Sadly, this post was lost due to an unfortunate wetware error during the migration. I hope to recreate it from memory at some point, but just now I can’t remember what I wrote 
oops
Archive for the Uncategorized CategoryI try to be faithful about posting to the The Thin Red Line Monday–Friday but sometimes real life interferes. If you stop by here just for the book reviews, please check back Monday afternoon/evening. If you’re checking in cause you care about me, and want all the details, they’re at:
Today’s book selection bears little resemblance to Consumer Reports Buying Guides or other purchasing advice titles you may be familiar with. The Rough Guide to Shopping with a Conscience could be described as the mass market arrival of “ethical consumerism”, transformed by the travel books publisher, which has begun expanding their Rough Guide logo and series tie in to books covering an array of consumer products, industries and issues in addition to the destination travel guides which were the original series focus. If you are looking for an indexed listing of ethically troubled companies and products to avoid, you will not find it here. What you will find is a nuanced and detailed discussion of the ethics of consumption, stating from such base line questions as “should we shop ethically?”, and progressing to advanced questions such as the unintended harms that may result from a focus on ethical consumption. Clark and Uterberger guide the reader to consider their choices as consumers, to empower themselves with knowledge about alternatives and the impacts of different choices and to negotiate the modern consumer landscape knowledgeably and ethically. This does of course require a great deal more thought and effort than purchasing a book that tells you what to buy and who not to buy it from but leaves the reader much better prepared to make purchasing choices consistent with her or his own ethics, rather than relying on a list prepared by someone who may have a very different agenda than you do. Recommended.
Vienne, the Eavesdrop Writer, has started something a little different. Each week she posts the beginning of a story, based on a conversation she has witnessed (she is an incredible eavesdropper and hears the most extraordinary things) and invites other bloggers to complete the story. Click the button above to read the beginning of the tale in a new tab, then read my ending below.
So I had my first doctor appointment today. BP way too high, as expected. (The nurse looked at the BP read out and said something like ‘you’re lucky you haven’t had a stroke with that number’ and I piped right back ‘oh, but if I had I’d have gone to the hospital and they would have had to help me. I’m not here getting meds cuz I suddenly realized I need them. I’m here cuz I suddenly got insurance; a memo on the receptionist’s bulletin board instructs her to collect a minimum $125 from the uninsured before allowing them to see a doc.) Got a scrip for Atenolol, the same BP med I used to take. Told him about my history of diabetes and that I have been off meds for 2+ years and unable to afford to eat right and predicted my blood sugar would be 300+ (which is was when I was first diagnosed a few years back). Went down to the lab for blood draw, then back to exam room. Doc came in a few mins later and told us it was 113. Shock. No diabetes meds for now. Tomorrow I am to go back for fasting glucose and other ‘fasting’ tests. They did give me a meter but said to just prick finger once a day. Not quite believing this damn near normal result I pricked my finger soon after I got home. 109. Guess it’s not time to worry about having to go on insulin Disappointingly he would not give me any anti-depressants or even my Trazadone to help me sleep (I have had a Lot of bad insomnia of late) but wants me to see a shrink first. I was quite upset about this, feeling that he was not taking my concerns seriously, but Ron (who of course heard All of what he said and not just a little of it– he is very soft-spoken and my hearing aids were way less than co-operative) finally managed to convince me that he was taking me very seriously and felt my problem was out of his league, though not until after I had pitched a Major Fit (some of you know how I get when I get the way I get). Will have to call the shrink’s office for an appy tomorrow. (Also need to get some flowers for Ron who was a real angel when I was in such a bad way; I feel so blessed to have him in my life.) Bummed that I am still at least another week away from getting back on my happy pills, but pleased my diabetes seems ok-ish. No book reviews, no links and no graphics today. In honor of my great blood sugar numbers I think I am going to drag my ass over to Safeway and buy the makings of a steak salad and eat like I wanna keep these numbers tonight.
David fussed with it until almost 2am before crying uncle and going home. Ron then took over and fussed with it for another hour or so (and was lost to the world, so involved with the damn thing he got). Then I finally got mad. They treated me like I was too stupid to possibly know anything about installing software but neither of them could get the damned thing to dial up. Ron went to bed mad. It seems to recognize the modem but after you enter all the information and click to dial it tries for a matter of seconds before failing and leaving a log that indicates it was unable to communicate with the modem due to a “pppd options” error. None of us were able to figure out how to change pppd options (or even what exactly they Are). I read the fucking manual and fiddled with it for more than an hour myself and still didn’t get it to work. Feh. Desperate to be online I booted up Joel’s old desktop and dialed into Earthlink just fine, though this old box is noticeably slower and very uncomfortably situated in a corner of the kitchen. We started out with a Windows laptop that wouldn’t go online and had all of our accumulated stuff but otherwise worked fine and now we have Linux laptop that won’t go online but otherwise works fine. I HATE computers!!! So yesterday I was all set to post, had picked out a couple of books even and was ready to roll when something Odd happened. The laptop is weirding out. It connects to the Internet, but then the browser can’t connect to any address. In Firefox, the word “Done” appears in the status bar and the page is otherwise blank. IE and Safari both display an “unknown error” message. My first thought since the problem was consistent across all three browsers was that it was problem a DNS problem on Earthlink’s end, but we logged in to Earthlink from the roommate’s computer and it loads all pages fine. The antivirus and AdAware can’t find anything, so we have not been able to fix it. Ron spent much of yesterday evening on the phone with his techy friend David, who is supposed to come over after work tonight (unless His boyfriend calls, in which case he will be over tomorrow) and David and Ron are talking about installing either Hackintosh or Linux in hopes of getting the laptop functional again, but who knows. Meanwhile, just a quick post from work and a reminder to give thanks if the puter you’re reading this on ain’t misbehaving.
A big part of my procrastination about taking the hearing aids to be fixed was my reluctance to drive to downtown Seattle and deal with the traffic and expensive parking so I was very happy that we were able to be seen by the audiologist at Virginia Mason’s Federal Way campus, which is only about ten miles. The audiologist was very helpful. We sent one of the aids back to the factory for repair and she was able to service the other one and get it working. She also gave me a loaner to replace the one sent to the factory. It was great being able to hear ambient sounds (a door opening, the clank of the seat belt buckle hitting the door of the car, etc). On the way home we stopped and got my haircut, which was way overdue. Once we got home, though, the serviced aid (not the loaner) started giving horrible feedback so I was forced to take it off. (We will call tomorrow and make another appointment to bring it back.) The loaner aid works well for conversation, but does not give me the rich ambient noise like the digital. Thrilled that I can at least hear well enough to go back to work tomorrow, and that I managed to accomplish dentist, hearing aids and haircut on my days off. No books today, still reading Perfect Mess and Boy’s Life. Happy Wednesday. It was a nice weekend. Sunny and hot, but not as horribly hot as it got last week. I was off Saturday, and Ron and I went and picked up Staci. We had lunch at Pannera Bread (and oogled at but did not indulge in any of the pastries) then went to the library and checked out some videos, stopped at Safeway to pick up a few things then came home to hang out and watch movies. We watched Cool World and Network. I made a jambalaya, but without pepper and hot spices and with a kind of etouffee base (post surgery Staci can’t handle spicy and she loves etouffee). There was watermelon and almond poppy cake for dessert and we sent her back to Kathi’s with a big doggy bag. A very nice day off.
Being back at work is taking some getting used to. I have been tired a lot and have renewed respect for folks who manage to blog every day even though they’re busy. So I am back from hiatus and will try to get back to posting regularly. Ron is really into comics and graphic novels, an interest I don’t really share, though I do love cartoons. And from the traffic I see at 741.5973 (where book length collections of cartoons are shelved), I am not the only one. I am at times amazed at the continuing incredible popularity of Garfield.
As I typo this, I am watching the fourth season of The Flintstones on DVD. This caught my eye while I was checking stuff in so I brought it home. I have very fond memories of watching this show as a child, though watching it again now I am less impressed. While it is funny, the plots seem very weak to my adult tastes. Then too I suppose that The Simpsons have since raised the bar a great deal. Tomorrow I have an appointment with human resources to do paperwork for insurance and benefits and it sounds like my insurance will be effective August 1st. Odd as it sounds I am Really looking forward to going to the doctor and the dentist again. Happy Monday! I am so looking forward to having my regular gig at Lakewood, though I am realizing I will miss working so much at Eatonville, which is about 20 miles south of here, along the road to Mt. Rainier. Once you get out of the strip mall exurbs, it is rural and woodsy with frequent glimpses of our famous mountain and fond memories of many trips to Rainier. The small town branch is very easy work and they are super nice to me. It definitely beats fighting traffic on I-5.
I have finished no books, but am about 2/3 of the way through Crazy In Alabama and am really enjoying it. Several odd titles from the library are also in the hopper. Last night I stayed up until all hours cataloging another carton of my books on Library Thing, which is my favorite new toy
 Library Patrons Are Often ConfusedAfter nearly a dozen interviews, eight months as a substitute and umpteen books checked in and shelved, today I had yet another interview at 9:30 am during an 8-3:30 shift. At 2:30 they called me into the supervisor’s office to tell me I am hired. YAY. Naomi, the human resources lady will e-mail me when she has the paperwork ready for me to come sign and my hire date/start date is Sunday July 1st. I will be working every Sunday, Monday and Friday and alternating Thursdays and Saturdays. Thrilled that I will have set schedule and dependable hours and health insurance and retirement and vacations. No book review today, instead I am plugging a few blogs recently added to my list: Nina Munteanu is just your basic next door neighbor alien. She is also an educator and a scientist and a writer based in BC. The Alien Nextdoor covers a wide range of subjects with a unique perspective. Towel Road is a gay news site that is frequently updated and very well produced. Worth a daily visit to keep up on news you won’t see in the MSM. Thanks to JoyZeeBoy for the intro to this one. Unshelved is a daily comic strip centering around the life of Dewey, a lazy librarian and his coworkers and patrons at the Mallville Public Library. It is often quite funny even if you don’t work in a library. So I took a paid training class at library headquarters in Social Web Literacy and decided it was finally time for me to start blogging. I doubt I will ever be the uber blogger that my friend Bev is but will try to live up to the standard set by my friend Ron I intend to post the sorts of personal news and rants that I used to post to Section 17 in the very bad old days and more recently to familywechose, which has become So quiet. I will also post the occasional book review in conjunction with my Library Thing page, where I am somewhat ambitiously attempting to catalog every book I’ve read. Thanks for stopping by and for being part of my virtual family. |
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