http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bluemassgroup/front/~3/NlcrsKI_PxU/

Just realized Charley covered this interview this morning — sorry! Nonetheless, I find the “pond scum” remark noteworthy enough to get its own headline.

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. On Wednesday I posted about Gabriel Gomez’s new ad, which refers to “Dirty Ed Markey” and accuses Markey of “comparing” Gomez to Osama bin Laden and “blaming” Gomez for the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Yesterday, at the Needham-Newton Chamber of Commerce, Gomez spoke with a reporter and what he had to say was pretty astounding.

Transcript (best I could do):

Reporter: “You mentioned your ad, the campaign says it’s up and running now. There’s some Democrats talking about it’s a ‘sign of desperation,’ going after ‘Dirty Ed Markey’…”

Gomez (scoffing): “Ed Markey is ‘Dirty Ed Markey.’ Let me frame it this way: For a guy to come out with his first web video, to put me next to Osama bin Laden. A former Seal. Maybe he doesn’t understand, perhaps, who killed bin Laden. The Seals. All because I criticized the President. I was critical of him because they released so much classified information about that raid. And even Secretary Feinberg, uh, Senator Feinstein, came out and agreed with me. And it puts the troops in harm’s way. It not only puts the troops in harm’s way, but their families in harm’s way. Because now we know what unit conducted the raid, we know what kind of tactics, what kind of aircraft they flew in there. And even made a movie about it afterwards.”

Reporter: “So the offense was putting you side-by-side on the same screen?”

Gomez: “I don’t think there’s anything more… You know, I’ve got four young kids, and they’ve got to sit there and they’ve got to see an ad with their dad, who served honorably. Talk to anybody I served with, whether it was a pilot or as a Seal, or anybody I’ve worked with. And for him to be as dirty and low, pond scum, to…like…put me up there next to bin Laden, he’s just gotta be called what he is.”

Reporter: “And you say in the ad that he ‘blamed you’ for Newtown.”

Gomez: “Well, then he puts an ad up there, inferring basically, basically blaming me. Ed – Congressman Markey’s been around for 40 years. He knows exactly what he’s doing. OK, now he can hide behind all his lawyerly discussions about, ‘Well, I didn’t technically say this.’ It’s just like… Congressman Markey can’t defend the fact that he has not authored a single piece of legislation in the last 20 years that’s been signed by the President. But he comes back with these lawyerly explanations, you know, and all that. Well, he’s a lawyer. You see, he’s going to litigate everything. But the facts are, I’ve got the facts on my side.”

Reporter: “But the fact that he ‘blamed you’ for Newtown…”

Gomez: “Well, watch the ad.”

Reporter: “I know, I’ve seen the ad.”

Gomez: “You see that it infers it.”

Reporter: “He infers it by saying that you are against an assualt weapons…”

Gomez: “He knows what ads do. He knows, he knows what ads do. Congressman Markey’s been around for 40 years, and he knows what he’s doing.”

Reporter: “Is an assault weapons ban going to get…”

At this point another man, presumably from the campaign, says “You’re only supposed to get one question here” and Gomez walks away. The reporter asks for a follow-up and the second man tells the reporter she’s had three follow-ups and (I believe) suggests that she’s being hostile, which she disputes.

Let’s recap:

• Both the Globe and factcheck.org have said that Markey’s very even-handed ad (to which Gomez’s ad responds) is true, and Gomez’s allegations are false. Markey’s video did not “compare” Gomez to bin Laden, it showed him in a split screen with images of bin Laden that appeared in the anti-Obama video Gomez was hawking. It also showed him in a split screen with President Obama himself for an equal amount of time.
• Likewise, Markey’s ad on gun control simply showed Gomez on television, stating in his own words that he does not support a ban on high-capacity clips. “Like the one used” in the Sandy Hook massacre.
• Norman Ornstein of the conservative American Enterprise Institute says Gomez’s assertion that Markey’s an ineffective legislator is baseless: ““It’s, at best, a shaky attack. I’ve watched Markey since he came to the House and I’ve written many times before that he’s one of the most effective legislators” in Congress.
• Barack Obama just got 61% of the vote in Massachusetts in November, running against our former Governor, no less. His approval rating here is still in the same range. But Gomez wants to elaborate on his criticism of Obama for the way Osama bin Laden’s killing was handled. “Please proceed,” easement granter…
• Points deducted for confusing “infer” and “imply.”

But the real takeaway for me is that Gomez, while claiming he’s the victim of dirty campaign tactics, thinks it’s OK to call his opponent “pond scum.”

Stay classy, Massachusetts Republicans…

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What's the longest you've gone without seeing your family?
How did you manage?

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( You are about to view content that may only be appropriate for adults. )

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What puts the curl in curling?
Frog and Toad Are Friends (Not Enemies)
Solar-powered wheelbarrow disco
Floppy drive table with sliding parts! (a sfw link on a site with lots of nsfw content)
Iranian girls doing parkour. Fuck yeah.
OpenDyslexic, a type font for dyslexics. (Not a joke! Intended to make it easier for dyslexics to read text.)
BladePlay, online knife store, celebrates zombie awareness month with a bunch of zombie-hunting zombie-killing weaponry.
Indifferent Cats in Amateur Porn (nsfw, obviously)
ETA: late-breaking weird video clip, from the eurovision half-time show, a Swedish Smörgåsbord

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For those carnivores that make meatloafs:

Poll #1915368 The Meatloaf Poll
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 27

How do you mix the ingredients?

Do you sample the raw mixture to adjust seasonings/spices?

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http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/05/friday_squid_bl_377.html

How does he know this?

Chris Cosentino, the Bay Area’s "Offal Chef" at Incanto in San Francisco and PIGG at Umamicatessen in Los Angeles, opted for the most intimidating choice of all -- giant squid. "When it comes to underutilized fish, I wish the public wasn't so afraid of different shapes and sizes outside of the standard fillet," he said.

"I think the giant squid is a perfect example of an undervalued ocean creature. Everyone isn't afraid of squid but the size and flavor of the giant squid scares people because it has a very intense flavor but it is quite delicious."

I am surprised he has tasted giant squid?

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered.

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support the awesome phil servita's awesome art-car project:


‘The Elephant In The Room - Burning Man 2013 Art Car’
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-elephant-in-the-room-burning-man-2013-art-car/a2b7

ELEPHANT! ART! CAR!!!!

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this makes me happy:

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/350585/description/Dog_sniffs_out_grammar

(short form: dog understands difference between "to ball take frisbee" and "take frisbee to ball". i used to work with cecile mckee on syntax in tiny children, and this is reminiscent of some of her work.)

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Who's Romanthony you ask? (I did.) He was a house music DJ and producer, founder of indie label Black Male Records.

But you, like me, probably know him best as the co-writer and lead singer on the hit that established Daft Punk, "One More Time": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGBhQbmPwH8

His family confirmed to Rolling Stone this week that he died of complications of kidney disease.

Current Mood: sad

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If you were applying to graduate school and needed letters of rec, could a letter from a coworker at the same level as you be included (if the other two were from a boss or professor)?

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If your bicycle is locked to a bike rack, street sign, or parking meter anywhere along the Memorial Day parade route, you must remove it by 9 am Sunday. Otherwise the city DPW will remove and impound it (presumably at the DPW yard on Franey Road).

The parade starts at 1 pm Sunday at Somerville High School, runs down Highland Avenue to Davis Square, then Holland Street to Teele Square, then west on Broadway to the Veterans' Cemetery next to the former Johnnie's Foodmaster.

( Jackie Rossetti's full message about the paradeCollapse )

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Do you expect your Dr to return your phone calls the same day?

I called my Dr this morning right as the office opened, was promised a return call, and their business hours for today are now over and it is a holiday weekend so I can't call back until Tuesday. They gave me a prescription for something I can't take because I am pregnant and I wanted them to call in something else for me. :(

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Poll #1915344
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 83

On an average Tuesday, would you rather...? This means work/school/other, and you'll have to wear it all day

Would you rather...?

Would you rather...?

Would you rather...?

In a 3 hour time span, would you rather...?

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I've had a consistent cough for over a month now. I have not had any other signs of being sick. There have been a couple days where I feel like I'm actually coming down with something/hard to get out of bed, but other than that I feel fine... however lately I feel like the cough is getting worse.

I was chalking it up to allergies for a while, and maybe that's what it is, but I've never had spring time allergies before. Also I do not smoke and am never around anyone who does.

How can I get this cough to go away?
Can allergies cause just a cough with nothing else?
What is causing my cough? (nonsrs answers welcome)

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http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/05/training_baggag.html

The research in G. Giguère and B.C. Love, "Limits in decision making arise from limits in memory retrieval," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences v. 19 (2013) has applications in training airport baggage screeners.

Abstract: Some decisions, such as predicting the winner of a baseball game, are challenging in part because outcomes are probabilistic. When making such decisions, one view is that humans stochastically and selectively retrieve a small set of relevant memories that provides evidence for competing options. We show that optimal performance at test is impossible when retrieving information in this fashion, no matter how extensive training is, because limited retrieval introduces noise into the decision process that cannot be overcome. One implication is that people should be more accurate in predicting future events when trained on idealized rather than on the actual distributions of items. In other words, we predict the best way to convey information to people is to present it in a distorted, idealized form. Idealization of training distributions is predicted to reduce the harmful noise induced by immutable bottlenecks in people’s memory retrieval processes. In contrast, machine learning systems that selectively weight (i.e., retrieve) all training examples at test should not benefit from idealization. These conjectures are strongly supported by several studies and supporting analyses. Unlike machine systems, people’s test performance on a target distribution is higher when they are trained on an idealized version of the distribution rather than on the actual target distribution. Optimal machine classifiers modified to selectively and stochastically sample from memory match the pattern of human performance. These results suggest firm limits on human rationality and have broad implications for how to train humans tasked with important classification decisions, such as radiologists, baggage screeners, intelligence analysts, and gamblers.

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The dogs (Crash and Kablam, both bichons) consider Brianna their master.  Crash, a year older, has always shown more affection toward Brianna than me (I suspect this is because his trainer was female), and little Kablam follows him.  And when Brianna and I come home, the dogs will run to her.  OK, I can accept this. No biggie.  Brianna's their master, even though I feed them and take them for walks.

But... when we all sleep together, I snore, and sometimes it's so loud that Brianna will vanquish me to the living room.  But the weird thing is that the dogs get out of bed and follow me.  So they chose to sleep with me rather than Brianna, even though they obviously consider her their master.

Why?

We haven't been able to figure this out.

Is it that my body temperature is slightly different than Brianna's and more appealing?

Is it that they're waiting for me to wake up so I'll feed them or take them for a walk?

Is it because they want to give their master more space? 

Or are they, being small dogs, guarding the outskirts of the camp?

I am no dog whisperer, but this behavior has long puzzled us.

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• Thu, 23:51: life!!! I just backed Speakeasy Briefs: Underwear with a Secret... on @Kickstarter http://t.co/ZjjGmWfLbq
• Fri, 00:16: @GreyhoundBus it would be nice if you could tell me a trip is sold out BEFORE i go all the way thru and give you my cc#
• Fri, 00:29: RT @speakeasybriefs: Only 2 days left on Kickstarter! Bring the party to your pecker with Speakeasy Briefs http://t.co/1xxdcHbrFv
• Fri, 00:52: RT @AnonOpsMob: #OpNewBlood Do what ever you want, nobody's the boss have fun,
• Fri, 00:55: moved printer into my room bc tired of roommie taking the converter plug to his room; i share everything else but cannot use without plug
• Fri, 00:55: he and i have discussed this repeatedly before
• Fri, 00:56: RT @AngryBlackLady: The best part about Arrested Development: The Reckoning on May 26 is getting to quote it incessantly with fellow obsess…
• Fri, 01:50: june and i don't get along. so i will cope by travelling around the usa. but i need to get better at sleeping.
• Fri, 05:55: it's as ann as the nose on plain's face. #isitthe26thyet?

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleSightseeing/~3/NeP1DX6zfTQ/

http://googlesightseeing.com/?post_type=gss_streetview&p=36062

---

You're reading an entry from Google Sightseeing, which is copyright © 2013 Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull and must not be reproduced without permission.

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Poll #1915311
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 67

You are eating in a restaurant and find one of the following in your food. Which of these would be enough to cause you to totally stop eating/leave the resteraunt immediately?

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bluemassgroup/front/~3/8Ik9Ytz-Oe8/

With apologies to those who aren’t interested in polls. Read no further…

The Emerson College Polling Society has a new survey, fielded this Monday to Wednesday (5/20 to 5/22), showing Ed Markey leading Gabriel Gomez in the U.S. Senate race, 44.8 percent to 33.1 percent, with 22.1 percent still undecided. That’s an improvement from their poll taken right after the primaries, which had Markey up by 6. I don’t believe I saw the first Emerson poll, but it fits well with PPP’s poll showing Markey up 4 just after the primary, and the subsequent polling showing him ahead by 7 or 8. Suffolk’s poll showing Markey with a 17-point lead (52-35) remains the outlier, though this new poll shows movement in that direction.

Read on for nuts and bolts…

The Emerson survey used two screening questions. First, “How likely are you to vote in the June 25 Special Election…?” Second, they asked if participants had voted in either primary. I don’t know, however, how they used the responses to construct their likely voter screen.

81% said they were “very likely” to vote on June 25 and another 8% “somewhat likely.” I’d love to see the day we get 89% turnout for a special election in June. 68.6% said they had voted in a primary (40% in the Democratic primary and 28.6% in the Republican primary). If true, that’s much higher than the turnout rate on April 30.

A full 98% now have heard of Markey (early in the primary season polls were showing a third unfamiliar with him). Markey is at 49.5% favorable, 35.6% unfavorable, 12.9% undecided. Only 6% said they’d never heard of Gomez. Gomez is at 41.1% favorable, 34.8% unfavorable (a big rise in unfavorable), and 18.1% undecided (a big decrease in undecided, suggesting people don’t like what they’ve learned). These results could reflect the more engaged sample, but that’s who will show up on June 25. What’s curious is that this poll seems to have more regular voters, but the share of undecided respondents is twice as large as in PPP’s latest poll.

Markey leads among Democrats 66-15 (Gomez pulled 12% of Dems in PPP’s poll last week). Gomez leads among Republicans 70-12 (PPP had a similar result). Gomez’s lead among unenrolled voters is 43-32, with 26% undecided. That’s lower than his lead in the prior Emerson poll or PPP’s polls, and less than he needs to win.

A third of respondents identified “jobs” as the most important issue facing the country. 19.4% named healthcare, 15.9% named education, 14.0% named the deficit, and only 4% named terrorism, a surprisingly low figure only a month after the Boston Marathon bombing. Perhaps learning more about the isolated nature of the Tsarnaev brothers has prevented a full-scale panic on terror.

Relatively little difference in the issues identified by those who voted in the Democratic primary and those who voted in the Republican primary. Nearly indentical percentages of each group named jobs (many) and terrorism (few). Democrats were slightly more likely to name healthcare. The big difference was more Democratic primary voters focusing on education (19% vs. 10%) (see that, Bob Neer?) and more GOP primary voters focused on the deficit (also 19% vs. 10%).

These disparties were much larger among self-identified Dems and Repubs as opposed to April 30 primary voters. 20.9% of self-identified Democrats said education is the most important issue, but only 6.6% of self-identified Republicans. 28.6% of Republicans named the deficit, compared to only 8.3% of Democrats. Just over a quarter of Gomez’s support (25.1%) comes from people who believe the deficit is the most important issue we face, compared to only 5.7% of Markey voters. Guess Fox News hasn’t started reporting that the deficit is largely under control, probably more than it should be in such a weak economy.

Some quibbles:

• The poll might oversample self-identified Democrats (44.6%) compared to Republicans (10.5%). Independents were 44.9% of those surveyed. Perhaps hard-right Republicans are not passing the likely voter screen.
• The self-identified Democrats were 54.5% men, 45.5% women. Seems like not enough Democratic women. Women were a large majority (57.6% vs. 42.4%) of the unenrolled voters surveyed.
• 42% of those polled were in the 60+ age group, a demographic that has been very friendly to Gomez in all the polling thus far. In this poll they favored Markey 42-34. Odd.
• Only 3.2% of respondents were age 18-29, and only 8.1% between 30 and 39. Perhaps a landline poll?
• A strange geographic breakdown. Not in terms of numbers (about which I don’t know enough to have an opinion), but in terms of process. They identify regions by area code. Just last week I was telling my wife that it’s crazy to have Salem in the same area code (978) as Dunstable and Ashburnham, but not as Marblehead. Lexington is 781, same area code as Marblehead or Scituate, while Concord is 978. 508 includes Sturbridge and Worcester, but also Nantucket. I find it odd to call 508 “Central/South Shore” when that’s not even a region, and the entire South Shore north of Plymouth is in 781. But I digress. My point is I wouldn’t use area codes to identify regions in Massachusetts.

I’m not going to rely too much on any poll, or even all the polls in this race averaged, but the trends continue to be favorable for Markey as we approach the halfway point of the general election season.

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bluemassgroup/front/~3/yC027X-mzeU/

Conventional wisdom – and the recent spanking that Elizabeth Warren delivered to Scott Brown – suggest that the more a Senate race in Massachusetts is seen in national terms, the less chance the Republican has of winning.  And I think that’s probably accurate.  People may think Scott Brown or Gabriel Gomez or whoever is a nice enough guy, but really, nobody with any sense wants Mitch McConnell running the show down in DC.

So I find it interesting that national Republicans are trying aggressively to nationalize this race.  Check out this email that landed in my inbox yesterday, ostensibly from Jerry Moran.  (Who?  I had to look him up too.  The junior Senator from Kansas, as it turns out, and the current chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.)

From: Senator Jerry Moran
Subject: Fire Reid
Date: May 23, 2013 12:59:54 PM EDT
To: blue@bluemassgroup.com
Reply-To: info@nrsc.org

Blue,

The Massachusetts Senate special election is heating up. This race is neck and neck, even the Democrats’ own polling shows just a few points between Republican Gabriel Gomez and Democrat Congressman Ed Markey.  We need your support to help us secure the resources necessary to win critical Senate races.

Ed Markey’s career is a living testament to failed Washington policies. Throughout his 37-year career in Washington, the Congressman has voted to raise the debt ceiling 31 times and in favor of higher taxes 271 times. He was an architect of the Wall Street bailouts. He was involved in Congressional check bouncing scandals to the total of $63,000, and he has repeatedly voted to give himself pay raises with taxpayer dollars. To sum it up, Ed Markey isn’t needed in the Senate, but new leadership is.

The son of immigrants who received an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, who became a decorated Navy SEAL and successful businessman, Gabriel Gomez is exactly the kind of new, results-oriented leader we need to fix Washington today.

Contribute $100, $50, $25, or whatever you can afford today to help us win on Election Day and build a new Republican majority in the Senate.

With your help, we can fire Harry Reid and put America back on course.

Thanks,

Senator Jerry Moran
Chairman, NRSC

This is a paid solicitation being sent by Brown for U.S. Senate, Inc. and is not an endorsement by Senator Brown and does not represent a contribution to any candidate or political committee. This message reflects the sole opinions and representations of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, who is responsible for the contents of this message. You are receiving this message because you are a member of Scott Brown’s online community.

A couple of points jump out at me.  The big one, of course, is “Fire Harry Reid.”  That means only one thing: the GOP sees a Gomez win as a critical part of retaking control of the U.S. Senate, removing Harry Reid from the position of majority leader, and replacing him with a Republican – presumably Mitch McConnell.  So someone needs to ask Gomez post-haste whether, if elected, he will support McConnell for majority leader.

I also love the fact that the fine print declares that the email “is a paid solicitation being sent by Brown for U.S. Senate, Inc.”  Somehow, the zombie that is Scott Brown’s Senate campaign will not die, but rather continues to stagger mindlessly around the highways and byways of Massachusetts in search of brains, or failing that, campaign donations.  I wonder if Brown or his campaign committee is making any money off of the NRSC using his mailing list?

Relatedly, Roll Call reports that the NRSC has dispatched a handful of staffers to our fair state.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee has committed at least four staffers to help nominee Gabriel Gomez in the final weeks of the June 25 contest…. Money remains a major hurdle for Gomez to overcome against the well-funded Markey. So the NRSC sent two fundraisers to help Gomez open some financial doors. Sarah Morgan, a regional political director, arrived Wednesday to organize volunteer efforts over the next few weeks. And Kevin McLaughlin, a senior adviser, is in Boston to assist with communications and general strategy.

Say, I thought Gomez was a new kind of politician who doesn’t care for the old Washington ways of doing things.  Since that’s true, I’m sure that he will promptly tell the NRSC “thanks but no thanks,” and send those DC hacks back to Washington where they belong.

Riiiiiiight.

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• Fri, 01:40: I see the conspiracy nuts are already here. I hate to spoil it, but there are eyewitness (@YouTube http://t.co/MsPocDGEf2)
• Fri, 02:01: Cliches exist for a reason. Let's see - we already have birther, 9/11, HAARP, 'false flag', (@YouTube http://t.co/MsPocDGEf2)
• Fri, 02:03: I don't know where you're looking, but this is on ALL of the major news sites - CNN, ABC News, (@YouTube http://t.co/MsPocDGEf2)
• Fri, 02:50: One hour isn't really 'way off'. It is 02:44 right now - I'm east coast. The networks aren't (@YouTube http://t.co/MsPocDGEf2)
• Fri, 06:56: @shwood Just watched the latest SS off TiVo - and got them all, but had different solutions for some.
• Fri, 07:00: @shwood 8-sq(sq(8+8)) = 8-sq(sq(16)) = 8-sq(4) = 8-2 = 6 and (4+4)-sq(4) = 8-2 = 6. I did those before I tackled 0 & 1.

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http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/05/new_report_on_t_1.html

Interesting report from the From the Pew Internet and American Life Project:

Teens are sharing more information about themselves on their social media profiles than they did when we last surveyed in 2006:

• 91% post a photo of themselves, up from 79% in 2006.
• 71% post their school name, up from 49%.
• 71% post the city or town where they live, up from 61%.
• 53% post their email address, up from 29%.
• 20% post their cell phone number, up from 2%.

60% of teen Facebook users set their Facebook profiles to private (friends only), and most report high levels of confidence in their ability to manage their settings.

danah boyd points out something interesting in the data:

My favorite finding of Pew's is that 58% of teens cloak their messages either through inside jokes or other obscure references, with more older teens (62%) engaging in this practice than younger teens (46%)....

While adults are often anxious about shared data that might be used by government agencies, advertisers, or evil older men, teens are much more attentive to those who hold immediate power over them -- parents, teachers, college admissions officers, army recruiters, etc. To adults, services like Facebook that may seem "private" because you can use privacy tools, but they don't feel that way to youth who feel like their privacy is invaded on a daily basis. (This, btw, is part of why teens feel like Twitter is more intimate than Facebook. And why you see data like Pew's that show that teens on Facebook have, on average 300 friends while, on Twitter, they have 79 friends.) Most teens aren't worried about strangers; they're worried about getting in trouble.

Over the last few years, I've watched as teens have given up on controlling access to content. It's too hard, too frustrating, and technology simply can't fix the power issues. Instead, what they've been doing is focusing on controlling access to meaning. A comment might look like it means one thing, when in fact it means something quite different. By cloaking their accessible content, teens reclaim power over those who they know who are surveilling them. This practice is still only really emerging en masse, so I was delighted that Pew could put numbers to it. I should note that, as Instagram grows, I'm seeing more and more of this. A picture of a donut may not be about a donut. While adults worry about how teens' demographic data might be used, teens are becoming much more savvy at finding ways to encode their content and achieve privacy in public.

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How Not to Die - Angelo Volandes's low-tech, high-empathy plan to revolutionize end-of-life care [The Atlantic]

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My parents took my ten month old Jack Russell Terrier with them on a short holiday. We thought he'd enjoy it because they'd be going on a lot of long walks, but apparently he was very ill at ease the entire time they were away and he's been acting weird ever since. Most alarmingly, he now constantly chases his tail, getting very angry at it and sometimes biting it so hard he hurts himself but he doesn't seem to figure out why that is.

So dog owners of TQC, has your dog ever done this? Do you know why he might do it, or how we can try to stop it? It's driving me crazy and I feel so bad for him because he's obviously frustrated.

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a house near me (2 family, includes a driveway) is going on the market - open houses sat and sun this weekend. I think it's a bit overpriced at the moment, personally, but it's just hit the market so I'm sure the sellers are optimistic.
redfin link.

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Fans of my BDSM romance Slow Surrender have been spreading the word to help the book find new readers! Right now SS is only out in ebook but the paperback comes out in August from Hachette (one of the “big six” publishers). I’m not waiting for that, though! I’ll trade a special bonus scene from James’s point of view to any reader who recommends the book to friends/followers/family/fans on the Internet and sends me a screencap of the recommendation. That includes Amazon and Goodreads reviews, tweets about the book, Tumblr or LJ or blog posts about it, Facebook updates/statuses, Yahoo mailing list recs, and so on! Check out some of the recs people have made, including email, starting “buddy reads”, Twitter, Tumblr, etc…!

If you want the scene, email a screencap of your rec to ctan.writer AT gmail DOT com (or photo reply here!) and I’ll email the bonus James scene right back to you!

Check out some of the screencaps below!

( Read the rest of this entry »Collapse )

Mirrored from blog.ceciliatan.com.

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I hope this post is allowed, as it features sucky customers, I'm just not actually serving them.  Or anyone else for that matter.

I had a landline put in at home about 6 months ago.  It turns out though my 'new' number last used for a local pub, the owners of which didn't bother to go online and change any info on websites when they changed it. It is also nearly the same as the number of ANOTHER local pub, just two numbers swapped round (theirs end 274, mine ends 247).  So this has lead to some interesting calls.  I spent all day a few months back going through every result on Google that had my number listed as the number for the first pub, which has helped somewhat, but I still get mis dialed calls for the other pub.  I find it all kind of hilarious as I work for a totally different local pub.

Now on most calls I get the people are nice and polite about it, but this morning I had a real humdinger.  I was in the bathroom, when my phone rang.  I didn't make it down it time, and it went to my messaging service.  When I checked my messages it was a call for the pub with a similar number to mine, and as it seemed an important call about accommodation for tonight, I called the lady who had left the message back to tell her she had mixed the number up.  It went straight through to her voicemail, so I left a polite message telling her she'd dialed the wrong number and pointing out she'd called '247' not '274' and left it at that.  My good deed done for the day, right?

Wrong.  About ten minutes later she calls me back and yells at me that I need to have my number changed as it's MY fault she called the wrong place.  If my number wasn't similar it wouldn't have gone through and she'd have known there and then her mistake, not ten minutes later.  And how dare I call her personal number, I must be a weirdo.  I simply told her I wanted to make sure she didn't turn up to the pub tonight to find she didn't have accommodation after all and I thought I was being helpful.  Which according to her I wasn't, I was just being weird.

I don't think I'll be helpful anymore.

A minor annoyance about this whole issue though is when people calling for the pub that used to have my number find out it's changed they ask me what the new number is.  Which I don't know.  And they can be a bit snotty about that.  I should find it out I guess.

And in case anyone is wondering why I don't have my number changed, it would be more of a pain to inform everyone with my number that it's been changed than it is to get these calls a few times a week.

Current Mood: amused

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It wasn't so long ago that if I went a day without posting to LJ keith_m043 would often email me and ask if I was okay. A big deal of the problem of late is that I'm mostly on thinmint the iPad, and although I am in possession of not one but two wireless keyboards for him, neither of them seem to want to play nice. And while Thinmint does have a keyboard i can nominally touchtype on, since it's all onscreen there's more than a few brain cycles taken up in the typing, meaning that unlike on a real keyboard typing on thinmint isn't really talking.

And yes, on a real keyboard it's pretty much speech - I remapped that many moons ago, with IRC.

So. Last week. Can I even remember? ( squeeze end, end play, star trek, waltz, picnic, contra, missed day, class, swimming, run around somewhere, honor flight, run around somewhere, honor flight, run around, pack.Collapse )</>

And that's the thing. Facebook has htis very clever interface where you have to look at the reading space in order to get to the posting space. And then it's right there. and you don't have to think of what to write to post a link - if you want you just do it in a couple clicks. And then of course it also doesn't bother to show you stuff you want to see - the number of things I find out far later than I should is numerous. and don't get me started about the people invited to twelfth night who missed that it was on.

But that's not the only thing. the thing is that if I touch a computer I lose hours. And I don't seem to be able to get anything done in the apartment unless I at least am on the phone with someone. And accomplishing anything feels all but out of reach.

And... oh I don't know.

One of the companions from the honor flight asked me whether I was hiding my wedding ring in order to tease the vets.

That's a thing, too. I know once I get to Balticon I'll enjoy it. I don't know when I'll get there 'cause now it's nearly 4. I'd best take the phoe off the hook. But... agh. I need a reboot.

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