I’m really, really trying not to turn this blog into a Regretsy clone. But some of this stuff is just SO bad that I have to share it with all of you.
Lucky you.
Continue reading “Would you like some lockjaw with your jewelry?”
Tag: common sense
My cell phone
Some combo of my actual cell phone and AT&T are up to tricks and I DO NOT like them at all. If you need to get in touch with me please do one of the following.
1) Call me at home. Really. We have a land line. It works and at this point it is better and more reliable than the cell phone even though it is Verizon powered.
2) Call my Google Voice number. There are like 12 ways I can get those messages and I can send and receive text messages from that number. If you need it, that number is 617-396-7664.
3) Send me an email. I am online almost all day as I am looking for work and wedding planning. At this point as there is a lag of DAYS between when cell voicemails are left and when I get them and seconds between when emails are sent and when I get them, email is the way to go.
4) Comment here. I’m on here a LOT. And I get an email whenever there is a comment left here. So if you need to get in touch with me and all else fails, or if you just want to leave me a witty comment, say something here. Ftr, I like witty commentary.
Thanks.
~Kelly
P.S. Geoff is STILL in the interview. Fingers crossed!
Wedding stuff. Not ours for once!
There is a lot of wedding stuff going on in my life at the moment. We’re under the 90 day mark and it just occurred to me today that I actually have to investigate getting our marriage license. Also, I have a ton of work to do on the sheet music for the choir. Yay?
I love cashmere
Those of you who know me know that I refer to the cold part of the year as Cashmere Season. (The hot part of the year is Involuntary Sweating Season. I hate that part, thank goodness it is almost over.) I have even gotten Geoff into some cashmere sweaters. Naturally, I never pay full price. Paying full price is for suckers. Regular readers around here also know that I get daily emails from Etsy. This little gem popped up in my inbox the other day and I just didn’t know what to make of it. Especially in AUGUST. Who advertises this in August???
Ah, internets
The problem with having a fairly common name is that you get email for other people. A lot. Geoff does not have this problem. I do. I have several email addresses. One of them is my name @ a common web based email provider.com. I got this email address when this particular provider first started offering email (yes, that’s how old I am) and basically use it for times when I needed something professional and/or humorless.
Oh, my…
Someone apparently thought that the Radioactive Boy Scout was a good idea.
Swede tried to split atoms – at home
Associated Press / August 4, 2011
STOCKHOLM – A Swedish man who was arrested after trying to split atoms in his kitchen said yesterday he was only doing it as a hobby.
Richard Handl said he had the radioactive elements radium, americium, and uranium in his apartment in southern Sweden when police showed up and arrested him on charges of unauthorized possession of nuclear material.
Handl, 31, said he had tried for months to set up a nuclear reactor at home and kept a blog about his experiments, describing how he created a small meltdown on his stove.
Only later did he realize it might not be legal and sent a question to Sweden’s Radiation Authority, which answered by sending the police.
The police raid took place in late July, but police have refused to comment. If convicted, Handl could face fines or up to two years in prison.
© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.
Pro tip– if you cause a meltdown ON YOUR STOVE, you’re doin’ it wrong.
~Kelly
We survived the Fourth of July
Geoff here- last night was a VERY long police detail for me. I arrived at the police station at around 6:20 PM yesterday and arrived home this morning around 1:40 AM. In between was a virtually non-stop flood of cars and people. Everyone had a good time, and I even saw a few people I knew. But I am still wondering how so many people manage to get into such a relatively small space. I am just not that big a fan of crowds, I guess. There must have been half a million people all together. Still, it was not too bad, relatively speaking, as at least we did not have a lot of violence or troublemakers to worry about. There was some of that, but none anywhere near where I was, which was on Mass Ave., along the main route (at least in Cambridge) to and from the Mass Ave bridge and thus prime fireworks viewing area. I was with two regular Cambridge officers, but even with three of us we really had our hands full. So many people were not paying attention – drivers AND pedestrians. It really is a miracle no one was hurt.
I don’t get the people who have lived here for a good while and still haven’t figured out that the night of July 4th is a bad time to be anywhere near that part of the Charles River in your car. I mean, you expect tourists to not know, but people who have been around should know better. I could not believe how many people I had to tell “no, you CANNOT go on the bridge – it is blocked to all vehicle traffic”… and they wanted to argue about it. I don’t make the rules, I just have to enforce them. And how exactly do you expect to get on the bridge, even if I let you? You going to navigate through a crowd of several hundred thousand people, with lawn chairs and beach blankets, watching the show?
Still, the fireworks show was pretty spectacular. I could not hear any of the music from where I was, which is just as well because you just know they would play that Lee Greenwood song that I hate.
Anyway, back to the routine, which these days has been job hunting and house cleaning.
Yet another reason we love our Sox
The Red Sox have come a long, long way over the decades, and I am proud of them for doing the right things in such a public way. This is their new video in support of the It Gets Better Project, which offers support for bullied gay teens. Kelly has been a big fan of Dan Savage for years, and she introduced me to his work, which is how I became familiar with this particular effort. I like how Youk even adds that it’s ok to ask for help, and admits that he himself has been in therapy. – Geoff
As if I needed another reason to hate flying
The TSA, an organization rapidly on its way to becoming both a punchline and the most-hated Federal agency in the country, has committed yet another mind-bogglingly stupid act. This time, they have forced an elderly cancer patient to all sorts of humiliating search procedures, including forcing her to remove her adult diaper. How does this make anyone safer? It certainly does not make anyone’s travel experience more fun. This sort of thing is why I have decided I will not fly domestically anymore. It’s either driving or the train. And it is positively infuriating to see this sort of thing being condoned by so many people who should know better. This is security theater, in the truest sense of the term. it is an utter waste of time and resources, and it makes ordinary people mistrust the people entrusted to protect them. It does not make flying more safe, it makes airports more unbearable.
The answer is, and always has been, better intelligence. Have we made the creation of more interpreters in Arabic, Farsi, Pashtun, and other relevant languages a priority? Not really, no. In fact, until recently the policy of the government was to be more afraid of interpreters that might be gay than they were of the terrorists. And we continue to collect huge piles of raw data that sit sometimes for weeks or months with no one looking at it because there is simply too much for the overworked analysts to do. The data is useless unless someone can actually examine it. Most of the time, that sort of data can be used to show trends and patterns. It rarely if ever has everything all wrapped up in a neat little package like TV or the movies. Just grabbing all the e-mails and tapping all the cell phones the way was done with AT&T is such a colossal waste of time it makes my head hurt. It’s not like by grabbing all the Tweets in the country the government is suddenly going to find the one that says “Terrorists Abdul Johannsen and Ali Ibn Humperdink are going to bring a suitcase bomb onto U.S.A. Airways Flight 2112 on December 25th. Merry Christmas infidels!” And profiling of the most completely asinine sort has been policy, rather than behavior profiling, which is not only what is done in places like Ben Gurion airport in Israel, but is what we already do in the FBI and other crime analysis units around the country. And it works, people. IT WORKS. So stop trying to reinvent the wheel, and stop trying to insist for political expediency that the square wheel you invented really is better.
-Geoff
Necklace or Weapon?
You decide.
This landed in my inbox today via my daily Etsy email. I have NO idea what the, um, artist? was thinking. Porcupine quills are dangerous even after they have been shed. Why on earth anyone would want to wear this around their neck is beyond me. Also, any guesses as to whether or not the TSA would let you get it on a plane?
From the Etsy page: A fringe of natural African porcupine quills radiates from a half circle of Australian peanutwood stone rondelles for this urban-gypsy, warrior-princess-with-a-little-bit-of-glam thrown in, statement necklace.
Each naturally-shed quill is approximately 4″ long. Their tips have been carefully filed down and are no longer sharp, but some care should still be taken when wearing this piece (i.e., remove prior to all amorous activity).
What? “Amorous activity?” Yep, this is why Regretsy exists.
~Kelly
The Books are Taking Over... 