Why does LJ hate America?

I want to use a free RSS reader for Mac that seems to do everything else reasonably. Finding that was hard enough. Vienna seems to fit the bill. It will even let me authenticate with LJ and read the protected entries in other blogs I subscribe to. But LJ cannot bother to either a) make it so I won’t need to re-enter my password for each individual blog I subscribe to, or publish my subscriptions list the same way it publishes a blog. (Thanks to some special gymnastics, I can read it, but since Vienna apparently lacks cookies, I can’t read protected entries.) This makes me cranky. I want to have a real RSS aggregator.

Will bike for conference

So, things that I love about biking in pittsburgh

  1. Hills.
  2. Assholes in SUVs who yell “Sidewalk!” out their window because I’m taking up too much space. Excuse you, moron, have you noticed a) there’s no sidewalk here and b) that your SUV takes up several times as much space as my bike? Hint, you have no greater right to the road than I do. Please go off yourself.
  3. Pittsburgh’s road maintenance crews which decide that the proper place for three foot wide signs warning of imminent construction is the middle of the fucking sidewalk.

Other than that, it’s been pretty cool. Especially after I remembered that the crippling knee pain I was experiencing was just like the pain I experienced on the bike that was too short for me and raised the seat. 45 minutes, mostly downhill to station square. 1 hour, mostly uphill, back. Very sweaty on the way back. much walking too.

Still, it’s good to be back in the seat. Muchas gracias to and .

cold feet?

Conference activities start in 20 minutes. I’ll be late. But I’m wondering what the source of my cold feet could be. Habitual lateness? Social anxiety? Fear of what I’ll discover about myself and my interest in environmental issues? The fact that it’s f’ing cold and I chose to bike? Either way, I’m hopping in the shower and getting dressed now. Hope the first part of the opening plenary session isn’t terribly important. =)

I forgot to cancel my airport wireless subscription. I’m a little sad at the lost money, but you know, not complaining too much at the moment. Thanks to Chris for driving my procrastinating ass to the airport.

Have I mentioned I’m going to be in DC (for work) 4/23pm – 4/25pm? This is so my supervisor, manager, and I can all sit in the same place and wave our hands at one another while we’re discussing how we’ll conduct our upcoming analysis. Staying at my usual B&B in Northern Dupont Circle. If you want to hang out, comment, though I suspect my evenings will not be entirely free. =)

partay!

So, I had my housewarming and birthday party last night. It was Awesome. Thanks to , , Nick, Dru, Stephen, Stephen, Stephen (three separate people, none me), Randy, Chris, , , , Tim, Tony, Philippe, [ETA: I knew I was forgetting someone] and Zack. Also thanks to Chris the roommate, for doing most of the dishes during the party.

On becoming a pest.

I often feel like I’ve become a pest, and become exaggeratedly careful about not being one. This is most prominent with guys I’m attracted to. I’m sure it’s annoying on the other end. But, if they were really interested, they’d say something, right? [ETA: Maybe I’m asking the wrong question. Maybe the question should be “Are you still interested in chatting with/associating with/getting to know me?” If yes, then act like it, god damn it. If no, then ‘thanks for your honesty’. If maybe then ‘get back in touch when you make up your mind.’ Frustration is ugly.]

tax rebate

$2,000.

This of course causes the little angel and demon to appear on shoulder and start whispering.

Angel: Dude, that’d help get you back on track with your credit card payments, so you can get a phat gaming system later. Maybe a Wii … eventually.

Demon: Ignore the pansy on your other shoulder, get yourself a blazing WoW machine … NOW!

Likely, they’ll each get their cut, and it looks like I can get a spanky WoW machine for considerably less than $2k.

Neat.