The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Lin:

Thank you, one and all.

I boycott WalMart, period. The stores are dirty/grungy, the aisles are narrow, any space that might let two people pass has stand-alone displays, the staff is rude and downright unhelpful (assistant manager reply to a query of mine, the very last time I went to a WalMart: What do you expect *me* to do about it?), and the checkout lines are long, even on non-hyped days. Then there's corporate policies and behaviors, many of which have been mentioned here.

I'm an all year gift shopper, picking things up when they're on sale at other times. There hasn't been anything I've seen for sale on BF worth being crushed, elbowed, cut off by basket- or stroller wielding people looking the other way, or watching very tired kids get yelled at by very tired parents. I'll pass, thanks.

*hugs* and prayers to all!

I ended up on James Arthur Ray's mailing list some years ago, and never got off. I'm glad now. I got this, dated 10/29:

The lives of the families impacted by the Sedona tragedy have been changed forever. These families deserve to have the questions raised by the tragedy answered as quickly and authoritatively as possible. That is the goal I'm dedicated to achieving.

In the days following the terrible accident, I struggled to respond in the right way. This is the most emotionally wrenching situation I've ever faced, and it's now clear I must dedicate all of my physical and emotional energies to helping bring some sort of closure to this matter. That means helping the authorities and the families get to the bottom of what happened.

I'm committed to devoting all of my time, for as long as it takes, to achieve this goal. For that reason, I'm postponing all the events I had planned for the remainder of 2009. These events will be rescheduled as soon as possible in 2010—once the essential work that must be done on the Sedona tragedy has been completed.

I appreciate your patience and understanding during this difficult time. I will keep you updated regularly as we move forward about our progress and about our plans for rescheduling the postponed events.

Some years back, I encountered the issue regarding trademarking a commonly used phrase. Anything not yet trademarked can be trademarked, but if it is a phrase in common usage, the trademark cannot be enforced.

Laws may have changed since then, and the definition of "in common usage" may be debatable.
~ AIANAL.

Craig's List has a "free stuff" listing that I and my roommates read (too) avidly. It's not listed on the front page, but it's a subcategory of "for sale." Works fine for us.

apropos of absolutely nothing except somebody sent this to me. there are no words.

http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2009/09/01/a-hidden-gem-in-html/

I want a job with a company that has the money to pay for the time it took to build something like that.

Damn. Another friend I won't meet in this lifetime.

Heartfelt hugs to all for this Charlie-shaped hole in our lives.

I don't come here as often as I used to. Primarily, people who pay me money to do things want me to do them, not find me sitting on Teresa and Patrick's e-patio, sipping Teresa's Scurvy Cure. (Denver holds many dear memories, including having my head blown off by SC!)
However, the occasional bit comes to my attention, and I must share. If you have not yet found this, do go visit.
http://smellofbooks.com/

I got an answering machine when Jim's crazy grandmother started calling people at 2am, telling them she's dying, only to find her serving tea and cakes to the half dozen or so people who rushed over to tend to her. [Insert a number of stories having to do with the first message being in a thin, thready voice; the second being an outraged old lady screaming how dare we hang up on her. AM had a 30-second message allowance.]

My cell-I don't answer if I don't recognize the number. If you don't leave a message, I know it's not important enough for me to call back.

Home-any non-IDed call gets filtered by the system. Any call with an unrecognized number gets the ON button pushed, followed immediately by the OFF button. My guess is that the computer at the other end records the disconnect as a "dead" number. At least that's my hope. Since the number of robocalls has dropped, there may be some truth to the theory. If it really is a human, the human assumes a glitch in the connection and calls back. Thus, a second call almost immediately from the same number gets answered. I think I've had one of those in the last month.

I recently had a rather amusing texting conversation. It went something like this:
received: hey. Followed several minutes later by a repeated "hey."
I sent: you've sent hey to my fone twice. I don't know you, so you should check the number or introduce yourself.
rec'd: haha. how's the beach?
sent: Ok, I'll start. my name is lin. what's yours?
rec'd: very funny nick
sent: I'm not nick. my name is lin
rec'd: haha, your name is nicholas (I don't remember)
The guy didn't get it. so I called and left a voice message in my very obviously female voice: "Hi, Nick's friend. This really is Lin. You might want to check the fone number you're texting. Or, if you want to call, feel free. I'm game."
Never heard another peep.

That little interaction pointed out a non-functional bit: I couldn't call the fone number used to send the text message. I had to save it to contacts first. Say what?

I personally don't like to answer the fone. I feel the fone is an intrusion, demanding that I deal with it RIGHT NOW. I'm busy right now. What I'm doing is often more important than stopping to talk to you. Leave a message. The very few people who's calls I want/need to take get special ring tones. Email and IM I can answer when I can answer. I love the idea of either a transcript or emailing a sound file. (originally typoed as sound vile; how appropriate)

On leaving messages, I expect to get VM, and compose a message before I call. On those occasions when I get a real human, my response is often "OH! You're there!" and a garbled message, because I'm startled.

I just got bitten by the "agreed to in talking on the fone, conveniently forgetting when problem arose." Bah. Now to follow up all fone calls with email. *sigh*

Jim, your first aid kit list has SAM splint. What size?

B. Durbin @ 134: oh my
very very nice
thank you

Patrick, thank you. I'm delighted you found my post of such value. I'm touched.

Jim @ 137

Quite a tidy little live fire exercise. I have plans for big evacuations, earthquakes, train derailments, where to meet up if evacuated, that sort of thing. This was an itty bitty thing, evac two blocks down the street, for a few hours. Nothing in the plan book for that. That is being corrected.

1) Spouse's 3 days worth of critical meds piece didn't include critical herbal things. It was ok for a morning to not have them, and they have since been added.
2) Planning on evacuating cats doesn't work really well if the cats have been frightened into hiding. Getting them out, and then into carriers was deemed too much time, so I made sure they had access to water and left them. Not a hole, precisely, but the feedback from ML threads caused me to do a fast check on long term water availability.
3) Spouse is hypoglycemic. We have a "you have 30 minutes to get stuff and leave" kit that has food in it. The "OMG get out right now" kit does not. That can be rectified by the addition of small bags of nuts hiding in the same place as the meds.
4) Evacuation plans always included car, because neither one of us is in any kind of hiking condition. Sunday morning, street completely blocked by police cars. Even with evacuation point just down the street, cats could not have been evacuated because we couldn't have carried four cat carriers. Thoughts on this include a fold-up dolly like cons use for supplies. Other ideas welcome.
5) There is a slightly larger kit than the "OMG get out right now" kit, but I didn't even remember it. It had food. It wasn't in an easily remembered place (it was in my car; when the car got vetoed, apparently everything in the car was filed in "forget"). I need to rethink deployment, or just rethink. Get my CERT buddy to toss WhatIfs at me more often. Anyway, under review.

Small items like my sarape is really nice when getting from one place to another. Not really good for standing on a street corner in a rising wind. A cat in a carrier gets really heavy really fast (we managed to get one, the oldest). Where do we evacuate for a few hours, rather than days? And in the middle of the night. We could get transport, but where to? Transport person reminded me of a mutual friend who's out of town, and we went to the apartment. And ate his waffles. The apartment was only a few blocks away, so I got to hear the *womp* at 0530.

Jim, your posts, your kit lists, are the first place I go. I'm building a kit from the ground up for a friend off on a serious road trip, and I'm starting with your lists. And all the comments, because they not only include what, but hows.

In reviewing various emergency preparedness threads, for reasons that will become apparent, I found Jim Macdonald's query for "I'm looking for A Kit To Take if the Gas Company Guy says, 'There's a Leak, Get Out!' " If found, add to it the label, "What if the LAPD knocks at 3am and says 'Get out. There's a bomb next door!' "

What he actually said was, "We'd like you to evacuate as quickly as possible. There's a hazmat situation next door." Since they weren't grabbing people and flinging them out the door (as they did in the Sesnon fire recently), I woke spouse, got into pants, sox, shoes, and we were out the door with smallest gobag in less than five minutes. This live fire exercise showed a few holes in the kit, some already dealt with, others under review.

LAPD bomb squad detonated the device at 0530. No damage or injuries to report. I don't know the neighbors well enough to have any clue why someone would throw a pipe bomb thru their front window.

Thanks to Jim Macdonald, for your posts and lists and thoughts, and to all the ML family who comment their own lists and thoughts. The evac process went smoothly, shoes found, keys found, kit found, and out the door.

A friend of mine does eBay sales. Jim Kennedy of Kennedy Estate Sales recently got a contract to help 20th Century Props reduce its inventory. 20th Century Props rents to movie and tv companies. The stuff is going on line in bits and pieces, so keep your eye on the page(s). I saw some of the items before they were listed and said "I gotta tell the people at Making Light." Go look. Hide your credit cards, but go look.

http://stores.ebay.com/Kennedy-Estate-Sales_20th-Century-Props_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ690659015QQftidZ2QQtZkm

There are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of phonograph needles, currently being cataloged for inclusion. Would Soren be interested?

Stuff gets a cert of authenticity. If the usage history is available (who rented it for what feature) that will also be provided.

thanks for the info. I just finished watching the HBO replay! Absolutely awesome. wow

wrt t Tm Mgzn. Pntd thm hr. f ngh f s wrt, myb thy'll gv prpr crdt. (yh rght)

According to the WaPo:
McCain will end his presidential campaign in the Arizona town where Goldwater launched his '64 presidential run.

According to the WaPo:
McCain will end his presidential campaign in the Arizona town where Goldwater launched his '64 presidential run.

hvnt rd vrythng yt, bt cn't stp lghng!!

YMNK!!

Bill T. #541: HUZZAH!!

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