Well, that was fun. [FIRE!! Or not.]

So... today was fun, since during the PhD talks (given by students), the fire alarm went off. Poor Davide, who is my grumpy officemate who is never happy, was halfway through his talk: which has to be some sort of nightmare. I mean, there you are, you've got yourself all psyched up to give the presentation, you're halfway through, and the fire alarm goes off. Today, he had a reason for being grumpy.

It was also fun since I got to use my Personal Evacuation Plan for the first time since I started using the wheelchair to get around. We were in the basement, a not-very-accessible area at the best of times. So I just called to everyone that "someone" should tell the Fire Warden that I'd be waiting by the lift shaft, since that is what my Personal Evacuation Plan says. And people were freaking out about whether I'd be all right! I explained how it works: I wait by the lift shaft, a Fire Warden comes to check on me, they find out if it's a real fire, if it is then we arrange evacuation via stairs and/or the "fire-safe lift". (Apparently, the main lifts for the building are now double-walled and have two separate power supplies, so they can still be used safely even if one power supply burns out!). It's amazing how many people (science PhD students, postdocs, and lecturers) couldn't get the hang of the facts that:

(a) I'm perfectly safe waiting by the lift because all the fire doors shut, making it a sealed area, as long as the Fire Warden knows I'm there.
and
(b) I only need to waste spoons getting out of the building if it's a real fire! Sure, if it's a real fire, I can drag my arse up or down stairs, then collapse in a heap somewhere. It's perfectly safe, as long as I'm not trying to go up or down stairs while a whole load of people who walk at normal speed are trying to get out.

Sigh.

Anyway, it turned out to be a false alarm - apparently, the second malicious false alarm within a few weeks, so I didn't move at all, and we eventually went back into the room and carried on with the talks. Something like 25 minutes late. Just as well that today was the day VX is open late, so I didn't miss my opportunity to get cake. Then there would have been trouble.

NaNoWriMo

If you would like to follow along with my insanity at home, please visit terrible-fanfiction-which-needs-a-title/stats ;)

And, uh, here's the synopsis, which contains A MASSIVE SPOILER for the main quest of Oblivion. If you haven't already played that game and are bothered about spoilers, you'll want to avoid both the synopsis and the, er, terrible novel when it's finally online. My other Oblivion fanfic is set well before the MASSIVE SPOILER, so can be read without spoilerification. Although there's a bit of foreshadowing.

I have a list of possible titles for the terrible fanfiction, which I'll post if it looks like I have any sort of hope of winning NaNoWriMo, and then you can vote, and laugh. There are two I really like, one that's okay, and a couple more that are either clichéd or trying to be too clever.

Though I will never be able to compete with Blood and Steel, by the insane writer DualKatanas. This Oblivion fanfiction stands at 532,640 words, or 10 x NaNoWriMo novels, and is still nowhere near finished. To put it in perspective, the story has just finished the 14th out of 16 quests in the main questline. I am both amazed and terrified. It's a damn good read though, if you have many hours to spare.