asimplechord | Entries tagged with transportation

♥ A++++, Brian Fallon. I have had Elsie on repeat all day.

:( Fail, USTA. FAIL. The last two days have been nothing but fail.

Rafa was not amused.

Nor was Daveeed.

Rafa overcame his annoyance to trounce Gilles Muller today, but Daveeed, not so much.

♥ Did I mention I started taking the bus when Houston Metro opened a new park & ride about a mile from my house? I LOVE IT. Someone else can worry about traffic while I sit and read or check my f-list. And the extra bonus: I cannot stay late, working extra hours, because of the limited schedule. Which I would do if/when I drove to work, even though overtime does not exist for my position.

♥ In my possession:
- airfare to BWI for Halloween week
- tickets for the DC show on the Tour Of Glee & Flailing
- possibly tickets for Philadelphia and Sayreville
- notice that I am taking leave for the TX/NOLA/East Coast shenanigans

Internet. If you could pick any single song that Patrick Stump and BUrie would perform together, ANY SONG AT ALL, what would it be?

Current Music: The Horrible Crowes - Blood Loss | Powered by Last.fm

a) Yeah, still loving the 2-minute tease MCR gave us.

b) So, instead of spending far more than my Jeep is worth for a fix that will only be temporary, we went car shopping this afternoon. Meet the new occupant of our two-car garage. S/he needs a name. I have to drive it a bit before I can make that decision. I will say, however, that is it WAY easy to speed without realizing it, in comparison to my lumbering Snowflake. And the turning radius is a bit broader.

c) Insights from the Afghan field. A book-rec, but also a really interesting read about cultural differences/memory and imperial mistakes, and how US military/foreign policy has repeated them in the last ten years.

d) I finally read Henry Jenkin's interview with Mary Gray about her book, Doing Drag in Wal-Mart and Other Stories of Rural Queer Youth, which I've had bookmarked forever. I need to add the book to my to-be-read list.

e) I've had the same bit of porn stuck in my head for days, and haven't written it out. I have no idea what my problem is, but I am ridiculously unmotivated. I thought I'd do it today, but we see how that worked, right?

f) M'kay. I'm going to read another chapter of Steven Saylor's Empire, then stir-fry some broccoli and other assorted veggies for supper.

(Re: post title? The Badgers are gonna fall in the rankings after today's debacle, even if they pulled out the win in the end.)

This entry was originally posted at http://favoritemistake.dreamwidth.org/4208.html.

Current Music: Ludo - All The Stars In Texas

Things that made me :DDD in the last 24 hours:

1. MCR (as seen pretty much all over my f-list). THANK YOU. I was beginning to fear that we'd NEVER get the new album. Mikeyway working the blond! Geeway and that fuschia mess (if ever there were a hot mess, he is it in the vid)! Frankie's all long-haired and hot again! (NGL, I totally would've lost Iero sex-chicken while he was in Leathermouth mode, but apparently becoming a daddy of twins is working out well for him.)

2. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

3. BRMC released a live session at iTunes. (Also, I get to see them twice this week.)

4. Luuuuuudo in less than one week.

Things that made me :D then :(

1. The Dear Jack Foundation First Annual Benefit Concert was announced. This is a charity that I definitely support for a variety of reasons, and both Jack's Mannequin and Something Corporate will be performing so I'd love to go, but it's in LA, on a date that I absolutely cannot travel.

Things that made me >:/

1. Work. Dear Tutorial Grad Student: I should not have to tell you to put some damn gloves on EVERY OTHER MINUTE. Also, if you've weighed something out and it's too much, DO NOT put it back into the reagent bottle, especially if it's touched a surface you touched with your bare, naked fingers. And FYI, that thing you just weighed out is a neurotoxin in high enough quantities. I WASN'T KIDDING WHEN I TOLD YOU TO PUT ON SOME EFFIN' GLOVES.

2. Work. Yes, I'm listing it twice. Because I'm just that annoyed by the introduction of a new student for me to guide on a project that does not dovetail with mine AT ALL, at a time when The Chief is pushing me to finish the last replicates of experiments so we can get another paper out before the end of October.

3. I'm taking the Snowflake for service (again) tomorrow. More $$$ unbudgeted. The air-conditioning is blowing hot air. Which wouldn't be a big deal except this is Houston in September, and it's still supposed to be over 90F for the next week, at least.

This entry was originally posted at http://favoritemistake.dreamwidth.org/4018.html.

+ Hastings earned a contract for a book about his adventures in Afghanistan? The cynic in me wonders if this was the reason for the controversial article, to generate noise and interest. (I haven't read his memoir of Iraq. Anyone have an opinion on it?)

+ The Snowflake turned over 100k miles on my commute to work yesterday. \o/?

+ I have no idea what was in the pocket of these pants when I washed them, but I put my phone in one, and when I took it out, there was something sticky on its screen. And when I put my hands into any of the pockets - front or back - they come out sticky, with something that feels like drying glue on them. D:

+ I'm not sure if it's an editing error or a type-setting error, but there have been several instances of letter inversion in my copy of The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008 (do NOT get me started on the use of the word "adventure" to describe the invasion and its aftermath, just don't), with the most recently observed being:

Cook[...] had several extensive conservations with Sarhan, beginning on the first day of 2008.

Um, really? Do you mean conversations?

Title: A Soldier's Duty
Author: Thomas E. Ricks
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: June 2001
Editorial Review: here. Google books here.

Why? Because I've read or have in my to-be-read pile all of Thomas Ricks' non-fiction, and I thought I'd give his attempt at fiction a try.

What did I think of it? I'm not sure what I was expecting. The story itself seems consistent with a lot of what Ricks has written in his non-fiction or blogged about as WSJ and WaPo military reporter. It definitely showcases Ricks' expertise in military affairs and his affection for Afghanistan, where he lived in his youth.

Purely a personal preference: I was annoyed by POV shifts in-scene. Pick one head and stop hopping, dammit.

This book was written pre-11Sept2001 but set in 2004, so there was some dissonance as a reader, seeing military/political figures discuss a peacekeeping operation in Afghanistan without reference to Iraq. I was reading just as McChrystal's RS profile came out, so the book's contents were extremely pertinent, with respect to military disrespect for civilian overseers. I thought it illuminated the divides that can exist, even with the military hierarchy.

Ultimately, I prefer Ricks' non-fiction.

Keeper? I'll be happy to share my hardcopy if anyone wants it.

Unrelated: a new sushi place opened up down the street. :D My new favorite roll: wasabi tobiko with avocado, cucumbers, sprouts, and jalapeno.

Also unrelated: my Jeep now has new tires, a turn signal that works, a working license-plate lightbulb, a non-leaking oil pan, an uncracked radiator cap and flushed/refilled coolant, and a current inspection sticker. The other half of what should be done will have to wait for another paycheck.

Finally: how did I get sucked into reading Queer As Folk fanfiction? I wasn't that into it when QaF was on, why now? ...oh, yeah, Brian Kinney. *nods*

Current Music: Band of Skulls - Cold Fame | Powered by Last.fm

Because it's been pretty wretched.

My day got completely fucked when the sample elevator for the gamma radiation source got stuck. One experiment completely ruined, three more down the drain if it's not fixed by Tuesday. Which, what repair company is going to mess with engine parts that are down inside a cesium source? NRGH.

So I rearranged things, and I spent an hour discussing experiments with my boss before he left (for a two-week trip to France), and I'm trying to figure out this stupid cell/colony sorting software that is NOT intuitively obvious and came with a manual written by someone who is a software engineer, not a scientific end-user (re: not user-friendly), getting more and more frustrated that each time I ran the same data file I got different answers.

I finally shut things down and headed out to the train platform, only to get stuck in the rain. Without an umbrella. Awesome.

You know, I still don't understand: storms like this happen in Houston all the time, but people STILL don't know how to drive in them. ?

WHY YES, IT'S AN EXCELLENT IDEA TO GO FROM 65 MPH TO 25 MPH WITH NO WARNING BECAUSE OF SOME RAIN. REALLY. AND TO DRIVE AT TWILIGHT IN MISTY RAIN WITHOUT HEADLIGHTS. VERY SAFE.

So I was in a FINE mood by the time I got home.

But. My copy of War was here when I arrived.

( And the internets gave me this. )

I am ordering a pizza so I don't have to cook, and I'm opening some wine or some cider. A lot of wine and/or cider.

Next week is going to be better, right? RIGHT.

It has taken an hour to travel <3 miles on Alt90. Still inching along. D:

ETA: Ended up taking 2.5 hours. Not because it was flooded, but because the light at 610 was out, and people here are incapable of negotiating a fucking four-way stop.