ghost in the machine

My car radio seems to have been inhabited by a ghost: I'm driving along, listening to the slow jams on Foxy 107 FM, and suddenly the frequency hops down. It's been happening with greater frequency over the past week to the point that this morning Owen Bennet Jones was interrupted every 3 minutes with a trip 0.2 down the dial. Local College Station keeps skipping up to Local Moderately Sucky Jazz Station.

A little innernet searching hasn't yielded any newsgroup discussions of problems like this. That's a little disconcerting, because that means it's not a common problem. My limited knowledge of audio electronics has led me to hypothesize that the problem is with whatever mechanism scans the radio frequencies. I further hypothesize that whatever in this mechanism makes it cease scanning frequencies has gotten "loose" or "wiggy" and thus jumps around unexpectedly.

I'm afraid I may have to call (gasp) the dealer, but I suspect they won't offer any help until I haul the car into their shop and have them charge me $80 for zip ties like they did last time. Maybe I should call the Car Talk guys. Or maybe I should get in touch with Tangina Barrons.

shameful shoe shopping post (which is also the 'shamefully alliterative title' post)

I blame the upper-60-degree weather last week for causing some rather premature spring fever, but I've been wasting lots of time lately thinking about summer shoes.

My philosophy on shoe buying has changed slightly recently, from "buy whatever is cute, cheap, and reasonably comfortable" to "I need something I can walk 2.3 miles in and wear to work." To new philosophy is due to the fact that I've been walking to work 3-4 times a week lately. The bike has a flat, and I determined that walking was a better option in the chilly winter anyway. Once the summer humidity sets in, my natural ability to sweat more than most burly men will likely make walking to work undesirable, but until then, I am loving it. Plus, I don't have to wear a helmet.

So I need shoes that appease both my vanity and my feet. Many women I know swear by Dansko shoes, though I've avoided them in the past because a) it's hard to find a pair for under $100 and b) they've looked a little too much like their wooden inspiration:


Yeah.

Apparently, though, they are practically sinfully comfortable, and the better styles are more John Fluevog than Dutch Boy.

These three are all on ebay for exceedingly cheap prices, around $35 including the shipping.
Basic, versatile, but not thrilling.
I really really like these.
These are red and therefore good.
These are from Zappos, and are not cheap. But they are Mary Janes, which I love, and I kind of like that they are more shoe than sandal.

So much to ponder.

one meeellion dollars

i'm not a reject!

Tuesday I got some good news: I am not a grad school reject! I'm not accepted, either, but I'm on the waiting list for the MFA program at Big Public University of Another State. I've taken this to mean I don't come across as a big fucking idiot to at least one admissions committee, which is actually kind of a shocking thing to realize.

Perhaps I shouldn't be gloating about these things semi-publicly yet, but fuck it. I found out I'm not a total reject. And that is exciting.

more fake social experience brought to you by expensive innernet thingies

If you were outraged/driven to drink even more by Second Life's virtual march on Washington, you'll be pleased to hear that your tax dollars (well, for some of you) are being spent to give rich, white college students the opportunity to experience white privilege - virtually. It's called Game2Know, and it's coming to a Southern Private University near you.

The game is intended to enable users to experience the effects of institutionalized privilege (on the one hand) and disenfranchisement (on the other) by having to adopt a persona of a different race, gender, ethnicity, ability set, etc. By loading the virtual world with real-world statistics about disparities in access to housing, education, health services and the formal and informal institutions that connect people to capital, users will experience how being a member of a particular demographic group has a direct effect on their ability or inability to accrue wealth and “succeed” by the norms of the “American Dream.” As they play the game, participants will learn how factors other than individual ability affects material success, including access to privileges that often seem invisible to those who benefit from them.

It's a good thing they're not making those poor kids actually leave their sheltered campus to experience the majority non-white city in which they live: it's dangerous!

Plus, now you can be white and have a black avatar without having to justify yourself!