Shepards Prayer...

I knows it.* I said it over and over again today as I faced down my first major test of the semester. And for the life of me, I couldn't remember where the hell the access time is printed on RAM chips! Other than that, I think it went well.

*Shepards Prayer (NASA version): Please God, don't let me fuck this up.
Shepards Prayer (SGA version): Please God, let Rodney notice me!

You know that jet?

The one Gov Palin keeps yammering on and on and fucking ON about? The one she sold on eBay? Turns out, not so much. The thing didn't sell, and yet Angry McCranky is claiming it did, and for a profit. Straight Talk Express, my pasty white ass.

The best part is that the damn jet wasn't used all that much by the governor - it was used to transport convicts to a facility in Arizona.

H/T to Daily Kos

A few gunmen short of a grassy knoll

I got the rare privilege of listening to one of my teachers blather on for twenty cocking minutes about how Microsoft is trying to take over the communications world with their .NET platform and some company whose name starts with 'tele.' My eyes had glazed over at this point. WTF?!? If this continues, I'm going to his Department head, because the State of Michigan isn't paying good money for me to have to listen to some Novell demagouge ranting about conspiracy theories.

PSA for anyone with a CitiBank credit card

Out of the, you know, two people who read this damned thing. via Consumerist:

Citigroup's "account sweeping program" automatically removed positive balances from customers' credit card accounts, Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. said. For instance, if a customer double-paid a bill by mistake or refunded a purchase for credit, that positive balance was then taken from the customer without notification, Brown said.

In the words of a Citibank executive, “Stealing from our customers is a business decision, not a legal decision.” The same executive later said that the sweep program could not be stopped because it would reduce the executive bonus pool.

Step back and read that second paragraph again. Some executive justified stealing because it would REDUCE HIS FUCKING BONUS!!!!!! I read this story and was so totally gobsmacked I almost fell out of my chair. Where the hell were the accountants? And the worst thing about it is, as someone pointed out the comments on Consumerist, the execs stole, lined their own pocket with bonuses, and the refunds and fines are coming out of the company coffers. People who had nothing to do with this might lose their jobs or their life savings if the stock tanks.

Sometimes I just want to give up and not give a shit anymore. Then I read about people like these, who drove across the country to rescue dogs they'd never met and knew nothing about, and I think there might be hope for humanity yet. As Jimmy Tock said in Life Expectancy, "Where there's cake, there's hope. And there's always cake."

I put that in my MOUTH?!?!

I assumed the wonderful cough syrup my doc gave me was bubblegum flavored... Or cherry, it's hard to get past the 'cough syrup' thing. Hubby was just reading the description that Target gives you on the bottle and it says that they syrup is 'peach-mint' flavored. PEACH MINT?!?!?! Gack. Just... gack.

School. Blech.

I now know that I don't want to work in the IT field. I'm the only woman in my networking class, and my PC maintenance teacher seems to think that 'ignore the ones with boobs' is an effective teaching strategy. What the fuck was I thinking?!?!

I feel like a zombie

I had to go see my doctor yesterday for renewals on my anxiety and sleep meds. Luckily, (or not) that was the day I started trying to cough up a lung. I've also got a sinus infection, but the doc gave me that wonderfule cough syrup with the codiene. I'm gonna go to sleep now...

Fleas my cats have

How the hell they got fleas is beyond me, but the damn things must be screwing like bunnies AND immune to treatments, because we ended up having to give Mika a bath last night.

Read that last sentence again. I'm just glad she's front declawed and we have a deep tub, otherwise I'd have stitches today.

Putin's Lost it

He's running for the Batshitcrazymobile as I type. He's now claiming that the US orchestrated the late unpleasantness between Russia and Georgia. Dude, we can't organize a fuckup in a whorehouse here in the US (see: Katrina, Rita, etc), much less half a world away!

Tech stuff

I've given up on Mobipocket. Flat out given up. I cannot figure out what the hell is causing it to hang up in the HotSynch process, but it's just not worth the headaches. Those are for school and family. I've moved on to Plucker, which is open source and DRM free.

Wow

This is in a mall in Fukuoka, Japan.



I'm told this works kind of like a dot matrix printer, but with water droplets instead of ink. Mesmerizing, isn't it?

Dammit!

I missed being able to skip my typing class altogether by TWO ERRORS! Bah!

I'm too bloody old for school!

I've gone from 'w00t! Classes are starting soon!' to 'ZOMFG, I've got 17 hours worth of classes starting NEXT WEEK!!!1!' And I need to write a nice thank-you note to Gov. Grnaholm for No Worker Left Behind, because my books cost over $800!

The TV isn't entertaining enough...

Mikaido now wants to sleep on top of the computer monitor. While I'm using it. She usually sleeps toward the back, but today, she decided to sprawl out, hanging her paws right in front of what I'm doing. Thanks, kitty. Thanks ever so much.

And then there's the walking. We enjoy walking the cat - it gets her lots of attention, which she adores, and gets us some exercise. But it's raining, and I've had a headache since last night. So when she slipped past me and down the stairs, I decided to teach her a lesson about puddles and water from the sky. You can guess how well that worked out. She loved it. Loved it. Figures.

I hate computers

Well, I hate the fact that my computer and my Palm can't seem to communicate. I fixed the Mobi problem - turns out I can download the thing directly to the Palm. So now I can read my ebooks. Yay!

In other news, I'm taking SEVENTEEN total credit hours this semester - it's going to be crazy hectic. PC repair, networking, typing, Dreamweaver, Principals of Accounting (Sister can help with that...), Business Math and Advanced Business Communication. Books alone are going to run seven to nine hundred bucks. Thank FSM for Governor Granholm! After this semester, I should have enough credits to do my internship in the spring and graduate in the summer!

I shall explain my evening in one xkcd strip...

Except instead of installing BSD, I was trying to make the HotSynch feature on my Palm work properly. Mobipocket was what was hanging it up, so I deleted it off my desktop and palm, after backing up all my books. But then HotSynch still wouldn't work to install the damn Mobipocket - so I deleted the Palm stuff, thinking I could re install from a download. Nope. Installshield wouldn't do something or other with the runtime. So, dug up the original CD, futzed around with resetting the damn thing THREE FREAKING TIMES, and it looks like it might finally work. I hope...

Okay, I'm a great big nerd

I just checked the startup dates for the Large Hadron Collider over at CERN, and the first actual collision is scheduled for a week before my birthday! How effing cool would it be if the found a Higgs Bosun Boson on my birthday? Of course, there's the sight chance that the world will end before I turn thirty one, but SCIENCE! SCIENCE!!!eleventy one!

Found something interesting

On, of all thing, a hijab fashion blog.

Looks an awful lot like a kirtle/veil combo, yes? Wouldn't look a bit out of place at an SCA event, would it? Okay, it's very pink, not exactly a period-popular color, but since when has the SCA been all about authenticity?

This look a lot like the Moy dress, found in a peat bog and recreated here. Irish/Muslim fashionistas unite!

Augghhh!

WTF is up with the bugs around here? I just 'killed' a mutant mosquito-looking thing that CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD a minute ago. Nearly had a heart attack! Now I need some ativan. Hate, hate, HATE bugs.

Monday kitty stuff

Mikaido has decided that she needs to sleep on top of the TV. If the flat part on top of the TV were wide enough, this would be fine, mostly because we're using the damn thing as a paperweight. But it's not, so we are constantly 'entertained' by the sounds of her losing her balance and scrabbling with her claws to keep from falling down behind the entertainment center.

Did you know...

That it's actually possible to throw up so hard that you not only sprain your pectoral muscles, but wind up looking like Mike Tyson used you for a punching bag? Yep. Comprehensive dry heaves hurt like you would not believe. So now, I'm probably going to miss my mom's birthday party tomorrow because I don't need people assuming Hubby is beating on me and calling the police. Yes, I look that bad. Fun!

ZOMFG!!eleventy-one!

Hubby and I found a 1918 Franklin treadle sewing machine at a yard sale today. For FIVE FREAKING DOLLARS! The case is shite, looks like water damage, but the machine itself is almost pristine. And it's just gorgeous, kind of Egyptian revival style. Accessories (esp bobbins) may be a pain, but it will be offset by the joy of having a sewing machine I can actually use. And it will be good therapy for my hip!

For those keeping track

Yes, I still have the migraine, but it seems to be winding down. I hope...

Geeky Joy

I'd almost forgotten about this gem from the first season of Stargate: Atlantis. Then i09 decided to defend McKay (he needs defending?) and brought is back. In this scene, McKay discovered an Ancient forcefield device and is testing it with Sheppard.



The expression on Sheppards face when he confesses he shot Rodney is priceless! Just seeing their geeky joy at the thought of a personal force field make me laugh.

Going for a record...

My personal migraine record is a little more than two days. I'm looking to break that with this one - almost thirty hours right now. Ah, the joys of stress-induced headaches that make you want to throw up, eh?

I really need a laugh

Right now, we have no car. We will have no car until my parents get the money together to fix it, since they're only lending it to us. So. Not only are we stuck here, because the bus system SUCKS and i really, really can't walk all that far, but Grandma and Janie are stuck here, runnning out of food and going stir crazy. And I have a migraine.

But, Martin's working, at least for awhile. So, yay.

Snerk

I am SO easily amused:

Joshua Leatherman
Republican running for MI State Rep

Let the innuendo commence...

Yo ho, Yo Ho, an insomniacs life for me

What could be better when you can't sleep than hot tuna casserole and Stargate Atlantis? I'll tell you: Not very much.

There are three thing, however, that i could do without:

1) A mother who seems to think that helping her daughter keep her commitments despite plan changes 'isn't really' her 'problem.'
2) An hysterical aunt who calls from her cell while driving our van, screaming that it's not working and how do I get where I'm' going and WASN'T IT WORKING FINE FOR YOU?!?!!11
3) a broken down mode of transport.

But I have tuna casserole and SGA - it can't be all bad. And if I'm very, very luck, I'll have caramel fudge brownies tomorrow.

I honestly think I may throw up

I just finished Cory Doctrow's excellent book Little Brother, which is available under the Creative Commons License, and it is the scariest book I've read in years.

Imagine you're a 17-year old kid, a 1337 hacker in the near future. Imagine you're playing an Alternate Reality Game, hunting a jammed wifi hotspot when a terrorist attack occurs. Then imagine being grabbed by Homeland Security and being held as a suspect, subject to "intense questioning." What would you do? How would the experience change you?

Think 1984, only with wifi and RFID (arphid) chips. Think about it, read the book, and find a way to do something, because it's only going to get worse unless we make it better.

Interesting development on autism

Surrounded as I am with autistic spectrum disorders (Hubby is Aspergers, nephew is severe autistic, godson is mild/moderate autistic), any developments in the field catches my attention. This study indicates that every case of autism has a highly individual genetic cause, making a universal genetic test hard, to say the least.

This actually jives with what I've observed - that autism is a catch all diagnosis for a bunch of disparate disorders with common symptoms. Why else would one kid respond to therapy but another doesn't, when both have similar symptoms?

Interesting thoughts, to say the least.

Aminals!

Bad news first: Stranger had another siezure. He bolted under the bed and somehow managed to get up into the boxspring, thumping around in a truly terrifying way. But he seems to be okay. As I understand, there's not much you can do for pet seizures, other than trying to keep them from hurting themselves. Sigh.

Somehow, through a really complicated set of events, my parents are dogsitting a pair of daschunds. They're really cool dogs! I have an instinctive revulsion for small dogs, but these two are sweet and fun. I like puppies!

I hate people

More specifically, I hate people who think that it's fine and dandy for me to be able to hear their fookin' concert when I'm over half a mile away! There's a reason (besides being broke) that I didn't scrape together the money to go to Summer Celebration this year - I didn't want to see any of the acts. So what the hell makes people think I want to hear them?

I hate people. On the plus side, we've got a wee little bit of work tomorrow. Makes me happy.

Make it stop!!1!!!1

I've had the tunes to SCA dance songs stuck in my head since Saturday. First it was Jenny Plucks Pears. Then Black Almande. Then John Tallow's Canon. Now Korabushka. Why, why, WHY won't they leave me alone?!

Check in

The marriage is still sanctified and all (srsly, how many gay folks have to get married - legally - for my marriage to stop being valid? Because Canada and some European countries have had gay marriage for awhile, and everyone there seems to be okay. Maybe it's an American thing...)

The Derbyshire Ren Faire is going on tomorrow and next weekend, and Dun Traigh will be there, fighting, dancing, and generally getting all up in people's faces about joining. It'll be FUN!

Yay, California!

Teh Gayez are getting married in CA! Somehow, the sanctity of my marriage is okay for now. Maybe there's a tipping point? I think maybe I should monitor our marriage carefully as more and more gayez get married, just to make sure.

I survived! (sort of)

Border Wars in two words: Fun. Brutal. It was hot, then cold, then stormy, then hot again. Mix that up with almost no sleep and much drunken revelry, it's a prescription for some kind of nasty hell virus. I'm sick as a dog. But BBW was a blast, Ernmas got her Order of the Willow (for teaching A&S and making garb).

I spent Friday and Saturday night nekkid as a jaybird, because that damn chemise has way too much fabric to wear for very long.

Yech

If I were to ever spawn (not friggin likley), I would KILL any idiot who brought me shoez like these for my baby daughter. I would probably be more forgiving if they were for a boy, but still! Let's indoctrinate kids into uncomfortable, damaging shoes before they can walk!


Via Shakesville

LOLSpeak

I love LOLCats. And dogs, and bunnies, and hedgehogs, etc. But LOLspeak drives me BATTY! Wh is that, I wonder? Maybe I can only take bad spelling in small, funny doses with cute pictures attached. Hmmm...

I cannot possibly be the only person who feels this way. Can I? (crickets)

Somehow, I feel better

Not for any real reason that I can think of. But I do feel better. The dentist told me I have three teeth the need pulled (ironically enough, not the wisdom tooth I thought was causing the problems in the first place...) The one that's currently infected goes first, that's on Monday or Tuesday, then the rest as I can afford them.

The stupid stimulus check STILL ISN'T HERE. But i think I'm somehow also okay with this. We can afford site, gas and food with Hubby's respite check. Everything else is gravy.

Stimulus checks, my ass

The only thing these goddamn checks have stimulated is my urge to go strangle some IRS bureaucrats. Hubby and I are supposed to get $600. Our check was supposed to be mailed on Friday. Not here yet (Border War, however, is coming up rather soon. As in, we're supposed to be there tomorrow to help set up Camp DragonScythe.) The IRS web site only says that the check is supposed to be mailed on the 6th. Grrrrrr...

On the "plus" side, I have a wisdom tooth coming in sideways that will probably have to be pulled.

Now you can bug people AFTER the Rapture...

This is... This is mind boggling. There's a site (that I'm not going to like to, it's in the Wired post if you're that interested) that lets you pay $40 a year to prepare email messages to be sent to friends and loved ones six days after the Rapture. The only part of the damn rapture I'm looking forward to is not being hectored by fundies everywhere I turn, and now THIS? Why, gods, WHY?!?

From The Stranger.

Red Wings Win!

We got the Cup! We got the Cup! They barely held on against a very determined Penguins team, but the WON!!! Happy, happy, happy!

Confustion reigns

MSNBC.com is claiming (based on AP delegate counts) that Obama has the nomination. CNN.com says he's "inching closer." The AP story quotes insiders, who say Clinton is etting ready to acknowledge the delegate math and concede. Probably in exchange for a fairly high position in a putative Obama administration, if not the VP slot. Hmmmm...

Three hours I will never, ever get back.

This pat Saturday, I was subjected to the most horrific waste of time I've seen in years. No, not Magic: The Gathering. Not even World of Warcraft. Not even, heaven forfend, Second Life. No, dear readers (all two of you), I was forced to view Sex and the City. Against my will.

As everyone in the Western Hemisphere knows by now, the massively overhyped movie based on a TV series based on a book came out of Friday. Synopsis: Big is an asshole. Samantha is a bitch. Miranda is even bitchier. Charlotte screams a lot. And has a baby. Carrie is self absorbed and label obsessed. Why, gods, why do I even know these characters names? The movie is vapid. A character craps her pants. Pubic hair jokes are made. Lots of people have lots of sex. I get to see way more of a guy who isn't my husband than I ever wanted to in an R rated movie. Gay men flame, and it's a HORRIBLE!!!11!!

There. I feel better now.

A Public Service Announcement

Once again...

You're is a contraction of the words 'you' and 'are.' Ex: You're dumber than a crate of anvils, aren't you?

Your indicates the possessive. Ex: Your signs are misspelled.

I've seen way too many signs lately that make these mistakes, and it drives me nuts!!! One, in a local convenience store, uses 'you'r' and 'your' when they clearly mean you're. I'm going to upgrade to a camera phone sometime soon, and document this bullshit.

From the 'Water is Wet' Department...

Stonehenge builders had geometry skills to rival Pythagoras

Y'know, I get really, really tired of the assumption that people in the past = stupid.

Sad news

Robert Asprin, aka Yang the Nauseating of the Great Dark Horde, passed recently. Raise your glasses!

The Phoenix has landed!

NASA' new Mars lander touched down successfully tonight, in a mission that was said to have a 50/50 chance at success. This makes me happy! This one is evidently designed to dig into the surface and find even earlier evidence of water, or maybe even actual water!

Ded of teh cute

A baby otter! I love otters!

No news

Okay, there's lots of news, but I'm still feeling like crap, so not tonight. Maybe tomorrow...

Stupid pollen count

Stupid unemployment. Stupid anxiety. Stupid insomnia. Stupid acid reflux. Stupid life in general. I am tired, I am stressed, I have a migraine, and I'm broke. But I get to go see Sex and the City next week! /me screws smile into place. Joy.

Bring on the Stars!

I've joined SETI@home. As I type, my computer is crunching data from a radio telescope. My tired old Pentuim 4 might find the first evidence of intelligent alien life! As an SF fan, how could I resist? If you're interested, here's the link. Please consider donating at least some processor cycles. Understanding what's Out There may lead to better understanding of ourselves.

Hagee has lost touch with the reality-based comunity

Video from Olberman:

Rev Hagee pretty much said that God allowed the Holocaust to force the Jews to return to Israel. In a way that is approving, because to most Evangelicals, the Jews returning is integral to the End Times. During which, every single frelling person (Jews included) who doesn't convert to the One True God(TM) will die an agonizing death and go straight to hell. Do Not Pass Go. They're props in the Evangelical Passion Play. The slide into misanthropy accelerates...

Did you know?

Plan B (aka emergency contraception) is available over the counter in the US? You have to ask a pharmacist for it, but you can get it without a 'scrip. How cool is that? Now, if only we could keep asshats from refusing to dispense it...

Hail to the Queen, baby!

Upon acquiring a new wireless router (and recovering from Saturday), I proceeded to attempt to set up the network. Instead of three hours on the phone with a tech support lady from India, I spent about twenty minutes futzing around on the Linksys website, and set the damn thing up myself. I am basking in the glow of my inner nerdliness.

For the Record

My body is not public property. Being in a public space does not give you the right to take pictures up my skirt, comment on said skirt, call me a wench, or make me breathe your cigarette smoke. Why is this so difficult?

I'm fried

Sunburned, my voice is going, my hip aches like you would not believe, and I'm pretty sure I never want to see another child again, EVER. And I had a great time getting there!

Dun Traigh just did our annual demo at Muskegon Community College's Mayfest. Lots of people, lots of kids, lots of potential new members. Lots of telling people that yes, they could try on the jewelry, no, nothing on the table was for sale, hey, get the hell away from our food, no, you can't just take any of the library's collection of early 1990's Tournaments Illuminated or Compleat Anachronist. Good times, man. Good times. I'm going to take a major league painkiller and curl up in bed. Hopefully, I can get up at 5:30 to take the husband to work.

Oh, yeah, one of our fighters got an armor bite. And we'll be on the local access newscast and the community college channel. Kewl!

I saw a movie!

Not just a movie, mind you, but Price Caspian! And it rocked! So I'm food deprived but full of joy.

News!

From my old stomping grounds, WashU students wage a silent protest when anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly got an honorary degree. A few days before the ceremony, she called the protesters "a bunch of losers." Stay classy, Phyllis. Stay classy. (Feministing)

CNN.com has a headline claiming that Bush and McCain 'attacked' Obama. (note the air quotes) Was I out of the room when Journalism decided that calling someone 'The Hamas Candidate' wasn't actually an attack? if McCain hauled off and punched... well, anyone, would that be termed an 'assault'?

A Georgia judge has ruled that because a woman wasn't a virgin, and had consented to sex with her attacker before, she couldn't have been raped. She now has to pay $150,000 in defense costs. Rape shield laws apply only in criminal cases - and doesn't THAT need changed? (Feministing)

An all girls high school in New York has decided that students need a male escort to attend their own goddamn prom. (Shakesville and Feministing)

California Supreme Court overturns gay marriage ban! About fucking time! Ellen Degeneres has announced that she's getting hitched.

Not so much with the Queen Geek...

Stupid LifeDrive. It works, except for the whole thing where it resets instead of turning off. So not as useful, but still working.

Edwards Endorses Obama

Not really a surprise - no matter what anyone says, the delegate math is on Obama's side. Plus, he made the endorsement in Grand Rapids, only an hour from where we live!

Because everything was going so well...

The gods decided to smack me upside the head. I've been having horrible cramping sensations in my chest on and off for almost three years - it would come and go and the only thing that would help was muscle relaxants or heavy-duty pain meds. I assumed it was anxiety, but I've been on the Paxil for nine months now, and I'm still having it. So I gave up and went to the doc, who diagnosed me with... Acid reflux. And since the Nexium he gave me actually seems to be working, I'm'a have to go with that as well. This is evidently a family thing - my dad has it really bad. Joy.

That's QUEEN GEEK to you!

Over eight months after it got soaked after being left out (accidentaly) in a rainstorm, I brought my Palm LifeDrive back to life! It only required much swearing, one sleepless night, and fully disassembling the damn thing and putting it back together, but IT WORKS!!! Now I can read books and watch SG:A eps in bed without hauling the Mac in with me! Oh, happy day!

Because it worked so well the last time...

Time.com: Is it time to invade Burma?

No comment. No fucking coment. Whatsoever.

Some good

It's not a whole hell of a lot, but they evidently were able to get some data off a hard drive that melted when Columbia re-entered. From the article:

During Columbia's fateful mission, the drive had been used to store data from a scientific experiment on the properties of liquid xenon.

Most of the information was radioed to Earth during Columbia's voyage. Edwards was able to recover the remainder, allowing researchers to publish the experiment in the April issue of a science journal, Physical Review E.

At least they got something concrete. Out of tragedy...

Oh, gag. Just... gag.

I'm all for the entrepreneurial spirit and everything, but this is just gross. There's a site you can go to to post pictures and beg rich men for a boob job. I shit you not.

http://myfreeimplants.com/

Here's a thought - why don't you spend your time and energy doing something useful instead of begging for money?

First post!

The move to Blogger has gone pretty smoothly - much smoother than moving cross-country was. But, here 'tis, my new blog. Have fun.