Snippets

Elegance in Bumper Sticker Form
I have a long-standing fondness for these bumper stickers. Political feelings aside, it has always struck me as classy. I was telling a friend that I liked them – in a graphic design sort of way – and he raised his eyebrows at me, then agreed that they did look nice.

“It needs a red line through it.” He then informed me, and while I tend to agree on one level, it would ruin the design – take away from the elegance. I’ve seen these designs – don’t love them. But then, pulling out of the parking lot at my southern university, I saw this. Nodded in approval over the design then laughed. Really hard. Still giggle every time I see it. That, my friends, is genius. I hope you enjoy it as much - on a political or graphic design level.

As a note, I would never put a bumper sticker on my car. My family is strongly anti-bumper sticker. But I do read them.

Watch out. I could curse you. I have $25.
We all love She Falters to Rise, correct? Of course we do. I found myself wishing I hadn’t stayed in bed last night, willing myself back to sleep after yet another round of nightmares (3 days in a row, people) and had instead watched this jellyfish show.

But then I saw this link. I won’t comment too much since I don’t particularly need to be cursed myself. But does anyone know why it’s more expensive to "Break Them Up & Return My Lover" ($59.90) rather than to separately "Break Them Up" ($24.95) then to "Return My Lover" ($24.95)? Is it just more efficient to do it all at the same time? Also good if you need to "Curse Your Enemy" ($24.95) or "Destroy Their Sexual Functions" ($59.90). That last one, by the way, is $10 more than "Destroy Their Love Life." I’m fascinated by the pricing alone.

Firefox is exquisite
I talked Charlie into downloading Firefox yesterday. I’m pretty sure it was calling him an old man who was resistant to change that did it, but it also could have been my detailed instructions. So I will share with you what I told Charlie in hopes of making your life better.

"So you're going to mentally prepare yourself, then download Firefox. It doesn't take long. And it's going to be really worth it. Promise.

"So then when you install it, it'll open up an import wizard! And ask if you'd like for it to helpfully move all your preferences over from IE! So you'll say, "that'd be great. Thanks." Then the very first time you open Firefox, our new best friend, everything will be there. Delightful.

"Now, one of my favorite parts of this is the bookmark toolbar. IE might have this too (I haven't upgraded in over a year), but I adore this feature - I never go up to the top menu and open the Bookmarks thingie. So I'd go into the top Bookmarks file (just this once!) and Manage Bookmarks. Then I would drag often-used sites (Bloglines, Gmail, my site meter) directly to that top "Toolbar Bookmarks" folder so they're always ready to click. Then I drag folders there too - Vanderbilt, UWinfo, Blogs, and Misc - so everything is organized, appears at the top of the page, and it takes fewer clicks to get to my favorite places.

"The other thing I do is tabbed browsing - so rather than opening a ton of windows that you can lose track of, you just hit Ctrl-T (I assume - it's apple-T in Mac) to get a new screen in the same window. You can set your main page to open as many of these tabs as you'd like. I have 3. So whenever I open Firefox, I see my site meter, Gmail and Bloglines. Lovely. There's also a setting in preferences that opens new sites in tabs rather than extra windows. Quite helpful when clicking links from blogs."

Summing up, I like Firefox. I think you'd like it too if you tried it. If I can help convince you (and not just by calling you old), just let me know.

“Gmail is different”
This brings me to Gmail. I have 94 invitations left and this makes me feel selfish. I adore this email program so very much – the way it files conversations, the new chat feature, the searching ability. I enjoy google overall, but the mail program is fantastic. I would be happy to invite you to use it. So if you’d like to help me feel less selfish, send an email and I’ll invite you! Then you’ll have Gmail! Won’t that be great?

Eye Appointment!
I’m going for an eye exam tomorrow since I have 4 disposable contacts left. I also plan to pick out new frames and get glasses! I’m ever so excited about this. In fact, I have a story that goes along with it. I remember telling Dryden, and due to the wonder that is Gmail, I typed in “scratched glasses interview” in the search window, and up popped my story! You really do want Gmail, guys. Trust me.

"When I interviewed, I struggled here. The night before my official interview was dinner with a bunch of important folks. Excellent restaurant, wonderful wine, really lovely people and entertaining conversation. And I had the most miserable migraine that I thought I was going to die. I'm still not sure how I got through the meal and dessert.

"I got back to the hotel, took Tylenol PM (because it was all I had with me), drug my comforter to the bathroom, turned on the shower and laid on the floor. I think I fell asleep a little, because when I woke up and opened the bathroom door, it was really dark. I didn't want to risk a return of the headache so I left the lights off, took out my contacts and stumbled to bed.

"I woke up the next morning and found that I'd torn one of the contacts the night before - closed the case on it. And I didn't have an extra one. So I was left with glasses prescribed when I was in high school, scratched beyond any realm of normal. I never wear them - I use them to get from the bathroom to bed, then back again in the morning. That's it. And I wore them for this interview.

"Things went really well though. Everyone was kind and interested and my boss found me some really good chocolate cake after lunch. Then it was time to give my talk, and I think it was the 9th interview or something ridiculous like that, so I was ready. It was memorized, so very smooth, and easy. I couldn't see the slides very well, even squinting through my old glasses, so my knowledge of the material was crucial.

"Then the questions started and they were lovely too. More like suggestions on where they could fix some problems, ideas of extending my work, things I was comfortable discussing. So it was lovely."

Then I start a blog-inappropriate rant, so we’ll skip that part. But I remember moving the glasses to the tip of my nose, hoping the upper parts of the lenses were less damaged than the centers (they weren't), and blushing whenever I met someone new because my glasses looked so icky. The point is that I will soon have glasses that I might actually wear! Then I might look all brainy and wonderful. I’m restraining myself from clapping with glee.

And, finally, an explanation
Why the lame post? I had to give a presentation today. It involved the words "endorectal," "bladder filling," "bowel motion" and included many pelvic images displayed on a 6 foot screen. It was … unpleasant and will likely be the source of yet another night of bad dreams. So you may pity me if you feel so moved.

I’m also at the place where I could tell you more about my grad school decisions – how I ended up getting a PhD accidentally, if you will. I fear I’ll reveal too much about my graduate environment though. Or I can try to reduce a 20+ year friendship to a single blog post to continue what I started weeks ago. We’ll see how it goes.