Oh this is just not on Tampa, not on.

Cool! It's like living in an xkcd panel!

You know, I don't think I'll be looking at my Easter basket the same way. And I might have second thoughts before eating the chocolate bunny.

I think Tampa just gave me the day off because, really, not a lot I can do for tech support when computers are. Well. I don't know quite how to describe what's sitting on the desk in front of me.

On the other hand, we're having a really amusing conversation.

You know, I like chocolate well enough but real gold coins would have been more useful. Good thing I have sisters.

Right, so, contract for new apartment signed. Familial approval given to new space with only minimum of pouting. Space cleaned with only minimum of bribery required. All that's left is to actually move in. Well, move furniture in first. Which is going to happen next weekend.

Which, coincidentally, is also my birthday. So! If you help me move, you get to have a share in birthday cake and ice cream.

"You could do it in just a few keystrokes, you know. Of course, it wouldn't be as effective as the computer at the Hub was but still."

"I can't believe you'd even suggest such a thing! A trojan! How awful!"

"Well, you can't deny that he's better than most of the hackers out there."

"That doesn't mean he has to prove it!"

"But it would be fun!"

Fernando reached forward and turned up the volume on his MP3 player. They could probably here it four cubes away by now but he didn't really care.

So! Anyone want to help a guy move?

( Saffron )

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I mean, on one hand. Very cool tech, yay the future, yada yada yada. On the other hand, wow, that's going to be abused fast, no matter how much Google assures privacy.

Fernando had just stepped into the store when he heard his name called. He looked around, confused.

"That's right, come on up, Fernando!" called a man in a bad suit. "You're the next contestant on Match Game!" The other shoppers gathered around, laughing and clapping in encouragement. Fernando blinked but allowed himself to be settled behind a podium and introduced to the returning champion, a middle-aged woman with platinum blond hair.

"You know how to play of course," the host said and before Fernando could say no went on to start the game. "All right, celebrity panel, here's our first match."

"Dumb Dora is so dumb..."

"How dumb is she?" the audience called back.

"...she thinks blank is a real city! Dumb Dora is so dumb she thinks blank is a real city."

Everyone else started scribbling madly and Fernando just looked around. Finally he picked up a pen and wrote Some days I hate Tampa.

How much do I love that security officials have approved $3,350 for a smartphone for Barack Obama since he had to give up his BlackBerry?

Who knew hunting for apartments was so hard?

After he'd found out Ben was missing, Fernando had quietly covered for him at the computer center. He'd told people he'd talked to Ben, that the other man was sick -- that flu that was going around -- and even helped the boss rearrange the schedule to cover Ben's hours even though it meant taking the shittiest shifts himself.

It wasn't a new thing, really. When he'd been working two jobs, he'd always been willing to take the shifts no one else had wanted, just for the hours and the money. He didn't need the money now, but old habits were hard to change.

He was manning a table at a job fair, plugging the computer center as a great place to work (not exactly a lie, he liked his job!) when a man in his thirties approached. He was dressed casually in jeans and a T-shirt and his hair could have used a trim so Fernando figured him for a master's student and started on his usual sales pitch. The guy listened politely, asked questions that surprised Fernando but that he was able to easily answer.

Finally, the man introduced himself as the CEO of one of the more notable, if small, high tech firms in Tampa. He asked Fernando his plans after graduation, invited him to come over to the booth when he had his break.

Three hours later, Fernando was in a state of shock. He'd gone, he'd visited, he'd chatted. The chat had turned into an interview. The interview had turned into an offer.

When Fernando graduated this spring, he had a job waiting for him.

( Private )

Happy New Year (almost).

I'm going Advent calendar hunting with Lissa. If anyone sees anything particularly fantastic, don't close the door and give us a call on my cell phone!

OK, technically, I think I could have graduated this semester but there offering this cool next class next term, so I'm sticking around to take it. I mean, computers and animation and ILM, oh my!

Of course, it'll also means I'll take a dozen more programming credits but hey, they're paid for.

( Torchwood )

( Cory )

I have managed to convince my whole family to come to Arches for Thanksgiving. Told them it was sort of like a soup kitchen, sort of like a community dinner.

The selling point: No dishes to clean afterward.

No offense to my former self or any of the females I currently know but wow, am I glad to be male again.

( Kevin )


( Zach )

You know, avoiding my family is getting a lot more difficult. I don't suppose anyone has got a spare couch I could sleep on until this goes away?

OK, I didn't even borrow anything from my sister's closet for Halloween. This is just over the top Tampa!

Tommy was insistent that he go with Fernando to the complex. Insistent that he could help. But there was something off about it all that had Fernando suspicious and on edge. While he was grabbing his coat he stealthily grabbed his salt shaker off the table too; it wasn't much but it was all he had to hand that he could easily hide. He'd seen Geoff's post but since Tommy had been behaving, he hadn't figured he'd need to act. He'd also been confused by Geoff's statement that all of Torchwood was there -- after all, he felt perfectly normal, Tosh's memories still with him.

"Right," he said brightly as Tommy urged him to hurry. "Off we go."

Fernando was drawn out of his contemplation of the computer screen by a soft, nervous cough. He looked up and froze, staring at the man standing in front of him.

"Tommy?!" he finally managed to squeak out, sounding much more like Tosh than himself.

"Hello," Tommy answered. He twisted his hat in his hands. "You ... look different."

"You look great," Fernando answered. "I mean. That is. I. What are you doing here?" He looked around for a calendar. What day was it? It couldn't be. It wasn't.

"Don't you know? I thought you would," Tommy said. He looked around the empty computer room. "Where are the others? Don't we have to do the tests?"

Fernando finally stood, used the desk to support himself so he wouldn't wobble and held out a hand to Tommy. "They're here. But we don't have to do any tests today. Come on, let's go for a walk and I'll explain things."

( Lissa )

( Torchwood )

I've edited this 16.34 times and yes I know I'm a geek and I know you think it too but crap.

I've edited this 17.34 times and it's really hard to take out my thoughts which I know you don't want to know, really, because some of them are pretty out there but I bet everyone's are especially since we're reincarnates and no one wants to hear you blather 'Nando and crap.

I've edited this 18.34 times and it's really not a good time to be looking over my shoulder at my screen Zeke and would you please learn to knock first because it's really getting annoying and crap.

I've edited this 19.34 times and really at this point I don't even remember what I was going to say which is pretty much par for the course today because it was loud and confusing and my brain couldn't keep up with it. Hell, Tosh's brain couldn't keep up with and don't give me that attitude about how you. Crap.

Crap.

I don't think this was covered in the Torchwood manual.

OK, is it just me or does anyone still find it vaguely freaky to see commercials for the DVDs of their show?

Fernando was the first one in class, as usual. He walked around the lab as he waited for the others to show up, letting Tosh out a bit more than usual. He didn't notice when he started quietly singing.

I'm a science genius girl
I won the science fair
I wear a white lab coat
DNA strands in my hair

When I clone a human being
It will want to hold my hand
when I clone a human being
It will be a member of my band
It will be a member of my band
It will be a member of my band

Scientific method girl
The theorems speak to me
Microscope is in my hand
X1, X2, X3

When I clone a human being
It will want to hold my hand ...



Freezepop, "Girl Genius"