Charlene @ 12:08 pm
Doing some random something-surfing for things I wish I could afford, so here’s a bit of a wishlist:
- Free Radical Sports Utility Bicycle (SUB)
This bike looks like it can carry everything - check out the community photo galleries for people hauling kegs, surfboards, chairs and tables, bookshelves, lumber, etc. on their bike - not to mention people. I would definitely want it as a “second bike.” High personal drool factor.
- GPS system
I’m not talking about a little wristwatch thingy here, but more like the carlike ones with a small LCD and a few buttons and voice control mounted on the handlebar. Something with a 2 1/2″ by 2 1/2″ lcd would be ideal, I think, with rechargeable batteries (and removable from mount, of course). I haven’t googled a product that I’ve seen be like this, but given the experience yesterday, a map in context that would be handsfree would be awesome. Barring that, I suppose I could find one of the smaller new Tablet PCs and set it up with GPS or, in a wifi happy area, with google maps and some useful hacks (more about google mapness in another entry).
Um, that’s all for now. Guess it wasn’t much after all, but in the right place, two bikes, one like that and a gps, I would be mostly independent from anyone else’s transportation. I like transit and all, but the coolness factor…i.e., I need furniture, so I program the GPS for Ikea, hop on the SUB, and don’t get lost on the way with large heavy flat boxes.
Tags: DIY
Charlene @ 1:12 pm
Well, for a few miles. Suffice it to say that my commute, estimated at the already ungodly 1 1/2 hours each way, became 2hrs this morning due to road construction. It was the last mile to work, the only time I’d be biking, and they had to tear up the road. Hence, 3 1/2 mile detour, slight getting lost, and very pink. Grr.
If it honestly is 3 hrs RT to get here and back, I may as well quit and work at home or something. Bleh.
Charlene @ 12:37 pm
The free Cake concert (with other headliners I don’t seem to remember) was a resounding ‘ok’ in musical attractiveness. However, it definitely got a -5 in on-stage presence. I was a bit disappointed that for all the neat songs Cake has, the lead singer dude acts rather like he is in a karaoke bar - you know, the kind of person who stands up when they sing, sways slightly, and sometimes put out a hand for dramatic effect. Hmm. Perhaps a mix between a karaoke singer and the Pointer Sisters.
The crowd was a rather odd mix as well. The crowd seemed to be a mix of frat boy types, potheads with Shaggy-like goatee bits, geeky computery people, and the people who to go anime cons and wear the black baggy pants with lots of zippers and straps. Add beer to that and drizzle well with a light rain for about 3 hours straight. Luckily for us, the dollar store nearby had $2 ponchos…
The highlight of the concert pretty much was the crowd-surfing. Very entertaining to watch people sail over the tops of people and then dive headfirst so that all you could see above the heads were the bottoms of Converse shoes.
They’re going to have Garbage and Weezer and I believe Coldplay eventually (for free!). I may go to Garbage, though I hope it’s not too much stuff from the newest album - so far that one seems a bust. That and Reel Big Fish is playing this weekend for not free, and Ricardo’s supposed to come visit, so I’ll figure out whether I’m going to that one or not somewhat later.
I also made very yummy Thai food this weekend. Now the no-bedroom studio smells all like garlic and basil. Yum. And speaking of smells, the office today seems to have an A/C problem, hence the wet dog smell and humidity.
Tags: Music
Charlene @ 3:42 pm
I had a bit of a silly moment - I couldn’t remember my lj username and when I tried to look for it I pulled up someone else’s lj - which coincidentally is only one letter off - and confused me mightily. Randomly snuffling through other peoples’ friends links (I know their handles but not my own) I couldn’t find anything about me - not in the first 150 entries at least. Hence the sinking feeling that somehow, somewhere, I misplaced my lj. Not that I read it, but hey, others apparently randomly do.
Continuing to move backwards through my title list, I have officially started my new temp job. I am helping write scripting for automation of machines that get built for this company. So far, I’ve read code, eaten Mexican food, and caught up on slashdot. Life is returning to normal, tho my left wrist is still sore from the last month’s abuse.
…
From working on computers. Hmph.
But I have a cube as a status symbol and a pile of nicely unsharpened pencils, so I know I’ve moved up in the world - though I still don’t know how much I’m being paid.
As far as classes go, I’m pretty excited about UW. Looks like they’ll all be favorites, and classes run roughly from 8:30am to 1pm-ish. The Epidemiology intro class thingy looks neat cuz it’ll do things like clinical trials reviews and how to filter out confounding data and what-not. The AIDS: A multidisciplinary approach class is a bit more medically oriented - talking about what happens in you when you get it, societal impact, social issues, etc. Then I’m taking a class which essentially is a Friday potluck (it really is according to the program coordinator) that features presentations and guest lecturers about global health. The Problems in International Health course looks neat too - except for the 2000 word paper that’s supposed to be 50% of your grade about analysing a controversial public health issue.
All in all, I’m taking six actual classes, but 3 of em are pass/fail. Hope things turn out well…
Tags: praxis
