rorqual

As I may have mentioned, my adorable new OLPC comes with a year of free T-Mobile Hotspot service, which I enabled the other day, and now am trying out at the Starbucks in the mall. It totally works, and I am totally posting from The World at Large, which is a new place for me. People are looking on in what I pretend is wonder at my adorable computer, but which is probably instead curiosity at why that grown woman is playing with what is obviously a PlaySkool My First Laptop. No matter. I will roam the world, unconstrained by wires and beyond convention. Or, I will occasionally use this in the mall.

Actually, a woman did just say to me (since I am sitting right by the Sugar and Cream area, and therefore easily at hand), that she had never seen such a little laptop. I am going to have to come up with an OLPC spiel (for the poor! save the world!), except that i hate strangers, so that might be a problem.

I am going to finish my hot chocolate, and surf a bit, and then drive home. In the rain. Boo!

I know we've already had this conversation, but I am doing a lot of my xmas shopping at Etsy (www.etsy.com; ctrl-c, ctrl-v it people, until I learn how to code), and I am having fabulous experiences there. So far:

1 - gotten free samples with a bunch of orders, including soap, tiny hand-made magnets, and even a wee print, when I ordered other prints from the same artist.

2 - had one woman send me back $5 on paypal, because she dropped the price of an item I ordered, after I ordered it, but thought it was fair to give me the difference anyway.

3 - had another woman refund me the shipping on my order, because she had decided to stop charging for shipping before xmas (again, after I had already placed the order), and wanted to be fair to me.

4 - (and this is my favorite because it's just so random) I bought a fancy-schmancy handmade bra (can I say 'bra' on the internets? I hope I'm not offending anyone); looked around for a matching panty, didn't see one, figured there wasn't one or I was an idiot, so just bought the bra. Got an email from the seller, who told me that she had realized she hadn't listed the panty, and felt bad about that, so she was just going to add it into my order for free. For free! Something she otherwise would have sold, that I didn't find, and didn't even ask about. So nice, and so random!

Of course, it's like ebay - ymmv, depending on who you get. But I am having good experiences, and wanted to share.

Etsy - the convenience of online shopping, plus the good feeling you get when you buy handmade.

I'm on the internet! On my couch! On my new OLPC! And if I could remember how to code a link, I would link it here, but since I can't (I know there's an href and some stuff like that, but I don't know how to do it OKAY? Stop pressuring me I was a philosophy major!). But google it and you'll know. It is awesome and green, and with a little jiggery-pokery, I can have my AIM running at the same time (though, it's over in another browser instance so I can't really mind it, but that's okay).

This thing is awesome. Envy me!

I have been poking around on Etsy, and ordered some cute prints last week. They have come in, and I couldn't be happier! Look at the weasel! The artist is doing buy one, get one free, so I bought a couple and got a couple and am happy with all of them. If you're into artsy-craftsy stuff, this is a good place to look.

On the oxygen side: I went out to a football game last night (go skins!), and while it was a good game, it was superextracold out. Which, unfortunately, triggered my asthma, so I spent most of the game huddled in the stands, gasping like a fish. I have never been so cold for such an extended period of time, and when I came home I took the Hottest Shower Ever Deliberately Taken by a Human Who Had Cold Water at Her Disposal. And puffed on my inhaler as well, of course. Today I was off, and planning to go to the mall, but I am still low on oxygen, and I think walking around wouldn't be a great thing right now. So I am home watching tv and enjoying my art, and not driving on this cold, sleety day. Overall, a win for me I think.


Art! The colors in this piece are lovely.

If anyone would like to know if Dr. Bronner's 18-in-1 Hemp Pure-Castile Soap is animal tested or not, the answer is yes. Butters drank about a quarter cup of it this morning (diluted with water, of course!) while I was cleaning the bathroom floor and not paying attention to the bucket. He seems fine - and he smells great!

Random note one:
They could sleep in their room, in the big cardboard box full of towels and little blankets, all snuggled and warm.

They could sleep in my dirty clothes on the bathroom floor, near the radiator but also near the tile.

They could even sleep on the third floor, where there is no heat, wrapped in a comforter.

Where do the ferrets sleep?

In a pillowcase, on the porch, in the cold.

Freaks.

Random note two:
I know some of you have or know children, and I know some of you are charitable, so I wanted to link to One Laptop Per Child. The program was designed around producing tough, simple, and cheap laptops for poor children, and I have to say the design of these things is awesome. In general, the project is to supply laptops in bulk to schools, etc, but from now until November 26, folks in the US and Canardia can do Give One Get One. For $400, you can get one of these cool little monsters (good for kids, or (since I loathe kids), for cheap portable internet that can be dropped from a height and spilled on), one will be donated to a participating country, it counts as a $200 deductable tax donation, *and* you get free T-Mobile Hotspot for a year. It ain't fancy, but it's cool, and useful, and green (in many senses - check out the ripcord charging system!)

Anyway - click the link, take a look, play the video, and generally contemplate the situation.

Meet the governor of Idaho, Butch Otter....and his ex-wife, Gay Otter.

Huh.

Had the roofer come in and do some work a few weeks ago (for about, oh, six thousand less than the estimate from the previous roofer), and this is the third time it's rained since then (and only the second time it has rained in an amount of any consequence).

There are many good feelings in the world, but being warm and dry in your home, while it's rainy and wet outside, is definately among the best of them.

I bought a new digital alarm clock today (it's blue!). It is super simple to operate, but I glanced at the instructions once I finished setting it up and saw the following warning:

The mains plug remains readily operable when the plug is connected into a power slot.

I...don't know what that means. I don't think it's a very good warning. I expected something like Do Not Chew On Cord While Unit Is Plugged In. That's pretty straightforward.


On a side note, it's bloody hot. I need to mow, but I find the very idea demoralizing. Instead, I am making potato leek soup in my fancy new Le Creuset pot, and building a new floor lamp. Yes, I am having a very productive weekend, after doing nothing and laying about on a boat all day yesterday. Later I will take my car to the shop to repair a cracked bumper, and tomorrow (another day off, whee!), I will do laundry. So productive!


ETA: This potato leek soup is awesome.

“All capital letters are either straight lines or curved lines. The worst-case scenario is pretty much ‘B.’ ”

The NYT Online has a really great article about....um...fonts, actually, and the development of a particular font to be used in U.S. highway signs. If you're a big font dork (as I am), or design dork, you will enjoy it. You might have to register to read it, though I think you can lie like a cheap rug on the personal info; it also won't be up for long. But - take a peek, it's a good article!