zen.org Communal Weblog

First of all, so far I am loving my job at Princeton University. I don’t feel guilty working on the tasks I have, which I sometimes did at NEC. Most PhDs at NEC where up on a high horse looking down at the non-PhDs. While I rarely interact with Princeton faculty, the staff members with higher degrees I interact with seem to treat me as an equal. My input isn’t duly ignored, but accepted and often incorporated into the projects.

However, I just had to pay a $20 fine for having my parking tag on the wrong side of the car. Reviewing the parking regulations, I was in error. However, the University probably lost more money in man hours having me walk across campus to pay and get a new tag then they would of if they sent a warning and a new tag to me via campus mail.

The lady I paid the fine to was very kind, and was actually worried she was going to get ticked too. Plus she caught my Swedish accent, it’s been years since I got accused of having a non-American accent! After, I stopped for a cup of coffee, trying to save a tree I pulled an old beat-up thermos. “Why don’t you just get a new one” she said. I replied, “not until there is a hole in it.” How drivel.

For over a week now we have had work going with our house. I’ll try to put up some pictures, this is harder then normal since my computer went on the fritz. The useful part is that we should have use of our front door again when this is all over. The fun part is we will have a new kitchen, new bath, and new back patio too. Months from now. Still waiting for one more permit from the borough too. In the mean time I’m living in a not so baby safe work zone.

Patrick watched Ireland win tonight’s rugby match against England; it gave Ireland the Triple Crown, the gold cup they get for beating all of
Wales, Scotland, and England (the other “home nations”). It was a great match, with an incredible ending. E and I cheered and clapped our hands, and told P what had just happened. He looked from E to me, then shouted, “YES!!!!” and began fervent clapping.

hee hee

We don’t like the image of him playing this game, of course, since they beat the living crap out of each other. (Making American football players look like total wooses with all the padding and helmets.) But we also know it’s really common for kids in school, and he’s as likely as any to take part. Our neighbor across the road and his son have both played rugby extensively throughout their school years.

We’ll keep our fingers crossed he doesn’t break anything too important. 🙂

NYC’s Parade Organizer compares GLBT to neo-Nazis.

Ahem:
“If an Israeli group wants to march in New York, do you allow neo-Nazis into their parade? If African-Americans are marching in Harlem, do they have to let the Ku Klux Klan into their parade?” Dunleavy was quoted as saying.”People have rights. If we let the ILGO in, is it the Irish Prostitute Association next?” he said.

WHAT?!?!?!?! As they say on Grey’s Anatomy…”Seriously? SERIOUSLY?!”

Let’s please compare the GLBT community with prostitutes. Yes, please. That’s just perfect. We won’t say a damned thing about the freaking Roman Catholic archdiocese and their little sexual abuse issues. No no no…

Hello Mr. Pot, this is Mrs. Kettle.

The BBC has an article, Viruses leap to smart radio tags. The article is kind of cool, but it’s the picture. Wiskas with rabbit! Why can’t I get Wiskas with rabbit for my cat in the USA? My cat kills rabbits, I should be able to get it canned! We keep pigs, cows, chickens, et al, packed in dark rooms, pumped up on antibiotics and hormones, slowly breeding super microorganisms, we can do the same for rabbits! Rabbits are really only caged up for cosmetic testing in the USA.

While we are at it, I bet my cat would also like canned moles too.

In today’s Indo:

—-
Dublin City Council told the Irish Independent yesterday that while the roadworks on O’Connell Street would not be completed in time for the festivities, any items that could be damaged or used as weapons would be removed.

Weapons

During the recent trouble on O’Connell Street, rioters used bricks and debris from the pavement works as weapons. To avoid a repeat of that, all machinery and loose material will be removed tomorrow and fences around the works will be reinforced.
—-

“During the recent trouble”?!?!?!?!?!?

Jeez. Forget it. I was thinking of going up to town for the parade on Friday with P, but maybe we’ll just hit up the carnival that’s on in Merrion Square. /shakes head

[tags] stpatricksday loveulster riot dublin parade carnival irishblogs[/tags]

Katie at ShinyShinypointed to a discussion happening on chick geek sites (like Darla Mack, Anina and Techie Diva). Mainly the fact that at CeBit, lovely Korean mobile company VXMobile decided to have naked (but body-painted) booth babes showing off their product. The mobiles appear to be glued to their arms, and I guess we should thank the Goddess that it wasn’t glued somewhere else.

Now, let me first say one thing: These women are obviously beautiful. They have lovely bodies. They were paid for this. This is their choice, and I have no problems with them.

It’s the stupid-ass marketing people who thought “OH, I KNOW! Let’s paint them. Let’s have them naked and do a Demi Moore on them!” Body painting is an art. It can be classy, stunning and breathtaking.

These booth babes are not. They are painted, sorta. Not artistically, but to get men to look at them and what they are “selling”.

I guess I just thought that, since I know sooo many women involved in technology, so many grrls, hackers, writers, and since most of the people I know online are women, that the world will have caught up with that. Guess not. Hooters sell, apparently. Well, we should find out if VX made a lot of sales at CeBit. But why on EARTH can people still think that nudity, heck, even booth babes, are trade show fodder? I *cringe* when I see women posed over cars and motorcycles at car shows. And I again cringe when I look through Stuff magazine (someone please start a magazine for smart women that has all the same gadgets, but without scantily clad women all over it?)

Women are technically minded. Women who are in tech have, most of the time, been accepted as technical by their (mostly male) peers. Most guys I know accept me as technical cause I can talk the talk. But tech women are smart women. Intelligence. I would love to know what Carly Fiorina, Kim Polese, Esther Dyson, even Grace Hopper, what they would say seeing that. Even women I know who are in tech and television (Michaela Pereira, Sumi Das, Becky Worley), who have dealt with trade shows and reporting from them, who have dealt with this before…I want opinions.

Personally? Women are smart. Women are beautiful. And I don’t even want to go down the line of “don’t let a man demean you”, but it seems that it still needs to be done.

Jeeez. Pink got it right, ya know? I don’t know who to be madder at…the women who stood there, naked but covered in paint, or the idiots who think this is still acceptable.

[tags] shinyshiny boothbabes cebit vxmobile nudity bodypaint anina techiediva darlamack pink irishblogs ireland gracehopper carlyfiorina kimpolese sumidas michaelapereira beckyworley[/tags]

P’s best friend D was over playing today. We were in the dining room, coloring, when the doorbell rang. P is in his “I’LL GET IT” stage (wait til he figures out he can answer the phone!) and ran to the door, with D in close pursuit.

There were two older men there, in woolen scarves and jackets. “This is for the parish…” and handed me a flyer. I, of course, having NO idea what to do with it, said “Oh…um, is this everything?” and as they were moving away, they said yes.

So I look at the pamphlet, with the boys trying to see it.

“Is it from…God?” asked D.
“God?” I said, not knowing what to say. D tried to open the pamphlet in my hand, looking for a special picture.
P, not knowing what/who God is, said “Oh, it’s from Galway.” And D replied “From Galway?”, looking at P like he’s nuts. And then they both walked away.

Apparently God is from Galway.

I have this system, duel Pentum III. It’s named Acorn but I’ve been callinging it Sherman recently, due to it’s girth. Apart from not being able to boot from CDROM it’s been great. Well, it’s dying. First the USB ports stopped working, wondering if it was something in the bios I went into that. A click here, a click there, restore defaults, if freezes up. So, here I sit with Rerun, old zen, single CPU pentium II, 1024×768 with a hot pixel line, and 8bit audio device. It was retired to remote command line usage years ago, and here it is, my primary GUI CPU. I guess I gotta get one of those USB cases that you can plug in a IDE drive it it to get at my data, even though it is less then USB 2.0.

Let’s all go and demand Wil Wheaton to come to Dublin for a talk. Sound good? Go on, click it, you know you want to.

[tags]wilwheaton dublin talk demand eventful irishblogs ireland blog[/tags]