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2004-12-12
Okay, I did it: I made a Cafepress store with the bumper sticker I mentioned, the one that says "I hate America because of people like YOU". Not that I expect anyone to buy one, I just... felt like making it real, y'know? Now I have to think about more products to add. Sadly, unless you go for the Premium store, you can only do one of each kind of product. Maybe I'll do a t-shirt for the "God is just pretend" thing. Not sure.
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2002-09-25
Cool! Replacement ring is available: and it's only twenty bucks, just like the other one I got so long ago. Spiffy. I gotta make sure of my current size before I buy it, though.
I think I'll go for the bar style instead of the open style that I used to have. My heart is closed now - I got the one I want now :). And he treats me right, besides.
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2002-07-21
In other news... First item: Buster is doing better! Yea, Buster! He had been feeling under the weather and we were really worried about him, but he's back to his impish playful self again. We are much relieved.
Second item: Had a good visit with Elena, though she's getting really *really* good at fraying my nerves. She does the whole immediate-tantrum-if-she-doesn't-get-precisely-what-she-wants thing, and I do everything I can to demonstrate to her that I'm being reasonable. I try not to get all pissed off (I really hate being pissed off), but sometimes it happens anyway. Sometimes I let her stomp off into her room to pout. Sigh.
We're reading together more and more, and she's getting really amazingly good at remembering her Mother Goose rhymes word-for-word. Since she's already on her way to becoming a great actress (and a drama queen, at that), I figure this memorization skill will definitely be an asset to her.
We went to a nifty playground in Leander today that I've been meaning to take her to for awhile. I took some pictures that I will post at some point. While I pushed Elena on the swings, she managed to slip off (I think she may have let go, even) and went "thunk" onto the ground. Damn, I hate it when she hurts herself. I feel so terribly guilty. Anyway, she was okay after a couple minutes, but she did get a significant head bonk. It's a good thing that kids are pretty durable creaturess.
Third item: Junior (our black & white kitty) has been letting loose some horribly stinky farts with great regularity lately. I dunno what the deal is, but it's really really nasty. David is worried, because apparently this was a symptom of the intestinal disease that slowly but surely killed off several of his previous cats. Hmm, doesn't bode well.
Fourth item: We have opened the bedroom door most of the time, and the kittens are coming out to play in the living room more. It's very cute.
Fifth item: The cats keep bringing in crickets and grasshoppers and slowly killing them, occasionally eating them as well. Ew. I'm sick of stepping on the dead ones, and I try to take the live ones outside as often as I can, though usually they're missing a back leg. Cats are so damn cruel. I suppose it's better than lizards and frogs, which we had earlier in the season. Some of these were wise enough to play dead so that the kitties lost interest in them, and we sent them back out into the wild with our good wishes.
Sixth item: Strange forces are at work. At Hobby Lobby the other day, I saw so many beautiful little patches and things, especially with a five-petaled flower motif, that I'm wondering whether Fate and Destiny and Things That Are Just Meant To Be are having a little fun with me. :) That is, a five-petaled flower is exactly what's involved with the logo for my nascent company, Plumeria Media, which will be the media empire tine of my Fork O World Domination. Anyway, the patches were so irresistable that I had to buy them. I will scan them in later...
Seventh item: My jaw doesn't hurt anymore! Thank goodness. It was making me quite miserable, on top of all my other stresses. I guess now I'll have to be wary of the TMJ issues coming back again. I guess it's part of getting old - your list of recurrent medical issues just keeps getting longer and longer. Speaking of which, I'll be thirty in just under two weeks. Holy cow!
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2002-04-29
I got a new digicam! It's a mini pencam, and it can supposedly take much better pictures than the one I've got. I say supposedly because we haven't gotten the thing to work yet.
The manufacturers, in their infinite wisdom, elected not to include a driver file with the thing. Gee. Hmm...
Oh yeah, and if you download the file from their website that claims to have drivers in it, you will find to your dismay (as I did) that there are not, in fact, any drivers located therein.
Sigh.
Anyway, David is a knight in shining armor when it comes to this kind of thing, and he's bravely fought the thing and managed to get it to work on one of his Win2K boxen. He'd rather that it worked on a different box, but we're not quite there yet - it's not working on the second box, not sure why. Somehow, we'll figure it out.
And if it sucks, meaning the picture quality is too lame, we'll take the damn thing back.
It's a bummer that in all this wrangling to try to get the thing to work, we managed to delete all the test pictures we had in it, which is a shame because I had snapped a couple pictures of this HUGE centipede that David unearthed in the yard when he tipped over one of the dog tubs. The thing was like eight inches long, and took many savage blows from a very large rock for David to kill it (I'm so glad I have him around for this kind of thing).
Ah well.
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2002-03-23
I found 'em! Aha! these are what I'm talking about! "Color Mix-Up" is what they call 'em. Now, don't anybody bid on these, or I'll get cranky. :)
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2002-03-23
Roll your own box o crayons: Whoa, cool! You can order a customized box of 64 crayons from Crayola.com's store. Okay, so it's $8.99, but it's a cool concept. Imagine - you could have sixteen sky blues and blacks and never run out!
[Later]... Dang, I see you can only put four different colors in the box. How bogus! But I did also find this Top 50 Favorite Crayons Commemorative Edition Pack Thingie, which looks pretty cool, though it's pricey. Hmm. I'm looking for those variegated color crayons I saw a year or two ago, but they don't seem to be there. Guess I'll have to dig deeper. If anyone knows what I'm talking about or where to find them, please let me know. (The variegated ones had tiny little specks of all sorts of colors blended into one crayon, and they made the neatest looking shades...)
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2002-02-16
New sandals:
I bought some new sandals today for an outrageously high price. But of course they're expensive - they're *European*!
Okay, okay. I'm certainly not hoity-toity. But I shop for shoes at the same place as such people do.
Two years ago I went to Karavel Shoes on Burnet Road and said to them "Show me what you've got in my size". The shoe salesman came out with a pair of Clarks and it was a match made in heaven. Alas, I have loved my sandals so much that I basically ran them into the ground. They served me well, and comfortably, to boot.
Today I returned there to see what I could get in a backstrap sandal that would fit me, and settled on some black Wolkys. There's a bit of breaking in to be done, unfortunately (I got a blister on my left pinky toe walking around at Walmart with David afterwards). I do expect these new sandals to last me a few years, though. I just wish they weren't so darned expensive. Oh, well. Guess I had better get a job, eh?
I pontificated a bit to David in the car that we overfed American consumers aren't used to things like shoes being expensive because the ones we buy are usually made in Indonesia or other places where people are living in conditions we would find abhorrent.
It was just one of those moments of clarity, when I realized that my fancy European sandals were so damned expensive at least partially because they were made in a country where people have subsidized healthcare and a decent standard of living. It's so easy for us to forget, it's so invisible... sometimes you have to just make a point of noticing how much of the ease of our existence comes at the expense of someone else working in a factory.
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2002-02-09
Have chair, will travel:
Ahhh! My sweetheart, David, has gotten me a Valentine's Day present a little bit early: a computer chair! Okay, so it's not an Aeron or anything, but it's *quite* nice, and I'm very pleased with it. We just finished putting it together. It's got armrests and a high back, and it can tilt back and roll. Utter coolness! I'm very happy with this wonderful gift. :)
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2001-12-10
Hey look, my dad founded the internet!
Well, okay, not really. Just a guy with the same name (well, *almost* the same - my dad has a different middle initial). Pretty interesting, I suppose. I came to that page from a page at thinkgeek with posters of the early internet that Daniel pointed me to. I wandered around there and found this cool button that says "90% of being smart is knowing what you're dumb at". I like that. I also like this cool perl sticker. I'm not sure what I would stick it on if I had one, however. Maybe my car? I am a little wary, since my car has never had anything stuck on it before. Well... not on the outside, anyway. It's just got my little clingy Colorado School of Mines emblem on the inside back windshield. And then there's my American flag... Let me tell you about my American flag. It's the coolest flag in the known universe. It lays flat on the horizontal surface behind the back seats. It's made of this corrugated plastic stuff, and it's got the traditional red stripes and blue field, but the parts that are usually white are this reflective silvery stuff that they have on holographic stickers. What this means is that when the sun hits it, it reflects really beautiful colors. It's hard to describe, but it's gorgeous. I'll be driving along and notice that it's reflecting, say, deep green ranging to blue. Then I'll turn right and it'll shift towards red and orange. I'll turn left and it'll go through blue and green and all the way over to purple. It's just plain lovely. It was sort of an accident how it came to be in the position where I could see the colors. I originally had it propped up with some beanie babies that someone gave me, so that it could be seen through the window. Then Elena saw the beanie babies and grabbed them. It turned out perfectly, I think. :)
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2001-04-08
I went to Houston today:
or rather, yesterday, since it's now 1:40am. It was a loooong day, but a good one. I left just before 7, and got back a bit before seven. In between were 5-6 hours of driving, an hour and a half or so of good hard paddling with some new friends (but not too hard), shopping for a plumeria tree (got a nice one), and braving the crowds at Ikea to secure some bookshelves for myself. I made it back, safe and sound and tired, and took a nap. I had many adventures, and if I tell them all this weblog will turn into more of a diary thing than a weblog thing, which I guess it is anyway since I don't really surf the net these days. I don't even read my favorite weblogs - I've just got too much going on. I'm sure I'll get back into the groove again later, but for now I'm trying to whip this old body into shape, and spend my computer time working on thirdhand. Not to mention that I've got my life to organize, and I've gotta get going with some kind of income here before I blast through *all* of my savings. Hmm, I give myself until I get back from Seattle at the end of May, then I've gotta get the $$ coming in. Until then I get to play and get in shape and organize and code code code. I haven't been doing much if any coding lately, but it's funny because while I've been doing other things, I have thought about the project and realized that certain things are much simpler than I had previously imagined. I'm also making tons of progress on this figuring-out-the-universe lifelong thing that I've been working on, oh, since I was born, in one form or another. I'm starting to understand that all is number, and the nature of the void that began everything. The world I live in now is a beautiful and magical one. I relish the thought of being able to watch it unfold all the days of my life, with my new perspective. I still have so much to learn, but now I also have something to teach, so I will definitely be doing lots of writing on the topic, and probably self-publishing a book at some point. Or maybe I'll publish it commercially and get all rich & famous and stuff. :) I don't have to decide right now. I put together my bookshelves tonight, and now I've got 33 inches times fifteen shelves equals 495 inches worth of shelf space. Woo hoo! Tomorrow I'll do lots of organizing, and probably some coding too. I've gone too long without making a serious dent in the stuff I want to get implemented. I've got to make sure that I really stick to it, because this project is important to me, if only for the fact that I want a place to store all my info where it won't get bemangled. I've got two new cd's that I really love, one is Bob Schneider's Lonelyland, and the other is Eliza Gilkyson's Hard Times In Babylon. I listened to both of them twice today. It will be nice listening more and learning all the words and letting it sink in more. Dang, I'm tired. I suppose I should head back to bed. Oh, that annoying obnoxious Anonymous Judger person wrote back, with typical ... obnoxiousness. I decided I want them to go away, so I'm not going to reward their snottiness by publishing it or reacting to it directly. So, doofus, take the freakin' hint already, okay? Go bug somebody else, or go figure out why you're giving me such a hard time. I'm moving on with my life in a good happy positive direction - why are you trying to drag me down? Yeesh. Go do something productive like pick at your toenails or something. Please. Me, I've got a bazillion fun things to do, I think I'll let worrying about you drop right the hell off my list. Okay, it's definitely time to head back to sleep - it's hard to keep my eyes open now. I will just state for the record that I understand the story The Dot And The Line now, and I see it played out everywhere. One of my many jobs is to help people see it. Trust me, it's... exquisite. I see the pattern in the chaos now. It's a loose, fun, dancy pattern, but if you look right, you can see it whenever you want to. Actually... whenever you believe. It's magic like that. Really. :)
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2001-04-04
I got a new guitar case:
for my guitar today, and it *rocks*. It fits perfectly and snugly, and it's much more rigid than the other case I had. I even transferred the sticker from my old case to the new one. The sticker is a red & white bumper sticker from the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, where my parents both learned to play the guitar. It was important to me to keep that sticker on there - it reminds me of where the guitar came from, and so on. My dad gave the guitar to me a few years ago, but I haven't played it much. I hope to remedy that soon, starting now, actually. I played a bit the other night, going over all the chords I (sort of) knew, trying to play a couple of songs from the songbook (also from the Old Town School - my dad gave me a copy of the whole thing, which is very, very cool). I sort of almost kinda did Greensleaves. Not to any degree that I'd perform it in front of another person, mind you. I'm a total beginner at this. Tonight I played just a little bit when I was transferring it to the new case, and I felt... much more dexterity than I had before, and my fingers already have a bit of callous that made it all easier. I think as part of my transformation thing, I have more musical ability. What a lovely bonus! I think I may need to get hooked up with some guitar lessons here somewhere... this is Austin, it should be easy to find a place with lessons, or someone to take lessons from. Hmmm...
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2001-02-17
I got a new monitor today:
and there was much rejoicing! Yay!!! I decided to apply my store credit towards a name brand monitor this time, instead of just getting a trade for the cheap, cheesy monitor. I've got a ViewSonic now, let's hope it doesn't decide to die on me.
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2001-01-30
Mine, mine, all mine!
Well, not until I get confirmation from them that they got my check... I just faxed a check for my first month's payment for Parcel 25 in the Cherry Creek property at OzarkLand.com. I am not making this up. It's located in Phelps County, Missouri, very close to the Mark Twain National Forest. And, needless to say, I'm thrilled. I've thought about buying a little piece of land for a long time, and I found this website yesterday, where this fellow is selling all sorts of land in the Ozarks for no money down. I took a look at the whole site, familiarized myself with what was available, and reassured myself that it wasn't a scam of some sort. The guy seems quite forthright and scrupulous, and even has a wry sense of humor. I even checked out the neighbors' web pages. I just got a good vibe from the whole thing. So I will now be the owner (after 15 years of payments, unless I pay it all off sooner) of 6 acres of land, with lots of hardwood trees, a sloping hill down to a stream which borders the back of the property, and even a small spring. How cool is that? Plus, there are these neato boulders that stick out of the ground - I'm sure my future goats will appreciate that immensely, since they love to clamber upon such things (and it'll keep their hooves from getting too long, as well). Sure, it's going to take me awhile to figure out how and where to build a little house, get a septic system, driveway, well, etc. It might take years, that's okay. I am not sure if I would live there full time until I retired or something, but I certainly don't have to decide right now. At the very least it will be a quiet place where I can see the stars, and just know that I Belong. With a capital "B". Maybe it'd just be a fun vacation cottage for me & family & friends to use now and then... that's okay, too. I'm sure I'll write lots more on this later. I'm a little worried that someone could have bought this parcel before me, and they just haven't had a chance to remove it from the ones available on their website yet. That's okay - I can pick another one that's available in that property if I want to. Or from one of the dozens of other properties they handle.
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2001-01-29
Take my George Foreman grill, please!:
I finally tried the thing out this weekend, and well, it sucked. (It looks like Sarah Bruner likes hers a lot, though). For me, this was what was involved: - The raised metal ridges that produce the grill-lines cause the meat to be overcooked (burned) and dried out wherever they touch. Not good.
- It doesn't actually drain much grease. I cooked about 1.25 lbs of 85% lean ground beef, and only about three drops of grease dripped out. There was plenty of grease left in the burgers, which got all over the plate I set them on afterwards.
- The meat was undercooked in the middle. Really. With all the heat directed at the parts of the burger contacting the ridges, the middle loses out, much more so than when cooked on a traditional flat surface griddle. I'm sure if I knew more about heat transfer, I would be able to explain exactly why this happens.
- It splattered grease all over the counter, via the open sides.
So... I'm going to look for a new home for the thing. Used once, and that was one time too many. Good thing I only spent twenty bucks on it. And to replace it, I'm going to get a standard covered electric skillet. It can cook four burgers at once (instead of only two), has a lid so it won't splatter all over, and it will cook them more evenly (plus, you can make onion soup in it). And I'll do my usual maneuver of soaking up the grease with paper towels - this is far more effective than the George Foreman grill's techniques. Feh! It's going out, out, out of my house!
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2001-01-26
I got an electronics kit yesterday:
From Radio Shack, of course. I was out shopping while they did my safety inspection, and I got a little Y-audio cable (highway robbery at $5) so that I could use my headphones at work without having to unplug my speakers. Then I wandered around looking for the electronics kits... My brother had one when we were little, which was fun but a little cheesy. "50 in 1 Electronic Project Thingie" or something like that. So I look and I found this puppy. It's state of the art. It kicks serious butt! I can't wait to start playing with it. It's even got a *breadboard*. Really. See, I started out in college at the Colorado School of Mines majoring in Electrical Engineering. But I fizzled out quickly as soon as I took an actual Electrical Engineering class and realized that I hated it. So I transferred to CU-Boulder and majored in computer science. As a requirement I had to take a class where we did various complicated electronics lab stuff, involving HP computers and little chips on a breadboard. You can probably tell how much I learned. I think I got a D in that class. Undeserved - I should have failed it. Over the years I have been meaning to learn about electronics, so I can build a simple little blinkenbox for Elena - something with LEDs and buttons she can press to make them light up. She *loves* that kind of thing. Looking at the books for this kit, it's just *amazing*. It's got all the usual stuff, but it's incredibly detailed. There are two big books - one for basic circuits, and one for the digital logic projects (using ICs and all that fancy stuff). Wow. This is going to be *lots* of fun. And it shouldn't take me too long to be able to figure out how to make a blinkenbox. I might have to get a soldering gun at some point. The only soldering I've ever done was while messing around with my then-boyfriend Keith's soldering gun at the School of Mines. I pretty much focused on soldering pennies together. It took awhile, but it was fun. Apparently. And I also enjoyed the many trips we'd make to various little obscure electronics stores where he'd shop for parts for one or another of his assignments. I loved the little anodized aluminum heat sinks - they looked like little bugs or something, and were quite beautiful. And I loved the funky lights and switches and so on, some with obscure Cyrillic lettering on them (Russian surplus?), or nifty lights embedded in them, and that kind of thing. These are the type of thing I'll be looking for to make Elena's blinkenbox. Keith was (and is) a Real Electrical Engineer - he works for Texas Instruments (at least he did when last we spoke, a couple years ago). He's always been clever with design and electronics, among other magnificent talents, such as welding. Which brings me to one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Keith grew up in Holly, Colorado (where they used to make sugar from beets under the Holly Sugar brand), and his dad was/is a farmer. He learned how to weld at an early age. When he got a pickup truck, he bought it without a bumper. Because, you see, he and his dad were going to *make* their own bumper, and make it they did... This bumper looked like a normal bumper, except it wasn't - it was hollow and featured an air valve with a pressure dial on it. They made it airtight and capable of holding air at high pressure for long periods of time. So Keith was always able to refill his tires wherever he went (or assist another person to refill theirs, because he's that kind of person - he'd help anybody). I just thought this was cooler than sliced bread. I still do. Absolutely brilliant. And it thwarted a prank at the School of Mines... I'm not sure what started it, but apparently Keith and his roomie Wayne and maybe a few other people had pissed off a friend of theirs named Nelson. Nelson took revenge by letting the air out of all four of Keith's tires. This was silly, since it took Keith about five minutes to fill them back up. :) This reminds me, I should call Keith again. I hope he still lives in Dallas. When I last spoke to him, he was happily married to Helen (a woman who lived on the same floor in my dorm at Mines), and had a one-year old daughter named Elizabeth. What a lovely name! :) And of course, since then I've had a daughter named Elena, which is a form of the name Helen. Interesting (and no, not done on purpose). So I really must ring him up and visit sometime. He's such a great guy, I hope everything is going well with him & his family these days...
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2001-01-15
I am a total geek:
When I learned that Singer came out with a new sewing machine controlled with a Game Boy (via Girlhacker), I thought it was terrific, since I just so happened to be in the market for one. My old sewing machine is now ten years old, and having served me well, it nevertheless can't do spiffy things like letters and little duckies-inna-row, which are absolutely essential for making cute little outfits for Elena (and for her dollies). So, me being me, can you guess how long I waited after finding out that the Singer Izek existed that I bought one? Answer: the next day. And it's *sweet*! Here's a little taste of what it can do:  That last line is me experimenting with a combination of two different stitches. I have only gotten to play with it for a little while, but already I have a bullet list to share with you: - You have to have the Game Boy connected to control anything about the stitch. Including the length of it, if you're just doing straight stitch. So it's very important not to lose your Game Boy (or lose track of it, say if someone borrows it to play a game). I can foresee many annoyed seamstresses if their spouses and/or children dare to borrow Mom's Game Boy and not return it to her sewing basket! Heh, what an image!
- There's no manual. The videotape that came with it refers repeatedly to the manual, but there ain't one. There was, though, a very nice inspection slip in the box listing all four items that were included: the machine itself, the Game Boy, the Game Boy cartridge, and the videotape. All were neatly checked off on the list. I dunno why they didn't include a manual. Maybe I'll have to bug Singer about it, but I'm not sure whether there's really much point to it - I would like to have a manual, but I understand everything already even without one. As are most technically-savvy persons of my generation (and of some other generations), I am quite able to figure out new gadgets sans manual. But I still like to pore through them for unsuspected features and so on (and occasionally, I have found them essential, particularly for things with really sparse interfaces, namely my Canon ELPH APS camera).
- When it seizes up and jams, it does so gently. :) I mis-replaced the bobbin-holding thingie, thus causing a thread monstrosity and much "ka-chunk"-ing to emit from the machine, after which point it gracefully decided that I was nuts, refused to keep attempting to run, and gave me a spiffy little error message on the Game Boy screen. That's cool! Graceful failure modes are fabulous...
- In addition to the generous set of patterned stitches that it comes with, I can also do custom ones. I haven't really tried it yet - my first effort was a smiley face that came out all warped because I didn't bother to connect the line segments (well, it wouldn't have been much of a smiley face that way). Look for more intriguing stitches here in the future!
- The speed control (for operation without the foot pedal) has a little turtle at the slow end and a bunny at the fast end. Hahahhaha, I love it! I like the pedal-less operation feature, it's nice to just press the "go" button and have it sew away. Of course, I wouldn't walk away from the machine after doing so, but in theory, you could. Oh, and the go/stop button has little LEDs in it, so it changes from green (when it's a "go" button) to red (when it's a "stop" button). Cool! Saves interface real estate, and it's intuitive signaling.
- The feed dogs don't come up right away after I take off and replace the metal plate thingie. I think it's a machining-tolerance thing. That is, the gap between the feed dogs and their slots is so small, that they can sometimes catch the edge. They do come up after I mess with the lever a bit, though, so it's not a problem. By the way, feed dogs are the thingies that shove the fabric forward as you sew, if you didn't know.
- I'm going to have to get an AC adapter for the Game Boy, or else I'm going to be spending a fortune on batteries. I wish they had included one... I mean, think about it: you've pretty much got to keep the Game Boy on when you're sewing, which can be hours and hours at a stretch. Wait, I could be wrong. You may be able to turn it off after you download your stitch parameters, I'll have to test it out.
- You can save your favorite stitches, including four custom ones, and several strings in the lettering section. Spiffy!
- Overall, the interface is clean, simple, and elegant. Very, very good design. The Game Boy interface is quite intuitive as well. It's about as complex as it needs to be, and no more. Perfect. Except for the fact that every time I have to turn it on, I have to select English - why can't it remember that?
- Oh yeah, it was about $600. Not bad for what it can do. From what I could see, other machines that can do this range of stuff range from $800 to $1000 or more, so I think it's really quite a good buy. It's quite smart to use the Game Boy platform for a lot of the stitch configuration legwork - it allows them to use a tried and tested hardware & software platform rather than reinvent their own onboard the sewing machine (which they've already done, but still...)
I really, really like it. The people who came up with this are quite clever indeed. It makes sense, since they've been doing this for 150 years! There's a neat "Singer 150th Anniversary" logo on it on the front - 1851 - 2001. Wow. And if you're wondering why I don't put this at epinions as a review, it's because I can't stand the idea of someone else owning my content. Those things just *bug* me for some reason. Same reason I won't do book reviews at Amazon, though I'll read them. I won't give away my writing so that someone else can sell it (for a lot of money) and pay me diddly-squat (pennies at best). If there were a good place for such things that wouldn't do that (or excise URLs pointing elsewhere from what you write), that was noncommercial, then I might consider it, but there isn't. Anyway, I'll close this with a few more stitches:  And I'll also mention that I did a *HUGE* amount of clearing-away-of-Stuff so that I could justify getting to play with my sewing machine. I went through tons of boxes, put up shelves in the garage, and sorted like crazy, to get to a point where I can sort of manage my Stuff. I'm not done, but I have slogged through an entire room full of disorganized Stuff that is now filtered at least.
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2000-12-21
You think *you* got it bad?
Well, at least you're not an Indonesian woman working in a factory for Nike, facing humiliation and inhumane treatment when you ask for your legally protected unpaid "menstrual leave" of two days per month. Not to mention being denied a bathroom break (or the horribly inadequate numbers of bathrooms). What total scumbags. It sickens me that people can treat others this way. Sad to say, this kind of thing doesn't surprise me so much anymore. When all that matters is Profit, what's a little human dignity? This is the environment of fear and injustice that is created by multinational corporations concerned solely with maximizing profits. An environment where tens of thousands of women bleed through their clothes every month because they associate greater pain with asking permission to go to the bathroom than with sitting in clothes saturated with blood.
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2000-12-21
Drool. I want I want I want!!!
I absolutely *must* have one of these laser cutters. It's only $14,000.00, plus $500 shipping. This is *perfect* for my needs! I guess I'll have to save my pennies for quite a while to be able to afford it. But once I do, then I can at least partially make a living off of the spiffy stuff I can make with it. Cool!
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2000-12-19
Oh my, what an interesting name this product has:
If I hadn't seen it, I might not have believed it. Came across it while shopping at Campmor. I just got a whole bunch of cold-weather stuff for us, since we're going to go skiing when we're in Colorado.
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2000-12-19
New toy! New toy! So I finally got one o them combination webcam & low-end digital cameras. I decided I couldn't wait for the Logitech Quickcam Traveler to come out, so I got the Intel Pocket PC Camera. It kicks butt! Just what I wanted, I'm very pleased. It can take about a hundred pix at 640 x 480 resolution, and about two hundred at 320 x 240. There is no lcd on it, and no flash, but I think it works very well. Here's a picture I took of Elena (shrunk so it's not so huge):  It's definitely quite serviceable for my needs. Keep in mind that I'm the kind of person who for years couldn't hear the difference between cassette tapes and cd's (and even now it doesn't really bug me). So pictures that are pretty darn good are good enough for me, at least for now. To me, it's good enough if you can make out what's in the picture and any rough spots aren't major enough to dampen your enjoyment of the picture. Anyway, look for lots more pix as time goes on. From yesterday, I present to you:
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2000-12-12
AHA! I found it!
I saw a slot for something that they didn't have yesterday at Best Buy that sounded intriguing - the Quickcam Traveler. I want one! But no one has it in stock. It should be in on January 15, 2001. I'm guessing it hasn't shipped yet. Doh! Ah well, guess I have to wait. No biggie.
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2000-12-11
I'm changing my look:
Yes, that's right, my wardrobe is becoming much, much blacker. I don't know, maybe it was watching the Matrix the last time that put me over the edge, but now it's black, black, black, black, and black for me. Well, not entirely - I still enjoy wearing nice solid-color t-shirts. Anyway, so I have three black t-shirts now, and two pairs of black fuzzy pants (polar fleece - one thick and one thinner). And of course I've brought my Doc Martens out of the garage where they've been sitting for over two years. I'm wearing them again today. It's going to take me a while to learn how to walk in them normally, but I'm getting there. Once they're truly fully broken in it will be easier. Anyway, so on Saturday, there I am at Sam's Club, and I see this leather jacket. Hmm, thinks I, let me see how I look in it. I tried it on and liked it, but since I was already spending close to $200, I balked at getting it. So I thought and thought and thought about it after I got home, and decided that suddenly I really really wanted it. So on Sunday, I found out when they opened, and got there as soon as I could after they had. Unfortunately, the jacket wasn't there, and I was very, very disappointed. I talked to the very nice clothing expert lady, and asked if they'd be getting in any more shipments. She told me no, that this was it, and after Xmas they'd be filling up with warm-weather clothes. Damn! So I then asked her if there were other Sam's Clubs in town. Sure enough, there were two. So I headed to the northern one, and rushed inside. To my delight, there was a table full of these ladies' black leather coats right at the front. I found a style I liked, not quite as much as the other one, but still quite good. They had two in my size, so I picked the one with the collar that didn't have a weird crease in it. And then... I went and looked at: the black leather pants. Yes, yes, I confess, I did. And I tried on the biggest size they had (over my shorts - there are no changing rooms at Sam's Club), a 14. They were quite tight and I couldn't zip them, but I decided to get them anyway. See, a 14 is the size I should fit into once I lose this extra weight I've got. I know, I know, buying small clothes and planning to lose weight to get into them is utter folly, and I agree. But I just had to have them. This is so, so unlike me. I mean, black leather?!?!?! *Me*?!??! You gotta be kidding. But no more - this is the New Me, and it kicks ass. I look *good* in black. Well, I think so anyway. I love my new jacket. It's royally cool. I tried on the pants at home and managed to zip 'em up, and they were *nice*. I didn't do anything imprudent such as bend over or attempt to sit in them (lest they split), but I could see the clear potential of how great they'd look once I lose the extra weight. Maybe, just maybe, this is enough motivation to get me started back on the right track. I dunno. We'll see. What it comes down to, though, is that they were too good and too cheap to pass up. The jacket is $99, and the pants were $79. Can't beat it! Oh yeah, I also went nuts and got the Star Wars trilogy on video ($28), and three more videos for Elena: Toy Story, Alice in Wonderland, and My Neighbor Totoro (a total bargain at a mere $6!). So in the past two days, I've spent almost $475 at Sam's Club. Good lord, stop me before I spend again!
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2000-12-11
I ordered MacAlias
from Abcd's here in town. I looked at like four different places, and none of them had it. At Abcd's, they told me they could order it for me, and it would be no extra charge. So I'll give them my money instead of Amazon, who annoy me. I'll have to wait a week, but who cares? I'd have to wait a long time for it to be shipped from Amazon anyway. So, I'm doing a little better at patronizing local businesses, which makes me feel good. I could still do better, though. Oh yeah, I also got the KGSR broadcasts vol 8 cd, which has 48 (!) songs on 3 cd's, for 15 bucks. Every year they put out a cd of artists who have performed in their studio (usually kind of mellow music, lots of guitar, overall), and the proceeds go to a foundation that helps provide low-cost health care for the Austin music community. All-around cool thing, I think. Plus, the music kicks serious ass and is not available elsewise. They sell out every year, so I'm glad I got mine before they were out. I also have volumes 5, 6, and 7, which are excellent as well (and which were cheaper, but had fewer songs).
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2000-12-11
Just mebbe, I might:
Get a low-end digital camera. The one I really want to get is the Canon Elph S10 (I already have a Canon Elph 370Z APS camera which I like quite a bit), but I am just not ready to spend $500 bucks for a digital camera. I am hoping the price comes down on this puppy, then I might buy. A good sign: Canon has released two more expensive models so far, so I might eventually get lucky. In the interim, I am looking for a combination webcam/low-end digital camera. Maybe. I dunno though, still researching.
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2000-12-07
I got my Pets.com sock puppets!!!
And they are oh so cool. You really should be jealous. I actually only took one out of the box, so that the other two can remain Mint In Box for future generations to be bilked for large sums of money. Either that, or to serve as particularly precious gifts for people who mean a whole heck of a lot to me and who feel the same way about the Pets.com sock puppet as I do. That is, in the future sometime, perhaps. Only if someone does something really incredibly nice for me, like save my life, maybe. I brought it to work, so that its clever witticisms might brighten the day of my cow orkers, which it has served quite admirably to do. I like to squeeze its little mouth now and then and hear it talk to me, it makes me smile. - "Hang on, Dino! We're coming HOOooooOOOooome!"
- "I'm here to play with the tabby cat."
- "I like your shorts! You're a good lookin' fella."
- "Oh wow, you've got a stuffed thing. I love stuffed things!"
- "Look. I'm a professional Happy Puppet Thing."
I just thought of a great question for an incredibly difficult trivia contest or scavenger hunt: What time is it on the Pets.com sock puppet's watch? And what day? No, I'm not going to tell you the answer. Buy your own sock puppet, there are a ton of them on eBay! (at least for now). Be as cool as me! BUY BUY BUY BUY!!!
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2000-12-01
Damn, it's a good thing...
that I don't hang around eBay often. I just won three of the darn things. :) I'm happy, but yikes, I went a little crazy, I think. Ah well, I'll keep two in the boxes and pack 'em away for Elena to sell twenty years from now to pay the cost of her college education. Heh!
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2000-11-29
Neat gift idea:
Personally, I'd choose the goat. But that's just me, I'm partial to goats. I like this idea - a gift that can really help people in poor areas *do something for themselves* to get into a better economic situation, instead of just a handout that will be gone next month.
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2000-11-23
This looks nifty:
The Droplift Project has an interesting idea - make cds, then drop 'em off in music stores. Heh! I like the concept. And being a linguo-geek, I just love the name.
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2000-11-22
My buckwheat-hull pillow is my new best friend:
after only two nights with the thing, I'm utterly in love with it. It's *so* comfy. I can't believe I waited so long to get one. It's everything a pillow should be. I just lay my head in it, wiggle back and forth once or twice, and I'm perfectly cradled, all forces evenly distributed. If you've been considering one, I tell ya, don't wait! You deserve a pillow this good. Everyone does. (your mileage may vary, however)
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2000-11-22
Just bought a new cell phone!
and it's oh-so-cute! I've been looking at the accessories which are available, and they look a bit pricey. Yikes. $20 for a colored faceplate? I don't think so. It looks pretty with the blue that it's got, actually. I do like the little flashing puppy that alerts you when you get a call (and your ringer is either off or there is too much noise around for you to hear it), and the talk-through waterproof pouch, which would definitely be nifty to have while I go canoeing. The belt clip is essential, but they're on backorder now. Ah, well. Guess I'll add 'em to my xmas list.
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2000-11-21
My Doc Martens
have recently re-entered negotiations with my feet, after a hiatus of over two years. I never really broke them in properly, and so there's a lot of work to be done before the boots and my feet come to a mutally acceptable agreement. I like them a lot, though, and I've missed them, so I'll be glad when everyone can get along okay. By the way, the boots are black, simple, and have two extra holes than the standard model. Just in case you're quizzed on it.
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2000-11-21
Bad news:
I got turned down for a credit card, with a very brutal letter. Sigh. I got horrifically into debt several years ago, and then paid everything off, bit by bit. I am currently out of debt (unless you count the house mortgage, which isn't even in my name), but there is still crap on my credit report. Some of the crap I earned and it's fair that it's there, but some of it is due to my ex-husband, for stuff that should be listed under his name alone, but for some reason isn't. I have the divorce decree saying which debts are whose, but I haven't clobbered the credit bureaus over the head with it. Yet. So now, I am ordering credit reports, and setting myself the task of cleaning up my credit as well as I can. This is going to take awhile, I know. But it sure as hell isn't going to get done unless and until I bite the bullet and just do it. Expect further updates on this continuing saga as events slowly warrant. I'm worried I won't be able to get any kind of new credit for a long time, even though I'm a Good Citizen who paid off her debts instead of declaring bankruptcy (I was considering it, y'know). So I might have to get one of those embarrassing "secured" credit cards. Ugh. How unsavory. Oh well, if it helps me to be in a position where I can get a new car or a travel trailer, so be it. Time to get crackin'!
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2000-11-21
Man, that just plain HURTS!
I decided to see what kind of trade-in value I could get for my old Honda Accord (1989, LX-i, 194k miles, fair condition), at Kelley Blue Books, and it came back with: $865.00 Ouch. Geez, it'd be worth more in parts. Guess we'll just keep it around as an extra family car, which will be useful when we move back to Colorado. *Sigh*. Of course, it was worth a lot more retail, but that didn't take into account the fact that it does have various scrapes on it, a broken antenna, etc. Bah.
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2000-11-20
Some gift-buying done already:
I got the Jump-o-lene for Elena at Bed Bath & Beyond, as well as a nice buckwheat pillow for myself. I can't wait to try it out! I've been wanting one of these things for years. I also got myself a Tracy Chapman cd (Telling Stories). I think this year, I'll just buy a bunch of gifts, list them along with their approximate prices, and family members can choose to "sponsor" a gift and give me money towards it. Saves a lot of time, effort, & energy, I think. I'd rather spend the holidays talking with my family, seeing movies together, and having a good time, rather than shopping. Of course, everyone loves a surprise gift here and there, so I'm willing to participate in that as well, I just think this gift-sponsorship program idea is a good one. We'll see if anyone wants to do it (we've been discussing simplifying our xmas gift-giving this year already).
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2000-10-12
Oooo, color me jealous!
Somebody made a portable Atari 2600. Oooooo, I want one! But I'd have to build it myself. Hmm, I've always wanted to learn about electronics...
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2000-09-19
I need a paddle bag:
And these look pretty good. I love the wild Hawaiian print. I only need one that will hold one paddle, and then I can sew on some extra velcro/elastic and a little pocket at the bottom so I can tote my iakos and rudder as well.
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2000-09-18
Be jealous of my hot new purchases!
I recently got some stuff from Campmor, sellers of camping & outdoorsy-type products. - Magik Set picnic set has full service for 6, and comes in a spiffy space-age container! (Looks kind of like Saturn, sort of). I can't wait to have a picnic and try it out.
- Timex turn & pull alarm watch. I've wanted one of these ever since I saw their cool hip retro-style ads. It's great! I love the flashing Indiglo when the alarm goes off.
- Timex kid's watch with pretty flowers. The band is elastic, so Elena can put it over her wrist easily. It's really neat looking, too. Hey, for less than $6, it can't be beat! (The trick will be keeping it from getting lost/destroyed until she's old enough to truly make use of it).
For a limited time (until the stocks of these sale items run out), you can be as cool as me by buying the same things! Enjoy!
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2000-09-13
I am a slave to Lands' End Overstocks:
Every time they send me a catalog, I find myself ordering something. I just can't help it, I tell you! I have no free will in this regard. I just ordered three shirts (on sale of course). Sigh.
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2000-09-06
Those Amazon hosers are at it again:
This time, they're charging different prices on some DVDs. !! Depends on what browser you're using, whether or not you're a returning customer, etc. Way to go, people will really trust you now. I just wish there were a decent alternative to Amazon. I've had less-than-great experiences with other online booksellers. Sigh.
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2000-09-06
A different kind of cruise...
can be had on a cargo ship. They say it's relaxing, and you can go for weeks and weeks at a time. Sounds really fascinating. I think it would be fun. Of course I couldn't really afford it myself, but it's a nice idea.
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2000-09-06
In the market for a really really HUGE boat?
Then you should take a look at these ships and vessels for sale. These are probably the most expensive things I've ever seen for sale on the internet, to date. Joke stuff on Ebay doesn't count.
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2000-09-06
More info on freighter cruises:
These folks specialize in them, and there are also epinions about them. Spiffy.
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2000-08-30
Interview with Scott McCloud:
From the Onion, this interview with the esteemed Mr. McCloud is pretty spiffy. People talk about the new economy all the time, but there really is no new economy until we're selling bits. You can sell atoms, you can sell eyeballs, or you can sell bits, and the web is only half there as long as we're only selling atoms and eyeballs--as long as it's just physical objects and advertising. The real new economy comes when the zeroes and ones are actually worth something, and there's actually a means to pay for them in small amounts. Until then, it's just the old economy running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
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2000-08-25
Fatbrain loses a customer:
Here's a copy of a letter I just sent to fatbrain.com's customer service: Hello,I ordered some books on July 21st (it's now August 25th), including the latest Harry Potter book. I received the other two books, but not the Harry Potter book, which was inexplicably on back order (I didn't see any information on limited availability when I made my order). After weeks upon weeks of waiting for this book, seeing stacks of it up to my neck in every bookstore (including at the airport), I finally just bought it from Barnes & Noble, in person.I have no need for the copy in my order below, so please give me a refund for the purchase price.I'm not a satisfied customer anymore, but I really REALLY wanted to be!Some things that might have helped me to be satisfied with your service:- Prominently displaying the TRUE availability of this book in the first place, when I made my order. I see that even now, I have to specifically request the individual page for this book to see that it's available in "3-4 weeks". Why can't someone at fatbrain go out and buy a couple cases of these books, to keep your customers happy? Inability to fulfill these orders is poisoning your future business, don't forget...- You could have sent me an apologetic message about the fact that it was on back order, and given me some kind of reasonable explanation about why you would offer a popular book for sale that you DID NOT HAVE IN STOCK. I really wanted to buy this book from YOU rather than the thousands of other retailers I could have chosen. If you weren't going to be able to fulfill your orders, you shouldn't have offered the book for sale. Did something go horribly wrong? Was this bad planning? Is your distributor causing the problem? What's the deal, and how come your customers don't even deserve an explanation?- You could have informed me that although I had to wait for the book, I would definitely have it by such-and-such a date. I have no idea how long it would take to get here if I decided not to cancel my order. Would I have to wait until 2002? You didn't give me any estimate of when the waiting would be over, so I gave up.- You could have told me "Look, sorry, we don't have the book, but we'll give you a big gift certificate (in excess of the book price) to keep you as a customer". I would gladly have accepted that for my trouble.As it is now, I'm back to using Amazon. I don't want to use Amazon, but I've found cruddy service with everything else (except for Bibliofind). If I want a book, quickly, and I want honesty and clarity about the book's availability, I have to choose Amazon or else be incredibly frustrated.Sorry, but it would take a LOT to win me back as a customer at this point. You had your chance...-Beth Roberts
p.s. If you need further information from me in order to process the refund, just let me know.
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2000-08-11
More on Greed:
Or actually, on just basically having a dollar sign plastered over every damn thing on the planet (to paraphrase Saint Bill). I'm just so sickened by it, but it's getting worse all the time. Recent examples: the naming rights for the new stadium in Denver - why oh why? Just because they think they can bilk someone out of $89 million dollars, they're going to auction the naming rights to the highest bidder. The old stadium actually had an identity of its own, Mile High. It was a city pride thing. Well, screw that, they say, what matters more is the almighty dollar (of course). At Elitch's (oh, sorry, "Six Flags Elitch Gardens", sheesh), the whole deal is that the rides are there to get you to spend 32 bucks to get in, so they can squeeze even more money out of you once you're inside, on those stupid games (with lame-ass prizes), and on exorbitantly-priced food (and of course it's VERBOTEN for you to bring in any of your own food). Oh yeah, and on stupid merchandise, too. Puhlease! Just give me a park with good rides, and forget all the crap and the bogus "themed" stuff. I don't care if there are Batman logos plastered all over, or if the Pepsi machines have customized Mind Eraser (the name of a rollercoaster there) fronts on them. Just a waste of money. Argh!!!!! And another Denver thing - the latest crop of cuddly cutesy polar bear cubs which have been given to another city were recently renamed, from some Inuit-related pair of words (one for each cub) to some other Inuit-related pair of words (ditto). Now, what they should have done, is auction off the naming rights for the cubs! Can you imagine, you could watch Coke and Pepsi duke it out on a faux iceberg and battle over fish encased in a block of ice. The scary thing is, they'll probably figure this out and do it with the next set of cubs...
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2000-08-11
On Greed:
I'm catching up on jwz's site, and I happen to like what he said about greed.
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2000-07-25
Speaking of gift ideas...
I sure would like a half-pint Klein bottle. It's only $30.
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2000-07-25
File under gift ideas:
Mini fiberglass outrigger canoes, made to scale! Wow, neato! Of course, no prices are listed, so I have no idea how much this would set you back. Remember my birthday's coming up soon, on August 3rd. :)
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