i want to be up in the air

maura @ 9:08 pm

I have a facebook presence (page? profile? what the heck do the kids call it these days?) but I haven’t really been sure how to use it. I’m an old enough lady that I still rely on the email, and it seems like such a bother to have to check facebook also. I don’t have unlimited free time to devote to you, internets! (Okay, that is maybe a joke.)

Lately I’ve found myself checking in with facebook every few days or so. Not to use any of the apps, which I find perplexing and thus ignore (fear what you don’t understand!). But I do like to check my friends’ status updates and change my status, too. It’s a mini web shout out, easier + faster than an email but less giving-facebook-all-your-info than facebook messaging.

Just imagine my joy when I discovered yesterday that facebook friends’ status updates has an RSS feed! Now I can get all the status updates hot off the presses with igoogle (which I use to as a blogreader).

In other tech news, despite the fact that we have made fun of it 4EVAH (as have the Penny Arcade boys [warning: 4th grade bathroom humor]), Jonathan’s now twittering, and he’s made me sign up too. He gave me some crazy iphone-related reason that I don’t really understand. I feel like twitter is kind of like facebook friend updates, and why do I need both?

Finally, we played with a friend’s iphone last weekend and I’ve made a decision: I Do Not Want An Iphone. Of course it’s lovely, and if I had it, I would use it, most definitely. But I don’t NEED it, not by any stretch of the imagination. I’d feel guilty about turning my old phone into technotrash (though it is kind of crappy and sometimes forgets to ring). And I maintain that it is too expensive for me to be carrying around at all times. Maybe if I traveled more it would be worth it, but I don’t.

And I think it’s out of my system. Iphone = NO!

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hello everyone, it’s nice to be here

maura @ 9:50 pm

Lately for me it’s been all about minute 1:04 in New Order’s song “Sooner Than You Think,” from their incredibly fantastic (and practically prehistoric) record Low Life. (Go ahead, cue it up, I’ll wait.) It’s just about the most perfect moment on that record: the point where the increasingly-layered drums, synth, bass and guitar all merge in a rush, just before the vocals start.

I’ve been obsessing over New Order recently, a situation which threatens that band’s good-for-work-music status. When I need to concentrate (read, write, think) the music I listen to usually has to be familiar enough that it fades into the background without making me sing along in my head. Which means that certain records get a lot of play (right now: Pipas, The Shins; when I was dissertating: Orbital, Beastie Boys [really!]). But anything that pushes my brain to recognize the music at more than a background level is just too intrusive for working.

Tonight I’m replacing most of my ipod with New Order, and finally ripping those Joy Division discs to add them, too. Maybe I am just looking forward to next month, when Control finally comes out on DVD.

—

Writing, writing, writing. I’ve been thinking about writing a lot recently. And simultaneously not doing enough of it. Writing is never easy, but I felt like it was easier while I was in library school and I had to do it. Deadlines can be mighty useful.

These days I’m having trouble even blagging and writing in my journal, much less attacking anything scholarly. Maybe I need to NaBloPoMo again, maybe just for a little while, to get back into the swing of it. I have some plans, I have some ideas, but most of them are too big for the small stretches of time I can afford to give them right now.

I do have 6 summer Fridays coming up during which I will buckle down and get some writing done (NOT clean, reorganize, regrout, or sew, really!). And if I can do the preliminary research (just right for small bits of time) on some of these ideas beforehand, all the better.

And all the better for you, too, since more writing should = fewer long + boring posts like this one. “Oh you know what I mean, yes you do.”

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i think i’ll go there when it gets seasonable

maura @ 10:03 pm

Hello! Insert the usual complaipologies about not posting much lately here. Phew, glad that’s done with.

I’m chewing over a longish post about video games, but it’s too late tonight and I have email to answer and coop work to do so it’ll have to wait. Instead, a few brief updates:

I. You’ll be happy to know that I did finally get some (at least theoretically) nontoxic sunscreen. It’s a bit thick and goes on very white, but it rubs in pretty well and doesn’t leave me looking any paler than usual. At least I don’t think so — you’ll tell me if it does, right?

II. Tonight was movie night. Some people had fun movie homework. In our house we’ve given in to the dark side of the force, because we were stupid enough to tell Gus about Episodes 1-3. In case you were wondering, Phantom Menace is JUST as bad the second time around. Though apparently Jar Jar was written with a 6 yr old in mind, because Gus found him HI-larious.

III. I should have cleaned the house today, but I Just Did Not Feel Like It. Which I know comes as a huge shock to you. I don’t know, I’ve been kind of resenting cleaning lately, even though I do like to clean. Of course it’s the time, really. Maybe I need a new strategy. I’ve been doing 50% of the cleaning each weekend, but maybe I should go to 100% every other weekend and take a weekend off.

IV. My iPhone pusher would like me to know that the Apple store is SOLD OUT of iPhones. I’m not sure why I need to know that, but now you know it, too.

V. I kind of <3 this band from D.C., Julie Ocean. But I’m kind of thinking that they are pretty standard power pop too. But #2, I cannot get the song out of my head. So there you go.

VI. Work = still awesome.

VII. Popfest is coming up. I’m thinking Friday night and Sunday afternoon. You?

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born to gaze into night skies

maura @ 7:47 pm

Sorry to have been neglecting this here blag lately. Just a short post tonight, as I’ve not yet got over the hump with my work that’s not really job-work but is library-work (and thus, I suppose, is kind of job-work, in a vague, tenure-track way). But more soon, I promise!

So Gus came home from school one day recently, took a piece of folded paper out of his pocket, unfolded it, and said, “this is my laptop.”

Note the apple!

We thought it was pretty cool. He said “it’s a pocket laptop.”

Of course version 2.0 hit a few days later. Note the huge antenna — this baby has a blazing fast wifi connection!

The antenna does make it a bit droopy, though you can flip it backwards to hold up the screen. He gave us a long explanation about what’s happening on the screen here, but I forget what it was. Note the labeled keys in this version, and the “emrginse” button and “spasbar” at the bottom. I wish my computer had an emergency button (I don’t think I need a spaz bar though).

The best part is down in the bottom right corner. “It’s the mouse, mom.” Duh! I love that the tail = the cord. Brilliant. I think the kid has a future!

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p.s.

maura @ 9:22 pm

I almost forgot: Anne sent a mightygrip suggestion! Thanks Anne!

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smile while your head explodes

maura @ 7:35 pm

I am a crankier-than-usual consumer lately, and (lucky, lucky!) you get to hear me vent, interwebs.

First of all, sunscreen. So sunscreen is non-negotiable for me, since I am so pale as to practically fluoresce. Last year’s sunscreen was kind of icky and it’s nearly gone anyway, and it’s getting too warm for my SPF 45 moisturizer. So I headed over to Skin Deep to research this year’s offerings.

Holy cow, did you know that there’s this chemical called oxybenzone that’s no good for people? So no good, in fact, that the CDC just released a study on how no good it is. Why, pray tell, is it in many suncreens on the market? And lip balms too?

I got all crazed and ran around the house throwing out sunscreens + chapsticks last night, then printed out a list of safe sunscreens from Skin Deep. Jonathan went to the coop this morning but the sunscreens aren’t going to be in until tomorrow, drat.

Secondly, plastics! Namely bisphenol-a. You may have seen recent reports about cancer and endocrine disruption from bisphenol-a leaching into food + drink from hard plastic (often #7) containers. Longtime (snort) readers may remember that I came early to the Nalgene-haters party and chucked all of our plastic water bottles years ago, replacing them with metal.

But now I am annoyed anew, because apparently this BPA stuff is also in the plastic used to coat the inside of cans of food. And also because I’d thought it was only Nalgene, but really it’s ALL hard plastic (e.g. our water filter pitcher). And ALSO because at the bottom of the Times article some scientist says not to microwave anything in plastic because we just don’t know.

I take my lunch to work. I LIKE taking my lunch to work. It’s cheaper, tastier and healthier. But I tried taking lunch in a glass jar last year and the jar cracked + made a mess (thankfully a small crack + a small mess). This year, with the walking to work, I really have to use plastic to cart lunch back + forth.

I am SO TIRED of worrying that everything we use is toxic. Can there please just be some regulation, oh government regulatory agencies? Pretty please???

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my feet are in the water, waiting for the tide to come

maura @ 4:15 pm

I never had a TV in my bedroom as a kid/teen/college student, and Jonathan and I have never had one in the bedroom either. I could never really figure out why anyone would want a TV in their bedroom, but then again while we do watch TV we are weirdy about it. We don’t have cable and the rabbit ears aren’t all that good so we tend to watch computerized TV (online or downloaded) and thus aren’t tivo-ers or channel-surfers. TV is very, very intentional in our house.

With the (now not-so-)new room setup Jonathan’s desk is across from the foot of the bed. One night last week we were getting ready to watch something and felt too tired + lazy to copy it over to the laptop and head into the living room, so we thought, why not just watch it on Jonathan’s computer?

And now I get it. So comfy! So cozy! I may never sit on the sofa again! Except for movie night, of course, because we can’t all eat dinner in the bed (too messy).

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disconnecting analogs

maura @ 7:15 pm

I wish I had more time to read.

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some things never change, some things stay the same

maura @ 8:24 pm

Yes, I signed Gus up to play soccer this spring. The first game was today, and last week I had this whole blag post worked up in my head on the way I was swinging back + forth between ambivalent + neurotic about the whole thing. The usual whining you’d expect from the small + uncoordinated nonsporty parent* of a small + uncoordinated nonsporty kid.

* And I’m the sportier parent!

But you know what? It went just fine. A pal from school is on his team. The name they chose for their team is Scorpions, which Gus suggested. He was happy to go, happy to play, and happy to have breakfast at a diner afterwards.

His team lost terribly, something like 10 to 1 (no one kept score). It was clear that 4/5ths of the other team had played soccer before, while approximately 0/5ths of the Scorpions had. Or maybe it’s just all of those hippie feel-good vibes he gets in his progressive school: he and his buddy didn’t seem to want to steal the ball from any of the kids on the other team, as if they were giving everyone a turn.

I think I’m actually looking forward to next weekend’s game. Thankfully it’s not at EIGHT (8!!!) AM, which is cruel + unusual punishment for a weekend morning. As our friend said, “NOTHING should start before SCHOOL starts!!!” Esp. nothing the morning after one has insomnia. I had 4 cups of coffee + 1 cup of tea today and still felt like I did when Gus was a baby and woke up every hour or so.

Just don’t call me a soccer mom!

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it was undeniably clear to me i don’t know why

maura @ 8:45 pm

I know you’re all wondering how I’m making out with my organizer situation these days. And I think we have a winner!

No, it’s not an iphone.* Nor is it the old school at-a-glance day planner. It is…

* Purchase of said shiny gadget has not been completely ruled out, esp. after I was told (by my iphone enabler) that it’s only $20/mo. more on our cellphone contract to have one. Not that $240/yr is nothing, but it’s less than it could be (master of the obvious, c’est moi!). But nothing will happen on that front until after the new toys are introduced at MacWorld (because the old toys will be cheaper then, right?).

…index cards. Held together with a binder clip.

No lie! I have one card per week, M-W on one side and Th-Su on the other. Those are at the front of the pack. Appointments/tasks/painfully early soccer games (more on that soon) are noted under each day. Then I have one card each for lists: phone numbers, house tasks, me tasks, short term work tasks and long term work tasks. Those are at the back of the pack. When the week is over I draw a line through the old card and stick it in the middle of the pack. Right now I’ve only got cards through May 18, so the pack isn’t too unwieldy.

Jonathan says that this setup has a name: apparently it’s called the hipster pda. I cannot possibly call it that, though, because the whole “-ster” trend makes me nauseous. And why does it need a name, anyway?

OTOH, those #$%&ster folks did come up with some cool templates. J printed one with a 2008 calendar on it that’s very useful. So they’re not all bad.

P.S. I have a big crush on these shoes. Frivolous, yes; pricey, hell yeah. But useful for dressy bessy days at work, I think. Comments?

P.P.S. And you have to love the hilarious Zappos marketing-speak: “Never lose your preference for a youthful silhouette…” Oh heavens, I hope I never do!

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