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Tonight's Debate Brought To You By:
Oct. 7th, 2008 10:29 pmA combination of cranberry and pomegranate juices, vodka, and vanilla schnapps.
It's pretty okay, and it is a lovely color (matches my fresh pedicure!), and is reminiscent of certain other things imminent; but needs something to make it pop a bit. Seltzer, perhaps, or lime juice. Mint? Sprig garnish perhaps.
It's pretty okay, and it is a lovely color (matches my fresh pedicure!), and is reminiscent of certain other things imminent; but needs something to make it pop a bit. Seltzer, perhaps, or lime juice. Mint? Sprig garnish perhaps.
Apparently Our Insanity Is Contagious
Oct. 7th, 2008 01:21 pmCanada: the haven of calm, polite, friendly sanity. Our Northern Escape Hatch from the pressure-cooker of crazed neoconservatism that is threatening to become thick enough to walk on.
Canada, where some crazy fuck (or fucks) is cutting brake lines of cars parked at houses that have Liberal Party signs up.
Canada, where some crazy fuck (or fucks) is cutting brake lines of cars parked at houses that have Liberal Party signs up.
The Beauty Brains: cosmetic scientists explain what the fuck is actually in that shampoo/foundation/whatever you've got in your paw at the drugstore, and what it does. Example: The Four Basic Types Of Shampoo.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
"But why is all the rum gone?!"
Oct. 3rd, 2008 12:09 amI have consumed rather a lot of Plymouth gin, and must retire now.
Summation: Biden utterly pwn3d Palin on a lot of factual points, but had a couple chokes that I am sure did not help him fly with the voting base, and occasionally prosed on past the American baseline TL;DR point. OTOH, his momentary small breakdown on the topic of one's own child's death probably played very well in Peoria. Palin came off far, far better than her recent public exposure led us to expect, but it's a sad day in American politics when a candidate is lauded for only making a partial ass of herself.
It is worthwhile to note that, although spoken language is perforce a slightly-separate animal from written language, the partial transcript shows that Biden's remarks are generally pretty sensible in either context, where as Palin's generally come out as gibberish if you see them written down. As I remarked to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
shechameleon, "if you try to diagram her sentences, they look like bugsplat."
Summation: Biden utterly pwn3d Palin on a lot of factual points, but had a couple chokes that I am sure did not help him fly with the voting base, and occasionally prosed on past the American baseline TL;DR point. OTOH, his momentary small breakdown on the topic of one's own child's death probably played very well in Peoria. Palin came off far, far better than her recent public exposure led us to expect, but it's a sad day in American politics when a candidate is lauded for only making a partial ass of herself.
It is worthwhile to note that, although spoken language is perforce a slightly-separate animal from written language, the partial transcript shows that Biden's remarks are generally pretty sensible in either context, where as Palin's generally come out as gibberish if you see them written down. As I remarked to
shechameleon, "if you try to diagram her sentences, they look like bugsplat."nedlnthred and I are braced for impact. We have chicken pie, oatmeal cookies, down pillows, and really stiff drinks. elibalin and jdev IM windows are locked & loaded.Why are we watching this debate? We know who we're going to vote for, after all. I can only assume it's the train wreck potential. What new stupidities will issue forth from Caribou Barbie? TUNE IN AND FIND OUT!
what. (Political edition)
Oct. 2nd, 2008 06:42 amFrom last night's VP interviews, here's just a single line from Caribou Barbie:
"I'm, in that sense, a federalist, where I believe that states should have more say in the laws of their lands and individual areas."
Now, back when I was in civics class, a federalist was someone who approved of a strong Federal government, and wanted less power being given to the states. Perhaps it is different in Alaska.
"I'm, in that sense, a federalist, where I believe that states should have more say in the laws of their lands and individual areas."
Now, back when I was in civics class, a federalist was someone who approved of a strong Federal government, and wanted less power being given to the states. Perhaps it is different in Alaska.
Conference report
Sep. 27th, 2008 09:26 amSo, this conference, hight Accessorizing the Renaissance Body.
A few general impressions:
1) A lot of gender-studies people are somewhat wack, and think everything's a nail for their hammer.
2) I see NYU uses Sodexho for their caterers, too. Oh those plastic pastries.
3) If something is of little interest or uninterestingly presented, I can keep awake if I force myself to take notes. <--- important for future grad school aspirations
3a) It's gotten a lot harder to take notes by hand! I'm so used to doing it on a laptop these days. I think that, if my grad school aspirations are realized, this is what an Eeeeeeee would be good for.
( Session I: Working with Accessories )
( Session II: Renaissance Erotics )
Then lunch, which we had with some of Beth's FIT acquaintances at the Olive Tree Cafe. mmmm hummus.
( Session III: Dressing Up )
( Session IV: Taking Accessories Seriously )
At the end, we schmoozed a bit (well, mostly Beth. I'm slowly learning) and we introduced ourselves to the professor who did the "response" closing remarks, who is apparently a Person of Much Note (I think every presenter, or almost every one, quoted his work). I am fairly well convinced that he is actually Doctor Who in a new incarnation.
A worthwhile day, all in all.
A few general impressions:
1) A lot of gender-studies people are somewhat wack, and think everything's a nail for their hammer.
2) I see NYU uses Sodexho for their caterers, too. Oh those plastic pastries.
3) If something is of little interest or uninterestingly presented, I can keep awake if I force myself to take notes. <--- important for future grad school aspirations
3a) It's gotten a lot harder to take notes by hand! I'm so used to doing it on a laptop these days. I think that, if my grad school aspirations are realized, this is what an Eeeeeeee would be good for.
( Session I: Working with Accessories )
( Session II: Renaissance Erotics )
Then lunch, which we had with some of Beth's FIT acquaintances at the Olive Tree Cafe. mmmm hummus.
( Session III: Dressing Up )
( Session IV: Taking Accessories Seriously )
At the end, we schmoozed a bit (well, mostly Beth. I'm slowly learning) and we introduced ourselves to the professor who did the "response" closing remarks, who is apparently a Person of Much Note (I think every presenter, or almost every one, quoted his work). I am fairly well convinced that he is actually Doctor Who in a new incarnation.
A worthwhile day, all in all.
In which there is a Test of my Devotion
Sep. 26th, 2008 07:00 amIt's pouring rain out there. It's a perfect day to stay in bed, hunkered under the comforter. (And I don't have rain boots at the moment.) But we're going to slog in for the conference anyways.
Update: There are rivers running down our street. Gaaah. I am shaken, but remain resolute.
Update: There are rivers running down our street. Gaaah. I am shaken, but remain resolute.
Relaxation: I'm Doin It Rong
Sep. 25th, 2008 09:07 pmSo that "nothing ambitious" bit? Yeah. Not so much.
I have done laundry (including a bunch of hand-wash), vacuumed, done the kitchen floors, put together a bunch of Ikea shelves (nearly getting buried under them in the process), rearranged the back room that is soon to be the media room (taking 2 hp of non-lethal damage from a heavy oaken furniture bit) (I'm icing the giant bruise on my leg now), gotten all the garden stuff gathered together and in a big heavy Rubbermaid bin on the back porch, and put away all the booze. Oh, and unpacked a box I forgot about. And shelved some books.
I swear to God, I kept thinking "oh, after I finish just this one thing, I'll stop and take it easy." And then suddenly it was 6:30. Oops.
However! I feel really good about everything I accomplished. The back room looks pretty good, is ready for PS2 action as soon as I get a certain cable (whichspride informs me arrived at the office today, naturally), and although I haven't actually unpacked my paints, the table is ready for same. Our booze is organized and together and cocktails can ensue at whim. Wine is racked and the Good Stuff which is being lain down is hidden. Also, I learned that I can, in fact, lift a 27" TV.
I have done laundry (including a bunch of hand-wash), vacuumed, done the kitchen floors, put together a bunch of Ikea shelves (nearly getting buried under them in the process), rearranged the back room that is soon to be the media room (taking 2 hp of non-lethal damage from a heavy oaken furniture bit) (I'm icing the giant bruise on my leg now), gotten all the garden stuff gathered together and in a big heavy Rubbermaid bin on the back porch, and put away all the booze. Oh, and unpacked a box I forgot about. And shelved some books.
I swear to God, I kept thinking "oh, after I finish just this one thing, I'll stop and take it easy." And then suddenly it was 6:30. Oops.
However! I feel really good about everything I accomplished. The back room looks pretty good, is ready for PS2 action as soon as I get a certain cable (which
spride informs me arrived at the office today, naturally), and although I haven't actually unpacked my paints, the table is ready for same. Our booze is organized and together and cocktails can ensue at whim. Wine is racked and the Good Stuff which is being lain down is hidden. Also, I learned that I can, in fact, lift a 27" TV.My Day Off
Sep. 25th, 2008 08:29 amI've taken, as threatened, two days off with the intent of Just Relaxing. Tomorrow I'm going to that Renaissance conference at NYU, so not so much with the relaxation there, but we shall attempt today.
So here I am, snuggled in bed under a down comforter with coffee and laptop and a pleasant fall breeze coming in through the window. Perfection would be achieved by having my kitties, but as a consolation prize Angel has come to visit my room and is sitting next to me with big purrs, so this is not bad at all.
I think I'm not going to be able to help being a bit useful today. Hand-wash some laundry, and maybe see if I can rearrange the credenza so that we don't have crates of b00ze sitting all over the living room. And I'd like to perhaps set up the back bedroom so it's ready for me to sit down & paint when I feel the urge. Nothing too ambitious.
So here I am, snuggled in bed under a down comforter with coffee and laptop and a pleasant fall breeze coming in through the window. Perfection would be achieved by having my kitties, but as a consolation prize Angel has come to visit my room and is sitting next to me with big purrs, so this is not bad at all.
I think I'm not going to be able to help being a bit useful today. Hand-wash some laundry, and maybe see if I can rearrange the credenza so that we don't have crates of b00ze sitting all over the living room. And I'd like to perhaps set up the back bedroom so it's ready for me to sit down & paint when I feel the urge. Nothing too ambitious.
Yoga #5: Rockin' the Vinyasa
Sep. 22nd, 2008 03:12 pm(The instructor actually says that, I should note.)
Yes. Mondays definitely easier. Enough so that I started paying more attention to my form, e.g. sucking my belly up during a plank instead of just concentrating on keeping my weight off the ground. Hard work, but felt great.
The instructor usually starts class by reading something (a poem, a short prose thing, whatever), and then talking about intention and paths and the like. Today's was particularly pertinent to my current state of mind, and I'm working on keeping hold of that.
Yes. Mondays definitely easier. Enough so that I started paying more attention to my form, e.g. sucking my belly up during a plank instead of just concentrating on keeping my weight off the ground. Hard work, but felt great.
The instructor usually starts class by reading something (a poem, a short prose thing, whatever), and then talking about intention and paths and the like. Today's was particularly pertinent to my current state of mind, and I'm working on keeping hold of that.
Yoga #4: Energy Is Not.
Sep. 19th, 2008 03:11 pmI am clearly not in as useful a yoga place on Fridays. At first it was much hard; and then I found myself attempting to phone it in. Now, you really can't do that in vinyasa even if all you're doing is keeping up, but I don't feel as well-worked as I have the other sessions. Still a good workout, don't misunderstand me! But I didn't get as much out of it today, and I know I have no one to blame but my lizard brain.
Showing up is still good.
Showing up is still good.
Carlos by Carlos Santana, a line of women's shoes by a man's man guitarist. What?
They look fab, no denying it--this pair in particular speaks to my state and condition. It's just the branding I don't grok.
They look fab, no denying it--this pair in particular speaks to my state and condition. It's just the branding I don't grok.
It's That Knitty Time Of Year Again
Sep. 18th, 2008 02:51 pmThe Sheep and Wool Festival is in a couple weeks. Who's going, and which day, and who needs a ride or a pick-up from the train?
I thinknedlnthred and I were intending to go Saturday.
I think
nedlnthred and I were intending to go Saturday.This thread is relevant to my interests.
I was going to take a couple days off at the end of the month anyways...
I was going to take a couple days off at the end of the month anyways...
Doing Stuff: Back In The Saddle Again
Sep. 17th, 2008 04:32 pmThis Saturday morning, we are going to the Whitney Museum of American Art to see the Buckminster Fuller exhibit that's about to go away. I anticipate being there around 11am, transit willing.
After that, and for a complete change of scene, we're meeting sundry others at Coney Island at 2pm. We have, as usual, missed the boat on seeing Astroland again before it closed forevermore; but we will ride the Cyclone and the Wonder Wheel, and eat hot dogs from Nathan's, and amble along the boardwalk.
Per usual, contact me if you want to join the fnu.
After that, and for a complete change of scene, we're meeting sundry others at Coney Island at 2pm. We have, as usual, missed the boat on seeing Astroland again before it closed forevermore; but we will ride the Cyclone and the Wonder Wheel, and eat hot dogs from Nathan's, and amble along the boardwalk.
Per usual, contact me if you want to join the fnu.
I Sing the Wireless Notwork
Sep. 17th, 2008 12:18 pmAmong the other causes of argh in the last two weeks has been the state of the campus wireless. The original[1] issue was fairly simple: the DHCP server kept falling over at the start of the term, apparently because it was bombarded by requests from all the Blackberries, Treos, iPhones, and God-knows-what that showed up with the returning student population.
So the stooges who someone has laughingly dubbed our networks group decided that the thing to do was to shut off 802.11a. Laptops, said they, would use b/g instead, and the mobile devices (which we don't guarantee will be okay on our network) will stop bugging our DHCP server constantly. OK, fine; I don't know enough to judge, but it seems reasonable.
Except that now, MacBooks won't connect. At all. The console on mine reports "-14 Access point full". They don't appear to have disabled a, so much as told it to report to any inquirers "sorry, we're full". Interestingly, my iMac will connect just fine. All PCs are okay. Booting my MacBook into XP gets an IP address from DHCP, at least, but I never get the authentication window. Myself andspride and The Really Smart Support Tech and the Larval Hacker-Boy have spent a stupid amount of time working on this and defining the shape of it, because the Notwork Stooges first tried to claim that my laptop's hardware must be flakey, and then saying that "Apple must be broken so you should open a ticket with them". Yes. All MacBooks, everywhere, running 10.4.11 or 10.5.3 or 10.5.4 are flakey because they work fine anyplace but at Hunter. BRILLIANT
Anyways, we have a theory that what's happening is this:
1. A Mac connects to the wireless. It tries 802.11a.
2. Access point says "me so sorry, a is full"
3. If the Mac has an Broadcom wireless chipset, it says "okay, how about b/g?" and works.
4. If the Mac has an Atheros chipset, which most MacBooks do, it says "oooer, that's too bad" and doesn't roll over, apparently thinking that why would anyone have a AND b/g?.
But we can't find out for sure, because we can't look at the AP equipment or documentation or logs, and the Notwork Stooges don't want to do any work. (Whether the MacBook behavior described in step 4 is a bug, a feature, or a stupid misfeature is outside the scope of my current study.)
Fed up with this, I finally took it to The Bosses this morning, and a strong semi-public beatdown has been applied, so hopefully they will get up and fucking do their jobs instead of making four others do it for them.
[1] By "original", I mean "this iteration". There have been other delicious banquets of wireless Fail over the past month.
So the stooges who someone has laughingly dubbed our networks group decided that the thing to do was to shut off 802.11a. Laptops, said they, would use b/g instead, and the mobile devices (which we don't guarantee will be okay on our network) will stop bugging our DHCP server constantly. OK, fine; I don't know enough to judge, but it seems reasonable.
Except that now, MacBooks won't connect. At all. The console on mine reports "-14 Access point full". They don't appear to have disabled a, so much as told it to report to any inquirers "sorry, we're full". Interestingly, my iMac will connect just fine. All PCs are okay. Booting my MacBook into XP gets an IP address from DHCP, at least, but I never get the authentication window. Myself and
spride and The Really Smart Support Tech and the Larval Hacker-Boy have spent a stupid amount of time working on this and defining the shape of it, because the Notwork Stooges first tried to claim that my laptop's hardware must be flakey, and then saying that "Apple must be broken so you should open a ticket with them". Yes. All MacBooks, everywhere, running 10.4.11 or 10.5.3 or 10.5.4 are flakey because they work fine anyplace but at Hunter. BRILLIANTAnyways, we have a theory that what's happening is this:
1. A Mac connects to the wireless. It tries 802.11a.
2. Access point says "me so sorry, a is full"
3. If the Mac has an Broadcom wireless chipset, it says "okay, how about b/g?" and works.
4. If the Mac has an Atheros chipset, which most MacBooks do, it says "oooer, that's too bad" and doesn't roll over, apparently thinking that why would anyone have a AND b/g?.
But we can't find out for sure, because we can't look at the AP equipment or documentation or logs, and the Notwork Stooges don't want to do any work. (Whether the MacBook behavior described in step 4 is a bug, a feature, or a stupid misfeature is outside the scope of my current study.)
Fed up with this, I finally took it to The Bosses this morning, and a strong semi-public beatdown has been applied, so hopefully they will get up and fucking do their jobs instead of making four others do it for them.
[1] By "original", I mean "this iteration". There have been other delicious banquets of wireless Fail over the past month.
