Frink! Mmm! Ptank!

It's like a Caucus-fest in here.

lemurs — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 23:30:00 +0000

So I went out and caucused today.

That seems like it should have been easy to do, right? Just march up to your precinct place and take part, right? Wrong. What if you don't know where to go?

For the Democratic Caucuses, they just say to go to the Caucus Finder and it'll tell you. Sure, that'll work, if and only if you are registered to vote at your current address. You can register to vote if at the caucus though, and there isn't a way to find out where to go unless you already know your precinct. How many people who decide to caucus last minute do you think actually know what precinct they're in?

I didn't.

You can find maps on the King County website, but they're not super easy to find and they're stupid to read. Why can't you just put in your address and have them goddam tell you where to go? (it's worth pointing out that the king county GOP website points to the KC Metro polling place lookup to find your precinct, which also only works if you're already registered to vote at your current address

While poking around the internet to figure this information out (I last voted in 2004 and hadn't updated my registration to my current address, so had no idea where I was going and Mike's last registered address was when we lived across the street) I did find a couple cool things that someone really concerned about their privacy might freak out about.

• Sound Politics Washington State Voter Database — You can input a name or address and it'll give you the name, address, birthdate, date the person registered, and the date the person last voted. You can also see who owns the property and the sales history of that property. If you don't put in a full address (i.e. you search by name), it'll leave off the last digit of the street address, but its not like that's private, when you can also go to the:

• Do Caucus website— If you search by name, it'll give you a list of all the people with similar names, the number of their street address (but not the street itself), age, and sex. From there, you can click through to the precinct and caucus information you need. You can also search by address to get a list of people whose Street number and zip code are the same as your own and where they would go.

Neat, huh?

Anyway, so what I did is a lookup by street in the voter database and did a name search for the other people in the apartments in either side of us and went to that precinct. Shoulda been easier.

After poking around a bit more, because I was grossly unsatisfied with the user experience, I did manage to find a little google mashup on the 41st district democats website, which is cool, because it gives you the outline for your precinct and also the general caucus area.

Neat right?

Why did that take so long to find and why isn't a larger organization doing something like that on a big scale to make it easy for those who want to take part in the political process?

At any rate, I did make it to the caucus, and it was interesting, but disorganized. The woman in charge of our precinct (Precinct Officer?) apparently hadn't taken the time beforehand to read the instructions and kept doing things out of order. For example, she wanted to read to us how we were to choose the delegates and get into detail about the alternates and votes and blah blah blah before we'd even had a chance to make changes to our selection and make a final tally.

I mean, come on.

Anyway, we did our thing, got our delegates (looks like Mike's going to the legislative caucus in April!), and did some of that resolution making.

It's absolutely telling that the only resolution anyone in our precinct wanted to put in was from the one guy who wanted to terminate the caucus process and go to apportioning delegates via a primary election instead.

There's a pretty good article about the history of the primary vs. caucus systtem in Washington State in The Seattle Times, but the gist is this: Primary ballots go out for the Democratic and Republican candidates. The parties also both caucus. The Democrats don't count the primary election for anything, and apportion delegates solely by the caucuses. The Republicans will do 19 delegates from the primary results and 18 from the caucuses — this time.

It's worth noting that the primary elections in Washington state only came about because the republicans didn't like the outcome of their 1988 caucuses where Pat Robertson dominated. Since then, they've allocated all (1992), 1/2 (1996), 1/3 (2000), or 1/2 (this year)of their delegates according to the primary.

Washington state taxpayers will pay $10 million this year to decide on just 1/2 of the delegates for a single political party.

Awesome, right?

Washington did not have a primary election at all in 2004.

2007 in Review

lemurs — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 19:44:00 +0000

There are only two more days (well, less really) left in the year and it seems as good a time as any to stop and look back and what happened in the last number of days.

I think one of the reasons we do things like this is because otherwise the days and weeks and months and years just blur together. Life doesn't change as quickly on a month to month basis as it did when I was a kid and more and more I find myself answering the question "So what's new?" with a stock "Oh, you know, same old, same old."

But is everything still the same as it was a year ago? Same job, same family, same apartment, same two cats. Check, check, and check. But surely things haven't always been exactly this way?

January
I rang in the New Year at a bar down the street with Wil and Lucas and Russ and Morgann and some other people. Mike was out on the East Coast for another of his sister's weddings, and shortly after midnight, I came home, turned in, and went to work bright and early the next morning.

Typical.

I got a new computer in January, which was (is!) pretty awesome.

February
February is when we went down to visit Mike's Dad and Terri in San Diego. We ate a bunch of stuff — I had fondue for the first time, which was interesting.

We also went on this Russian sub and some ships and things. A very nautical experience, to be sure. And to give equal time to the air, we visited the air and space museum they have down there.

March
This past March was Lucas's 21st birthday, and I got punched in the nose by a drunken flyweight boxer.

April
Rich and Juli got married this month and I got stung in the neck by a wasp, which was as totally un-awesome as it sounds. Then, Mike and I took a weekend off and drove down to TIllamook Oregon, which is about as exciting and cheese oriented as you might guess. They also have a pretty great air museum there, which we enjoyed very muchly.

May
Went to the Cheese Festival at Pike Place Market. Also, I pretended to crush the gray cat's head.

June
June was just a very very busy work month. I have absolutely no evidence that I did anything fun, social, or exciting at all.

July
I took a small work-related trip to Sacramento, which was fun, at the beginning of the month and went to see Rush at the White River Amphitheatre at the end of the month. And also Daft Punk. Oh, also, got iPhone. And also, Mike got hit by a car. He was okay, though.

August
Mike survives through his 31st birthday. Wil throws a party at this Brazillian restaurant that everybody gets amazingly drunk at. I do not believe I have been back there since. I finally got to hang out with Lloyd, since he came to town for a conference. We also had a beach party. And went to Boeing for family day. And had more nacho nights. And drove around in Smart cars.

September
This was the the year we finally made it to Bumbershoot. It was fun. That is all. Also the month Jessie and I started baking a lot. It's fallen off due to the holidays, but we can get back into it post-new year's methinks. I ate duck eggs for the first time (delectable!) and Wil threw a fabulous dinner party at Elemental. I also got to go on a business trip to Cupertino, which was fun.

October
We went home to Hawaii for my birthday and my high school reunion, which we just as awkward as one would expect. Why we do these things to ourselves, I don't know. However! I did get to meet and hang out with my little niece, Kaela,and I made a really awesome pumpkin cheesecake this month. I also managed to go to three different Halloween parties in three different costumes.

November
November was kind of a quiet month. I know we went out to see a number of friends a number of times, and of course Black Friday was in there, but that's about it.

December
December always feels so busy, like you're trying to cram in all the stuff you wish you could have done earlier in the year. We went to the Child's Play dinner again this year, Jessie had a Meme Theme Party at her place, and of course there was Christmas and all the other stuff that goes along with that.

So I guess there was some stuff this year but nothing in the major life changing event category. Next year I want to take more small weekend jaunts, and do all the good resolution thingies. But we'll see how that goes. I feel like 2006 was much more exciting for me than 2007. Maybe 2008 will bounce back to more fun-ness.

Does that bemuse you?

lemurs — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 17:29:00 +0000

Have you ever been to a dinner party or chatted with someone and they tried to toss in word slightly more upscale than their usual linguistic range? Most of the time, you kind of get what they mean, so out of politeness, you nod and move on — that's what context is for after all.

But it seems now that people have been getting away with specific horrible misuses of words more commonly now, and it just has to stop.

First off — bemused.

It does not mean amused, which is the misuse I've seen too many times to count. People, it is more akin to confused.

from answers.com :

be·muse (bĭ-myūz')
tr.v., -mused, -mus·ing, -mus·es.
1. To cause to be bewildered; confuse. See synonyms at daze.
2. To cause to be engrossed in thought.

I don't see anything amusing in there at all.

Secondly — nonplussed.

I does not mean unimpressed, or was kind of 'whatever' about it. Shockingly, it means something closer to confused. Again.

from answers.com:

non·plus (nŏn-plŭs')
tr.v., -plussed also -plused, -plus·sing -plus·ing, -plus·ses -plus·es.
To put at a loss as to what to think, say, or do; bewilder.
n.
A state of perplexity, confusion, or bewilderment.

So, if you ever find yourself bewildered or confused about the meanings of these two words, just roll with it. That is, after all, their meaning.

. . .

Lest you think I'm on a language high horse, at least I'm not arguing about how to pronounce "pwn".

Good idea/Bad Idea

lemurs — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 01:23:00 +0000

Bad Idea: Getting all your ideas about love from the movies.

Worse idea: Getting all your ideas about love from David Lynch movies.

. . .

"You know what a love letter is? It's a bullet from a fucking gun." — Frank Booth, Blue Velvet, 1986

Grocery Store God

lemurs — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 03:39:00 +0000

I like that the uniform for clerks at the QFC is short-sleeved button down shirts with black ties.

When I see them on their breaks or going home, they look like fallen Mormons, smoking up a storm while furrowing their pierced eyebrow in angst, or scowling on their way to the car, six-pack in hand, after a hard day of stocking celery.

It's like Jehovah has just been asking too much and all they want is to lead a simple life of clerking and drinking and fucking, but still feel all this guilt about leaving the temple.

Or, you know, not.

Dear EyeCare Providers of Seattle (and other small businesses)

lemurs — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 03:32:00 +0000

I know the cool thing is to have a web presence. In fact, it's not just cool, it's practically de riguer in Today's World^TM.

But I'll go you one further. It is absolutely imperative, expecially as Vision Professional, for your website not to feel like it's stabbing me in the eye when I visit it.

Like seriously, dude. Also, make sure you are including relevant information I am looking for. For example, your "Our Services" tab-thing should include information about your services. Not like this:

Like, "Your staff speaks English? Oh. Thanks, Help Cat!"

And, really, I don't have anything to say about this:

Look.

I'm not the be-all-end-all arbiter of what's awesome and stuff, but can you people not spend more than 5 minutes and $50 on your website?

It would be great to be able to go to an optometrist and not feel like they would accidentally blind me or wound my eye because they're high.

Thanks! :)

love,
mary

p.s. what about the people that haven't even bothered to make websites? what about them?

Travel tip for later

lemurs — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 19:34:00 +0000

SeaTac does indeed have a place to get a manicure on the way to your flight now. Butter London has opened up shop on the Charlie Concourse, so you can pick up a $20/20 minute manicure on your way to your gate — if you get there early and they haven't just started a pedicure that will take 40 minutes, that is. (Apparently they've had one on Concourse B for a while now, but I don't think I've ever flown out of the B gates.)

I used to top by the Butter kiosk at the Southcenter mall on Friday afternoons after work when it was $15/15 minutes and I was able to get double-punches on my card for being a mall employee. Whoo.

You know, sometimes, it is the little things.

I do wish there was a quick/cheap mani place close by here so I could enjoy pretty hands for the weekend at the least, but that's just me being spoiled.

Defective Yeti sez I'm a C student.

lemurs — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 00:33:00 +0000

abjure
abrogate
abstemious
acumen
antebellum
auspicious
belie
bellicose
bowdlerize
chicanery
chromosome
churlish
circumlocution
circumnavigate
deciduous
deleterious
diffident
enervate
enfranchise
epiphany
equinox
euro
evanescent
expurgate
facetious

fatuous
feckless
fiduciary
filibuster
gamete
gauche
gerrymander
hegemony
hemoglobin
homogeneous
hubris
hypotenuse
impeach
incognito
incontrovertible
inculcate
infrastructure
interpolate
irony
jejune
kinetic
kowtow
laissez faire
lexicon
loquacious

lugubrious
metamorphosis
mitosis
moiety
nanotechnology
nihilism
nomenclature
nonsectarian
notarize
obsequious
oligarchy
omnipotent
orthography
oxidize
parabola
paradigm
parameter
pecuniary
photosynthesis
plagiarize
plasma
polymer
precipitous
quasar
quotidian

recapitulate
reciprocal
reparation
respiration
sanguine
soliloquy
subjugate
suffragist
supercilious
tautology
taxonomy
tectonic
tempestuous
thermodynamics
totalitarian
unctuous
usurp
vacuous
vehement
vortex
winnow
wrought
xenophobe
yeoman
ziggurat

I knew the words in green; I did not know the words in red. In total, I knew 74 of 100.

Just remember . . .

lemurs — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 03:31:00 +0000

Good things come to those who wait. After all, what's a few more weeks, right?

WIkolia Gardens

lemurs — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 21:45:00 +0000

My mommy has a website. *sniff, sniff* I'm so proud.

See the pretty euporbia here.

I really need to take control of this music library

lemurs — Wed, 30 May 2007 02:46:00 +0000

A sampling of the "genres" that really need to be cleaned up and re-genre-fied:

• Avantgarde
• Awesomeness (!?)
• Cult
• Genre
• Hawaiian (only because somehow all of my Tom Jones is "hawaiian")
• Hip Hop/Rap, Hip-Hop, Hip-Hop/Rap
• Industrial Jungle Pussy Punk
• Neauveau Riché
• Other
• Other (somehow, two?)
• Rap (see Hip Hop, etc. above)
• Twee Pop
• Unclassifiable (a personal favorite)
• Undefined
• Unknown

Sigh.

Dulce et Decorum Est

lemurs — Mon, 28 May 2007 14:37:00 +0000

by Wilfred Owen

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.

PEBKAC

lemurs — Sun, 13 May 2007 17:49:00 +0000

I have a printer but I don't use it very often — just for printing out maps when I am going places and want directions (I hate the print format of google maps, but that's for another time).

This morning, I went to print out directions to a mexican restaurant in Kent, where I am meeting a friend and her mom for lunch. The printer wouldn't print.

I checked the cable, it was firmly planted in both the printer and in the computer.

It had been about a month and a few software updates since I'd printed, so I tried to re-add the printer, but the computer couldn't even see it.

"Hmm," says I, "maybe I need to re-install the drivers."

The CD had been thrown away, so I re-navigated the HP website for the drivers, downloaded, installed, tried to add the printer, and . . . nothing.

The computer still couldn't see it.

Turned the printer off and on a couple times.

Nothing.

Frustrated, I went to pull out the USB cable to connect it to a different computer, in case the one was just being a poo-faced bitch for no good reason.

Lo and behold.

I had forgotten that I didn't have a USB cable long enough to connect the printer and computer when I first set them up and had used a 3 foot cable with a 3 ft extension cable. Each end was solidly seated in the computer and printer all right, but they were not connected in the middle.

Connection made, it printed with no fuss whatsoever.

Sometimes, I feel like such a dumbass.

The problem with Denny's on Sunday and an inexperienced and panicking hostess

lemurs — Sun, 06 May 2007 20:55:00 +0000

I went to Ballard today for to pick up my monthly supply of Mafia Cheese, which meant that Dragons wanted to come along for some Denny's action.

The Denny's in Ballard is the most convienient place for me to get ready-steady hashbrowns, the IHOP in the U-District notwithstanding because there's just no parking there and I'm just not gonna deal with that.

Today being Sunday, and it being almost noon, the place was hopping. We did get seated almost immediately though, as did five other groups in a previously empty section, and it soon became obvious that the hostess had freaked out about how many people were there and in her panic had seated us all in a section with no server available yet.

This meant two things:

1) Nobody came by to take as much as a drink order or bring place settings for a loooooooooong time
2) The other tables that were seated didn't necessarily grok the situation, so when the server finally came on and came around, he was getting yelled at on all sides, and there was a minute amount of panicking on his side as well.

Noting that one can normally get seated, order, eat hashbrowns and sip coffee, and pay in about 1/2 an hour, this is what actually happened:

12:00 Seated at a table with two menus and nothing else

12:21 We got placemats and placed our order

12:39 Coffee is brought — yes, almost 20 minutes after ordering. Note that I would normally be completely done and gone at this point.

By this time, most of the lunch people have gotten their checks and left, which means things start moving faster.

12:43 Silverware! Napkins!

12:44 Food! (well, most of it, anyway. they left the bacon and sausage off one order, we never got jelly for the toast and eventually got up and hunted it down ourselves)

12:59 Check, box, and leave.

Now I'm annoyed at that Denny's and it's all the seating girl's fault. I mean, they have a waiting area where you an sit and wait for a table if there are none available. And I think in general, people understand that if you're waiting for a table, you're waiting. But once you get a table, there's an expectation that you'll be served in a fairly short order. We actually waited for so long that I wondered why my food was taking so long and then realized that I hadn't even got to order yet.

That's how long it was.

Anyway, the hostess sucks. Server was great though, for all the stress the hostess's errors caused him.

And, I guess, in the end, I did get my hashbrowns, and it's not like I lost a leg or am dying of some crazy disease in some third world country, so it worked out okay. We'll see how it is next month, when I do my next Mafia Cheese pick-up.

Aweome-logistics-sauce

lemurs — Wed, 02 May 2007 03:23:00 +0000

Delivery ~~death~~race 2007 — The short answer? DHL, for the win!

Noteable notes:

* "The phone representative at UPS claimed that Samoa was not a country and that UPS would not deliver to APO addresses."
* "DHL was able to tell us the final costs upon delivery. FedEx could tell us some costs but not all. UPS said that we would have to wait for the credit card bill."

Also includes sweet routing information! Also includes sweet info about previous races!*

*Also note at the bottom of that page: "Be sure to check in October 2007 for a companion event, the Great Container Race, in which we race 40-foot shipping containers around the world via competing shipping companies." !!!

Spiders!

lemurs — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 14:32:00 +0000

This morning I saw a crane fly, and it brought to mind the very first time I recall seeing a crane fly when I was a kid. My first thought was, "What the hell? Spiders can fly?"

You see, I thought it was a daddy long-legs that had sprouted wings and was cruising around the world on a sightseeing adventure.

Of note: The daddy long legs is the only spider I am not freaked out by or scared of. My dad told me when I was a kid that they couldn't even bite you because their mandibles were to small (probably not true!) and I don't think I really can imto the fear of spiders until well after that, when I found out about all the gross, crunchy, hairy, bitey, poisonous ones.

Ah, to be young and fearless again.

Woo!

lemurs — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 18:25:00 +0000

In less than an hour, we'll be heading down to the docks to set foot on the nuptial boat of Rich and Juli.

Congratulations, guys! You're awesome.

Stupid repressed immunoresponse.

lemurs — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 16:19:00 +0000

I do believe I am sick again. Chills, fever, not breathing easily, a throat more raw than steak tartar. I'm really not okay with it.

If there's one thing I hate, it's being ill. There isn't much you can do about it in most cases — fluids, rest, etc. — and I hate not being able to react to an fix a situation, instead having to wait it out and trying to do everythng to make sure it doesn't get worse.

Hate, hate, hate.

The worst thing is that your brain gets fuzzy. You can't win an argument, even if you cared to, which you really don't because all you really want to do is not feel like crap anymore. And also, not have someone argue with you because that's really just making you feel more like dumb crap.

Maybe more coffee will help.

Take them bowling

lemurs — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 23:49:00 +0000

I went out today with an inter-site crew comprised of my counterparts at work sites around the Puget Sound. We're pretty much one-offs at each of our sites — there's no one at each of our places that knows or really understands what we do except for us.

I'm lucky because my worksite is big enough that there are two of us, so I have a counterpart I can bounce things off of almost daily, but the other guys are mostly on their own. So we decided to have an afternoon together and hang out. And since I put the shindig together, and I love bowling, you can guess where we went.

Yep, we went bowling. At Sunset Bowl. It was actually a really good time. We talked a little (okay, a lot) of shop, but that's to be expected when you're hanging out with the only people in a several hundred mile radius that know what you're doing for dozens of hours every week.

My second game was the best. Really, the best score I've ever bowled. It was kind of amazing, and I was shocked and amused, myself.

We all enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, and have decided to do it again sometime — each of us taking turns to decide where we'll send the bulk of an afternoon someplace hanging out. I have a deep suspicion that we will be miniature golfing in a few months. But you know, that's more than okay with me.

The Year in Review

lemurs — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:35:00 +0000

This is a kind of obligatory post now, isn't it? On the other hand, there was a lot that went on this year and recap really does seem in order.

• Macworld! I finally nabbed the opportunity to be a part of it this year, and while it wasn't all roses, there was surely some awesomeness as well. All in all, a great experience.

• Traveling: In addition to San Francisco, I hit up Washington D.C. for a day, Portland and Corpus Christi for a week apiece, and of course, two major roadtrips — first across the continent to Jacksonville, Florida, and then sweeping across another half ot it to peruse Route 66.

• We moved out of the Deliicous house — just across the street, really, but you know how I hate moving. Yay for professional movers! Now if only I could get around to procuring a desk and living room seating.

• Oh, and there was work stuff too. I got promoted twice (if you consider a parallel move to a much larger voume place as a promotion as well), which was fun and profitable.

• I attended at least 3 beer festivals this year, which is more than I ever have. In fact, I'm not 100% sure I went to a beer festival before this year. Huh.

• The agony and the ecstasy (but mostly the agony): I took part in organized sports this year, which I haven't done since high school. Sure, it was only bowling and I mostly did it for the beer, but still. It was pretty great while it lasted.

For these and other reasons, this past year is really one of my favorites of being alive. Here's hoping 2007 is as good to me — and I don't foresee any reason why it wouldn't be. Cheers!

* For anyone keeping track, here's last year's same post.

Merry Christmas!

lemurs — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 19:53:00 +0000

Hope yours is as full of booty as mine. Yar!

Stage Three: Bargaining

lemurs — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 18:11:00 +0000

Dear mid-lower back,

Please don't hurt me any more. I can't take it.

love,
mary

So tired.

lemurs — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 01:51:00 +0000

That's all.

Just so so tired.

'Tis the season

lemurs — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 09:33:00 +0000

It might seem odd, but it only really hit me today that Christmas is next week Monday, a scant 9 or so days away.

I know, I work retail, it should be obvious. But here's the thing:

This is the first year I haven't been subjected to customers out on the sales floor. I'm in the back, all day, everyday. And sure I see the masses of shipping coming in and then slowly fading from my back room — the ebb and flow of inventory if you will — but it's not as in your face as running around for eight hours a day fetching things for people. I've got a lot of other things on my plate to worry about.

I did spend a couple Christmases as receiving manager at Giant Bookstore A, but they were constantly short of floor management at holiday and I would have a couple days a week or so that I would dress "nice" and play manager-on-duty or do head cashier-type duties for a few hours a day, and it's really hard to escape the fact that there are masses of people clamoring for your attention then.

Today, I saw the consumers out en masse just wandering about the mall like zombie hordes looking for some hot retail action, and it was insane like I hadn't seen yet this season.

Part of it, I think was the immense windstorm that cleared through here on Thursday night. It knocked out power in a lot of areas, including spots around my house and the work, but not my actual home or work. A lot of workplaces in the area were closed, however, and quite a few schools were shut down, as well as some roads being blocked, and the 520 bridge was closed, which meant . . .

. . . even people whose work was open and operational were not going, since they had to take care of the kids, or the way there was blocked, or they just didn't want to deal with traffic.

On the other hand, since there wasn't any kind of actual emergency going on, and it wasn't raining for the first time in a while, and since tons of people still didn't have electricity at home, people were bored and needed something to do and somewhere else to be besides home.

Luckily for them, they could take advantage of this unexpected day off to get some Christmas shopping crossed off their list. Unluckily for them, some of the malls in the area were closed. Luckily, our mall was open, so they could all flock there.

I couldn't even get coffee this morning because the line for the S'Bucks was out the door and down a ways, and it's not worth money and freezing my patootie off to get my grinds before work. One or the other, really.

Anyway, masses. Of people. Everywhere. It took forever to get my hot sandwich on my lunch break. I couldn't get help for what seemed like forever at the bookstore because there were all these people.

Madness.

Anyway. One more week or so until it's over.

. . .

This is the first year ever we haven't had a Christmas tree. It's the first year in my life that there is no tree. Or decorations in the house.

Part of me is a bit sad at the dearth of hoopla in the household, and the lack of lights and sparkly things, but most of me is pleased with the calm, quiet, un-holidified cocoon away from consumerism that the apartment has become to signify to me.

When I am old, will I become one of those weirdos that doesn't participate in anything and every day is just like the last before, with no signifiers to mark the passing of time? I don't think so. I think I just need a breather right now.

. . .

It might be too, that not being bomarded by mass media has affected my "christmas spirit" as it were. I mean, part of the whole holiday thing is that it's something that everybody's doing, and television/radio/etc. throw so much at you that the deeply reinforces that "HEY, THIS IS WHAT'S NORMAL SO YOU'D BETTER GET ON IT!" feeling, as subconcious as it may be.

We can think to ourselves, "Man, I just don't really feel like doing Christmas this year" and you can say it to yourself, but you can't just say that to other people. It's weird. It goes against our training, pushed deeper into us year after year.

People who think things like that are mocked. Remember Skipping Christmas (either book or movie, your choice of horrors)? Those people didn't value the day of our Lord and Saviour's birth (or whatever) and were taught a valuable lesson — You can't escape Christmas, motherfuckers!

Now don't get me wrong — I don't hate Christmas. I love Christmas. Plus all the other assorted holiday goodness aorund this time of year. New Years? Yeah, I'm into that, for sure.

I also fully support everyone else's want to have a merry season of joy and all the tidings and such that go along with that. I'm not even gong to say, "Hey, celebrate your crap over there."

I'm cool with it.

I'm just not really into it this year.

That's cool, right?

I'm no grinch, I'm just lazy, and need to curl up in my den to hibernate this one out.

Bruce Schneier knows your private key.

lemurs — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 16:50:00 +0000

Schneier on Security: Real-World Passwords:

Common Passwords: The top 20 passwords are (in order): password1, abc123, myspace1, password, blink182, qwerty1, fuckyou, 123abc, baseball1, football1, 123456, soccer, monkey1, liverpool1, princess1, jordan23, slipknot1, superman1, iloveyou1 and monkey.

monkey?