a list format of sorts
MBTA
The Charlie "turnstiles" gates at Davis were actually functioning this morning. I'd been starting to think, "Are they gonna be up but not usable for as long as it took them to get installed?" and now I feel like, "Well, that was fast." Oh, time perception.
I read about the fare hike in Friday's Metro and then got an e-mail from Harvard today ('cause recurring transit order and all) -- though they were handing out booklets about it months ago, which I did at the time pick up and read.
So they're eliminating the Subway-only option (though retaining the Bus-only option) and making the new one ("LinkPass") cheaper than the ComboPass it is effectively replacing? They're also making the monthly CharlieCards rechargeable (though not the commuter rail ones, since those depend on a visual ID from a person -- i.e, of the month printed -- rather than an electronic scan) which is exciting, from a conservation standpoint.
LJ
I love the idea [seen here] of getting "[infinity symbol] + 7 days" on one's permaccount paid status.
Paid users have until Nov. 20 to claim their extra week of paid time.
holiday giving
Yesterday, Harvard sent out material about Community Giving which basically looks to be a convenience and good PR thing (you can have donations automatically deducted from your paycheck monthly). You can give to the United Way (and/)or a charity of your choice. This is stewardship month anyway from a liturgical standpoint, so the issue of what to do with my money has been on my mind (aside from the usual holiday press) though I would kinda rather make major donations in July or something when nobody's making donations. In the past, I've donated to Doctors Without Borders and BARCC. Anyone have any strong suggestions? monkeycrackmary posted recently about where she's giving money to this year and why.
Katie and I were talking this afternoon about having to do up Christmas WishLists, and the corollary issue of gifting friends, and it occurred to me [in part because of what Trelawney&Eric did] that I could make donations to charities in my friends' names (something Linnea did one year). Thoughts?
+
I think I decided on my selections for Secret Slasha. Ari affirmed me, of course :) Times like these I totally fall into believing in karma (wondering what kind of request I'll get -- though I'm probably equally focused on hoping my request gets given to someone who will like it).
Joyce class
At the beginning of class, the prof played "My Girl's a Yorkshire Girl" (which gets referenced in Ch. 11) which I knew nothing of before reading Ulysses but which I now think is a fabulous song.
The prof talked about visiting all these places in Dublin which are referenced in Ulysses and people there having no idea what he was talking about. I laughed. (Especially 'cause he was doing an imitation of their Irish brogue. "This man's daft.")
Ch. 11 is The Sirens, and he asked for a quickie explanation of what the deal was with them in The Odyssey, which I got to give. This is the kind of stuff I geek out about (though I care so little about Ulysses that making connections to the Greek myths etc. just doesn't excite me).
The prof talked a lot about the citizen throwing the biscuit tin (Ch. 12, The Cyclops) and he said something about an Odyssey connection and I realized oh of course. He also mentioned the fact that the company is "Jacob's" (something whose importance has been mentioned but not explicated in previous discussions). We said yes it's a Jewish name (not an Irish name) and I got to say "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." (Googled later, citation = Romans 9:13 / Malachi 1:2-3) 'cause the YA book Jacob Have I Loved was discussed (along with that line) over the weekend. He asked for a brief explanation of who Jacob was, and he seemed to be thinking of some conflation of Abraham and Joseph, but I got to say "Jacob's the one with the birthright story" (at this point the prof wasn't deeply concerned about the specifics, especially because we had very little class time left in the period).
Other
This afternoon at work, woman called from from Gordon saying she had an invoice but a bad address (Baker Library, Boston -- yeah, I definitely validate that as a bad address). Upfront she mentioned the possibility of faxing it, but then she asked for the address, so I gave it to her. The first line is "Baker Library [number]." She said, no lie, "How do I spell library?" Oh the temptation to say, "Look lady, I don't know how you spell 'library,' but...." But no, I politely spelled it for her. I told Katie afterward and she said she didn't know how I didn't crack up laughing. I did expect the woman to say something along the lines of, "Oh, I thought you said something different, I feel silly now," because I know I've had moments of asking someone to spell something because I misheard them and didn't realize it was an easy word. But no, I got absolutely no reaction and went on to give her the remainder of the address. (It occurred to me later that that was part of the address she already had, so there was really no reason for her to ask me how to spell it.) Then after we'd gone through the whole address she asked if it would be okay to fax it and asked for our fax number. ::facepalm:: When the fax arrived I realized she was calling from Gordon's Fine Wines and Liquor (it was a catering invoice) not the college, which made me feel a little bit less faithless in humanity.
+
I called Diana per Ava's request, which was blessedly less awkward than I had feared it might be. (Ava had told her about giving me her number and telling me to call.) No idea when we'll actually get together, of course, but that first step is taken care of.
Bonus
Tonight via fox1013 I learned that Kristanna Loken (whom wikipedia told me was openly bisexual) is reportedly in a relationship with Michelle Rodriguez.
Reading the interview I was thinking about the recent People magazine exclusives with T. R. Knight and Neil Patrick Harris and how they're so straightforward versus this interview, though of course it makes total sense that celebrities would be cagey about their private lives (and they are well entitled to be so). I think what really clinched the connection between cageyness-about-private-lives and cageyness-about-queerness was "[Rodriguez's] representative declined to comment."
[P.S. Unlike all the recent gay male outings where I was like, "I was supposed to have already thought he was gay?" this one I did actually think she was already publically bi. I have no gaydar but am undeniably influenced by fandom.]
+
Oh, and Astonishing X-Men #18 comes out tomorrow. (This is primarily a self-reminder.)
Edit:
Okay, a complaint: People sending invites to their entire friendslists on facebook, especially since everybody seems to friend everyone they've ever said hello to (something I've been reminded of recently from the friend requests I've gotten from people I knew back in high school and barely spoke to -- which is not to say I haven't gotten such friend requests before, 'cause I totally have).
The Charlie "turnstiles" gates at Davis were actually functioning this morning. I'd been starting to think, "Are they gonna be up but not usable for as long as it took them to get installed?" and now I feel like, "Well, that was fast." Oh, time perception.
I read about the fare hike in Friday's Metro and then got an e-mail from Harvard today ('cause recurring transit order and all) -- though they were handing out booklets about it months ago, which I did at the time pick up and read.
So they're eliminating the Subway-only option (though retaining the Bus-only option) and making the new one ("LinkPass") cheaper than the ComboPass it is effectively replacing? They're also making the monthly CharlieCards rechargeable (though not the commuter rail ones, since those depend on a visual ID from a person -- i.e, of the month printed -- rather than an electronic scan) which is exciting, from a conservation standpoint.
LJ
I love the idea [seen here] of getting "[infinity symbol] + 7 days" on one's permaccount paid status.
Paid users have until Nov. 20 to claim their extra week of paid time.
holiday giving
Yesterday, Harvard sent out material about Community Giving which basically looks to be a convenience and good PR thing (you can have donations automatically deducted from your paycheck monthly). You can give to the United Way (and/)or a charity of your choice. This is stewardship month anyway from a liturgical standpoint, so the issue of what to do with my money has been on my mind (aside from the usual holiday press) though I would kinda rather make major donations in July or something when nobody's making donations. In the past, I've donated to Doctors Without Borders and BARCC. Anyone have any strong suggestions? monkeycrackmary posted recently about where she's giving money to this year and why.
Katie and I were talking this afternoon about having to do up Christmas WishLists, and the corollary issue of gifting friends, and it occurred to me [in part because of what Trelawney&Eric did] that I could make donations to charities in my friends' names (something Linnea did one year). Thoughts?
+
I think I decided on my selections for Secret Slasha. Ari affirmed me, of course :) Times like these I totally fall into believing in karma (wondering what kind of request I'll get -- though I'm probably equally focused on hoping my request gets given to someone who will like it).
Joyce class
At the beginning of class, the prof played "My Girl's a Yorkshire Girl" (which gets referenced in Ch. 11) which I knew nothing of before reading Ulysses but which I now think is a fabulous song.
The prof talked about visiting all these places in Dublin which are referenced in Ulysses and people there having no idea what he was talking about. I laughed. (Especially 'cause he was doing an imitation of their Irish brogue. "This man's daft.")
Ch. 11 is The Sirens, and he asked for a quickie explanation of what the deal was with them in The Odyssey, which I got to give. This is the kind of stuff I geek out about (though I care so little about Ulysses that making connections to the Greek myths etc. just doesn't excite me).
The prof talked a lot about the citizen throwing the biscuit tin (Ch. 12, The Cyclops) and he said something about an Odyssey connection and I realized oh of course. He also mentioned the fact that the company is "Jacob's" (something whose importance has been mentioned but not explicated in previous discussions). We said yes it's a Jewish name (not an Irish name) and I got to say "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." (Googled later, citation = Romans 9:13 / Malachi 1:2-3) 'cause the YA book Jacob Have I Loved was discussed (along with that line) over the weekend. He asked for a brief explanation of who Jacob was, and he seemed to be thinking of some conflation of Abraham and Joseph, but I got to say "Jacob's the one with the birthright story" (at this point the prof wasn't deeply concerned about the specifics, especially because we had very little class time left in the period).
Other
This afternoon at work, woman called from from Gordon saying she had an invoice but a bad address (Baker Library, Boston -- yeah, I definitely validate that as a bad address). Upfront she mentioned the possibility of faxing it, but then she asked for the address, so I gave it to her. The first line is "Baker Library [number]." She said, no lie, "How do I spell library?" Oh the temptation to say, "Look lady, I don't know how you spell 'library,' but...." But no, I politely spelled it for her. I told Katie afterward and she said she didn't know how I didn't crack up laughing. I did expect the woman to say something along the lines of, "Oh, I thought you said something different, I feel silly now," because I know I've had moments of asking someone to spell something because I misheard them and didn't realize it was an easy word. But no, I got absolutely no reaction and went on to give her the remainder of the address. (It occurred to me later that that was part of the address she already had, so there was really no reason for her to ask me how to spell it.) Then after we'd gone through the whole address she asked if it would be okay to fax it and asked for our fax number. ::facepalm:: When the fax arrived I realized she was calling from Gordon's Fine Wines and Liquor (it was a catering invoice) not the college, which made me feel a little bit less faithless in humanity.
+
I called Diana per Ava's request, which was blessedly less awkward than I had feared it might be. (Ava had told her about giving me her number and telling me to call.) No idea when we'll actually get together, of course, but that first step is taken care of.
Bonus
Tonight via fox1013 I learned that Kristanna Loken (whom wikipedia told me was openly bisexual) is reportedly in a relationship with Michelle Rodriguez.
Reading the interview I was thinking about the recent People magazine exclusives with T. R. Knight and Neil Patrick Harris and how they're so straightforward versus this interview, though of course it makes total sense that celebrities would be cagey about their private lives (and they are well entitled to be so). I think what really clinched the connection between cageyness-about-private-lives and cageyness-about-queerness was "[Rodriguez's] representative declined to comment."
[P.S. Unlike all the recent gay male outings where I was like, "I was supposed to have already thought he was gay?" this one I did actually think she was already publically bi. I have no gaydar but am undeniably influenced by fandom.]
+
Oh, and Astonishing X-Men #18 comes out tomorrow. (This is primarily a self-reminder.)
Edit:
Okay, a complaint: People sending invites to their entire friendslists on facebook, especially since everybody seems to friend everyone they've ever said hello to (something I've been reminded of recently from the friend requests I've gotten from people I knew back in high school and barely spoke to -- which is not to say I haven't gotten such friend requests before, 'cause I totally have).