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Political action

February 20, 2009 by

Sorry for the lack of postage lately.   And today’s update isn’t terribly exciting, but I thought some of my readers might want to jump on this particular bandwagon.

I sent this e-mail to my state reps and senator today:

Dear Sirs and Madam:

Citizens are turning to public libraries in record numbers. Library usage data across the state is rising steeply — libraries and their services (job search training, new skills and education services, Internet and computer access, safe and free place for families) are helping citizens survive the economic crisis.

That being the case, please consider the potential impact of the following:

  • Maryland public libraries are currently threatened with a 10% cut in state funds for FY 2010.
  • Funding for the county libraries and the Enoch Pratt Free Library would be cut over three million dollars.
  • The State Library Resource Center would have an additional devastating one million dollar cut —- a cut back to a funding level below FY 2003 that would force reductions in services to every county library in the state.
  • A 10% cut will undermine the ability of public libraries to help citizens survive this crisis.

Strong support of the state’s excellent public library system will have a powerful impact on Maryland’s ability to survive and rebound from the economic crisis.  I ask that you please support increased funding — or at least a rollback of the proposed cuts to help our libraries serve their communities.

I signed off with my name and contact details (a thing one should generally do when sending a letter to representatives, FYI — it both reassures them that you are a real constituent and enables them to get back to you easily if they need/want to follow up).

If you live in Maryland, you can find out who your legislators are and how to contact them here.

Filed Under: libraries Tagged With: ,

Dear Comics.com

February 13, 2009 by

I realized a while back that my daily dose of  “Get Fuzzy” wasn’t arriving in my RSS feed every day any more.  Figuring that some dope had meddled a bit and broken the thing, I went to your site today to re-subscribe to the feed.

Now, before I go on, nice job on the new site.  It’s still a little cluttered (understandable – you’re running a comics site), but the colors are lighter and the design is a lot cleaner and less intrusive.  So, well done to you.

Now here’s the rub: when you click on “RSS,” here’s the message that appears:

Login or register now to personalize your RSS feed with all your favorite strips and editorial cartoons!

Um… no.  Someone has a shaky grasp of the acronym.  Let me explain: “RSS” stands for “Really Simple Syndication.”  As in, “click to sign up, and have Bucky, Satchel, and Rob arrive automatically in your Google reader until you say nay.”

What you have here is, “click to create an ID and password, type the password twice to make sure your valuable comics-reading data is secure, enter a bunch of personal information, type a captcha,* log in, click to ‘add to my comics page,’ click….”

Are you starting to get the idea?  This is starting to look not so “really simple” anymore.  If you want to collect information about your readers, fine.  But you might consider that you’re getting fewer of them as a result.

*I’m assuming based on standard protocols, I didn’t actually sign up.

Filed Under: daily life Tagged With: ,

I think we have one of these around somewhere…

February 11, 2009 by

Yet again, The Onion nails it (NSFW due to language, but deeply hilarious):

Filed Under: daily life Tagged With:

Okay, it’s official

February 9, 2009 by

Yeah, I want one of these.

I would want it even more if my textbooks were available on it, but since a lot of my school-reading is comprised of journal articles in pdf form, this would still make my life easier.

::SIGH::  I’m such an easy mark for good gadgets.

Filed Under: technology Tagged With: ,

Cleanup in aisle 5…

February 8, 2009 by

Weekends around here aren’t complete without a typical, American-style visit to the grocery store to stock up on the things we need for the week.  This morning, after a breakfast at a Cajun joint in Bethesda, we stopped at a grocery store outside our usual orbit to do a quick shop.

John was at the deli counter and I was sort of spacing out when I suddenly recognized the body language of a woman who was saying something to John: she was pretty clearly in the early stages of trying to chat him up.  At about the moment I realized this, she happened to look over at me.  Since I have one of those faces that when at rest communicates something akin to severe disapproval, she was a bit taken aback.

I wandered over about 30 seconds later, since I was intrigued.  The woman had a small daughter.  What’s going on here?  Ah – no wedding ring.  John, by the way, wears one.

However, this didn’t stop her from continually throwing herself in John’s way as we continued around the store.  Had I had the foresight, I would have visited the snack aisle for popcorn, because her efforts and John’s obliviousness was grand guignol.  When we finally reached the checkout and I mentioned the woman’s determined efforts in John’s direction, he said, “Oh – is that why she kept getting in my way?”

What a man I have. I could have told this woman what it took to get John to realize I was interested in him all those years ago. It took more than some flirtatious body language, I can tell you.

The episode also reminded me of the last time I wrote about John’s babe-magnetude. The original version of the following ran on November 8, 2004:
————————–
I live in a house full of male creatures. My husband: John Smith, International Terrorist, MacIntosh (aka Mac, Toshie, Dogface, Fuzzy, etc.), Simon, and Dash. Simon and Dash are stay-at-home types, enjoying (we hope) the lazy, safe existence we have foisted upon them. The rest of us venture out into the world to suffer its slings and arrows. Or, in the case of MacIntosh, to enjoy the love and adulation that is your rightful due when you are fuzzy and cute and have fur that a guitarist in an 80’s hair band would give his eye teeth for.

When John and I first moved to Maryland, we lived in a temporary apartment and got Mac after we had lived there a scant few weeks. Mac was a babe magnet from the beginning, all lollopy paws, big brown eyes, and snubnose curiosity. Walks around our temporary apartment tended to be extended enterprises, with Mac’s fan club stopping us to chat, pet, and play. John and I have spent the last two and a half years knowing our place: we are the roadies, there to serve. Mac takes all the attention with a blasé attitude – he has always been a babe magnet and he knows no other way to be.

My husband is also a babe magnet of a specific variety. For those of you who like your men flashy and trendy, John is not for you (well, he’s not for you anyway – he’s for me, but that’s getting ahead of ourselves). For those of us who like quiet capability, thoughtful intelligence and good sense, and a certain wild-card sense of humor (not to mention, as I lapse into the New England vernacular, wicked cute big brown eyes), John is terribly appealing.

But we have been together for a long time – about five years in total, and while our familiarity does not breed contempt, it does breed comfort. So I was surprised and amused yesterday as we made a stop into Hudson Trail Outfitters and I suddenly found myself to be invisible.

Being on the brink of leaving the store because we couldn’t find a mechanic in the bike section, a young female employee offered to help us find someone.

I should rephrase: this Siren of the Bohemian Outdoors offered to help John find someone. Depositing some clothing on a rack, she deplored her clumsiness – veering precipitously close to a giggle, and flashing John a sideways glance.

I stood behind him, realization of my sudden invisibility starting to dawn, amusement starting to spread. John replied with a somewhat sharp joke, and she flashed him another glance, saying in an admiring voice (and I kid not), “You are direct, aren’t you?” It was all I could do not to start giggling myself.

The best part of the joke is that when I batted my eyes at John later and teased him for being such a babe magnet, he had no idea what I was talking about. Either that, or he’s even smarter than I thought he was.

Filed Under: daily life Tagged With: , ,

What passes for amusement at our house

February 1, 2009 by

Yeah.  We’re easily amused.

Filed Under: that's entertainment Tagged With: , , , ,

Megeve

January 27, 2009 by

Though written in the present tense, the description below is my memory of a trip that was taken 27 years ago. Adjust your expectations of reality accordingly (the dog was real though – a fixture in the town).

The mountains are high and craggy – without any of the many-layered safety gates and warning signs of US ski areas. Chamonix is a stately cone in the distance. The air is clear and the sun is warm when you stop in a hollow for a bite of chocolate. The snow is a thick layer of powder, making skiing effortless.

Down in the village, a dog follows his master, helping with the daily errands and looking like something out of a hokey French film: there is even a baguette poking out of the basket he carries.

Filed Under: daily life Tagged With:

My road-trip mix tape

January 23, 2009 by

This is my first tryout of the web service “Plinky,” designed to get people to answer questions every day and, I guess to promote dialogue. This first set of questions kind of seems more like a meme than a conversation generator, but I guess I would really be interested in other people’s answers to this question (which isn’t always the case with the what color socks are you wearing/where would you be now if you could/what the hell did you do with my monkey memes).

The first Plinky question was essentially “name three songs you would add to a road-trip mix and say why.” What are yours?

Someday, Someway by Marshall Crenshaw

It moves – as hopefully your car does. If your car isn’t moving, it’s fun to sing.

Keep the River on Your Right by Jonatha Brooke

It’s determined and fierce – just what you need when you get really tired of driving. It’s also about keeping moving.

Boston and St. John’s by Great Big Sea

While this one is slower and more melancholy, it’s about needing to keep moving.

Filed Under: daily life Tagged With:

Gracious living

January 22, 2009 by

Several of my friends attended the Inauguration.  All of them have told me how nice everyone was, how generally happy the mood was, and how somehow the immense crowds didn’t degenerate into pushing and nastiness – at least from the stories I have heard.

Mom brought something else to my attention today: there were approximately 2 million people on the Mall and not one arrest.

Let’s put that in perspective.  The estimated population for the entire District of Columbia in 2006 was under 600,000.  More than three times that number packed into one area of the District, with only minor injuries and a few lost children who were quickly returned to their parents.

This is a powerful example of civility and I intend to follow it.  It has been far too easy over the last few years to divide people into “us” and “them” along any number of arbitrary lines.  The more it happened, the more frayed my nerves got, and the more I made my own arbitrary and meaningless judgments based on irrelevant data points in a clueless and reactionary haze of non-thinking:

“Bumper sticker says X — no wonder that person is driving like an idiot.”

I am here now to stand up and say I am done.  This is me, striving for a measure of grace and goodwill to all.  In my fear for my country and my society I allowed myself to start to mirror that thing I feared.  While I know I will not manage this new mode of thinking and acting perfectly, I have made a start.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With:

Yes we can… haz bukkit

January 20, 2009 by

John, Mel, Yvonne, and I made a snowy trek into Frederick, MD yesterday.

Frederick - snow.

(Yes, for all of my northern friends – that is a piddling amount of snow. But it’s the only snow we’ve had here all winter).

Our mission? Beer and yarn. We visited The Flying Barrel for brewing supplies and Eleganza for yarn. John picked up a brewing kit:

We can haz bukkit

Basically, some specialty equipment and two very big buckets.

I picked up some lovely blue and green yarn. I’m pondering a scarf pattern.

And that’s pretty much us today. We have friends out on the Mall in the scrum of the Inauguration, but my crowd-phobic self isn’t really interested in standing in the cold to watch the JumboTron. So instead, we have me baking bread and John brewing liquid bread.

Filed Under: daily life Tagged With: , ,
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