Jen's Blog

Privacy and YouTube.

2008-07-03T16:27:54Z

Quick summary from the site:
"A US court has ruled that Google must divulge the viewing habits of every user who has ever watched any video on YouTube."

Read more in the Questions and Answers.

Whee. Of course Viacom says it wants the log for a reason OTHER than pursuing users individually... but we've already seen how RIAA + Napster went. That's more than enough information for them to start demanding details from ISPs and suing people for bajillions of dollars.

I am suddenly glad I still haven't bothered setting up a YouTube account. :(

Oh noes, adulthood!

2008-06-28T16:12:24Z

Recently my husband has been realizing (with mock horror) that he's doing responsible adult-type things. For example, if he's at a yard sale, he won't just buy a rubber-band gun. Nowadays, he'll buy a rubber-band gun AND clippy clothes hangers! So sad!!

Today's conversation of awesomeosity...

Jen: So what are we doing today?
Andy: We should go put some gasoline in the car.
Jen: Gasp! Oh, our lives are so exciting and exotic! I can't wait!
Andy: I guarantee the rest of the day will be just as interesting! Because then, we're going out to buy pants.
Jen: At last!
Andy: And clean the living room.
Jen: Swoon!
Andy: And buy soup bones.
Jen: Oh, you spoil me!

My rambling take on gasoline prices and the future.

2008-06-18T20:59:09Z

Over in twoflower's journal, shadur brought up the renewed plans for offshore and park drilling.

I ended up going on such a huge riff about inevitability that I figured I'd better post it separately here. I'm no analyst, but here's my layman's guess...

We're going to run out of fossil sooner or later... which means that before then, we're going to hit the point where a critical mass of legislators feel desperate enough for votes that they'll decide they don't mind drilling in parks/ocean after all.

I think it's inevitable that people's short-term selfishness (for fuel now) will override what should be their long-term selfishness (for a livable world centuries from now). Even if it only works out that way for a couple of decades, that could be more than enough damage.

But in the U.S., we haven't started to even really SEE what true desperation for fuel is: try doubling the cost of gasoline and see how many legislators cave in. Or quadruple it, for that matter, to match what people already pay in other parts of the world. Yeah.

And meanwhile, consider how much the alternative energy industry is coming along, or rather NOT coming along, in comparison with fossil fuel.

I hate to even contemplate what the environmental, social, and economic side-effects will be of fossil fuel prices going high enough for anyone to REALLY consider alternative fuels profitable.

And no, I don't think alternative fuels have a chance of taking off before they are both less expensive AND more convenient than our current system. That'd mean massive replacements of cars, fueling stations, etc.

I mean ideally it would be a gradual transition and alt.energy will take off as fossil fuels decline, we would have magically-affordable non-fossil-fuel public transit and walkable SAFE cities and such... But in practice, with all this human and industrial inertia? I don't have my hopes up, particularly for this area of the country (Washington DC)

Any minute now, if not already (I don't remember the schedule) we'll have hybrid cars whose purchase price is close enough to regular cars that people will be willing to buy them. As opposed to "$10,000 extra for a hybrid? I could just buy gasoline with that money!", as was the case just a couple of years ago.

Even if comparable in price to non-hybrid cars, hybrids will presumably still be running on fossil fuels (directly, or indirectly by charging with electricity generated at fossil fuel electrical plants)... so, even widespread purchases of hybrids, I imagine that will just delay this exact same scenario for a few more decades at most.

Just for the sake of argument, let's suppose that everybody already owns a super-efficient hybrid car. You can get many more miles out of a gallon of gasoline. Hooray! But even so, gasoline will eventually become so hard to get that it will still end up costing $4+ for every 30 miles you travel. It's just that in a hybrid, that'll be 30 miles using, say, 1/4 gallon of $12/gallon gas instead of 1 gallon of $4/gallon gas...

So, that's why I think artificial limits like "well we won't go into this park for oil YET" won't stand up for ever. :/

Sure, everybody likes to imagine that they care about the environment. But popular sentiment seems to go mostly along these lines: "Baby seals are so goshdarned cute. I want somewhere to go hiking. And those coral reefs are full of miracle drugs, right?"

Frankly the whole "Oh we'll save a few pretty areas as wilderness parks, or try to save *A* rainforest" effort seems too small and shortsighted to me.

If we really had a planetary, long-term (like, centuries) management plan that included how to feed and educate people and what our birth rate has to be in order to sustain a reasonable average quality of life for everyone on Earth, then maybe it'd work out better.

But with all the cultural and economic disparities, the chances of the more powerful chunk of the planet's population embracing that (or any solution!) before becoming completely desperate seem pretty damn slim.

Our sprawling cities and the decay of fuel-efficient infrastructure such as railroads here in the U.S. are a direct consequence of cheap car and truck transportation (cheap fuel) -- and so we are going to have incredibly huge problems as a result. Maybe they'll serve as very painful motivation. It's not an appetizing thought.

To bring it back to the here-and-now... I won't get into details, but I'd say I make a really good salary. And yet in this area, I can't afford to live in a non-bulletholed neighborhood that's close enough to bike to work or to realistically use public transit. And I'm staying in this area because my family is here. I tried carpooling but with my schedule, that didn't work out well either. Whee!

Surgery went well!

2008-06-05T02:20:05Z

Hey folks. I have tried not to make a big deal of this but now that I know how it went (best-case-scenario), I just thought I'd pop online to say the surgery went really well.

They removed a NON-cancerous vaginal cyst a few inches up. It didn't hurt but it was big enough to be problematic...

It spontaneously appeared about two months ago and the concern was that it might be an erstwhile cul-de-sac or something even more tangled up with my urinary tract. That could've meant it would be difficult to fix fully, potential risks to continence, etc. Thankfully no, it turns out it was a self-contained easy to remove little thing!

Won't have the catheter for very long, either, but boy is it annoying. Definitely the least comfortable aspect of this!

So, I'm really relieved to find out it's the best-case-scenario and have this over with. I don't really hurt much unless I sit up, so I'm distance-typing this at arm's length with laptop on my thigh, spellchecking... it's slow and tedious but I just wanted to post something! :)

I'll be well enough for work on Tuesday or Wednesday. twoflower, thanks for the Wii so I can goof off digitally before then! And of course thanks to all the well-wishes I have already received and responses here. :)

P.S.: Some unidentified flowers were delivered today. Handwritten florist card just said, "Our hopes everything comes out ok (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) - Here's to a speedy recovery!" Anybody wanna confess? I'm suspecting it's from work, actually, but I don't recognize the handwriting; maybe the florist transcribed it off the phone.

Linksys wireless router = tech support hell.

2008-05-19T14:23:15Z

*twitch* To preface this story, it's mostly resolved now, so don't worry; I'm just letting off steam and rant-summarizing.

I attempted to install a wireless router. It connects to the computers just fine, but insists that I have no internet connection. So after laboriously running through their setup wizard a few times, plugging and unplugging things, I give up and call tech support.

Oh and of course, crackly transpacific phone calls to India are not exactly a recipe for understanding what the guy is saying. His accent was really fine, but the connection was abysmal every time. BLAARRGH.

It takes longer than necessary to convince the guy that this isn't about connecting a computer to the router. So, after repeating everthing the setup wizard requested, the guy essentially says, "Well it COULD be the firmware... but, there's no connection! So therefore your Comcast service just coincidentally died right when you tried to plug the router in! Call Comcast, byeeeee!" *click*

Then I realize Andy's computer could still connect through our old router, even if mine couldn't. So I was starting to suspect that my comp's ethernet port got hosed by their software or mechanically by pulling cords out one too many times. I decided to back up my documents directory juuuust in case, and as a result I discover that the neighboring USB port stopped working too, which makes me worry even more about a hardware issue.

Of course both are hooked into my motherboard, so of course then I was frothing about how maybe now I need a new computer, etc. I did back up my data using a different USB port though.

Anyway, while that's backing up, I call them and essentially say, "We DO have an internet connection, your brilliant theory of coincidental Comcast issues doesn't hold water."

So then Tech Idiot is telling me, "Okay, so maybe it is a firmware issue. But you can't return the wireless to the store! Definitely not! Yes, even though you just bought it today and still have the receipt. You must call this number and you'll get an RMA and yadda yadda."

Now, the idea of returning this piece of crap through the mail does not appeal; the whole point of getting wireless access set up is so I can have some intarweb access when I'm in bed after surgery (June 4. Don't worry, nothing serious for the long-term.)

So I call the RMA support line he gave me a few times, but every time it plays a random advertisement for an ABC show, then hangs up on me. So I call Linksys back again and navigate their insane phone tree to get a _different_ tech who gives me the real phone number (three digits off). Then I finally get him to admit that, what do you know, I CAN return it to the store.

At that point I'm so frustrated because of course, the net effect (har pun!) of this ridiculousness is that my computer still wouldn't connect to our old router anymore. So I plug in the laptop to confirm that at least the network cable works. (It works.)

So then I give up for a bit. After a night's sleep, I try rebooting my comp a few times and finally figure out that their stupid setup wizard told my computer to ignore the other router, and turn that back on. So whaddya know, it's fine now.

I still don't know if the neighboring USB port is working (will check tonight) but I have a lot of them soooo, whatever. As long as my computer isn't melting down, that's not so bad.

And Linksys is supposed to be a top-level namebrand? Gluh.

Moral of the Story: I returned it and got a Belkin instead.

Jen and her godson Danny

2008-05-12T00:22:27Z

Jen and her godson Danny
Originally uploaded by Jen Shikami

To celebrate Mother's Day... Here I am carrying around my godson, Danny, as if he's a baseball bat. :D That kid is so damn cute! We love him so!

Luxury pudding.

2008-05-07T00:05:02Z

It's been a while since I posted, so I thought I'd relay this vital news.

My husband has been laboriously making stovetop chocolate instant pudding, and he has now decanted it into WINE GLASSES and put it in the fridge to finish.

He claims, "You can't put something this special in a BOWL, Jen!"

No more negative feedback for eBay buyers...

2008-01-31T22:40:26Z

Among many other changes, eBay just adjusted its feedback system so sellers can't leave negative feedback for buyers. This has, naturally, caused a huge unhappiness among sellers. Sellers complain about buyers leaving negative feedback and the sellers have no leverage.

But I think I can see why they've done this. I suspect it will actually help the community as a whole.

See, the leverage equation goes both ways. The buyer's feedback has never made a bit of difference to their ability to buy things (not after the first few) and so our prior ability to leave negative feedback hardly mattered. But the seller's feedback makes a HUGE difference.

As a result, leaving negatives for buyers is only really leverage if the buyer is also a seller -- in which case they are SO desperate to maintain their feedback rating, that they aren't likely to report poor sellers. And in turn, that hurts our ability to truly detect who's a responsible seller and who isn't.

I'll use myself as an example. I both buy and sell. I bought something recently and the seller insists that he shipped it even though he didn't get a tracking number as originally specified. All I did was point out it hadn't arrived, and he's being really snotty about it and preemptively refused a refund even though I hadn't asked for one. I see over the same time period he's suddenly got a bunch of negative feedback for shipping issues and not-shipped items, so... HMM.

But, I'm not leaving him negative feedback, at least not yet. Why? Because if I do, he's likely to wreck my own 100% feedback rating.

So as a result, I am sure other buyers have been just as hesitant to leave negative feedback even when it's well-deserved.

On the other hand, as a seller, I've had very good experiences with eBay's built-in arbitration and feedback removal system in cases of buyers trying to hold my feedback hostage. In my experience that does a lot more to stop negative feedback from buyers than holding back buyer feedback.

Really, the seller should be giving the buyer positive feedback as soon as they pay promptly; at that point the buyer has fulfilled his/her obligation. When sellers consistently fail to give buyers feedback, I always suspect it's so the seller can use the threat of a negative as leverage if the buyer ends up with legitimate complaints later.

I mean, the sellers are really in the position of power here; buyers know for sure that they paid and can always prove it, but they often don't know if the seller really shipped.

If the buyer doesn't pay, I can cancel the sale and get a refund of fees. If the seller doesn't ship, or claims to have shipped but I have reason to suspect they didn't... well, I'm just screwed then, especially if the seller then drops a "POOR COMMUNICATION, AVOID" into my feedback profile.

Presumably some of you (especially the artists) are eBayers. What do you think?

Always listen to Kenobi!

2008-01-04T04:56:19Z

From Wikipedia (sourced from Alec Guinness's book):
When [James] Dean introduced himself to Alec Guinness outside a restaurant, he asked him to take a look at the Spyder [his car]. Guinness thought the car appeared "sinister" and told Dean: "If you get in that car you will be found dead in it by this time next week." This encounter took place on September 23, 1955.

And James Dean crashed exactly seven days later on September 30. Eeeee! O_O;

sizzle

2007-12-19T04:04:22Z

[19:52] You: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=male-semen-makes-hiv-more-potent
[19:52] You: Male semen? As opposed to other kinds of semen?
[19:53] Meissa Thorne: Well sure.
[19:54] Meissa Thorne: That female semen is noxious stuff.
[19:54] You: I know. I usually use mine to eat through steel gratings in space colonies.
[19:55] Meissa Thorne: I market mine as a low cost paint remover.
[19:55] You: When my chem prof claimed there was no universal solvent, I sooo wanted to say "Oh yeah? Watch THIS!"
[19:56] You: But. I didn't.
[19:56] You: I mean, it kinda goes without saying, right?
[19:56] Meissa Thorne: Stupid chem professors. The problem is it's BIOLOGY, and they won't deign to comprehend it.
[19:57] Meissa Thorne: It's really a good thing we've gained control of it though.
[19:58] Meissa Thorne: Screaming, awkwardly chemically burned men running throught the streets would just be awkward for the community.
[19:59] You: Yours were still able to run afterwards?
[19:59] You: You must've been holding back.
[20:00] Meissa Thorne: Well, it's no fun if it kills them outright.

Memere (grandmother) dying. News elsewhere.

2007-12-03T16:26:50Z

I have no idea what to say myself, so I'll just refer to my brother twoflower's characteristically well-written posts on the same topic. My last grandparent is on her way out. We probably will be heading up to New England for funeral-type activites in a few days.

Thanks for thinking of us... Don't feel like you have to comment though, I know my friends are sympathetic already and I know there's never really anything to say!

Christmas and my movie-geek husband.

2007-11-20T23:45:37Z

Hee hee. Some boxes arrived today, full of presents for flyingcar. He left them next to my desk with a printout of Brad Pitt from Seven shrieking out, "Tell me what's in the box!!!"

I'm going to empty the box out before he gets home, and leave the empty box on his desk with an "OH GOD, OH GOD" printout inside. XD

Free fiction for bio geeks (and everyone else)

2007-11-14T17:38:58Z

Check out Wild Life, a set of bite-size stories written by Daniel Wolff, illustrated by Christopher Baldwin.

With my marine bio background I found them particularly entertaining, but I imagine you don't need a strong bio background to enjoy these. There's a lot of drama out there in nature... just a question of how you look at it.

It's basically anthropomorphized (not in the furry sense) wildlife fiction, sort of a slice-of-life or biographical piece for the animal in question. Not sure how else to describe it! A few are from a human's POV, too.

You can read most of them in any order, though you might want to read the first and last "Beasts of the Field" section stories sequentially.

Post-it breakup poetry?

2007-11-08T19:15:11Z

Found a post-it note on the sidewalk today. In addition to some numbers that looked like locker combos, it said:

how deep is our bond
if that's all It take
to make you gone?
liveintheden

Account for SL stuff: jenshikami

2007-10-03T18:14:17Z

Hey folks. .. sorry so incommunicado! Maybe one of these days I'll learn to post and read my flist more consistently. :/

I've been happily making virtual artwork in Second Life lately.

I've begun posting all my SL-related creativity under a new account name, jenshikami. My most recent post has a link to pics of the super cute fairies I've been working on. :)

I'll keep this, jengagne, as my personal account.

Speed Racer movie news: focus...

2007-08-27T12:15:15Z

Apparently the entire frame will always be in focus, cartoon-style.

Fairy wings!

2007-08-24T07:16:19Z

Here's a more detailed view of those fairy wings you might've seen faerie_h and Dunan Wilder wearing in Faerie's LJ yesterday. I must admit I'm quite pleased with them!

I have four different packs. Jewel, Jewel Mix, Pastel, and Pastel Mix. To show the difference, here's the blue set from each pack.

(The packs each have lots of colors, not just blue, but presumably you get the idea!)

Recent photos from SL. Fairies and mice and such.

2007-08-23T03:52:46Z

Haven't posted lately, so here's a whole slew of pics! Mostly from Second Life. Hover your mouse over each picture for a description, and click for a larger view.

SD Twoflower avatar in Second Life.

2007-08-07T04:35:01Z

Here's a super-tiny little avatar I sculpted up for my brother, twoflower, in Second Life. When he types, the laptop appears. In-game the avatar is under a foot tall. SO CUTE ZOMG.

Click for a larger view.

It's meant to basically match the portrait on the right. :) I made his hair purple instead of green since it's purple in-game, and I made the eye-dots a little bigger so they'd be visible from afar.

Edited to add: Thank you everyone! You should see this avatar walking around... *_* so cute... I made a little girl version for myself, too. I'll post pics of that tonight.

Faerie Hax in my wings.

2007-07-27T12:38:58Z

Here's a quick unposed pic of Faerie Hax wearing this week's secret freebie wings in our shop, Seven's Selections. Also the Peacock wings; this color combo matches her nicely. I just love her outfit, and the green/peachy skin is very cute. Reminds me of "Wicked." :)

Crampy today! Waah! Bleh! Must... ignore... relax...

"Canon" fodder... more from Rowling on the end of the Harry Potter series.

2007-07-26T19:31:19Z

Don't click unless you don't care about spoilers. Here's more info from Rowling on what happens after the end of the last book. She says she couldn't fit it all in there sensibly, but seems happy enough to summarize.

Map of online communities.

2007-07-26T17:42:17Z

Hee hee, check this out: http://xkcd.com/256/
Geographic area represents estimated size of membership. Here's a bigger version.

Though it's not a community, I am especially amused by the inclusion of Qghlm on the upper right. It's a fictional island reffed in the last few novels by the delightfully geeky author Neal Stephenson.

Animated flame wings.

2007-07-25T05:01:05Z

Made these tonight. The fire is animated and glowy and such. :) I thought about calling them phoenix wings, but a phoenix's wings should be more birdy, shouldn't they?

Seraph wings and the solar system in progress.

2007-07-19T13:11:13Z

Feeling a little better Wednesday night, so here's the latest. I made these fluttery seraph wings as a custom order in Second Life. I think other people will like them too, so I'll prep and post them for sale when I get back from Otakon.

Also, a sort-of scale model of the solar system. :D The planets have a size and rotation rate proportional to the Earth in this model. The sun is 1/10th of what it would be in relation to Earth. Needless to say, the orbital radii are NOT to scale.

It's not quite done yet... I haven't moved Pluto's orbit yet, for example. I don't think I'll include Eris. Maybe the asteroid belt, though...

I'm thinking I'll sell the solar system as a thingy people can display, or as something they can wear -- crunch the avatar up and hide it in the center of the sun. Heheh! I'll have to get advice on some icky rotation code for the wearable version though. Pluto will be a separate piece so you can choose whether you consider it planet enough to show. ;)

Hmm, I just realized there's some unintentional symbolism in the pics above... me wearing angelic wings while creating a bit of the universe. Hee. But one part is no coincidence -- God surely has a totally awesome Hawaiian shirt collection like mine!

Second Life pics from last night.

2007-07-18T12:51:39Z

I was sick most of yesterday but here's a quick set of pics from after I revived... Pic of my shop from outside, some cool customers including a giant mechanical dragon, a giant walk-in Duck Hunt game where you can take out the dog, and an unspecified friend of mine wearing my old Goth Girl outfit. :D Click for larger views.