Done yesterday (20111012 We)

[mdlbear]

A good day. No walk, but I at least got out -- I went to Guitar Center looking for inexpensive USB microphones to use for VoIP conferencing. Settled on a pair of CAD U37s -- $70 each (under $50 online, but I didn't know that at the time) and worked fine when I tried one in the conference room.

I also picked up a coat hook and pipe clamp at OSH and rigged a purse holder for Colleen's scooter. It works just as well as I'd hoped: loop the strap over the handlebars and down, catching it on the hook. Easy.

I skipped my "avoiding" group, but had a great IM conversation with pocketnaomi that was dead on topic. Basically, she thinks that I associate the "reality" -- you know, that big room with the blue ceiling, and by extension any other place outside the computer -- only with unpleasant chores like laundry, dishes, and garbage. I should go out and do fun things, as a way of breaking that unconscious association.

It sounds like a good idea.

The main reason for skipping Avoid Avoiding was that I was expecting deborah_c to come down from Sunnyvale, where she is traveling on business this week. And indeed she did; violin in hand -- we had a lovely evening of conversation and a little music. I called Naomi for the latter, and also because I knew that she and Deborah were friends and hadn't talked in a long time. So that was very good.

I also made our plane reservations for Orycon.

Links for the day include CHARTS: Here's What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About... and 15 Mind-Blowing Facts About Wealth And Inequality In America, via ysabetwordsmith. A couple more in the notes.

1012 We
  * up 6:30; W=195.4; drugs, nose, teeth, dishes, exercise, light
  @ 5 Tech Innovations That Could Change the Developing World
  @ Why the failure of Solyndra is good for solar power – Boing Boing
  * order refills for simvastatin, citalopram
  @ CHARTS: Here's What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About...
    15 Mind-Blowing Facts About Wealth And Inequality In America
    (The Wordsmith's Forge - Behind the Wall Street Protest)
  @ The Ferrett's Journal - A Melange Of Reactions To #OccupyWallSt
  @ This Time, It Really Is Different - NYTimes.com (SiliconShaman)
  * bring clipboard to work - avoiding group
  * reinstalled model M keyboard at work.  The stupid Windows key doesn't work
    (as a Mac command key) over VNC, and that's the only thing a Real Keyboard
    doesn't have. 
  * went to Guitar Center to buy cheap USB mics for a VoIP project.  Got the 
    CAD U37 - cheap, but does the job.
  @ Chinese ribbon microphone buyer's guide | recording hacks 
  @ Cringely » The second coming of Java
  * Deborah expected at the Starport, so -maybe- no group
  & good conversation with N. -- she thinks I should do more fun things in the
    real world, as a way of reinforcing the idea that there _is_ a real world.
      (20:32:52) mdlbear: Oh.  Right, because hopefully that will reinforce
      _doing_ fun things, as opposed to getting my enjoyment vicariously by
      reading.
   ... and that reality includes fun things as well as unpleasant chores.
  * make plane reservations for Orycon
  @ ysabetwordsmith - How to Support Main Street Instead of Wall Street
  * nice evening with deborah_c.  Music.  Call to N.
    October Country, WItC, QV.  D. played some Bach
  * folding up ~midnight and heading for bed.

Comments

[chaoswolf]

Orycon, and I'll miss you again. Coinsides with game, sadly. So I will be attending that because I can't afford the con (and have already made plans to go to game instead long before I knew you were coming for the con.)

[asavitzk.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I've had good success with the Blue Icicle XLR-to-USB adapter:
http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Microphones-Icicle-Converter-Preamp/dp/B001EW5YQS

[mdlbear]

Yes, that plus a low-end condenser mic was my fallback.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

big room with the blue ceiling

"Once there was a Ship of Stone"

[mdlbear]

Yup. That one.

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

Thank you for giving me a chance to talk to deborah_c! It's been ages, and it was wonderful as always. Neither she nor I have been on #filkhaven very often lately, so this was a much-welcome chance to catch up.

[mdlbear]

*grins*

I still had to convince myself that I wouldn't be intruding, but I'm glad I did.