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I looked today at what it would take to upgrade my gimpy video card. And lo, not only can I not buy a new generation video card and put it on my current mobo, but also, if I buy a new mobo, I will need to replace at least two of my current drives, because you can't buy a new generation mobo that will support more than 2 IDE devices, must switch to SATA. Oh well. Replacing CD/DVD drives is cheap, and I can (maybe) hang on to the hard drives for a while longer... Whole rebuild like I would want it = about $500. That doesn't suck, but it's still a lot of trouble. It's tempting to buy a pre-built, and yet, that's probably one of those things I would only do if, say, I were paralyzed from the neck down, or something.
I looked today at what it would take to upgrade my gimpy video card. And lo, not only can I not buy a new generation video card and put it on my current mobo, but also, if I buy a new mobo, I will need to replace at least two of my current drives, because you can't buy a new generation mobo that will support more than 2 IDE devices, must switch to SATA. Oh well. Replacing CD/DVD drives is cheap, and I can (maybe) hang on to the hard drives for a while longer... Whole rebuild like I would want it = about $500. That doesn't suck, but it's still a lot of trouble. It's tempting to buy a pre-built, and yet, that's probably one of those things I would only do if, say, I were paralyzed from the neck down, or something.
Pardon my postiness for a moment. This is an update to a previous post, in which I wrote a note to a polling agency about their craptacular misuse of the word 'transgendered', and other assorted effed-up gender assumptions.
I wanted to mention that I just took another poll written by the same company, and noticed that they have broken 'transgendered' out of the available choices on sexual orientation, and made it its own demographic item. So you don't have to choose, for example, whether you are, say, bisexual *or* transgendered, but could, in fact be recorded as bisexual *and* transgendered. (You still have to check 'male' or 'female' in another item, but hey. Baby steps.) I'm going to take a moment and revel in the possibility that someone might have read my letter and done some research. You know, since they're a *research company*.
I wanted to mention that I just took another poll written by the same company, and noticed that they have broken 'transgendered' out of the available choices on sexual orientation, and made it its own demographic item. So you don't have to choose, for example, whether you are, say, bisexual *or* transgendered, but could, in fact be recorded as bisexual *and* transgendered. (You still have to check 'male' or 'female' in another item, but hey. Baby steps.) I'm going to take a moment and revel in the possibility that someone might have read my letter and done some research. You know, since they're a *research company*.
Pardon my postiness for a moment. This is an update to a previous post, in which I wrote a note to a polling agency about their craptacular misuse of the word 'transgendered', and other assorted effed-up gender assumptions.
I wanted to mention that I just took another poll written by the same company, and noticed that they have broken 'transgendered' out of the available choices on sexual orientation, and made it its own demographic item. So you don't have to choose, for example, whether you are, say, bisexual *or* transgendered, but could, in fact be recorded as bisexual *and* transgendered. (You still have to check 'male' or 'female' in another item, but hey. Baby steps.) I'm going to take a moment and revel in the possibility that someone might have read my letter and done some research. You know, since they're a *research company*.
I wanted to mention that I just took another poll written by the same company, and noticed that they have broken 'transgendered' out of the available choices on sexual orientation, and made it its own demographic item. So you don't have to choose, for example, whether you are, say, bisexual *or* transgendered, but could, in fact be recorded as bisexual *and* transgendered. (You still have to check 'male' or 'female' in another item, but hey. Baby steps.) I'm going to take a moment and revel in the possibility that someone might have read my letter and done some research. You know, since they're a *research company*.
must...increase...competencies..
Nov. 3rd, 2006 01:33 pmI spent some quality time on the ADF website last night, doing some work on tonight's Wild Hare Samhain ritual (I am not a member, but ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
triadruid is, and was kind enough to let me use his login to poke about), and discovered that they've got audio files of a very musical-sounding fellow speaking useful ritual words in Welsh. So I learned some of them, what fun! (No, really. Seriously. Welsh = fun sounds in my mouth.)
So I was thinking to myself that I should learn to speak Welsh. I mean, it's exactly the sort of skill that I can get excited about having: It'd be fun to practice, I could pretend that it's religiously motivated, and it would be almost completely useless in day to day existence. What could be better than that?
triadruid is, and was kind enough to let me use his login to poke about), and discovered that they've got audio files of a very musical-sounding fellow speaking useful ritual words in Welsh. So I learned some of them, what fun! (No, really. Seriously. Welsh = fun sounds in my mouth.)So I was thinking to myself that I should learn to speak Welsh. I mean, it's exactly the sort of skill that I can get excited about having: It'd be fun to practice, I could pretend that it's religiously motivated, and it would be almost completely useless in day to day existence. What could be better than that?
must...increase...competencies..
Nov. 3rd, 2006 01:33 pmI spent some quality time on the ADF website last night, doing some work on tonight's Wild Hare Samhain ritual (I am not a member, but triadruid is, and was kind enough to let me use his login to poke about), and discovered that they've got audio files of a very musical-sounding fellow speaking useful ritual words in Welsh. So I learned some of them, what fun! (No, really. Seriously. Welsh = fun sounds in my mouth.)
So I was thinking to myself that I should learn to speak Welsh. I mean, it's exactly the sort of skill that I can get excited about having: It'd be fun to practice, I could pretend that it's religiously motivated, and it would be almost completely useless in day to day existence. What could be better than that?
triadruid is, and was kind enough to let me use his login to poke about), and discovered that they've got audio files of a very musical-sounding fellow speaking useful ritual words in Welsh. So I learned some of them, what fun! (No, really. Seriously. Welsh = fun sounds in my mouth.)So I was thinking to myself that I should learn to speak Welsh. I mean, it's exactly the sort of skill that I can get excited about having: It'd be fun to practice, I could pretend that it's religiously motivated, and it would be almost completely useless in day to day existence. What could be better than that?
Bad metrics, no biscuit!
Jan. 11th, 2006 08:39 amI think I just took the worst written opinion poll ever created in the history of polling. Now, to back this up, I studied survey and questionnaire design in college as a psych major. Now, I never did do any graduate studies, and I was perhaps not the best of students, but I do like to believe that I know something about data-gathering and creating this sort of instrument. And I would also like to think that the major polling organizations would know something about it, too. And yet.
( The false assumption, the double-bind, and other ways to spend a lot of money to get crap data... )
( EDIT: My letter to Zogby Interactive, in which I am probably too high-handed. But what do you want? Not enough caffeine yet for proper politeness. )
( The false assumption, the double-bind, and other ways to spend a lot of money to get crap data... )
( EDIT: My letter to Zogby Interactive, in which I am probably too high-handed. But what do you want? Not enough caffeine yet for proper politeness. )
Bad metrics, no biscuit!
Jan. 11th, 2006 08:39 amI think I just took the worst written opinion poll ever created in the history of polling. Now, to back this up, I studied survey and questionnaire design in college as a psych major. Now, I never did do any graduate studies, and I was perhaps not the best of students, but I do like to believe that I know something about data-gathering and creating this sort of instrument. And I would also like to think that the major polling organizations would know something about it, too. And yet.
( The false assumption, the double-bind, and other ways to spend a lot of money to get crap data... )
( EDIT: My letter to Zogby Interactive, in which I am probably too high-handed. But what do you want? Not enough caffeine yet for proper politeness. )
( The false assumption, the double-bind, and other ways to spend a lot of money to get crap data... )
( EDIT: My letter to Zogby Interactive, in which I am probably too high-handed. But what do you want? Not enough caffeine yet for proper politeness. )
About gingerbread
Dec. 30th, 2005 02:03 pmBecause adammaker asked for one:
( A quick and dirty history of gingerbread )
( A medieval gingerbread recipe )
( A 19th Century Gingerbread Recipe )
And,adammaker, I think it's funny because she has an oven *inside* the bread house. It's kind of like the cows in the spaceship thing. But there may be other reasons. :)
adammaker asked for one:( A quick and dirty history of gingerbread )
( A medieval gingerbread recipe )
( A 19th Century Gingerbread Recipe )
And,
adammaker, I think it's funny because she has an oven *inside* the bread house. It's kind of like the cows in the spaceship thing. But there may be other reasons. :)
About gingerbread
Dec. 30th, 2005 02:03 pmBecause adammaker asked for one:
( A quick and dirty history of gingerbread )
( A medieval gingerbread recipe )
( A 19th Century Gingerbread Recipe )
And,adammaker, I think it's funny because she has an oven *inside* the bread house. It's kind of like the cows in the spaceship thing. But there may be other reasons. :)
adammaker asked for one:( A quick and dirty history of gingerbread )
( A medieval gingerbread recipe )
( A 19th Century Gingerbread Recipe )
And,
adammaker, I think it's funny because she has an oven *inside* the bread house. It's kind of like the cows in the spaceship thing. But there may be other reasons. :)
