Bloglet, the gentleman's mock turtle soup -- Moss made it sweeter than myrrh ash and dhoup
V pheeragyl unir frira vaibvprf bhgfgnaqvat, ovyyvat sbe n pbzovarq gbgny bs rvtug gubhfnaq bar uhaqerq friragl gjb qbyynef naq svsgl pragf. V unir nyfb rnearq guerr gubhfnaq guerr uhaqerq guvegl svir qbyynef ba na nqqvgvbany vaibvpr, ohg jba'g ovyy gung bar hagvy Sevqnl, fb gung V pna nyfb nqq gur jbex V qb gbzbeebj naq Guhefqnl gb vg. Gung'f n gbgny bs ryrira gubhfnaq, svir uhaqerq naq frira qbyynef naq svsgl pragf gung V'ir tbg pbzvat gb zr. Gur byqrfg vaibvpr vf bireqhr ol friragl sbhe qnlf. V cnvq zl gnkrf lrfgreqnl -- svir gubhfnaq qbyynef. V unq gb obeebj zbarl sebz X.'f rzretrapl shaq gb qb vg. Vs V unq chg vg ba zl perqvg pneq vg jbhyq unir qnzntrq zl perqvg engvat, naq jr zvtug unir gb zbir arkg lrne, fb V qvqa'g qner gb evfx vg. V unir gjb uhaqerq rvtugl sbhe qbyynef va zl onax nppbhag, nyy ohg rvtugl bs juvpu V nyfb obeebjrq sebz X., fb jura gur hgvyvgl ovyyf trg nhgb-qrqhpgrq jr jba'g tb vagb bireqensg. V unira'g cnvq zl fghqrag ybnaf lrg guvf zbagu. V xabj gur zbarl jvyy pbzr riraghnyyl, ohg vg'f orra qevivat zr penml gb tb gb gur znvyobk jrrx nsgre jrrx naq svaq vg fghssrq shyy bs abguvat ohg cbyvgvpny sylref naq perqvg pneq nqf. V xabj bapr V trg cnfg guvf tnc V fubhyq or bxnl hagvy arkg fhzzre, jura V'yy unir gb qb gur genafpevcgvba gnatb nyy bire ntnva hayrff V svaq fbzr erzbgr PNEG jbex. V'z irel tengrshy gb or trggvat fb zhpu jbex naq znxvat tbbq zbarl ng vg, naq V'z tengrshy gung jura gur zbarl qbrfa'g pbzr guebhtu jr unir X.'f rzretrapl shaq gb sybng hf sbe n yvggyr juvyr; V whfg jvfu V qvqa'g unir gb srry yvxr V tb vagb serr snyy rirel gvzr V ovyy bar bs zl pyvragf. V'ir gevrq erzvaqvat gurz, anttvat gurz cbyvgryl, nfxvat gurz syng-bhg gb cnl nf dhvpxyl nf gurl pna znantr vg, rira rkcynvavat zl gnk fvghngvba jryy va nqinapr bs gur qhr qngr gb bar bs zl ovttrfg pyvragf naq gryyvat gurz, "Qba'g jbeel nobhg cnlvat zr hagvy gura, ohg cyrnfr whfg tvir zr ng yrnfg cneg bs gur onynapr ol Frcgrzore Svsgrragu." Gur qrnqyvar'f cnffrq, naq abguvat. Abguvat sbe jrrxf. Whfg jnvgvat, jnvgvat, jnvgvat. V ybir zl wbo, ohg serrynapvat pna or frevbhfyl sernxvat fgerffshy.
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(7)
12:00:12 AM,Wednesday 16 September 2009
Love is listening to my spouse read me her ridiculously abstruse anthropology homework whilst employing Victor Borge's phonetic punctuation method.
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(1)
12:23:54 AM,Tuesday 15 September 2009
So in my first two years of CARTing, I had internet access at one or both of the universities where I worked. This year I work at two universities and I don't have internet at either of them. I also have a pretty challenging schedule this year, though it's a good thing, because it means lots of work. I leave my apartment at 7:00am Monday through Thursday, work from 9:00 until 3:00 with a one hour break for lunch, then I have a three hour break until 6:00 or 6:30, and finally I work from then until around 9:00pm. I get home between 10:00 and 10:30 pm. Somewhere in there I have to edit transcripts and do transcription work, and I'm thinking it's not going to be much fun to do it at 10:30 pm every night. I'd rather hang out with K. and the cat, eat dinner, and chill out for a while before bed. So the three-hour gap between 3:00 and 6:00 is the ideal time to get my work done. In previous years, even though I had internet access at one school or another, I'd also frequently go to coffee shops with free wi-fi and work there. It could get kind of pricey, though, because I'd spend more on food and drink than I ordinarily would, just to assuage my guilt at tying up a chair for several hours every day. I ended up doing a lot of my work when I came home, which worked fine; last semester I came home at around 5:00 or 6:00 most nights, which left time to help with dinner and also get work done. The problem this year is that the university I'm spending most of my time at doesn't have many coffee shops close by, and most of those don't have wi-fi, which I really need to do my transcript editing (looking up terminology and sending off transcripts and all that).
I've got a couple of options. I could push really hard to get internet access at that university, but I tried that last year and didn't get anywhere. I don't hold out too much hope that I could wangle it. I could walk 10 minutes or so to the nearest coffee shop I know about with wi-fi. I could hook into the service (I think it's around $30 to $60 a month for 5 gig) that lets me use my phone as a modem. That would probably work okay, though the slowness might get a bit irksome when I'm doing a lot of Google searches in rapid succession. The last option is the priciest, but I'm seriously considering it for a couple of reasons: One, I could deduct it from my taxes, which would be pretty great; especially this year, when I don't anticipate buying any expensive equipment like I did the previous two years. Second, it's a block from the university. Third, it's a space that I'd actually be paying to work in, rather than a space that grudgingly trades me a chair and some online time in exchange for food and beverages.
This is the place. It's one of those newfangled co-working type outfits, focusing on "green" companies, but in a relatively vague sort of way; one of the members is a translation company, which is near as damnit to the type of work I do. It's not like I'm un-green, for all that I'm not particularly green in any deliberate way.
They have a roof deck:
And lots of light:
I dunno. It's a fair bit of cash. If I went there 30 days a month, it would only cost me $8 a day, which is significantly less than I pay for a coffee shop. But if I only go there 16 days a month, which is more likely, it would cost me $16 a day, which is about what I pay for a few hours at a coffee shop, but without actually feeding me. Whatever I decide to do, it won't be for a while, because I've got several thousand dollars out on invoices that have been stubbornly refusing to darken my doorstep. But once I'm solidly in the black again, I'm going to think about it. It looks like a good place to work.
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(7)
11:46:05 PM,Sunday 13 September 2009
Ooh, Remember The Mik's new smart add feature plus the Gmail plugin is completely kickass.
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05:29:14 PM,Friday 11 September 2009
Man, you can always tell when Scarlatti comes on. He perseverates.
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12:17:38 AM,Friday 11 September 2009
Wow, "Wayfaring Stranger" from Ms. Nehring's "Strange Roads" mix (it doesn't say who the singer is, but she's pretty fabulous) and then "Love Spreads" from Ms. Carlos's blogswap mix is one of the best random shuffle song juxtapositions I've ever heard.
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05:06:34 PM,Wednesday 9 September 2009
I have written a steno cryptogram. I have no idea if it's too hard or too easy. It would be a snap for a steno theory student (I think, though it's hard to tell which briefs are logical and which totally arbitrary and indecipherable to another person's brain) or to someone who wants to look up the Wikipedia entry on Stenotype. I think it's a bit more challenging if you want to do it without outside help. The text is made up, so it's not googleable. Let me know if this is fun or just frustrating. It was definitely fun to make. Basically I typed some stuff off the top of my head with a blank dictionary, then retranslated it with "phonetic translation" turned on. Then I typed up another text, but didn't run it through the phonetic engine. Hopefully the two of them together are enough to go on.
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(3)
11:04:17 PM,Tuesday 8 September 2009
K: If poets led exercise groups, I think "Manly Hopping With Gerard Manley Hopkins" would be an extremely popular offering.
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(5)
10:59:13 AM,Sunday 6 September 2009
K (noticing the pastry brush that I bought today): Ooh, we should totally use this to spread something on something.
M: Did you also notice that I got soy sauce? We could spread soy sauce on something. (contemplating what we have in the fridge) You could spread it on... Edamame.
K: Metamame!
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08:52:13 PM,Friday 4 September 2009
M: It's good to see that Troll Man and Lich Man are working together.
K: Yes, but I'm happy with the representation I get from Kobold, Kobold, Kobold, and Gronk.
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07:18:34 PM,Friday 4 September 2009
I am a dork.
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(20)
11:38:26 PM,Thursday 3 September 2009
Whenever I hear "The Lowlands of Holland", my brain always wants to turn the line "There's many a man in Galloway" to "There's many a man in Gallifrey". But then it makes me even sadder, and that's a sad freaking song to begin with.
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11:42:19 AM,Thursday 3 September 2009
I'm in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza.
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03:59:32 PM,Wednesday 2 September 2009
Gmail seems to be down at the moment. If you need to email me, use my StenoKnight address.
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04:10:51 PM,Tuesday 1 September 2009
I just put my married name (still not yet legal, but only because we're slacky on paperwork) into the Internet Anagram Server, and got:
Rutabaga Oxcart Nihilism Kink
Also
Rustic Hatbox Marginalia Kink
Now you know my secret shame.
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12:31:30 PM,Sunday 30 August 2009
Wow, there's a company called Brahmin Leather Works. Not like I'm any big fan of the Indian caste system, but this is pretty funny, considering that leather workers were traditionally considered Untouchables, and Brahmins are supposed to shun Untouchables and everything associated with them more rigorously than any other caste. What were they thinking?
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(6)
08:56:36 PM,Friday 28 August 2009
Don't know if any of y'all are interested, but I've been posting ASL-and-CART-related stuff on my new Twitter feed over the past week or so:
http://twitter.com/stenoknight
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(1)
04:35:06 PM,Thursday 27 August 2009
It's quite a thing to be coming home from a play about the Holocaust and to be sitting next to two prosperous-looking, self-satisfied people around my age saying vicious, hateful things about the Roma as if it made them sound worldly and sophisticated, to have gotten into screaming confrontations with them, to gossip knowingly together about those scary thieves and pathetic beggars. "Gypsies are so violent, even their children are dangerous." "You think they were bad in Eastern Europe? They're even worse in Italy!" I do not think these people would have said such things about Jews or homosexuals or people with disabilities, but I guess the Roma are still exotic enough to be reviled without compunction by holidaymaking Americans. It makes me very sad and very angry.
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(9)
10:53:56 PM,Wednesday 26 August 2009
Seen today: a K9 cop smoking a cigarette while walking his German Shepherd. At first I thought they were on duty because the dog kept sniffing everything in an incredibly intent and urgent way. "Oh, no." I thought. "What are they looking for?" Then I saw that the urgent intensity was primarily focused on fire hydrants and planters, and realized that even uber-trained police dogs have to go walkies sometimes. Also the cigarette.
A very young man in a sharp new suit, quite clearly a canvasser of some sort, holding a clipboard with maybe half a dozen signatures on it and slumping dejectedly in his train seat. Slowly he looked down, turned the clipboard over, and read the message affixed to its backside with labeling tape: "ANTHONY IS THE BEST". When he saw me looking, he covered it with his sleeve. Poor kid. I do not envy him his job.
Also: currently the subway has trains numbered 1 through 7. 9 was discontinued shortly after I got here. Is there no 8 Train because it sounds too much like A Train?
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06:43:43 PM,Wednesday 26 August 2009
Kate Beaton, as always, gets it bang-on. Man, I hate it when they make Watson bumble. I re-read all the stories over the summer, and while his whole "Whoah, I had no idea what you did there until you told me what you did there and now it's obvious" routine does get a wee touch monotonous, Watson is supposed to be standing in for a relatively clever everyman who gets shown up by Holmes the Even Cleverer, not a complete idiot who couldn't detect his own britches if they were soaked in luminescent phosphorus. Grrr!
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(5)
10:27:42 AM,Wednesday 26 August 2009
