Tvindy

Audio Entries

Receptionista is planning on posting her first audio entry but can't think of what to say. To help her, and anyone else who needs ideas, I've spent the afternoon scouring the World Wide Web for examples of interesting audio posts that can serve as inspiration. Here's what I found.

The Reverse Cowgirl reflects on how audio blogging generates different sorts of feedback than written entries. The last part of the post is hilarious (to me at least).

Nikita uses audio blogging to illustrate what a southern girl sounds like. (It's not pretty.)

Danelle uses the awesome capabilities of audio blogging to allow a small kitten to guest blog. (You can't do that with a written entry.)

Wil Wheaton (yes, the Wil Wheaton) reveals yet another reason why he loves Hollywood.

Kevin Sites reports live from the border between Iran and Kurdistan.

Katey reads a poem she wrote about a grasshopper.

2L audio blogs while on the road. (She really understands the importance of ending with a compelling closing statement.)

Of the entries I listened to, I was surprised by how many people were blogging while driving. Considering the amount of button-pushing that is necessary to log into your account, I would think this would be a fairly challenging procedure.

Even though I love listening to people's entries, I don't think I will ever have significant audio content on my blog. The problem with using Audblog is that all my audio entries would be hosted outside of Typepad. If Audblog were to go out of business and I had a lot of audio posts, then I would lose a bunch of my content.

Yes, I know that today is Thursday, and I should be posting my weekly links. But I've decided that I'll do them every other Thursday from now on. I just can't seem to find enough good links every week.

Poop

The problem with allowing 100-foot-tall horses to run free around town is that they get their poop everywhere. (Actually, I think this is just mulch, but doesn't it look like the work of a gigantic horse?)

Miscellany II

I didn't want to mention two unrelated financial problems in the same post for fear of getting them all mixed up. The overdraft mentioned in yesterday's entry was only one of two problems that occurred at almost the same time. I also received a letter from AT&T claiming that I owed them over $70 on my cell phone bill. When I called them, they informed me that they hadn't received any payments from me since I first set up the account in January. Fortunately, I use the Yahoo bill paying service. It costs a few bucks each month, but it's worth it. Besides having a record of all my bill payments over the past four years available to me on the internet, it is also extremely useful in cases such as these. All I had to do was fill out a form and submit it to Yahoo. It's no longer simply a case of me against AT&T. Now it's AT&T against Yahoo. They may be able to ignore me and give me the runaround, but Yahoo is a multi-billion dollar corporation, and it's not about to put up with their poop. Yahoo responded almost immediately informing me that the payments were in fact made and that they are currently investigating the matter with AT&T to find out what happened and to see that all late fees are removed from my account. It's great that I can call on Yahoo to fight on my behalf. Now all I have to do is wait for their representatives to take care of the matter for me.

Also, check out this post by Bakerina. I commented a lot on it, and it is especially apropos since David Letterman munched on a $1000 omelette just a few hours ago.

Miscellany

Here's some random stuff for today's entry:

Today in trampolining class someone brought a dog. (I have no idea why.) Apparently it had never seen humans bounce like that before, and every few minutes it would let out a loud bark.

The scrub jay that comes to my room to be handfed now has a companion. The second bird doesn't yet understand that if it wants food, it has to take it from my hand. Those are the rules, and there's nothing I can do about it.

Meanwhile, the original scrub jay showed up to one of my classes. It perched on the windowsill for a few minutes looking in before flying off and then returning for another look. I wonder if it recognized me. (Perhaps it also suffers from prosopagnosia.) It was probably quite surprised to see me in another building.

I should also mention that the shiny red button that I had earlier attributed to the bird's gifting me was actually just a button that had fallen off of a pair of my pyjama bottoms.

It looks like almost no one is up for starting an Audblog meme. (Actually, even I was somewhat trepidatious about it.) Only Receptionista expressed enthusiasm, so hopefully she will take it upon herself to do an audio post. The funny thing is I'm pretty sure I know exactly how she sounds, even though I have never heard her voice, so it will be interesting to see if I am right.

Currently I'm using my Netflix subscription to watch Freaks and Geeks. That series was one of the all-time masterpieces of television. The people who cancelled it are superlatively poopy.

I made a boo boo on my finances. I somehow thought there was more money in my checking account than there was. As a result, the credit union fined me for my overdraft. Since I use Yahoo Bill Pay, they also fined me. And since the check that went over the amount was for my tuition, the university also came very close to fining me. Since I contacted the university before they contacted me, they're willing to give me a break. Now I have to figure out if any other payments didn't go through.

Edam

I couldn't think of anything to write about today, so I dipped into my old photos. I took this in the Dutch town of Edam in 1999. Cheese makes me happy.

Interpersonal Conflict

Michael asked me to blog about interpersonal conflict in my daily life. Here are a few incidents that come to mind.

Today I went down to the Grab 'n Go to spend the rest of my dining points before they expire for the week. The lady at the checkout counter seldom speaks to me even though I always say "hello" and "thank you" to her. She also frequently miscounts the points, although she always underestimates rather than overestimates, so I always come out a bit ahead. Today I was especially annoyed when I saw her cough into her hand and then proceed to handle all my food as she bagged it. She picked up the milk from the top and got her germy hand all over the lid. This was compounded by her licking her finger every time she reached for a plastic bag. Yuck! When I got back to my room, I sprayed rubbing alcohol all over everything to kill the germs.

Earlier this week I had Portuguese class. Our teacher is currently in Brazil, so we've been taking turns running the class until she gets back. Thursday was my day to be in charge. I spoke about Mozambique and showed the rest of a Brazilian soap opera we had been viewing. I also had sent out an e-mail inviting anyone in the three Portuguese classes who wished to come in after the class had ended to view some Brazilian TV programs I had recorded. Normally we get together for an informal conversation class at this time, but I thought the two could be combined. The problem is that no one in there reads their e-mail. One student had gone so far as to invite additional people to the conversation class, which is normally held at a local cafe. So despite the fact that I had brought all my DVDs with me to class, I couldn't show the programs. We went to the cafe, and the people who were invited never even appeared.

I saw my RA a few days ago for the first time in weeks, perhaps months. (It's hard to tell, what with my prosopagnosia, but he's fairly easy to spot , since he bears a striking resemblance to Harry Potter.) He said hi as he ran by. He is always too busy to have time to speak to me (and probably to the other residents of the dorm), yet he never seems to actually do anything. I've complained to him about problems I've had with other people, and he won't do anything. Basically, the dorm is running on automatic. There is no central authority or sense of community, and no one knows anyone else. It's quite infuriating, and doubly so, because the RA gets all of his housing costs covered by the university along with a monthly stipend.

My Bookshelf

I couldn't think of anything to post today, so here is a picture of my bookshelf. You can click on it to see a larger version.

Weekly Links

Swedish homeless couple stages sex protest.

Here are two great Eminem mixes, one with Enya and one with ragtime music.

You can get just about anything from Japanese vending machines. This includes such sundry items as farm fresh eggs and used schoolgirl panties.(from zannah)

Teach your kids about religion with the Jesus Christ action figures.

Scientists play head games with toddlers. (Do young children really make this kind of mistake?)

Flowers

The Craft Center

Inside the U of O Student Union, there is a craft center, which I pass in front of nearly every day. It looks really cool. There's a whole bunch of fun stuff inside, like sewing machines and iMacs. Someday I will go inside and sign up to make something. They keep a large blackboard outside the entrance to announce new classes.

Sometimes the stuff on the blackboard is extraordinary. Check out photo I took. They didn't even have anything to announce, yet someone went to great effort decorating the board with colored chalk! I'm no expert, but that clearly took an enormous amount of talent and time. I've never been inside the Craft Center, and I've never spoken to anyone who has, but that blackboard tells me everything I need to know. Clearly it's a top notch institution.