Finally getting back to taking my lunch to work with me, thanks to the great inspiration of serenity_valley, who has some clever and delicious ideas for filling the gaps in a structured lunchbox.

My efforts to eschew wheat for a while have also inspired me. It's much easier to talk myself into fruit and vegetables when I don't have the option of bread, for some reason.

( So here's my first foray back into filling the tiffin properly with breakfast and lunch. )

This entry is cross-posted from DarkEmeralds on Dreamwidth.

Once I had my computer stabilized today, I got the heck out of the house and into the FABULOUS bright afternoon. I've decided to do a wheat-free stint for a while (for a variety of wellness reasons) and so I needed a bunch of different groceries.

Trader Joe's was my goal. It's about three miles from my house through a great neighborhood which today smelled gloriously of daphne and sarcococca. I got there, loaded up the basket, and had the entire thing rung up by the fastest damn checker I've ever seen, before I realized that while my grocery pannier (and some really racy podfic on my phone) had come with me to TJ's, my wallet had not.

So I rode home, got it, and rode back again. They were nice enough to put the whole bag-full into the cooler for me while this 45-minute diversion took place.

Now I've got a haul of delicious goodness with which to assuage, for the next few days, my unending craving for baked goods. Next weekend, I think I'll ride out to the Bob's Red Mill store.

Really must remember my wallet for that trip.

This entry is cross-posted from DarkEmeralds on Dreamwidth.

There's nothing like burning a bridge or two to make you look at the landscape before you more critically.

Now that I've jettisoned Windows altogether in favor of Linux, I'm forced to face the fact that Linux, while amazingly user-friendly, good-looking and clean on its surface, is still VERY geeky under its one-electron-thick Graphical User Interface.

Case in point: Google "ubuntu sync windows mobile 6". That would be my attempt to find out whether I can synchronize my phone with my home computer.

First result is a forum. This is ALWAYS a sign that what you're looking for still exists only in the geek-o-sphere. Scroll way, way down in the forum and you find instructions. The instructions start like this:

In a terminal, type:

Code:
sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

In a terminal, type code...

*sigh*

I mean, it's not impossible. I remember MS-DOS. I remember command prompts. But there's not the slightest chance that anyone with less computer confidence and less free time than I have will tackle it.

On the other hand, my brain is alive with the sound of learning.

This entry is cross-posted from DarkEmeralds on Dreamwidth.

Okay.

I just reformatted my whole hard disk, got rid of Windows altogether, and installed Ubuntu as the sole operating system.

Staring at the Blue Screen of Geeky Diagnostics was not how I'd planned to spend my Saturday, but I'm back in business (knock on wood) as Sunday tiptoes in. I'm restoring about 20 gigabytes of My Documents right now. So far so good.

I hate computer problems, but I'll say this: deciding at 10:00 p.m. on a frustrating Saturday to just chuck the whole damn operating system (which, by the way, accounted for something like $200 of the cost of this computer...grrr...piece of crap...) had a damn-the-torpedoes feeling to it that was kind of exciting.

This entry is cross-posted from DarkEmeralds on Dreamwidth.

This is weird and frustrating--and it's probably going to be expensive.

1. My (almost brand new) Dell Studio laptop went on the fritz today when I was trying to back some large files up to my external hard drive. It locked up COMPLETELY in Vista--the push-the-button-till-it-turns-off kind of locked up, and when I restarted I got a message saying no operating system found.

(Notes to my technical friends: diagnostics show no problem with the hard drive. I can boot into Ubuntu off a DVD, and Ubuntu can read the whole hard drive, including the Vista sector.)

2. I drove my car today for the first time in weeks, and it started up sweet as pie, but I could not shift it out of Park. Fiddle-fiddle-fiddle, off-and-back-on again, and it worked. I drove to coffee destination. Repeat. Drove to IKEA. Repeat. Drove my sister home. Repeat, only there, NOTHING I did could get it to shift out of Park.

Turns out it was the starter key (one of those infrared ones). As soon as I tried the newer of my two keys, the car shifted out of Park, no problem.

Weird, though, huh? Both my car and my computer are to all appearances working fine, but I can't make either of them go.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?????

This entry is cross-posted from DarkEmeralds on Dreamwidth.

The mayor of Stumptown is giving his first State of the City address right now. According to Twitter, he began by thanking "my boyfriend Peter Zuckerman," definitely a Portland first.

( State of the City. )

Sometimes I still kind of enjoy politics.

This entry is cross-posted from DarkEmeralds on Dreamwidth.

I'm very old in internet years, and while I don't always love being over 50, I can claim this:



I was born the same year as rock and roll.

This entry is cross-posted from DarkEmeralds on Dreamwidth.

I'm never good at summing up and analyzing an episode of Supernatural right after watching it--partly because my attention span is crap, and partly because it's just not that lucidly written.

( But I must try. Cut for spoilery comments )

And also? It's time for Dean to stop using the cutesie lame movie and TV references. It's gotten really old. That said, "Six Degrees of Heaven Bacon" was just stupidly funny.

And also, also? They SO don't need a Season Six.

This entry is cross-posted from DarkEmeralds on Dreamwidth.

serenity_valley's recent bento diaries have been inspiring me to get back to taking my lunch to work.

I came up with a novel solution for transporting it.

( Tiffin with bungees on Clyde )

This entry is cross-posted from DarkEmeralds on Dreamwidth.

It's interesting how much you notice about a thing when you return to it after a long absence. In my case today, it was retail.

It's not that I never go in stores. I do. I sometimes buy things other than groceries. But I haven't been in a department store for YEARS, and I wandered into one this afternoon. Macy's, to be exact. The fancy downtown one.

( Crap. )

I managed to sneak invisibly back up the street to my office, where I've buried myself safely in difficult work all afternoon. Now I have to go ride my bike home in the dark.

Damn Macy's.

This entry is cross-posted from DarkEmeralds on Dreamwidth.

Story: Real Worlds, by Salieri
Reader: luzula
Fandom: Due South
Length: 5 hours, 9 minutes

luzula is a prolific reader who makes podfic in an interesting range of fandoms of which Due South and its C6D branchings are the most mainstream. There's an emphasis on the mythic and the fantastic in her work (she has made Gilgamesh and Watership Down podfic!).

This story is one of only two pieces by luzula that I've heard, and it's a story I haven't read and wasn't familiar with, so I'm reviewing it outside the context of her or the author's body of work. I note only that its posting date of September 2009 makes it one of the most recent in a long line of contributions stretching back into podfic ancient history, August 2007.

I establish all this to make it clear that I, a podfic n00b, am reviewing the work of a highly original and very experienced veteran. So, cum grano salis, everybody.

( Review of 'Real Worlds' as read by Luzula )

This entry is cross-posted from DarkEmeralds on Dreamwidth.

I love this day! It's 4:45 p.m. and I'm looking out the window of the World's Tallest Basement and it's still light out there! A little bit! There's hope for spring again.

Somehow that always feels amazing, every single year.

It's been sunny all day. I rode my bike to my dentist this morning (he has a bike-rack!), and thence to work. This journey took me on routes I'd not ridden before, through cool old neighborhoods and past one of the city's most spectacular parks (Laurelhurst, for those keeping score).

I saw some great examples of mid-century modern house architecture that I'd forgotten Portland has--long, low, windowy places made of skinny bricks and perched on hillsides (I like that style)--and experienced the pinnacle of Portland bike-riding, through the funky and nearly carless streets of Southeast.

On my way to work after dentistry, I stopped at a café that had, in addition to coffee, WiFi, and enormous windows, a bike corral where two on-street car parking spaces used to be. There were at least ten bikes in it, and the joint was jumpin'. It was so nice out that people were sitting at the sidewalk tables. I felt very Euro.

All of this went a long way toward making the my dentist's verdict more tolerable. Next week, I'll find out what it's like to ride my bike to a root canal.

This entry is cross-posted from DarkEmeralds on Dreamwidth.

I'd say that if I can bike to work 100% of the time in January, I've conquered the whole bike to work thing, except that a) January was like spring; b) I was conveniently on vacation during the worst days of the season--which were in December; and c) August is going to be a much more serious trial for the likes o' me.

( Still, one month at a time, I'm getting there. )

This entry is cross-posted from DarkEmeralds on Dreamwidth.

A wonderful thing just happened.

It started with a terrible thing. Late last night, Tom Daley, a guy about to open his shoestring bike-repair business in Southeast Portland, had his location broken into and most of his tools and inventory stolen.

( A tale of social networking and social conscience. )

Small steps, small steps. Thank you nwhepcat for making me aware, so I could pass it on. And good luck to Tom Daley, who is just trying to open a microbusiness in hard times.

This entry is cross-posted from DarkEmeralds on Dreamwidth.

There are a lot of what you might call "bright gray" days in Portland: completely overcast skies, but not dark or cold, and not actually raining. People who come here from more open-skied places have a hell of a time adjusting to them.

You have to make a point of going outdoors on those days and gathering as much of that bright gray light onto your retinas as you can; otherwise you'll get S.A.D. and miss the general awesomeness that is My Little Town.

I went out at lunch yesterday and took ten-gajillion pictures. Here's what was left after ruthless culling.

( Bright gray )

This entry is cross-posted from DarkEmeralds on Dreamwidth.

( Do you like pound cake? )

I glazed mine with some lemon-powdered-sugar glaze while it was still warm from the oven.

This entry is cross-posted from DarkEmeralds on Dreamwidth.

The sun came out today! And it stayed out all day! So I went to work late and left early (while it was still light--first time in months) and in between I took a break and walked to Waterfront Park...

( ...and took some pictures. )

And in Ubuntu news: wow! This F-spot Photo Manager that came with the operating system is slicker than snot on ice! It uploads directly to Flickr if you want it to.

And also: have .avi file of White Collar , am watching. "Easy as lyin'," so to speak. Still not finding any noticeable limitations, and am seeing some definite improvements over Windows.

This entry is cross-posted from DarkEmeralds on Dreamwidth.

I'm having one of those days where I feel like I've already read the whole internet and now there's nothing to do!

But then my Big Boss, the mayor, Twittered this and I had something to do!

GOOD NEWS: you can OPT OUT of receiving phone books at your door. details here: http://bit.ly/ajyRk7. Spread the word.

If you get Dex directories (which I think may be only from Qwest), give it a try. They bury that opt-out thing in obscurity, and the instructions are on that bit.ly page. Now if I could find the same service for that lame-ass weekly "Living" section from the newspaper...

This entry is cross-posted from DarkEmeralds on Dreamwidth.

News from the Ubuntu front. Geekery ahoy:

1. Audacity for Linux not only works great, but is more updated and featured than Audacity for Windows.
2. I've got Chrome, with all extensions, working in Ubuntu just exactly like what I'm used to in Windows. No difference.
3. I tried GIMP photo-editing last night and it seems to do most of what I use Corel for.
4. My trackpad doesn't behave quite the same way I'm used to, but this doesn't seem insurmountable, and I hear I can make it do Multi-Touch like an Apple!
5. Will probably abandon Yahoo IM/Chat--not enough value there to replicate.
6. Ctrl+Z doesn't work to undo! This is A Problem!
7. My boss, who until a couple of years ago worked for Intel his whole career, thinks I'm becoming a Communist or something for going Open Source. Silly me--I thought he'd be impressed.

A few unresolved issues:

• Will my Wacom pen tablet work under Ubuntu? (ETA: A tentative yes) \o/
• What shall I do about Audible.com audiobooks (which WILL NOT download to a Linux machine because of DRM--grrr.)?
• Which of the half-dozen FREE mind-mapping applications shall I choose to replace the ridiculously overpriced proprietary one I use now?
• Virus protection...(ETA: Oh, look!)

So, I'm having fun.

This entry is cross-posted from DarkEmeralds on Dreamwidth.

Here is some of the nicest feedback I've ever had.

I'm so excited! I've had a couple of nice compliments on this first foray into long podfic, and now this fantastic review on Amplirecathon. Really encouraging and uplifting, especially after the minor fandom fiasco that accompanied its debut.

This entry is cross-posted from DarkEmeralds on Dreamwidth.