Date July 29th, 2005 10:31 Comments 0 Comments

hyperfl0w’s a freak that likes cold horrible AC. It’s cold in here.

I just turned the temperature in our office up to 85. Wonder if he’ll notice. Teehee!

Today during lunch we are going food shopping for this weekend on the boat! Yippee!

Yesterday I sold a bath-jacuzzi, two lunch boxes, and 177 CDs. This morning at 8:45 AM I sold a cuisinart.

This means, I have left:
1 home brew kit with two carboys
1 bachelorette espresso maker with milk steamer
1 very good and new juicer
1 rice/veggie/poultry steamer
1 air popcorn popper
1 set of glass food storage containers
VHS collection
computer bag
ballroom dancing shoes
snowboarding pants
halogen lamp
two full spectrum clip-on plant lamps

and a strange assortment of random $5 items.

Any takers?

I also donated all the rest of my living plants to my pianist. His wife apparently will be able to work wonders on them and bring them back to life. I never want to own a plant again.

My little sister has a summer job working Wednesdays and Fridays at the Aquarium. Apparently she wears a wetsuit all day and frolics with penguins who stink. I think I shall visit her today. She is loaning me a pair of chaps for Bitch Chastity this weekend.

Date July 28th, 2005 11:00 Comments 0 Comments

I was thinking today about the many places I’ve lived. I’ve moved many times; really, many times. Let’s see:

Where? How Long? Age? Comments
Beverly, MA 17 years 0-16 None
MIT Senior Haus:  third floor of Atkinson 1 year 17 Coffin single behind double containing sex-crazed girlie girl
MIT Senior Haus:  third floor of Runkle 6 months 18 Nice, newly renovated single
MIT Senior Haus:  first floor of Atkinson 6 months 18 Bulgarians were making life miserable so I fled downstairs
Wyoming 3 months 19 semester long NOLS trip
MIT Senior Haus:  third floor of Atkinson 9 months 19 Lived in a suite with friend Christine and weird extropian Asian guy
MIT Senior Haus:  third floor of Atkinson 6 months 20 Lived in same suite, different room with Artem the cute Ukranian guy
Fenway, MA 6 months 20 Moved into squalid little sooty apartment with Bryant, my new boyfriend
Dorchester, MA 1 year 21 Really beautiful Harbor Point apartment with Bryant
Jamaica Plain, MA 1 year 22 Large studio next to funeral home; no heat, no Bryant
San Diego, CA 4 months 23 All alone: Large and clean but otherwise depressing apartment 3000 miles from home
Harlem, NY 7 months 23 Huge beautiful apartment with jacuzzi, Bryant, his best friend (and my sometimes lover), and two gay boys who were always fighting like girls
Boston, MA 5 months 24 Back with Bryant in tiny place; neighbors = vomiting Irish
Central Sq, MA 1 month 24 Tiny dirty apartment with excessively young English helicoptor pilot (who kept climbing into bed with me), pathological Russian girl, and Mexican who didn’t speak
Central Sq, MA 6 months 24 Nice room in unspeakably filthy, strange, off-the-boat-Chinese-ONLY apartment above Economy Hardware
Inman Sq, MA 1 year 25 Small, bright, apartment: no heat. Alcoholic roommate half the time, mrtee the other half
Coolidge Corner, MA 7 months 26 New husband! Cramped two-level townhouse with tiny cement back yard; awesome location; weird smell from old-folks home next door
Brighton, MA (Present) 7 months 26 More husband! Huge, sunny, beautiful apartment on the biggest hill in Boston

I am now 27 years old and starting my 6th year out of college (Agggh! Can it be??) and am in the process of moving… again!

To come: 3 months living with my dear ol’ mother back in Beverly, and then off to Australia (fingers crossed) where I will move who knows how many more times…

Oh well, it keeps things interesting.

Date July 27th, 2005 10:11 Comments 1 Comment

Holy shit it’s almost AUGUST.

This means that summer is almost over! Wait, didn’t summer just begin a little while ago?

I miss the summers of my childhood. They lingered deliciously, days stretching out all warm and fragrant and blue and sandy. Now I go to work, or get caught up in errands, and the summer goes by before it has any meaning, and then we are plunged into the unpleasantly long winter again.

Every day, as the heat increases, my outfits degenerate. Today I am wearing a pair of kickboxing-only capris rolled up to the knees and in a rather unattractive fashion, a white bra-built-in tank top, and 9dare I say it) Tevas.

I don’t think I’ve worn Tevas since I came back from NOLS 8 years ago (indeed, this is the very pair I wore on NOLS). Tevas are super uncool.

I haven’t shaved in a long time either. But it’s so fucking HOT!

This weekend is going to be super fun. Saturday I have a flying lesson at 7AM (clearly I am a masochist) and then me and hyperfl0w and our S.O.s are going to zip down to Newport and his dad is going to take us out on his boat all weekend. Hooray! I’ve never really been on a boat; of course, I used to go sailing on the Charles a lot, and there was this huge cruise ship I was on that went from Stockholm to Helsinki when I was 13, and last year I went out on a scuba boat a few times… but I’ve never *really* been out on a boat or slept on one. Ok, I slept on the Swedish cruise ship. Well, I’ve never slept on a little boat. Exciting!

Then Sunday night we’re going to race back and Zaubi and I are hosting another Murder party, with completely different people this time. viacimo is going to come, and she is playing Elvira-Lynn Feckshun! Teehee! We must dig up some appropriately old western Saloon Girl clothing for her.

I am playing Butch Chastity, or Bitch Cassidy, or something, with dungarees and a gun belt. I would have voted for Elvira-Lynn Feckshun except I seem to have lost my too-small bright red Senior Haus Casino Bitch merry widow.

**************
viacimo just pointed me to this website. I must say, I’m all over #V5072.

**************

[10:08] Viacimo: people put weird stuff on the web

I’ll say.

Date July 24th, 2005 21:12 Comments 1 Comment

Holy shit. The guy Zaubi is talking to in Aussie who indicating cautiously that he might want to hire him (we are praying for it hard since it is Zaubi’s dream job) told him if it all works out he can get him a visa in one week. Now *that*, my friend, is called pulling strings.

Date July 24th, 2005 19:29 Comments 4 Comments

We woke up at 3AM and drove for over 14 hours yesterday. Erik’s funeral was very sad, but somehow it made me feel better — closure, perhaps.

Today we staggered to my mom’s and Zaubi built the first half of the dog pen while I cleaned her basement. Then I raced to Hanscom for a flying lesson. Had a different instructor this time as my normal guy is away — he was a good teacher, told me a lot of info about questions I had, and, to my great amusement, he made us weightless. He balanced his pen on the dashboard-equivalent of the Katana, roared to full throttle and pitched the nose waaaaaay up so we raced up almost to point of stalling, then jerked the nose so we were diving down and the pen jumped into the air and hovered for a bit.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!

I’m exhausted. Too exhausted to think, or remember aeordynamics, or cook, or read LJ, or really do anything. And tomorrow is work!

I am still selling things on Craigslist, but every day I find new things to add to the list. Clothing! Kitchen appliances! Lamps! Weird things! It just goes on and on.

Date July 22nd, 2005 12:04 Comments 0 Comments

We had the discouraging news this morning that we won’t qualify for the Independent Skilled Visa. (Thank goodness we hadn’t actually paid to apply for it yet.)

See, Aussie works on a points test. In order to pass, you must obtain at least 120 points. If Zaubi were to apply alone, he would make 115 points, the lack of 5 coming from the fact that he is 30 years old (you get 5 points more if you are aged 24-29). If you add me into the bargain as a skilled individual, I make up the necessary 5 points… UNTIL you look closer, and we get into something very complicated.

See, jobs are rated by points. A job on the ‘Skilled’ list is worth 40, 50, or 60 points. It just so happens that the job I have been employed in for the last year is worth 60 points. Now, you would think this would be a good thing, no? Given that on the points test, if you are in a 60 point job, the requirement is that you only have to have worked in it for 12 of the last 18 months (as opposed to 2 of the past 3 years for 40 and 50 point jobs). Good for me, right? I’ve worked for a year in one of the group of highest rated jobs.

No. See, the hidden requirement to pass the Skilled Independent Work Visa Assessment is that you either have to have a job that is related to your bachelor degree AND that bachelor degree has to be from an accredited university, OR you have to prove that you are skilled by backing yourself up with employment examples. Well, obviously, you say. That makes sense.

The problem is, that the acceptable employment examples for a 60 point job is that you EITHER have to have a BS from an accredited university in the field that that job is related to (didn’t we go over this already?), OR you must have 5 solid years of work experience in that job. For 40 or 50 point jobs, the requirement is that you have a BS in ANY degree from an accredited university and lesser experience.

So what puzzles me, is that when the points test asks about work experience, it asks both about your current job, and then you get extra points if you have been in that job or “any other job on the Skilled Occupations list” for the past X years. I can honestly answer yes to that question and thus pass the points test, but how does that work if the skilled assessment says that I have to be working in only that job for the past 5 years? Isn’t that a discrepancy?

Also, why is it that if I am cool enough to get a 60 point job, I have to have a BS IN that same field, whereas if I only have a 40 or 50 point job, I can have ANY accredited degree? Doesn’t it mean I’m just more skilled if I have an acreddited degree AND a 60 point job in some other field? That’s skills, I tell you! Lots of them!

The other interesting thing is that they do not seem to care about your Master’s or PhD work. They only judge you on your B.S.! Isn’t that strange??

You would think that my broad experience of different jobs and my multitudous  talents would make me more skilled, not less. You would think that a couple, not older than 30, with no children and no debt and no liabilities, both with degrees from M.I.T. and one with a PhD in Computer Science and with joint earning power of well over 150K/year, would be considered ’skilled’, no?

Guess not. And then the question springs to mind; if we’re not skilled enough, then who the heck is?!

(Oh yes, I almost forgot. The other way we could potentially make up the requisite 5 points is by agreeing to invest $100,000 in an Australian gov’t bond for 10 years…..??????!!!!!!! Or, if Zaubi could put down that he is fluent in German, but sadly, while he is fluent on conversational German, he can’t write it for shit and therefore couldn’t pass a German fluency exam… alternately, we could agree to live only in regional areas, but then again, who the hell is going to employ someone in DB development or Robotics in the outback…??????)

It seems almost like this is a question of overqualification, not under. If Zaubi had not bothered staying in school to get his Master’s and PhD, but instead just held a generic Computer Science job like all the other kids that left after their BS, then he would be younger now and would pass the test. [Why is it that being age 30 makes you less cool? If you're trying to only pick people with most likely positive net, wouldn't you rather have someone who has worked for a couple years than some snotty kid right out of school?] If I had stuck with doing something much lower tech, like journalism or some other kind of writing, then I would be able match my job to my bachelor’s and pass the test too. The other funny thing is that even if we individually each get a 115 on the test, you can’t add them up. No matter who applies, and no matter how skilled the spouse of that person, the most points you can get from your spouse is 5.

Obviously, all hope is not lost by any means, there are many more visa types and possibilities, and this will actually likely turn out better and cheaper in the long run, but it’s still frustrating and oddly ridiculous.

Date July 22nd, 2005 11:51 Comments 0 Comments

Ugh, too much going on.

Two days ago I found out that the hotel in Nova Scotia with which I had (months ago) made reservations for Zaubi and I to stay there for Lerly’s wedding in a couple weeks, had erased our reservation and not felt it necessary to tell us. It’s disappointing, since it was a very charming little hotel right next to the ocean. Still, this perhaps is turning out for the best given that Zaubi and I are trying so hard to save money — we’ve decided to camp instead, and found a beautiful campground right near the ocean and only a couple miles from the wedding that has hot showers and is only $15 per night! 

We had intended to drive up to Bar Harbor and then take the Cat over to Yarmouth with Erik, but sadly that is no longer possible (I still can’t believe it). We are going with another friend of Erik’s and his girlfriend, though, which will greatly reduce the costs of both gas and the ferry charge for Subi which is absolutely ridiculous.

Tomorrow is Erik’s funeral in NJ, and so Zaubi and Lerly and I are going to leave at 4AM and drive there, and then drive back afterward. It all seems unreal.

I’m getting sick of selling things on craigslist, and am thinking of just dumping the remainder of stuff off at Salvation Army, though it seems a bit of a waste. But we’re moving in only a few weeks. I suppose we could have a yard sale, but I have little faith that anyone would show up!!

I have gotten permission from my boss to work from home on Tuesdays which means that I can go into work with Zaubi on those days, and after work, just hop over to Hanscom and go flying. I *NEED* to up my flying lessons to at least twice and perhaps three times per week if I’m going to have my VFR license by December…

Date July 18th, 2005 14:10 Comments 2 Comments

Hmmm… does anyone think I could sell a little over half a gallon of industrial grade, dehydrated, 200-proof ethanol on craigslist? How much should I ask?

Or would I get in trouble?

mrtee says I should just give it away. Zaubi says that I shouldn’t sell it because then I would be responsible if some frat boy drinks it and dies…

Then again, his plan was to make a lot of egg liquor with it and sell that… isn’t that moonshine????

Date July 18th, 2005 12:48 Comments 0 Comments

What the hell? http://boston.craigslist.org/about/space.html

****************
All in all, it was a rather horrid weekend. The fact of Erik’s death cast a pall over all; I kept forgetting for a little while, because it seems so unreal, but then suddenly a picture of him lying unconscious, bewildered, in the water would spring to mind and it would come crashing down again. I know that isn’t how he was found — he was probably found half-dressed, cold and swollen and face down floating in a deep river pool, but I keep imagining him lying on his back, only half in the water, unconscious but looking as he did in life, just sleeping.

And it’s ridiculous. That word is oddly appropriate. Ridiculous. That’s what he would have said, probably, if someone told him that he would die that day. He would have smiled and half-frowned, simultaneously, in that way he had, and say “That’s ridiculous!” sort of matter-of-factly, like he did.

I went flying last night for the first time in a month, and it was discouraging — I still cannot taxi the damn Katana via differential braking and I get all hot under the collar and start swearing and I know it is annoying my instructor. And yesterday in particular I was very frustrated with his teaching style for the ground work — he will ask me questions about things that I have never been told and expect me to answer them, and I know it’s supposed to be that I should think it through and figure it out and therefore it will stick, but I never quite understand what he is asking, because there are unstated assumptions made in the question and I don’t haven’t learned what those assumptions are. I learn much better by example. I feel like I am taking an SAT and trying to solve a word problem that has assumptions and tricks built in.

For instance, why is it that when you pause for run-up before takeoff you always face into the wind, but when you pause after pulling off the runway after landing it doesn’t matter what direction you turn to? When I paused for my run-up, he told me just “turn”, so I turned the plane for a while, and then stopped, and he said, “you didn’t turn far enough, you have to turn farther” so I said “to where?” and he said “you must line up with that wind sock” and so I did, and said “why?” and he said “because we always face into the wind for the run-up” and I said “well I didn’t know that” and he said “well we always did before taking off before” and I said “well, you never told me that before, you just turned the plane” and he said “well, now you know we always turn into the wind for run-up” and so on. It was a stupid conversation. Later Zaubi hypothesized a bit and we decided on why we think that you do that, but we don’t really know.

The flying part never seems so hard to me. Although I need to practice, say, picking an airspeed and going to it without changing my altitude, the physical aspect seems quite flowing and easy. And I even understand the aerodynamics to a point, although my big problem is that I want to understand it exactly, and no one is able to tell me how things work exactly. I talked to Zaubi about it for a while this morning, and while in the beginning he felt quite confident about his own understanding of the whole thing, by the end of the conversation I didn’t understand things much better and I’d managed to convince him (unintentionally) that he no longer understood how it all worked either.

So we are going to study a bit together every day.

Things got better at about 9PM when we got home and it turned out mrtee had dropped by and walked the doggies and he had brought us a huge dewar flask of liquid nitrogen and we made ice cream with it. I managed to get a bit of the frozen stuff stuck to my tongue where it seems to have burned off a whole section of taste buds. Yowch.

Date July 16th, 2005 17:31 Comments 0 Comments

http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050716/NEWS01/507160329/1002

Oh, Erik.

It’s a rugged and rocky place. Near the tablelands, east of Pear Lake. Why did you go alone? I bet you thought you would just follow the river a little ways, into the backcountry, and you slipped, fell, startled, hit your head.

It all seems so senseless. What’s the point of the PhD, the piano playing? It is so ephemeral. One moment, one little slip and it’s all… gone.