Posts from — September 2006

It’s an abnormally quiet day at the office here, which to my line of thinking indicates that one or more of the following situations is taking place:

1. All computer hardware, software, and networks are performing optimally. (rare, but it happens)
2. hardware could be on fire, software could be threatening people’s mothers, and the network could be finalizing plans to build assassin robots. I just won’t hear a peep about any of it from my users for at least another week. (default for this type of situation, sadly)
3. Every user is heads-down on next year’s budget and completely oblivious to all other issues. (most likely)

This does give me time to fiddle with my balky iPod, though; it has been dying a slow death, and I think the hard drive is mostly dead now. I can’t get past the ’sad iPod’ action with any key combination, so I’m going to let the battery drain itself over the next day or two and try again. If still nothing… well, everything’s backed up as of Tuesday, and any new stuff since then is either saved elsewhere or not critical.

Last night Fred and I had an “audition” for the chorus’s small ensemble; we’ve been in previously, and were asked to come back, but the director wanted to hear everybody’s voices separately so that she could figure out the best blend. It went well, I think, though we haven’t heard a final line-up yet.

As I was singing, though, Fred was in the hall talking to another returning member, and somehow C* got Fred thinking about buying a house again. I’m not opposed to the concept, but the market’s still a bit high at the moment (REALTOR<tm> rhetoric notwithstanding) for my tastes, and with the ongoing job hunt the financial situation might be changing very soon.

After that, and some brief adventures in puttanesca, I drove to my youngest brother’s hovel^H^H^H^H^Hplace to fix his computer. Kid trashed the MBR, so I have to rebuild the OS this weekend. He’ll find a few nicer components when he gets it back ’cause it’s his birthday and ’cause I need to get a few components out of the house. He’ll also receive the standard lecture on safe network usage.

Got home late last night and it was getting pretty chilly out. Fred had already put the flannel sheets on the bed, though, so we stayed comfortable overnight despite the open windows and light breeze.

Tonight’s project: write a paper on Alan Turing already.

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Apologies to Jimbo, whose hairstyle I’m planning to “borrow”. (Not the beard, though. That’d take me a long time to grow, and in the meantime I’d just look hoosierish.)

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Salon has an interesting piece on how the US Constitution does not guarantee universal suffrage (just click through the commercial). Though the Constitution does prohibit disenfranchisement based on race or former status as a slave (15th Amendment), sex (19th), age (26th), and ability to pay a poll tax (24th), it only implies universal suffrage in the Fourteenth Amendment’s first section (the bit about “equal protection” that a certain wing hates so so much).

The MO state constitution, however, is pretty explicit on the issue:

All citizens of the United States, including occupants of soldiers’ and sailors’ homes, over the age of eighteen who are residents of this state and of the political subdivision in which they offer to vote are entitled to vote at all elections by the people, if the election is one for which registration is required if they are registered within the time prescribed by law, or if the election is one for which registration is not required, if they have been residents of the political subdivision in which they offer to vote for thirty days next preceding the election for which they offer to vote: Provided however, no person who has a guardian of his or her estate or person by reason of mental incapacity, appointed by a court of competent jurisdiction and no person who is involuntarily confined in a mental institution pursuant to an adjudication of a court of competent jurisdiction shall be entitled to vote, and persons convicted of felony, or crime connected with the exercise of the right of suffrage may be excluded by law from voting.

(Article VIII, Section 2, Missouri State Constitution)

The bits about how felons and the incapable can’t vote are pretty standard. My favorite part, though, is how they also indicate that people who’ve fucked with elections can have their own voting privileges revoked even if their crime wasn’t a felony.

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Question: is this blog easier to read in chunks like I’ve done this week or as separate items?

Yes, it’s been another busybusy week.

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This past weekend I had a couple papers due for my English class. On Friday night, the first draft of paper #2 (topic “an issue in my field of study”; I went with “is Wikipedia trustworthy?”) was due for peer editing. On Sunday night, I submitted the final version of paper #1 (topic “My Place in My Field of Study”), along with a peer reviews of a couple classmates’ papers and a weekly journal entry. Needless to say, I spent most of the weekend in front of my beloved Thinkpad, getting sidetracked in LexisNexis (which is ENTIRELY too easy) and trying not to get too verbose.

This coming weekend will be pretty similar; the first draft of paper #3 (a biography of someone in the field; I’m thinking Alan Turing) is due Friday night, then peer reviews of classmates’ papers, another weekly journal entry, and the final version of paper #2 are all due Sunday night. Weekend after is the same story. Ick.

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We also had our very first chorus rehearsals of the season. Fred was on the Membership Team, and they managed to get 17 newbies to the first rehearsal. He’s most excited, though, about the fact that 15 came back to the second rehearsal. It should be an interesting, if mildly schizophrenic, show; the director has a very eclectic selection of pieces, from the Hallelujah from Beethoven’s “Christus am Ölberge” (lovelove the arrangement) to a selection of carols performed in the style of Elmer Fudd (yes, I know).
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New place hunt has slowed down… we went to an “open house” for a local mgmt co on Saturday. As it turns out, that was the same group who managed my first extra-parental apartment (in an old schoolhouse). From the look of things they purchased a bunch of places in the early to mid-80s and renovated them all at once then for people who never ever ever cook. Skeery. We also drove past a place with a promising ad on Craig’s List, intending to stop in for the open house there, but as we pulled up Fred noticed the bars on the windows and we wordlessly agreed to move on.
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Fred got his passport application in, and I think part of the reason was my constant hinting. (C’mon, the problem ["but I don't have a passport"] presents its own solution ["Let's get you a passport"]; how am I supposed to resist?) A long-awaited vacation may be forthcoming once we can figure out schedules.
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I got a new laptop, finally. It’s a MacBook Pro, and it is teh sex. I spent much of the day yesterday giggling about little details, like the magnetic connection on the power cable (so that if the cable is tugged it pops out instead of pulling the entire laptop along) and the translucent Apple logo on the lid that glows from the backlight. Upcoming projects include geting Parallels Workstation going so I can change OS quickly, and getting the sudden motion sensor to talk like a keyboard.

Along with the laptop, Fred got his early birthday present, an iPod nano. (Rebate for concurrent purchase with the laptop, dontchaknow.) It’s slick, and he’s probably gleefully playing with it even as I type this.

The Thinkpad (named “dash”) will probably get re-worked into a picture frame or something, if I ever have time.
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Over the weekend everybody’s favorite new department store monopoly hosted a charity fundraiser-cum-big sale; since the chorus would benefit, Fred and I sucked it up and shopped a little bit. We got a comforter and some sheets, but the most exciting part was that I found clothes that fit me off the rack.

I know, it doesn’t sound like much. But normally when I shop,

• pants will have the right length, but will only be available for waist sizes at least six inches larger than mine
• pants will have the right waist size, but will only be available with inseams at least six inches longer than mine
• pants will have the right waist size and inseam, but will only be available in superskinny “what’s a squat?” cuts, such that I almost split seams when pulling them over my thighs
• jackets will have the right chest size, but will only be available as ‘regular’ or ‘long’
• ’short’ jackets will be there, but only for chest sizes a foot six inches too small
• there will be ’short’ jackets with the right chest measurements, but with absolutely no room for my arms or shoulders

ad nauseam. So you can probably imagine why, when we saw an employee we knew, the conversation went something like this:

M*: Hi, Fred and Jim! How are you!
Jim: OH MY GOD, IT FITS.
Fred: We’re doing pretty well, how are you?
J: SWEET JESUS, IT FITS.
M: Not bad. Kind of upset I have to work on such a beautiful day.
J: IT FITS. IT FITS. IT FITS.

Alas, the jacket I was trying on just then was just a smidge out of our price range.

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Workouts are starting to get challenging again, but that’s a good thing. After a little experiment last week, though, I think I’ll throw in some dedicated cardio time on my non-weights days.

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Yup, still looking for a new job. Have a few apps pending, but it’s difficult some days to keep from checking Monster every five minutes.

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Shout-out to Bastique, who really needs to post something. (hint.)

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I can’t discuss details, but wow, there are some thick heads in the world.

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… and that will have to be all for now. The weight room beckons.

I’m really not sure where to start.

For the most part, my life in these last few weeks has been taken up with school - as you may recall, I’m just now getting around to finishing the degree that I started roughly ten years ago. My classes are accelerated, though, so I get to cram an entire semester into nine weeks. This means that I have a four-page paper due each Friday in September, and a ten-page paper due in mid-October… all for one class. (I have no such worries about the other class I’m taking; if there is a curve, then I’m probably wrecking it because the course covers knowledge I’m already using every day at work and most days at home.)

Beyond that? Hmm.

• Chorus rehearsals start up again tonight
• Fred and I are starting to look for a new place
• my student loan comes in soon, which’ll enable the purchase of a new computer (thinking of a MacBook or MacBook Pro)
• I still work with morons
• I’m still in the market for a new job (anybody need an experienced Domino administrator?)
• the Cardinals are (inexplicably) still in first place
• we rode the new MetroLink extension and it’s nice but getting from the Richmond Heights station to the Galleria means risking life and limb as a pedestrian on BRENTWOOD FREAKING BOULEVARD (hello, Galleria management? a shuttle would vastly expand your market) and that just isn’t something I plan to do
• my workouts have been astonishingly effective and challenging lately, and I’m not really doing anything different
• been watching Project Runway and the Venture Brothers a lot when I’m not writing papers

More later, including a free-association post.