo is Octavian/Caesar's man, so I think they may end up pitted against each other on the battlefield. That would be a golden time for Pullo to de-fuse LV's ire by telling him his children are still alive. Yay! Chance for reconciliation? I certainly hope so. And I hope then that Lucius will forswear all that Son of Hades stuff. But I'm not holding my breath.

Fan-bloody-tastic show. Love it. Love. IT!