The universe and I are in a fight. I think it's winning.

Warning: The following is really long, and contains a whole lot of whining.

TL;DR - How I learned to live without my tablet and get tuberculosis, maybe.

It seems I should, perhaps, have prepared myself for this week the second the conference PR girl emailed just days before the conference and asked why I was no longer registered. Especially after they also lost my original hotel reservation, and put me in a hotel 14 blocks from the conference center. Should have been ready for this.

Hell week began with my husband's car's refusal to start. A rush to the airport in my car and by bus got me to the gate at the exact time they were boarding my row. Had I been stuck behind the family of six at security instead of just ahead of them, I might have missed my plane entirely -- the ultimate nightmare for a planner like me.

Rather than get a taxi from the airport at my destination, like a sane person, this masochist decided "Oh! There's a bus that drops me just a few blocks from my hotel!" It came every half hour, and only cost $1. What I didn't realize was that it required exact change. As I was running back into the airport to find someone to break a $10, my bus pulled up. Screw it. What's 30 more minutes in the biting wind with all my warm things packed away?

At the hotel, checking in went fine for the most part. The conference travel folks tried to pay for my room, which, I understand, is quite a no-no. I had them change payment, and spent the evening doing some work. The trip improved enormously after I found an awesome pub with not only queso, but delicious lamb gyros -- my superhero weakness, if you must know.

The next morning brought me to a tiny, hole-in-the-wall establishment will delicious breakfast tacos. I spent less than $5 on the most filling meal all week. I rode the bus to save the company money (you're welcome, by the way), this time managing to get dropped 2 blocks from the conference center. Of course, that's 2 blocks if the sidewalks on 3rd St. weren't closed down, which they were.

Getting my badge went perfectly fine, and I basically just sat and did work until the "press lunch." Good thing I still remembered which fork to use on the crappy salad! Further proving no one gave two shits if I was there, the conference planners put me at a table with Health IT people, which is in almost no way relevant to my interests.

Got a few tidbits from the marketing lady, but not much. The rest of the day was a terrible exercise in futility, as no one I actually wanted to talk to showed up until my boss showed up and said "but look I spent 5 seconds and talked to two, what's wrong with you?" I had been trying all day, but every nametag I saw was for someone who was either part of the conference or part of the press. By the time I ran into the boss, I was so crippled with anxiety that I was going to fail at my tasks and be asked to pay for the trip myself that I couldn't really think of anything but leaving.

Hopped a bus back to the hotel and the day suddenly improved. A member of my G+ knitting circle invited me to join her small knitting group at Central Market for dinner and knitting. A very welcoming bunch, to be sure. Thanks again, Noriko, if you're reading this. Best part of the trip by FAR. Spirits lifted, and ended the "meh"-ness that was Tuesday with optimism about the next day.

This doesn't seem too bad, does it? I thought the same thing.

The bus ride to the conference the next day was terrifying. Apparently 6:55 am is a BAD time to take the bus. I feel for homeless people, I really do. But being sandwiched between three who were muttering constantly and coughing --without covering their mouths, of course -- like TB patients who were dying RIGHT NOW tends to make me feel less charitable.

Made it to the convention center and ran into another problem. They didn't want to keep my bags, even though my confirmation email said they had that service available. I had enough of their shenanigans by this point and politely bullied them into keeping my bags behind the registration counter until the end of the day. Small victories.

Walked about quarter mile inside the building to get to breakfast. Sat with a couple of lovely gentlemen, got some contact info, did some work asking questions, etc. Fine and dandy. After breakfast, I did some more work, then went to do a little email dump to my boss with some ideas. I was trying to run entirely on pen and paper and Nexus, so my laptop was stowed in my luggage.

I found a quiet spot on the fourth floor to collect my thoughts and organize my belongings. I rested my Nexus tablet on what I thought was a flat surface. It was apparently not a flat surface, and before I knew what was happening, the thing had tumbled down four floors and was on the ground in front of a bewildered group of people.

No one was injured, luckily, and the guys poking around at the tablet looked quite embarrassed for me. In the spirit of "keep calm and carry on," I made my apologies to the guys holding my Nexus, swapped it for my laptop, and went to so some more work. It wasn't until I checked the time that I realized my watch had somehow gotten smashed. That wasn't even the breaking point. They are just things and, hey, at least I didn't injure anyone.

After all that, I sat next to the angriest Republican ever. I kept trying to steer the conversation toward IT stuff, but all he wanted to talk about is how after "8 years of a president who hates our country" money won't have any value, and we won't have any freedoms left (or something). Thank god some guy came and sat between us. Lunch was gross, and the afternoon was full of walking a lot and trying to find more contacts.

By the time I finished my work around 4, I decided to go to the airport and shoot off a final email. I was exhausted and had enough. Took a Taxi this time, because seriously, I am done with buses forever.

The airport's idea of "free wifi" was a limited, 20 minute trial which was just enough time for me to compose, but not save or send, my email and tell my husband when to pick me up. The plane got in late from Florida (no offence to the few people I know who live there, but I hate your state) so the flight was 5 minutes late. Now, normally this wouldn't be a bad thing, but in this case we got into the terminal at 11:05 instead of 10:55 as originally planned. So I missed yet another bus that only comes every 30 minutes. Stood in 34 degree weather listening to screaming children.

The bus was a terrible end to the conference from Hell. I'll just say the driver was slow and his radio chatter could have been eliminated. Plus, hey, bottleneck traffic coming out of Boston at almost midnight on a Wednesday for some reason. Some kind of road repairs, but I'm going to go ahead and blame Florida.

Made it home close to one and had to chase the cat into the basement, where she then proceeded to meow so loud we could hear her from bed. I crawled in bed around 1, but hubs was petting the cat until almost 1:30, so I didn't get to sleep until after he was back. Also, his car is still borked.

Had to actually come into work today, because HR decided my "non-review" should be an actual review. Oh, and I forgot to bring headphones.

I am so leaving at noon to help hubs deal with his car issues.

Seriously. Screw this week.

NaKniSweMo diary, day one

So this month is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), but I'm not writing one because I'm cold and want a sweater to keep me warm. How can this be accomplished, you ask?

Why, NaKniSweMo, of course. In solidarity with fabulous writers and knitters everywhere, we cast on today and must make a sweater with at least 50,000 stitches by the end of November. That means, for those of you just tuning in, that all other projects take a back seat. Christmas presents? In the bin. Charity blankets? Make it yourself.

I need a sweater, and you can't stop me from making one!

The tag is #NaKniSweMo on G+ if you want to see what the rest of us are doing.

For me, it's this general pattern with some really soft alpaca yarn. Oh boy Oh boy Oh boy!

My Cold Weather Manifesto

Summers were murder; two-a-days doubly so. Growing up in the sweltering Texas heat taught me two things: the sun is evil and don't go outside until December. Unfortunately, my parents had this pesky idea that children should do something besides read and play video games indoors all the time, so sometimes there was no avoiding the sun.

In college, something compelled me to pick up yarn and start hooking. Now, in my part of Texas, where the temperature usually only drops below 40 degrees a few days a year, knitting and crocheting might seem like a poor choice of hobbies. Given my growing knowledge of fibers, cotton would have been about the only thing worth using. My recollection is that my early efforts sat squarely in the "acrylic" territory, but memories are imperfect.

The fiber artist in me died after graduation and it wasn't until my move to New England five years later that yarn found me again. My yarn story is for another time, but suffice it to say it plays a large role in the following realization: I am a cold weather girl.

Texas is a wonderful place, and homesickness still tugs at me on a disturbingly frequent basis, but it will likely never be my home again. And that's okay, because it's not cold enough there anyway.

From blmiers on Flickr.

My first "real" winter taught me so many things -- put your windshield wipers up the night before a snow; always keep your shovel and scraper in the car, not the trunk; don't pass the plow truck, even on the left; don't use the rear defroster until the car warms up and not all windshield wiper fluid is created equal.

So now, as my third New England winter quickly approaches, there are two main thoughts in my mind, which are in direct opposition to that which my upbringing taught me: the sun brings great joy and don't go outside from December to March.

I love you, winter. I love being cold and I love making warm things to wear during your months. May it never be 90-degrees-in-the-shade again.

Don't be a

There's a reason that's blank.

People keep talking politics at me, and I keep trying to ignore them. But putting my head in the sand isn't going to work forever, so here's a primer to my politics.

1. Science education. - Tired of this creationism nonsense. Even people close to me think space exploration and research is a waste of time "when there are so many problems at home," but they have no idea how many innovations have come from the time we've already spent in space. And, you know, there's that whole education aspect. The more we educate kids/teens in science and math the better we can keep up the pace of discovery and innovation. Jobs, anyone?
2. Free healthcare at the expense of military budget cuts. - I'm sorry, but can we just let other countries sort out their own bloody fights for a few years? We've got other problems to deal with at home you say? Let's start with this, and use any money left over from cutting military budgets to find cures for diseases and give humanitarian aid to the countries we would otherwise be bombing.
3. Walk more, drive less. - This doesn't sound inherently political, but hear me out. The more you sit, the fatter your ass becomes. If you had to spend 10-15 minutes walking to and from, say, a train/bus stop you'd be less fat. Less fat means fewer health problems which in turn means lower healthcare bills. Even if number 2 never happened, those without insurance might be able to sock a few more dollars away before a health problem hits. This bullet point is about public transit. Again, remove some of that funding from the vast military budget to focus on a nationwide rail/bus system that actually works. Bullet train from sea to shining sea anyone?
4. Leave my uterus out of it. I'll decide whether killing a fetus is right or wrong. It's my fetus, after all. I don't like the idea of abortion any more than Christian fundamentalists, but unlike that particular group, I am completely okay with people who need/want one. (But that's another conversation)
5. Don't be a d***. This is the motto of the Internet now, and I think it should trickle up into politics. Just don't focus your efforts on screwing other countries/groups and it'll be fine. Of course, we can respond if other people are d***s to us, but let's at least be reasonable about that, too.

So yeah. Fund science, education, healthcare and public transit. Cut back on highways and military. Basic rights over first world problems. I'm not saying we should gut the military completely or disband the military. Before you grab your soap box and tell me about all the poor kids who rely on the military for their education, just try to understand that by funneling more money into education, more good teachers will teach those poor kids the stuff they need to know so they won't have to start military careers in the first place!

TL;DR: Don't be a d***.

Rest of world doesn't give a shit

As the year goes on, and as I listen to NPR on the way to work, I find myself becoming more cynical about other human beings. I don't like it, but there it is.

There are two things I know for sure. First, the guy who made the anti-Islam film is batshit crazy, a con man, and should probably be locked away forever. Second, aside from a few very loud protests by a small group of hateful people, the vast majority of the world doesn't give two shits about us, and has other things to worry about.

Did you even know, for example, that China and Japan are at each others' throats right now over a land dispute? Over some shitty islands no one actually wants? Did you know that Japanese businesses operating in China are being pelted with rocks, workers lives are in danger and flights have been cut all over the country?

Screenshot from Google Image Search.
Click to embiggen my feelings on all this.

I apologize for the rant this early in the morning, and you probably won't read it anyway, but there it is.

No one working a 9-5 in Libya has time to care about a crazy, ignorant American making a shitty, hateful movie in the same way you don't give a shit about Japan/China tensions over some islands. There is no possible way any of us can know all of the news from all the places, but let's keep in mind that no one else in the world can either.

The fact that we have the ABILITY to read news from all of the places, even down to the tiniest detail of, say, local daycare facilities' mounting problems in the Netherlands, tells me we're doing okay as a nation and world. We SHOULD care about each other, and we SHOULD be genuinely concerned for the welfare of others. But the story is over. The deaths were tragic, but let's let those involved mourn quietly and focus on warp drives and space and things that are important, mmkay?

Now, go enjoy your weekend :)!

Ancient aliens and why you're stupid.

So I watched a show on Netflix called Ancient Aliens not too long ago. First off, attempting rational arguments with UFO nuts is like telling a creationist about quantum particles.

This show is actually dangerous for several reasons, not least of which is its method of conveying information. Discounting actual scientific method and facts, the show presents wild theory after wild theory in the form of leading questions. It goes something like this: The ancient Egyptians didn't have modern crane technology, so how could they have built the pyramids. There are theories about levers and slave labor, but what if Aliens told them what to do? What if Aliens were the gods of ancient Egypt. Here's a well-spoken crazy person who wrote a book about it. Writing a book means it's true.

End of rant. Thanks, Internet, for providing an outlet.