Better Late?

Today I finished making these two supermarket bags.

Which I was, uh, making as Christmas presents.

Yes, last Christmas.

Pride Goeth...

I've been researching mattress-buying, which is, as it turns out, a huge pain in the @ss.

There's three big-guys to look at, mid-level brands, and then there's IKEA. Each of the major and mid-level brands has three levels within the brands and then has multiple variants within each level. And nothing has the same branding as anything else just in case you, the consumer, get it in your head that you want to comparison shop. Silly consumer! How dare you think you have any control?

I went to the mattress store in Hoboken on the train this morning and went to Macy's yesterday. Then I walked from Grove Street PATH to get my car. My plan was to go by IKEA and try out their mattresses and then to go by the JC Sleepy's, since JC is what they call an "Urban Enterprise Zone." That means low sales tax in JC.

Then...

Drat! Foiled again!

I was standing in front of my garage. I'd totally forgotten that we'd had a snowstorm. I'd been glad to have a garage since it meant I didn't have to dig out my car. Which is good cuz I, uh, don't own a snow shovel.

There was a minor pile of snow in the street in front of my garage. The plows probably left it there.

With visions of spinning wheels, I realized that I wasn't going anywhere in my car.

And turned around and trudged home.

Brief Mention

I got mentioned in the writer center newsletter this month! For the Bolivian toilet article.

Belonging to the writing center is a lot like belonging to the gym. I think about going a lot and I pay for my membership every month.

Vast Improvement

We finally got our blizzard.

City of Slush

We have a little snow on the ground in JC, but the "blizzard" was pathetic in Manhattan.

But I hear there's still time.

More Fun With Flash Class

There's a blizzard going on but the trains are running fine. I'm late for work... but not because of the snow.

I'm late for work because it took me all morning to figure out how to export this properly for my blog. This is important work, folks... the intro sequence* to "Bowser and the Ham."



*with apologies to Albert of Comicraft since I stole his lettering, and to the creator of RiffRaff, and to all pigs everywhere.

A Day Out

I'm going to be in Barcelona for a day next week!

Okay, not even a day. I fly in first thing in the morning, spend the day there, and fly on through on Ryanair to a travel writing conference in London that night. And will be gone just for the weekend plus two days, since I have to be back to attend my Flash class on Monday. Oh yeah, and work.

It sounds crazy to go by Barcelona just for a day but I have to see if there are some new clothes that I must buy, and I also am really jonesin' for that thick hot chocolate that they make there.

I'm likely to be jetlagged out of my mind and desperate for sleep, but won't have a hotel room. My bag will be in a locker. I found one of those power napping places where you can nap for a half-hour but I'm thinking a hostel bed will be a better value as they won't throw me out after 30 minutes.

Experiments in Tech-land

I'm taking a class in Flash at the same school that I teach at.

Many years ago, I was pretty good at Director. And guess what, things have changed. I am already frustrated and having to read the damn textbook. Anyway, this small slideshow is both meaningful and meaningless. Sorry to put you through the learning curve with me.

But not really that sorry, I guess, or I wouldn't post my exercises.

Swearing at Machines

When the robots leave me a message, I always get annoyed.

They usually say something like this "This is the Citicard early warning system. Did you make a charge for $4.95 to ... USPS.com?"

I get crazy-irritated, because, duh, that's just me printing out postage.

So when I was running late for work this morning (I know, I don't work Fridays, but I had some stuff to do and was going to meet a friend for lunch) and a robot called me, I swore at it.

"Did you ... charge ... $65.20 ... for ... general mershandy?"

"*&^%$ that's general merchandise you piece of T^%)) machine!"

But the machine did not understand what I was trying to ask it, which was for more details. My memory doesn't work as well as it used to and while I didn't take my card out of my wallet yesterday, I also wasn't sure it wasn't just something taking a few days to post. When was the last time I used my credit card? Couldn't tell you. No idea. But I'm sure I used a virtual account number so I wasn't too worried.

The robot hung up on me after a while, so I called the bank.

A nice fellow in India went through the charges with me. Apparently they were all online and the number-snatcher had been entering the wrong expiration dates. Had I charaged at meijer.com, some kind of executive gift place, or at a kids toy site? No, no, no.

I was glad at least I was nicer to the bank guy this time. Usually, I'm pretty obnoxious.

How the hell does this happen? My ATM card was compromised once too. I didn't use these in Mexico or and certainly not in other destinations over the holidays. I don't send the numbers flying over unsecured networks or public wifi, and anyway, I use virtual numbers online.

It's all kind of a mystery, but maybe I'll be a little nicer to the robots in the future.

Meanwhile, guess it's cash only for a while.

More Adventures with Wheelie Bags

A few years ago, I got the bright idea that I needed to be more professional. That my filthy, massive backpack that had been around the entire world with me for a year—then zigzagged across the oceans as well as along from California to NYC in the back of my old car—was somehow inadequate for my work-related expat jaunts to Kuwait and Cairo.

This notion lasted exactly 10 hours, during which time I learned that one must consider the shape of subway turnstiles when purchasing luggage, and one should treat wheelie bags gently if one doesn't wish to break their handles.

I'm hell on wheels. It's true.

I ended up with a tall-and-skinny $35 wheeled duffel that I bought in the Outdoors section of a Barcelona department store.

This bag serves me well when I need to take my entire worldly goods along for months, and my backpack is perfect for shorter, rougher trips.

But now I wanted more.

'Cuz now the airlines are charging for bag-checking. Which is just silly. I want FEWER people to be dragging the kitchen sink onto the plane, bashing people in the head and clogging up the aisles. But the airlines are looking to save money, not thinking about passenger comfort and safety. And if I'm going away for the weekend, I don't want to pay an additional fee to throw a small duffel into the baggage hold.

So I bought a new bag. It's thin enough for the subway turnstiles and cute enough that I don't mind that it's a wimpy wheelie bag. I love it. I hope I don't break this one.