Personal
Personal reflections, comments about things I've been doing, etc.
Couchsurfing
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 05/15/2011 - 20:05Twenty-eight years ago, in mid May, I was traveling around the states. I need to dig out my journal to figure out exactly where I was and what I was doing. In July, I climbed into a jet to head off the Paris and then to travel for a few more months around Europe.
Traveling was different back then. Hitchhiking was more acceptable and perhaps safer. There weren’t cellphones or the Internet. (Actually there were both, and I had been on the Internet before I hit the road, but it was very different from what it is today).
Today, I went to a Couchsurfing potluck dinner. I brought some of my cider which was well received. Most of the couchsurfers were under twenty-eight. That is, they hadn’t been born when I was traveling around the states and Europe.
Yet the couchsurfing potluck reminded me of a party that I ended up at in July, 1983 in an apartment in Paris France. It was the same vibe, people brought together by a love of traveling and meeting people from different cultures.
We left early to do Fiona’s radio show and for me to get a chance to rest. I’m still pretty exhausted. Yet it was a great time and I look forward to my next chance to meet these fellow travelers.
pollen
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 05/14/2011 - 20:24With all the pollen in the air, my head has been throbbing. I haven’t felt like doing much of anything, other than trying to sleep, and I’ve been having problems sleeping. All of this, as I just got through an incredibly busy week at work.
So, today was a quiet day. I went to Fiona’s softball game. Went to the dog park with Kim and Wesley, and looked over movies to watch this evening.
I heard that James Tate will be allowed to go to the prom. While some people have asked what is the big deal, really, I think this is important. In the larger picture we have been a nation moving towards mindlessly following rules, and not questioning if the rules are good, or being willing bend or change rules to make them better. We need to celebrate creativity that sometimes draws outside the lines.
This evening, Kim and I went out for get sushi. Fiona went to a roller derby. Now, we will find a good movie on Netflix, and hopefully the rain will come and the pollen will be less tomorrow.
Random Stuff
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 05/09/2011 - 20:46Mother’s Day: We had a nice day at the park. I started working on the macrame hammock. Based on my experiences Sunday, this is going to take a very long time to complete. As long as I have energy for the project, I’ll provide updates.
Coming home, there was a car riding on our tail which promoted this tweet:
The Red Camero
Speeding, swerving on my tail
waiting accident
Actually, Kim was driving and the Camero was blue, but it gets across the idea.
It got me thinking more about other aspects of writing and so I spent some time watching YouTube videos about Lacan, Derrida, Zizek and others. More on that later, when I have more time.
Happy Mother's Day
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 05/08/2011 - 09:14First, let me start off by wishing everyone a Happy Mother’s Day. Fiona and I are up, and Kim is getting to sleep in. Fiona did make Kim breakfast in bed and Kim will enjoy that later.
Money is still very tight for us, so we’ve been trying to find inexpensive but meaningful things for Kim. One thing we’ve been kicking around for a long time is upgrading her cellphone. She had an old Motorola RAZR that she’s had for many years. The keypad is wearing off. The battery has gotten less and less effective and a couple days ago, it appear to finally give up the ghost. Kim asked my recommendation about what to do.
I’ve really been enjoying the HTC Thunderbolt on Verizon that I have for work. So, I checked to see what was available on AT&T. They have the HTC Imagine, which is fairly similar to the Thunderbolt. For people with free upgrades, it still costs $100. However, I had an extra $100 off of an upgrade available on my line, so I suggested seeing if we could get that applied to Kim’s line. There were a bunch of different aspects to the upgrade, so Kim called AT&T, and there just wasn’t any way we could get the upgrade done. Disappointed, Kim and I started talking about whether it was time to move to Verizon or T-Mobile. T-Mobile has a nice upgrade offer on for this weekend, and my Nokia N900 would work nicely there as well.
However, Kim ran out to do a few errands and stopped at an AT&T store, where they gladly did the upgrade and made a few other changes to our account that essentially gives us additional services without any price increase. Kim is now the happy owner of an HTC Imagine and I’m showing her some of the neat things it can do.
I did install Swype on it. It is a nicer way to do input on cellphones, but it is complicated to install on the HTC Insight on AT&T. AT&T locks the phone so you can only install apps from the Android Market place, unless you go into debug mode with a USB connection. However, that sort of connection is pretty simple and straight forward, at least to a geek like me, and Kim is now starting to use Swype. I also installed Bump, but haven’t gotten Bump to successfully connect between phones.
Another Mother’s Day gift that Fiona and I got for Kim is a macrame hammock, some assembly required:
Happy Mother’s Day everyone.
Random Notes
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 05/03/2011 - 20:00Up late for the post-election party last night and then early this morning, it’s been a long day.
Everything seems to have a coat of fine yellow powder, tree pollen. Fortunately, my allergies haven’t been especially bad, but that may also add to running me down today.
Then, there has been the latest car problems; a fuel filter this time.
It was a good day at work, but long and hard. I got a bit of good things done, and there are lots more that I would have liked to have gotten done, if I had time. Oh well. I’ll head off to bed early in hopes of more energy for tomorrow.
Oh, and about all this Osama stuff? More than enough people are already saying more than enough things about it, adding my opinions won’t really further any discussions, so I’ll leave it to others. More later...
