February 2004 Archives
It's a beautiful, crisp morning. It promises to be warm-ish this afternoon. I got my CD settlement check in the mail and my first company paycheck yesterday (which I totally thought I wasn't gonna get because I was a little late with some paperwork). I'm headed down to Madison to see my peeps, see the Nields, and have some fun (and try not to get too trashed this time).
Or I'll be heading out as soon as I pack and stop at the post office, gas station, bank, and McDonald's (mmm... McGriddle... :9).
This will be a blog-free weekend. Everybody have a good one!
I fucking forgot to tape Survivor last night. Summamabitch. *grumble* Guess I'll have to make do with the TWoP recap and the CBS recap. Dammit.
Angela suggested a couple weeks ago that a possible twist would be bringing in other past Survivors. I also saw a spoiler on the Survivor: All-Stars community on Orkut saying that the next tribe to lose the immunity challenge will be dissolved.
How is it that I got a whole day's sleep that was not in the least bit restful? I was home from work by 7, in bed by 9 (which is actually early-ish, addicted to the internet as I am), and the alarm went off at 4. But I know I woke up at least three or four times during the day. And I had this continuing dream that a girl I went to college with was featured in an article on Slate.
So now I'm trying to decide what to do about dinner, thinking about getting ready for work, having the same exhausted brain strain that I felt when I went to bed this morning, and reminding myself to double-check the VCR.
And I seem to be unable to hear much out of either ear. This is not abnormal, but usually at least one ear works upon waking and a little bit of tugging and poking gets the other one up and running in short order. Not so today. (Yes, they're clean, this keeps happening regardless. I probably ought to see somebody about that.)
Oh, and I need to leave for work right now.
Even though Michigan is known as the Wolverine State, Tuesday was the first time a wolverine has actually been spotted in the state.
"It was so big and beautiful. And it was so graceful. It had moves like Barry Sanders."
Heh.
... if it's okay to enjoy this joke, then go on ahead and laugh right out loud.
(via Buzz)
LONDON - Visitors to Britain will find a new stop on London’s site-seeing route this spring: a usable public toilet enclosed in one-way mirrored glass situated on a sidewalk near the River Thames. The contemporary art exhibit, which allows the user to see out while passers-by cannot peep in, toys with the concepts of privacy and voyeurism.
Oooohhh, I would totally do it! I might have to check and double check, and I might suffer from a bit of stage fright, but I am confident that I could drop trou with only a bit of hesitation. I'd probably be taking pictures whilst seated on the can. Cheap thrill, whatnot. It's probably a lot cleaner than most London public toilets. It certainly is on the outside:
Fascinating:
The ability to appreciate other people's agony is achieved by the same parts of the brain that we use to experience pain for ourselves.
They shocked a bunch of women's hands and took an MRI, which showed both sensory and emotional regions of the brain lit up. Then they made them watch their partner get shocked in the hand and took an MRI of that. The same emotional response showed from watching the shock, though it was reduced when they couldn't see the registration of pain on the face. The degree of emotional response increased as the emotional bond between partners increased.
(via Marginal Revolution)
I found out Sunday that my cousin was convicted and sent off to prison.
I looked him up in the Michigan Offender Tracking Information System. Looks like he was charged with three different counts of felony firearms possession and two different police officer assault charges. His earliest release date is listed as 8/14/2025. I'm guessing he got the minimum sentence (2 years) on one firearms possession charge, the maxium sentence (7.5 years) on another firearms possession charge, and the minimum sentence (12 years) for "Assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder." No idea on his parole status, though.
He looks like he's almost smirking in his mugshot. Which would be typical. He's such a hardass. Idiot.
Even though it's sad, it's not at all surprising and he totally deserved it. I can't believe it hasn't happened sooner. I suspect the punishment might not have been so harsh had there not been police officers involved, especially given the two Detroit police officers that were just killed.
On the bright side, my grandma will now be free of all the trouble he's caused. She deserves that.
... has said two things I like to hear as of late.
On Secretary of Education Rod Paige:
Gov. Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, a Democrat, said the comments were made in the context of "we can't be supportive of the status quo and they're the status quo. But whatever the context, it is inappropriate — I know he wasn't calling teachers terrorists — but to ever suggest that the organization they belong to was a terrorist organization is uncalled for."
On Ralph Nader:
Well, of course we've got the experience of last time, and many would say that his candidacy gave the presidency to George Bush.
I think that his supporters would find a home in the Democratic Party and would feel very comfortable with the Democratic candidates.
So, I don't know why this is happening, but I do know that we are very determined as Democrats to take back the White House, and we're certainly hopeful that this is not an impediment.
Or maybe it's because she sounds so good saying it.
I mentioned my uptick in referrer spam a while back and I was sort of getting the impression that there's not a whole lot you can do about it (as of yet). I found out via Delirious Cool that Dean Allen, the maker of Refer, has an update in the works that will address this, and in the mean time points towards a patch that does some shit I don't understand but promises to reduce the spamming.
I have yet to install the patch, but I sure hope it works because John Kerry's blog is pissing me right the fuck off.
It is not safe to assume that everybody who voted for Ralph Nader in 2000 will do so this year and fuck it up for the Democrats again. I think everybody learned their lesson the last time.
I have no qualms with an ideological vote for Nader, but we all know that the risk this time is too high.
So there.
Don't you hate when you find a hair or a fiber or something in your personal space, and you have no idea who or what it came from?
It's Sex and the City. Not Sex in the City.
I don't even watch the show and that drives me nuts.
The 34th weekly Bonfire of the Vanities is up at The Argus. There's something in there about "cunning linguists." Tee hee.
I'm all for keeping your inner child alive and going retro and whatnot. Organized sports are fun, too. But Wednesday night Tag on the Plaza seems a little silly to me.
Not only did my roommate purchase that purchase that replacement 2-liter of Diet Coke with Lime, he purchased a second 2-liter as well as an unknown quantity of cans.
Everything he bought is now gone (in, like, three days!), and we're left with one 2-liter of Diet Vanilla Coke. *pfffft*
I should be able to do all this this morning.
throw in a load of laundrycut my scratchafrickin' fingernails(they're probably not that long to most people, but they're like talons to me and they must come off!) (and they're orange)go to the temp agency to pick up my last paycheckgo to the bank and deposit the paycheckgo back to work and supply the HR lady with the info I was missing last week when I filled out all my paperwork
Hell, that was pretty easy. I guess I'll have to be a little more ambitious.
Think about how I should really shop around more for car insurance, and weigh that against the ease of sticking with the company I have now.Drink more coffee.Call and set up Minnesota car insurance policy.See if I can find out online what my vehicle registration will cost me.(no exact number, but guaranteed to be less than $189)- Call local Jeep dealer and my favored mechanic and get an estimate on oil change/fluids/tire rotation, 60k service, and door handle replacement.
Decide how much car maintenance I can afford this week and what needs to wait and schedule accordingly.(can't afford any this week, will revisit next week)Eat.Sleep.
I am so glad I have tonight off because I have managed to injure myself in some small way every night for the last three nights and I need some recovery time.
Particularly annoying are the lumps on my elbow and kneecap. My knuckles are bruised. My hands are orange. And this is not bothersome, but since I'm complaining, I'll tell you about the scratches on the back of my hand where an overzealous volleyball teammate gored clawed nicked me.
I wore an ill-chosen bra to work. In attempting to discreetly adjust it, I put some bright orange smudges in some conspicuous places on my white shirt.
Let's throw in a little stupid co-worker commentary. All the room labels in the new construction area and some of the replaced labels in the old area of the building have Braille on them. Instigator says to me, "Look at this, what are we hiring blind people now? How stupid is that? Lazy Overachiever said to me I was gonna have to train the new blind person on the press." Obviously (hopefully) both parties were kidding. But how retarded do they sound anyway?
I'll top it off with a little positive news. A.T., my hookup in the other production department, is gonna introduce me to his Supervisor (the one that asked about me) when I next go in on Wednesday night.
And while I'm grateful that he's helping me out, dude needs to learn to shut the fuck up. A.T.'s one of those talkative storytelling types, so he likes to approach you (even if you're busy) and start talking about some shit that you don't care about (like cars (and always with a nickname for the cars; "disco" and "suby" and shit)) and take forever and a day to finish up, even when you're, say, staring at the computer screen trying to read the e-mail you were in the middle of when he started talking, or, say, walking away from him. I can tolerate it, especially since he's doing me a favor. I just hope I don't end up working with him.
The flowers are arriving!!! Check out the happy couples. I could cry.
I know we've all seen this particular picture:
The looks on those faces. My god. It's beautiful. Can you imagine what the cheering outside of San Francisco City Hall must sound like?
Last night was actually pretty bad in the sense that things ran terribly. We had problems all night long. The whole line, from beginning to end.
What was good - no, great - about it is that my line lead (Rico Suave) and my shift lead (Hey Mon) and I all worked very well together. We helped each other out. We communicated well. We covered each other's asses. We supported each other.
Even though we didn't get a whole lot of product out the door, we accomplished a lot.
And we ended the night with kind words and thanks for each other.
That's a good team.
I'm at the coffee shop. They have one of those satellite radio stations playing. A song just started, and for a moment I thought was gonna be Mariah Carey's Someday.
And I was excited to hear it, then disappointed when it turned out to be something else.
What the fuck part of that don't you understand?
Why exactly are religious folks opposed to gay marriage? The most fashionable argument against it is that it undermines the institution of marriage (and therefore family and therefore society), but I can't help but think this is a poll-tested idea that doesn't really get at the true feelings of the advocates; in the Pew poll, few people opposing the notion of gay marriage offered that up as the main reason. Most said, instead, that gay marriage and homosexuality were inherently "wrong" or violated their religious beliefs.
When you have an understanding with your roommate that you can borrow food (like some of their milk or ranch dressing or something), isn't it still not okay to finish something off unless they explicitly tell you?
He drank the rest of my Diet Coke with Lime.
Also, I didn't think the breakfast bar was the place for the gym bag, but even if you want to leave the gym bag on the breakfast bar, shouldn't the sweaty clothes and socks and shin guards and ankle braces stay inside the bag? They're sitting right next to the empty Diet Coke with Lime bottle and an also-empty bottle of ketchup, perilously close to my coffee maker.
UPDATE: Okay, he did purchase a replacement 2-liter. The gym bag issue still stands (as do his socks, on their own).
Interlude: Some Observations about Gay Marriage and Its Opponents, by John Kusch.
I strongly encourage you to read it all as John expounds nicely on each of his "thinking points." Here's a much abbreviated version to start with:
Greg Scanlan, the guy who started the Big Gay Bouquet idea, who I noted is from the Twin Cities, has made it into to the Star Tribune, in Kim Ode's column today.
The article also mentions Darren Barefoot's site where I made my PayPal donation.
Keep passing the word around, folks.
But it looks to be right up my alley. Maybe KathyHowe can use it, too.
Can't Boil Water: "You only think you can't cook..."
(via Mindful Musings)
That a Jamaican boy was gaybashed by a mob at his high school?
OR
That his father started the whole thing?
(via Queer Day)
I've seen word of it around (did it really only start yesterday?). Since Lauren brought it right to me, I went on and made a donation to buy flowers for the happy couples getting married in San Francisco.
I'm proud to see that the brilliant idea originated right here in Minneapolis. If you can't afford a whole bouquet yourself, you can still donate to the cause.
I hope I help make someone smile.
(links whored directly from Lauren)
UPDATE: Latest word from Darren is that as of 9:00 this morning (PST) they've raised over $2000. That's in 18 hours, folks. Keep checking that page for updates on the progress.
At work, in the production area, the wall separating the lines from the main hallway is windowed so you can see who's sleeping what's going on from outside.
People frequently congregate in that area, and often lean against the window while doing so. I was one day, and when I turned my head to look through the window, I saw, right at eye level, the greasy outline of what was obviously a forehead, nose, lips, and a chin.
I haven't leaned against that window since.
I heard about the runaway train explosion in Iran on the radio the other day. I would imagine a train full of fuel, chemicals, and fertilizer and nice fluffy cotton certainly would be prone to combustion. Apparently the explosion registered 3.6 on the Richter scale. The villages that were destroyed were built of the same mud-brick structures that completely disintegrated in the Bam earthquake in December.
Such devastation. Complete and utter ruin. Does it ever stop? Sheesh.
I'm happy to see San Francisco making a statement and issuing marriage licenses to gay couples, whatever the fallout may be. Never would have guessed they'd take it another step and sue the State of California over the matter. I like this quote:
"They are in a defensive posture, and frankly I think it's an admission that they didn't do things in the right way in the first place," said Richard D. Ackerman, a lawyer for one of the groups, Campaign for California Families.
Missed the point there, don't ya think? All those people, all those happy gay couples and that happy mayor, don't give two shits that it technically might not be legal. They're making a statement. Besides, who knows, at the end of the day maybe they will be legal. Methinks this lawsuit was in the works already anyway, before the Seventh Sign those licenses were issued.
You can now vote for your favorite at the Pioneer Press. I voted for #2 (a lake scene complete with loon and a state outline). But I also liked #3 (a Mississippi River river montage with the headwaters, the mills, and the Stone Arch bridge).
What I find so unbelievably stupid is that of the five designs the state submitted to the U.S. Mint, one - a single snowflake - has been rejected. The stupid part is not the rejection. The stupid part is that the snowflake concept was even submitted in the first place! Slightly less stupid is the fact that Vermont already did the same thing and was also rejected.
I mean, hellooooo, It's not like other states don't have snow. The quarter is supposed to symbolize what is unique and special about your state, unless I've been thinking about this the wrong way all along. That's why I opted for the lake scene design. Even though the Mississippi River design emphasized the unique aspects of the river's run through the Minnesota, the Mississippi River touches nine other states. Any number of other cities along the way can claim it as an integral part of their existence.
Snowflake. Jesus.
(via TCB)
The Yankee or Dixie quiz asks you about your pronunciation and word choice on a number of words and phrases that are known to vary regionally, and then computes your score.
Some are the typical ones you always see (How do you pronounce "aunt"? What is that bubbly carbonated drink called?). Some I had to think about for a minute (How do you pronounce "route"?). On some things I didn't realize there was that much of a regional difference (What's it called when you throw toilet paper over a house?).
What's most interesting is that it gives you a little explanation for each selection as you go along. I clicked through every answer for every question before I computed my score. (Also note that if you want to recalculate your score with different answers if you were waffling at any point, you really do need to click that "clear" button and re-enter all your choices.)
I'm "52% (Dixie). Barely into the Dixie category." Huh?
(via Dawn)
Bring it on! [TWoP recap/let] [CBS recap]
Laura Billings is my new favorite Pioneer Press columnist. Not that I had one before. Or expect to have another.
Today she prints some responses she got to her column advocating same-sex marriage. She very diplomatically calls it an illustration of the "depth of the divide over gay marriage."
People's stupidity and ignorance astounds me. Minnesota is generally conservative with a strange progressive streak and of course the major metropolitan areas are well stocked with liberals. I was inclined to believe that this is not a representative sample of public opinion in this state. But, ya know, it could be.
Although you really can't take seriously people who say "homos" and "rotting cesspools of wickedness" and mean it. Sodom and Gomorrah and a marriage-renaming contest and I will never, ever read your column again! *wipes spittle from face*
Guster has a flash movie presentation of their performance of Come Downstairs and Say Hello on Austin City Limits available for your viewing pleasure on guster.com. It's not directly linkable that I can tell, so look for it amongst the colorful boxes at the bottom of the main page.
Ryan's hair is short as hell (for him). He looks his age. Weird. Adam vaguely reminds me of my friend Greg (this is not a new revelation).
Abstract:
- Windows security checklist
- iPod, mini and regular
- Spongmonkeys and subs
- TiVo
- Orkut mapping
- foldable keyboard
- SafariNoTimeout
Remember how there were plans to use Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire to pimp Preparation H?
Not so much anymore.
- These instructions on how to check a Pepsi bottle for winning codes are going around like hotcakes. Is this not common sense?
- A 20 oz bottle of Pepsi costs $1.29. Songs from the iTunes store cost 99¢. I'll wait while you do that math.
Know what that means?
On the drive home from volleyball just now, I opened up the sunroof!
Didn't slide it all the way open, just popped it up. It felt soooo good. I figure driving with the sunroof open and the heat on in the winter is not all that different from driving with the sunroof open and the a/c on in the summer.
The warmth is not gonna last; we're expecting snow over the weekend. But I'll take it for today.
When I was over KathyHowe's house the other day, we watched The Vagina Monologues.
I don't know if anyone else that has seen this, on tv or DVD or live or whatever, has experienced this, but I cannot stop thinking about vaginas. This has been going on for days. I swear, there's been a dearth of vagina-related talk lately.
And I found myself wanting to answer the questions Eve Ensler asked. What would mine wear? What would mine say? What do my orgasms feel like? (I'll spare you the follow through on that little exercise.)
I could have worse problems, I think. But still.
P.S. I still want that t-shirt.
...this week's Bonfire of the Vanities is up at Kin's Kouch.
Some of the reaction I got last night to the announcement of my hiring is a bit different from what I was hearing the day before.
Is it worse to have B.O. and know it, or to have B.O. and not know it?
Now, I will confess that I do not shower every single day. Yesterday was one of those days. I showered right before I went to work on Monday, worked all night, came home Tuesday morning, ate, slept, got up Tuesday afternoon, ate, and came on into work.
I never got sweaty. I changed my draw's. I put on fresh deodorant and clean clothes and brushed my teeth. So I don't think I smell that bad. I think I smell pretty much like I normally do.
But the guy I'm working with tonight, who smelled just fine last night, is more than a little pungent. Like if he stands in an area and you walk through it five minutes later there's a cloud of his odor hanging in the air pungent. Not unbearable, but a little sour. I don't think he's a dirty guy or anything. I just think he's a little less than fresh.
But am I? I can't tell! What if he's sitting there thinking the same thing about me?
*sniff*sniff*
Say you're driving down the highway. There are two lanes. You approach an entrance/exit. You are in the left lane. There are cars ahead of you. The cars in the right lane are braking to facilitate the merging process.
Why the scratchafrick do cars in the left lane also feel the need to hit the brakes?! I call this sympathy braking.
Seriously, it's completely unnecessary. Nobody is coming into your lane. You are not merging. You have no other cars you need to accommodate. Just keep going. Please. I beg of you.
*grumble*
I decided to go back to using Safari. I like Camino just fine but, enh. I don't know. Anyway, the main reason I didn't switch sooner was that I just didn't feel like dealing with all my bookmarks.
If you've never heard of Chris Muir's comic strip Day by Day, I highly recommend giving it a peek. Good stuff for folks of all political stripes.
Beyond that, a couple of good places to start off learning more about the comic strip and the cartoonist behind it are Dean's and Dodd's interviews. Chris is a real nice guy, too.
If you like what you see, you can help get Day by Day into syndication. For the hardcore fan, you can add the daily Day by Day to your own website. (I just learned that. Nifty!)
(Cross-posted at Suburban Blight.)
Reminders:
- With all this hullabaloo over gay marriage, please remember that Queer Day is an excellent compendium of news about the gay community.
- If you are in favor of ensuring equal rights and protections for gay Americans, please sign the petition at Million for Marriage (if you haven't already).
When you get hired or fired at my company, a blurb of an email goes out to all employees. The announcement of my hiring went out yesterday, and I had no less than four people say to me, "You have an engineering degree? What are you doing in this job?"
I ask myself that every day.
Yet another long boring night at work. My first as a real life full time employee. Except that I haven't actually signed everything. But I punched in on a full-timer timecard instead of a temp timecard. That's official enough for me.
Our line went down about an hour ago. It wasn't my machine, so I went and restocked some things and refilled some things to keep busy. After about 20 minutes, maintenance was called in. Stupidvisor showed up to watch, because things get done faster when she stands over you while you work, you know.
After a bit she got called over to the other line for a problem they were having. Knowing she was occupied, I decided to cut out and took a little break. Checked my email. Had some coffee. Wandered back to the line about 30 minutes later to resume my crossword puzzle.
Not five minutes after my return, Stupidvisor pops her head in and says, "Might as well go to lunch."
Because I'm stealthy like that.
Hee!
I thought Climax was a city in Michigan. It's a city in Minnesota, too. (I swear I saw this before everyone else posted about it. I was just slow.)
Climax schools ban T-shirts with town's centennial slogan
CLIMAX, Minn. -- It may be the town's slogan, but it doesn't meet the approval of the superintendent who has placed a school ban on the centenn