Bloglet, the gentleman's mock turtle soup -- Moss made it sweeter than myrrh ash and dhoup
And it's O, the hard times of old England.
In old England very hard times.
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01:24:02 PM,Wednesday 25 January 2006
So my jacket-- dude, dude, dude. I've got it wired up so I turn on and operate my jukebox with the remote (which also does voice recording and FM radio) in the left sleeve, which then goes out the first line out jack to an attenuator my dad rigged up for me out of male and female plugs, a volume slider, epoxy, and solder. This hangs in its own pocket slightly behind and below the jukebox, and I can control it from inside the left handwarmer pocket. Then it goes to my Boostaroo in my lower inside pocket, allowing me three headphone out jacks-- which I can turn on and off by reaching into another section of the handwarmer pocket-- and finally into my headphones, which fold neatly flat on top of the jukebox when not in use.
And I got a Camelbak, too, which hangs in the back pocket on its own little hook and feeds through the lining up the side and around the collar, so whenever I'm thirsty I just turn my head, bite, and sip. I feel like a freaking Fremen. It's just rad.
In the inner fleece, I've got virtually nothing, so I can zip it out and wear it at work when I'm cold without being weighed down, but in the outer shell, I've got, in addition to the above:
notebook
black post-it pad
black, silver, and erasable pens
tuning fork
jew's harp
GBA SP
metro card
wallet
MuVo
comb
phone
batteries
dental floss
and, depending on need,
handwarmers
small novel
eBookman
Swiss Army knife
electrical tape
recorder
puzzle ring
Thank you for reading this week's installment of A Geek and Her Jacket.
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(6)
02:50:50 AM,Monday 23 January 2006
Ever notice how stretching out your new sweatpants on the bottom segment of your electric fan stand is just like loading a crossbow?
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01:23:16 AM,Friday 20 January 2006
Whinge ahead: I tanked my steno final. For several reasons, but mostly because I just didn't learn the briefs. I've been working at the computer a lot, and realtiming allows several luxuries that conflict with the way we do it in school. First off, I'm quick enough so that if I misstroke a word, I see it come up on the screen, and I can asterisk it out and stroke it correctly, even if it takes one or two tries, without really breaking my rhythm. Unfortunately that means that I just keep doing it until the right word comes up, without connecting stroke and definition concretely in my mind.
Also, if I stroke a word out in full instead of using the brief, it'll still come up on the screen, since the dictionary contains both definitions, but it means I get dinged on the briefs section of the test. But more than all that, I just didn't study enough. For the other three tests, I did drills and games and dictations, I wrote out lists, I tested myself ahead of time. On this test, I was still finishing up the previous week's homework the night before. I've been spending too much time speedbuilding and dictionary building and learning my software, and not enough time preparing for class. Also too much time slacking, but that's a perennial problem.
I've got the theory down pretty well, and I'm quick, but there are holes in my memory, and I've gotta fill 'em. I only know what I got on the test 'cause I was the first to turn mine in, and she corrected it while she was waiting for everyone else to finish, which she doesn't usually do. I got 12 points off-- one on transcription, eleven on notes. That's a 97, which is a B. Averaged out with my other three tests, if I've figured right, I'll get a 99, which is (barely) an A. So that's all right. But still frustrating.
Anyway, fooey. We're speedbuilding next week, and then the week after I move into the Advanced Theory class. Between then and now, I gotta work. Time, time, time! I didn't really do any steno over the three day weekend, 'cause I was busy playing games at Sola's and idling with K. and doing freelance transcription.
On weekends, all I want to do is vegetate, but on weekdays, I can barely keep up. I get up at 7:30, I come home around 8:00 or 9:00, and I've got a whole list of things to do-- eat dinner, get my internet fix, work out, meditate, study, clean, call people, go down K.'s to sleep a couple nights a week-- and I never get 'em done, and I hardly ever get to bed before midnight, so I sleep through my lunch break, so I'm scrabbling at work, so arrgh! Nothing to be done, I guess. Just press ahead. But this is what blogs are for.
/whinge
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(2)
12:03:52 PM,Thursday 19 January 2006
This morning I was lucky enough to overhear a conversation about how Massachusetts, now that they've paved the way by legalizing gay marriage, is finally able to concentrate on their real agenda, which is legalizing beastiality. The first half of the conversation was in Spanish, and so even though I had a pretty good idea what she was talking about by the tone in her voice whenever she said "Massachusetts" and "animales", I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt. But then she switched to English. "It's the same thing, you know. First they got the same sex, now they're getting the animals." Her interlocutor said he'd never heard of this new proposition. "It's true! I'll bring you the information tonight. They don't even see a difference."
You know, usually I don't let this sort of dickwaddery get to me, but right before I started to pick up on what they were talking about I had been fiddling with my puzzle ring and thinking about K.'s grandma's place in Great Barrington and the schemes we've been hatching for after she graduates. It just kinda felt like a punch in the eye.
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09:07:12 AM,Thursday 19 January 2006
These pants have six bleach stains on the thigh, a hole in the crotch, a zipper that won't stay up, and now a button that's just popped off. I think... I think I may have to retire them. {sheds a silent tear}
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(3)
04:03:13 PM,Wednesday 18 January 2006
"Contest Coming" from Liz's last blogswap has made me cry every single time I've listened to it. It's baffling and a little ridiculous. Good song, though.
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(5)
11:54:33 AM,Wednesday 18 January 2006
ToDoList is an excellent bit of task manager software. Far better than My Life Organized in every way that I can see. Plus it's freeware! I'm still using Sciral Consistency for habit tracking, but for errands and deadlines, I think this is gonna be a keeper.
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(4)
12:54:08 AM,Monday 16 January 2006
If I was gonna do any kind of manual labor for a living, I think I'd like to be a stonemason.
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01:28:16 PM,Friday 13 January 2006
Go descriptivists. I <3 you, Dr. Johnson.
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(8)
10:30:40 AM,Friday 13 January 2006
Mouthfeel.
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(1)
12:05:45 PM,Tuesday 10 January 2006
A good bit o' mucilage in me fuselage.
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08:52:19 AM,Tuesday 10 January 2006
We finished the final chapter in the Theory book today. Ahead: Advanced Theory and Speedbuilding! I actually was able to write out about five minutes of a TV show on my machine this weekend, though it took way too long. Extremely instructive, though. I have to make myself do more of it. According to my theory, the word "brevity" should be spelled the same as the word "breast". This is what's known as a "conflict", and any of various resolutions must be employed to correct it. (I did, in fact, write out "breast is the soul of wit" before my teacher decided to clue us in to the problem. But truth to tell... well. I probably shouldn't elaborate.) I am getting to be a little too fond of steno.
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12:30:19 AM,Tuesday 10 January 2006
'Fraid flu pandemics.
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05:02:43 PM,Friday 6 January 2006
Dude, I am totally gonna use this liberally in my daily encounters. I wish he would make one about the misuse of "___ and I" when the phrase is in the objective case (and therefore should be "___ and me".) That would be awesome.
Yes, I'm a petty nosy parkering pedant, but I'm a petty nosy parkering pedant with DINOSAURS, biotech!
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07:50:44 PM,Thursday 5 January 2006
Rapidly becoming rabid..._
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(5)
06:35:46 PM,Tuesday 3 January 2006
I can't figure how paying $160 a month (increased today from $60 a month) for health insurance can possibly be worth it. That's about 11% of every paycheck. I've got no known or forseeable health problems. Surely even if something catastrophic were to come up, the money I'll have saved by not paying into the program (yes, assuming I don't spend it) will be enough to cover it and then some? If you disagree, feel free to make a case, but I just don't see how it's rational.
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(21)
03:46:34 PM,Tuesday 3 January 2006
Et voila-- a Chap-O, at $15 bucks a throw. Sola and Gabriel really are ineffably awesome.
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(1)
02:57:12 PM,Tuesday 3 January 2006
Wah! I wanna join the Noblemen and Gentlemen's Catch Club!
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02:53:04 AM,Tuesday 3 January 2006
A Merry History of Pompeii, in several salty cartoons (and accompanying cheeky narrative).
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(1)
02:28:52 AM,Tuesday 3 January 2006
