I’m not too sure what to do with my links directory. It’s currently only got blogging-related links in it, but I could do other things with it. I once tried setting up a blogging directory in my ODP bookmarks, but it was getting so large that I ended up transferring it to the Links 2.0 installation. I don’t really do anything with it, so I could just delete it - except for the Templates category, which is fairly robust. But I can’t even bring myself to look through that category anymore (I originally created it because I love blog templates) because I’m still trying to get my site code cleaned up and possibly pare down the number of skins available. I’m just not sure what to do with it all, so I’m mostly letting it sit.

Tomorrow is the 25th anniversary of the Sony Walkman. There’s a fun set of pictures over at the Walkman Museum. It’s hard to believe it was only created 25 years ago! Like Kleenex and Xerox, Walkman has become a generic word as much as a brand name. Lots of other manufacturers have made personal stereos - in fact, those are also catalogued in the Walkman Museum - but Sony’s was the original. [via Metafilter]

For some reason I’ve been sleepy all day today. The same thing happened yesterday. I don’t want to go to Japanese class, and neither does A, but we’re making ourselves go. I don’t really have anything else to say, because I have been obsessed with playing NeoQuest all day and didn’t do a lot of web browsing!

I did find Undercity a few days ago via Yahoo! Picks, though. It’s got cool pictures and stories from New York City, including a look at Grand Central Terminal and an interview with a homeless guy on the street.

I discovered some interesting local coaster history through pictures. After reading a 1993 review of Wild World and the Wild One, I realized I had an information update to send in for the installation detail at my beloved rcdb. I got a note back from the webmaster thanking me for the information, and mentioning he’d just been to SFA for the first time recently and that he liked the Wild One. I went to take a look and sure enough, my updated information was there. (I’d sent in the fact that the coaster was SBNO in 1991, because the park was closed due to financial troubles.) While looking at the pictures from the Wild One (I don’t often look at pictures because I have dialup at home), I discovered some interesting history of the park. Those who have only been to the park since it became Six Flags America won’t recognize this view at all, and this shot will be equally astonishing. Evidence of the park’s origin as Wild World can be seen in this shot, and this sign also references the fact that Wild One was the only coaster at Wild World, which began its life as a water park with only a few dry rides. (That water park is today’s Paradise Island section of SFA.) The trains were repainted when the park became Adventure World, and if you look at that shot compared with this picture from the Wild World days, it appears that some of the trees were already removed by the time the park became Adventure World. I just found those pictures to be an interesting trip down memory lane, as I attended the park under all three of its names. (I didn’t go on the Wild One as a child, though.)

Do any of you happen to be a TechTV junkie? I used to love that channel, but when my neighborhood was upgraded for digital cable capability, they took away TechTV from the non-digital subscribers. In a stroke of cruelty, though, the cable company is advertising a TechTV sweepstakes to those of us who don’t even get the channel! The Digital Digs contest has daily prizes of $500, but the grand prize is a $100,000 home tech makeover. I’d love to enter, but the catch is that you have to watch TechTV to get a code to enter on the website! Between 6pm and 1am they show four different codes, each of which is valid for an entry into the contest. If anybody happens to see one of those codes, would you send it along to me? I’d love to get an entry into that grand prize contest!

I happened to stumble upon the website for the bisexual publication Anything That Moves. I recognized it immediately because we have a few decade-old copies of the magazine. What surprised me, though, was the notice that ATM has ceased production. They’re not printing any more issues, they’re not updating the website, and - worst of all - the website will go dark. It’s still up one month after that notice was posted, but that made me nervous. I know that ATM was a respected resource for bisexuals, and it would be a shame to have its online presence go away completely. So I engaged in a bit of preservation: I downloaded Web Site Extractor and then made a copy of the entire website. I’m not sure what I’ll do with it, though I suppose I could try offering a copy to the Web Archive. They have copies of the site dating back to 1998, but the most recent is a year old.

I spent most of today at Six Flags for Deaf History Day, but I didn’t spend too much time interpreting. There wasn’t a whole lot there to interpret, to be honest! And yet I didn’t just have time to myself. After handing out schedule flyers at the entrance (only one performance of each show was interpreted), I wandered back to the booths set up by the deaf vendors. That was the place where deaf people seemed to congregate most throughout the day - I suspect something along the lines of “meet me by the vendors” was said more than once today.

At 11:00 I went over to the Looney Tunes theater with my co-terp for that show, but she ended up missing the first two-thirds of it anyway. This was the second time I’d watched the show, and this time I signed along to myself. When the show was over, I took my FastLane tickets over to Two-Face and got to hop right on. I decided to buy the FastLane tickets today (I’d never gotten them before) because I wanted to make sure I got to ride coasters. I had various appointments and responsibilities today, and I didn’t want to waste time standing in line. Because I’d gotten into the park for free, the $10 I spent on five FastLane tickets seemed worth it to me. After Two-Face I realized it was just about 11:30 and time for the performance group Harmony. They did a really excellent job in their signed musical performance; I rather enjoyed it. I had to duck out before the last song, though, because it was time for my stint interpreting at the vendor tables. Not that there was really any work there: we were mostly there for the hearing people walking by, but they were all too scared to ask any questions of the deaf people working the booths.

When we were finished sitting around waiting for somebody to need interpreting, my co-terp for the booths dragged me along (it wasn’t hard) to go on the Rodeo, which I enjoyed. It’s funny, I love going to theme parks but I focus so much on the coasters that I miss out on the smaller rides, which can also be fun. I think in the future I will buy line-jumping passes for the coasters so I can ride the flat rides too. After that I struck out on my own for the Gotham area, where I took my FastLane pass to Joker’s Jinx. While waiting to board I noticed a guy in the regular lines wearing a t-shirt from my high school that was only produced in 1994. I called out to him, and it turned out he graduated a year after me. (My freshman year was 1993-1994, and that’s when they made the shirt, but I guess they had some left over when that guy started the next year.) He didn’t seem too impressed by my interest, which was disappointing, so I let it drop even though I was right behind him after we’d both been on the ride. I went on Batwing next, and then tried to go on Superman but there was a line of people waiting to use their FastLane tickets! I felt I didn’t have enough time before I had to be back at the Looney Tunes theater for my show, so I skipped my favorite ride in the park. On the way back to the front of the park I spotted a previous client that I knew I recognized but couldn’t place; I finally figured it out a while later…thank goodness, or that would have bothered me!

While walking to the front of the park, I decided I couldn’t wait to get a drink and something to eat. I’d had a scoop of Ben & Jerry’s strawberry kiwi sorbet earlier, but I wanted something more. I also decided my feet were hurting and I should sit down for a while, and I decided I didn’t really feel like going on coasters anymore. I bought a soda and popsicle and sat for a bit, and then finally had the opportunity to do what I’d come for! We were told we could walk around the park and have fun, but also to offer help if any deaf people seemed to need it. I saw a family trying to decide where the nearest restroom was, so I directed them to it. After finishing my popsicle, it was time for the Looney Tunes show.

As expected, it was a bit of a disaster. My co-terp arrived just before the show was going to start, and wasn’t prepared at all. It was very difficult to understand the words, and so forth, but we muddled through it. A few of my co-workers were in the audience, along with the Six Flags representative who had organized us, members of the Harmony singing group, and plenty of deaf people. One of my co-workers was a real lifesaver: she fed us signficant parts of the show, and we were able to go on from there. Fortunately the show was over in 20 minutes, and that was that. All that was left was a group picture of all the terps that had volunteered, and after that I decided to leave. I wanted to hang around, but I had a litany of complaints (feet hurt from standing and walking, didn’t sleep well the night before, sweat was getting sunblock into my eyes) so I said my goodbyes and came home.

Man: Itchy hives could have ruined my big day.
Woman: Miserable itchy hives drove me nuts!
Oh, you people have it easy!

The commercials for Claritin’s new “Hives Relief” product make me laugh. It’s not that they’re designed to be humorous, but when you’ve been living with chronic urticaria for five years…well, the complaints of others are hilarious. Some of you may not be aware of this part of who I am, because we’ve only met recently, but I’ve come far enough that I can develop that kind of dry humor about my disease. I can also tell you about it.
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Has anybody ever used a “sound soother” - one of those white noise devices that’s supposed to help you sleep? I’ve wanted one for many years, so long that when I originally started wanting one they seemed as expensive as a car. (When you’re a kid, there’s affordable, which might be a candy bar, and expensive, which is everything else.) My brother-in-law got a Sharper Image catalog in the mail today, and while flipping through it I noticed they have a number of Sound Soothers. The one that has the most appeal to me is the Travel Sound Soother. It plays 20 sounds (though I listened to all of them in a Flash window and I only liked a few of them), features a ramp-up snooze alarm (we have one of those now, it’s nice), can take batteries or an A/C adapter, and you can buy a pillow speaker for $15.

But I have no idea if these things actually work. I’ve wanted one forever but I’ve never done research to see if they’re effective! A friend of mine suggested that a big fan is better, but fans blow air. So I’m hoping to poll my readers to see if they’re any good! Has anybody tried these?

I had to return the O’Reilly book Essential Blogging to the library yesterday, but before I did I flipped through the comments at the end again. The last time I did that, I found two friends were quoted. Just before returning the book, I realized another friend was in there! I didn’t recognize her the first time around because I don’t know her by the name she used in that quote. The book lists her as ThatGrrl, and I’ve always called her shedragon. I only made the connection this time because I’d recently visited her StumbleUpon profile, where she also goes by ThatGrrl.