Whew, I am never getting back into paid posts again. I used to have PR6 on my main site and it was very nice. But because of my affiliation with certain sites that pay for you to post things, I got a smackdown from Google and I went down to PR3. I’m now back to PR5 and I’m going to try to hold onto it. I’ve never done much to mess with my PageRank, but I’m pleased that it’s back up to PR5. I still have text ads on the sidebar because they occasionally bring in a nice $40-70 check (depending on how many advertisers I have there) plus the MusicMP3.ru ad gets me $40 in credit at that site per month…I can buy all the mp3’s I want, ha! Anyway, today was a homework-free day, and it felt pretty good. We went shopping and I got some awesome jeans, I finally discovered Lane Bryant’s color-coding of pants! They had “buy one, get one free” stuff, and I got a totally awesome $35 shirt that I absolutely love for free. It was a nice day even though it was cold and rainy.

I get phone spam now and then, those calls where you say “hello” and then it’s a scratchy recording in Spanish saying you’ve won a free vacation or whatever. There’s a gazillion websites where you can report this stuff. One of the ones I like is Phone Spam Filter…I like to read through and see what people have to say about the calls they received. The difference between Phone Spam Filter and other similar sites is that they actually explain what is going on. Most sites, you see people leaving comments like “how did they get my number?! I’m unlisted!” But at Phone Spam Filter they explain that they’re just autodialing every number. They didn’t get “your” number, they just called a phone that happened to be yours.

The site offers software that’s supposed to protect you against telemarketers, kind of like this old thing I had that plugged into your phone line at home - we basically don’t have any telemarketing calls at home anymore. But for the software, you have to have a modem…do that many people really have dialup anymore? Their software is open-source though, so that’s cool…but I don’t know how useful it is for most people. There’s also fun anti-telemarketer videos.

The site also works internationally, BTW. I don’t know of any other sites that do that, but for example UK users can visit the UK Phone Spam Filter site. Unfortunately they don’t have any answers about how to handle telemarketers on your cell phone. I’ve heard of people adding “Known Telemarketer” to their phone’s address book, but then you have to do it for ALL the numbers they use. No thanks! Mostly I just love reading other people going “what is this?!?!” on these sites.

Sometimes people say my hearing loss is ironic. I have been involved in the deaf world for all these years, and now I have a hearing loss of my own. People love to comment about the irony of this, so much that I’m tired of hearing about it. Now I think of it in terms of fate. Maybe all those years were preparation for my own hearing loss. I certainly didn’t cause it intentionally - it hurt like a bitch and messed up my vacation - but it did happen. So maybe the stars were just aligning me to that point. Hell, I don’t know. But every time somebody says how ironic it is, I can’t help thinking to myself about fate.

I have to go back to homework now, but that’s food for thought.

The IT department can kiss my butt. Since I last brought my laptop to school, they’ve started requiring XP Service Pack 3 to be installed in order to use the wifi network. It took a trip to IT services to figure out that’s what they wanted me to install in order to connect, and I promptly rejected the idea. I told them I would either dual-boot with Linux or just not use the network. And I will probably do the latter, although not having Zotero at school will be a pain.

But see, I’m a nerd. I’m a geek. Expecting a geek to follow your ridiculous IT policy is like expecting a model to eat a hamburger. It just isn’t going to happen. If you read blogs about Cisco Clean Access, you’ll see people decrying its ability to let IT administrators control and monitor your system. That’s exactly my problem. I used to be an IT professional myself. I am not about to let somebody else mess with my stuff. I’ve bowed to the CCA demons long enough…no more!

On the bright side, I did see a sign indicating that the bookstore has Office 2007 for $15 (I paid $60 online last year) and Vista for $25.

PS: Yes, I realize SP3 may not be that bad. But I want it to be my decision to install it.

I am a certified interpreter as well as being a Gallaudet student. In 2009, the RID conference will be in Philadelphia, which is inexpensive for me to visit, so I figured I’d go. There were two registration levels - member ($350) and student ($200). Now, RID has a membership level called student; the dues are less and you must prove you’re currently enrolled in an interpreter training program. But student members at still members, so I thought maybe, just maybe, the student rate for the conference might apply to non-student members of RID. After all, I only work during breaks, so my budget is really tight. I emailed them to ask and I was told that only student members get to pay the student rate for the conference. I wrote back and said thanks, guess I won’t be coming to the conference then.

I guess I see it as kind of unfair. A student rate is discounted because students don’t have as much money, not because students derive less benefit from whatever they’re buying with the discount. It’s dumb to insist someone pay more in this situation. But what can I do? Nothing really. I’ll miss the conference and the opportunity to network with other interpreters. Life goes on, I guess…I’ll just try to forget that it’s so close to home. Pretend it’s in Hawaii or something.

It would appear that some clarification is in order. Somebody I thought wasn’t even interested in me anymore and didn’t read my blog anymore said that she “is deeply saddened by the passing of Prop 8, but does not accept the bigotry directed toward her as a newly engaged straight person.” (I assume this was in reference to last night’s post, but I don’t know if she actually read that or if it’s coincidental.)

First of all, let me say that “bigotry” is not what I was expressing yesterday. That is called “jealousy.” I have never said that straight people shouldn’t get married, only that I hate hearing about it because I am jealous. I think it would be really nice if straight people waited to get married until gay marriage was legal, but that’s probably unrealistic. I am jealous, not bigoted.

I am not anti-straight people. Some of my best friends are straight people. I am a teensy bit anti-straight people getting married, but not much. I am anti-hearing about your wedding because it makes me cranky and bitter that I can’t marry the woman I’ve been with for almost 11 years. And this doesn’t even mean that you shouldn’t talk about it or tell me about it or whatever. It just means that it makes me bitchy. Okay? Thank you.

Added: Turns out she wasn’t responding to me. She’s having conversations with other people instead. I was right, she doesn’t follow me anymore. It was just really crazy timing, I guess.

I’m gonna say this, and I don’t give a fuck what people think of me. I’m a fucking bitter old hag and the world can kiss my ass.

I hate fucking straight people and their weddings. Oh, we’re getting married! Oh, look at us, congratulate us, we’re so wonderful! Fuck that shit. There ought to be a moratorium on all marriages until gays can marry. I know tons of people who have gotten married over the past several years, and I know exactly one couple who is waiting to marry until their gay friends can marry.

Fucking wedding bullshit. You people have such fucking privilege and you don’t even know it. You aren’t grateful for it. You tell your gay friends, gee, I’m sorry you can’t get married, and then you run off and buy a white dress and a ring and find a venue and wave your privilege in our faces. And we’re supposed to be happy and congratulate you!

You know what? I have hated straight weddings for years. And I’m going to keep right on hating until I get married. Thank god we’re going to Massachusetts in the spring.

Disclaimer: if you think the above is about you, IT PROBABLY IS. Because it applies to all straight people getting married. My friends and acquaintances don’t get a free pass here. I hate their weddings too. So if it COULD be about you, then it IS about you.

Fucking bitter, I am.

I went to Baltimore today to interpret for the Mr. Maryland Leather contest. Fortunately another terp showed up to watch, because I had a headache and after an hour I was already forgetting signs like “spring” - durrrrr. So the other terp, who was shocked that they hadn’t asked another terp to work with me, did a while and he was great! I finished the show and got some compliments after. They had to do with what had looked like I was flipping off the MC. He had just been heckling me, and then somebody to his left called out something. He told them “bite me!” so I signed that by giving the finger to my left, toward the MC…and people thought I was the one giving him the finger. None of my deaf folks did, dear sweet Sir Y (who is a terp for the deaf-blind) said “oh no, you said bite me, I read it on your lips!” Hearing people are funny sometimes.

Afterward, I checked my pager and saw there was an update about the heart transplant kid I interpreted for this summer. I realized, hey! I’m right near the hospital! So I emailed his dad to check if it was okay to come over, and ate my egg salad sandwich while I waited for him to answer. (Got it at Whole Foods because I knew I’d be hungry after interpreting.) He said sure, so I went over and visited for a little bit. That kid gave me an AWESOME hug, god he is adorable. (He’s 16 and would not want to be called that!) I chatted with his stepmom about how he’s been doing, and I asked if I could give him $10 for Subway. (There’s one at the hospital, and he hates hospital food so he gets Subway a lot.) She said sure, so I pulled a bill from the back of my wallet, quickly folded it, and gave it to him. Only after I’d left the room did I realize I’d had a $20 in the back, not a $10 like I thought. Oh well, he can have LOTS of Subway. He’s a good kid, and the family is trying to be frugal right now, so I can help out. Of course I haven’t worked much in the past few months, so I’m broke myself, but it’s okay. (Not like I could ask for it back anyway…and he’s just a real sweetie.)

I haven’t posted much lately, I have just been so busy with school! But I wanted to talk about my new gadget. I got a 32GB iPod Touch and it is so cool. I was thinking it might be a way to see if I wanted an iPhone, but now I see that there are too many flaws for me to ever consider making an iPhone my only phone - no highlighting, no copy and paste?! I still love my Blackberry but the Touch is just plain cool. So far my favorite apps are TwitterFon (I tried all the different Twitter apps), BrightKite, and Pandora. Of course I wish it could do stuff without needing to be on wifi, especially for those three apps, but I have wifi at school and at home so I can use it most of the time. It’s so cool!

I have already gotten helpful tips from many people through Twitter, but if anyone reading this has favorite apps they think I should get, let me know! (I would especially love to know about free games that make use of the accelerometer.)