Behind like woah.

When I'm this behind I work in little manageable chunks, so you'll see a bunch of stuff from a single source and then another bunch. I have 2148 emails in my Linketies folder right now, and I'll probably search linketies posted by friends, then "cleveland" "abortion" and "fat", and then work from there.

TheFatChickSings: Julianne Wotasik, The Fat Chick and NAAFA on the News!

Alternet: Communication as a Human Right: Creating a New Media Infrastructure for Detroit

Alternet: Against Me!'s Laura Jane Grace: How "Rolling Stone" Got Her Story (Almost) Right
Amidst the punk icon's celebrity gender transition, a trans woman entertains the hope that change is coming

Alternet: You May Not Agree With Conservative Pundit S.E. Cupp, But Hustler Photoshopping an Explicit Image of Her Is Not OK

Alternet: The Media's Sleazy Treatment of Trans Women
( Read more... )

Yesterday and today have been rough. I've been migrainey and feeling crappy because of that, and Chad and I are dealing with a last minute issue locally that may really throw our plans for this weekend, which is leaving me in a bit of a tizzy. Hard to be so excited and so uncertain at the same time; I had a random crying jag this morning about it after seeing all the updates on FB from Peeps already traveling in for the reunion. However, I think we've got it mostly sorted out, and I'll be able to at least introduce Chad to campus and friends, even if he can't stay for the weekend. There was never any doubt that I was getting down there hell or high water, but it's nice to know I won't have to plan to get up at ohgod'o'clock tomorrow morning to try to catch Megabus to Columbus and then hitch a ride in with one of the folks coming through there on their way.

In other news, I had a brainstorm last night about creating jigsaws and cross-stitch for "my people", proceeds to go to awesome places. I've got all sorts of notes and ideas jotted down now. More about all of this later, but I think it's realistic and feasible, and I'm very excited about it.

Right now I'm at work, but I'm not sure how long I'm going to last. The migraine kept getting worse on the RTA trip in, not helped by the fact that I had a 15-block walk down Lorain, and they're apparently repainting all the road markers today. Clouds of noxious enamel fumes every block or so are not the ideal migraine environment. At just about every stop I seriously considered whether I should just turn around and head back home. I finally decided I'd already spent my $5 on bus fare, and damned if I wasn't going to at least earn that back. I've made it almost four and a half hours now, which is better than nothing.

Life is pretty damned excellent at the moment.

The Peep and FLOO reunion is this weekend. I'm so excited I'm practically turning inside out. It's a combination of being excited to see everyone, and just craving being back in Gambier and in the woods. I can't wait to show Chad around! In true Peepish fashion we're taking an hour detour on a two-hour drive to pick up a random Peep in Columbus on our way.

I had my annual raise meeting with AwesomesauceBoss, and got some really appreciative comments about my tendency to get bored and go looking for things to fix. Given that I'm way more motivated by positive feedback than by money that was the big thing for me, although a raise is always nice too.

And today I seem to actually be making some headway on some work projects that have been frustrating me. Yay for that!

Eating first strawberries from the garden!
Also, our across-the-street diner gave me three extra sausage links with my carryout. Mmmmm-tasty.
Grafton's also been doing all sorts of painting and touch-up work around the house, which is awesome.

I was entering some books into Kidlet's LibraryThing account, and he's up to 50 now! And that's not even counting those I sent his way before I started cataloging them, or those I'm still sorting and cataloging at my house! I also still need to add all the Audible books I've picked up, too. (to both his and my library, actually)

Yesterday was a Chad and Kidlet day. We went to see Day Out With Thomas at Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. Kidlet had a grand time, which was the important part, but here's my grown-up's perspective anyway (since it's a nationally traveling show it seems worth writing a review):
FWIW, it was $18/head (actually more thanks to Ticketmaster). I'm moderately familiar with CVSR from taking my Mom on one of their tours earlier this year (thanks to Erin's rec). It was about an hour and a half round-trip train ride through some gorgeous forest and marshland in the park system.

I'd expected this would be similar, or that they'd have the special real actual steam engine out. They didn't have the real steam engine out, which was a bit of a bummer, and it was only a 25 minute ride. (it did clarify all this on the site; I was only half-aware of what it was about since Chad was making the arrangements and I just saw the confirmation email). I get why they did the shorter ride for kids, but I was looking forward to a nice relaxed trip where we could look at neat nature stuff together, and there just wasn't enough opportunity for that, nor did we make it far enough down the track to see most of the loveliest areas. We should definitely go back down for one of the regular trips with him.

We did get to walk right along-side the train down to our car, though, which was a fun chance to look up close at the wheels and various mechanisms, so we talked to Kidlet about that. And the faux-engine Thomas was cute, and Kidlet was all excited about him, so that was good (even if Thomas was actually trailing behind us instead of leading the train for most of the trip). Decorations in the cars were definitely lackluster, though. A few small Thomas posters, some crepe streamers and a few balloons on the ceiling. I was hoping they might do something a bit more immersive and performative. Not even theme music?

The rest of the event was kind of odd and surprising in several ways. First of all, absolutely no food or beverage vendors. At all. With a captive audience in the middle of nowhere? Seriously? Wow. This was more than a bit of a bummer for us, since we were in a hurry to get there in time, and were kind of counting on finding food there (thankfully Kidlet apparently likes Triscuits and Craisins, since that's all I had in my bag at the time). On the other hand, they really didn't seem interested in nickel-and-diming us to death. I was really impressed that the bouncy castle and slide were free with admission, as were the temporary tattoos and megablock playspace. We escaped having only spend extra cash on one overpriced souvenir for Kidlet (a set of three Thomas and Friends squirty engines for the bathtub for a ridiculous $17).

Anyway, what it comes down to in my opinion is that it's a good way to spend a few hours if your kiddo is into Thomas, but it's not so amazing that it's Must See/Regret Forever If You Don't territory. Also, bring your own food and beverages! And sunscreen!

It is a GOOD day.

The first strawberries in our patch are almost ripe! We've been eating greens and asparagus from the garden for a few weeks now.

This morning we met the folks who are buying our neighbor Christina's house. We've been nervous about this; we're an odd little bunch of freaks, and we've been very grateful to have Christina and her general tolerance for all our weirdness. Worries alleviated! The couple buying the place seems very cool; they have gardening plans of their own, and chose SOL intentionally, and seem to understand the advantages and disadvantages to living here. (South of Lorain -- it's a negative local term to describe where we live in the Ohio City neighborhood, ie not in the gentrified bits) They'll likely be installing a privacy fence, since they have a very athletic dog with dog-aggression issues, but we're also making plans with them to arrange some safe socialization time where we can work on that with our dogs. Hopefully we can improve things over time like we were able to with Coco. As much as I'll miss Coco, and appreciate Christina being such a great neighbor since we moved in, these folks seem much more like "our people" and could potentially become friends on a level that didn't really develop between us and Christina (she's nice, but very reserved and pretty personally conservative). So. That. Yay!

Also in News of the Good, I got really hopeful news about a work issue I can't discuss. At the very least it means my workplace will continue to make me happy for longer (it's a bit of a reprieve on a loss I didn't want and still hope doesn't end up happening).

Tomorrow Chad and I are taking Kidlet to a Thomas the Tank Engine event. Sunday I'm scheduled for a 13 hour day, which will be some nice overtime.

Also, I've been playing with this jigsaw puzzle post for several days now. At this point I'm just going to link you to it and leave it open, although I'll continue fiddling with it.

And because it got long, a comment I made in a friend's post:
Honestly, of all the mammals smaller than cats, I like rats the best by far. They're smart, they're social, they're affectionate. I've had a number as pets over the years, including one who was so badass that she was allowed to free-range in an apartment with three cats and a dog (they were all scared of her).

Downside: They're short-lived (2-3 years). Males are STINKY. Females aren't very much, but can be prone to estrogenic tumors if they're not spayed (not something I've ever been able to afford for a pet rat). I'd recommend one female if you're going to be interacting with her very heavily, two if she'd otherwise be alone a lot. Rats are social creatures, and don't do all that well solo.

Finding and building toys and challenges for them can be a great deal of fun; I constantly found myself picking up random stuff and thinking "huh, I bet Nico'd have fun with that". There isn't that much out there that's meant for rats without special ordering; it's all either ferret or hamster supplies and a bit too big or too small, so I repurposed things however I liked.

Also, having a rat is almost as good as having a garbage disposal; they often got veggie cuttings, fruit cores (I never saw mine trying to eat the seeds, but some folks warn against apple cores for that reason), meat bones, and other random goodies and leftovers. Nico LOVED both V-8 and yogurt smoothies, too (she'd drink drops of them off my finger). It's still good to do some reading on proper nutrition for rats before getting one, but you don't have to have the kind of worries that come along even with dogs, since rats can eat basically everything we can and well beyond. Even most of the warnings I've seen about specific foods and rats are pretty hypothetical "this might be bad for them in some way" kind of warnings.

Also on the critter front, I was wondering the other day whether all tailless cats carry the manx trait, or if different strains of taillessness have appeared in the cat population over time. Wondering because we don't know how Spike came to his old owner, but when he was passed on to us he was described as bobtailed, but not as a manx. In doing some reading I came to two conclusions; there are many tailless or bobtailed cats that aren't Manxes. On the other hand Spike seems to have a number of other Manx traits, although that may just be confirmation bias on my own part (But, damn, does this look just like him!). Doesn't matter either way, but I found it interesting stuff. Here, learn:
BOBTAILED AND TAILLESS CATS

Random: I caught an episode of System Crash on Smithsonian Channel the other day. I really enjoyed it, and felt a huge sense of sympathy for the IT folks stuck in the middle of those messes. The episode I watched didn't seem overly fearmongering, but I have to say most of the text descriptions of the series sound that way. I'll have to check out some other eps and see if I continue to be pleased with it.

Also, I am apparently an old dog in the new tricks department. Months since I moved from QWERTY keyboard on my phone to one with touchscreen. I still hate touchscreen typing, still can't type anywhere near the speed and accuracy I could with my old keyboard. Blarg. At a regular desktop keyboard I'm close to 100 wpm, and I'd guess I was thumb-typing on the qwerty blackberry at about 20-30 wpm, so I have no patience at all with being this slow on the device I use most often. I think I'm too tactilely oriented; even setting the phone to vibe on keystrokes only improved things minimally. I want my keys back. That and the loss of my camera flash have been the biggest irritants with moving from my old Blackberry Curve to my current Optimus V. I normally wait 'til my devices are totally dead, obsolete, and hosed before considering replacement, but I'm really thinking about upgrading to an Optimus Slider sometime soon. It's got touchscreen (which I love for everything _but_ typing), a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and from something I found when I dug around for a while, it does apparently have an LED flash. And it has twice the internal memory of my current phone, which is another constant irritation (not everything can be moved to the SD card, so I tend to run out of space on the internal memory and have to remove apps on a semi-regular basis). Now I'm just trying to figure out if I want to learn how to root the new phone as soon as I get it; I considered doing it with my current phone in order to free up space by deleting bloatware, but by then I'd already installed and customized a bunch of stuff and didn't want the hassle.

I've been doing jigsaws at a ridiculous pace recently, and that seems to be my current obsession. This is a post I've been working here and there for a few days now. Lots of puzzle recs and notes down below.

From my previous post, since I'm using this terminology below:
Piece Shape: I consider the most "Basic" piece shape to be the traditional "two tabs opposite each other" that we tend to imagine as a default. Some puzzles have nothing but these (and are damned hard as a result!) Most, though, have what I'm calling "Standard Varied" shapes -- they're still basically meant to fit within a grid, and have four sides with pretty clear innies and outies in various combinations. That leads to six basic piece shapes, if I'm counting correctly. When I'm working with these kinds of puzzles I tend to sort them first by basic piece shape. Then there are puzzles with "Unusual Varied" pieces that don't fit this basic format, and puzzles with some "Representational" pieces (known as Whimsies in the puzzling world). In my tracking of my puzzles I'm using "Basic/Standard Varied/Unusual Varied/Representational" as my categories.

I'm thinking about and window-shopping puzzles largely because it's hard to sort the wheat from the chaff in finding good puzzles without knowing something about their piece shape and arrangement (since that's a big factor of the enjoyment). It's frustrating to buy an awesome-looking puzzle and discover that it's entirely composed of Basic pieces. Very rarely is this clarified on puzzle-selling sites, so instead I try to take note of which manufacturers use creative dies, and which manufacturers tend to use the kinds of images I enjoy most. Even though specific puzzles below may no longer be available (they tend to go "out of print" quickly), I'll still be better off in finding good stuff overall.

On the puzzle front, I also forgot the other day to note one of the central things I enjoy about doing jigsaw puzzles! I really love the process of having to study a single image so closely and for so long; it gives me practice looking at things in different ways, noting their tiny characteristics, things like that. And I've always been particularly good at most spatial stuff, so I enjoy that element of mentally rotating and matching.

My favorite are puzzles with a lot of intricate detail; I don't like the long slog of trying piece after identical piece in a spot (the worst was a 1000-piece map of the world where the entire ocean was the same exact shade of blue and there was almost no piece shape differentiation). I much prefer having to think more intensely about what that little detail might be, and where it might logically fit. My favorites in that regard are the series of shaped puzzles with all sorts of little thematic details within them.

I just did Hummingbird Garden (Bits & Pieces) yesterday and enjoyed it immensely. Along with the fun detail and shape, it had lots of interesting piece shapes, too, and is a good example of my favorite type of puzzle, as is this Russian Dancer (another one I've done -- I believe it's Bits & Pieces too, although it's out of print).

Fionavar Tapestry Jigsaw Puzzle -- This is one I really enjoyed and found substantially challenging, although I'm not entirely positive I still have it. Sadly, it's also out of print, and I can't find any info on the manufacturer.

A comment from a post long ago, last time I got all puzzle-obsessed: I'm really liking Educa's puzzles, and that they have a lost piece service, and even include a packet of puzzle glue in the box, although I wish they were more creative with piece shape. Ah well; can't have it all.

Puzzle Manufacturers:
This isn't any kind of exhaustive list, just some notes about those I'm aware of, and what I know about them so far:
Bits & Pieces: From the colorful printing to the ultra heavy weight board, to the two piece presentation box, we make our puzzles to the highest standards. We design random cutting dies for more interesting puzzle pieces and rotate the dies to minimize duplication from puzzle to puzzle. -- They're not lying. I love their stuff when I can find images I like. Too bad they seem to mostly do country/nostalgia/cheesy stuff.
Here are a few I find interesting:
Bits & Pieces: Set Of 2 : Comic Chaos 1000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzles Len Epstein 20x27 Rectangular
Bits & Pieces: Black Bear Mountain 750 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle Jack Williams 25x25 Shaped
Bits & Pieces: Wandering From The Den Skunk 750 Piece Shaped Jigsaw Puzzle Russell Cobane 20x27 (all of these shaped animal puzzles are pretty cheesy, but I'll suck it up when it's for my favorite sorts of animals)

Maybe surprisingly I'm not all that fond of Photomosaic jigsaws. I dislike the disconnect between the tiny images I'm trying to match to each other and the overall image itself.

Eurographics
Amazing cosmological, scientific, and artistic puzzle images. Unfortunately, I don't currently know anything about their piece shapes and cuts. Their puzzles also tend toward lots of small items against a solid background, which isn't my ideal sort of image, but on the flip side, those small items are often things like bats and inventors and spiders and musical instruments! If they turn out to have good piece shapes I might as well order stock in the damned company, but if they're boring shapes I'll be much less interested in the future.

Buffalo Games
PhotoSeek 750 Piece Rectangular Puzzles
Side by side they look the same, but look again! The image on the package and the fold out poster have 15 differences from the actual puzzle image. Be warned - most differences will take a sharp eye and careful scrutiny to find. Are you ready for the challenge of Photo Seek? -- Sounds fun, although I wish the images were more interesting to me overall.

Buffalo Games Signature Collection: "La Grande Jatte" by Georges Seurat 1000 pc matte finish 27x20
Buffalo Games Sistine Chapel 2000 pc 38x26
Buffalo Games Written Images Collection: Timber Wolf 1000 pc 27x20 -- Interesting idea, although it doesn't look like they're making that line anymore, and this is the only one that interested me thematically.

Pomegranate Jigsaws -- Absolutely gorgeous high-end art puzzles. I have two of them, although I last did them a few years ago, so my memory is fuzzy. I'm pretty sure they're standard puzzle piece shape and layout -- not as exciting as the really variable stuff that's out there, but a far sight better than Culturenik's "nothing but basics" approach to piece shape.
Pomegranate: Neighborhood Watch by Kathy DeZarn Beynette 300 pc 18x24
Pomegranate: Fairies, 2010, by Michael Hague 300 pc 18x24
Pomegranate: The Addams Family by Charles Addams 300 pc 18x24
Pomegranate: Biosphere: Hydrographers Canyon, 1994 by Alexis Rockman 1000pc 20x25
Pomegranate: Edward Gorey: Frawgge Mfrg Co 1000 pc 20x27 -- I have this one
Pomegranate: Dracula in Dr. Seward’s Library, by Edward Gorey 500-piece 24x18
Pomegranate: Diego Rivera: Detroit Industry 1000 pc 29x20 -- and also this one


Solar System
Da Vinci's World -- I have this one, and really want a lot of these: Scroll down to see all the art themes by artist

Alice In Wonderland, Cheshire Cat - 1000pc Jigsaw Puzzle by Culturenik

Maurice Sendak: Sleeping - 700pc Large Format Jigsaw Puzzle by Heye

Little Red Riding Hood - 500pc Jigsaw Puzzle By Educa

Where the Wild Things Are - 1000pc Jigsaw Puzzle by Culturenik (if it's like the other Culturenik puzzle I've done, they make great designs, but their piece shape is really basic -- given that there are other Sendak puzzles out there from other manufacturers, I'd probably start with them).

Map of the Sky - 1000pc Jigsaw Puzzle by Eurographics
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Hey, finally! I was beginning to wonder if my background check had turned up something problematic, but after a few months of chasing the volunteer department at Metro they finally got back to me again, discovered the forms hadn't processed, and got them through. I go in next week for orientation and TB testing (I'm at a building with no patient access, so we no longer get annual TB tests, even though I already work for a hospital system). After that, I get to start working in their reading program!

I caught Best Worst Movie on Netflix streaming yesterday, and that was unexpectedly engrossing and touching. Recommended.

Smithsonian Channel: Skateboard Nation
Also on Youtube
Smithsonian Channel presents “Skateboard Nation,” a documentary about the rise of skateboarding as a popular sport on Native American reservations. The documentary shows how Native skaters have decided to take the sport to a new level and give back to their communities by building parks, staging skate jams and connecting with kids on the move.

Merlin: The Legend - Smithsonian Channel -- Despite being a SF/F fan since childhood, I was never all that enraptured by Arthurian legend, so I only had a general sense of the origins of the Merlin character. This was fascinating and really helped my grasp on the subject.

Have I mentioned recently how much I adore the Smithsonian Channel? It's sort of like what NatGeo/Discovery/History used to be before they got their heads stuck up their own asses and started foisting off Most Venomous Hitlerian Ghost Attacks on us. Setting the power-on channel on the DVR to it was a brilliant decision. Quite often I'll end up sucked into something I never would've set out to find. It bothers me a bit that it's a pay channel, honestly. I haven't the foggiest how it's actually run and managed, but the Smithsonian is the nation's museum -- shouldn't the Smithsonian channel be available to all of us, too?

Also I'm thoroughly ecstatic about this news: 'Community' Renewed For A 13-Episode Fourth Season On NBC
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This is as much for my own reference right now as anything else. I just picked up a bunch of new kids books (since they tend to run about .69 to 2.00 or so with membership), and now that I've figured out how to download the "synchronized images" I'm all psyched about them.

Audible for Kids: Synchronized Images -- Well, hey! I was wondering about this, and it seemed baffling that images didn't come along with some of the books I bought. Apparently they did, there's just a special super-sekrit way to access them that I didn't know. That makes the cheap prices on the kids' picture books even more awesome.

My current Audible library (with some commentary): ( Read more... )

I don't expect most folks to be at all interested, but I feel like geeking about it anyway. Pulled into a separate post for ease of skippage.

( thoughts on jigsaw puzzles )

That last post outgrew its pants, so I pulled the relatively few linketies in it over here instead.

PoisonedPets: ALERT: Vets warn of new treats from China poisoning dogs
The brands veterinarians say are associated with the new cases of unexplained acute kidney failure are Canyon Creek Ranch Chicken Yam Good Dog Treats (Nestle-Purina), Beefeaters Sweet Potato Treats (16 types of yam-related treats), Drs. Foster and Smith (exact item not specified in the report) and Dogswell Veggie Life Vitality (4 types of Veggie Life brands).

DailyKos: Hate-mongers sell paper targets depicting Trayvon Martin

KATU: Beaverton church sues family after they criticize it online

ONTD_Political: Arizona high school Our Lady of Sorrows Academy — run by the Society of St. Pius X, a pre-Vatican II sect of Catholicism that is unrecognized by the Church — forfeited the Arizona Charter Athletic Associaton High School Baseball League championship game rather than face Mesa Preparatory Academy and their female second-baseman, 15-year-old Paige Sultzbach.

YahooTravel: America's Best Carousels (it's not particularly comparable to a regular carousel aesthetically, but I always did love Cedar Downs at Cedar Point, which made their list)

One of my Dad's favorite blogging theologians on Obama's evolution (Dad forwarded me this one)

Charmin Sponsors “Sit or Squat” Toilet Finder App -- Huh.

Grist: The secret mall gardens of Cleveland

EcoCityCleveland: The Cleveland EcoVillage

BBC: A US drug company has agreed to pay out $1.6bn (£1bn) after improperly marketing a mood-stabilising drug in a settlement thought to be the largest of its kind involving a single drug.

ONTD_Political: When Same-Sex Marriage Was a Christian Rite -- This isn't new info (my first encounter was a very energetic debate about it during college in the early nineties), but how one interprets these rites has a lot to do with one's current perspective, as is made abundantly clear in the comments.

OK, more linketies in a bit, hopefully. A few other half-complete posts calling my name first.