Sam Adams’ seasonal brew Oktoberfest is back on the shelves.
Joy!
My Needs Are Few and Simple
Geek Wannabe, General
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Aug 302008
Everyone Off the Road!
Breeder's Corner, Geek Wannabe, General
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Aug 212008
The Artist just got his learner’s permit.
My parental worrying will soon achieve new heights.
Aug 202008
An agent from the Transportation Safety Administration, conducting “security checks” without the supervision of qualified aircraft personnel, damaged nine regional jets by using the aircraft’s sensor probes as handholds to climb the fuselage.
Fortunately the maintenance crew noticed the probes were all giving the same error, and grounded the planes for repair. About forty American Airlines flights were affected by the grounding of the aircraft. At least this time they caught the problem before it involved a crash instead of a delay.
I’m with the ANN—the genius responsible needs to face criminal charges, and so should his bosses. Someone who doesn’t know how to work safely around aircraft has no business near them without the oversight of a person who can tell him “Don’t touch that.” If the government wants to put on a show of security, it must do so without compromising actual safety.
Back to School
Geek Wannabe, General
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Aug 182008
The kids don’t actually go back till next week, but my classes started up again this morning. I’ve got a fairly light load this semester, two seated classes and one online. The classes are quite small (less than 20 students), the classroom instructors are teachers I’ve had before, and many of the students were in prior classes with me as well. As a result the whole situation is quite cozy and familiar; I already know the names of half my classmates and I’ve spent a lot of time in the room itself.
One of my favorite things about my classes is their multinational student base. Half the students in my classes are from other countries. We’ve got people from Canada, Korea, Taiwan, India, and Nigeria. Last semester there were also students from China and Vietnam. I love having a multi-cultural student base, especially in classes like Ethics that involve a lot of discussion. Our students from other countries bring a different perspective to our debates, and point out things that we probably wouldn’t think of if we were just a class full of Americans. I love that; I hope when I get into a workplace I’m lucky enough to find one that’s equally diverse in its people and perspectives.
Still Unemployed
Geek Wannabe, General
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Aug 152008
Last month I went to talk to a prospective boss. When I hadn’t heard from him by August I gave him a call, left a voicemail to the effect of “Hey, just calling to see if you’re still interested in having me work for you.”
Haven’t heard back. I guess I didn’t get the job.
So I’ve started putting my resume out at various temp agencies, like Accountemps and Kelly. Classes start next week, and I can scope out the college job placement office and the accounting instructors to see if they’ve got any leads. I realize I’m stuck in the old Catch-22: can’t get a job without experience, can’t get experience without a job. But if I’m persistent I should be able to get a foot in the door.
Olympics XXIX
Geek Wannabe, General
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Aug 102008
We watched the opening ceremony last night.
Totally. AWESOME.
Lots of room.
The area behind the rear seats is fairly spacious; I can fit a week’s worth of groceries in there with plenty of room to spare.
But sometimes you need even more cargo space. Sometimes your husband will look at the decades worth of accumulated computer debris in the basement, and announce that “You can get rid of everything on this wall from here to the door.” And when he says that, you want to do it fast, before he changes his mind. So you need enough cargo space to take six computer monitors down to the city recycling facility, or eight to ten baskets full of power cords, ribbon cable, PC cards, etc. down to Purple Elephant. You want to be able to do these things in one big trip.
The back seats of the Fit will fold down completely flat. This gives me plenty of room for hauling all that stuff.
There’s also a surprising amount of head room for such a little car. I used to drive an Acura Integra; I was perfectly comfortable in it, but when my 6’2″ husband rode with me his head would brush the roof. In the Fit he’s got plenty of headroom—one of the reasons his car is also a Fit.
And as a side note, I’m quite gleeful about getting the large amount of crap out of the basement.
Mag Crew Season
Geek Wannabe, General
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Aug 022008
I was in the basement when the doorbell rang.
Often I’m tempted to just ignore it. Half the time it’s just some random stranger who wants money. But half the time it’s UPS or FedEx trying to deliver something my husband ordered, and if they can’t get a signature they’ll take it back to their depot which is only open from 6:47 to 6:53 p.m. every other Tuesday, and my husband will have to try and chase down the package before it gets returned to the sender. So I dragged myself up the stairs to answer the door.
And knew, as soon as I saw the unfamiliar teenager, that she was selling magazine subscriptions.
“Hi!” she enthused, “We’re having a contest to see who can get the most points—I just came from your neighbor Mrs. H, she helped us out.”
“I was kind of in the middle of something,” I said, hoping that would be enough. But they train ‘em to be persistent.
“Oh, this’ll only take a sec!” She handed me the little laminated paper they always have, explaining how many “points” they need for whatever “award” their handlers have told them they’ll get.
In my younger, wimpier days I would actually buy these magazines, in an attempt to be nice. Most of the time I’d cancel the order the next day; the rates they offer are not good, and I usually regret my impulse purchases. As I get older, though, I get bitchier (there’s a scary thought), and have less urge to be nice to strangers who come to my home uninvited.
“We really don’t have room in the budget for magazine subscriptions,” I told her, trying to hand back her laminated paper.
“Oh, nobody said anything about money! It’s a contest, the boys against the girls—”
I interrupted her again as she was proffering her hot list. “Really, I’ve seen this before, and we don’t have the budget for a subscription.”
She was losing hope, but she kept trying. “It’s a really good price! And if you buy some from me you get a sticker to put on your door to keep all the other guys from bugging you!”
More likely, the sticker tells other door-to-door salesmen that a sucker lives here, I thought. “No, thank you. But good luck in the contest.”
“Okay, I guess the boys will win, then,” she sulked a bit as she turned away.
Alas, I have no new magazine subscriptions today, and my callous refusal probably cost the girls’ team the victory. Nonetheless, I hope she’s okay—I’ve read the horror stories about the travelling mag crews—at the very least, the kids are driven far from home so they have no family to help them, and then aren’t given the money they were promised so they can’t leave. I think I’ll print up my own little flyers with information for Parent Watch, Inc. to give them when they turn up at my door.
