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Sunday, December 6th, 2009
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1:53 pm - Why I Haven't Replied To Your E-Mails
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Dear friends & family,
I have a really old e-mail address. It's probably pushing 15 years old now. And it's on a server that doesn't really do much to filter spam, and it's certainly made its way around the spam lists.
Over the last year, I was getting 1500-2500 spam messages a day, but this e-mail address has some special advantages I don't want to let go of (not to mention not wanting people from 15 years ago to lose track of me--not like they're trying to reach me--but it's the principle of the matter!)**
Dad & I put some modicum of spam filtering on the server, and that brought it down to about 300-650 spam messages a day. And at that rate, the server can actually handle the volume.
Over the last year, whenever I was gone for 3 or more days, the mail server would freeze up and Dad would have to archive all my mail in a place that was very inconvenient to get to.
I could deal w/ wading through the spam to find your messages. But whenever you sent me messages while I was away from my computer for several days, I simply had a several-day gap in my received e-mail--period.
Anyway, I'm finally going through those old archives, one by one, and downloading them to my computer (I finally got enough free space on my hard drive and finally wrote down the instructions).
I did a lot of cleanup last night of the e-mail I already had (before I start this big downloading-archives project).
Right now, it looks like I have 500 unread Facebook & LJ comment notifications, 400 unread e-mails from friends & other "whitelisted" addresses, 50 unread e-mails from my fiance, & 35 unread e-mails from my family. But hey--at least they're un-buried from the spam!
And I will now start downloading all those archived "blank spaces" in my e-mail and sort them into spam, whitelisted, friends, family, etc. And one day get back to you, I hope!
Thanks for your patience.
**My mom has always been surprised I didn't come out a staunch social conservative, I'm so resistant to change in my personal life.
current mood: accomplished
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| Friday, November 20th, 2009
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8:37 pm - Lifestyle Activism
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This is a really great essay by a woman named mai'a on Flip-Flopping Joy. This kind of essay has really shaped the things I believe in my head, and whenever I see this kind of essay, it pushes it a little farther into my subconscious, my heart, and my actions.
Quote:...then it started to make sense. whether or not i drank coke. had much more to do with the relationships i had in that office in chicago, or with other progressives. than it had to with my relationship to colombians.
and then i started to add up all the hours and dollars and energy that i put into my lifestyle choices. i thought about how i could have actually been using that time to do build relationships with people and ideas. how much more time i could have spent studying history so i had a better grasp of the present. learning from my elders. and mentoring.
Quote:i do think that there is some personal good in being conscious about how i spend my money. but that good is a personal one. as in me choosing to spend my money on this rather than that. acts as a spiritual practice. like fasting. or prayer. a reminder to take a second in the midst of consumerism. and remember another person’s story. another community’s story. so when people tell me they dont buy this product or they just bought this green product and then they start going on about how important it is to think of the environment. i just smile and bite my tongue and remind myself. this is just their way of having a modicum of a spirtual practice.
and some people. a lot of people can get awfully self righteous about their particular spirtual practice.</p>
Quote:...we do what we have been taught.
we buy green stuff to replace all of our not-so-green stuff. we spend money. or we spend time. washing plastic bags, raising worms in our kitchen, and preparing the organic foods.
imagine what we could do with all that time and money…if we organized ourselves and our priorities differently…
current music: Boilermakers - Hey Good Lookin' (in head)
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| 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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