Month: July 2005

Crankypantsing, Ladybusiness

Restrooms

Shelly

I just returned from venturing downstairs to a) use the restroom and b) search for a salad. The salad reconnaissance went well, but I have a few words to say about my jaunt to the cafeteria restroom. First, some background. The kind folks who originally designed this building neglected to foresee that us wimmins, being wimmins, might have needs that menfolk don’t have to consider. To whit, there are no tampon receptacles in any of the stalls in this building. WTF?!

To deal with this oversight, the powers that be have placed a not-so-clearly designated trash can outside the stalls. Yes, that’s right. Us wimmins have to carry our unsanitary refuse out of the stall in order to throw it away. Okaythen. That wouldn’t be so terrible, except there is no signage in the stalls indicating that one ought to do so. This is the campus library we’re talking about, so it’s a high traffic building. We get a huge amount of people who don’t know the system. And, this being orientation season, it’s a huge-to-the-nth-power amount newbies. That means that you get to wade through drifts of pad wrappers and adhesive covers as well as used tampon applicators. Again, WTF?! The pad wrappers are at least, well, sanitary. I do not, however, care pick my way through used tampon applicators. C’mon, people. This is getting ridiculous.

The other thing that pisses me right the hell off is that the toilets in this building can barely handle TP, so flushing a tampon down them is next to impossible. After the tenth flush, most people give up. And, who can blame them? It’s not reasonable to throw used tampons in the trash. It’s bad enough that we have to wrap up used pads and tampon applicators so that we can trek them to the designated receptacle–there is no way in hell I’m going to do that with a used tampon.

Is it too much to ask for refuse receptacles in the individual stalls?

Pets, Photography

Fog and Dogs

Shelly

I took these about a month ago, when we were having a spate of drizzly, misty weather. After it cleared up, we had nearly a month without useful precipitation. Hurricane Dennis came to Indiana this week, breaking the dry spell. It’s been a lovely, soaking rain over several days–exactly what we needed. It’s not been as picturesque as the pictures below, though, so I’m using them instead.

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Elliott is our dog-in-fog model. The grass was too wet for Princess Harriet to put her delicate little feetses in.

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And, because I can, here’s the obligatory dogblogging. Have I mentioned that Harriet is not (not!) a fan of air conditioning? Well, if I didn’t, she’s not a fan of AC. When it cools down in the living room, she scrunches up into a little ball and moans and groans and sighs until I take pity on her sad little self and cover her up with a binkey. If I’m a meanypants and ignore her, she goes to the bedroom, where there’s no AC, and roots around on the bed until she’s got the bedding wadded to perfection. I use it as an excuse not to make my bed in the mornings, because she’s only going to mess it up. I just pull the covers up and wait until bedtime to make the bed. A) I’m lazy and B) I choose my battles.

It’s a good thing she’s cute.

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Burritodog

Crankypantsing

Messy Marvin

Shelly

One of my coworkers has a young granddaughter. That means that we get to hear granddaughter stories. Not being into small children in the abstract, I ought to find this a trying experience. I don’t though. Her granddaughter cracks me right the hell up. So, the other day, she told us about taking GD out to eat. GD dribbled something down the front of her shirt and was quite upset about it. I don’t blame her. I hate it when I do that, too. I don’t, however, throw screaming fits when it happens. GD does, apparently, so their solution was to turn her shirt around, back-to-front. Jeenyous!

So, anyway, I caved in and got pizza for lunch this afternoon. And, not just any pizza, either. It was one of those deep fried pan pizzas from Pizza Hut. Yes, it was a mistake. Duh. A hideous mistake. Not only could I suck the grease out of the crust, but I managed to drop a piece of it on my shirt. Now I have a hummense constellation of grease taunting me.

Excuse me while I run to the restroom to turn my shirt around. What I can’t see won’t bother me, right? Much.

* Yes, I am Messy Marvin.

Uncategorized

Social Commentary on Big Brother

Shelly

I may as well admit it. I watch Really Bad TeeVee. One of my favorite indulgences is Big Brother. Yes, you read me correctly. I don’t have cable or satellite, so I’m stuck with three and a half channels of whatever garbage CBS, NBC, FOX, and sometimes PBS (that’s the “and a half”) deign to broadcast at me. Summer network television is craptacular at best, so I’ve been looking forward to the start of the new season of Big Brother.

I have to say that the first episode was not everything it could’ve been. The powers that be have ordained that this new crop of jackasses should all be young and, I assume, what passes for attractive. With the exception of the lone Iraqi kid, they’re all cookie cutter replicas of ideal American plastic prettiness. I couldn’t tell you one of their names or describe any of them to you. All I recall is a lot of teeth, hair, and tanned flesh.

And I’m not the only one who noticed this fact. The girl who won head of household* nominated the kid from Iraq as one of her two potential evictees. Her reasoning? She didn’t feel a “connection” with him or the girl she nominated. I realize this is a game, but it seems unfortunate to me that she didn’t feel any responsibility for getting to know the evictees.**

* For those who haven’t seen the show, the head of household is decided by a competition. That person holds the HoH position for a week and gets to nominate two people for possible eviction at the end of the week. The rest of the household will vote to decide which of the two nominees will be evicted.

** Not getting to know the evictees is a common reason given for nomination/eviction on this and similar reality shows. Humans really are a separatist, exclusionary breed. It’s no wonder that people over here can’t find common ground with people over there, and vice versa. When that common ground cannot be found between two flesh-and-blood people living under the same roof, it doesn’t bode well for people who exist in the abstract.

Which brings me to another tangent. In high school, I read an essay speculating that human language developed as a way to name and classify things: specifically, us vs. them. It’s much easier to attack another person/group if you can create a distinction between yourself and them. I’ll try to dig it out, as it was fascinating reading. In light of current events, I think it might be good to reread it.

Ladybusiness

Patriarchy

Shelly

No art today (we’re experiencing a drought, dontchaknow?), but I thought I’d share this gem: I Blame the Patriarchy. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, it’s way better than Cats. I promise.

And, speaking of Patriarchy, an Instant Review of Mozilla’s Thunderbird:

I started using Mozilla’s Firefox web browser about a year ago and have nothing bad to say about it. It’s a beautiful piece of craftsmanship. I decided to give their e-mail client a try, so I downloaded Thunderbird yesterday.

I’ve been using Forte Agent and good, old-fashioned Pine for newsgroups and e-mail. Each has it’s strengths. I adore Pine, but I’ve got a crap connection at home, so an off-line news/mail client is necessary there. Agent has suited my needs well, but it still does not have multiple server support. Blech. So, enter Thunderbird.

Set-up was easy-peasy. It will apparently import from OE, but since I don’t use it, I don’t know how straightforward it is to do so. I had no problems setting up all my POP accounts, nor my news account. I like the junk mail filter. It’s trainable and seems to catch on quickly to what goes in the bozo bin and what doesn’t. I’m not so fond of the news filter, though. It’s clunky and, unless I’m missing something, not nearly as configurable as Agent’s killfile. So, I guess we’ll see if I stick with it for newsgrouping. I’m sold for e-mail, though.

For those who use OE, Thunderbird will feel very familiar. I really urge OE and IE users to give Thunderbird and Firefox a try, if for no other reason than that I think it’s important to have as many options as possible. If we don’t support the good alternatives that are out there, those alternatives will slowly disappear. I, for one, don’t relish the thought of having my computing experience controlled solely by the Wizard of Redmond (or his brother from another mother in Cupertino).

Photography

Cutest Puppy EVAR!1!! and Some Instant Reviews

Shelly

Last weekend was a whirlwind of party hopping and fil-um watching. On Friday night, I went with Mr. and Mrs. B. to see War of the Worlds and Sahara at the drive-in. Much fun was had. Saturday was Mr. and Mrs. B.’s Fourth of July on the Second party. Much fun was had. Sunday was Zombie-fest (Land of the Dead) and more party hopping. One of the parties was at the home of one of the cutest puppies I have ever met. Really. He was that adorable. Buddha is a little Pembroke Welsh Corgi (pointy ears, no tail, and ginormous feet). He schmoozed and played and finally fell asleep thusly:

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Isn’t he precious? I spent the evening trying to figure out how to fit him in my purse, so I could snatch him away from his rightful owners.

Some Instant Reviews:

War of the Worlds was pretty damned good, despite The Tom. The tripods were creepy and the suspense was never-ending. One thing that struck me as odd was how many folks brought their small kids to see it. This is not a kiddie movie! I had weird-assed dreams that night, so I can only imagine how creepy it might have been to small children.

Sahara was a good drive-in movie. I wouldn’t have seen it at a theater and wouldn’t have bothered to Netflix it, but it was a nice contrast to War of the Worlds.

Land of the Dead totally kicked ass. I think I’ll be purchasing that one when it comes out on DVD. The zombies were excellent, the gore was plentiful and satisfying, and the social commentary was spot-on. (Poor Spot!1!!)

Ladybusiness

In Primetime Porn News

Shelly

I watched way too much teevee last night. I usually try to ignore commercials, but I noticed something that cracked me up in light of the recent link I gave for Vulva Puppets. At the end of a commercial for Levitra, I noticed that their little flame logo looks an awful lot like a vulva.

I also saw the newish Paris Hilton commercial for Hardees. There’s been a bit of a to-do made over it, which I guess is par for the course. Personally, though, I think it’s not anywhere near as offensive as the other Squick Burger ads. We’re talking hardcore food porn. About the last thing I want to see when I’m thinking of food is some waify little girl stuffing her fist in her mouth. Or, the squicky porn noise of someone biting into a mile-high burger. Eeew. Compared to that, Paris tarted up in a black bikini and wrestling with a hose just isn’t terribly offensive.

Pets, Photography

Another Brief Respite

Shelly

I’ve been out mowing and got a couple of shots of Elliott while I was taking a break. This one–he’s hunting moles–was framed particularly nicely, so I thought I’d upload it. The photo on the right was taken a week ago. Even though it was hot and yucky out, the shade from the tangled tree branches looked cool and inviting. I wasn’t able to get a picture of him, but there was a male cardinal cheeking up a storm in the sassafras tree. Every time I’d get the camera focused on him, he’d hop to a different branch.

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I know it’s cooler out today than it has been in ages, but it’s still too bloody hot for yard work. Yuck! Frequent breaks are, I think, the ticket.