zen.org Communal Weblog

Today I was standby juror nubmer 20197 at the Bucks County courthouse. If I was still working for NEC Labs I would of tried to get on a case, but as I am starting at the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University on July 5th, I was hopping to avoid it.

Luckly, all worked out well. One case was called, but not my name. So I spent most of the time reading Profiles of the Future: A daring look at tomorrow’s fantastic world by Arthur C. Clarke (that’s what the cover says, the cover page says Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the limits of the possible, oh well). I did get one hint from the lady in charge, if you have to change the date you are going to be called in to be a juror your name will be one of the first names called. At least at the Bucks Count county seat.

After I got a Planet Smoothie smoothie. One of the the few places to get a good smoothie in Bucks County. There is a nonchain place in New Hope that makes great soy smoothies, next time I go I’ll try to post the name. It’s in a little foot alley just off Main Street really close to Lulu’s.

This morning I was sprite and chipper. Off to NEC I was to go for the last time. I pet the cat and weeded the garden, jumped in the SAAB much later then normal. The night before I picked up a copy of The Cartoon Guide to Genetics at my soon to be boss’s request. As I drove I thought of Mendel’s peas, It gave me flashbacks to High School science class, the last time I read about these. So unless jury duty puts me on a case, the 5th of July Perl and MacOS I will again embrace. I haven’t use either for quite a while, and putting them together will be a bit strange. With memories mixing of high school, Wired, and my old Machintosh SE, I think something new and cool awaits me.

At work, with nothing to do, a small pile of stuff to take home. A few more hours of twiddling my thumbs. Perhaps a few more questions for people to ask. One last lunch to eat alone, though yesterday four people did take me out. I will miss the place from over a year ago, but since then I’ve been longing for it to end. There is worry about changing jobs, but no more then normal.

Now NEC is having a blackout, so I have to go.

It has been one week since attending my son’s kindergarten field trip to Happy Hollow, and long enough to let the experience settle within my being to write about it.

I have been on several field trips before, so I was not a complete newbie. I had assisted teachers in herding children through the Teddy Bear Factory, end-of-year celebrations and Sean’s Jr. Kindergarten trip to Happy Hollow. (For those of you that aren’t California, Bay Area residents, Happy Hollow is a cross between a zoo and a fairground, plenty of animals & rides for the kids) However what was new in this experience was that, with 90 kindergarteners in tow, the teachers had plenty of parents lined up to escort a group of children. And my group had Sheri, Shannon, Soo-Young and my son Sean. I also had Sheri, who was a twin, and her sister was on the other bus with her mother. I learned quickly that Sheri had, um, strong feelings about this. Sheri’s mother and I quickly made plans to meet up at the park in order to deter further theatrics.

The bus ride brought back memories of my grade school days and the coveted back-of-the-bus seats. Nothing bounces like the seats beyond the last row of tires on a bus. My four charges opted to let the entire entourage know when vehicles were about to pass our bus, (CAR!!! CAR!!!) until several classmates encouraged silence. I knew then I had a lively group.

There is a phenomenon that occurs during certain field trips, especially those that are held at places with play equipment. First, if there is a group of children, they will run in equal and opposite directions. Second, the harder the children play and run, the more tired the ones responsible for said children will become. Needless to say, I was $%*I&%^ exhausted by the end of the day.

Note to playground authorities: Perhaps a sign should be posted near any self-propelled twirling device that reads “do not ride after lunch”. Fortunately my group rode before lunch, and equally as fortunate that each child opted to get off (after I dragged them) before they were too dizzy to walk. Not so with Christian, a boy from another group. And I was certainly not going to clean up after him.

I am now looking forward to another trip to the Teddy Bear Factory. And perhaps the Planetarium or library. I have learned my lesson: sign up early for the field trips. Get the ones that the kids are filed in orderly groups. Looking after your own child(ren) at a playground is harrowing enough.

But you’ve got to love the bus ride.

This is yet another Blog entry that should be skipped. I drone on about nothing.

I usually try to do some reflection on days like this, and this Midsummer I have a lot to reflect on, I will spare you the details. I had to fill out my last time card here at work and I gave myself a half day today. So Zoë and I should be getting our vegetables as normal Tuesday events occur, just a little early. We haven’t even finished last weeks food. Anybody local reading this? Wanna split the share?

Midsummer is a little weird, gardens are just getting into swing and days are only getting shorter. This morning at 06:46, about the moment spring turned into summer, I think Marvin was meowing for more food. With my new job, I think my wheel of fortune is on a upturn.

Nothing happening here at work. I guess I’ll listen to some podcasts and go home.

Once upon a time, in a state far, far away, I used to write if not daily, pretty darned often. That was before marriage, kids, and work, and when writing was part of my major. I graduated, married, moved, multiplied, and now rarely a written word. It’s been at least a dozen years, and I miss that bit of myself. So perhaps I can find that bit of me here.

Chick with Stick

Two years ago I started playing 9-ball on a team with a friend I used to work with, Doug Evans. They asked my husband Pete to play, but after he refused they asked me. (He was already out playing roller hockey one night a week and teaching a night class. Guilt may have had something to do with his answer.) The team plays Monday nights, maximum eight players on each team, and each player is rated with a skill level. A team puts up five players a night to play one match each, and the sum of all skill levels (for those that have played) cannot be more than 23. At the time (if memory serves) they had a 7, 6, 5, and three 4’s.

So they needed someone who sucked. Me.

Two years into it, I have crept up to a skill level 3, I have two team trophies and am invited to the MVP tournament this weekend (for my skill level – heaven help me if I had to play a 6+ player). Not bad for the sacrificial lamb….

It took no small effort, but eBay were finally shamed into banning sales of Live 8 tickets from their sites.

Ah, but never let it be said that the bottom feeders of this world are so easily dissuaded from capitalising on anything, in any way they can.

So now, if you type “Live 8 Domain” into eBay’s search bar, you’ll get a list of 19 Domain Names, all referencing the concert; e.g.: “www.live8.name,” “live8reservations.com,” “live8tickets.info,” etc., etc..

Of that 19, 18 Domain Names are being auctioned by a single seller – tjpropres in New Jersey. In his/her/its auction descriptions, the Seller includes this charming paragraph:

Whoever owns this domain could use it to redirect traffic to your existing website, or for the ticket information that thousands of people are going to want to know about! You could even sell tickets. It’s a golden opportunity, don’t wait until it’s too late, bid or buy it now!

I’ve let RTÉ know that this is going on … I really hope they’ll follow up.

Needless to say, I’ll also be getting on to both eBay and PayPal [this lowlife’s preferred payment method] about this straight away. Please do the same if you agree that this sort of carry-on needs to be stopped.

TIA

Yesterday was a day of many mixed emotions for me. On Monday I got the paper work for a job at Princeton University’s Genomics Department, so yesterday I resigned from NEC Laboratory America. To give a little hint of the relation with my two bosses here at NEC Labs, I went and told the CFO first. She said that she was sad for NEC to see me go, but happy for me personally as my new position sounds good for my résmué. Caned or sincere, my relationship with the CFO is more involved then that with my bosses, and I rarely see the CFO!

I told the CFO that about a year ago I started casually looking for a new job. Unfortunately, almost every position that wanted somebody with more ten years of experience also wanted more management experience that I had. Enjoying my time at NEC or not, I concluded that I needed a new job that would give me management experience. I finally found a place that was willing to make me a manager, plus it fulfills much of my Free Software desires.

(The rest of this blog entry is what gives blogs bad name. It’s basically me rambling on about nothing. Feel free to stop now.)

I had to then wander the halls seeking my bosses to tell them. They both seemed nonchalant, I guess all the more reason to leave. Somewhat ambivalently I went around to tell a few people whom I didn’t what to hear about my resignation on the grapevine. Then I sat down to work.

Almost every Tuesday I come into work early, so I can leave early, and yesterday was no different. Sometime between three and four I left to go get more vegetables from Cherry Grove Organic Farm, I was going to get Zoë first but there was a heat advisory at the time I thought it better not to. Luckily this time we got more then just leafy greens. The problem happened, when backing out I nicked a dark red car I didn’t see that was a little down hill and in the shade. I was going less then 1 mph when I did so, so I didn’t even notice scratch on the car different from the scratches that was already on the car. I found the lady who owned the car, she seemed not to be terribly alarmed, and didn’t even go to look. So with ever more emotions filling my head I left to pick up Zoë.

After a quick call to the liqueur store Zoë and I where home. I cooked and froze some kale and she and I finally relaxed to reflect on the day. I had a large, freshly picked organic salad and a vegetarian corn dog for dinner. Not a hard day, just an emotional one.

Well, Thursday afternoon, Magda returned home to her passport waiting in the overnight package (that she had to provide to the Embassy). In it was her visa!!!! And not for the three months we were told. She has a 6 month visa, good til the beginning of December! She’s trying to figure out what she’s going to do right now, but has to put it all in teh back of her mind cause she has a big exam next week. Whoo hoo!!

I just received my daily OED etymology fix:

welk: To lose freshness or greenness; to become flaccid or dry; to wilt, wither, fade.

I thought of only one thing: Lawrence Welk, when I was growing up. Certainly seems to match…

P.S. Definition is of course Copyright © Oxford University Press 2004.

I cannot believe the disgust I have for the US Government right now.

Magda wants to come to the states, and we’d love for her to visit us. So she’s coming in late summer. We jumped through the hoops to get the forms she needed and photos and the 80 euros for the tourist visa (80 FREAKING EUROS!?). She got an appointment at the embassy. And I went with her, cause if she’s gonna be staying with us, I thought I should be there.

Now, I’ve heard stories about the embassy, but I thought they’d be decent to someone who wanted to come, spend their hard-earned money, and experience the land of milk and honey, then go home and not suck up valuable tax dollars by trying to claim welfare. Apparently, I was wrong.

The clerk who helped us (after we waited 45 minutes after our ‘appointment’) was one of the rudest men I think I have ever come across. He actually said that they needed to assume that everyone who is coming to the states is trying to sneak in and live there. No, he really said that. Basically, since Magda is a student and is young and from Poland (and living in Ireland), he thinks she doesn’t have good enough family ties (FFS, she lives with her dad and brother and boyfriend) and if she was married it would be better. He didn’t talk loud enough to hear him all the time through the bulletproof glass of the counter (after having to go through a security checkpoint to even get into the ‘complex’, including no keys or mobiles, and the security guard checking my travel mug of tea), which was a problem for both Magda and I. Things he didn’t like about Magda:

She was young
She was Polish
Her family situation (ie dad is a carpenter not “someone who works at IBM”)
Unmarried
Student (not working)

I can see how that would be an issue. No, really. But the rudeness, and the attitude, MAN. I just can’t get how ANYONE would want to go to the states after that fun. And then we still have to deal with immigration in Shannon (or whereever she flies from). Argh.

I am embarassed that the US would treat someone that way. No matter who they were. I can now understand why people do what they do. I read recently that the US is like a drunk waving a gun around in a bar. No one’s going to mess with him, but once he passes out or drops the gun, his ass will be handed to him on a platter.

Never before had I thought about revoking my US citizenship. Now, I wonder. I’m disgusted by the comments the man made, and the assumptions.