Before anyone reads this I’d like to voice my very strong objections to having key details of my life publicized! Really!
You could edit out stuff you don’t want people to see. Plus, you can be as detailed or as not-detailed as you’d like.
Well then this entire thing’d be blackened out! What’s the point of that then? Hmph.
Hi, everyone! I’m still around. There’s a lot of fancy upgrades going on behind the scenes. Since it’s not ready yet, I don’t want to talk about it, but the new WordPress layout says enough about how hard Zero’s been working!
Jan. 4th
0555: Rise-and-shine!
0555: Rushes across the room to hit alarm clock next to doorframe. Personal affairs.
0559: Morning run.
0604: Runs past pile of questionable materials dumped in broad daylight from CA girl residential areas.
0605: Runs past pile of questionable materials
0606: Runs back to questionable materials
0607: Picks up questionable materials
0608: Dumps questionable materials in nearest trash can
0609: Resumes morning run
0610: Return to trash can, pick out questionable materials
0611: Dumps questionable materials into recycling bin
0612: Continue morning run
0620: Finishes morning run
0622: Personal affairs
0630: Ready for the day!
Because Friday is a workday (STEC has a fairly unusual system as far as military organizations go. Depending on whether we are out to sortie, on rapid response, or on leisure (leave), each girl’s schedule can be widely erratic), I generally spend most of my time in one of Avalon’s several reading rooms with Mike. For instance, today…
0635: Arrival in Avalon Reading Room 1D. Located in STEC Archives (this is also a building), the Archive itself splits its floors depending on content. Floor 1 is dedicated to Abyssal documentation and by extension, counter-Abyssal affairs.
0636: Takes breakfast orders forms from a nearby fairy attendant & requests the table set for three.
0637: Checks objective board for the day. Mike generally likes to set what he calls “short,” “long,” and “reach” goals while compartmentalizing each task locally. For instance, this week’s short term goals for this room includes:
Finalize decision and authorization for munitions stockpiling for sub vs. DD girls for this monthFinalize decision re: field tests of AnA (Anti-Abyssal) prototypes to be scheduled next weekExamine latest analytical report from MERLIN and make appropriate recommendations
Further recommendations to Weapons Division
The long goal for this room is to “Select deep-sea communication prototype device for mass production” and “Improve MERLIN’s prediction speed.”
No reach goals for this week. Though in the past someone had written “No more UNC meetings” before, heh.
0638: Begin organizing materials in preparation for workday. STEC is beginning to phase out typewriters, and some folks (Mike included) has enthusiastically embraced electronic documentation. One advantage to having fairies, too, is that your physical (paper) back-ups which still do have to be manually prepared can be left to them. While some girls enjoy the sort of secretary work (me included!) technology really does make things more efficient!
0645: Narwhal arrives and helps me with the sorting of documentation. We talk a bit about the best way to organize the munitions reports while not disadvantaging the DD girls in Mike’s decision making process. Subgirls currently are STEC’s most active shipgirls due to our ability to seek out and neuter Abyssal units underwater, but DD girls honestly run the most dangerous gauntlet. We need our stocks maintained, but it’s just as important as to make sure that they have adequate support as well.
0651: Narwhal and I finishes sorting out the munitions report. We decide to put Dolphin’s recommendations first, Engineering’s comments second, Oversight’s recommendations last (honestly in this specific case oversight definitely didn’t read how much materials we expended last quarter otherwise they wouldn’t have recommended to maintain current stockpile levels).
0701: Mike arrives with breakfast right behind him. While we generally do have free reign as to what we want out of the Logistics, Mike’s personal policy is that he eats based on what the kitchen prepares. It’s definitely a good attitude to have, especially when compared to what I hear from other folks back on the main island.
Today’s breakfast consists of omelettes with ham & green peppers, smoked sausage, and scrambled eggs. I can tell today might be busy, though, since he’s eating here with us and not with everyone else in the main dining hall.
0720: Generally, I like to listen to people talk more than talking myself. Really! It’s just Narwhal’s not that talkative (or maybe she’s just not a morning person?) so I end up making most of the small talk. I just don’t think eating in silence is really a good way to start the day.
Mike’s also not that big on news and current events when he’s not funneled into things by Diplomacy or Outreach, so a lot of times he enjoys listening to us more so than giving his opinion. One thing he did mention, though, is something he heard on the grapevine. Something weird’s happening in France and Jer’s mentioned a few times that we might need to send someone over. He says he’s not too sure on what the weird thing is, but criminals bundled up and left on the doorsteps of local law enforcement doesn’t sound like the work of a single or even numerous local vigilantes.
0722: Narwhal and I return the dishes and silverware to the cart while Mike begins to work. We follow soon after. For the next few hours we spend a lot of time on the various topics as I mentioned above.
1145: We’re interrupted by another fairy reminding Mike that it’s time for lunch. A solid five hours have resulted in us finishing up the recommendations to Weapons Division, and Mike mentioned that he want to see the latest DD girl deployment/sortie map before finalizing a decision.
I volunteer to stick around and finish it up, but after a bit of a gentle back and forth with Mike & Narwhal, I guess it’s a good idea to keep a regular eating schedule, so I follow them down to lunch.
1150: Lunch and dinners at Avalon tend to be pretty relaxed, with a lot of dishes served in buffet style. Because it’s Friday, there’s a lot of fish. We’re talking fish-fry and shrimp pasta on one end and crab-cakes and tuna tartare on the other.
Seafood, in particular, is really, really, really easy for us to get. We’re shipgirls! Catching it ourselves is easy (not to mention fun). I load my plate, say my thanks, and quickly amble over to the nearest table.
(Our girls really aren’t very clique-ish at all. Everyone gets along with everyone else, unlike the very stratified Japanese or English girls where it seems like shipgirls interact with each other solely on class. There’s also no real seating “order” or arrangement, so anything goes, really.)
1151: At my table, Raleigh showed me a card trick she picked up from Nicholas. Honestly, it was kind of neat. We all watch with some interest as Louisiana and Tambor builds up a literal mound of cleanly picked shells (meanwhile, Lou struggles with cracking her crabs) and generally have a good time. Avalon’s fairly lively right now because not many of us are out and about. So, it really do feel like home.
I also see Tatusko introducing a new Japanese carrier girl to Mike’s table. Wonder who that might be. I guess I’ll go say hi to her later.
1240: Return to reading room to find Mike and Narwhal already back to work. Resist urge to feel guilty at not being first one back to work and returns to work too.
“Work” can mean a lot of things. People might think we’re just grunts sent out to fight, and that may be true in the other services, but it’s not really how we do things here in STEC. Under Mike’s supervision, at any rate, we tend to be given additional responsibilities of our choice based on our interests and native expertise. For instance, my current job for the day consists of summarizing a lot of reports for Mike and create what basically amounts to policy briefs.
Mike’s the commander, after all, and while I’m sure he wants to personally partake in everything, commanding officers lead and make decisions. He trusts me to give him good information, and I trust myself to do my job well. It works out.
1543: Success! All the short-term stuff for this week is D-O-N-E and this is INCLUDING the numerous interruptions (mostly on Mike’s part, since people from the continential states are getting into office in our afternoons – we are in the Pacific, after all.)
Mike has another matter to attend to (something about that trip to France), but before he finishes up suggests we take the rest of the day off and thank us for our hard work. Heh.
1550: Narwhal and I clean up the reading room and leaves the appropriate documentation for CORONA to pick up later. We decide to go take a swim together. After all, we’re in bikinis pretty much most of the time, right?
1555: While subgirls like us generally don’t mind water temperatures, Avalon does have a few conventional swimming pools. These are typically unused and empty (in fact, I’m pretty sure even fairies are now getting trained on the open ocean to better approximate real combat situations), but one advantage is that they are generally warm during this time of the year!
We ran into Missouri and California and decide to have an impromptu game of beach volleyball instead.
1730: That was fun. I bid Narwhal farewell. Want a quick nap before dinner. Today’s been pretty long, after all.
1740: Hop back to bed. Ah, bed. How I love thee.
2059: Wake up with the vaguest feeling of unease.
2100: Realizes it’s 9 and I napped for way too long.
2101: Is hungry, but technically dinner stops serving at 8:30. Deliberating between crawling back into bed and go straight to bed or make something myself.
2102: Agonizing.
2104: Deliberation interrupted by Maury who noticed that I wasn’t there and saved me a plate. Secretly choking back tears. Anything tastes delicious when you’re hungry but this is something else. She even remembers that I like mushrooms.
2110: Electronic stuff. Checking messages and the like. I like to read, you know! As for what I read, it kind of depends. I like reading nonfiction over fiction, and what I’m currently working on is Thomas Jefferson’s personal communications.
2200: Bed.
????: Woken up by nerf ball. Tactical analysis reveals that the nerf ball was lobbed up my room through the open window.
???+1: Flung nerf ball back at wherever it came from with great prejudice. Should have just kept it….
???+2: Bed.