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October 31, 2005

the best that ever was

absinthe-and-women.gif

Posted by lisa at 09:23 AM

the weekend.

by saturday i didn't feel sick anymore and not too tired. i never did get the eyeball collection down from the attic, and i never did carve my pumpkins, but everyone said the house looked nice anyway, that night at the party. i pinned my hair up wet and threw on some party clothes just before il rossi arrived early, intending to make himself look more goth with my eye makeup, which was not really up to the job. with his glasses, i said he looked like dead buddy holly, which would be a cool costume except that he didn't quite have the props to sell it. so he washed off the gray smudge under his eyes.

some folks wore costumes and others did not. hopefully this had the effect of making everyone comfortable with the level of costuming they had chosen.

upon taking inventory the next day, it appears that wine was the popular drink of the evening, followed closely by gin and tonics. only a small percentage of the beer was consumed. i thought perhaps if i provided nice beer... but no, beer is still not the beverage of choice. the fresca was decimated. almost no one drank regular Coke.

now there is candy in the house, until tomorrow, and potato chips, two foods i never normally keep around. i will be glad to see them both go. junk food and i do not make good roommates.

sunday i was tired, tired, tired. the extra hour was a boon; it gave me another hour to perk up (which eventually, i did) and sarah came over to practice photographing a person. afterwards she was kind enough to invite me over for dinner, which was very yummy.

now my body is protesting the return to a normal schedule. i have to go.

Posted by lisa at 09:08 AM

October 30, 2005

the joy of plumbing

devoted readers of this blog will recall the immense satisfaction i take from returning my toilet to normal function. i must commend all party guests of last night; everyone dealt with the vagaries of my disintigrating chain and flapper with aplomb. i knew i needed to replace that bit of the toilet before the party and it was one of the many things i planned but never did.

such a simple mechanism, really. replacing it was a pain, but not difficult, if that makes sense. startling the difference the new one makes.

i suppose the next thing to go will be the wax ring; i don't look forward to that operation.

Posted by lisa at 09:06 PM

ask and ye shall receive

the house of dioxin has already posted a flickr photoset from the party.

Posted by lisa at 01:40 AM

October 28, 2005

party: yes.

i don't really feel sick today, just tired, with sporadic bursts of energy. so i think the party can happen. i'll be taking the easy way out on some things though.

Posted by lisa at 03:53 PM

October 27, 2005

feh.

well, it's late thursday and i'm still pretty damn tired, and don't have much of an appetite. i'm debating whether to go into work tomorrow or not. i'm also debating cancelling the party. i'd have to really rebound tomorrow to make it happen.

i've been having some really interesting dreams though.

Posted by lisa at 08:15 PM

kinda better

i woke up feeling hungry today, which seemed like a good sign. i still feel kinda crappy and blah and tired. hopefully my energy will rebound so i can finish getting ready for the party in time.

Posted by lisa at 02:08 PM

October 26, 2005

this ain't good

i left work early today because i was feeling crapalicious. now, usually my early departures from work are healed by a nap; i rarely get geniuinely ill.

well, i took a nap and i still feel crappy. achey and kinda queasy and tired, but i can't sleep.

not the way i want to feel just a couple of days before a party.

Posted by lisa at 04:01 PM

October 25, 2005

party cam?

this morning i started thinking about running web cams during the party. maybe one in the living room and one in the back bedroom-- the places where i already have computers, so it would be easy.

i could make it live on the web, or i could just store the photos to disk and maybe post a few of the best ones to flickr later.

the problem (as i see it) is that there's going to be people who do not realize they are being photographed, and i'm not sure that that's cool.

what do y'all think? fun idea, or bad idea?

mostly, i just want some memories of the party, without having to play camerawoman in addition to hostess.

Posted by lisa at 06:34 PM

October 24, 2005

party. this saturday. you: come.

Saturday, October 29th - Halloween party at the Charming English Cottage of Death. Party time, which around here usually means 9pm or so.

Costumes optional. Zombies welcome.

You're invited. If I actually know you, you'll be getting an email. But even if you're a blurker, you're invited. Might want to let me know you're coming, though.

Posted by lisa at 11:36 PM

on air tomorrow

i'll be on air tomorrow, tuesday, from 8-10pm ET. 88.7fm or wxdu.org/listen.

Posted by lisa at 04:16 PM

October 21, 2005

"swears like a sailor"

i love this phrase-- and i wish i could-- but do sailors really swear more prolifically than other people? my stepfather was in the navy, but i've never really heard him let it fly.

Posted by lisa at 01:57 PM

October 20, 2005

the house of insanity

things have been quiet next door lately.

recently, my neighbor told me that he has become a bail bondsman.

tonight, his work has come to visit him at home. NOW THERE IS YELLING AGAIN.

Posted by lisa at 08:05 PM

October 19, 2005

Zombie Shooter

high adorability factor!

BRAAAIIIINNNNSSSS!

Posted by lisa at 11:29 PM

MFM says...

it needs a new battery. he's going to put one in.

he says the gears feel notchy but at the moment, it's not bad enough to warrant tearing the thing open. could be the synchro mesh going bad.

he also says that when you lock and arm the car, it actually reduces the number of things that draw power from the battery-- it goes into a 'sleep' mode. so my strategy of not locking actually did the opposite of what i intended.

i'm very happy that i'm getting my car back tonight. i've got a trip planned for saturday that i would definitely not want to miss.

Posted by lisa at 10:08 AM

October 18, 2005

right on time.

spacepod is overnighting at lonnie's auto spa, and being without vehicle forces one to focus on all things house and home, which is good since i'm having a party in less than two weeks.

i listened to the party music over my proper stereo for the first time, and i was fairly pleased. it's not get-up-and-dance dance music, but it all has a nice slow groove. maybe a little too much of one kind of thing though, and some of it needs to be mixed around a little. listening to it while cleaning the back bedroom gave me a good feeling though.

it feels so nice to have the house clean and liveable, filled with music and cool air. there is still much work to be done, but i think i'll be getting the decorations out of the attic before the weekend.

Posted by lisa at 11:30 PM

Cthulhu! Cthulhu!

blatantly stolen from joe.

WHO WILL BE EATEN FIRST? (aka, the coolest thing ever.)

as a worshiper at the altar of BPAL, there's an added dimension to this now-- lookit all those perfume names! R'lyeh, Shub Niggurath, Yog Sothoth... man, i still want to smell Shub one day...

Posted by lisa at 12:36 PM

blue ribbon!

This year for the fair, my mom entered macadamia cookies, and won a blue ribbon! She says they are displayed in the "basement" of the display case.

Posted by lisa at 09:12 AM

October 17, 2005

fer pete's sake...

(who is this pete, and why do we care about his sake? odd.)

i went for a brisk walk in the woods today at lunch. it was nice, except for the bit where i tripped and fell and nailed my knee. fortunately my jeans didn't tear, so the scrape is not too bad, the wound isn't dirty and my favorite jeans aren't ruined. it's sore though.

i did catch myself on my hands, but so far neither of them feel sprained, which is a relief. there's something to be said for falling on soft dirt instead of concrete.

spacepod ain't right either. i had to get another boost from AAA on sunday, after ray tried to boost spacepod off of christa's honda and that didn't work. the AAA guy had a heck of a time getting him started-- in the end he had to use both his truck battery and his jumper pack simultaneously. i went immediately to sears where they proclaimed my battery was still good and refused to replace it. he's also become quite difficult to shift lately. so he's off to MFM tomorrow.

i've been monitoring the battery with my little analog voltmeter, and i haven't been locking him for fear of the alarm system draining the battery overnight to the point where i can't get him started. the battery will take a full charge, and is getting charged successfully off the alternator. the sears guy swore that if the battery were not capable of holding a charge his little device would not have pronounced it "GOOD", but i'm dubious-- how could it tell?

although to be honest, the shifting issue has me more worried than the electrical issue. i really hope we're not tearing out the transmission, yet again...

Posted by lisa at 02:27 PM

October 16, 2005

"maybe i like kale" soup

shopping for soup vegetables today, i considered kale. many people like kale. why do i claim to not like it? i couldn't remember why. i like other greens. ok, i thought, i'll try kale.

olive oil
sage, parsley, basil, rosemary, thyme, celery seed, sea salt, pepper
an onion
garlic
a red potato
one leek
one carrot
green beans
a few ribs of kale

chop fine and stew together with a bit of water. add a splash of white wine. (this last part may have been a mistake, but then, the wine was more like vinegar...)

season three chicken breasts with olive oil and the same herbs, seal in tin foil and roast in the oven til cooked. cut up and add to the soup.

Posted by lisa at 10:27 PM

...and then i rode in the alpha!

whee! i finally got to go for a ride in phil's alpha. i've been in more exotic cars this month than i have been in ever before. that's an awkward sentence, but you probably know what i mean.

as we walked out my door, phil asked me if i wanted to drive. while such trust is admirable, given that i'd broken a car the previous day, i declined.

while we were out on old oxford highway, he decided to test out something a friend had told him recently about double wishbone suspensions. he pulled into a nice flat, empty parking lot and did the tightest donuts ever-- no squealing, except from me! he made me squee like a girl. it was fun.

hey phil, you should look into autocrossing that thing.

Posted by lisa at 06:14 PM

October 15, 2005

home!

it's good to be home!

travelling with jason/sylvia wrath/sean is always great. these are people who like to eat their way through wherever they are going, and actually put some thought into what they eat, which is a mode of travel that i heartily endorse. in fact, i felt inspired to be more brave about trying new flavors, and ate a kalamata olive on friday night at dinner. the flavor was complex, and some parts of it were good, but there was one flavor that tasted like a medicine that i had as a child, which was not so good. but i could see trying kalamata olives again, especially really good ones, like in that hot almond and olive appetizer at federal.

i didn't go crazy, though, and try to eat eggs for breakfast while hungover this morning. that would have been asking for all kinds of trouble.

the microcar museum was amazing. he even let us drive them! and, sadly, we broke two of them. well, i don't know if we broke them but they broke while we were driving. 50 year old cars are finicky that way, though, and bruce, the man who owns the museum, was very cool about it.

i took many, many photos. they are uploading to flickr now, and i'll sift through and caption them later. jason got a few of me and sean driving that i'm sure i'll link to, once they go up.

i think the citroen 2cv is about the size of a microcar, so it's a little surprising that he doesn't have one-- perhaps they are just too common to be worth the space.

i saw a smart up close for the first time-- i want one. they need to start importing that car to the US, seriously. it's probably bigger than the new mini cooper, and much more swank and roomy inside, plus of course the fuel mileage should be far superior. i might almost be willing to take on a car payment again to get one. might.

yeah, i'm gonna need a garage one of these days...

Posted by lisa at 11:44 PM

October 14, 2005

i'm home. i leave tomorrow.

the last day of the conference was the highlight. HIGH PRESSURE PAPER PROTOTYPE MADNESS. it was fun. exhausting. many small bits of paper were mangled. my flight did not get cancelled or delayed. no one threw up on me in the plane, or anywhere else, or even in my vicinity. ok, so i had to call AAA to give me a boost in the airport parking lot, but i kinda expected that i would. they came quickly, but the real dirty jokes started when jason! called me with details about tomorrow and we had to devote a few minutes to the double entendre possibilities of giving me a jump, as well as possible misuses of jumper cables.

so anyway, off tomorrow to the microcar museum.

Posted by lisa at 12:01 AM

October 12, 2005

talking to people

"so did you talk to the woman wearing your shoes?" - sarah

the simple answer is no.

for some people, one of the primary reasons to go to a conference is to network. not the kind of "icky" networking that marketing and sales people seem to do (which might be better called "schmoozing"), but the kind of networking that geeks do, which involves a beautiful aristotlean exchange of ideas in a sunlit forum with everyone wearing togas and olive leaf headbands...

...or, more likely, it involves buying beers for the guy who wrote perl, and having a beautiful exchange of ideas in a dark bar.

i don't like that i work in solitude and have little to no contact with other ui design / interaction design / visual design / usability professionals at work. but when i get to a conference filled with my peers, even though it's a prime chance to connect with people who actually might understand what it is that i do, i rarely meet anyone. i have the skills and i could do it, but i really, really don't want to.

why is that? part of it is that it takes energy and a certain kind of focus to start conversations with strangers, even when i have an easy opening. the conferences take a lot of energy anyway; in a good one, i'm learning, heavily, for a full day. this is a completely different kind of energy from what i need to be highly social. to swap back and forth would be extremely taxing.

at this type of conference, i am In Class. being In Class means certain things for me: that i am anxious about looking like a moron in front of my peers; that i am intimidated by the people around me, who seem to have far more expertise in design and usability than i do; that i am intimidated by the instructors, who i don't see as resources there to serve me, but as authority figures whose displeasure i don't wish to incur.

now, i realize that that last statement is a little preposterous, but it is the attitude that i took all the way through grade school and on into my unsuccessful career in college, and it probably had a lot to do with the fact that i failed out of school. i know now that it's ridiculous, but i haven't yet succeeded in shaking that feeling when i am sitting down and there's an expert at the front of the room lecturing and manipulating a giant overhead projector. i don't raise my hand, i don't ask questions, i don't come in late and i don't go see the instructor after class. i fly below the radar as much as possible.

now, today i could have gone to the class on css and xhtml instead of the class on advanced usability testing techniques, and i would have felt like a big expert the whole time, because i am an expert on css and xhtml. but what would be the point in that? i was startled to find that experts in usability testing were in the usability testing class. at first i felt intimidated by the people who were making comments that demonstrated their experience in the field-- but realized that it was ridiculous to be intimidated by people who have the luxury of specializing when i simply do not. still, i was glad they were there-- i took notes on what many of them said.

it is true that i do feel anxious about the possibility of looking stupid. the people who have worked with me for many years (or perhaps i should say, the person who has worked with me for many years) have seen ample evidence of the confidence problems i have had and continue to have. this is at least partly due to my background; i don't have a degree, have learned everything on the job, and have had to prove my worth and competence to people who hold CS degrees-- often advanced ones-- from one of the top technical schools in the region.

i read once that women in professional careers are often plagued by the feeling that they will be "found out"-- that the people around them will suddenly realize that they are not competent, and have been somehow fooling everyone into believing otherwise. i have this problem, less so now than i have had in the past, but it's partly grounded in fact-- when it comes to running a formal usability test, i am clueless. i have never done an heuristic evaluation. i have never written a formal usability test report, because the person i am reporting to is usually me! i design it, i test it, and i fix it. this is not a valid way to ensure usability, and that's extremely apparent to me now that i have finished today's seminar.

that feeling of being a sham comes to the front when i attend a conference of this sort, because i am surrounded by people who are experts, have been to design school or hold degrees in HCI (human-computer interaction).

i realize that my skills are unique in my department and that they are grateful to have me. but suppose there comes a day when i need to move on? will i be able to? then it will matter to someone besides me that i don't have the chops.

well, i have strayed from my original point-- not talking to people. but maybe it's clear now why i don't-- there's just too much happening in my head. welcome to my head.

Posted by lisa at 06:04 PM

October 11, 2005

the procedure. more observations.

the procedure

observations

Posted by lisa at 06:58 PM

October 10, 2005

two lists

at the conference today there was:

possibilities for the familiar guy include:

i'm inclined to say that i know him in person, not from a photo, and that he did not work at my company, but i really can't be sure.

Posted by lisa at 06:16 PM

October 09, 2005

failure

so far i have failed to cause the predicted swath of destruction up the east coast from nc to boston. cambridge is ok. it gave me a pez witch, like oz gave willow.

willow: i didn't get you anything!
oz: yeah you did.

Posted by lisa at 02:03 PM

October 08, 2005

i am a destructive force

so far today i have flooded one part of my basement with laundry waste water, and seem to have destroyed my tivo while vacuuming. i can only imagine what i'll be killing next. oddly, my carefree spirit is unaffected.

they probably shouldn't let me on that plane tomorrow.

Posted by lisa at 05:51 PM

a trip to the microcar museum

what jason said.

i'll only be semi-available from tomorrow until we leave, so if anyone has questions, i'll try and answer as quickly as i can, but may not get back to you right away. i don't plan to bring my laptop into the conference, but i'll have it with me at the hotel.

Posted by lisa at 09:52 AM

October 07, 2005

BPAL: Midway, Succubus, Harvest Moon

MORE...

Posted by lisa at 07:35 PM

Children are skary

many thanks to xta for this one!

she said, "this one has lisa written all over it." and she's not wrong. halloween, creepiness, eyeballs.

Posted by lisa at 11:08 AM

October 06, 2005

it's all clear now.

"It’s a little known fact that when John is drawing Shoes he is really thinking about Cars and when he is drawing/driving Cars, he is really thinking about Shoes." - fluevog promotional literature

Posted by lisa at 10:44 PM

Art

So, next week i'll be away at this conference. The sort of conferences I attend aren't the kind normal geeks attend; there's no vendor floor, no signing away one's lifeblood for a Speed Racer lunchbox filled with Twinkies (I never did that, really), or collecting logo'd pocketknives from tool vendors. (Get it? Pocketknife? Tools?)

The conferences I go to are like school. Or rather, they are school. UI school. There's really no other way to learn the stuff that I do, aside from teaching myself.

I always find myself mentally overstimulated during these things. I never bring a proper notebook, and wind up with pages of free conference notepads crammed with ideas for UI widgets, menu designs, site structures... the classes always make my brain a little crazy.

So for this trip, I decided to be prepared. I went out at lunch and bought a ring-bound, unlined sketchbook, and one of those really amazing archival-quality pens that have tiny nibs measured in microns. I packed up a couple of mechanical pencils from work and my favorite big eraser. I'm ready.

Wandering up and down the craft supply store aisles, I felt sad that art supplies are no longer a part of my life. Did you know that paintbrushes now have rubberized handles? I didn't. I remember when a block of Arches was one of my most prized possessions.

Now it's all ones and zeroes. I do kind of miss the way really good watercolor paper smells like a paper factory when you wet it. But I was never a very skilled draughtsman, which you need to be to get anywhere with painting. Color, and handling the paint were my best skills. But it was all abstract, and rabbits. Lots of rabbits.

Anyway. One the best parts of my current job is that I sometimes get to sketch with real pencil and paper. I think my crude pencil sketches horrify some members of the team who are accustomed to doing wireframes and whatnot in a drawing program. But the users and the developers love them, and they're so fast.

I look forward now to filling many blank pages of that sketchbook while i'm away.

Posted by lisa at 05:12 PM

October 05, 2005

my vision of the perfect life

in the alps, with my microcar and teardrop, having a picnic.

the huge, creepy doll in the back seat of the microcar is an important element, too.

edit: it's also important that my boyfriend's dorky hat match the caravan perfectly.

Posted by lisa at 01:44 PM

Creepy.

Creepy House Cluster on Flickr

Posted by lisa at 12:29 AM

death is life

i know fall is supposed to be about the dying of things: the year, the trees and plants, but to me, it is about things springing to life. like me, for instance. october is often the busiest, and happiest, month of my year.

the air feels wonderful, and the thin, harsh scents of summer are replaced by full, rich ones. the clothes become more interesting. boots are possible.

the cat is frisky. he likes this kind of air.

the playlist at the station is bursting with new music.

the butterscotch sauce on top of the chocolate sundae that is october is, of course, halloween, a vibrant holiday that celebrates death and darkness.

maybe i'm wired wrong but this time of year is all about life to me.

Posted by lisa at 12:28 AM

October 04, 2005

the week of many foods

i don't normally eat out often.

sunday: panang with b.

monday: grilled, bacon wrapped hotdogs to celebrate the passing of the pool, with mary, xta, and ray.

tuesday: lunch at dalat with work people; dinner at federale with the xdu geek contingent.

wednesday: dinner at the new indian place near q shack with sarah, prior to shoe shopping.

mmm yummy.

Posted by lisa at 04:43 PM

my demands

Fortunately for the company, I've been replaced by a very small shell script by Joe (at my request). So they don't have to deal with my demands, and I can just make bacon and say ASS all i want, at home.

NOTE: this is a joke. JOKE.

Posted by lisa at 03:44 PM

October 03, 2005

last day of pool

a very sad day indeed, the last swim in the pool. it was... brisk! i got in all at once and just kept moving. it actually felt great, and even better once i got out. now i feel all relaxed and nice. and cool enough to need my long socks.

Posted by lisa at 09:18 PM

October 01, 2005

good times

no, really. i got seven whole, consecutive hours of sleep, did Stuff, then saw the 'Serenity' movie with s. and hip friends of her from work. the movie was great. i definitely want to see it again.

afterwards, my first trip to federal in some weeks. oh, how i missed thee federal. i'm going back on tuesday. i tried the ruben; i've never had one before. it didn't hold a candle to the sauerkraut-based sandwich i was developing at the long lost main st. cafe in downtown durham some years ago. this was back in my no-dead-animal-flesh days. it was: swiss, extremely thin, lengthwise slices of cucumber, mayo, and kraut. it was good. i probably got it on sourdough or rye. well, now i know what a ruben tastes like, sort of. i bet there are better rubens, though.

aaaanyway. like i said, good times.

Posted by lisa at 10:29 PM

yep.

i dreamed this morning that i was halfway into cleaning up the back bedroom when halloween party guests started arriving. i'm pretty sure i didn't have any food or drinks ready, nor had i cleaned the rest of the house. i remember standing there saying, "the sad thing is that i have all these cool halloween decorations and i guess i'm not going to get to use them".

standard lisa anxiety dream. i missed out on them for roswell this year so i guess i have to make up for that somehow.

but the thing that makes me really sad is that, in my dream, cleaning the back bedroom was so easy. it was happening almost magically. in reality, that's not going to be the case.

Posted by lisa at 10:08 AM