| Morning fugue |
[04 Nov 2009|12:06pm] |
I woke up this morning in a slam-dunk freeze frame position. Apparently I'd made a horizontal leap for the snooze bar at some point and just stuck there. Yodie was named Joel Shmetzl, as in "Why is Joel Shmetzl messing with the blinds again?" Zathras had claimed a pillow between my head and the headboard, and I mistook his snores and muttering for NPR Morning Edition playing in another room.
You don't ever really gain full consciousness on days that start like that.
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[02 Oct 2009|08:22pm] |
A few minutes ago, I mindlessly tossed my phone and ipod into my bag. As I picked up the bag, I heard an odd sound. Shrugged it off and headed out, but then my desk phone started ringing. I figured it must be Alex, so I went to get it and... It was me.
I guess it was an eventuality. Anyway, hopefully those of you who my stupid phone has identified as New Best Friend will feel a little vindicated.
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[22 Sep 2009|01:58pm] |
I finally got hold of Landlord Ed -- I forgot to mention here that the roof above my bathroom developed a serious leak during the Troubles -- and he said he'd never seen rain like that.
Now, THAT is saying something. Man's been around since the Earth was without form, and void.
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[21 Sep 2009|01:21pm] |
Holy cow, the rain's been crazy. I keep thinking that I've never seen anything like this before in Atlanta, but given that we're seeing near-record rainfall, that's a slight statement of the obvious. One weird thing in my neighborhood: There's nothing weird in my neighborhood. Given the fact that it's been raining for what seems like a week straight, I would not have been surprised to find myself completely boxed in by downed trees when I tried to go to work today. I heard one go on Thursday night (pop, groan, and crash in the distance), and the rain hasn't stopped since.
I got no sleep last night because of the thunder and because I thought Zathras was outside. He's not a fan of Weather, and I imagined he was miserable and terrified. I had checked every crevice of the house -- well, every crevice that could accommodate a 15-pound cat -- and made The Sound and shook Pounce. No cat. So I checked around my porch, then all around my house, Ed's, and Gail's on the other side. No cat, very wet self. So I went to bed (getting up later to stick an open kennel on the front porch.) This morning as I reached for my glasses, he trotted into my room and cheerfully asked for breakfast.
Kennesaw's reaction to the storm has been outstanding, as you'd expect. They're closed now, but for a while the severe weather message read, "Per Campus authorities, currently the university IS NOT CLOSED. However, several locations are flooding and driving conditions are not safe. Please do not come to campus unless absolutley necessary."
Morons.
I liked Tom's facebook message better: "The guys at Home Depot have no idea what a cubit is."
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| Group project strangeness |
[15 Sep 2009|04:16pm] |
Okay, so what do you do when you have an intractable group at school?
Long story:
I may have mentioned that both of my classes this semester are based around group projects. I took these classes mostly because they fit my schedule well, but also because I actually could use help in both areas. These classes are required for my major at Kennesaw, but the chances I'll graduate from Kennesaw are basically nil, and both classes will probably transfer as electives at UAH.
SO.
One of these group-project-based classes is called "Technical Writing". (Having been in the class for three weeks, I'm not sure why it's called that.) It's 100% online (well, not after you count group meetings), and its website is a mess. It's incredibly difficult to know exactly what you're supposed to be doing at any given time. The syllabus and supporting materials are 21 dense pages long, yet strangely nonspecific. It's as if the instructor is trying to teach by counterexample.
I just found out late last week that there's an "email" function in the online course software. This has never been used in any of my other classes, doesn't link to any real email accounts, doesn't have a prominent icon, wasn't mentioned in the syllabus ... basically, there was no way for me to find out about it except by accident.
It turns out that the professor, even though she has other more obvious places to put this stuff, has been sending out various pronouncements, edicts and clarifications through this "email" thing. That includes a demand for a sort of cover sheet for the assignment that was due yesterday, detailing everyone's contributions, on pain of a failing grade for the whole assignment. (Or semester?) There's no reference to it anywhere else.
I tried three times yesterday to tell my group, "Hey, we're not done, we have a second deliverable today." One of them asked if I was referring to the next assignment, and I told her exactly where to look for the thing I was talking about. I ultimately requested an extension on behalf of the group and explained to the group that I knew we'd be able to turn in the assignment on time, but we have this other THING. I copied them on my message to the prof, which specified what we hadn't finished.
Three of the five are actively posting to the group message board and not even acknowledging my posts. The other two haven't logged in in days. This is really unpleasant -- I can win an argument, but I'm not sure how to more effectively and efficiently shout into the void. I'm seriously worried. Either we're not going to be able to finish our projects, or they have just decided out of the blue that they hate me. Either way is bad for Exline. Most of these folks are far from slackers, but this is so uncool and puzzling (and terrifying) that slackers would actually be preferable.
Since I'm not going to get academic advancement or knowledge out of this class, I'm tempted to drop. Only (a) that would be a waste of money (sunk cost fallacy? Isn't it wasted already?); (b) it'll show up on my transcript (but not in my GPA, so who cares?); and (c) this has only been going on for one day (but how the hell am I going to STOP IT? Surely not by making up the missing part of the assignment myself and explaining that it does not represent a consensus because my group members are being jerks.)
And I guess I need to figure it out before midnight. If I'm staying, I need to save our asses by doing the extra work myself. And if not, then... not.
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| Name that protest! |
[09 Sep 2009|09:30pm] |
I kept thinking today that I was supposed to post about something, but I couldn't remember what it was until I passed a bunch of well-dressed people in the financial district carrying sparklers and screaming "Woo!"
Those folks stopped at the corner of Piedmont and Peach and sang "Happy Birthday" to someone. So they had a reasonably clear message, unlike the protestors I passed on the way to work.
Near a CDC entrance:
"GOD LOVES YOU"
"THANK GOD FOR AIDS"
On the other side of the street:
"GOD HATES YOU"
"ISRAEL IS DOOMED"
Yeah. I read as many signs as I could safely manage, and I got nothin'.
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| Like this. But not there. |
[02 Sep 2009|04:14pm] |
Househunting in Huntsville is frustrating. The real estate districts are way chunky, so if I include Chris and Karen's area in my searches, I end up with places that are ten or fifteen miles further away from town than we think we can deal with. And since I don't know the names of all the little suburbs and hamlets, I don't always know which links I shouldn't click on.
So I find stuff like this. (Look fast, it's apparently already off the market.)
Which makes me feel somewhat like this.
Only it turns out to be in the middle of damn-ass nowhere.
Why isn't there anything like that closer to town? Or, if there is, how long do I have to eat beans to get it? I found a lovely $479,000 midcentury modern house on Governor's once. That's a lot of beans.
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| For lawyers, English(ish) folks, and nitpickers |
[27 Aug 2009|06:58pm] |
Someone posted this on FB, and it piqued my interest enough to repost it here:
"The Tenant/Landlord may bring the Tenancy to an end at any time before the expiry of the term (but not earlier than 6 months from the Commencement Date) by giving to the Landlord's Agent/Tenant no less than 60 days written notice to that effect."
So: When is Steve allowed to move out? I'm torn.
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[26 Aug 2009|04:42pm] |
"You never read my notes, so I'm here to make sure you read the one I just sent."
"What? I read them, like, half the time."
"Well, okay, but that basically works out to 'never'."
"I don't know what school you went to."
(I think those of you affiliated with engineering schools can guess the rest.)
"Oh, crap."
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| Scammer follies, Frank edition |
[26 Aug 2009|02:21pm] |
Larry Heckler just got a courtesy call from Customer Contact Services about his 2003 Lexus RS300 with 276,000 miles. He passed the call off to his wife Tù FloudaA, who's on speakerphone now telling them that the car has no problems, though it just had its crankshaff seals replace and its erl pan gasket chained. Now the guy is worried about whether the car is raised or lowered or has aftermarket rims. Unfortunately, Tù FloudaA put 22" rims on that thing, and sold the originals on Craisliss. The guy says it's normally a problem for them to insure a car that's been modified if the owner doesn't have the original parts, but he'll "wave [her] on through."
...
In spite of everything, I was actually shocked when the guy asked about modifications. I mean, damn. I don't blame Frank for answering in the affirmative, though, since his game is seeing how ridiculous a car they'll agree to "warrant" or whatever, and they gave him an opening.
Another new thing that came out of this one was that they "don't allow callbacks" because "people call when they have problems with their cars."
I also feel like noting that the last time Tù FloudaA spoke with these morons, she was single and had an old Pontiac with the footwells rusted out because she ... actually, no, I'm not going to repeat that. My point is, they have talked to three or four characters with at least four different cars on one phone number. How sloppy is their database? And also, is there not public data about car ownership? "I need to make an FOIA request for DMV records, please. I've got a scam to run, and I think it'll go better this way. I'm a small businessperson!"
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| First piece of the season |
[21 Aug 2009|07:41pm] |
... and nearly the last, since I kind of had to abruptly drop the class. :( We'll see.
Anyway, I madez a flowerpot, and I'm pleased with the way the glaze came out.
Please pardon my "grass".
I had to explain the unglazed band to everyone who saw it before it got into the kiln. YES, I know. YES, I did it on purpose. NO, I do not want to fix it. See, I wanted the pot to be glazed for durability and moisture retention, but I always think flowerpots look best with a little bit of algae. Hence the texture and the unglazed area. I hope it works!
Also, Julia -- I know I've mentioned smoke capture at least twice. In the interest of my shutting up, here are a couple of pictures:
 
( Boring glaze details )
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[20 Aug 2009|05:05pm] |
Crossposted from FB ...
Dropped a 6:30pm Tuesday/Thursday class, but didn't delete the 4:45pm Outlook notification telling me to leave for school. It's nice to have a reminder of something really unpleasant that I *don't* have to do.
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[13 Aug 2009|03:27pm] |
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Hey. People. People with Wiis or Xboxes, that is. Log into your damn El Jay accounts, you slackers, go back a few posts, find my account info, and friend my Wii. Or Xbox. Or both. Or leave your info, and I'll friend you. Srsly.
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| Low-cost animal vaccination and microchipping this month |
[10 Aug 2009|04:06pm] |
My own cats just went through a round of vaccinations at a total cost of $mumble including gericatric bloodwork, but thought others might be interested. Also of note -- they are microchipping for $25, including lifetime registration. Believe it or not, Jackass is not chipped. I should do that.
( behind the cut )
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| Walked home |
[07 Aug 2009|12:09am] |
I've been threatening all year to start walking to/from work, which is a little more than four rolling-to-steepish miles. Just tried it for the first time tonight -- ditched my car and headed out. I hadn't planned to carry my laptop, but ended up deciding it was important... maybe not my best decision. Worse, my feet have grown, so despite the fact that I was smrt and took my newest shoes, my right long toe hurts a LOT. I hopped a bus for the third mile because of it. I suspect I'll be pretty achey in the morning -- wasn't expecting that, but I guess it could be because of the fifteen pounds of not-me I was carrying.
O also? The Garmin car GPS has a walking mode, and it's a waste of zeroes and ones. I used the "offroad" mode, where it just draws a line between two points, and went this way. (Yes, you could do better, but after a certain point I stayed on bus routes.) The GPS wanted me to go this way, all but circumambulating the neighborhood. That's an extra mile, and not a nice one. WTF. Perhaps it thought I'd want to get a snowcone at Ponce & Briarcliff, in which case I guess it'd have been right, but I was still carrying way too much stuff to walk half a mile down Ponce. (N.B., Ponce is still relatively sleazy.)
My bike's in storage, so I don't have much choice but to schlep on back tomorrow. My right foot is saying something about using the bus more. Anyway, wish me luck!
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| Househunting |
[03 Aug 2009|02:23pm] |
Alex and I went househunting on Saturday.
The realtors mostly wanted to show us new houses -- little brick one-unit apartment buildings on blasted red clay hellscapes. But they also found this, which I had thus far overlooked. (Street View).
It seems to be a fairly serious fixer-upper, with crumbling popcorn in a couple of rooms, several bad windows, a blocked out garage, and no gutters. BUT it's in a nice HOA-free neighborhood, relatively convenient to friends and potential workplaces, on a ~0.6 acre lot, with (I'm told) good schools. I think, if we can get it, that it'd be both livable and resalable.
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| Minor, possibly strange, bleg: Five Fingers |
[31 Jul 2009|01:49pm] |
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Has anyone tried Vibram Five Fingers? Has anyone with really long toes tried them? I want some river shoes and I'm intrigued by these, but can't quite bring myself to order them since they seem to be made for feet with short second toes. I'm most interested in the open-top "Classic."
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| Can't have all cats functioning at once, can we? |
[31 Jul 2009|12:27am] |
(1) Zootie's radiocativity appears to have worked perfectly. He's had his one-month checkup. The blood sample went better than before, and as far as I know, nobody died this time. Anyway, his T4 hormone level was down to 1.9, which is ridiculously normal. He gained 2 pounds in the first month, and I haven't seen him panting once even though I've had the air conditioner off for much of July. (Ya rly.)
After being locked out of my bedroom for two weeks, he's been much less obnoxious. For contrast: I'd learned to play video games with him lounging across both my wrists, and I didn't much care for working at home because he'd pick fights with my paperwork. Now he hangs out just outside my door when I'm at the computer, and spends most of the night there too. I guess he forgot why he was sitting there in the first place, and came to think of it as his Spot.
(2) So, with Zootie all sorted out, I took Yodie for shots. Vet was horrified by her teeth, so I let them do a cleaning. Apparently, Yodie has some genetic condition that causes her to Fight Plaque by Reabsorbing Teeth. W. TF. And apparently, the resorption process is freakin' painful, which might explain why she's bad at eating. (The vet points out that it's also possible she could be an incompetent eater because she's incompetent.) Including two teeth extracted during the cleaning, she's missing eleven teeth. She has no upper incisors at all.
Now she has little stitches in her gums, so she's supposed to have pain meds and isn't allowed to eat hard kibble for two weeks. Thing is, she's disinclined to be anywhere near me, and if I do anything but spoon feed wet food to her, Zootie materializes and takes the food. The first time this happened, I tapped his tail to make him go away. He ignored me. I put increasing amounts of pressure on his tail. He wouldn't stop eating. Nota bene: the sound of an evil cat growling with its mouth full is pretty damned funny.
All I can think to do is chuck Zootie in the bathroom, leave a plate of doped wet food in the kitchen for half an hour, and hope that stupid, stupid cat finds it, preferably before she notices she's locked out of the litterbox. Suggestions appreciated, I guess.
O also: Yodie's vet is the ONLY person I've ever ever ever met who's from the same part of the world as me. This makes her automatically trustworthy. Actually, maybe not, since Jim Jones was also from the same part of the world as me. But I didn't meet him, so it's okay.
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| One more thing that didn't fit into the previous rant |
[29 Jul 2009|01:39pm] |
I'm still stuck at Kennesaw, in case that wasn't clear already, and when I signed up for classes I got a surprise that didn't fit on those charts at all: $300 worth of "KSU Online Crs Tuition Fall", whatever the hell that is. It's not mentioned on the registrar's site, it's not mentioned on the bursar's site, and it's not mentioned in the latest available catalog. So I'm not even sure whether it's a $100/hr surcharge or just a random $300 grab.
Extra-awesome: if taken as a $100/hr surcharge, it exceeds Emory's limit for reimbursement. I don't think I'll get horribly shafted (except insofar as crabbed about in previous post) -- I'm just impressed that *Emory* now thinks this third-rate public school is too expensive.
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| Slow, expensive and out of control |
[28 Jul 2009|09:11pm] |
Hey, lookit:
Note: Figures from F05 to F09 are based on my bills; prior to that, they're from course catalogs. The "student services" fee listed in the 2005 catalog was higher than the combined activity and athletic fees on my bill, which presumably explains the dip.
Notice how the "tuition" closely follows the CPI, but the actual cost has gone mad. I can't begin to depict what they've done with the textbooks. These people have gone off the rails.
Georgia has a recent law, the Guaranteed Tuition Plan, that protects students from tuition increases for four years. It does not protect them from fee increases. Each student saves literally dozens of dollars under this law.
Even better, they -- Kennesaw, at least -- have increased the maximum tuition from 12 hours to 15, effecting a 25% hike for new and pre-2006 full-time students. The tuition law apparently does cover that, though; the tuition tables stop at 12 hours for sophomores, juniors and seniors. Unfortunately, I'm not a hot enough Excel user to fit that on the chart without flattening the rest of the lines. Kennesaw also, as I mentioned earlier, requires full time (or now, 80%-time) students to buy meal plans. Actually, screw it, I'll make a separate chart for full-timers.
( Put on your sunglasses, here 'tis. )
I want to do similar charts for other schools in my world -- GSU, Tech, SPSU, and maybe UAH for some out-of-state flavor. Some stuff in the California system would be cool too, because I think their tradition of starting out at community colleges makes all the sense, so I'm curious what's happened there. However, it's 9pm and I'd rather go do anything else right now.
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[26 Jul 2009|06:27pm] |
This website, found while Turking, makes the baby Jesus cry. Me too, a little.
So if I put up a one-page site offering cheap proofreading and put a few bucks into AdWords, would anyone care? I'm not exactly kidding; surely there's a reason that this idiot, who can't even consistently capitalize his own address, bothers to have this page.
And if I did, would I have to use FrontPage?
ETA: ... or maybe there's not a reason. He registered that domain six weeks ago. So maybe it's a sham domain of some kind. But why ... why "editing"?
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[21 Jul 2009|12:32pm] |
Odd thing that I don't think has happened before. When the alarm went off this morning, I was dreaming about playing a board game. I needed to hand a pawn or token or something to Sam. As my arm arced towards the alarm, I had to pause (my real arm) and put the pawn in Sam's (not real) hand.
And no, I don't usually dream about board games, as far as I know.
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[09 Jul 2009|05:21pm] |
I'm not sure whether this is actually funny, but it almost has me in tears, so dammit, I'm posting it anyway.
(5:18:16 PM) Karen: lvextend /dev/dbvg/oravol
(5:18:27 PM) Karen: embiggen /u01
(5:18:28 PM) Karen: you're done
(5:18:37 PM) Frank: i have to umount /u01 for that
(5:18:37 PM) Karen: wait, you have to umount /u01 for that
Okay, it's possible I'm tired and overcaffeinated. Still: HA.
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| +/- scatterbrain |
[01 Jul 2009|11:30am] |
- Someone went through my car Monday night. (I had violent dreams that night. I have a high rate of correlation between violent dreams and having my property violated, which makes no sense since I sleep in a sealed box of white noise 100 ft from the car.)
+ As far as I can tell, nothing was actually stolen.
- Only I found something of mine down the street, so presumably, something was stolen. Also, the bastard ripped a sealed Cobb County transcript in half that was supposed to go into my GSU appeal.
- For which I missed the deadline! *headdesk* Last I heard, it was June 15 and I had two weeks left and I was going to check the requirements and ask people to write letters for me if necessary. Why was I not notified about the passage of time?
? Okay, back to ripping envelopes in half. If you're randomly ripping envelopes apart to see if they contain cash or checks, why would you risk tearing up the imaginary money inside? And if you need money, why leave the emergency toll quarters in the stickshift boot?
+ I think the friend I mentioned yesterday might actually be okay.
? But doing a web search on his issue damn sure didn't help. It does NOT inspire confidence when you search on a disease and there are literally ten times as many pages about preventing it than about treating it. That strongly implies that your best bet is to avoid this particular problem. And one .mil website said it's "fatal 10 to 70 percent" of the time. Oh, really? So it's somewhere between never and always?
+ The 'hood is ridiculously beautiful, very possibly because I'm thinking about leaving.
+/- Nothing in Huntsville comes close. Of course, there probably aren't SUVloads of thugs going around mugging students there, either.
+ Zathras seems to be gaining weight and is not panting. He's also, after two weeks of being locked out of my room, much less obnoxious.
+ Which helped me get a crapton of stuff done yesterday. I was allowed to work from home so that waiting for the poleets wouldn't disrupt my day too much. Normally I'm not big on WFH because my cats can't deal with it, but I didn't even have to lock them out of the room.
+ Have been bingeing on Orson Scott Card's "Shadow" series. I liked the first two ... he's managed to piss me off in Shadow Puppets, but I'm holding out hope it'll be okay. Not sure what I'll read next. Probably Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep, then maybe catch up on some indiespensable books.
+ Parents seem to be doing okay. Dad has failed to retire *again*. The company asked him in January to stay until they replaced him, even though he'd given two months notice. Now they've fired his replacement and have him back in 3 days a week at full pay. I think this sounds like a sweet deal, but he's tired of their crap, which I guess is understandable. He wants to make headway on his '56 Bel Air, which I don't get. What do you do when you finish something like that? Also, they have a new dog. She's kinda lame -- submissive, leaks -- but they are hoping she'll grow out of it.
- The u-pick has been sold. It's still open for now, but I don't think the new owners will maintain it. They plowed all the blackberries.
+ Pottery class starts on Monday! Aside from making a few things at home -- most of which broke because they had to sit around too long without being fired -- I haven't made any pottery since early April. I had to quit or face bad grades, which kind of sucked since it was the only thing I was doing for fun at the time. But yay, I get to go back, and hopefully I will remember what I was doing.
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| Cat update |
[23 Jun 2009|11:09am] |
No idea how many of you are at all curious...
- Zootie is clearly doing better, even if he is freaking out because he's not allowed to snuggle. I haven't once seen him panting since he's been back, and he already feels fatter. He's still free-feeding, and apparently can't grasp the concept -- he makes me go to the kitchen twice a day to pour his leftovers into a different bowl.
- Yode is still under J's bed, afaik. I spent a couple of hours with my arm under there on Sunday. Amazingly, she relaxed enough to play with a feather-on-a-stick and even came out for a while. The bed's really low, and the whole time she was out, she walked around on tiptoes with her back arched.
So them's the cats.
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| Hmm: Savings bonds |
[23 Jun 2009|01:16am] |
I have a handful of I bonds from an automagic investment plan back at the house of Splatman. Their interest rate is inflation-linked, and it's currently zero; they will all be earning 0% by October, and then the interest will reset again in November.
Is there any good reason not to move them into some stingy little CD or suchlike? If the rate goes back up in November, I might not be able to reinvest immediately -- because if I'm not looking for a house by THEN, I will be looking for scalps. That's the only near-con I can think of.
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| Radiocative (sic) |
[16 Jun 2009|03:00pm] |
So Zathras is radioactive right now. When I got back from Hugh & Angela's, I found a note from my catsitter saying that he was hungry and peeing a lot and had lost weight -- all symptoms of teh_diabeetus. Some of y'all have met my cat -- he is obsessed with food, and he pees a lot. Hallmarks of his existence. Par for his course. But Sue was right about the weight loss. I hadn't weighed him in a long time, and it turned out he was down to 12 pounds. That beast hasn't seen 12 pounds since he was about 9 months old, and he'd been 20 pounds at last weighing. Soooo, yeah, that was scary.
( Vet visit )
For as-yet unknown reasons, hyperthyroidism is pretty common in cats over 13 years old, but the tumors are hardly ever malignant. You can pill the cat daily for the rest of its life, which is likely to make him itchy and bitchy and give him the runs. Or you can send him out for a single dose of iodine-131, take minor radiation precautions for a few weeks, and consider him cured. The radiotherapy costs about the same as a lifetime of pills. Even though I've always been a little shocked and surprised when I hear someone has spent the equivalent of a small used car on an animal, I didn't hesitate to write the check.
As I understand it, the thyroid is basically the only organ that uses iodine, and the real thyroid tissue would have been put on standby long ago. So the tumor is the only part of the body that takes up a significant amount of the I-131 dose, which destroys it. The minor precautions are along the lines of "don't let him sleep on your head, and flush his poop instead of putting it in the garbage." Yeah, seriously. Thou shalt place thy radioactive catshite into thee publick water supplye. "Dilution," the radiotherapy vet insisted, "is the solution." Also, there are dudes with Geiger counters at the dump, and you don't want to get fined.
(Rebecca, by the way, if you're reading, I admit to feeling awkward about this post. I actually started to write about this on June 3, saw your post, failed to deal with the coincidence, made a reply to you and postponed my entry.)
( Hospital stay )
The biggest logistical hurdle was keeping him from snuggling with Yodie or bleeding on Starscream. To avoid having Zathras stuck in a small and un-air-conditioned bathroom for two sad weeks, Jason has kindly agreed to host Yodak. (And hopefully not Starscream.) As of day five, she's still lurking under his bed and hissing at his cats, who don't much care. Which is par for her course. That's exactly how it went the whole time Susan's cats stayed with me, and eight years later, I wasn't expecting anything different.
Zootie, for his part, is still hungry and thirsty. Not surprising, since (a) his thyroid levels are probably still elevated, and (b) he's still Zathras. The vet folks thought he'd sulk. He hasn't; he's just very concerned about my mental health. I don't want to smrgl him, so obviously I have gone insane. "Me good kitty, me good kitty, me good kitty, HEY YOU FORGOT GOOD KITTY IN HALLWAY."
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| Bake sale for CatSnip |
[28 May 2009|05:58pm] |
I just found out about this and thought one or two of the Atlantans on this flist might be interested.
There'll be a Vegan Bake Sale benefiting CatSnip, Sunday 6/21 12-4pm in front of Criminal Records.
(Non-Atlantans, it's a worldwide event, so there may well be a sale during the same week in your city as well. The organizers of each sale choose what charity gets the proceeds.)
As far as I can tell, they are still looking for bakers. I don't have any established vegan recipes that would work well at a bake sale, unless they still need chocolate chip cookies. And I'd have to do a few practice runs at those. :/
CatSnip is a local nonprofit org that runs a low-cost mobile spay/neuter service. They spayed Yodie several years ago, in a bus in front of the L5P Target, and it was insanely easy for everyone but Yodie. Drop off sad doomsaying cat at 7am, pay something ridiculous like $45, pick up angry half-conscious cat at 5pm. It basically removes all the low-hanging excuses about neutering*, and it's so cheap that some people bring in neighborhood strays.
* Edited to add: HAHAHA, no pun intended. Apparently Shivercon hasn't worn off and I'm still a 12-year-old boy.
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| A 747 goes whoosh! |
[21 May 2009|01:22am] |
Apparently I still have a 2004 Camry Solara, not a Pinto. So I said, "Actually, I just got a 2009 Chrysler FTC." Fully expected to be cursed at or hung up on. The dude totally did not get my joke, but at least he went away gracefully after ascertaining that my FTC has less than 15,000 miles on it.
You know, maybe it does. That would explain some stuff.
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[14 May 2009|02:20pm] |
So where else shall I go this summer/fall? Anyone need a visit?
I'm apparently officially ready to do an admissions appeal at GSU. No letter yet, just a webpage that says "not accepted." I knew this would happen, but apparently there was some tiny slice of my mind holding out hope that GSU is not as stupid as its own admissions office says it is, because I'm actually a little disappointed and put-off.
Anyway, I'm thinking about signing up for fall classes at Kennesaw, theycantmakemegobackIwontgobackIdontwanna, since I don't have to decide whether to actually *go* until mid-August. Anyway, I guess I'm saying summer ends in early August, though I would be glad to do long weekends even after that point.
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| Ft Myers |
[13 May 2009|05:43pm] |
Back from visiting H & A in Fort Myers. The upside to the mass exodus is that everyone went somewhere cool. Er, figuratively.
- The flight out was ... different. I was seated next to a Child Traveling Unaccompanied -- chatty thing -- and I only had a couple of TPBs of The Walking Dead for entertainment. Hugh and I'd had a conversation a couple of weeks earlier in which he specifically named that series as something he'd keep out of reach of hypothetical children. Assuming the kid would ignore what I was doing, though, I went ahead and read them. Except, see, this 8-year-old kept turning the page back so she could finish reading the dialogue. At that point, what do you do? I let her read with me.
- Highlight from the above: "Why is everybody dead?" "Zombie apocalypse." "Oh, okay."
- Spent Sunday exploring the Edison/Ford Winter Estates. Edison used the land for a lot of plant research, particularly the search for a domestically viable source of latex for rubber, so the grounds are a sort of de facto botanical garden. He settled on a fourteen-foot-tall goldenrod (the sinuses shrivel in horror), but before that he investigated several types of fig, banyan, and rubber trees. Which all turn out to be the same genus. Which partly explains Hugh's bizarre Facebook post from Sunday, "Hoy esta la dia de los higos!" He was not at all kidding. Hugh does not joke around*.
- Tried to play some Rock Band with my hosts, but my voice was scratchy that day and I'm awful rusty at toy guitar. No-fail mode is nice.
- Got a late start Monday because of the Macbook-not-wanting-to-charge-a-phone thing, which I had just explained to someone recently and then totally forgot about while trying to "pack light." Found Sanibel's weird lighthouse (pics on flickr later, maybe). Couldn't climb it, so went out on the beach and alternated between reading Omnivore's Dilemma and sloshing around. Got made fun of by Cotten. Attempted a nature trail, but Florida's in a drought and nature pretty much consisted of swamp gas that day.
- Tuesday, Angela took me to a state park in Estero that preserves a cult-commune-slash-pioneer-village. These folks thought their leader was immortal, and they thought they could become immortal, and they were celibate, sooo ... that didn't work out. They also thought that the earth was a hollow sphere surrounding the heavens, which worked out just fine for all but the few who lived to see the moon landing. I was expecting the settlement to be bare and technologically backward -- I don't know if that's reasonable or not -- but they weren't ascetics or Luddites. They even let Edison bring in electricity while his neighbors in Fort Myers still thought it would stop the hens from laying.
So, Meyers, if you're reading, thanks again for hosting me and feeding me and telling me where to go imean showing me around. Hope to see you soon!
* About genus ficus last Sunday.
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[11 May 2009|12:18pm] |
"Hello, Karen? This is Allen with Auto Warranty Specialists. We talked to you before about a warranty for your Toyota Camry?"
"Uhm ... I'm not sure where you got that. I have a Pinto."
"... A Ford Pinto?"
"Yeah, can you cover that? It could use some help."
"Sure, I can certainly look into it. What's the year?"
"Okay, you win this round." *click*
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| End of SchoolJ for now |
[08 May 2009|02:38pm] |
So I got A's in Physics II For Jocks and Supposedly Computer Architecture, but they were both weird.
In Supposedly Computer Architecture, I had only filled out 58 of 100 points on the last test. My average going in was a 57, which curved to something like an 86. I think I mentioned earlier that when I scored the only A it curved to a stupid 91, so it's doubtful that 58 could have been better than an A- either. But an A has already been posted to my transcript for that class. Watoofah? I don't see how that's possible, aaaaaaand sureI'lltakeit.
Then I got word that the minimum score for an A in physics was 627. Okay ... I was somewhere between 412 and 624, so less than 627 no matter what. Darn.
Then I got this from the Submarine Stories physics prof:
"Based on several considerations, one of which was your scoring [96%] on the final, I have revised the lowest A point requirement to 615/700. That means you have earned an A with your point total of 616." So it sure sounds like he drastically reduced the requirement for an A just because I test well. I feel like I should respond along the lines of "holy crap, thanks" -- because, I mean, holy crap, thanks -- but am not coming up with the right wording.
That bumps me from a 3.89 to 3.91. Oh goody. And Georgia State cares... hang on, lemme check ... hey, not at all! Because Georgia Perimeter won't send them a transcript for one math class I took in 1996.
I've been saying for the last few weeks that Tuesday was my last day at Kennesaw and I wouldn't go back they can't make me nobody can make me I don't wanna I'm not going back never never. But honestly, I'm starting to soften already. I'm just not sure what I will do if GSU doesn't admit me, or if GPC messes up so badly that I can't get an admission decision from GSU for fall, or if GSU makes a hash of my transfer credits.
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| Lunch & Learn |
[07 May 2009|06:00pm] |
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Dude, I am going to do a lunch and learn on fucking verb tenses. Christ, people. Just because you can't hear the -ed in your own dialect does not mean you can ignore it in written communications.
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[06 May 2009|05:28pm] |
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Now that I have my head back on straight, I want to extend condolences to the Theatreworks folks. I hadn't seen Chris in several years, but enjoyed his company the few times I met him. I'm sorry for your loss.
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| Finals |
[04 May 2009|06:58pm] |
Off to study more for my physics final. Hopefully tomorrow will be my last day at Kennesaw. That Game status: Very, very bad, like, I hope GSU has already accepted me because my GPA is about to be fux0rd* bad. In physics, I *might* get an A if I ace the final and my classmates don't do well. In computer architecture, I'm pretty much cruising for a B.
I'm much more worried about physics, because the curriculum is clear, the test topics will be appropriate and the grading will be fair. I probably won't ace the test, but it's not inconceivable. There's no point in studying hard for the CS test because the prof is insane and the test will be insane and everyone will do badly in a totally unpredictable way. I have no control over my grade.
(I have been meaning to post about that fool, how nobody ever sees the last page of each test because they are far too long, how the lowest raw passing grade on the first test was a SEVEN, and how the highest grade and only A on another test only adjusted to a 91. It's like you can't lose with this guy, but you also can't win.)
At any rate, I'd much rather stay in bed and smrgl my cat.
* For those just tuning in ... oh, wait, nobody's new here, so you all know why the GPA is important. Yes, getting stressed over B's would be kind of psycho if I was a traditional student -- uh, no offense intended to those among us who did that, who totally had their reasons, including but not limited to scholarships, greatness, and situations not entirely dissimilar to my own, just earlier -- but anyway, I'm not, and it isn't.
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| Slow ride, take it easy |
[03 May 2009|02:11am] |
This is from a couple of years ago; just came across it on a USB drive and decided to post it.
Actually, I guess it's evident that it's not new. You wouldn't have seen a rain gauge last summer or the one before, much less a double-chinned tree frog.
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[29 Apr 2009|03:37pm] |
So back in $MF, Bellsouth's lousy excuse for hold music was 20 seamlessly looped seconds of twiddly clarinet from some very familiar ballet. At least, I think it was clarinet, I think it was a ballet, and I am NOT kidding about the 20-second part. Anyway, those bastards'd strand you on hold listening to that tiny clip for HOURS.
I just got it stuck in my head, just now, in the middle of the day, for no reason, even though I haven't had any services with Bellsouth/AT&T in years. I should know the whole song -- after all, it's very familiar -- but I don't. Bellsouth broke it for me. So I'll never reach the end of it, because there is no end, and I will be its victim until I hear "Tom's Diner" or something like that. And no, oddly enough, just mentioning "Tom's Diner" doesn't help.
If I could just *figure out* what the song is, I could *find it* and *play it* and it would *go away*. Argh.
Last week, I ordered U-Verse service from the Deathstar. Maybe my subconscious cued the music as a warning.
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