Category: Uncategorized

Last night was my orientation with the co-op. It was also my first shift (so that I could get the discount for july, and because I had nothing better to do with my evening than help clean & shutdown the store). Given my general aversion to exclusive relationship commitment (there better be some really tasty bait in that there cage), it amazes me that I have no problem committing to these sorts of things (co-ops, collectives, swim teams, and choruses). *shrug* Go fig.

So, I’ve never even been in Seattle, but I have vastly enjoyed every single Pride Issue that their alternative news weekly, The Stranger, has put out with all their various themes: The Seven Deadly Sins, in 99, my favorite articles being Gluttony and Pride; Assimilate, Dan’s Summary piece from it, is probably the best; Enough about me, Let’s talk about you. What do you think about me? was all heteros writing about the homos. I expected it to be lame, but it wasn’t. It’s a subtly different perspective, they are after all, still people writing for an alternative newspaper, and I really got into that; What we know now, this occurred in the midst of my preparations for my move to CA and fell off the radar. Good stuff there, too. =) Still haven’t finished it. It’s more about the lessons the authors have learned over time, being queer & all that; Appropriate This! notes that straights have taken alot of the ‘good’ of being gay, but mostly left the ‘bad’, and here, you should take this. Some of what they’re supposed to appropriate is funny but totally non-applicable like toilet trolls, for instance, and some of it pointed, stinging, and quite accurate, like gay youth and some like appropriate everything else are both mixed together.

This year, they did something else. They point out that we’ve built some homo-hospitable nests in every major city in the country. And even occasionally in the backwaters. But that in many places around the country, we are very much not wanted. And, We Know Where We’re Not Wanted. Dan once again does a good job with the big picture in Always Migrants, Now Refugees. In Give Federalism a Chance, Andrew Sullivan gives an eloquent argument for a pragmatic political approach, which I hate. I think the most poinant, though, is the last. In If You’re Feeling Persecuted, You’re Not Paying Attention, the situation for queers outside the industrialized world, and inside several parts of the industrialized world as well, is spelled out pretty clearly, and it’s not pretty.

I started reading The Stranger for Savage Love, as that was where Dan got his start, as I understand it. Their monorail coverage got me to stick around. And I found their pride issues insightful, thought provoking, and amusing. Sadly, I haven’t kept up with the monorail v light rail saga, or The Stranger at all, really, since I moved to Berkeley. Though I do wonder how it’s going/gone.

So, today was a day much like any other I’ve had so far in town. But, around 2, we had a meeting of the state and local policy program graduate assistants, and the research staff & faculty around for the summer. During the intros, everyone went over their names, research activities, and areas of expertise. Kim mentioned that she felt underoccupied. Several introductions later, I busted out with a little geek humor, which went over like a lead weight, but, then Frank, one of the research guys, reminded me of something else, specifically, the conference on BRT and value pricing.

You see, a few days ago, not doing my reading on value pricing, but feeling like I knew what it was all about, I told Lee (the prof I’m supporting, also head of the state and local policy program) that I was feeling underoccupied. He latched onto this and suggested that I help arrange a small conference/workshop in September or October on the possibility of combining Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and Value Pricing (toll-paying access to HOV lanes), and write a summary paper of the work done in these fields (not much, to date). Yowza! Ask and ye shall receive!

So, I related the story, with proper timing and emphasis. And got a big chuckle out of everyone present. I later got re-introduced, when Lee arrived from a meeting than ran pretty late, as “the computer guru”. *shrug*

It felt like the beginnings of the sort of social setting I get into. Casual dialogue, small group of people, intellectual focus. And it broke up. I felt down after that. and I are getting along quite well, given how long we’ve known one another, and the coziness of the quarters. I have very mixed feelings about moving into another place for 2 months, with people I likely won’t see again afterwards. Own room, yay! More short-term friends, boo. =( Hard to put down roots when there’s scant fertile soil available. Bit mopy, but it’ll pass I’m sure.

Adapting isn’t easy. And changing fields like I am isn’t exactly a zero-cost transaction either, but I think it’s being arranged about as easily as it can be. Maybe. *shrug*

I might have enjoyed another summer of slack (the summer and lived together), or at least half of a summer similarly occupied. Ah well.

I really and truly want a 19″ flat panel lcd thingie. I mean, flat panel lcd’s, way more portable, easier on the eyes, and when you factor in the power savings, they’re cheaper in the long run…. Really…

But $500 is a bit much, so it’ll probably be a 17″ one, for more like $360. And then my Kung Fu Sex Kitten Mithra Monk will start plowing through the bees and mushroom people of saruta-baruta.

Fri, Jul. 2, 2004
Depart:Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota at 8:45 PM
Arrive:San Francisco, California at 10:45 PM
Check-in Location:
Humphrey Terminal, located off 34th Ave.

Wed, Jul. 7, 2004
Depart:San Francisco, California at 11:55 PM
Arrive:Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota at 5:20 AM
Check-in Location:
Terminal 1, Continental Airlines ticket counter

I have a sublet, starting in July, though the lady from whom I would be subletting lost my sublet application form and made me fill it out. *checks calendar* As I was filling out the form for the second time, I noticed a picture on the kitchen counter, in which she was funneling. Her graduation was shortly after I filled out the first one. *shrug* The design guy who would be in the bedroom right next to mine is allll about my little wireless router. I haven’t had the heart to tell him yet that the wireless portion of it is craptacular.

I think I have my job stuff pretty much all in a row. Got my direct deposit today. My health insurance has been confirmed, and soon I will have my card, so I can go get my eyes examined and my teeth looked over for the first time in 3 years. I anticipate contacts and a filling. Yay nonmyopic shower/pool cruising 😉 Booo, nasty tasting oral pain.

I’ve also spent my non-work day time hours looking at housing and talking to realtors. Dad thinks he wants to invest in real estate, walking distance from the U, which I would then live in and manage (selecting tenants and what not). But, he wants to wait until he gets back from Iraq. I am not so keen on this plan. If he’s investing, it would make sense to do it now. Even without me contributing rent, rent pays for the mortgage on most of the properties near the U, assuming suitable tenants can be found. I’m willing to commit to staying in the same house for 3 years starting in August. I am not willing to move in the middle of winter, and I have no idea if I’d be willing to stay in minneapolis for 4 years, but I kinda doubt it. Not a bad town, mind you, but I’m not car crazy, and this is one car-loving town (relative to chicago, berkeley, squirrel hill, or say Amsterdam, Copenhagen or Toronto. =) I might even be in school here an extra year. After graduation, I’d rank chances as good that I’ll want to pursue even higher educational plans. So, 4 years, probably not. 3 years, *shrug* sure. Furthermore, they’d be spending the money to help support me through grad school anyway, if they do this, they probably wouldn’t have to pay anything to put me through.

Swim team is going alright. The workouts are less lengthy, both in terms of distance and in terms of time than I might like. For instance, today’s was warmup + 4x(2×100 kick on 2:00, 8×50 alternating pull and stroke on the 1:00). A total of a little more than 3000 yards in a little under an hour. Also, getting in requires a Y membership or guest passes. Guest passes are $5/day for students. Full membership would be cheaper, if I go regularly, but I’d prefer not to contemplate that expense at the moment, along with many others, have to do a full workup budget soon. Bleh. A gentleman from the tsunamis that I went on an abortive date with before moving to sf is also in grad school out here, and may be interested in joining.

Signed up to do a co-op training at the north country next week and will likely soon be getting 15% off there. The day after the co-op training, I sit in on a MnDOT meeting regarding the value pricing experiment I’m working on and take the minutes. Also due that day is the quarterly research report which I(!?) am supposed to write. Hello, I’ve been here less than a month.

I’ve been assigned to do some research on combining brt (bus rapid transit, ie, dedicated bus lanes, often with infrequent stops, and pre-pay stations) with value pricing (selling unused limited access lanes to drivers who would otherwise not be allowed to use them, at a price such that the buyers do not impede the use of the lane by the protected group. They’re thinking of setting up a conference in september. Lee, the prof I’m working for, is also considering taking me along to Utah for a transportation research conference.

Oh, and I met a cool guy on the bus on the way to saturday morning swim practice. Had lunch at a hippy restaurant with him. May be doing pride related things with him on friday. *dance of carefully controlled glee*.

Back to reading & report preparations.

But even a stopped clock is right every once in awhile

So the devil bunny* (aka Rex) chewed threw my laptop power supply cable, causing a short. Some sadness, some anger on my part. apologetically suggested that it could probably be patched somehow. After a few minutes of mournful looking at it, hoping it would repair itself, I unplugged it, cut out the worst-chewed segment, stripped the insulation, peeled back the outer wires, stripped a shorter segment of the inner insulation, taped the inner wires together, layered the outer wires over the electrical tape, and taped them back together as well. All told, the repair took less time than my blank stare of mourning.

This bears a vague resemblance to my problems of lcd screen flicker and my duct tape and pennies solution to the problem. But what I find both more interesting and more telling is that in both cases, I had the problem in front of me, and I bitched about it to a friend ( in the first case, in the second) They suggested a technical solution, which I at first did not take seriously, then, deciding I had nothing to lose, implemented, successfully.

Perhaps a lesson to be learned from this is to have a little more confidence in my own technical ability. Another is certainly to keep wires away from bunnies. =)

*=, if you want demon_bunny as a name for rex’s journal, as he clearly deserves one, if only to share his opinions of the comparative flavors of different sorts of cables he has experienced, you better get hopping, because , , and are all taken.

I rarely catch up to my friends list at all, so it’s ever rarer that I bother to check out my friendsfriends page. Other than some amusing phone chat log commentary, I can’t say I found much to recommend it. =)

Also, The North Country Co-op is cool. I noticed, though that they tended to put the meat and the tofu/fake meat close together. I didn’t think about it when I found the cheaper yogurt drink next to the cultured soy drink, I just assumed it was soy, bought it, and didn’t check the ingredients until after I’d made it half way through. Oops. I finished it anyway. It was pretty tasty, and my stomach hasn’t rebelled. I’m not likely to make that same mistake twice, but…

For those of you who criticize my dietary choices on a gustatory basis, it may please you to hear that I now acknowledge that I’m taking a flavor and texture hit on several different things*. But my veganism isn’t a choice I made for reasons of taste. And the reasons I don’t eat animal products trump the reasons I would.

* = I thought steak was nasty even when I ate meat regularly, but I had an inexplicable fondness for mcdonald’s hamburgers.