This Weekend

By Emily S. | Published: 25 Jun 09

Today’s my birthday. I’m a quarter of a century old, as of 0:17 last night. I spent that time watching a movie with Shawna and having a bit to drink, so it was pretty fun. I don’t know what I’m going to do today, but it’s probably going to be much of nothing besides working in a few. After I get home tonight, I’ll probably work on the ENDA project I’ve got going on now with Shawna and Connor, but more details about that when it gets off the ground.

This weekend (tomorrow), my house is going to get really crowded. Luke’s coming up with his girlfriend Jennifer, and then he’s bringing his friend Robert so that he can hopefully bring us a free washer and dryer (which is amazing news!). So, not knowing that, I also invited my friend Adrianne to come up, whom I haven’t seen in at least a year, and she’s bringing a coworker. I think all people involved are going to be staying at my house and going to AthFest this weekend. That ought to be interesting. Luke’s also trying to bring up as much of his things as possible. All in all, very full, busy weekend.

Thanks, guys, for the birthday wishes, and so on.

Posted in Random | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Times Reader

By Emily S. | Published: 22 Jun 09

I am absolutely in awe of a gorgeous program. It’s called the Times Reader.

Times Reader front page

I didn’t know programs this well designed could exist. Every single detail of the experience has been attended to. Pagination in particular: The front page has many articles, the summaries of which expand and include more details as the window expands. Each page and each article is split up into “logical” pages that you can scroll through, cropping the text up and splitting it into equal screen-size portions. It’s awe-inspiring to see how wonderfully it works. The typography alone took my breath away. There’s a ton of other little facets and features in the program that require at least several more screenshots, if not a first-hand look.

Times Crossword Puzzle

Only the front page with full articles are free, of course, but you can subscribe to the actual news paper for $3.45 a week (that’s around $15 a month). I’m sorely tempted.

Posted in Development, Tech, Science, Links | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Response to “Understanding Trans as a Cis XX Feminist, Pt. I.”

By Emily S. | Published: 21 Jun 09

I was just reading a post written on a friend’s blog in which she explores trans-feminism. I read it and began to write a comment, but the comment began to get long, so I’m going to finish it here, instead, because of the character limit on her blog. I realize this means I’m going to get a lot more readers than I intended, so feel free to skip right past if this sort of thing doesn’t interest you, since it’s really only intended for one or two people.

What follows is the text of the comment I was writing. It’s just my opinion as a trans woman.

Read More »

Posted in Links, Queer, Trans, Gender | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Name

By Emily S. | Published: 15 Jun 09

I’m not using my legal name at work anymore.

This short-lived legal name use is mostly due to having a few people know my name as I was coming in, but it’s seriously silly to keep it up and spread it, especially if I’m going to cringe every time I hear it. I started introducing myself as my chosen name as of today to the guy I sat outside and talked with for an hour, and I’m going to correct all people who know my legal name from here on out.

I don’t intend to let the summer pass by without getting the name change out of the way. It’s just untenable. Wish me luck.

Posted in Transition | Tagged , | 2 Comments

La vita è bella

By Emily S. | Published: 14 Jun 09

Compared to life just a month or two ago, things are going pretty well.

I have this amazing house, and as of a week or so ago, I got everything just how I want it—until I get more stuff, like what I intend to buy, and what Luke is bringing. Most importantly, I still need curtains for my room, a floor rug or two, and a kitchen table with chairs. Along with a couple of things for the bathroom. Shelves everywhere. Needless to say, I have a long list of little things.

This time I can afford it. Wage for wage, this is the most lucrative job I’ve ever actually had. Also, I love cycling around to and fro (when my bike tires aren’t flat, that is). I love how relaxed and facile this job makes my life. I love the flexibility with my time and money. I’m going to start a savings account in a month or two, I think, too, and once a I get to a point where I can do that, I’m going to start finding out how to consolidate/pay off my old student debt so that I could one day go back to school. [Caleb] has been very gung-ho about it, but I don’t want to count my financial chickens before they hatch. I’m going to put my feet under me, first.

I love chatting around with people I’m meeting here at this job, too. It’s a welcome and needed thing, to chat with people I don’t know that well for a while.

Next weekend, I’m hoping to have some people drop by and get together for a little while. I hope you’re able to make it. I don’t know exactly what we’re doing, but it’d be nice to show off for once, and I’d also like Luke to meet everybody. I know there will be food. Delicious, copious food.

Well, that’s all.

Posted in Random | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

New Bicycle

By Emily S. | Published: 5 Jun 09

Every bit as much as God(dess) must’ve hated me yesterday, ze made up for it today.

In moving here, Luke and I rescued my bike from where I had it locked up after my spill, and getting it back here, I soon discovered that the front tire’s tube was ruptured. Bad news. The nearest bike shop is a mile and a half away downtown, and I wasn’t excited about squeezing in that errand along with work.

Yesterday, it was raining all day, and with great reluctance, deciding I could no longer put up with walking everywhere, I got my umbrella and determined to get down there before work so I could get the tube I needed. I had no more than gotten to Prince Avenue when the umbrella in my hand broke. Getting to the bike shop, I’d looked like I’d gotten out of the shower, but I bought the tube I needed and walked over to work.

Eventually I got home that night after nine, and around ten, I went and replaced the tube on the bike, a job that took about twenty minutes, but went fine, and so I thought I was all ready to ride it tomorrow to work.

So this morning, I come out to the porch to check it out and ride it a bit, maybe go to work early, but before I can get out of the driveway, the spoke of the back wheel caught the rear dérailleur, bending it quite severely. I was determined to get some use out of the thing, after yesterday’s exhausting trial just getting the damn tube, so I grabbed some pliers and bent the dérailleur back enough to allow the wheel to turn and the chain to stay in place, at which point I discovered the back wheel had a slight wobble. That’s why it caught the dérailleur in the first place and why, now, it wouldn’t turn freely.

Nevertheless, it could somewhat be used, and so I knew this bike was on its last leg. I tried to get it to where, at least, I could get downtown with it. After going almost no distance, another problem presented itself: my back gears were popping out of place on the cassette, and the whole thing was threatening to come undone. I managed to secure it on a gear to where I could pedal towards town.

As I was passing the Potter’s House Thrift Store, I noticed a huge pile of bikes outside with people standing around, carrying them in. I went over and walked inside to where the store manager was having his employees line up the bikes. After asking around, I figured out that I had just somehow rolled up a matter of minutes after the cops had dropped off a bunch of bikes, by some amazing coincidence. Before they could even look them over, I picked one out and the store manager asked for $50, which offer I gladly took.

It’s a 21-speed Schwinn Sidewinder, a relatively new one, and it even had a bike light attached to it when I got it. It’s in like-new condition, with the exception of a clicking noise the left pedal makes as it rotates. It rides so much more effortlessly than my last bike. In fact, climbing is almost effortless, compared to the old one.

After the store manager pumped it up for me, I paid for it and went to leave, and remembered my old bike was still sitting outside. I asked what I should do with it, and they said they’d take care of it. Great!

So when I got back here after work, of course, I took some pictures!

The trip from work to home on bike is a breeze, less than ten minutes, and absolutely effortless!

Posted in Random | Tagged | Leave a comment

Hiawassee Pictures!

By Emily S. | Published: 3 Jun 09

So this house I’m in is an older one, several decades old. The layout is pretty simple, like the bottom story of a traditional American foursquare, with some variations (including a long hallway of sorts along the back which incorporates the bathroom, and an extra room off of the large bedroom).

So to give an idea of the layout, imagine arriving in your car in front of it. There’s some brick steps leading up to a screened in porch, and then you walk into the door. In front of you is a large space with the living room and kitchen. To the right are the bedrooms. And in the back is a hallway providing utility space, and at the back right, a bathroom.

Simple? Yeah. So, I took a Picasa album of pictures. Check those out, if you have a moment.

Posted in Random | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Better, Stronger, Safer jQuerify Bookmarklet » Learning jQuery – Tips, Techniques, Tutorials

By Emily S. | Published: 1 Jun 09

A long time ago I built myself a little bookmarklet to load jQuery on pages that don’t already have it. The idea was to allow me to play around with any page on the web, using jQuery in the Firebug (and now Safari or IE8) console. I blogged about it, got lots of great feedback, and then blogged about an improved version. Now that a lot more great feedback has come through the comments of the updated bookmarklet post, I’ve decided to update it one more time.

via Better, Stronger, Safer jQuerify Bookmarklet » Learning jQuery - Tips, Techniques, Tutorials.

This is extremely neat! jQuery is rather more elegant than I had even thought. This post describes a bookmarklet that lets you add it to any page (so that in the Javascript console you can call it).

This works in Webkit (Chrome/Safari) as well as Gecko (or wherever a good Javascript console and jQuery support are present).

If you want to try this out…

Go to the post, and save the bookmarket (I have a folder for these things). Then go to www.google.com. Click the bookmarklet once the page is loaded. Then open your Javascript console (Control-Shift-J in Chrome; use Firebug in Firefox). Now type in something like the following:

$('form').hide(500)

Press enter and watch the new jQuery-enabled form animation. If you know about CSS selectors and feel like inspecting the object methods returned by the object created by $(), give other things a try.

Posted in Development, Tech, Science, Links | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

iRiver Giveaway!

By Emily S. | Published: 1 Jun 09

So, I’ve thought a lot about this, and I’ve decided to go back to the iPod entirely and forsake the iRiver I’ve had and used for years. Therefore, I’ve decided I’m going to give away the iRiver to someone who wants it.

(First, a little background on this thing. I bought it in 2005, when it was $200, the same price as the comparable iPod Nanos hanging along beside it, although with only half the capacity. I got it, as opposed to the iPod, because of the ability to play Ogg Vorbis, which at the time mattered a lot to me. The feature set was also pretty impressive, compared to the Nano. Here was a device which, while not looking anything like a Nano, still looked pretty awesome, and it came with FM radio, an audio recorder, and the ability to play ASF, WAV, MP3, OGG, and WMA. Furthermore, the iPod Nanos couldn’t match the battery capacity, and still can’t—at least 48 hours at a time. It accepted a standard AA battery, at that, and so didn’t need to be tethered to a computer. So it was a bulky, rugged, durable thing, something you could take jogging or camping and not have to think about syncing or recharging for a matter of weeks. It’s outlasted any iPod with which I’ve had personal experience (that of my first one, my mom’s, Luke’s, and so on), and it’s still identical condition to the day I got it.)

So I decided I’ll let someone have it. The biggest con is probably the low capacity, 1 GB. Since this thing is about four years old, flash prices hadn’t quite crashed like they have recently, but even at the time, it was on the low side. I myself tended to get a lot of mileage out of it by letting Windows Media Player transcode as it synced to 64 kbps WMA formatted files, effectively doubling or tripling the capacity with no noticeable sound quality reduction.

It does come with these things: the unit itself, a pretty lanyard, an armband, the original earbuds, and the original USB cable (everything included with the original unit).

Features are as described above. Plays audio files in WAV, MP3, OGG, WMA, and ASF. Has an FM tuner so it picks up (and can record) radio. Can record audio. Works either as an MTP or UMS device (I’ll switch it if needed), and so compatible with any media player or OS in the last decade. Also, compared with current and contemporary models, really good sound reproduction quality (an area where iPods have typically been mediocre).

Contact me or comment here if interested.

Posted in Random | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Suntrust on Prince

By Emily S. | Published: 28 May 09

So there’s this interesting little Suntrust bank branch on Prince Avenue close to where I live now. I’d seen this place before from the road, but I didn’t realize that it was a normal branch because it’s a very large plantation-style home set way back from the road inside a large, well landscaped yard full of old, old trees. I thought it was maybe some kind of office or something.

Read More »

Posted in Random, Transition | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Hiawassee

By Emily S. | Published: 28 May 09

There’s just something about being alone in a new, empty place for the first time. Your furniture isn’t set up. Things are still packed. You’re exhausted. It’s dead quiet. You’re alone in a strange place (a creaky, old wood house that echoes, no less).

This always reminds me of the first time I ever did this—moving into my apartment when I went to college. That was one of the longest, strangest, hardest days of my life, and when it was over, I was alone in a dark, empty room hundreds of miles away from anybody I knew for the first time ever, exhausted.

Like that time, this time, all I’ve really got done is stick to my laptop. Playing music just like last time. In the next few days, and especially this weekend, I can work on getting the most important things done, such as getting my Christmas lights up. So crucial.

This move went pretty smoothly. Wasn’t too hard, considering. Luke brought his truck up, along with a couch, and we got everything in three trips, taking a couple of hours, with just the two of us. Neither of us felt well, so that didn’t help morale. Having this lovely house and getting everything done did, however.

I will be getting water turned on tomorrow. I have work, as well. Hopefully at some point in the next few days I’ll get pictures of everything. Visitors are encouraged, of course (if I’m not at work). It’s big and quiet and empty around here.

Posted in Random | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

35 Hours

By Emily S. | Published: 25 May 09

I’ll have the key to my new house in 35 hours (as I’m writing this). It’s excruciating anticipation, especially watching everybody else move just before, and having to wait just a few more days to move into this glorious new house.

If you press your ear against me, you can hear a low humming. That’s me practically buzzing with excitement (somewhere inside my rattled, sad, sore, and allergic body).

I have been shuffling around my shifts this week, and today I sent an e-mail and made some requests, getting the day of the move off (yes!). This job is like the mini-golf of jobs; it doesn’t matter too much what you jot down on the score card. It drastically simplifies things to know I won’t have to work on the very afternoon I’m clearing out of Ethan’s. I do have to work tomorrow, but it isn’t for a long time, and hopefully I can spend the evening getting some things cleaned up and ready. I was going to do that tonight, but I feel drugged from Benadryl. We’ll see.

So I’ve been keeping notes of an itinerary of that day, much to Luke’s amusement. So far, what’s going to happen is, Luke will come into town before nine. We’ll get the keys to the place at nine and go in and turn off the breakers right away so that Georgia Power can turn on my power. Then we’ll start getting stuff and bringing it over, and then we probably will try to get water/trash service turned on, I guess (I don’t know much about this). Besides for a couple of odds and ends, like rescuing my bike and possibly picking some things up at Gabe’s, I think that’s it.

Also, I don’t have internet there, or any plans to get it in the near future, so I don’t know how regularly I’ll have access to that. So tomorrow will be the last time, as far as I know, I’ll just be relaxing on the internet for a while. But, knowing me, I’ll just break into something pretty soon. The house is at a dead end, though, so I don’t know what I’ll have access to.

Posted in Random | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Biking Home

By Emily S. | Published: 23 May 09

I was trying to bike home real fast last night after work before complete darkness overtook me, and as I was entering downtown, I was biking across a crosswalk, and some jackass’s car pulls up into the crosswalk, causing me to have to swerve around it, and upon hitting the easement on the other side, my bike fell into a hole, sending me over the handlebars onto the sidewalk. I was banged up in several places (but not too abraded, just really bruised). I had the wind knocked out of me for landing with my abdomen first. I think I hit my head but I’m not sure. I know that afterwards, I felt disoriented for a few blocks, like the world were distorted a bit, depth-wise, and that I had some weird pain deep inside my mouth, and I felt weird, but that passed as I walked.

So as I’m laying on the sidewalk, writhing with pain for a full minute, the jackasses that caused this just sort of stared at me from their car from about five feet away, and when the light turned green, they continued, going straight (meaning, there was no real reason even to pull forward so much, other than sheer jackassery).

My bike wasn’t usable after that. The front tire lost all its air (not sure if it’s ruptured), and the handlebars came out of alignment. I dragged it around the block to a place I could lock it up, and then I had to continue the rest of the two miles home on foot, hurting and exhausted.

This city is better for biking around than most I’ve been in, but you’re still subject to danger, depending on the area. I wish that, when your bike lane is ending and you’re coasting downhill at a good clip towards a bridge, that cars wouldn’t take this opportunity to try to pull ahead to cut you off, for example. Or that people wouldn’t honk or yell at you. Or aggressively attempt to pass, even where it’s illegal, nearly causing a horrendous collision at least once in the last week.

I know the biking is going to be more pleasant on Prince, where I can avoid downtown and the “Iron Triangle,” which is relatively unfriendly to biking (or even cars; I hate driving here). I can’t wait to move. Four more days.

Also, I installed Windows 7 RC last night. I kept repeatedly getting an error reading the files off the disk. I kept attempting it, though, slightly different ways each time, and eventually it went through, vindicating the disc I burnt—leaving me to assume some small driver was at fault. It runs well on my computer, and it’s hard to imagine even using Vista after this. Except for installing a few things, I’m almost completely back to normal, due to my knowing excruciating amounts about how my most important programs store their state (Chrome never even knew what happened; it simply thought it’d been closed abruptly, and Picasa, iTunes, and the others are perfectly at home).

Posted in Random | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Moving

By Emily S. | Published: 22 May 09

It’s set (tentatively, although I’ll know for sure in an hour). We’ll be moving into Hiawassee in five days, on Wednesday, the 27th. It’s a little annoying that it should be in the middle of the week, but at least I won’t have to wait an entire additional week.

Things that need to be done:

  • Request off for Tuesday night and Wednesday.
  • Edit availability thereafter to increase, due to being much closer to work.
  • Make sure address changes are in effect as of then (with USPS, bank, work, and so on).
  • Make sure utilities are turned on by that date. Helpfully, hopefully, no up-front costs will be involved unless they’re in my name for some reason.
  • Get things ready here, such as seeing if I can clean my futon/cover.

I don’t know what, if anything, I’m forgetting from this short list. Luke is trying to come up Tuesday night but doesn’t have a place to stay, so he’s talking about staying on the porch at the new house that night (since it won’t be “ours” yet until the following day). I guess that’ll work.

He’s going to confirm for me within an hour or so that he can, in fact, get this time off. It’s completely confirmed.

Posted in Random | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment