Friday, October 30th, 2009
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8:06 pm - 1st CD Purchase Off The Presses!
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I did it again!
Thanks to getting to be around when the CDs were picked up, I got to be the 1st person to buy Nancy Harms's In The Indigo.
(The first time was at the Lindy Binge 2004, when I was w/ ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mteson when he picked up CDs and I got to be the 1st person to buy The Dream Team's Live At The Lindy Binge.)
Woohoo! It's a great CD and I can't wait to get to talk to more people about it, go to the release w/ Cassie, etc!
Bonus:
Me and Nancy
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Friday, October 23rd, 2009
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2:55 pm - Usability Testing + "Don't Make Me Think!"
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Marcelo, this one's for you.
(I think.)
Per the book "Don't Make Me Think," I conducted my first usability test on a web site I've been revamping for work.
One of the questions was: "What do you expect to see at [this link]?"
I thought, "Great!" when my friend gave me his answer for Link #1 (written one way) and, "That's stupid! How literal!" on Link #2.
Well, guess what? Link #2 used to be worded the same way as Link #1. Guess what stupid-head changed it?
I'll be changing that back now...
(I am totally loving this. I'm gonna bug my folks to be test subjects this weekend, even though I'm supposed to be 100% "out of the office." It's too much fun.)
current music: douce ambiance (in head)
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Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
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5:34 pm - Weird, Yet Fake, Yuppie-Hippieism
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What the heck?
I just got a cooperative grocery store's magazine, and the cover photo is people gathering apples.
From a tree that is most definitely not an apple tree.
And their clothes are some sort of cross between liberal college campus professor and illustrations from Chaucer / the ren fest.
WHY are we hippies so freaking weird AND fake at the SAME TIME?!
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Monday, September 14th, 2009
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9:21 pm - Happy Birthday, Betsy!
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Thursday, August 20th, 2009
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5:17 pm - Weather: Beating A Dead Horse
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Just to letcha all know, in a NORMAL climate (KC), this weather happens in the fall.
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Saturday, August 15th, 2009
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10:34 pm - Ladybugs
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If, when I check in the morning, the ladybugs all over my garden turn out to be harmonia axyridis, I'll have mixed feelings about their presence.
They do eat aphids & stuff--perhaps even more voraciously than "normal ladybugs" (though there're 450 of those native to North America alone). So that's good.
But STAY OUTTA MY HOUSE!!!!!!!
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9:56 pm - It's Raining. (Thought spill.)
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It's raining--actually, storming--and that's a bit of a bummer because I want ice cream or something.
I don't really have what I need in the house to make some sort of pseudo-ice-cream easily.
But it has been a good food last few days so far, a social weekend so far (an hour+ outside w/ the neighbor; market & lunch w/ Emily tomorrow), and not a terribly painful weekend considering how much I've used the computer.
(I've been taking pictures of the cooking, but no photos online yet because I keep trying to tell myself not to use the computer outside of work, although of course I do...just not for uploading photos or anything really useful...)
So I just have to find something to do that will fix my "cabin fever" emotions, and then I'll be perfect. (And hopefully off this computer!)
current mood:  good
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Tuesday, August 4th, 2009
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11:08 pm - Block party a success
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The block party was fun!
It really was as easy as I'd hoped (my co-hosts had a lot of stuff and were plenty willing to haul it in & out), and 2-3 times the turnout I expected.
Yay!
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8:18 am - Yay!
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Block Party!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lots of stuff to buy, still, and have to arrange a 4th neighbor to help out w/ car arrangments, but I can do it!
current mood: excited
current music: Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong - Let's Call the Whole Thing Off (in head)
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Saturday, August 1st, 2009
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5:26 pm - Unexpected Compost Tomatoes
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10:47 am - Cooking Amaranth
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I brought home a bunch of amaranth greens Thursday and won't let myself go to the market till I make something out of them.
But I can't find any appetizing recipes that aren't complicated.
The Indian ones (also look up thotakura) look awesome, but lots of ingredients & prep time (like soaking beans). I do have the beans...but still. Eh. I wanted to move on w/ my day.
I guess I'll just stir-fry in garlic & put over rice noodles, but BLAH.
I have to figure out some way to reconcile this attitude I have of, "I only soak beans for cooking in the winter." I have to realize, in my subconscious, that beans do go w/ fresh veggies, too.
current music: As Time Goes By (in head)
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Friday, July 31st, 2009
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11:24 am - Video - Please Watch, And I'll Try To Keep The Politics Low Here. :-)
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Context to this video:
- Being in the country without proper immigration status is not a criminal violation of the law.
It is a civil violation of the law.
- Driving over the speed limit is not a criminal violation of the law.
It is a civil violation of the law.
So as you watch this video and you feel thoughts like, "But they're here illegally!" ... all I ask of you is that:
You ask yourself if you think each word the narrator is saying should be a-okay to do to enforce laws that apply to people who're "driving illegally" by speeding.
Thanks.
Now watch! And call DHS/the White House! And sign the petition!
current mood: awake
current music: Honeysuckle Rose (in head)
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Monday, July 27th, 2009
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8:51 am - Sometimes, I Can Hear My Eyeballs Move
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Holy gamole!
I finally got around to looking up my "hearing a sound when my eyeballs move" condition, which started Friday afternoon and is worse indoors & worse when recently exposed to an electronic screen than outdoors and/or computer-free. It hurts a little, too, but not in the way that some poeple on the internet are describing. Just...like, "Oh, ow! I shouldn't have made that move--that's one fatigued muscle!"
I haven't found much yet w/ my first Google search terms, but this comment on this blog post mentioned an antidepressant as suppressing this noise & pain.
And you know what? I did just finish the process of tapering off an antidepressant my new doctor and I were convinced I didn't actually need. (I'd stayed on it because my old doctor's stories about what would happen if I ever went off it IN MY LIIIIIIFE were so intimidating.)
Weird. So...huh. I wonder if this is just some sort of withdrawl symptom I can speed up the disappearance of w/ eye exercises and stricter time outdoors & away from computers. I wonder if this is something chronic that developed while I was on the antidepressant and never knew about. If it is chronic, I wonder if I can nevertheless fix it w/ eye exercises and stricter time outdoors + away from computers--and if so, will I need to do such things every day, 365 days a year to heal it? Or just intensely for a while and then in little few-day spurts whenever I wear out my eyes at a computer? 365 days a year could be kind of tough, working in computers and being in a state that encourages me to spend most of a day indoors most of the year...
(Update--oh boy! Looks like other people have had it as a withdrawl symptom. Yay! Okay, I still promise myself I will do eye exercises and get away from the computer a lot this week.)
(By the way, another funny withdrawl symptom? Rebound scurvy after high vitamin C doses.)
But all those serious questions aside, let's remember to take a moment to laugh--I often hear swishing noises when my eyeballs move. That...is silly.
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Friday, July 24th, 2009
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9:34 am - Best Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream In The World
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I FOUND IIIIIITTTTTTTT!
I found it I found it I found it I found it I found it!
The best mint chocolate chip ice cream I've ever had was at the beginning of my first trip to Europe--so of course I didn't write it down, figuring it'd all be just as good if the first ice cream I got was that good.
But none was. This was simply my favorite version of mint chocolate chip ever.
And I'd lost track of it.
But gosh darnit, this morning I got serious about using Google Maps to put together clues I remembered (my hotel room had a view of the front of a movie theater w/ long glass windows through which I could watch a manager practice his putting...the ice cream was sort of left, then right, or something, out of my hotel's front door, etc.)
And it turns out there aren't as many ice cream shops in Killarney as I would've imagined there were. So...lucky me...I think I've found it. I just saw a checkerboard floor in a blurry picture of the shop, and I'd be amazed if that isn't the darned same checkerboard pattern I remember.
I've shot off e-mails to a hotel in Killarney to see if I could've had such a view from there, and to the ice cream parlor describing the place I was at and asking if they were like that 11 years ago (in or near a red building, black & white pattern somewhere inside, not a full-service restaurant)...so if everything comes back positive, I CAN NOW TELL THE WORLD:
My favorite mint chocolate chip ice cream in the world was at Mac's of Main Street.
No idea if they're still making it the exact same way all these years later. But there you have it. Finally. WHEEEEEEEEEEEE!
current mood: thrilled
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Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
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11:01 am - Clothing Policy Violations
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Eeek!
My coworkers weren't kidding when we discussed the dress code last summer--student workers do often come to work showing a lot more skin than the staff!
I think we might need to reiterate the clothing policy to ours...
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Sunday, July 5th, 2009
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11:01 pm - Stir-Frying Green Veggies And More
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I stir fry about once a week now.
I still let food go to waste, and I still don't clean the kitchen like I should.
But I have kept stir-frying! And trying new greens (so far I've done amaranth, huge bunches of spinach, sweet potato leaves, and several forms of "broccoli"-like and "mustard"-like cabbage family plants). Now that I have a name for this plant (it intimidates me the most of all the bulk plants sold cheaply at the farmer's market), I might even go so far as to try cooking it.
By the way, if you live around the Twin Cities and want to plan ahead for the farmer's market like you would for the grocery store, check out these Twin Cities area lists of locally grown produce availability.
In bad news...I broke my salad spinner. Dropped it on the floor. And I'd just bought it. It was definitely making me keep up w/ my "eating greens" goal. :-(
But I will persevere!
(And do the dishes tomorrow.)
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10:47 pm - Yummy Bread
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Over my lunch break from yard work, I biked to a restaurant with great bread (and more) to pick up some bread for sandwich fixings I had at home. I ordered 2 pitas.
But they baked it fresh and handed it to me hot. Oops--it didn't last 5 minutes.
Had to turn around, go back, and order 2 more to have sandwich bread.
current mood: happy
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Saturday, July 4th, 2009
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1:23 pm - Wine
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Dammit.
I have an open bottle of good wine, and the coworker I made plans w/ to "do something outdoors" isn't even 21.
And I kind of help supervise her.
So that's out of the question!
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Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
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7:24 pm - I got a laptop!
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I got a laptop!!! $50, in good working order, not too old, and used, just like I wanted it! OMG!
current mood: ecstatic
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Saturday, June 27th, 2009
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1:59 pm - Robert's friend
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Last night, Robert said of his friend coming into town that I'd been excited to meet, "I want to warn you...he's going to come off like he's hitting on you. Don't read anything into that...it's just...the way he talks with everybody."
"He can't turn it off?" I asked.
"I don't think so."
"Weird."
"Maybe. But yeah...he's not really hitting on you...I hope you can not be uncomfortable."
"Has he gotten into trouble w/ tough men thinking he's hitting on them?"
"I guess I haven't heard about that. Men seem to really like him."
So...we've got a Calle Johansson coming over.
Eh. I've dealt w/ dancing w/ Calle. I can deal w/ this for a weekend.
I'm still super-psyched to meet one of Robert's best friends!
current mood: hopeful
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