Party Alert: IMMINENT!

Now I am back (thanks to Amtrak and Tri-Met) and this thing is totally on.

Merry Christmess!

Christmas with my family is always an experiment in barely controlled chaos, what with four generations, the oldest of which can't hear anything and the youngest of which you can't hear anything over. There are a thousand possible pitfalls, gifts that may be triumphant or disastrous, offenses that may be unintentionally given, and treasured objects that may be destroyed when you put 4 children, 9 adults, and a dog together into a small space with a tree and a giant pile of presents and a CD of Christmas carols sung by a German boys' choir.

Yet somehow, with everybody pulling together (and with Mom, as usual, doing more than her share), it all worked gloriously. It always does, more or less, but this year was one of the better ones. We have spent a lot of time congratulating ourselves on this today, rehashing all the highlights and awkward moments while snacking on delicious food. And we have played games, taken naps, watched various things on various screens, and hugged each other.

And now we have used it all up, every last bit. There is no Christmas left.

Party Alert: Elevated.

[Written the 23rd in Portland but, due to Blogger balkiness, posted the 25th from Eugene]

Due to the Unusual Quantities of Solid Precipitation around these parts, I have been increasingly uneasy about the trip south to Familytown, originally scheduled for December 24. It's only a two-hour trip, and I'm told the latter half of it has no snow at all, but the first half -- especially the getting-out-of-Snowyville part -- well, I wasn't sure how that was going to work. It was just going to have to all melt today, was all.

It doesn't look like that's going to happen. No, my Christmas Miracle has taken another form, the form of a gleaming white snow-beast with high strength and agility stats, and also some magical powers. Yes, the Mighty Thor is taking me back to my hometown for Christmas, which is even better than hitching a ride in Santa's sleigh! No, really, look:

ADVANTAGES OF RIDING WITH THOR
- enclosed cab
- heater
- upholstered seats
- nice stereo system
- two hours of conversation with two good friends
- direct route, no stopping at every house along the way
- arrive early in the day instead of in the middle of the night

ADVANTAGES OF RIDING WITH SANTA
- reindeer-powered flight
- bragging rights
- ...

See? Really, the only down side to this is that I don't know exactly how I'm getting back to Portland. At this point it looks like I'll be able to hitch a ride back north with somebody else, and bus/train possibilities are also an option, at least until they sell out. But if this "snow" madness continues, well, who knows.

So the real reason for this post is to alert you, well in advance, that there is a faint possibility I may have to reschedule the party on Sunday. I really think I'll make it back in time, but if by chance I don't, you might not think to check my blog in the (possibly minimal) amount of time that I'd be able to give notice. So keep it on your calendar, but stay tuned for further updates.

Okay, This is a Tricky One.

What has two thumbs and...

...has another snow day off from work tomorrow?

...finished getting the living room ready for party guests today?

...turned the chairs toward the front window for more convenient watching of passers-by on skis, snowshoes, snowmobiles and snowboards?

...is looking forward to the end of the cold snap and the return to regularly scheduled rain, especially if that happens in time to get to Mom and Dad's for Christmas?

You got it. This girl.

Tracking.

To the pedestrian wearing large boots who, while passing northward on my street, paused late this afternoon to leave me a message, I offer the following reply: (o_O)

Of Winter Weather and Penguins.

You know how people from places with Real WinterTM tsk-tsk about how just the slightest amount of snowy/icy weather sets Portlandia on her bronze arse because she doesn't have the road-clearing equipment in place to deal with it?

I suspect she's doing it on purpose. Because sometimes it's not an entirely bad thing to have everything just -stop- for a day or two.

Sunday I broke out the heavy-duty winter gear (which, incidentally, was mostly also my watch gear on the Chieftain) and took the bus downtown and back. The wind was face-bitey cold. I growled at it as I waited and waited and waited for the delayed buses.

Monday I got the morning off, and then when nobody showed up to use the library and the furnace went all feeble, I also took half the afternoon off.

Tuesday was a full workday for me, but today was a false-alarm snow day. Storm warnings gave me the day off, but the weather warmed up this afternoon and melted a lot of this week's snowfall.

Needless to say, I'm feeling pretty spoiled. It's been one of those pajamas-all-day days, I have food in my fridge and a fully operational furnace (with insulated ducts!), most of my gift shopping is done, and there's plenty indoors to amuse me. Unpacking boxes of stuff from storage serves the triple purposes of entertainment, practicality, and reminding me of how thoroughly all my needs are met. Now I am sitting by my mouse-proofed heater vent, listening to StG Sean's Best Songs of 2008 on the Eee and drinking belly-warming ginger tea.

I wanted to follow up on that post where I said I hadn't used the Linux command line yet. Well, I have now. I'm a little deeper into the OS at this point, though not much; I've run up against some problems, and figured out how to fix most of them. So I can give you a more detailed review.

Linux, even Ubuntu Linux, is still not for everybody. If you're not interested in rolling up your sleeves and figuring some things out for yourself, your experience with it right now would be that it's kinda like having a PC, but without the nice software. You'd be keenly aware of the disadvantages, but completely oblivious to the advantages.

Someday in the not-too-distant future, Linux will be for everybody. Right now, however, it is very much for me. There are a number of things about it that still don't work the way I want them to, but when I muster up the discontent to fix something, by golly it gets fixed, and I learn a ton in the process. Finding answers in the uncharted maze of internet message boards, for someone in my ignorant state, requires dogged determination and internet-searching savvy. But the truth is out there. I find a kind of fierce joy in the hunt, and deep satisfaction when I've succeeded.

This is not much of a sales pitch for most of my readers, I know. Most people would rather interact with their operating system in much the same way I prefer to interact with my car: most of the time it works just fine, and on the rare occasion that it doesn't, I take it to some nice guys who know all about it and they make it work again. It's just that my early experience with computers was analogous to the kid who grows up tinkering with cars.

For me, the huge advantage of an open-source operating system running open-source software is that this car is continually being reinvented in better and better ways, by people who do it just because they love to invent and fix things. It's collaborative, not controlled by a commercial interest, so it's more chaotic but also richer. And while you may be on your own for the labor, the parts are free.

I still haven't explained the appeal very well. Maybe that's because it's bedtime now, or maybe it's because it's less about practicality and more about attitude, which is harder to translate into rational arguments. I recently saw a spoof of the "I'm a Mac/I'm a PC" commercials with a perky female "I'm-a-Linux" added to the original duo. I won't link to it here because she didn't present any kind of compelling argument for Linux, objectively or subjectively (she was actually pretty annoying). If I were filming this kind of spoof, the Mac/PC guys would be joined by a big ol' emperor penguin, which would waddle up and just stand next to them and make penguiny noises, and they would look confused and slightly alarmed.

Any Excuse Will Do.

I know, I know. It's not news anymore that I'm back in Portland to stay. But it's not such old news that we can't use it as an excuse for Fun Times. Therefore:

This is your invitation to the Lindsey's-Back-In-Town Party!

When: Sunday, December 28, 1:30 to 9:00 p.m. Come when you like, leave when you're ready.
Where: My house. If you don't know where my house is, e-mail me. If you don't know what my e-mail is, leave a comment with yours.

SEE how barren my place is without the Chainsaw Famile (who recently moved into a house of their very own) !
MARVEL at the amazing midget computer !
MINGLE with other cool friends of mine !
GIVE me a deadline for getting my stuff out of cardboard boxes !

Here are some (optional) things you can bring to enhance the party fun:
- Tasty food or beverages to share.
- Your friends and relatives.
- A board or card game you've been wanting to play (sorry, no Risk).
- Unwanted women's clothing of any size. There will be a swap pile, and leftovers will be passed on to women in need.

Don't RSVP, just show up. See you there here!

Information = Love.

I haven't yet made the effort to locate a Linux driver for my scanner. So no comics tonight. However, I did discover some things on the internet that are currently blowing my mind, and I thought you might want to know about them:

1. Google Reader's shared items function. Are you using Google Reader? If so, did you know about this, how you can annotate blog posts you find worth passing on and make them available for friends to view? Because I have recently discovered that this is incredibly cool, and I'm surprised that only 4 of my friends have seen fit to share what they're reading with me.

2. Kiva.org, which works like this: you make a small loan (as little as $25) to a struggling third-world entrepreneur. S/he uses it to invest in, say, pigs for a farm, or supplies for a store, and then pays it back to you within a specified period. Then you can choose to either take your money back, or loan it to somebody else. The system is really well thought out and has a great track record. I don't know many people who can spare $25 right now, but when you have enough to share, here is a way to do it that is both worthwhile and fun.

3. Esau Mwamwaya's reinvention of the Vampire Weekend song "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa", which I found here, and which might be the most purely joyful thing I experienced this whole craptastic week. The song is not for sale anywhere, so download it quickly before it goes away!

News Flash!

The Third of December is the last Third of 2008!