Hawk's Eyrie

At least I have my space pants

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:03:03 GMT

I just saw Monday's Castle. That. Was. Awesome. Having Castle dressing up as Captain Mal? Saying that he thought he was dressing up as a space cowboy? Being told that he'd done it 5 years ago and shouldn't he have a different costume now?

Priceless. Seriously priceless.

Thank Elath I don't commute to SF

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:00:43 GMT

From various headlines: Bay Bridge closed after repair falls apart

It's closed indefinitely, after some repair work they did on the Eastern span over Labor Day weekend failed. Parts of the bridge fell onto traffic. It's amazing that no one got hurt.

Guess what I have in my greedy little hands?

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:21:49 GMT

That's right - the latest Dominion expansion. And we will be majorly breaking it in tonight. Woot!

Oh, yeah, and I'll pick up that new WoT book later today too.

Games

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:48:38 GMT

BF & I picked up Pandemic: the H1N1 expansion yesterday in the Berkeley game store. aliza250 has kindly agreed to help us test play it today after lunch.

Today should be lots of fun.

When I have to mentally catalog how to keep myself safe, you're doing it wrong

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 06:53:22 GMT

Last week Tuesday I went to get two of my tires replaced. I thought the America's Tire by 237 & El Camino Real was open longer; as it was I slipped in as their last customer of the night.

The previous weekend I'd called to get the price on the tires I wanted. They'd gone up in price from the last time I'd bought the *exact* same tires (which I've been buying since 2006). I questioned why & it was explained; however, the man I spoke with on the phone indicated that he'd give me the previous price, which was approximately a $6 difference per tire. Note that he indicated this without me saying much more than "last time they were cheaper, and I have the invoice in front of me".

Hence I went into the America's Tire expecting that A) they'd be willing to give me the older price with little hassle, B) with the knowledge that the listed price is rarely the price in places like these, and C) wanting to practice my haggling some as I'm getting ready to replace my car.

I'm a woman. I never go into places like this expecting to say "I want A, B, and Z" and to have the staff listen & provide without questioning me. Not all males will question my competence as a female to understand anything mechanical; enough do that I never go into these situations without mentally preparing myself & making sure I can quote enough detail to have people shut up and treat me like I have a brain.

In this case, I knew the parts number I wanted, I knew the price that I expected from the previous call to be fairly easily obtainable, and I knew that even though I'd forgotten the invoice at home that their system keeps all their old invoices in the system for reference.

The two men behind the counter were busy; that was a shame, as I watched both of them enough to note that they would have been pleasant to deal with. Instead, they called up a 25ish male from the back who was probably mentally preparing to leave for the day without more customer interactions.

When asked what I wanted, I said 2 "part number" tires. He looked at me and insisted we go look at the car. Strike 1. He starts to look at my tires, & when questioned as to why he need to look at the tires while having the parts number, he replied it wasn't a parts number. Strike 2. After having it pointed out that I needed 2 of "part number", and I got the number from THEIR invoice, he got what I was saying. So onto the next step - getting the invoice pulled together.

Even when someone says "I want part blah blah blah", you give them a price quote in a place like this. He starts jamming through getting me the tires without quoting. Strike 3. When I ask for the quote, he gives me the higher quote. I start to haggle - knowing that the price is most likely not firm - and he gets testier with me. He doesn't like the fact that I want approximately $12/total off, his claim that they're the only one who sells the tires doesn't make me decide to give in, and at NO point does he state straight out "I can't change the price.". Nor does he try to get his manager involved, which is what I expect my people to do if a client is trying to negotiate price with them when they are not authorized to do so.

Instead he asks "Why are you being so rude?"

And he hit it out of the park. At this point the man I assume was his manager turns around and just looks at him. I point out that I'm not being rude, I've been buying from them since 2006, etc... and he says "Look, I'll give you this tire for free, but in the future the price is the price, and the price can't be changed, and the price is the price, and you can't change it, and we value your business which is why I'm giving you this discount, but the price is the price in the future and it can't be negotiated".

...

After pointing out the fact he went overboard, but I would take it, I go to wait for my car.

I'm the last customer. They lock the front door & I'm waiting for my car to be finished. I have no idea how late the entire staff will be waiting, & something clenches in me when I think that I might be stuck alone, locked in, with this person. I mentally start cataloging all the ways that I could defend myself, and only stop when I realize that at least 1 other sales person will be around as well.

I didn't understand why I fell into that mood. I'm always conscious of my safety; I rarely have to think about how I will defend myself, I just do it. And I didn't understand why this fight response was triggered.

Until the next day when I realized he asked "Why are you being so rude?" in the exact same tone men use to women when they ask "Why are you such a bitch?". That question is often ended with some type of violence, violation, or berating of the woman in question. Even while my conscious mind didn't recognize the tone, my subconscious thankfully did. I'm not sure if the sales guy would have done anything; I know nothing about him other than this encounter. However, I find it highly dubious that if I hadn't been female, I wouldn't have had the $12 discount with very little argument. At the very least, I wouldn't have been berated for having the audacity to haggle.

If I'm in a well-lighted business, in a safe neighborhood, with police cars outside pulling over speeders, and I have to start to mentally catalog how to protect myself? Guys? You're doing it wrong. Completely and utterly.

Irony

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:23:51 GMT

I've got a requester who's absconded with an ILL copy of Principles of Criminal Law.

*head hits desk*

At least they try to amuse me with their mofoness, no?

Dear client,

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:03:04 GMT

Dear client,

I don't care how old or young you are, if you're job title is scientist or executive admin. U do not use twitter/text writing in ur professional writing. It's stupid, and makes you look like an idiot. I don't care how rushed you were, because YOU didn't check your spam before deleting it and somehow managed to get the emails we sent you in your spam box twice. That doesn't remove from you the obligation to interact with other professionals as an adult.

Period.

Now go away and let the adults work together.

No love,

Hawk

Moonbows

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 04:23:04 GMT

I saw some beautiful moonbows this evening at the beach house. None of these pictures show the full range of beauty I saw at first - it was a full rainbow encircling the moon. The color's were brilliant, and reminded me of the fluorite candle holder I own. There were layers of color laid down on top of each other, each just as brilliant as the first.

On the last upload, the interesting thing to me is that blue "second" moon that is seen looked like a blue nimbus around the moon to me when I looked at it with the naked eye.

Comic Wars

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 03:39:07 GMT

With the new recent buyout of Marvel Entertainment, I really should finish reading Comic Wars by Dan Raviv about the bankruptcy from the 1990's. And continue to snigger at the fact that one of the main protagonists that dragged Marvel into bankruptcy had described it as "a mini-Disney in terms of intellectual property" during that time period.

It's making good beach reading. Almost 1/3rd of the way through it this time.

growl

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:40:19 GMT

Disney to acquire Marvel Entertainment

Grr. Argh.

Flashdance!

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:42:48 GMT

Link passed to me by the ever awesome ojuang:

A t-shirt that shows what happens when you cross the Flash and Flashdance

Batgirl

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 07:43:20 GMT

I read this at my store today and was quite unimpressed. At SDCC they kept promising us that there would be waffles in the first issue, and neither Bryan Miller nor Ian Sattler lied about that. However, I need more than waffles to make me want to read a book.

In the first 4 pages, the sexist stereotypes were overwhelming. Batgirl thanking someone because he said that she "couldn't weigh more than 100 pounds"? Her thinking "Boys are stupid"? Miller having the guys do the stereotyped drag race with the sexy flag girl and the rest of the draggers being a sausage party?

Stephanie Brown aka Spoiler aka Robin IV[1] is rather silly & indecisive - sometimes. She's not as good as she thinks she is, but whenever I saw her she never read as a fluffy female who can't make up her own bloody mind. So constantly doing this "I'll throw the outfit out. I'll keep it and sew up the damage. No, I should get rid of it. No, I'm going to go out and help stop the riot - poorly." Argh! She worked with Cassandra Cain. Cassandra would have ripped that indecisiveness straight out of her. Seriously.

And the reveal that it was Stephanie? Not much of a surprise, DC. If you were taking someone from the Batman mythos - which I figured you would - and it wasn't Cassandra, it was likely to be Stephanie. This "mystery" surrounding the identity was rather poor.

I might take a look at the second issue to see if it's as bad as the first. However, I'm fairly certain I'll leave it languishing on the shelves month after month, despite the prospect of some seeing some Babs.

[1]No matter what DC editorial staff might claim, she was Robin for a short bit of time.

Town Hall Meetings

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:23:19 GMT

Found via the Uncertain Principles blog and felt this needed to be passed along more:

Barney Frank responds to one of the "Obama is Hilter" speakers at his Town Hall meeting.

ETA: From looking at the comments on You Tube, she did identify herself at one point as a LaRouchian. *rolls eyes* Not that their information is any better than the Far Right's.

Dear Firefox,

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:48:17 GMT

Dear Firefox,

If I can't tell what tab is the active one, then you've made the look of your tabs too minimal.

Now I have to go & download a third party theme to make the browser usable.

Thanks!

No love,

Hawk

Health Care reform is for Reparations?

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 05:56:42 GMT

Newsflash: It's a good thing that I don't watch Fox News and it's a very good thing that Jon Stewart distracts me from my anger. Why? Because my free weights almost went through our new TV after the Glenn Beck snippet.

Health Care reform is all about reparations? WTF, Glenn Beck. Get a clue and grow a brain.

Fail humor

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 05:28:50 GMT

I showed BF the following image from Fail Blog:

see more Fail Blog

BF decides to recreate this act with some Folkmanis hawk & sheep puppets venkablackfire gave me as a gift:

At least this time the stuffed animal recreations didn't involve any bondage.

Twitiotic

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 06:31:12 GMT

The Twitter.

When the Capitol Steps are on, they are on.

Elath preserve us all

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:30:40 GMT

A lot of companies donate their paper collections to Universities. I've got a requester who wants 4 technical reports from the collection.

No problem, says I. Let me page them, look at them in Special Collections, and get them copied for you.

No problem, says Special Collections. We'll have them for you Wedensday after 10 am.

Except today, it's problem. The company donated the reports. Anyone can view them. But to copy them.... To copy them, you need permission. And, of course, they do not give contact details in the boxes.

What. The. Fuck?

If you're donating them, give up the bloody right to know whose copying them!!!! If you want to keep that level of control, don't put them out in a publicish library. Certainly give the Special Collections people contact details. And what happens if you go out of business? Your restrictions don't go away. So you have "For Eyes Only" documents at the library that no one can have a copy of anymore. If you want that to happen, just let the bloody things get tossed when you go out of business.

Argh!

*sigh*

At least the client will pay handsomely for me to get their permission. At least, they will if they want me to get it for them.

Absolutely not

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 03:08:09 GMT

My body is not public domain. The book I am reading is not public domain. I could have had a very pleasant conversation with the woman in her 50's or 60's who stopped to look at my book and talk with me about Comic-Con.

I could have if she didn't start off by touching my shoulder and then next lift part of my book up to see what I was reading.

No.

Not acceptable.

Ever.

Respect personal space, and don't touch people you don't know - and sometimes even people you do. And don't fiddle with something people are reading if you don't know them well. It's not rocket science, people.

At least she seemed contrite when she walked off.

I heart ItsJustSomeRandomGuy

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 07:51:05 GMT

ItsJustSomeRandomGuy's parodies of comic book characters is priceless.

Especially the latest one where he has Hal Jordan and Deadpool "discussing" how they might or might not share the same actor.

ROTFLMAO. You've got to love a parody that has Deadpool singing and lets him refer to Jordan with the line "But he is blander than the color of your living room." 'Cause... so true.

Rain?

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:34:47 GMT

It rained today.

In NoCal.

In August.

What else is going to go wrong today?

Hiking pictures

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 05:41:41 GMT

I've put up some pictures from our Fourth of July 2008 trip to Colorado and our July 2008 trip to Olympic National Park. Mmm... Olympic was fun.

As usual, anything with BF's or my face is locked to my Flickr friends. Ping me if you want to be added.

Working DSL and phone line!

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 22:22:13 GMT

After the stupid-ass phone support guy from last night, I had low hopes for the AT&T tech coming out today. He called me before he got to the house, asked if one of us could come home just in case he had to get in[1], and said he'd noticed a lot of static when he called our house number first and asked how long that'd be going on. And then he checked the outside box and found that our wires weren't properly tied down. So every time a train went by, they moved. Hence the randomness of everything going up and down.

In other words, he was awesome, and everything I wish the phone support guy could have been last night. Instead, phone guy was awful & ground support was awesome. Note to self: I need to see if there's a place to give feedback for the tech support & give today's tech a resounding thumbs up.

[1]BF could. I work too far away.

Dear AT&T Broadband Support Idiot,

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 04:09:21 GMT

Dear AT&T Broadband Support Idiot,

There. Is. No. Magical. Halogen. Fairy. That. Comes. Down. From. On. High. And. Wrecks. Internet. Connections.

Now send the Elath-damned tech out and give me a call back about the issues before I reach through the phone and strangle you.

And note - it's not calling tech support that got me upset. The previous people I spoke with were very pleasant and I had no problems with them. It's you, Manuel. It's all you.

With rage,

Hawk

Anti-Twilight SDCC goers,

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 06:20:32 GMT

There were quite a few anti-Twilight SDCC goers (I'm mostly looking at you, anime kiddies) this year, who claimed that Twilight ruined SDCC.

Twilight did not ruin SDCC. Let me repeat - Twilight did NOT ruin the Con. Yes, the Twilighters were insane and camped out even longer than the Hero fans last year, which means the first 2 panels in Hall H on Friday were Twilight kiddies only. And, yes, I understand that the books & movie suck (I haven't read/seen either myself). However, here's 2 things these people need to keep in mind:

A) At least kids are reading. They'll grow more sophisticated taste at some point... probably.
B) They came to see their panel, and then they left. It was quite nice being in the dealer's room Saturday. You could actually move around in it.

These kiddies did not need to carry around signs Saturday night during Masquerade saying that Twilight ruined ComicCon. It didn't even come close.

They also did not need to wear this horrible Hate Speech of a shirt announcing that "Twilight is Gay". No one says that they need to like the movie/books or the fandom.

But if they want to make their views known, they need to do it without making derogatory remarks about homosexuals. That kind of speech is never "cool", good, or worthwhile.