I have the conch!

EFF YOU, NY times!

jenni — Fri, 16 May 2008 19:55:17 GMT

Dude, the New York Times wrote an article about Diversity in the technical work place, and they stuck it in the Fashion section?! Why not business or science, asshats? Is this some lame attempt to placate women while not exposing your attention to this subject where the big kids read it? (I had originally posted a link in here, but I don't want to give them the satisfaction of knowing that they can post an ingnorantly incendary article and then gain advertising proceeds from outraged individuals) Two positive notes on this: 1. you can email the editor now: letters@nytimes.com 2. my new company, Cisco was the only one to be mentioned as trying to do anything to address this Apparently, respect and overcoming stereotypes isn't rocket science for people in the business section, just those who write and/or publish about it. Shame on you NY Times, I expected better!

concentration shat

jenni — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 01:35:43 GMT

Sean bought me William Shatner's "The Transformed Man" several months ago, and it's made it's way onto my work computer. I've been listening on random for a couple of hours this afternoon, and groovin' along to Mister Scruff. Then, this is what happened: http://www.seeqpod.com/search/?plid=66458f1605 Starts off innocently enough, then goes downhill at warp drive. Now my brain feels dirty and I can't get back to work.

V i c t o r y is mine!

jenni — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:02:50 GMT

Much to my surprise, there was no hated paper on my driveway this morning! This is a follow up to a post I made last week, in which I complained about the poopy SF Chronicle, which was trashing my driveway: http://people.tribe.net/jenni/blog/371948f1-d0cd-4aec-b292-5e2766e7bc7a So, I figured it out. Simple steps: * write 1 polite yet cranky letter * print out 14 copies of this letter, each with an incrementing date, starting today and skipping weekends. * have ready 14 envelopes, and 14 stamps * every morning when you get to work, cross out yesterday's date on the fax cover sheet, replace with today's date * fax and mail today's letter to the Chronicle * save fax receipts Paper stops on day 6, hooray!

Poor Peggy Pony Keg (or, diabetic crackheads stole my car)

jenni — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 21:02:01 GMT

So, some of you probably already know this, but Peggy Pony Keg (my trusty 1991 Honda Civic hatchback) was swiped from in front of my coworker's house while we carpooled to work last week. She was found super late that night, but in totally trashed condition. missing: * front bumper (but for some reason I got the front license plate back) * speakers, stereo (even though I have the stereo face) * gym bag (with gym stuff, may its smell rot the lungs of the thieves) * library book: Moral Politics, which I actually hope to get to finish sometime, it was really good. newly added to my car: * diabetic blood-sugar-test-things (yuck) * needles (double yuck, and danger) * candy (smart thinking, diabetic crackheads) * 1 pair women's underwear (yuck) * garbage: papers, fast food trash, and other crap i've never seen before (total yuck) I think that my insurance is going to total it out. The repeated use of the phrase "due to the low total value of your car" does not sound good to me. It's a bummer, because that car was just so damn rad, and I didn't really get to say goodbye or take flattering pictures of her and/or her tattoo (a small bat, from the year that Rosin Coven built the bat art car). I need to figure out what to do; I'm thinking of either buying a used, older Prius with a carpool sticker, or a shiny new one with some additional features. Since people always seem to have lots of advice when you're sick, dealing with a breakup, about to have a baby, or buy something expensive, I thought I'd see what people had to say about it. Any opinions, thoughts?

geekery & friends...

jenni — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 23:37:33 GMT

I don't expect many people to get this, but "sh -x" lets you debug a bash script, and "explain" is a way to ask MySQL how it's going to execute your queries. Steve and I are good friends, met in college about 10 years ago. Either way, it's just about how friends teach us new, useful things, and that it's nice to think back on, and kind of geek-sweet. 1:18:28 PM Jenni: just used sh -x on a script, thought of you :) 1:18:48 PM steve: i think of you when i use explain :)

how the F@#$% do I make the Chronicle go away?

jenni — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:31:11 GMT

I'm writing this to the chronicle customer service dept, and am willing to hear any feedback you have. I just want them to stop sending the paper, which they keep saying they'll do, but don't. What is it with these guys, and how is it legal? Do I have any way to kick them where it hurts? To Whom it May Concern. I am writing to express great frustration and disappointment with the San Francisco Chronicle. I signed up for a 6 month trial of your paper in August to support a young man in my neighborhood. I didn't want the paper, but did want to support his school in my community. He assured me that I would easily be able to cancel the paper as soon as I wanted to, which I did. I called once, twice, and then three times to ask that the subscription be canceled. Each time the operator was friendly, and assured me that it would stop coming. And it would, but only for a few weeks. The third time seemed to be the charm, and finally, the paper stopped coming. But, after a two month period, the paper has started arriving again. I have just gotten off of the phone with Customer Service operator Deanna, #26, who says that it never looks like my paper was canceled in the first place, and kept trying to suggest I get a different service. I cannot politely express frustrated I am! I JUST WANT YOUR PAPER TO STOP COMING TO MY HOUSE! I now HATE your paper. I hate hearing this piece of litter being thrown on my driveway. I hate picking it up, throwing it into the recycling bin. I will never subscribe to this paper again, or any other paper in the same company family. I will never advertise with your paper, and will tell as many people as possible of my terrible experience. Please, just cancel my subscription, once and for all. Please take me off of any other mailing or telephone lists you have.

I D I O T S !

jenni — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 21:07:56 GMT

So, in the top 10 discoveries of 2007, Time reports that scientists discovered the oldest living animal, and killed it. http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/top10/article/0,30583,1686204_1686252_1690960,00.html It is just me, or does this sound completely awful?

Honeydew!

jenni — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:55:41 GMT

I'm having melon today for breakfast, and couldn't help but think of this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QrelL9fOjY

You are so stoked that Tribe is colocated elsewhere

jenni — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 23:01:00 GMT

I don't know if it's true, but it's definitely funny. I used to complain that getting to our colo was kind of a pain in the ass, especially since it's super sketchy in that neighborhood late at night, but not any more! http://valleywag.com/tech/breakdowns/a-drunk-employee-kills-all-of-the-websites-you-care-about-282021.php http://valleywag.com/tech/breaking/angry-mob-gathers-outside-sf-datacenter-282053.php

Annoying, rude, or do I just need another beer?

jenni — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 18:11:25 GMT

All right folks, this is a participatory blog post. Last night I went to go see Captured! by Robots at the Bottom of the Hill, and they were absolutely awesome. It's a single man, JBOT, who has built an entire band of robots. There's a headless brass section, two drum bots, a guitar bot that plays an instrument that's both a bass and guitar, and The Ape Which Hath No Name, who I think plays tambourine. JBOT is verbally abused by the robots on stage, interacts with them, and then they proceed to rock out. Songs included originals about being tortured, Star Trek, and they even played a Journey cover. It's awesome to watch, and also to consider just how much work must have gone into these robots, how they're controlled, it's mind boggling. Anyway, so now my rant. I'm 5'5", so I'm not too short or too tall. In a crowd, I can usually manage to see the stage. I got a great spot, was stoked, only to have a guy about 4 feet in front of me start holding up his sidekick to video the show! In fact, a bunch of people were doing that; holding up cameraphones, digital cameras and the like from the middle of the crowd, and it was a bummer to have to move around to find a place where I wasn't distracted by lit, moving video in my line of sight to see the band. It must have totally sucked for the people in the back. I've seen this before, and I even took a picture with my camera phone while the band was setting up, but not while they're playing. It's like when video cameras came out, and parents disappeared behind them during soccer games, birthday parties, and school plays. I remember my parents being totally bummed that folks would rather watch their children through a screen than actually participate in those special moments. Perhaps it's their reaction that's colored my own, but now, folks aren't only tuning out, but they're tainting my experience as well! Next time, I'll push through the crowd to ask someone to lower the device that's blocking my view, but I also wouldn't mind if venues asked folks not to use distracting crap like that from the middle of the crowd. So, here's the question: am I being to old, stuffy, and cranky, or do folks really need to stop watching their entertainment through the back of their cameras and actually experience it?

24 hours of LeMons

jenni — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 20:01:23 GMT

I went to the 24 hours of LeMons race at the Altamont Motorpark this weekend, and it was stupid silly awesome: http://www.24hoursoflemons.com It's an endurance race in which the participants are all cars worth $500 or less. Above is Team TuRD, who got bonus points for only having a car that they put $350 into, how rad is it! They're having another one in October, and I'm already planning that entire weekend out :) My absolute favorite cars (beyond Team TuRD) were: Canola Rollaz: all biodiesel merceders The Holy Rollers: they had a pope with a cross riding out their back window Do or Die: these people actually managed to keep the hearse running for 2 days, and probably had a little sample of everyone's paint within the first 2 hours. The rest of my pictures are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcsuperstar/sets/72157600717559392/

what the heck were these people thinking?

jenni — Thu, 17 May 2007 16:58:32 GMT

I got this marketing email from Timbuk2 this morning, and I think it's terrible. Honestly, I had to look up an American Apparel ad and think long and hard before deciding which was more offensive. "Just like that jerk who stole your virginity, these bags are only around for a short time." The last time I checked, you didn't market to women by questioning their social/sexual choices. Maybe it's marketed to men who think that's funny? Anyway, I wrote these people and cc'd their pr department; perhaps you'll be inspired to do the same: --- From: xxxxx@xxxxx.xxx Subject: Re: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow Date: May 17, 2007 9:51:16 AM PDT To: news@timbuk2.com Cc: pr@timbuk2.com Hi. I've been on your mailing list for a long time after, and I've got to say: something about the "just like that jerk who stole your virginity" tagline really felt off and somewhat offensive. I understand that sensational lines like these catch eyeballs and make people unlikely to forget them, but to me it comes off as arrogant and too in-your-face. Wanting to portray your female customers as weak non-virgins who have somehow been taken advantage of doesn't seem appealing to me, nor does it seem like it would be appealing to the urban, hip demographic you normally market to. thanks for reading my feedback; please unsubscribe me from your email list. regards, jennifer snyder --- I'll be taking my business here the next time I need a messenger bag: http://www.freitag.ch/

this is so, embarassingly, me

jenni — Tue, 08 May 2007 20:09:47 GMT

I'm the sorry, sad sap who sees anthropomorphic qualities in my devices. My car's name is Peggy Pony Keg, and she has a tattoo. I talk to my laptop, plants, and firewall server sometimes. My Treo is named Snuey Bits, Sr, after the first two phones being "Snuey Bits" and "Snuey Bits, Jr.". I bet you a dollar that my next phone after this one will named "Snuey Bits, Esq", or perhaps just "Mme. Snuey". The Roomba is cheerfully upon, and chastised when it makes an "oopsie" and barfs its carefully collected dust bunnies all over the room. I cried at the end of "Batteries Not Included", and probably still would today if someone made me sit through it. So, when I read this article about soldiers becoming attached to their robots, I couldn't help but recognize that I would probably do the exact same thing: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/05/AR2007050501009_pf.html

internet meme extravaganza!

jenni — Thu, 03 May 2007 19:54:22 GMT

It's the lol cats + star trek, with settlers of catan throw in. 3 things i love, all mushed together and making me giggle like an idiot at lunch: http://granades.com/2007/05/02/loltrek/

holy crap: part of the MacArthur Maze freeway collapsed!

jenni — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 18:33:41 GMT

A tanker filed with gasoline overturned, and lit a chunk of the freeway on fire! Said freeway now looks like a Dali painting, and traffic in the East Bay is now officially fucked: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2007/04/29/BAGVOPHQU46.DTL

SCIENCE!

jenni — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 15:21:31 GMT

Man, science is rad! The post below is about the Kaye effect, in which a viscious fluid (like soap or shampoo) is poured in a thin stream from a great height., and as it piles up, it creates an arc shooting out from the pile: http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2007/04/a_cool_movie_of_the_kaye_effec.php

any Wii'ers out there?

jenni — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 01:35:52 GMT

So, I broke down and bought a Wii off of eBay... and it's the total bomb. I am a Wii bowling pro! While the wireless is pretty janky and slow, I must admit that I am not yet cool enough to have any Mii friends... anyone want to swap ids to network it up? And if not, drop me a line to come over and rock out... tennis, anyone?

how awesome is this?!

jenni — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 19:14:32 GMT

V I C T O R Y ! I posted a little while back that I'd had some problems with my mechanic: http://people.tribe.net/jenni/blog/d1dff5b9-e92e-4eb6-abe9-6f052ab8709c And today I got a refund from them for the double-work I had to do, hooray!

Just two clicks to donate tampons to women's shelters

jenni — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 17:35:04 GMT

I love sites like these... no effort or personally identifying information on your part, and people get something they need. And not just people, but women. And not just for something that people talk about every day, but tampons and menstrual pads, which our society often enjoys sweeping under the carpet. It's taboo in our society to talk about the fact that women bleed and have a messy problem every month, and I'm actually kind of stoked to be able to have a blog post with the word TAMPON in the title. http://www.tampontification.com/donate.php And while I'm feeling menstrually liberated at the moment, here's what I use instead of tampons or other disposable crap: http://www.divacup.com/ It's fucking rad, and since it only cost $25, I've probably saved over $100 bucks in corporate, bleached cotton crap with icky strings since I got it!

George Takei (Mr, Sulu) answers to NBA Player's racist rant

jenni — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 21:07:36 GMT

I've been a long time Star Trek fan (although The Next Generation was more my cup of tea), but I was thrilled to see that George Takei had spoken out against Tim Hardaway's homophobic rant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA20dKc3kK8

ok, so now what do I do?

jenni — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 17:37:45 GMT

Many of you know my trusty little ride, Peggy Pony Keg, the 1991 Honda Civic Hatchback of my dreams. Nicknamed "Partyball" and "Speedball" by my tall coworkers who have all willingly crammed themselves into her tiny backseat, she is an awesome companion that I hope will continue to get me where I need to go for many years to come. I have always been very protective of PPK. From carefully considering her tattoo (a bat on the rear passenger side), to getting her oil changed and having tune-ups regularly, I have always wanted the very, very best. Which is why I used to take her to mechanic B, a very well known, Honda-only institution in Berkeley. It came super well recommended, it was nearish to where I lived at the time, and they were very nice, clean, and professional. But they're a little difficult for me to get to these days, and since then, I have found mechanic P (also Honda only) in San Francisco, within biking distance of my work. They are also super well recommended, have an immaculate shop, are even friendlier, with cheaper service, and a much better bedside manner when it came to explaining why I needed certain things done to my car. They even helped me decide to stagger out the services so that I didn't have to do it all at once. A couple of weeks ago, the interior of my car started smelling like an electronics burning, and the light switch got stuck in the "on" position late one night in Emeryville. I didn't want to leave her on the street where I was, and for some reason, it seemed way sketchier to have my car towed to San Francisco. At that moment it seemed overly complicated to leave the car in E-ville, let the battery die, and then get a jump to drive it into SF the next morning. So I had it towed to shop B, and thus begins the story. First, the man told me that they just needed to order another switch, replace it, and I'd be on my way the next day. Great, no problem. The next day the man called me and told me that switch was incompatible, and that if I had the switch put in place, pressing the center of the steering wheel would no longer activate the horn. He told me that it was because the light switch for the year of my car was no longer available *anywhere*, and that it was because he could only get the '92-'95 one; the '92-'95 one not having the same connections or something like that. I asked him if I could get this switch at a pick 'n pull, online, or on eBay, and he said probably not. He basically outlined my choices as being light switch or horn, and offered to install another button in my dashboard to activate the horn. Since I didn't see any choices and because I considered him to be an expert, I let him replace the switch and add a button to my dash for the horn. He only charged me for replacing the light switch. After getting the car back and driving it around, I was really bummed about this button-horn thing. The first day I was driving it back again, there was rain on the streets for the first time in a while, and I nearly hit a guy who cut me off, while frantically pounding on the center of my steering wheel. The button was hard to get to easily, and I felt a little sketched out. Bummer. So yesterday I took my car into garage P to have my front brakes replaced (it was about time), and having my oil change. While there, I asked the person I was working with there to check out the horn situation. He told me that the story sounded *super* fishy, that the light switch shouldn't have anything to do with the horn, and I authorized him to spend 30-60 minutes digging around to see what could be done about it. He wrote their findings on my invoice: "horn ground circuit tab had been damaged/misplaced during prior combo switch installation", and they were able to fix my horn up just like new by "Repair rear of combo switch tab by soldering new contact in place. Reassemble as needed. Horn operation now reinstated back to OEM (steering wheel pad operation)" Of course, I had to pay them $187.00 in labor to do this. So here's my dilemma: the shop B that I used to go to in Berkeley is supposed to be all reputable, in fact I have friends here on Tribe who love them. They're supposed to be the best! Maybe the part they got just had this ground tab missing, or that they broke it off while installing it; who knows. I just don't feel like the option they gave me was ideal, and it's unfair that they told me that the problem was unfixable, only for me to pay nearly $200 to get it fixed down the road. I want to contact them about my displeasure at the way this whole thing as gone down, and ask them to pay for at least some of the cost of the repair that I had to have done at the other shop. If I don't get a helpful response, I'll probably be more forward about letting them know why I'm no longer going to their shop. What's the best way to do this? Do I go and ask to talk to the person directly, or send them a letter? Do I need to take into account the fact that people *love* these guys and assume that my situation was isolated, or do I start warning everyone about them? I'd also appreciate it if anyone knows people in the automotive repair industry, and invite them to comment as well... I'm interested in hearing all sides...

cartwheelin' on the south pole!

jenni — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 18:00:11 GMT

These photos just make me giggle, what a fantastic way to usher in the weekend! This blog post is by Sandwichgirl, who I've been lucky enough to meet at ThatEventInTheDesertWhichShallNotBeNamed, and she's a total superstar. http://sandwichgirl.livejournal.com/18479.html Some of you probably know her better than I, so send her a shout out for being made famous by BoingBoing http://www.boingboing.net/2007/01/26/photo_cartwheels_in_.html

Best. Photo. Ever.

jenni — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 17:11:33 GMT

This photo is incredible. I'm not going to make it the main picture or download it or anything because I can't steal from a friend, and I don't encourage you to, either. However, more people must know about it. It's safe for work, but questionably so in a freaky-good sort of way... http://www.flickr.com/photos/splatworldwide/353436998/in/set-72157594458430502

when a song totally matches your emotional state...

jenni — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 00:02:55 GMT

I love it when I'm listening to music on random or just happen to come across a song that matches your attitude, but when it's "Piss up a Rope" by Ween, I get a little concerned that I might be a little too grumpy for my own good. Oh well, screw 'em! http://www.last.fm/music/Ween/_/Piss+Up+a+Rope lyrics here: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/w/ween/piss+up+a+rope_20145488.html

good commute this morning

jenni — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 17:15:53 GMT

Because my carpool feel through, I took BART in, where I found a friend on the train and got to catch up. Then, while walking to the office, I ran into another friend, who I haven't seen in an equally long time, hooray! Catching up was good, and Frog pointed out the above photo opportunity. Come on kids, it's a caulk block! you love it.