More motes of light

[annathepiper]

+0: There is something inordinately cheering about wearing stripey socks. The socks I picked up as an afterthought to humor the sales lady at Eddie Bauer on Saturday are the socks I am wearing this very instant, and they have narrow stripes of various shades of green and purple, pink, and white. I look at my ankles, and I see stripes. Somehow, this is ridiculously cheering. When I go back to Eddie Bauer some time between the 1st and the 12th of December, so as to spend the holiday card my purchase there got me, I shall buy more stripey socks.



+1: After having my handheld sit on top of my warm monitor for the last several hours, it has stopped exuding little beads of water when I tap it with the stylus. And when I popped the battery in just now, it powered up without complaint and made no funny noises. The self test program worked, and every key functioned as expected. I have taken the battery right back out and have left it to sit for a while longer on the monitor to bask in the warmth, and am cautiously optimistic that this is a sign that I have not irretrievably screwed up the device. Moral of the story: if I want to amuse myself in the bath, do it with a BOOK. Or a rubber ducky. They're a lot less expensive to replace. And my instruments wouldn't like getting wet any more than my electronics do. Bouzoukis are supposed to go *twang*, not *gurgle*.



+2: Aside from the annoyance of the handheld taking an inadvertant bath, and the coolness of the Northern Lights, yesterday did also have the niceness of walking to Lake Forest Park along with solarbird. This involved the first official Wearing of the New Shoes, which caused Dara and me to observe that they clomped when I walk. Rhythmically enough that Dara started making up marching chants along with the beats of my footsteps. This is what I get for needing to break in brand new shoes.

Things accomplished at the Lake Forest Park Town Centre: depositing of paycheck and rent; purchasing of cat food, cat treats, diet Mountain Dew, and other essentials (yes, diet Mountain Dew is considered an essential in our household); obtaining of snacks at Starbuck's. The Starbuck's at the Town Centre has moved into a standalone building now, and I am not sure if I approve of the change; it was in a nicer space in its prior location. I suppose the point of the move is that the standalone building has a drive through--and there's just something about drive-through coffee that makes me roll my eyes. ;)

Observations were made on this trip, most of which were neat, one of which was annoying. The annoying one was that the Rite Aid has these new talking dolls which are supposed to be 'Mr. Right' and 'Ms. Right', and the gag is that they're supposed to say what the recipient, who is presumably of the opposite gender from the doll, 'wants to hear'. As one might expect, the set of phrases these things utter are sexist, stereotypical tripe. For example, the Ms. Right doll says something to the effect of "Gosh, honey, that girl over there is hot!" Ugh. Ugh. UGH.

The neat observations, however, were that 1) there is a bike locker at the bus stop right by the shopping center, which is nice to know if I feel like doing a bit of biking as part of my commutes; 2) in one of the random musical quirks of how my brain works, I slid from "keep a-movin', move along" (a snippet of lyric from Elvis Presley's "Follow That Dream") right into the chorus of "Something Beautiful", which is "move along, I believe there's something beautiful to see, move along..."; 3) there were several other folks out walking along the route between our house and the shopping center. We said hi to all of them. Most of them said hi back. Yay.

Also, on the way home, we were intercepted by no less than three dogs. Two of them were large, black, and friendly, and extremely interested in the bag of cat food I had stuffed under my arm. I informed the dogs that this was not food for their species. Dara informed me that as long as it was edible, doggies considered it food for their species.



+3: I have very few bad moods that cannot be improved by Séan McCann belting out "John Barbour". Plays a wicked bodhran AND has a voice like the clear ringing of silver trumpets. *sighs happily* "For if you can give her one gold piece / then I can give her three! / For I am bold John Barbour / And I plough the ragin' sea! / I plow the ragin' sea! / I PLOUGH THE RAGIN' SEA!"

I can almost sing this song now, too.

Comments

[shikyrie.livejournal.com]

Also, on the way home, we were intercepted by no less than three dogs. Two of them were large, black, and friendly, and extremely interested in the bag of cat food I had stuffed under my arm. I informed the dogs that this was not food for their species. Dara informed me that as long as it was edible, doggies considered it food for their species.

Of course, you must remember that doggies have a habit of eating their own (and others) poo, as well... I think it has something to do with lack of taste, or something, which is why they tend to scarf down food like they do.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

My dog gets some cat food occasionally as a special treat (or to hide pills in). You would think it was the food of the gods (well, according to my cat it is!).

[shikyrie.livejournal.com]

our cats think they're people... they want people food...

[annathepiper]

I think this is a common trait of pets in general. Zoe certainly wants anything we're eating, just because we're eating it. :)

[shikyrie.livejournal.com]

ours will jump on the table the minute we have our back turned and start helping themselves out... then I turn around and roar at them and they scatter...

[annathepiper]

Polly would LIKE to jump up on the table. We don't let her. Bap their noses when they try, the instant they try. Or squirt them with a water bottle from across the room for the Hand of God effect. ;)

[annathepiper]

Wet cat food, I presume? I always feed Polly dry stuff. But boy howdy, does she go face down in a can of tuna. :)

[annathepiper]

Not much I can say to this except, well, "eeeeeew". But I don't think that this particular little scientific nugget about doggies had anything to do with the cat food I was carrying under my arm. :)

[shikyrie.livejournal.com]

no, just attesting to the fact that doggies will eat anything... O:-)

[annathepiper]

Oooookay. :)

[gerimaple.livejournal.com]

am cautiously optimistic that this is a sign that I have not irretrievably screwed up the device

YAY!!!!

Rhythmically enough that Dara started making up marching chants along with the beats of my footsteps. This is what I get for needing to break in brand new shoes.

Actually, i think this is what you get for being lifemated with a musically inclined person with an odd sense of humour *big silly grin*. Be thankful Dara can do such things and stay in one key and tempo :)

[annathepiper]

Yep, Dara's sense of humor and musicality, two of the many things I love about 'er. ^_^ *clomps about in rhythmic support of her beloved*

[tinlail.livejournal.com]

So let me get this straight, to fix you waterlog computer equipment, you decided to put it over the vents of other computer equipment?

[annathepiper]

Dara's suggestion. The point was to get the device warm to try to let the excess moisture evaporate out of it. It seems to have done the trick. :)

[shikyrie.livejournal.com]

at least it works now... :)

[annathepiper]

Yes, much to my relief. I've just about gotten it back the way I want it, too, and have made a point of backing it up to my laptop.

Now I just need to get extra special clever, and do a backup of the laptop. ;P

[tinlail.livejournal.com]

I was just kidding, I know you wouldn't put a device wet enough to drip on your monitor.

[annathepiper]

Heh. Ah, okay. ;) My bad, I'm humor-impaired the last few weeks! (But yeah, I made sure to dry it off as best I could when I got it out of the water. It wasn't drippy--though the water coming out of the screen was a little unsettling!)

[kieri.livejournal.com]

Yay for stripey socks!


...would you be sad if I confessed that I had never heard a GBS song? :)

[annathepiper]

Indeed, a big yay for stripey socks!

And no, I would not be sad. I would tell you to go find one and listen to it. ;) GreatBigSea.com is a great place to start; they have a bunch of sample clips from various albums of theirs. And if you use iTunes at all, several of their albums are available for download and purchase through the iTunes music store. :)

[kieri.livejournal.com]

I love iTunes, but they won't let me download from Japan! Even though I have an American billing address. It is teh sad.

(sniffle)

Maybe I'll pick some up while I'm home over Christmas. :)

[annathepiper]

Awww, bummer. solarbird suspects this might have to do with licensing agreements, though we don't know for sure!

Let me heartily recommend looking for Rant and Roar, which is the first Great Big Sea album released in the U.S. and which has all the Very Best GBS songs on it. Road Rage is also Very Fine, as it is the live Great Big Sea record and does an excellent job capturing their live energy, which is one of the hugest things I love about the band. :)

Their current album, Something Beautiful*, has a more pop flavor to it than earlier work--so it's kind of a different beast than stuff from the era of Rant and Roar, which is more all about the Celtic/Newfoundland trad music. Still good stuff--and it's the current album that has the most excellent "John Barbour" about which I was raving in the original post on this thread. :) But look for the other two albums first!

[brightbeak.livejournal.com]

handhelds do just fine in the tub if they've been put nicely and securely in a ZIPLOCK BAG first :)
and yes, you can still use the stylus & everything :)

bb - *noting that she needs a smart ass icon*

[annathepiper]

*snort* I'm almost afraid to ask if you know this from experience. :) But it's not really the stylus that concerns me so much as the keyboard! Mine has one.

[brightbeak.livejournal.com]

yes i know from experience...
as for using the keyboard, just put it in a BIGGER ziplock bag so that there's more 'give' :)
*still needs a smart ass icon*

[annathepiper]

My handheld and its keyboard are all one unit. It has a teeny tiny keyboard attached to it--that was part of the reason I bought this one, so I wouldn't have to have a separate thing to carry around. So just the one ziplock bag!

(Though I don't think I'll risk taking the device anywhere near any more water, anyway. I don't want to risk annoying the gods of electronics and water again! :) )

[brightbeak.livejournal.com]

i realize it's attached, what i meant was to put the ENTIRE unit in a larger ziplock, so that there'd be more manoeuvrability of the plastic so you could USE the keyboard
and i've had mine in the tub a few times :)
;)

[annathepiper]

Oh. *chortle* Okay, got it. :) See commentary to tinlail elsewhere re: my being humor-impaired this week. ;P :)

drive-thru coffee

[(Anonymous)]

Back in the day when I was breaking software at MS and living in West Seattle I had a favorite little caffeine shack I'd stop at (across from Safeco Field) where I'd pick up a double mocha for the drive most every day.

If -- and only if -- I was wearing a white shirt on that particular day I'd always manage to spill at least some of the mocha on myself. I'd then get to spend the rest of my day with the big brown stain advertising my ineptitude to the world. More than a tad embarrassing.

I realized this was happening all too regularly and started being extra careful on the white shirt days (to no avail, of course).

So I got clever and started throwing an extra shirt in the car if I was wearing a white one. This had the only result one could expect, which was I didn't spill coffee on my white shirt anymore.

~ Howlin' Hobbit

Re: drive-thru coffee

[annathepiper]

Hee. That's always the way--the preventative act always makes sure the actual problem will never happen. It applies to shirts, backing up your computer, and bringing a developer to your keyboard so you can show them the bug you're swearing up and down regularly repros, except when there's a developer looking at it. ;)