Dear city,

I'm really tired of driving on streets that are flooded halfway across whenever we have two days of rain. (Currently on Day n+1 of rain.) And it's especially annoying when entire blocks are closed off because their streets are completely flooded (as in, what looks to be a foot of standing water).

It's called drainage.

No love,
Me (and every other driver in this city)

While cleaning out my Documents folder in the external hard drive, I came across this email forward from 2003 (ish - I seem to recall this being around before then). Some of these are still true, but it's amazing how much is really outdated. (I've added a couple of comments in italics.)

You Know You Are Living In The Year 2003 When...
1. Your reason for not staying in touch with family is because they do not have e-mail.
2. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three.
3. Your grandmother asks you to send her a JPEG file of your newborn so she can create a screen saver.
4. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home.
5. Every commercial on television has web site address at the bottom of the screen. (Passe at this point - which commercial doesn't?)
6. You buy a computer and 3 months later it's out of date and sells for half the price you paid. (Whatsisface's Law - computing power doubles every 18 - now every 12 - months.)
7. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go get it. (Same with your mp3 player of choice.)
8. Using real money, instead of credit or debit, to make a purchase would be a hassle and take planning. (Nope. Cash is fine; it's using a CHECK that's a hassle.)
9. You just tried to enter your password on the microwave. (The built-in microwave in my new apartment has a HELP button. I feel behind the times.)
10. You consider second-day air delivery painfully slow.
11. Your dining room table is now your flat filing cabinet (or the pool table). (Especially true for students... *cough*thesis*cough*)
12. Your idea of being organized is multiple-colored Post-it Notes.
13. You hear most of your jokes via e-mail instead of in person.
14. You get an extra phone line so you can get phone calls. (Unless you're out in the boonies, though, who has dialup anymore?)
15. You disconnect from the Internet and get this awful feeling, as if you just pulled the plug on a loved one. (That's why cable/DSL is on 24/7.)
16. You get up in the morning and go on-line before getting your coffee.
17. You wake up at 2 AM to go to the bathroom and check your E-mail on your way back to bed.
18. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. :-)
19. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.
20. Even worse; you know exactly who you are going to forward this to...

Public Service Announcement: To my flist in the Eastern Panhandle/Maryland/DC area (and probably NY area, I think it goes up that far north).

The meteorologists are actually being serious this time about the tornado storm warning, okay? Even though the last five times we've had the more serious tornado warning in the Greater Tri-State area (WV/OH/KY) it's been completely overblown (hehe)... it's not this time. I don't know if any funnel clouds were actually sighted in my area or not, but there was rain and VERY high winds. Oh, and the power in the entire Huntington Mall is out and has been since just after 5 p.m. *nods*

So be careful. Bring in any pets and/or outside furniture you may have placed outside in the unseasonably nice weather and make sure you have candles/flashlights/kerosene lanterns/etc. And watch the clouds; they're awesome.

Edited for better info.

I just bought and downloaded Cruxshadows' Fortress in Flames and am listening to it for the second time. "Dragonfly" sounds REALLY REALLY familiar - especially Rogue's melody during the chorus. I swear, though, I've never heard the song before this evening.

Here's the video, in case you haven't heard the song before. Does anyone else think the melody sounds like something from another song? I'm not saying they ripped someone's track, it's just really bugging me. (Or is it that the melody sounds like one of their other songs?)

Incidentally, I LOVE the location in the video. :)

While going through a medieval feminist index looking for more research material for my thesis, I came across this book title:

Size Matters: Penile Problems in Icelandic Sagas.

...... yeah.

From my thesis, chapter 1: "Malory’s positive portrayal of Guinevere so far was in giving her great strength of character" in certain situations. It does NOT help my concentration to read that line as "great strength of feet", a la Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Le sigh.

Also, an update on my last post. It took the heater a full hour and thirty-five minutes to start blowing warm-ish air. That is, air that would normally be considered just a little above room temperature. I said screw this and went to Dad's for the night, leaving the heat on in the expectation that it would eventually start producing actual heat. Came home this afternoon around 2:20 or so, and what do I find? The heater's still blowing out the somewhat-warmer-than-room-temperature air. Still doing that now, actually, two and a half hours after I get back. It has been on for nearly 23 hours and no hot air. I'm definitely calling maintenance on Tuesday morning, and in the meantime am bundling up and cuddling under blankets.

All right. It is, right now, 13.4F outside. I am wearing tights, knee-high socks, skinny pants, a long-sleeve shirt, my thickest hoodie with the hood up, and knit gloves with the fingertips cut off. And I am still cold.

Did I mention that the air/heat unit in my apartment, even when turned on to heat, pushes out only cold air at first? It's been running for 50 minutes, give or take a couple, and it's STILL not warmed up. This is ridiculous. It's supposed to go down to zero tonight.

I may hole up in my bathroom for an hour or so, as the mini wall heater there works wonderfully.

Okay, I finally jumped on the bandwagon. Follow me here, if you want. It'll probably mostly be about my thesis, for the next couple of months at least.

And if you're on Twitter, let me know okay? I want to add to my group.

frothierlemming asked me about a song that was trying to get stuck in her head, which turned out to be Joey Lawrence's "Justa 'Nother Love Song". From back in 1993 (I discovered him a couple of years later). Intrigued, I checked him out on YouTube and then downloaded his album. Oh my gods.... can his music BE any more stereotypically early-90s? It immediately took me back to when I was 11 and hanging out with my best friend, Amber. We'd stay in her room with the lights out, turn on her red lava lamp, and listen to this album while dancing with pillows. I still think he had a good voice, though!

I'm selling off a bunch of history books over at historystudents - go check it out if you're interested!

That post is a community-wide buy/sell/trade post, so there will be other posts there as well.

Dear Santa... Dear Santa, This year I've been busy! Last Monday I helped sapphirescarlet across the street (6 points). In April I invaded Iraq, broke it, and couldn't glue it back together before Mom got home (-1012 points). In July I got in line at the supermarket at the same time as someone else and I didn't yield (-8 points). Last week I put gum in wicked_luthy's hair (-12 points). In June I put money in dancinglights's expired parking meter (14 points). Overall, I've been naughty (-1012 points). For Christmas I deserve a moldy sandwich! Sincerely, historychick49

Write your letter to Santa! Enter your LJ username:

To the World: I'm SO SORRY for breaking Iraq. Superglue doesn't work (probably all that sand), and I didn't have any gorilla glue or anything.

All right. I find myself at the end of the semester (one class - tomorrow evening - and one exam - next Monday evening - and that's it) and, coincidentally, nearing the end of the books-for-pleasure I have but have not read yet. I've never read Neil Gaiman yet, but I'd like to start; everything I've been reading says I should like him.

So I ask you, my wonderful flist: what readily-accessible book of his should I read first? Keep in mind, I've never read any of his books, comics, or anything else (including movies) that feature his characters and/or stories. So I don't want to be dropped into the middle of an ongoing story when I don't have a clue what's going on.

Many thanks in advance!

Rejected Dissertation Topics
From: D. R. Thomas

THE LIGHTER SIDE OF STALIN

LEIBNIZ, SCHOPENHAUER, FEUERBACH, AND WITTGENSTEIN: A GUIDE TO PRONOUNCING THEM

FOUCAULT'S MERLOT: THE PROBLEMATIC OF DIONYSIAN TEXTUALISMS AND SUBALTERN POWER DISCOURSES ON ERNEST & JULIO GALLO BOTTLES

TEXTUAL DETERMINATION AND THE INEVITABILITY OF YOUR FINISHING THIS SENTENCE

SECURITY IN THE CARIBBEAN BASIN AS VIEWED THROUGH THE EYES OF BULLWINKLE J. MOOSE AND ROCKET J. SQUIRREL

PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION STUDY OF EFFECTS OF FERMENTED GRAINS AND GRAPES ON HUMAN MATING BEHAVIOR IN THE FRENCH RIVIERA DURING SPRING BREAK

VAGUENESS, AMBIGUITY, AND ANOTHER THING

CHALLENGES IN GRAMMATICAL APPLICATIONS; (SEMICOLON) THE FLAGRANT OVERUSE OF SEMICOLONS IN DISSERTATION TITLES

The following is taken verbatim from an email my mom sent my sister and me this morning. I appreciate it because it gives me a different perspective on the election, and it made me realize why so many people were seriously afraid of an assassination attempt on Obama. I have her permission to post it, and the only changes are to names for privacy.

( Cut because I didn't realize how long it is. )

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG Obama won!!!

As soon as I saw on the BBC's map that he passed 270 and was being declared the winner, I literally jumped around my apartment, squeeing and laughing. I thought it was going to be much closer, too, but it's a landslide - as of this posting, Obama literally has more than twice the electoral college votes that McCain has (333 to 155)! My state and Texas went for McCain, no surprise whatsoever, but I'm very extremely proud of Ohio and Florida (and Pennsylvania and every other state that voted for Obama).

Yeah, I know, no posts in forever. This is just too good not to share:

This is taken verbatim from an email sent by MoveOn.org. Requests for donations to elect Obama removed; a few comments by me added.

Dear MoveOn member,

Republicans are hoping that when Americans watch this week's Republican convention, we'll forget about the last eight years.

So we've put together this list of the Bush administration's "accomplishments."

It's actually shocking, even when you've lived through it. Take a moment to read it and pass it along:

• Misleading about Iraq's WMD


• Implying a connection between Saddam and 9/11


• Launching a war that's killed 4,150 Americans and wounded more than 30,000


• Challenging Iraqi insurgents to attack U.S. troops: "Bring 'em on"


• Granting no-bid contracts to Halliburton in Iraq

( Read more here )

Via rialian:

Police Seize Permibus

""""
At approximately 6:25 pm on August 30, 2008 Minneapolis Police, Minnesota State Troopers, Ramsey County Sheriffs, Saint Paul Police, and University of Minnesota Police pulled over the Earth Activist Training Permaculture Demonstration Bus (Permibus) by exit 237 on Interstate 94. Initially the police told the people on the bus to exit. When the people on the bus asked if they were being detained they were told that they were but police were unable to provide justification. When asked why they pulled the bus over they refused to answer. After repeated requests to explain why the bus had been stopped Officer Honican of the Minneapolis Police explained that this was just a routine traffic stop though he did not explain the reason for the traffic stop. The police then told Stan Wilson, the driver and registered owner of the Permibus, that they were going to impound the bus in case they wanted to execute a search warrant later. After more than an hour of being questioned by Stan and Delyla Wilson as to the legalities of their detainment and the impoundment of the Permibus, the police then informed Stan that the bus, which is legally registered as a passenger vehicle in the state of Montana, was being impounded for a commercial vehicle inspection. Shortly afterward Sergeant Paul Davis, a commercial vehicle inspector arrived on scene. Despite the polices insistence that the reason for impoundment was for a commercial vehicle inspection the Permibus crew were not allowed to remove anything from the bus including computers, toiletries, and 17-year-old Megan Wilson's shoes. The police finally allowed the animals to be removed from the Permibus before it was towed, leaving the Permibus family standing beside their chickens and dogs, homeless on the highway.

( Please keep reading )

BBC News has this awesome story on Uncovering the ultimate family tree. One man's ancestors were buried in a cave near the village where he lives - 3000 years ago!

Ganked from frothierlemming

1. My username is _____ because ____.
Historychick49, because... I'm a big history geek. Also it's similar to "computer chick", which is what I was called during my second and third years at college, because I worked in the computer service center. (Run-on sentence!)

2. My journal is titled ____ because ____.
Wandering Through Time, because that's what I do. Historically, that is. Although literally as well, I guess, because of my tendency to daydream and drift sometimes...

3. My subtitle is ____ because ____.
A history girl's thoughts. Because yeah. I'm a big history geek, remember?

4. My friends page is called ____ because ____.
Friends. Because I didn't know you could rename it... (going to after this posts!) Okay, now it's called "My Medieval Homies", which is an in-joke from Winter's class, when he said that the king's court (his nobles and knights, mainly) were his medieval homies.

5. My default userpic is ____ because ____.
Twins, because I absolutely adore the Weasley twins and have crushed on them since the second book. Oh, and they're cute in the movies, too.