I am not dead, just pretending to be a productive member of society

So it pretty much amounts to the same thing.

Why is it that going to an office to be surrounded by people staring at computers while I stare at my own computer all day is so much more exhausting than staying home and staring at my computer all day?

Seriously. This 9-to-5 cubical farm thing is killing me. I'm developing an irrational, seething hatred for the women whose cubicles surround mine. They talk so much. And yes, much of it is about work, but it's just from all sides. Sometimes they call each other (which does make sense because you don't need to walk all the way around 2 rows of cubicles to ask one question) and then from my desk I can hear their conversation in stereo. I'm in some sort of auditory reverse-Bermuda triangle. All sound goes directly to my cubicle. My ipod is now a necessity to get through my work day.

This post really was supposed to be about books and working in publishing, but I got distracted and now I don't remember what I was going to say. It'll come back to me eventually.

How do you get through a long work day?