Stuff

I just noticed that my wall calendar here at my desk has the last two days of October up at the top of the grid. So the top row reads 30, 31, blank, blank, blank, blank, 1. Those whacky Kiwis. It's actually my only New Zealand calendar this year. I used to get 4 or 5. But only one of my Kiwi friends remembers my love of these things. But, this one is a great one. It has the obligatory wonderful photos of New Zealand plus ALL of the holidays of New Zealand and Australia. Those people have holidays for everything. If the queen farts they declare a holiday and take the day off from work. In October there are 7 holidays. And this calendar also points out that some of Australia starts Daylight Savings Time on the 30th and some on the 31st with New Zealand.

My timing is a bit off but I do think I'm going to have to make the Annual LastCostcoVisitBeforeChristmas trip this weekend. I think I'm a little early but the Christmas madness might not be as impossible with the new store that has much bigger aisles. But, I need several products that I can't get anywhere else - store brands. Bath soap and toilet paper. And I need steak and a bunch of other stuff. So I guess I'll bite the bullet and be there when the doors open on Saturday.

Hopefully the workers will come today and remove all that horrible machinery out of my condo. I left a bottle of 409, a rag and note asking them to wipe down those track light fixtures while they are up on the ladder, please. Wonder if they will do it.

I did not turn that blower on last night and slept peacefully.

I tidied up the address book on my Treo yesterday and then did a sync so that the tidied up version would be on my desktop where I can capture it into a csv. However, when I went to sync it, I managed to bungle the rest of the apps on the thing. I went to tune in NPR on the way to the bus and my Pocket Tunes was all fucked up.

BUT, there is a wonderful little piece of software that I bought some time ago that not only backs up everything every night to the SD card, it provides you with a restore function right there on the same card. So, while walking to the bus, I just restored everything to the way it was the night before and had NPR back in my headset before the bus even pulled up. Now that's some nice software action. Thankyouverymuch.

I will resync the tidy contacts list this morning and do it the right way this time.

I'm having a hard time getting interested in the baseball playoffs. It's just disconcerting to see so many Mariners playing in playoff games- I wish they were playing in Mariner uniforms.

Stuff

I just noticed that my wall calendar here at my desk has the last two days of October up at the top of the grid. So the top row reads 30, 31, blank, blank, blank, blank, 1. Those whacky Kiwis. It's actually my only New Zealand calendar this year. I used to get 4 or 5. But only one of my Kiwi friends remembers my love of these things. But, this one is a great one. It has the obligatory wonderful photos of New Zealand plus ALL of the holidays of New Zealand and Australia. Those people have holidays for everything. If the queen farts they declare a holiday and take the day off from work. In October there are 7 holidays. And this calendar also points out that some of Australia starts Daylight Savings Time on the 30th and some on the 31st with New Zealand.

My timing is a bit off but I do think I'm going to have to make the Annual LastCostcoVisitBeforeChristmas trip this weekend. I think I'm a little early but the Christmas madness might not be as impossible with the new store that has much bigger aisles. But, I need several products that I can't get anywhere else - store brands. Bath soap and toilet paper. And I need steak and a bunch of other stuff. So I guess I'll bite the bullet and be there when the doors open on Saturday.

Hopefully the workers will come today and remove all that horrible machinery out of my condo. I left a bottle of 409, a rag and note asking them to wipe down those track light fixtures while they are up on the ladder, please. Wonder if they will do it.

I did not turn that blower on last night and slept peacefully.

I tidied up the address book on my Treo yesterday and then did a sync so that the tidied up version would be on my desktop where I can capture it into a csv. However, when I went to sync it, I managed to bungle the rest of the apps on the thing. I went to tune in NPR on the way to the bus and my Pocket Tunes was all fucked up.

BUT, there is a wonderful little piece of software that I bought some time ago that not only backs up everything every night to the SD card, it provides you with a restore function right there on the same card. So, while walking to the bus, I just restored everything to the way it was the night before and had NPR back in my headset before the bus even pulled up. Now that's some nice software action. Thankyouverymuch.

I will resync the tidy contacts list this morning and do it the right way this time.

I'm having a hard time getting interested in the baseball playoffs. It's just disconcerting to see so many Mariners playing in playoff games- I wish they were playing in Mariner uniforms.

On being the straight girl

I have lived all of my life as a straight girl in a world of privilege. Except for the years when I longed to be a size 2, I have never known hunger. I have never been homeless. My parents paid for my college education and gave me $500 upon graduation and it's been me for me ever since. I have not only a home and an income but unearned entitlement because I am also white and straight.

The former you can tell by looking at me. The latter is a little less obvious to the eye. I've never known what it was like to not be the default in terms of what kind of people I am attracted to sexually. I've never had anyone try to persuade me to bat for the other side (well, during the whole Ellen thing, I did have friends who wanted to turn me in for a toaster oven, but I think that was more an appliance issue than one of sexual orientation). The closest I've ever come to hearing a slur on my sexual orientation is being referenced as a breeder. And, since I am not, really, a breeder, I ignore it. But, that's a luxury I have.

I live in a place and matriculate in a nice little cocoon that prevents me from having to hear much in the way of offensive language or sentiments targeted at those who's sexual orientation is not your basic het. I know it happens. It happens here. Physical as well as verbal abuse seeps into my world occasionally and it makes me sad and mad.

But, what really makes me want to do something is not the obvious. It's the sly. It's the assumption that homosexuality is wrong. It's the acceptance that homosexuality is fair game and a rightful target. It's everything that makes a basic het breeder the default.

I don't know what to do about it. I challenge when it lands in my face or even off to the side. I write letters. (I once wrote a letter to In The Life - the TV show - and I got a lovely thankful reply asking me to send a copy to my local PBS station. So I did - to both of them. I have now heard that same letter read - my letter! - locally and nationally about a bazillion times. I just heard it again during the last pledge drive.) I sign petitions. I wear buttons. I'd wear a t-shirt if I had one. I have one bumper sticker on my car - it's the graphic at the end of this entry. But none of that ever seems to effective or enough.

This morning's paper carried a column about a newspaper ad campaign for Coming Out day. Part of me is delighted at the effort but the rest of me is very sad that even here in Seattle, even here in 2005, not only is an ad campaign like this being done, but it's needed and it's so remarkable that it's worth a newspaper column because it is so man-bites-dog.

I actually thought that I might - by creating this entry - come to some fine, grand conclusion or even answer but here I am at the end and I got nothing. It's not fair.

On being the straight girl

I have lived all of my life as a straight girl in a world of privilege. Except for the years when I longed to be a size 2, I have never known hunger. I have never been homeless. My parents paid for my college education and gave me $500 upon graduation and it's been me for me ever since. I have not only a home and an income but unearned entitlement because I am also white and straight.

The former you can tell by looking at me. The latter is a little less obvious to the eye. I've never known what it was like to not be the default in terms of what kind of people I am attracted to sexually. I've never had anyone try to persuade me to bat for the other side (well, during the whole Ellen thing, I did have friends who wanted to turn me in for a toaster oven, but I think that was more an appliance issue than one of sexual orientation). The closest I've ever come to hearing a slur on my sexual orientation is being referenced as a breeder. And, since I am not, really, a breeder, I ignore it. But, that's a luxury I have.

I live in a place and matriculate in a nice little cocoon that prevents me from having to hear much in the way of offensive language or sentiments targeted at those who's sexual orientation is not your basic het. I know it happens. It happens here. Physical as well as verbal abuse seeps into my world occasionally and it makes me sad and mad.

But, what really makes me want to do something is not the obvious. It's the sly. It's the assumption that homosexuality is wrong. It's the acceptance that homosexuality is fair game and a rightful target. It's everything that makes a basic het breeder the default.

I don't know what to do about it. I challenge when it lands in my face or even off to the side. I write letters. (I once wrote a letter to In The Life - the TV show - and I got a lovely thankful reply asking me to send a copy to my local PBS station. So I did - to both of them. I have now heard that same letter read - my letter! - locally and nationally about a bazillion times. I just heard it again during the last pledge drive.) I sign petitions. I wear buttons. I'd wear a t-shirt if I had one. I have one bumper sticker on my car - it's the graphic at the end of this entry. But none of that ever seems to effective or enough.

This morning's paper carried a column about a newspaper ad campaign for Coming Out day. Part of me is delighted at the effort but the rest of me is very sad that even here in Seattle, even here in 2005, not only is an ad campaign like this being done, but it's needed and it's so remarkable that it's worth a newspaper column because it is so man-bites-dog.

I actually thought that I might - by creating this entry - come to some fine, grand conclusion or even answer but here I am at the end and I got nothing. It's not fair.

Big ole happy face

Before I left work I checked the webcam - snakes still in wall.  So when I got home, I stopped into Micah's office.  He says that there has, in fact, been major progress but they need to blow and dehumidify one more day.  No biggie.  Especially if there is progress. 

Then I get upstairs and discover that they actually did wipe down my track lights!!!  Those suckers haven't been that clean in years and years.  In fact, they are nearly white and here I thought they were creamy yellow colored!  Nice.  Very nice.

And, I got a check from the dentist.  $577.60.  There is nothing unhappy about that.

Big ole happy face

Before I left work I checked the webcam - snakes still in wall.  So when I got home, I stopped into Micah's office.  He says that there has, in fact, been major progress but they need to blow and dehumidify one more day.  No biggie.  Especially if there is progress. 

Then I get upstairs and discover that they actually did wipe down my track lights!!!  Those suckers haven't been that clean in years and years.  In fact, they are nearly white and here I thought they were creamy yellow colored!  Nice.  Very nice.

And, I got a check from the dentist.  $577.60.  There is nothing unhappy about that.