Monday, March 22, 2010

Poxford Season Over?

As I review the recent referrers to my pathetic excuse for a blog, I notice that there are no longer 40 viewers per day who are all looking for that dratted Round Table info. So the invitations must all be out and accounted for for this spring. Well, that's good.
 
What people are finding me with this week: "I hate my Canon scanner", a couple of queries regarding Bert and Mary Poppins's putative romance or analysis thereof; images of Spock; and someone trying to figure out how to get the sound on Putt-Putt to work. Yay for that last one, because it means someone was helped by my struggles. (Unless they couldn't understand the instructions, or didn't want to bother with the fix, in which case: boo!  I made it as simple as humanly possible!)
 
I am excruciatingly tired after 8 days straight of child insomnia triggered by the time change (last night I slept 12:37 to 5:28, which was the best so far), but I can't fall back asleep yet. I plan to have some breakfast, shower, put in some laundry, then see if I can't nap for a few hours. Oh yeah, also having this stupid bronchitis for the same eight days is not helping me feel any better, either. I have a coughing headache and am really sick of taking cough medication.

Triple Failwhale


Triple Failwhale
Originally uploaded by doctorlizardo
Some errors are prettier than others. I rather like this one.

Friday, March 19, 2010

For Little or No Reason

<a href="http://graphjam.com/2010/03/19/funny-graphs-queens-lyrics/%22%3E%3Cimg class="mine_3284770304" title="funny-graphs-queens-lyrics" src="http://graphjam.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/funny-graphs-queens-lyrics.jpg" alt="funny graphs and charts" /></a><br />see more <a href="http://graphjam.com%22%3efunny/ Graphs</a>

Dangit; can't get this to post properly. Well, later.

Meanwhile, deal with it.

Improvement, or...?

Just realized that I used to have those neglected animal dreams all the time, and I have not had any in years. Maybe because I spend so much of my waking time taking care of an actual (human) critter.

Sunday, March 07, 2010

No Spring Garden is Complete Without Them


TURLIP
Originally uploaded by joujoubee
Maybe a tulip/turnip hybrid?

Friday, March 05, 2010

Life and Letters: Becoming Mary Poppins: newyorker.com

More about Mary Poppins (and mostly her creatrix) than I had ever imagined knowing.

Life and Letters: Becoming Mary Poppins: newyorker.com

Flamingly Awesome






Neat! From Lifehacker. I want to try this Flame drawing tool. I can make that memory liquid from Harry Potter, right?

Right after I finish the other 50 grillion actually necessary tasks on my list for today, of course.

You know I'm mostly on Twitter these days, right? It's all my sister's fault.
Also, why am I saying "right" so much?

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Dear Courtney--You Already Are Ms. Fixit.

I always have some kind of bizarre problem signing in to Feministing, so I end up simply not posting my comments. Well, I'm tired of that. What is a blog for, if not a personal soapbox?

So here's the original post, about a woman with a doorknob to fix.
I was a little surprised to see so many commenters suggesting she have her boyfriend walk her through it. Or telling her it doesn't matter that much anyway, so don't fix it. Or implying that maybe she's not really mechanically apt, anyway.

I think they are missing the real issue entirely. So here's my response, not that she'll ever see it:

Oh, Courtney. Maybe you're not mechanically apt as some have suggested. But I doubt it. Most people of average "intelligence" (whatever that is) could surely fix a doorknob if they knew how.

Maybe you can ask your boyfriend to show you how to fix it, as a whole heckuva lot of people have suggested. But I have a hunch this would just perpetuate your feeling of being one-down to men when it comes to this kind of task, regardless of how personally nice and helpful your specific man may be. Teach me, O mechanical one! --I've been there, though not necessarily with this specific issue. If you're already feeling like a hardware loser, it will just make you feel like a (comparative) kid.

Make no mistake: this is not about the immediacy or urgency or importance of fixing the doorknob itself. This is about your sense of agency in and ability to affect your world.

The thing that made me start Doing Stuff like this myself was having a female friend who Did Stuff. Seeing her Do Stuff made me feel that it was a given that I could Do Stuff too, and why on Earth hadn't I Done Stuff before?

If, as you say, you learn best by having a human person help you with it, find a nice hardware-oriented chick to help you with it. I liked the suggestion of finding female store employees if you don't think any of your female friends are into doorknob fixing. Maybe you'll still feel one-down to her, but I doubt it. It won't perpetuate this belief you've acquired somewhere along the line (along with the rest of us) that Men Do, Women Do Not.

It's waiting to come out. Do Stuff.