about the weather +++ [ link this ]

Nothing like a good rainstorm, in Skimmer's opinion, to improve the world.

Skimmer and Rav walked to the mall today (to get a new jacket and lunch) in the middle of a pouring rainstorm. The streets were almost deserted. Inside the mall, only a few very devoted shoppers (probably those with cars) could be found. Skimmer and Rav discovered that no less than three presidential candidates had made their offices in the mall. Skimmer only recognized one name.

Rain is prettier than many people like to admit. The way it splashes into gratings is fluid dynamics in action, and even when it turns brown from running down dirty streets, even when it leaves little salt deposits on one's hat, it does make the world glisten. ... As usual, Ozy and Millie say it best.

All the presidential candidates had signs up in bright red and blue: the same desing, their names wirt large and repetitive - the same blood red and blue that isn't really all that like the sky.

09:09 p.m. September 13, 2003

shampoo & an apology +++ [ link this ]

To Skimmer's devoted fans, if indeed ey has any: yes, ey knows the log hasn't been updated in months, and apologizes - but life got away from em and it didn't seem a priority amidst the mess. No point in updating, perhaps, when one has nothing to say.

Today ey went shampoo shopping. Faced with a decision between twenty different smells of shampoo bottles and the same in conditioner bottles (it would have been several hundred, but Skimmer on principle always buy the cheapest shampoo in the store) ey decided instead to get a shampoo-and-contidioner-in-one - "Suave For Men".

Skimmer has no idea why it's "for men", or if that means the regular Suave stuff that doesnt' come in combined form is "for women". Rav suggests it's "for men" so that they don't have to suffer the indignity of smelling like flowers or fruit or Spring Fresh, therby demonstrating they use cheap shampoo.

But in any case, it's two-in-one, which seems like a deal. Even if it does smell vaugely of aftershave.

09:56 p.m. Saturday, August 30, 2003

thoughts from someone who spend most of the day without shoes +++ [ link this ]

Stair treads are undoubtedly a very nice thing. However, they are absolute hell on bare feet. The difficulty is that they are placed, logically enough, on the edge of the step where a descending foot is mot likely to strike - and also right where a descending bare foot is most likely to rest momentarily and then rise rapidly into the air accompanied by a yelp, thinking it had just stepped on a tack. Elevators are a wonderful thing too, Skimmer thinks.

The skin on the sole of the foot is twenty times thicker than the skin on the rest of the body. This is for a reason. Might as well make use of it.

Oh, and cafeteria staff: Skimmer is sure you mena well and it's regulation and all, but ey is perfectly capable of not cutting eir foot on any broken glass that might happen to be nearby using the simple expedient of stepping over it. Being barefoot ey is likely to take care with eir steps. The ones you should be concerned about are those in flimsy thong sandals, who belive themselves to be protected, but who could nonthelss be injusred badly if they take an incautious step, since those soles really do no good at all.

08:22 p.m. Wednesday, April 16, 2003

hygiene or lack therof +++ [ link this ]

In eir three years of college, Skimmer has only ever seen two dead cockroaches lying upside-down in the halls of the Engineering Building.

However, in eir considered opinion, this is two more than ey ever wished to see there.

Thank you, moving along now.

06:06 p.m. Thursday, February 6, 2003

change is inevitable, except from a vending machine. +++ [ link this ]

The juice machine in the basement of Skimmer's dorm is currently jammed. It's jammed too deep to get anything out from.

The drink machine in the basement of the dorm next door is also jammed. However, it's jammed visibly, less than an inch from the coin slot.

Skimmer found out about the jam in the first machine by losing a quarter to it. Ey nearly lost a quarter to the jam in the second machine, but was able, with the aid of the tweezers in eir pocketknife and eir eyeglasses and great patience, to retrieve it and also one of the four quarters comprising the jam. Tomorrow ey's going back with chopsticks and tape.

10:11 PM Saturday, December 03, 2002

impending doom +++ [ link this ]

The Windows NT machines in the lab Skimmer is writing this from will be, over the winter break, replaced with XP machines.

Cue ominous music.

The other lab, see, has already been reduced to this state. And while it has its good points (Skimmer is sure, although ey couldn't name any) logons take five times as long and so far not a single computer has been properly hooked up to the printers. Thus, eir fear. That pretty soon no computer will be able to print properly and ey will be forced to use the lab across the street in the library, the one with the nice user-freindly "Active Directory!" logon, that irks em mightily. Ey is hanging like hell onto eir laptop with Windows ME, because ey is unwilling to use anything later. Frankly, ME is verging on the willies. It's much the same principle as eir refusal to use and Netscape later than 4.08, because they all have Composer and the mail program bundled in such a way that it is impossible to get just the browser. This is to eir mind, although not morally equivalent to spyware, still unconscionable.

Skimmer has promised eirself as a graduation present a Japanese laptop. Why Japanese? To get one that's a pound and a half and the size of a trade paperback. Ey belives in doing things small. Ey's planning to buy from a company that specialzes in imports and installs the drivers for US hardware for you.

Ey just hopes ey can get it with Linux.

07:21 p.m. Tuesday, December 3, 2002