domesticat.net

Death to 'bacn'

Submitted by domesticat on 21 July 2012 - 10:12pm

I’ve been enjoying my first avalanche-free week in a few years. It’s quite lovely, but it took some pain to get here; I gutted and completely redid how I filtered my personal email in a last-ditch attempt to keep it under control.

I’d had a system in the past that worked reasonably well, but over time, as more companies switched to reaching me through email, my original plan no longer sufficed. I do sometimes miss the day that a single ‘bacn’ folder could hold all the Authorized Pork Product Email™ I received, but that day is long past.

It took me a while to see the problem: it wasn’t that I wasn’t trying to filter my email. I was, but it wasn’t granular enough. I had a catchall ‘bacn’ folder that took so long to process that I could only talk myself into sifting through it every couple of months, and it was a drudging, painful process.

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forgoing the apple a day

Submitted by domesticat on 19 July 2012 - 10:02pm

I wish I could say that I’ve been keeping up with the health-care grouchfest that’s been happening in the country over the past couple of years. You’d think that I’d be the world’s expert, after Jeff’s accident, but that’s not the case. It’s not that I don’t care — I do — but I’ve hit my limit of what I can hear about the medical care crisis in this country before I start having what most sane people would call flashbacks.

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no dress rehearsal

Submitted by domesticat on 16 July 2012 - 10:49pm

I’ve gotten all of my lodging and transit prepared for the trip. With several weeks left to go, I’m relieved to see the details settling into the form of an itinerary. I don’t cope well with the prospect of “well, I’m going to land in this country on day X and then, a few weeks later, fly home from country Y” — with no idea where I’m sleeping in between. Not my style.

I am hoping for the return of that feeling of adventure that comes after getting through airport security, that moment I’ve known well my adult life: the moment where my backpack is zipped back up and settled back on my shoulders, when the weight of the pack substitutes for the weight of the world. There’s a plane to catch and I’m in my traveling socks; it’s time to go see what the world’s got to show. I remember that feeling, and would like to experience it again.

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Coffee-flavored coffee, internet-flavored internet

Submitted by domesticat on 13 July 2012 - 7:42am

humor
travel

Trip planning was eating my brain last night. Last night it led to:

Spoken politenesses in Danish
Photos of train ticket vending machines in Amsterdam
What? There are no dedicated post offices in Amsterdam?
How much does it cost to mail an international postcard in the UK?

and then there’s my favorite … the damned SIM cards.

I have a quad-band phone, and my carrier (T-Mobile) helpfully responded with my phone’s unlock code this week, so I should be good to go on whatever network I want to use in Europe. I’ll definitely need a SIM for the UK, but I’ve got to decide which of the other countries I want a SIM for.

Then, of course, if I want a SIM, I’ve got to purchase said SIM, which leads to wondering how to say “Hi, I need a SIM with very few phone minutes but a decent amount of internet access…” in a couple of different languages.

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Plans amid radio silence

Submitted by domesticat on 8 July 2012 - 8:49pm

sewing
work

Poor cat.net. She’s been rotting due to me having massive, twitchy privacy issues. I’d like to talk here, but I’m just not sure it’s a good idea for lots of reasons, so I just shut up and stay shut. For, uh, months at a time.

For those of you who pay attention on the sewing front, I’ve been a teense worn thanks to me putting in more hours than I should at work, but I’m hoping this is not a permanent thing. It means I’ve had little to show, but I do still sit down to the machine when my brain hasn’t melted after a workday.

It’s a choice, though — I’ve made work a priority for now, and it shows.

However, Jacob was here recently, and I feel like I can brag a little — another friend of mine got bitten by my hobby. Though, I should say, he got bitten quite some time ago. He’s been my partner-in-crime for quite some time where quilt planning is concerned, but had never tried his hand at sewing.

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