It’s picture day
December 16, 2011
December 6, 2011
Drew
I have a friend named Drew. Nice girl, well read, writes for a newspaper, used to be a guy. She’s brave. Now, when I say brave, there are different kinds of brave. There is brave, like living-as-your-authentic-self brave. Then there’s brave like getting-painful-surgery brave. Then there’s really brave, like appearing-in-the-news brave. She’s all of those braves.
Appearing in the news has risks if really judgmental people see it and decide that you need to be hurt. Letting yourself be seen also shows the people who are terribly afraid and lonely that life can be different, better. There can be a lot of pressure on kids that don’t fit in to be normal, to be what strangers expect. Some people think that LGBT brain wiring is a choice. Somehow that makes it okay to be really, evil-mean to people. Her dad is very eloquent on the subject of choices, “To go through that kind of pain shows me she had no choice,” her dad said. “This was Drew’s essence all along. She absolutely had to be a woman.”
December 3, 2011
December 2, 2011
phone spying
Sprint and AT&T have admitted to secretly installing a piece of software called Carrier IQ which tracks everything you type into your phone and where you go. While there is nothing saying that they do anything with this data, it exists if the police/FBI/whatever want to grab it or if a lawyer wants it for evidence. I can just imagine the folks at AT&T saying “OBTW, there’s a record of everyone you called and every text you sent and everywhere you went. Didn’t we mention that? We don’t really look at it, we just like to have logs of where you go. It, uhhhh, ummmm, it’s fun!” Creepy!
At what point is it appropriate to turn into a raving protestor and get ignored by the news? How do we actually affect change?
November 28, 2011
alas
Apparently the picture on my new id badge at work uses the same way-to-close angle that I posted last week. At least I don’t look like a zombie in That one.
credit rating
obtw, Dave Ramsey fans, credit ratings apparently matter again. 
My credit rating has changed from fabulous to zero because I haven’t borrowed in 3 years. Churchill Mortgage has a page dedicated to the effort that it takes to get around having no credit rating. And it’s a hassle.
So, we’re looking at paying an extra 10% on a car so as to convince the credit union that we can handle debt. Again.
November 18, 2011
Driving
I did 700 miles of driving today. Jenny’s mom’s mom is turning 80 and we’re in Michigan to eat some food with her.
I’m I little zombified by a day behind the wheel.
November 17, 2011
November 6, 2011
Windows Tablets
Windows 7 running on a tablet is easy to learn. That’s because it’s a full Windows install with some touch screen code tacked on top. Trying to drive a windows machine with just your fingers is pretty annoying. I love tapping the screen occasionally but it’s not sufficient on its own. Hopefully they improve things for Windows 8.