What's on my mind.

20 August 2008

Bun or Bob?

My hair has reached, once again, the point where no reasonable amount of conditioner will prevent knotting. (This time it has reached this point while still looking decent, usually the last 2 inches of hair are just raggedy split ends.) This means that by the end of the day I want to shave my head. So my choices are:
  • Get a couple inches off (possibly making my hair the really annoying length)
  • Get a bob, just long enough to tuck behind the ear (yes I want to get my hair cut just as the weather starts to make long hair bearable again)
  • Wear my hair in a bun everyday (ponytails don't cut it)
What are your suggestions?

12 August 2008

Geek-cred

Sarah has a shiny new motherboard and is wondering what to do with it.

I'm just happy I finally got Windows to acknowledge that there was some uninstalled hardware on my computer. As you may recall I reinstalled Windows XP in June and had to go fishing for a modem driver. (I had copied the drivers to a CD but the folder must not have had the 'install' files.) Last week I tried to play a CD for the first time.

"Add New Hardware" couldn't find any new hardware to add. I tried to manually install a new sound/video/game controller. Several times. Taking different approaches. Nada. Finally yesterday I'm looking around left clicking on anything that might possibly give me some different options. Suddenly there it is "search for new hardware" (or was it 'search for hardware changes'?) after a left click on 'sound video game controller' in the device manager. In desperastion I try it and, lo, it finds the sound card. It installs the drivers. And, after restarting, it is good. I can haz muzix!

Tonight I will continue to rip my CDs so I can make some potentially illegal mix discs. (I want to say 'mix tape' even though I haven't listened to a tape in several years.)

In case you were wondering, I am no computer-geek.

P.S. The chair drama mentioned in that first post is still continueing. We STILL don't have our new chairs.

07 August 2008

Who needs a reason?

Apparently not the writers of the song "I am a Patriot", the song in the opening montage of episode 8 of Carrier. I didn't pay much attention the first time I watched it, other than to notice it was bad (although I liked the chanty/spiritual-ish bit at the beginning and end), but last night I caught another line that made my estimation of the song and songwriter sink a little lower (although I wonder if it was written for the show, so may not be all the sw's fault). The chorus is (iirc):
I am patriot,
And I love my country,
Because my country,
is all I know...
You love your country because it is all you know? I think this is the saddest reason to love one's country and be willing to die (and kill) for it. Not knowing any different is not a good reason for much of anything. It's right up there with "the Bible (preacher/Momma) says so". It is also, imho, a reason that can fall apart if it is questioned too much. What happens if/when you learn more about the world and the USA? (Ever try talking to someone who can't even entertain the hypothetical that the Bible/preacher might be wrong about some little thing? Like if they question that one little thing their faith/world will implode? It's like that.)

I've never lived anywhere else, and have only been overseas once, but I like to learn about the world and what life is like elsewhere (and would love to travel more). I also paid attention in my history classes. So while I certainly don't think the our government is infallible (or our culture the best for everyone and always) but I do think we have an excellent foundation to build our government on (it would help if policies actually mattered more to voters than slogans/image) and the freedoms on which our country was founded have made it a pretty good place to live. The 1st Amendment rights and the principle that "all men are created equal" (in dignity and under the law) and that we all have the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" (whatever that last bit is suppose to mean) have allowed us to become a nation and people that many long to join. We aren't perfect but we are a lot better than many places out there. The ideals embodied in the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights are why I love my country not just because it's home.

05 August 2008

300 Meters

Or yards, I'm not sure which that pool is.

Yes, I swam last night, just not very far. Nettie swam 75 yards (without stopping to rest half way!) in the lane and who knows how much diving for pennies. (diving for pennies without bright over head light (i.e. the sun) is much more difficult, especially ungoggled as I usually swim.)

There are some definite disadvantages to swimming laps with Nettie. If she is in front of me I have to either kick only or do a catch-up drill* so I don't run her over. And one of my 25s was towing her back to the other end of the pool. (Where else is a girl going to get an extra 50 lbs to pull?) She, obviously, bored with lap swimming quickly but seemed relatively happy diving for pennies while I continued. One problem with the pool, and our timing, is that lots (relatively) of people come to swim after work and don't seem too keen on asking strangers to share a lane.

Allow me to review the evening, then ask you a question:They keep two lanes up in the "lap" pool (oddly the put a lane rope in against the wall, too) and the rest is open and from 10 to close the pool is open for "lap/open swim" (at least in August, could we maybe get a schedule for 2 months at a time??). When Nettie and I arrived there was a person in one lane (lane '2' for reference) and a young couple swimming/flirting just outside the lane (I think the girl was using the lane rope as a guide; they were not flirting/hanging one to each other obnoxiously as the students often do at UA's outdoor pool.) so Nettie and I had a lane to ourselves, which is good because she is slow, splashy, and rest a lot, and if I'm on my back I need lane ropes or a wall to keep me from wandering across the pool. After I finished swimming laps we got out of the lane and moved over to the open area, there was a guy swimming about in what would be the 4th lane over and the young couple mostly just hanging out at the shallow end of lane 3 she occasionally swam down and back. A guy showed up and moved into the lane I'd been swimming in (lane 1). Then two other ladies showed up to swim (in lane 3.5?) and I had Nettie move to the shallow end of lane 5, next to the ramp for chasing pennies. When lane 2 guy left, one of the lane 4 girls was using a kick board so she certainly could have seen that the roped lane was empty but she didn't move. (I know that while one is swimming laps one often doesn't notice when someone in the next lane gets out/in, particularly several lanes over, but when I swim I want to be in a roped lane (see backstroke comment above so if I'm using a kick board and can see what's going on (or paused at the wall), I'd be watching for these things.) Then someone else arrived and took lane 2 and a couple arrived and swam in lane 5 and Nettie was stuck diving for pennies basically right against the ramp (several times my throws actually landed on the ramp) and the shallow part at the end of the ramp. Three feet isn't much of a practice of ones underwater swimming. I did manage one more lap (for a total of 350 yards) right along the wall/ramp but lane 5 guy kind of gave me a bad look. Hey, he and his wife were staying on the line and to the other side of it, I had room. I did my best to keep us out of the way of the lap swimmers (unlike the other kids who were going back and forth between the pools and randomly jumping (but not on people) into the lap pool. BTW, I don't want to do anything but float in the "therapy" pool; 93° water is too warm to even think about moving in.) I just found the unwillingness to share a roped lane, odd.

Did my years (all 4 of them) give me a different view on sharing a lane? Or just give me a high preference for roped lanes even when room exists elsewhere?

We were there about an hour total. Nettie had tons of fun. (Hello, she was with her favorite sister, how could she not?)


*While swimming "freestyle" one are is stationary, always extended forward while the other does a stroke. When the stroking arm completes it's recovery (catches up), they trade places/jobs. To stay behind Nettie I didn't kick.