Some notes on Geekiness

First, when I got this iBook, lo, those many years ago, I remember being excited because it had so much RAM. This is an 01 model, I think, the first dual USB anyway, and I had forgotten just how much RAM there was, so I just checked, thinking I’d switch some out in my new iBook. 302MB.  Um, whoops.  I guess this is from when the days oif 64mb was standard, and the previous owner dropped in an extra 256k. Well then. Since my new one has 512mb standard, guess I won’t take anything out of Ol Bessie here.

Second, I am way too excited about Dashboard, and have been perusing widgets, and am even more excited that they have an ovulation calculator! Geekiness and TTC rolled up into one glorious pink ball. (Of course it’s pink, EVERYTHING reproductive is pink, dontchaknow?)  Now, though, I want one for calculating due dates and trimesters like this site does, and then a week-by-week one would be great, with the Lennart Nilsson images? That would be cool.  I actually looked up some info on how to program widgets, and maybe it will be a teach-myself project for the fall or something.

Third, Dave bought his mom a DVD player for her birthday.  When we went to hook it up, we ran into some snafus wherein her TV didn’t have enough audio jacks for both it and the VCR, and the VCR didn’t have a stereo audio jack, AND macrovision was screwing with everything.  THe geeky thing is, is that it occurred to BOTH of us that both the TV and VCR were purchased when we were dating, and that we couldn’t believe we had been together so long that TVs from that era were lacking the necessary imputs for more than one device. He got it going by tracking down some 35 dollar cable at Radio Shack, but still, our relationship predates the DVD era! I mean, yeah, they existed, but for collectors only (Dave had one he paid a small fortune for) and VHS was the standard form of movies and such. 

A couple that measures their relationship by electronics advances, and uses a dashboard widget to schedule babymakin’ sex. Who can outgeek that?

Consumerism!

Oh my, what a consumerist day I’ve had.  First, I put out a call for the IKEA catalog (thanks meggo, let me know if you can’t get one!) then I decided I wanted other catalogs, for no other reason than to browse for ideas, so I signed up for Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel.  The only catalogs I currently get are MacMall and LLBean, and that one IKEA from last year, so it will be cool to thumb through and daydream.  Certainly won’t be buying much anytime soon, since I just got the furniture (delivered Monday, aieeee!) and just ordered my iBook.

Andy and I went to campus to soak up some good uni vibes, and while I was there I stopped in to the computer store to investigate the iBook situation.  My department is requiring iBooks for all students NEXT year, but encouraging them for this year, and as such, put together a discounted bundle with an iBook, required software, AppleCare plan, case and cable lock.  The website, and original specs, call for a last generation iBook — 1.2 ghz, 30gb hard drive, etc, but since the first bundling, Apple upgraded it’s base model to a 1.33 ghz, 40 gb HD, bluetooth enabled and scrolling trackpad version.  I wanted THAT one.  I figured I was fresh outta luck, so I went in looking for quotes on the new iBook with the required software, and was told all new bundles have the new iBook. Score!  After lunch on the mall, yay sunshine and turkey wraps!, I went back to see when the new bundle would be available and was told I could order anytime, but it would take ten days or so to arrive. Sweet.  So, I ordered!  Plus, I was able to order the iPod Mini in green, and I will be able to get the rebate and all of that. In two weeks or so, I will pick up my new tech stockpile, and be overwhelmed with excitement. 

Being on campus was great, too. I’m so excited to go back and be there full time, working, studying, being part of the daily life up there.  When I pick up my iBook, I’ll be able to get my new student ID (they redesigned the MaineCard, but are still leaving off date of any kind, which means student discounts forEVER :D) and parking pass and beat the lines for those valuable little trinkets.  Plus, I’m excited about getting my iBook all tricked out for the school year, and wiping this one for Dave to use. 40gb of hard drive is so cool! This one only has 10, and it’s almost maxed.  Anyway, yeah, consumerism.  Keeping the economy alive one apple at a time.

Good things!

Yay!  Apple just released the new iBooks, which have scrolling trackpads and a sudden motion sensor. So cool.  I’m hoping that my iBook will be one of the new ones, awww yeah.  And then? on top of that?  Students who buy an iBook, through an authorized seller (which UMaine is) get a free iPod mini. Mine is totally going to be green. 😀

And! I’ve made it halfway through the 2WW. You have no idea how torturous this is until you’ve experienced it. In addition to not having a sweet tax deduction, having to endure another 2WW so soon is also really a con in the miscarriage balance sheet, FYI.

Whoa!

So, as I was posting my update last night, I got a comment email from ‘mainegirl.’  When I read it (you can, too, over on the right) I thought "Wait, is this Amity Amity? Nuh uh." I clicked on the link and sure enough, it was.  A girl I went to high school with has been reading emmalola for a while, and clicked on the Gretchen link, and whoa! There I was.

Which is cool, as I said to Andy, if anyone from my high school ended up reading my journal, Amity would probably be my top pick.  We were friends in high school, a year apart, and when I was a senior, she was a foreign exchange student for her junior year.  I hadn’t seen her much since then, I think we were briefly at the same college (or was I just visiting? I can’t remember!) so, yeah, WEIRD.

It’s one of those things — I’m not googleable here, so I don’t often worry about anyone ‘finding’ me, at least anyone I’d worry about (ILs, basically), but um, yeah. The internet is a small world, no?

(Also, I will post pics of our room once the furniture is in and the curtains are made, promise! 🙂

Tips for Living

1)  When traveling, use big ol’ diaper pins to keep the zips of your pack closed.  Sure, it’s not rocket science, but it slows down pickpockets, no?

2) Also, when traveling, keep your debit card in one bag and your credit card in another.  Keep some cash in your pocket in case you get mugged. "Dude, all I have is 8 bucks."

3)  Wear good shoes when flying! Okay, this is my own neurosis (like the other two aren’t) but I remember reading in a Reader’s Digest or something, years ago, that if there is a survivable plane crash, you need to expect to walk over hot metal and sharp objects. Good point, no? So I always wear good solid shoes when flying, and always get a little freaked out by people in flip-flops.

4) Baking soda with water as a paste makes a really great facial cleanser. Or add it to your favorite stuff, it’s sooo tingly.

5) Here’s a new one:  In stripping the wallpaper, we have to wash and scuff off the little brown bits of backing that got left behind, which is always a pain in the ass.  Here’s my new solution, as of about 3 hours ago:  Exfoliating Gloves!  My mom has given me two pair so far, and I never use them, but today I thought, hmmm.  I wear one glove, King of Pop style, and have a bowl of warm water, and I can scuff off the brown bits and wash down the walls in preparation for spackling all at once! It is truly amazing.  Plus, the glove gives you total control, you can pick into the corners and moderate pressure as needed.  Works best with a rubber glove underneath, and follow with a dry rag to dry the walls and pick up errant brown bits.

6)  Always keep a box of latex gloves on hand. Har Har.  I use mine for nasty cleaning jobs, opening jars, painting, hair dye (when I used to do that, those plastic lunch lady gloves that come with the dye SUUUUCK), and now, wallpaper removal.  Good stuff.  I always include a box when I’m giving a housewarming gift.

7)  Microfiber cloths, cut into smaller pieces, are the best for cleaning optical lenses with a non-glare coating.

8)  Backup important documents on gmail.  Send them to yourself, you have 2 gb of storage! And it’s fire, flood, and weatherproof!

9)  Buy striped sheets so that you don’t have to always try to remember which corner goes where. Or, put red Xes on the two bottom corners to save frustration.

10)  Boiling water and baking soda is the best plunger when it comes to natural causes. It may take several kettles, but it ALWAYS works. Boil, pour, let sit.  Repeat until you hear the blockage let go.

11.)  When it comes to hiccups, use the Trick!  I have never seen this fail, my kids loved it, and always taught others how to do it.  It’s a variation on "drink from the other side of the glass."  Take a mouthful of water (at school this was from the fountain, of course) and bend over at the waist so you’re looking at your knees. THEN swallow.  Works every. single. time. (And doesn’t involve finding some certain food — peanut butter, sugar — or needing to yell BOO! every 2 minutes. Try it!)

There’s my top 11. What are your tips for living?

Tag

I’ve been tagged by emmalola! My task?  To pick my six current
favorite songs, then pass it on to someone else to do the same.

So, this is sort of challenging because I have so MANY favorite songs, but for so many reasons.  There are songs that are good to sing to alone in the car: Landslide, any Indigo Girls or Patty Griffin, and there are songs that remind me of specific memories that are either good or bad, and either way, they take me right back there.  So this will be kind of random.

The first ones are all from a mix CD that Amy made for me, that I’ve listened to endlessly now that I have a CD player in my subaru, as a birthday gift from Dave. 

1.  32 Flavors, Ani DiFranco.  I just love this song.  I AM 32 flavors and then some! My parents DID teach me about goodwill! So, yeah. Love it.
2.  What’s Goin’ On, 4 Non-Blondes.  This is a memory song.  This tune is forever linked to leaving my first concert ever, Lollapalooza 93, in Providence, RI.  Everytime I hear it, I am swept back to that darkened field/parking lot, wearing my birks and flannel, and seeing a tailgate of a minivan or something lifted and hearing that song.  I had just ditched the two girls I rode the bus down with to leave with Amy and her boyrfriend, and her brother and his friends, and Jonas, who was my First True Love but was there with his whiny girlfriend, or was she with Pat then? Yeah, I think she was with Pat, and Pat was there, and in that group there were at least 3 men, boys, really, that I would go on to (or had already) have as what, lovers? One night stands? Longtime senders of collect calls from distant mediterranean ports of call?  Anyway, we all crammed into one tent site, and got incredibly stoned from some Purple Haze that J had, I think, and the drive back to Maine had a steady rotation of one person sleeping in the open bed of Amy’s Ford Ranger because there was only really room for two in the cab.  And that whole event was the first time I felt that independence of young adulthood, no parents to take care of me, just friends and music and drugs and boys.  And this song was the prelude to the whole thing.
3.  BYOB, System of a Down.  This is a really heavy protest song, man.  And I’m reminded of why it’s so powerful to me when I read Debbie’s journal of not knowing anyone who ever served in the military.  "Why don’t presidents fight the war?/Why do they always send the poor?"  Growing up in the poorest county in Maine, with the least educated population (the UMaine campus in Machias skews this data, even, and we’re still lowest) and highest unemployment, I know lots of people that went military.  It was the only choice for kids who couldn’t afford an education, or couldn’t get a job in the mill, or didn’t have plans for an apprenticeship or tech college.  If you wanted out, and wanted more, and wanted better, the military promised it.  One of the kids I graduated with was a total class clown.  He was in the band (as was I) and he was always the one at pit parties, or camp parties, doing impressions and making everyone laugh.  I saw him 2 years ago? At the library where I worked.  he came in to use the computers, and he was just — empty looking.  He vacantly told me he’d been in Iraq, and was out on a medical discharge.  I didn’t see any noticeable physical problems, so I’ve always assumed it was more PTSD than anything.  i saw him again right before I sold my car.  I had the oil changed, and when I pulled in and took my sunglasses off, there was Nick.  He looked a little more lucid, but still, he wasn’t the same person.  Neither am I, but this is different.  He said he’d been working at the oil-change place for a while, and was hoping to get hired by TSA at the airport.  "You’d think 10 years active military would count for something."  And THAT’S who I think of when I hear this song.  Nick, who was always so funny and so kind, but so poor that his option was the service.  And when he was medically unable to continue, his best job option was changing oil. THAT fucking SUCKS.  Because of where I grew up, and who I’ve known, I am so thankful that the military wasn’t my only option. So thankful.  But I also know firsthand that it IS the poor that are fighting for more oil for the rich’s Hummers, oh wait, I mean ‘to free the Iraqi people."
4.  Wild World, Cat Stevens.  Always makes me cry a little bit, as it is totally linked to waiting for the SkyBus to take me to the Melbourne airport for my flight home, after a really intensely life-changing and life-affirming three weeks in Australia. 
5.  At Last, Etta James.  Our wedding song.  It sorta bugs that I’m hearing it so much in shit like cat food ads, lately, but still. That was our wedding song, and it was awesome.
6. Three is a Magic Number, Blind Melon (covering Schoolhouse Rock.)  Amy and I have a pretty decent flow of psychic energy between us, because this song popped into my head a few days before my birthday this year, and meanwhile, she was searching the internet to download it for my CD.  I had gotten Daed the Schoolhouse Rock covers CD YEARS ago, before he was even 2, when it came out, and this also (I think?) got radio play as well.  I always loved Blind Melon, way back when, and Shannon Hoon’s voice, but the thing about this song is the repeated lyric "A man and a woman had a little baby/now there’s three in the family" that really moves me.  Plus, I’m 30, and 3 is one of my lucky numbers, so it IS a magic number.  And hearing that song now just gives me hope.

I don’t know who is left to tag! pinkrunningshoes? have you done it yet?

Oh my.

I just realized that my new daypack matches the color scheme of my blog. I rarely LOOK at my journal, but I just did and was like "Hmm, that orange on orange thing is familiar…."  I am such a geek.

GeekpackSeriously.  Right down to gray accents and dark orange ‘titles.’  Sigh.

For Jeanne

So, waiting for our flight from Cincinnati to Bangor last month, I just had to take a picture for Jeanne. And make up a song, to the tune of "Go Ask Alice," by Jefferson Airplane:

Goask

"One pill makes you bigger,
and one pill makes you small
and one door goes to Bangor,
and one to Omahaaaa
Go ask Comair
When you’re flights delllaaayyyyed."

See, Jeanne, I told you it was stupid.

Anyway, I was one door away from showing up at Jeanne’s house. As it was, the Bangor flight was delayed until almost midnight. Even Omaha got to go before us.