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"Settle down, Beavis."
Jun. 7th, 2009 11:24 amThis is the first downtime I've had at home in a full week. Therefore, of course, I'm fighting the urge to GO OUT AND DO SOMETHING (in this case, trudging out to W'burg for the Renegade Craft Fair, which, no, I shouldn't be buying stuff, but I figure it would feed my head right well; and it's a gorgeous day to amble around a park).
Can someone please explain why my back-brain thinks that a relaxing day at home == WASTING MY LIIIIIIIFE ?
Can someone please explain why my back-brain thinks that a relaxing day at home == WASTING MY LIIIIIIIFE ?
"Not the rose, but near the rose"
Jun. 2nd, 2009 12:17 pm![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
erinfinnegan and froglartbge's press event tonight made it to Gothamist! FAME AND NOTORIETYIn Which I Am Politically Active
May. 27th, 2009 07:51 amI met sweh at our usual pub for a quick drink after work yesterday; the quicker because as usual in a holiday week I had an off-by-one error, forgetting it was Tuesday, which is their open mic night. So as soon as the mic opened, we departed. As I walked him to the PATH, we saw a mob of people in the middle of Sixth Ave with signs that we couldn't see; so after he descended into the depths, I noodled down to have a look.
It was, of course, people protesting the upholding of Prop 8, which seems obvious in retrospect. And so I stood for a minute as they started to surge uptown, and took the obligatory few blurred cellphone pics, and saw a couple of girls dashing from the crowd to join the march; and I thought to myself, "Self, I support this product and/or service, why do I not join the march too?" Self replied with a nebulous megrim, which was the usual combination of Not Putting Myself Forward and Who Am I, Anyways, To Stick My Oar In? and then I looked at Self and smacked it with a metaphorical fish, because of course the point of a public protest is for everyone who thinks that the protested item is Wrong can, should, and is welcome to participate. Therefore I too dashed from the crowd and joined the march, which went from there up to Union Square. I peeled off at the end of the march and took the subway home, not sticking around for the rally--there were plenty and enough people to fill the park, but more particularly I desperately needed to pee.
(No Tasering, no police shenanigans of any kind. I think they know better than to mess with the pride crowd by now and save it for the bicyclists instead.)
sweh at our usual pub for a quick drink after work yesterday; the quicker because as usual in a holiday week I had an off-by-one error, forgetting it was Tuesday, which is their open mic night. So as soon as the mic opened, we departed. As I walked him to the PATH, we saw a mob of people in the middle of Sixth Ave with signs that we couldn't see; so after he descended into the depths, I noodled down to have a look. It was, of course, people protesting the upholding of Prop 8, which seems obvious in retrospect. And so I stood for a minute as they started to surge uptown, and took the obligatory few blurred cellphone pics, and saw a couple of girls dashing from the crowd to join the march; and I thought to myself, "Self, I support this product and/or service, why do I not join the march too?" Self replied with a nebulous megrim, which was the usual combination of Not Putting Myself Forward and Who Am I, Anyways, To Stick My Oar In? and then I looked at Self and smacked it with a metaphorical fish, because of course the point of a public protest is for everyone who thinks that the protested item is Wrong can, should, and is welcome to participate. Therefore I too dashed from the crowd and joined the march, which went from there up to Union Square. I peeled off at the end of the march and took the subway home, not sticking around for the rally--there were plenty and enough people to fill the park, but more particularly I desperately needed to pee.
(No Tasering, no police shenanigans of any kind. I think they know better than to mess with the pride crowd by now and save it for the bicyclists instead.)
A Brief Moment Of Appreciation
May. 26th, 2009 08:06 amI'd like to take this moment to appreciate Ranger (pictured in icon), who, although being legendary for his wide-eyed brainlessness--Steve was wont to call him the Beautiful Loser--, has scrupulously observed cat box protocols through multiple relocations of domicile as well as of box location.
It was generally agreed that perhaps I had over-activited myself this weekend, so today was reserved for R&R. Therefore, naturally, I carried a shelving unit about 3/4 of a mile back from the Container Store and spent the day having another go at Making All My Stuff Fit. This has actually mostly been accomplished; I still have the two book-boxes of Damocles hanging over my head, but that's waiting on the coffee table, PC, Trinitron, and computer desk to go away. The silver chest is in a place where I can open it, the sewing supplies are a bit more sensibly and accessibly organized, and the keepsakes I'm not ready to think about are stowed.
Also: the cat box is no longer in the bathroom. Glory fucking Hallelujah.
In addition, I roasted a disturbingly-large hunk of MEAT!~ (they seem smaller in the store...) which should feed me for the week, and I baked cookies. Most of which I shall take into work and make everyone else's problem.
Several of the yards out my back window have been tenanted for most of the afternoon/evening, which is right and proper, but I wish that the neighborhood standard grilling technique did not involve fried lighter fluid. Lordy, it be reekin'. GUYS, IF IT SMELLS THAT STRONGLY, IT'S PROBABLY IN YOUR FOOD. I confess that part of my putative motivation for cookie production was to drown out the smell, but this didn't work. ...Oh hell, I think someone's lighting a cigar now. grrrr
Also: the cat box is no longer in the bathroom. Glory fucking Hallelujah.
In addition, I roasted a disturbingly-large hunk of MEAT!~ (they seem smaller in the store...) which should feed me for the week, and I baked cookies. Most of which I shall take into work and make everyone else's problem.
Several of the yards out my back window have been tenanted for most of the afternoon/evening, which is right and proper, but I wish that the neighborhood standard grilling technique did not involve fried lighter fluid. Lordy, it be reekin'. GUYS, IF IT SMELLS THAT STRONGLY, IT'S PROBABLY IN YOUR FOOD. I confess that part of my putative motivation for cookie production was to drown out the smell, but this didn't work. ...Oh hell, I think someone's lighting a cigar now. grrrr
Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ
May. 23rd, 2009 05:43 pmnedlnthred and I had a scientifically-generated plan to go down to Asbury Park the day after the local Springsteen show, poke around, see what it was like. (And maybe, if we were super super lucky, he would drop in to play at one of the local clubs, as he is occasionally known to do...) So we did this thing yesterday. We got a late-ish start, were further delayed by major accidents, etc. etc., but finally rolled into town around 1:30pm.I should back up to note that I have been to Asbury Park once before. It was, hm, maybe 7 years ago; we were invited to a party of a particular kind, so the redheads and I tootled down, and lordy, were we appalled. The hotel the party was in was clearly a classic establishment from the shore glory days, but the room we entered into had indelible marker on the walls, a used condom in the sheets, and a dead mouse under the bed. (And that was before the party started.) The beachfront was all run-down and almost entirely closed. We survived, we escaped, and the experience passed into legend. Although I had vaguely heard that, in the interim, the town had become something of a gay mecca, my expectations were for an entertainingly trashy kind of day.
Thus, I was pretty surprised to find that the place (well, at least the boardwalk portion) is entirely under a makeover. The beautiful old arcades on either end are being refurbished and cleaned up without being torn down and replaced with something appalling; the burnt-out abandoned buildings have been torn down, and new shops are being built; and the vendors they've rounded up are artisans, not the Usual Beach Crap. We had a long chat with a fellow who runs a pottery shop, and he was telling us that the corporation masterminding the whole affair figures this way: every town along the Jersey Shore, nearly, is aimed at families and emphasizes quantity/low cost over quality. They aren't going to be able to drag that demographic away from whatever its normal vacation spot is, so instead, they're aiming at the singles or dual-income with disposable income. So: fine dining, good cocktails, cute or quaint or artsy shops, and an emphasis on classy. It's clearly still very much a work in progress, but I quite like what they've done so far. (And I'm happy to say they do not seem to have meddled with the music venues at all. So, not your usual mode of gentrification which gets rid of anything that does not conform.)
I do wonder what the locals think of all this.
We also stumbled upon an event at the Stone Pony, being thrown in cooperation with the only non-shitty commercial radio station in NYC. It wasn't a big whoop--there was cheap bad beer (but at least you could get decent bottles, if for $5) and chili dogs and a giant inflatable King Kong--but they had local bands playing, and the one we stuck around for was not bad. I understand it was supposed to get much more lively around 7 or 8 (and if we were going to see The Bruce, that probably would have been when)--but Beth needed to get further down shore to meet her family and I needed to embark on the 1 hour 45 minute train pilgrimage back to the city, so we missed all that. But, anyways, a lovely day all around.
Brief Moment of Check-In
May. 22nd, 2009 09:07 pm...as I hope to expand on some or all of these items later.
1.nedlnthred and I went to see Springsteen last night. It was a show of extreme awesomeness and energy, with the Encore that Never Ended, a thing we were just fine with. (I am here to tell you, though, that the new and probably exceedingly expensive parking arrangements at the Continental Airlines Arena^W^W^W IZOD Center are the worst I have ever seen at a venue, bar none.)
2. Therefore, today, we drove down to Asbury Park for the day, and what a beautiful day. It is not the howling wasteland of skank that it was when we attended a party there some years ago; it is being niced up, and in the good way, not the generic-corporate-chain way.
3. The buyers of the house have backed out, which is maybe not such a loss since they were major fucking pains in the ass, but it's awfully annoying to not be able to sit back and say "the fucker's sorted". Certain other vast irritants have cropped up in this arena, too, chiefly because we trusted people we were paying to tell us of things that in theory they should have been expert in when we were buying the place. Feh.
4. Tomorrow: Improv Everywhere MP3 experiment.
1.
nedlnthred and I went to see Springsteen last night. It was a show of extreme awesomeness and energy, with the Encore that Never Ended, a thing we were just fine with. (I am here to tell you, though, that the new and probably exceedingly expensive parking arrangements at the Continental Airlines Arena^W^W^W IZOD Center are the worst I have ever seen at a venue, bar none.)2. Therefore, today, we drove down to Asbury Park for the day, and what a beautiful day. It is not the howling wasteland of skank that it was when we attended a party there some years ago; it is being niced up, and in the good way, not the generic-corporate-chain way.
3. The buyers of the house have backed out, which is maybe not such a loss since they were major fucking pains in the ass, but it's awfully annoying to not be able to sit back and say "the fucker's sorted". Certain other vast irritants have cropped up in this arena, too, chiefly because we trusted people we were paying to tell us of things that in theory they should have been expert in when we were buying the place. Feh.
4. Tomorrow: Improv Everywhere MP3 experiment.
I didn't pack a lunch today, and was intending to just eat a Curry Inna Packet or something, but spride persuaded me out to get Indian takeaway from a place I'd noticed close to my apartment, which I'd wanted to try therefore; so I ditched yoga (it was going to half be end-of-semester tea-and-cookies anyways) and walked out. I admit the beautiful day had something to do with it, too.
However, we did not make it as far as the takeaway, instead being sucked into the gravity well of the Nanoosh Mediterranean Hummus Bar, which I had also taken note of. It is as good as it sounded. I got Hummus Chicken, which is hummus with some grilled spiced chicken and onions and a dollop of tahini in the middle, and also two beautiful, fluffy, warm, delicious pitas with which to manage your glorp. I had more than sufficient to take back half for tomorrow's lunch. I can also say that the mint iced tea was refreshing and nice; "lightly sweetened" as described. All of this was not cheap, but it was awfully good. And it's less than a five minute walk from my front door. <3
I really want to go back for the rice pudding with cardamom.
spride persuaded me out to get Indian takeaway from a place I'd noticed close to my apartment, which I'd wanted to try therefore; so I ditched yoga (it was going to half be end-of-semester tea-and-cookies anyways) and walked out. I admit the beautiful day had something to do with it, too.However, we did not make it as far as the takeaway, instead being sucked into the gravity well of the Nanoosh Mediterranean Hummus Bar, which I had also taken note of. It is as good as it sounded. I got Hummus Chicken, which is hummus with some grilled spiced chicken and onions and a dollop of tahini in the middle, and also two beautiful, fluffy, warm, delicious pitas with which to manage your glorp. I had more than sufficient to take back half for tomorrow's lunch. I can also say that the mint iced tea was refreshing and nice; "lightly sweetened" as described. All of this was not cheap, but it was awfully good. And it's less than a five minute walk from my front door. <3
I really want to go back for the rice pudding with cardamom.
There has been a sort of perfect-storm of mental reorganization, triggered by a combination of progesterone, feeling all the chafing bits where Things are Not Right in my home, and a housewarming gift from caelfinn et iugus of Apartment Therapy, which I burned through in less than a day. I had already a notion of a bunch of things the apartment needs, but it helped me come to a few more realizations.
( In which there is a long list. )
Today's achievements:
But did not study for final. Hey ho.
caelfinn et iugus of Apartment Therapy, which I burned through in less than a day. I had already a notion of a bunch of things the apartment needs, but it helped me come to a few more realizations.( In which there is a long list. )
Today's achievements:
- Completely cleaned bathroom, mopping and all
- Did hand-wash laundry
- Vacuumed bedroom rug, mopped the rest of the floor (but not the full monty, didn't clear out everything from under the bed)
- Put a small shelf up next to the desk for small tchotchkes, which previously lived on top of my monitor, but that doesn't work in this Brave New World of flat panels
- Took two large bags of STUF to Housing Works for donation
- Assembled other bags: one of clothes to take to Stephen's, one of books &c Beth had left here, one of remaining housewares for donation, and one of books I already know I'm getting rid of that can be taken to NYPL
- Bought fresh flowers (but am displeased with quality) (still, I now have a single rose in a crystal vase above my bed, and that's okay)
- Shifted all the photos which had been on the laptop into iPhoto on the new machine (which I have named gfefx, as well, and it shall so be referred to in future)
- Took out much garbage & recycling
But did not study for final. Hey ho.
Take My Stuff...Please
May. 17th, 2009 05:31 pmFree to all finders, birds, beasts, Elves or Men, and all kindly creatures:
* 19" Sony Trinitron monitor. Excellent device, great picture. Big and heavy CRT, but very good quality.
* PC Bits, consisting of the only intelligently-designed desktop case I've ever seen (the bays are individually-removable, which makes dealing with the innards an order of magnitude simpler); a Pioneer DVD burner; an unknown-model DVD reader; a floppy drive (yuk yuk); and a probably-working 3.0 Ghz Intel motherboard and CPU (I would have to askaudiovile of the exact specs). Also a beloved clicky IBM keyboard. Would that I could use it on the iMac. (spride mentions a Matias of similar construction but I don't like it half so much.)
* A coffee table of unusual size. Speak quick, I'm putting it on the street tomorrow night.
* An IKEA "Mikael" wee sma' computer desk. I have the casters, and the keyboard rails, but not the actual chunk of wood that forms the keyboard tray. (We never felt the lack of it.)
* A food dehydrator (claimed byarkham1010)
* A good, sturdy white plastic laundry basket.
* A good, sturdy grey plastic wastebasket. It's too big for bathroom, too small for kitchen, and the wrong size for any of my needs. (We used to have it in the office area.)
* 19" Sony Trinitron monitor. Excellent device, great picture. Big and heavy CRT, but very good quality.
* PC Bits, consisting of the only intelligently-designed desktop case I've ever seen (the bays are individually-removable, which makes dealing with the innards an order of magnitude simpler); a Pioneer DVD burner; an unknown-model DVD reader; a floppy drive (yuk yuk); and a probably-working 3.0 Ghz Intel motherboard and CPU (I would have to ask
audiovile of the exact specs). Also a beloved clicky IBM keyboard. Would that I could use it on the iMac. (spride mentions a Matias of similar construction but I don't like it half so much.)* A coffee table of unusual size. Speak quick, I'm putting it on the street tomorrow night.
* An IKEA "Mikael" wee sma' computer desk. I have the casters, and the keyboard rails, but not the actual chunk of wood that forms the keyboard tray. (We never felt the lack of it.)
* A food dehydrator (claimed by
arkham1010)* A good, sturdy white plastic laundry basket.
* A good, sturdy grey plastic wastebasket. It's too big for bathroom, too small for kitchen, and the wrong size for any of my needs. (We used to have it in the office area.)
elibalin invited me to join him at MoMA this morning, but I was feeling Driven about doing home stuff (about which more later, probably), so instead just met up for a late brunch. Our venue was EJ's Luncheonette, which I've passed a bunch of times but never have actually been to. We had a bit of a wait (less than ten minutes), even at 2:30. I got whole-grain wheat germ and flaxseed pancakes, which sounds horrible, I know, but they were quite good (and the strawberries fresh and sweet); but they were completely blown out of the water by Eli's lobster cakes Benedict, which were absolutely fantastic. A+++ would nom nom nom again and again until DEAD.The mimosas were small and not potent, but at $2.50 you don't have to care; the coffee was a little weak, but drinkable.
Oh No You Didn't.
May. 15th, 2009 04:14 pmDear Notworks Group:
We knew you were wrong, and that the fact that none of the West Building terminals could connect to, well, anything was actually a network problem. I did, the PFY did, the Windows Server admin did, the sysadmins did, and I'm pretty sure you did too. You lost any scrap of credibility you had in the first place when, an hour in, we found that indeed there was an entire switch turned off. After that was back in service, don't try and tell us that it's not you any more, when we can ping the gateway for the East Building terminals, but get 36 bytes from 10.95.0.131: Communication prohibited by filter when pinging West--and most especially do not try and say "It's your computer!" when I report the above. Neither should you try and claim it's because the IP address they're using as a primary name server went out of commission Monday, because a) they've been working betwixt then and now, and b) the East building terminals with the same configuration still work.
No love,
Me.
We knew you were wrong, and that the fact that none of the West Building terminals could connect to, well, anything was actually a network problem. I did, the PFY did, the Windows Server admin did, the sysadmins did, and I'm pretty sure you did too. You lost any scrap of credibility you had in the first place when, an hour in, we found that indeed there was an entire switch turned off. After that was back in service, don't try and tell us that it's not you any more, when we can ping the gateway for the East Building terminals, but get 36 bytes from 10.95.0.131: Communication prohibited by filter when pinging West--and most especially do not try and say "It's your computer!" when I report the above. Neither should you try and claim it's because the IP address they're using as a primary name server went out of commission Monday, because a) they've been working betwixt then and now, and b) the East building terminals with the same configuration still work.
No love,
Me.
Point of Self-Aggrandizement
May. 13th, 2009 03:27 pmI haven't been to the Wednesday yoga class for several weeks, between training, conference, and ambushes of Duh. I did go today, whereupon the instructor greeted me, said it was good to see me, and then: "Wow, you're really losing weight!"
(This was particularly useful, as I felt like I was, but I didn't notice as how most of my clothes were appreciably different.) (No scale at present.)
(This was particularly useful, as I felt like I was, but I didn't notice as how most of my clothes were appreciably different.) (No scale at present.)
...and while stomping around the apartment frothing and raving (N.B.: it is difficult to stomp properly in only two rooms, and they crowded), the last remaining shreds of control said unto me:
So I brewed up, and I changed the house soundtrack from Anthrax to Mediæval Bæbes, and generally had a nice tall glass of Chill the Fuck Out. Following which--at this point, mind you, it was past 10pm--I found myself rearranging, cleaning, sorting, and generally making productivity. (I also found the Ella Fitzgerald CDnedlnthred made for me that had been missing for months.) I finally got to bed around 1am, but was well satisfied with the result.
Today, I woke up in much better case. I think I can't really proceed further without a) purchasing some things and b) getting rid of others. I have found a tchotchke shelf on Amazon that will do to hang on my bedroom wall; I am going to put all software CDs in a flip book and discard the jewel cases; and I will need to get another bookshelf, no two ways about it. (Even if I plump for the Kindle, it'll take a fair amount of time before I can start phasing out the dead trees.) I have an extraneous laundry basket and a large wastebasket (anyone want? they're both good), I have to donate the sack o' clothes to a convenient charity, and I need the Box of Stuff I Don't Want to go away (also charity?). From that point on it is mostly minor tweaking, though I do foresee some SCIENCE!~ will have to occur when I get some kind of televisionary device, for to place the XBox and its bits. where the hell does the rock band drum kit go
And then there's the current Big Problem: what to do about my dead computer. It's clearly not the power supply, so it's the motherboard or the CPU or both.audiovile has offered me whatever bits I need (or the entire thing) of Computer #3 at the house; or, I could just say The Hell With It and get the iMac. I was not intending to do that yet; was going to wait until the house sold; but perhaps it is not worth faffing around any further. I still haven't entirely reconciled what my final intended topography should be. I know I want an actual desktop on my desk for gaming, so that's that; but then, what mechanism shall I use to feed Teh Intarnet Videoz (or whatever) to the televisionic device on the other side of the room? It seems completely insane to buy a separate computer just for that.
In other news, the Doomity Doom Doom insurance letter is because Uncle Bloomberg didn't pay the premiums for a bunch of city employees. It is being worked out, Do Not Be Alarmed, Citizen, All Is Well. Apparently the HR people have known about it for weeks; why they didn't, y'know, proactively tell affected people so they didn't freak out is left as an exercise for the reader.
Am sick of belly. Am running today. (We learn that the yoga classes will extend into the summer! Huzzah!)
So I brewed up, and I changed the house soundtrack from Anthrax to Mediæval Bæbes, and generally had a nice tall glass of Chill the Fuck Out. Following which--at this point, mind you, it was past 10pm--I found myself rearranging, cleaning, sorting, and generally making productivity. (I also found the Ella Fitzgerald CD
nedlnthred made for me that had been missing for months.) I finally got to bed around 1am, but was well satisfied with the result.Today, I woke up in much better case. I think I can't really proceed further without a) purchasing some things and b) getting rid of others. I have found a tchotchke shelf on Amazon that will do to hang on my bedroom wall; I am going to put all software CDs in a flip book and discard the jewel cases; and I will need to get another bookshelf, no two ways about it. (Even if I plump for the Kindle, it'll take a fair amount of time before I can start phasing out the dead trees.) I have an extraneous laundry basket and a large wastebasket (anyone want? they're both good), I have to donate the sack o' clothes to a convenient charity, and I need the Box of Stuff I Don't Want to go away (also charity?). From that point on it is mostly minor tweaking, though I do foresee some SCIENCE!~ will have to occur when I get some kind of televisionary device, for to place the XBox and its bits. where the hell does the rock band drum kit go
And then there's the current Big Problem: what to do about my dead computer. It's clearly not the power supply, so it's the motherboard or the CPU or both.
audiovile has offered me whatever bits I need (or the entire thing) of Computer #3 at the house; or, I could just say The Hell With It and get the iMac. I was not intending to do that yet; was going to wait until the house sold; but perhaps it is not worth faffing around any further. I still haven't entirely reconciled what my final intended topography should be. I know I want an actual desktop on my desk for gaming, so that's that; but then, what mechanism shall I use to feed Teh Intarnet Videoz (or whatever) to the televisionic device on the other side of the room? It seems completely insane to buy a separate computer just for that.In other news, the Doomity Doom Doom insurance letter is because Uncle Bloomberg didn't pay the premiums for a bunch of city employees. It is being worked out, Do Not Be Alarmed, Citizen, All Is Well. Apparently the HR people have known about it for weeks; why they didn't, y'know, proactively tell affected people so they didn't freak out is left as an exercise for the reader.
Am sick of belly. Am running today. (We learn that the yoga classes will extend into the summer! Huzzah!)
Hatred, it poisons my soul.
May. 11th, 2009 09:38 pmSo, let's take a look at the last 24 hours, shall we?
* Botched a test I should have had no problem with.
* Registration wasn't working right for most of the day, and so too several miscellaneous other student-related services, leading to even more Duh than usual.
* Plans for the evening fell through (though I sort of expected that).
* Once again experienced shopping Fail due to a continued lack of a god. damned. dry. erase. marker.
* Shiny new power supply does not make computer boot up. Seems to be a fried motherboard or CPU.
* Discovered that, even standing on the bed, I can't reach the ceiling, making it exceedingly difficult to install hooks.
* Cannot find any place to stash the contents of the last three boxes, nor my picnic basket, and I am completely hacked off with continually tripping over/around them--and now there is power supply impedimentia, too.
* Opened mail accumulated while away, found letter postmarked May 1 telling me that "due to a change in [my] membership status", my health coverage was being terminated March 1. There is so much WTF in this, I don't know where to start. And I can't do anything about it til tomorrow, therefore have no outlet for rage.
* Botched a test I should have had no problem with.
* Registration wasn't working right for most of the day, and so too several miscellaneous other student-related services, leading to even more Duh than usual.
* Plans for the evening fell through (though I sort of expected that).
* Once again experienced shopping Fail due to a continued lack of a god. damned. dry. erase. marker.
* Shiny new power supply does not make computer boot up. Seems to be a fried motherboard or CPU.
* Discovered that, even standing on the bed, I can't reach the ceiling, making it exceedingly difficult to install hooks.
* Cannot find any place to stash the contents of the last three boxes, nor my picnic basket, and I am completely hacked off with continually tripping over/around them--and now there is power supply impedimentia, too.
* Opened mail accumulated while away, found letter postmarked May 1 telling me that "due to a change in [my] membership status", my health coverage was being terminated March 1. There is so much WTF in this, I don't know where to start. And I can't do anything about it til tomorrow, therefore have no outlet for rage.
I've never had to use a laundromat before, believe it or not. I've been putting this confrontation off, Lord knows why, it's not actually that different from having coin-op-in-basement, and yet here was the avoidance behavior; but I need clean pants if I want to continue fighting evil this week, so.
This being the Upper East Side, there is a plethora of Chinese dry-cleaning/wash-fold-pay-by-the-pound establishments, but only one DIY location (as far as I can tell) in close range; it's one block down, one over. HOLY HELL, $2 FOR THE HALF SIZED WASHERS and $4 for the ones you can fit your comforter in. If it's not a big comforter. Oh dear oh dear. The dryers are 8 minutes for a quarter, aselibalin predicted, which might be okay depending on how sucky or un-sucky the dryers actually are; a question I will be able to report on in, oh, 20 minutes or so. Certainly the washers leave one's clothes more sodden than is quite right, which does not augur well.
It is possible (though I'm dubious) that it might not work out much more costly to take it all to the Here's My Clothes, Make Them Nice businesses, but the thought makes me twitch an awful lot.spride's recounted experience of "You drop off your clothes in a bag, they weigh them, they give you a form where you tick off temperature and whether you want bleach and whether you use fabric softener, and they toss it out and you get it all back nicely folded and two sizes smaller in a couple days" exactly meshes with my rampant fear-laden imagination, and I don't want people messing with my stuff. It could be argued that abandoning my unmentionables for forty minutes could also lead to unwanted results, but then they'd just be missing, not messed up.
I do not pretend this is a rational reaction, but it's what I've got to work with.
This being the Upper East Side, there is a plethora of Chinese dry-cleaning/wash-fold-pay-by-the-pound establishments, but only one DIY location (as far as I can tell) in close range; it's one block down, one over. HOLY HELL, $2 FOR THE HALF SIZED WASHERS and $4 for the ones you can fit your comforter in. If it's not a big comforter. Oh dear oh dear. The dryers are 8 minutes for a quarter, as
elibalin predicted, which might be okay depending on how sucky or un-sucky the dryers actually are; a question I will be able to report on in, oh, 20 minutes or so. Certainly the washers leave one's clothes more sodden than is quite right, which does not augur well.It is possible (though I'm dubious) that it might not work out much more costly to take it all to the Here's My Clothes, Make Them Nice businesses, but the thought makes me twitch an awful lot.
spride's recounted experience of "You drop off your clothes in a bag, they weigh them, they give you a form where you tick off temperature and whether you want bleach and whether you use fabric softener, and they toss it out and you get it all back nicely folded and two sizes smaller in a couple days" exactly meshes with my rampant fear-laden imagination, and I don't want people messing with my stuff. It could be argued that abandoning my unmentionables for forty minutes could also lead to unwanted results, but then they'd just be missing, not messed up. I do not pretend this is a rational reaction, but it's what I've got to work with.
So, all last week, I was at an ITIL Foundations course at the Mothership. (Which was initially supposed to be in February, I might add, and they kept shifting the date.) It was moderately stultifying--apparently there had been Special Requests to make the course longer because "it was too hard"--and it will probably come as no surprise to the Gentle Reader that I aced the test to obtain my certification.
Then there is Part II, the Intermediate course, which is specifically on Operational Support & Analysis (i.e., helldesk and friends). This finally ended up being rescheduled for three weeks following, i.e., the week of May 18th. This was a pain in my ass, since my final is that week, but I talked to my really excellent and cool professor and got it rescheduled for the 15th, i.e., the day after our last class.
Therefore, of course, last night, the person at the Mothership who is (mis-)arranging these courses sent mail saying:
I'm trying to fill a class of 12 for next week. Please let me know if you
can definately attend. The May 18 class is not confirmed. It may have to
be rescheduled if I can't get it confirmed by tomorrow.
[sic]
YES OF COURSE SOME FIFTEEN PEOPLE, MANAGERS UP THROUGH DIRECTORS, CAN DROP EVERYTHING ON A WEEK'S NOTICE. What in the hell? It can take two weeks' notice to get an hour of time on $OVERBOSS's schedule, and a few of the people in this course are at his level. A full week? Forget it.
Then there is Part II, the Intermediate course, which is specifically on Operational Support & Analysis (i.e., helldesk and friends). This finally ended up being rescheduled for three weeks following, i.e., the week of May 18th. This was a pain in my ass, since my final is that week, but I talked to my really excellent and cool professor and got it rescheduled for the 15th, i.e., the day after our last class.
Therefore, of course, last night, the person at the Mothership who is (mis-)arranging these courses sent mail saying:
I'm trying to fill a class of 12 for next week. Please let me know if you
can definately attend. The May 18 class is not confirmed. It may have to
be rescheduled if I can't get it confirmed by tomorrow.
[sic]
YES OF COURSE SOME FIFTEEN PEOPLE, MANAGERS UP THROUGH DIRECTORS, CAN DROP EVERYTHING ON A WEEK'S NOTICE. What in the hell? It can take two weeks' notice to get an hour of time on $OVERBOSS's schedule, and a few of the people in this course are at his level. A full week? Forget it.
