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Tuesday, February 27, 2007

 
11:08 PM: a long time ago, we used to be friends [#] [0]

"...but i haven't thought of you lately at all..."

michaelmas & i were surprised tonight to discover joss whedon acting in an episode of veronica mars! also, as the characters chatted on the campus of a random san diego university, we both immediately recognized the craven hall rotunda at csusm, which was the building where I used to work. sure enough, when we rewound, we suddenly recognized that the whole campus was csusm!

the csusm architecture was its own kind of wonky logic. based on a style called "italian hillside," it meant that each building was on a different level and "ground level" meant something different to each building, and sometimes even to each floor of the building. so to get to a room in another building, you'd have to know what floors had connections between your two buildings, and then figure out how to get to the right floor in each building, which was often hampered by elevators & stairs that only went to certain floors, hallways like labyrinths, or hidden exits & entrances. i enjoyed the game of it, but it took me a couple of years to stop getting lost.

Monday, February 26, 2007

 
9:38 PM: book 'em [#] [0]

ooooooo! i want a bookcase made out of books!

Sunday, February 25, 2007

 
9:58 PM: if wishes were fishes, we'd all be disappointed [#] [0]

yes, new boxes make for a safer cupcake, but they also make for more expensive ones. the dots at saint cupcake are now $1.25! the larger cupcakes also went up a quarter to $2.25, but they're twice as big, so it means you're really taking the hit on the little cupcakes, which are my favorite. the extra quarter really adds up quickly. i'd rather have cheaper cupcakes; they don't need to be pretty to be tasty! also, it's tough to get them out of the little round holes sometimes, and i often end up messing them up, anyway.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

 
3:04 PM: an apple a day [#] [0]

happy birthday, steve jobs! i'm so glad you're alive!

Friday, February 23, 2007

 
11:59 PM: party animal [#] [0]

the first-ever edward gorey figbash was small but swell. half the group knew me, half the group knew the woman who runs gorey details. she made bat-shaped cookies & tea.

one of my major contributions (besides a large box of saint cupcakes with figbash approximations) was a dvd of youtube videos:



this was the first dvd i've ever burnt, so i spent more time that i expected to wrassle with idvd, only to discover i mixed up two of the videos. still, i was proud: i didn't even ask sven about how to do it, since he's in tuscon. while entertaining, the dvd did become the focus of the night, which was unfortunate considering we had a giant table of rare & interesting gorey books & ephemera behind us. (i finally got my hands on a fantod deck!)

Thursday, February 22, 2007

 
1:05 AM: forecast [#] [0]

oh, look: a week of rain is coming.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

 
2:29 AM: 100 hours! [#] [0]

yesterday i reached my 100th hour volunteering for planned parenthood! hooray!

update 03.01: i just discovered that 100 volunteer hours means you get clinic visits for free and everything else at cost, which is great news if, say, your iud needs removed and your health insurance doesn't cover birth control services of any kind.

Monday, February 19, 2007

 
12:07 AM: making a list and checking it twice [#] [0]

oh, nooooooooooooooooooo. tennessee wants to require death certificate for aborted fetuses. even if death certificates could be made anonymously (which they are not, creating a public record of which women are having abortions), this would be a bad, bad, bad idea.

not for miscarriages, of course. not yet.

Friday, February 16, 2007

 
2:49 PM: doma arigato [#] [3]

the washington defense of marriage alliance is doing something very interesting:

"In their ruling, the Supreme Court claimed a 'legitimate state interest' in defining marriage exclusively for the purpose of procreation and child-rearing. The justices then used this interest to declare that same-sex couples are properly barred from marriage because they are incapable of procreating.

"Over the next few years, we will propose three initiatives to the people, each focusing on a different aspect of Andersen. The first initiative will make procreation a requirement for legal marriage. The second would prohibit divorce or separation when a married couple has children together. The third would make having a child together the equivalent of marriage.

"Each of the initiatives we get passed will, no doubt, be struck down as unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court. Good; that is our ultimate goal. Each ruling against these initiatives will also be a ruling against the basis for keeping the state’s Defense of Marriage Act. Eventually, Andersen will fall apart under the weight of judicial opinion, and equal marriage – the marriage which we seek to defend – shall become a reality in this state.

"By floating the initiatives, we hope to prompt discussion about the many misguided assumptions which make up the Andersen ruling. By getting the initiatives passed, we hope the Supreme Court will strike them down as unconstitutional and thus weaken Andersen itself."

they've actually managed to get the initiative process going: those of you in washington may want to support it.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

 
11:03 PM: steamy [#] [0]

sven & i went to löyly today, a swedish sauna/spa just south of clinton that elizabeth recommended. it's the kind of place that gives you a robe, towels & sandals. after a brief embarrassing moment about whether one was supposed to wear swimsuits or not (for coed days, the answer is most definitely "yes"), we alternated between the sauna, tea, cold showers, magazines, the steam room, and snacks. the steam room was a little claustrophobic and amazingly hot & loud; i couldn't take it for very long.

we outlasted everyone else; we were there for almost 3 hours. afterwards, i felt relaxed and invigorated all at once, without the heaviness and tiredness i associate with hot tubs. they also offer massages, and i could see how that would be the perfect way to end it.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

 
11:43 PM: don't call us, we'll call you [#] [0]

i do a lot of data entry for the place i volunteer for. often it involves keeping track of people, for which i have a natural affinity. we have a lot of people in the database who don't have phone numbers: they often have email addresses or physical addresses, and sometimes they have both. on monday my volunteer supervisor told me they were thinking of asking me to look up the phone numbers for those people online or in phone books and add them to the database.

this made me extremely uncomfortable. i figured if the people wanted us to call them, they would have included their phone numbers. plus, i'm one of the few people there who knows all the switches that have to be flipped to truly keep your name off the calling list: once your phone number is added, it will never come out again, and you will repeatedly request them to stop calling you to no avail.

when i mentioned the ethical delimna of adding people who had specifically made it difficult to contact them via phone, she paused, but then justified it by mentioning what a potential "pool" of people they were unable to solicit. she said they could ask to be taken off when they were called. i've very much enjoyed volunteering there and feel i've done well for them; i'm reliable, detail oriented and flexible. but agreeing to this seemed like i would be destroying my own ethics. after being unhappy about it for a few hours, i realized i was a VOLUNTEER and i could refuse this! that's the best part about being a volunteer! i find it very difficult to say "no" to people who want me, but there are other ways of getting this information other than surreptitiously adding it to their files. so i told them i'd gladly send each person an email or snail mail requesting their phone number, track and add them to the db myself. i would even look up numbers for people who have had prior numbers listed for us in the past but have since been disconnected or otherwise failed. but i won't look up number for peope who haven't given them to us.

setting that boundary went better than i thought it would. i suspect they might do what they originally wanted to do, but at least i protested and refused to be a part of it.

***

on the bright side, i love playing valentine fairy, which i did tonight before having dinner w/ michaelmas at wildwood. i delivered a few of the handmade valentines i created during the valentine-making party on sunday. happy valentine's day, everyone!

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

 
11:53 PM: when honesty isn't the best policy [#] [2]

i generally get a lot of good out of the creative job club, but i didn't want so much help today. they've been vocally opposed to my artist's way format for months, and so as soon as i announced the artist's way didn't run this term, vicki immediately said, "because it's not the right product!" um, thanks.

Friday, February 02, 2007

 
10:57 AM: the shadow [#] [0]

happy groundhog day!

Phil Says Spring is Right Around the Corner!
"On Gobbler's Knob I see no shadow today.
I predict that early spring is on the way."

we're having a groundhog day party tonight w/ kristen & todd to celebrate.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

 
2:23 AM: handy [#] [0]

this is worth passing on: an xbf showed me this monthly knuckles trick years ago, and it was a delightful revelation for me. read the comments for a nifty way to count to 20 on one hand.