actually I need to get one of your devices. I always want to open my CD as soon as I get in my car so I can listen to it on the way home. My fingernails are hardly adequate for the task.

I learned a cool trick to deal with this. Unhook the bottom of the front cover and pull it up, peel off the adhesive and replace the cover.

Someone is impersonating me on CH.

So I got one of those x-box live connections for Christmas, basically it allows me to plug my games console into the net and play against other people worldwide. Unfortunately this has led to my realisation that while I thought I was pretty good at Halo 2, I am in fact shite! I think I got my ass whupped by pretty much everyone, and that is devistating when you realise that the majority of people on this thing will be teenage boys! Oh well, I suppose I could always taunt them by saying "I own a house y'know! I can go to bed whenever I like!" etc. etc.

If anyone else on here is also subject to this awful vice, look me up. My gamertag is Othuum

Home with what has turned into a full-blown cold. Can't go to the office to do catching up, can't go to Central Park to see the boreal owl, can't get any taste when eating Robert's bread. Buy Kleenex stock, folks. I'm going through it like there's no tomorrow.

15 seconds delay between trying to set the water temp in the shower and it actually changing. An exercise in delayed feedback control systems. Oof.

Thanks for the advice. What's going on with the CO problem?

Speaking of the CO problem...

Our building distributed CO detectors. We got one. It plugs in to an outlet. Where should I put it?

Bedroom or living room. Mine is battery-operated and the super installed it in the little hallway just outside my bedroom.

so, my department has this great perk called "banking" whereby they let you teach an extra class each semester (our normal load is 2-2) and "redeem" it later for an unofficial sabbatical. so if you teach 3-3 one year you can take the next semester off. anyway, so i taught 3 classes last fall and was scheduled to teach 3 this spring. a few weeks ago i was given the option to switch one of my large non-majors classes for a small majors-only class. not being an idiot all the time i took them up on it. but they didn't get around to addding it to the system till this weekend and now there's a chance it might not make. which means i won't be able to take next fall of for research in india as i was planning.

yes, this is an annoyance everyone can relate to. especially the people who teach 3-3 or more on a normal basis.

however, if it does make it could turn into a reason to be cheerful since it is unlikely it will fill up completely and might give me the opportunity to teach it seminar style.

Slippery, round shoe laces that keep coming undone inless you tie them in a double knot.

Snow day today – two very bored children, the Big White Dog and an old black cat keep loitering into my field of view hoping for a morsel of entertainment.

People who think that just because I'm an adept Mac user and am likely to be sitting in front of one most of the day they can call me up and attempt to pick my brain for half an hour or two about their Mac cluelessness FOR FREE. Or worse, give my name and number to their Mac clueless friends.

Dude. I'm tryin to do my job here.

Or at least I'm trying to look like I'm doing my job, even if I'm actually busy reading and posting on MF.

Start giving really bad advice.

Overcooked asparagus

v

y'all.

Note that I called myself an adept user, not an expert one. Which is what makes the whole exercise so ridiculous. Yeah, I know a whole lot about certain aspects of working on a Mac, specific to the hardware & software I use and how it's applied.

So what am I supposed to say when someone calls me up and reads me the error message they're getting on eBay and wants me to tell them how to fix it? How the fuck should I know?

Well at least you have an excuse.

Every July there's a new intake of Fellows who have to learn to use software I wrote. Every July they swear blind that it doesn't work as advertized. Every July I demonstrate that it does. "Well it didn't do that, when I tried it."

I know everyone's been on a bad blind date or two but I need to vent about the worst one ever. Perhaps in the history of the world.

When I arrived at the bar of the restaurant where we had arranged to meet, Mr. X was chewing gum. Which he subsequently disposed of by wadding it up in a cocktail napkin, which he left lying on the bar. He snapped his fingers to get the server's attention. He complained about the prices on the menu and the winelist--he picked the restaurant, not me. He bragged about the bonus he'd gotten at years end and spent a half hour describing various luxury automobiles he is considering acquiring with said bonus. He made several not-so-subtle allusions to his prowess in the sack---as if. He stiffed the woman checking coats (I slipped her $5). He got pissed off when I declined to continue the evening, apparently believing that a meal and some wine entitled him to various sexual favors.

Wait until I see my friend who set us up--I am going to kick his ass.

Next time give the coat check person $5 right in front if such a person's face.

Can we all go with you to Kleinfeld's?

I'm more of a Laura Ashley person.

Ouch, Daisy.

Maybe your friend doesn't realise his recc can be like that? Some guys act different around women, and their male friends never see it. (I speak from personal experience. )

Landmark Sunshine Cinema's on line ticket thing is down. Grrrr.

I once had a blind date with a guy who was so awful that a woman seated at the bar behind him caught me eye so she could roll her eyes.

I once walked out on a blind date (actually, a meet for coffee from an online personal). She had the personality of a dishrag and was an awful conversationalist, and compounded the problem by ordering a full meal at the cafe. After a while, I mumbled an excuse, paid, and left. I know, I'm bad, but I swear it's the only time I've ever done anything like that.

That ain't nuthin' , sistah.

1. The increaseing number of fourty something male friends who suffer form the pissing annoying combination of bitter cynicism and apathy.

2. Me working out that Ihaven't enough time to cook all the thinks I want. Due time etc, I mostly do cooking projects on weekends. I am so behind that at the moment I am having trouble deciding between cooking Japanese, Greek, Slavic or Mexican in three weeks time.