April 10: Kicking and screaming

My inability to maintain my checkbook (I forget all the debit card transactions) has finally dragged me kicking and screaming into the 21st Century. Finding Jake's tuition check in the bottom of my bag solved the mystery of the extra money in my account. I realized if that check was going to clear (and it's in the mailbox right now), I would have to undo half the transfer to savings I'd done today. I have now signed up for on-line baking, and have enough money to cover expenses for the rest of the month.

April 4: You gotta have priorities, man

Abortion flag installation at Penn today.

I walked by, raised my fist in the air, and shouted,

ALL RIGHT! US OUT OF IRAQ NOW!

Fucking thousands of dead soldiers, hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis, millions, if not billions, of dollars going to Bush and Cheney's friends, suspension of the Constitution, no funding for vets, and they're worried about FUCKING EMBRYOS?!

March 26: What are you doing in July?

This July I'll be at the web usability conference giving the best value for money. If you look closely, I'm sure you'll note that the sponsor is my employer.

Completely unrelated: I've always said I'd rather be angry than afraid.

March 11: Theme song of the Bush administration's handling of Iraq

Suicidal Tendencies, "Lost again"

Got into a war with reality
that motherfscker it was waiting for me
and I ... lost again.

March 6: Daylight Savings Time

Told you so.

March 3: 40! It's the new 39 365/366!

I was going to write something about what a wonderful birthday and weekend I've had, that it's all been very normal yet touching, doing the important things like being with Jake and Jorj, and with close friends, and Jewish apple cake.

And then Tobi showed up tonight, and blew that out of the water.

Yeah, you heard me right: Tobi's here.

Jorj gave me some song and dance about an installation and he'd need to be late tonight (but was very sorry), and then a package that wasn't arriving until 1 p.m. and that was my big present. We had lunch together and I asked, did it arrive yet? No, no delivery.

And I'd whined to Tobi that I wasn't getting an iPhone.

March 2: Non-Poker

Yesterday should have been poker, but Chip's sick, Scott's away, Doug has hockey. We also had my nephew Sam over. If Jorj couldn't play poker, he was going to play another game — any game. He taught Sam San Juan while I made beans and rice. When Linford and Lori arrived, we played Shadows over Camelot.

Whenever we play Shadows, we say, next time, we play with the traitor (Shadows is a cooperative game). Every time, we've got someone new playing, and it takes so much to explain that we skip the traitor. Last night, we got to a second game, and had a traitor, much to Sam's delight. (He's 14; his whole purpose is to be contrary.) Jorj didn't even have to stack the deck; Sam got to be the traitor. We had the best game of Shadows yet.

(Photo at left links to more photos.)

Feb. 24: Nothing says "high tech" like misogynistic stereotypes

MSN has released "Limited-Edition Developer Action Figures." In an attempt to not stereotype their developers, the group of seven figures has a few people with matching X chromosones and used varying shades of "flesh" plastic. Of course, the first figure is pale and male. And here's the description of one female character:

ISV Super Gal comes from an ultra wealthy Texas family that made its money in the beef market. Although she has always wanted to be a cheerleader, she grew up the shy girl genius, was never popular, and had hard time mixing with the "in" crowd.

As a shy girl genius who was never popular and had a hard time mixing with any crowd, I can tell you, I never wanted to be a cheerleader. At least not the "in-crowd," background-decoration kind. Now, if it were the study interpretive dance and mime to develop a new routine and win the national championship fairly kind ... Instead, I spent my summers reading and my maternity leave learning XML.

And how about this gem:

She also likes Sex in the City — what young, single, genius inventor gal doesn't like Sex in the City?

Those of us watching Doctor Who and The Closer could give a flying fig about SitC. TV shows where the protagonists' problems aren't entirely self-made are much more interesting.

Experience the horror yourself.

User Friendly was pretty horrified too.

Feb. 16: Sold the car

Turns out thare has been a big happening: I sold my car, and I'm not replacing it.

Most of you (yeah, you) stared at me like I was crazy. Except my mother. She cried.

She cried because of Plan B: buy a scooter. She's convinced I'm going to die on the scooter.

Feb. 4: I write about blogging and irony

Today's staff meeting's topic was blogging. Hey, I voted to skip the meeting. Instead, I gave a presentation on Why Blogs Suck.

Yours Included.

Probably the most important piece of information was How to Write a Sentence, for the Love of E.B. White! I thought essays were hard; turns out sentences are the real challenge. So, here are the basic rules for writing a sentence that won't make everyone want to poke their eyes out:

1. Unless you are e.e. cummings or an emo teen, use the shift key for 1) the start of a sentence 2) the word I and 3) names
2. Use punctuation marks
3. Use punctuation marks one at a time
4. Unless you are Heather Armstrong, QUIT SHOUTING
5. Switch to Firefox and its spell-checker, or compose in Word

Now, go fry some doughnuts.

January & February 2008 July & August 2008

What I'm reading

• A bunch of Nick Malgieri cookbooks, all presents from Mom and Jorj at one time or another.
• Agatha Christie. Gena, I told you I'd read them again. I do find I can't read through the more mannerly X people in the country house novels so much any more. I desire a bit more action.
• Anansi Boys, Niel Gaiman. He's said that when a certain event took place, the whole book changed. He was right, and I liked it that much more after. Gaiman considers it a light and humorous book, but Gaiman's professional work always has a lurking horror for me (not his blog, that is light and humorous). So, when the horror happens, it's nice to get it over with.

What I'm listening to

• A whole bunch of stuff off my "not recently listened to" randomizer, which seems to include an insane amount of U2
• Tom Jones
• Fanta 4: Tobi gave me Unplugged for my birthday, and now I've made him listen to German hip-hop.
• Some WXPN indie singer-songwriter stuff that Tobi is making me listen to after the German hip-hop ;)

Guilty pleasures

• The Closer
• Sleeping in while Jorj takes care of Jake
• Having my hair washed before a hair cut
• LOLCats