Aria Stewart

nyecamden @ 1:20pm: Breakfast and Pemburying
( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

ashti, posting in quiet_thrills @ 2:32pm: Singing
There was a while back, when my voice failed to operate. I couldn't speak. I couldn't sing either.

But my voice is back now, and while I cannot sing for as long as I'd like - or as loud as I'd like - it's getting better. I have to remind myself to take it easy, to not overdo it because I probably will if I'm not careful, but it's here again.

And so's that joyous feeling of being able to open my mouth and actually sing so that the rest of me gets light and shiny and happy, too.

I love singing.

jessnichole, posting in customers_suck @ 1:59am: My smile was like this =)) and it went to this >=((
There are three things that are guaranteed to make me smile at my job as a video rental clerk. Those things are, in no particular order:

* Cute and laughing children.
* Cute old couples and/or friendly older gentlemen who call me "doll" (in the non-creepy way preferably).
* People who have their ID ready before getting to the till so I can look up their account.

So honestly, I'm not too hard to please. Most people fall into one of these three categories, or there are people around them that make me really have a genuine smile on my face instead of a fake plastic pageant smile. All is good.

Things that are guaranteed to make me FROWN include:

* Messing up the store by moving everything, and then complaining about not being able to find anything.
* When I ask for an ID, giving me a phone number. I didn't realize people had phone numbers as names! Sorry 867-5309!!
* Making terrible fun of the people who were speaking in Somalian in front of you and then letting your child go on and on after they left asking me questions about how silly they sound and how do I understand them and how do I check out movies to them and then the 8 year-old said I SHOULDN'T CHECK OUT MOVIES TO PEOPLE WHO DON'T SPEAK ENGLISH! Geez, I wonder where little Timmy picked that up from!
* Stealing the pens from the cup. Now people can no longer sign their slips.
* Arguing with me and damning me to hell over a 40cent late fee. I'll pay the damn thing myself if it's that much of a deal! But I can not delete it from the system! No way, no how!
* ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ... now I know my ABC's, next time won't you sing with me and remember them so you know where you are going in the store when I say that everything is alphabetical around the wall? Thanks! (Example: "Yes! Last House on the Left is in! It will be in the L's!" and then they walk over to the P's and ask me if that would be before or after The Proposal. *facepalm*)

And last but not least...

* I am not in charge of what movies Corporate sends us, so please stop getting upset with me that we do not have Dexter/Season 2 of Friends/Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom/Titanic/Angus/Boondock Saints/Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas/more copies of blah blah blah blah.....

*ahem*. Thank you. *bow and scamper*

thelhf @ 1:02am:

• 19:53 Google Wave error message: ""Everything's shiny, Cap'n. Not to fret!" Unfortunately, you'll need to refresh." I love nerds. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

her_awesomeness, posting in customers_suck @ 1:38am: Here is a one that I had happen Thursday.

( Pay the bleeping attention to your proofs!! )

And a small one that is getting SO annoying: Why, for the love of god, are you handing me your CREDIT CARD for $0.11? Really? You don't have a dime and one penny in your car? Heck, I'll make it easy on you and just take a dime. A nickel? Something? We have signs that say we don't want to take under a certain amount. (Actually, we have six of them, on bright neon paper) Please read them.

[edited to elaborate a little]

roryjames, posting in transgender @ 2:15am: Transgender in Canadian Military
hey guys, I have the opportunity to write an article for "This Magazine," a Canadian national magazine.

I want to write a feature on transfolk in the Canadian forces and this means I need a character. If anyone is in Toronto or the surrounding area and is interested in making their story known, please message me!

Thanks so much!

mentalhygiene @ 1:52am: From today's Globe
Tidbit for the Bruins fans on my list.

[the Boston Globe asked several local celebrities for their favorite 'Sesame Street' moment]

MATT HUNWICK, Bruins defenseman

"My favorite moment was probably the 'Letter B' song. I remember it being a catchy tune at the time and later realized how clever it was when I heard the actual 'Let It Be' song by the real band."

witch_inside, posting in transgender @ 1:39am: Question
I am getting ready to move to a new state and town in the next year or so. When I go I am hoping to introduce myself from the get go as female. I understand that this will probably scare some people away but then again those are not the people I would want to get to know anyway right? I guess my question is, is it a good idea to be upfront with new people right away about being trans or is it likely to isolate me from the community before they have a chance to accept me?

dannipenguin @ 5:10pm: decorator factory for dbus-python methods
This is a crazy idea I had; that I want to share with people.

When you're implementing an object in dbus-python, you decorate your published method calls like this:

class ExampleObserver(dbus.service.Object):
    ...

    @dbus.service.method(dbus_interface=telepathy.interfaces.CLIENT_OBSERVER,
                         in_signature='ooa(oa{sv})oaoa{sv}',
                         out_signature='')
    def ObserveChannels(self, account, connection, channels, dispatch_operation,
                        requests_satisfied, observer_info):
        ...

The input and output signatures are incredibly easy to get wrong. The thing is, most D-Bus APIs (e.g. Telepathy) have a specification that contains these arguments. Some APIs (e.g. Telepathy-Python) provide generated code including interface names and constants. So why can't we do something more like?

class ExampleObserver(dbus.service.Object):
    ...

    @telepathy.decorators.Telepathy.Client.Observer.ObserveChannels
    def ObserveChannels(self, account, connection, channels, dispatch_operation,
                        requests_satisfied, observer_info):
        ...

With a decorator factory that looks up the parameters and then wraps the dbus.service.method factory.

Well, I just wrote a proof-of-concept. It looks something like this:

class Decorators(object):
    methods = {
        'org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.GetAll': [ 's', 'a{sv}' ],
        'org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get': [ 'ss', 'v' ],
        'org.freedesktop.Telepathy.Client.Observer.ObserveChannels': [ 'ooa(oa{sv})oaoa{sv}', '' ],
    }

    def __init__(self, namespace):
        self._namespace = namespace

    def __getattr__(self, key):
        return Decorators('%s.%s' % (self._namespace, key))

    def __call__(self, func):
        iface = self._namespace.rsplit('.', 1)[0]
        in_sig, out_sig = self.methods[self._namespace]
        return dbus.service.method(dbus_interface=iface,
                                   in_signature=in_sig,
                                   out_signature=out_sig)(func)

    def __str__(self):
        return self._namespace

decorators = Decorators('org.freedesktop')

Obviously in the real version, it would have a generated map of functions, or map of interfaces each with a map of functions, and a way to handle signals, but neat huh?

whetherwoman @ 10:04pm: I just had a brilliant idea.

When I have kids, I am going to tell them they can eat whatever they want, as long as they can tell me exactly what every ingredient is.

Because a) if the kid knows knows what all that processed shit is and chooses to eat in anyway, more power to them, and b) I have this fantastic mental image of a six year old very seriously searching wikipedia to find out what partially hydrogenated oils are.

Basically I value research skills and informed decision making way higher than a healthy diet. ;)

hellion0 @ 12:02am: Minor random thoughts...
( Tiny burts of random from Taralyn's Twitter )

tsunobrat @ 9:38pm: ( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

tsukichibi, posting in customers_suck @ 12:22am:

Recap: I work at my university's library at the circulation desk. It's basically a long counter with four computers on it. Both ends of the counter are open and so is our back room (I'm not 100% why it doesn't have a door, but whatever). Basically, if you're standing in front of about the middle of the desk, you can see right into the very open room. We're also like five feet from the front doors of the library. At this time, I had a bowl of reheated pasta with a roll. I had been on my break, but my co-worker was ill and she had to make a run for the washroom. So I left my lunch on the counter and went out. And this is the basis for the most bizarre customer experience I've ever had.

It's a typical customer interaction. He is returning some books. I take them and sign them in, then bid him good day. Oh, wait -

Yes, sir, that is my lunch.

Yes, it does smell very good.

No, sir, I can't share, but I will laugh like I found your joke amusing.

You have a good day, too.

Next!

Wait, sir, you're not supposed to be back here -

....

Is that my lunch in your hands?

Sir?

Sir!

Oh... you're walking out the front doors.

Um, ok, then.

:( I had to borrow a couple buck from my co-worker to get a candy bar when she came back. I seriously have no idea what was up with this guy. We couldn't even look him up in the system because, even though your name comes across the screen when we discharge stuff, I had already begun a new interaction with the next customer by the time this happened. It was just... weird.

fleurdelista, posting in customers_suck @ 10:17pm: MY SIGNS ARE NOT CONFUSING, YOU'RE JUST DUMB.
(none of these are major, they're just frustrating having to hear them every thirty seconds).

We have a sale on right now: Buy one Get One 50% off all Tops (excluding Clearance). Straightforward right? Of course not.

"Does this mean I can mix and match any shirt or does it have to be the same?" Good question. No, you can pick any two tops.
"What about this one that is under the clearance sign?" No, you cannot use this. Good question though.
"Are pants included?" No. This is a sale on tops.
"Can I mix this camisole with this sweater?" Yes you may.
"Can I use these pants and this sweater?" NO.
"This sale is too confusing. Why can't I get this sweater and these pants for the sale?" Because it is a sale on tops.
"I bought the velour suit and it was supposed to be buy one get one fifty percent off. Why isn't it that way?" Because you HAVE TO BUY TWO TOPS, dammit.
"Your advertising is misleading."

HOW? How is it misleading? Where does it say pants? I do not understand your logic, customers.

Wait, I got more.

We also do redline clearance, which means it's stuff that we want to blow out of the store. We used to ticket them to a slightly lower price but they got smart and changed it to a red slash so now it takes less time to set up. The prices we run on them start at 50% off, and drop to 70% off. Since we just started, they're at 50%, which is actually an increase in price, but shhh.

So a lady brings over a shirt and asks me to check the price. I told her it was 18.44, and she said, "Well I thought it would be cheaper, since it says off the lowest price." ...The price on the ticket was 36.95. I said as much to her, and she said, "Your signs are misleading."

HOW is it misleading? It says off the LOWEST ticketed price. There's only one price on it. How is that misleading? Goddamn.

spinkalina @ 7:09pm: Good times.
http://khromax.com/

good_reputation @ 3:35pm: this is how I feel about my finals at this point
Serious. Business.

jadetiger712, posting in customers_suck @ 9:14pm: Witnessed Suck, poor pizza guy
For this one I am sorry to say that my friends were the the ones who committed the suck.

A few weeks ago it was getting late so my friends decided to order some pizza.  We had ordered and it came in a lot quicker time that we had expected (kudos to the pizza people)  My friends went out to the lounge to get it from the delivery man.  I was surprised when they came back in the room and had two pizzas with them. Apparently the restaurant had made our order twice and instead of throwing the second pizza out they gave it to us for free.

The suck is when my friends say "Yeah, I only tipped the guy 25 cents"   I was super angry, because I knew that they had enough money to give him a decent tip, and if it had been me I would have tipped even more because WE GOT A FREAKING PIZZA FOR FREE.  I was really angry and i almost made my friends call the restaurant back and ask the guy to come back.(but that might have been a suck in itself because he would have had to drive back to the college to get his tip and the restaurant was closing in a few minutes anyways )  

I just feel bad for the delivery man because  I think my friends should have tipped him a ton better and then extra, because 1. The pizza got to us in a shorter amount of time than we expected, and 2. we got a second pizza for free.  So, I apologize to that pizza delivery man, you should have been tipped a lot better

persosenzavoi, posting in customers_suck @ 8:51pm: Bathroom suck.
Okay so there is a rather large convention going on in the hotel tonight.
We have huge bathrooms on our main level that have about 15 stalls each which are all very private with huge wooden ceiling to floor doors on each stall.
Throughout this convention we have had requests to clean the bathrooms 3 times.
Each time the bathrooms have been ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING.
Now the only people who would use the bathrooms would be whoever is using the conference rooms on the main floor, and random people strolling by on the way to their rooms (but most wait to get to their rooms and aren't really aware of the bathrooms on the main level.)

So the housekeepers are cleaning the bathrooms for the third time and we are getting complaints from the convention people that they cannot go to the bathroom while the women are cleaning it "and what are you doing to remedy this inconvenience?!"
I think it's inconvenient you have dirtied our bathrooms 3 times over in only 4 hours.
You are also the one that requested the bathrooms to be clean. (Even though we check them regularly any way and already knew to clean them, you DID come up to inform us very sternly anyway while our housekeeper was already in there)
and I told you that we told the housekeeper that if she sees someone walk into the bathroom, to excuse herself and wait while they go in. This is the only thing we can do. I'm sorry that it's not to your liking but we are trying to do the best we can with the fact that the bathroom gets filthy within an hour of cleaning it. Don't give me that look like I'm supposed to magically pull a clean bathroom out of my ass for you to use.

Come on...have SOME courtesy...

daeriel @ 8:38pm: New haircut!




I did a red streak test with Manic Panic Vampire Red. I like how it turned out, so I'll probably put it on the rest of my hair by the end of the weekend. For the moment there's a little green left, so I sort of have xmas hair. Oops. :P

The woman who cut it had a bright blue faux-hawk, and she did a very good job. I may actually try to go back to the same stylist next time, for once.

After I got my hair cut I found that our Bloomington Maurices opened on Thursday (all of my pants come from this chain because their house brand is reasonably priced and fits me reliably), so of course I had to buy a lot of pants. Four pairs, in the end (they are doing 'buy one, get one 50% off' for their grand opening week). I bought a pair of jeans, two pairs of brown pants (one light and one dark), and a pair of khakis. I haven't had new pants in ages...it is quite thrilling for me. I then stopped at Target and got some more random clothing (sweaters, socks, PJ pants). Huzzah.

Also, my cat is cute.

gfrancie @ 4:58pm: Saturday night party
The weather continues to be psychotic but that is all right. I am enjoying it because I don't have to stand out at some bus stop. I went grocery shopping this morning, found a present for Senor Onion's birthday & then took the time to do something just for myself. I went and had hot chocolate with home-made marshmallows. I didn't have any children to watch over, I could just sit and be. It was pleasant as it was pouring outside. It's the little things. Eventually I came home and was back to being responsible Mummy.

I worked on a recipe that is nearly ready. I baked two Christmas cakes, which will spend the next month or so relaxing with some booze. (like someone's maiden aunt) Senor Onion did not nap and made him a little frantic but we got through it together by doing some baking. Thankfully his sister did nap. Miss Biscuit you are earning yourself a pony.

In fun grown-up health news I got my lab results. In many ways I am one healthy horse, but it seems I suffer from a pretty darn extreme vitamin D deficiency veering into the "severe" category. I don't have bendy bones or anything but I now have a prescription for a crazy-high dose of the stuff. The doctor told me that even with eating foods that are boosted with Vitamin D ,(milk, juice and so on) taking a multi-vitamin and going out everyday in the sun -it doesn't do much. In this part of the world we don't get the intensity from the sun in the Autumn/Winter to get our dose. It doesn't mean I should give up walks; (because they do a lot for my health/sanity in other ways) I just need to add more to the diet. I also have some anemia and a B-12 deficiency. (even though I am taking a crazy high amount of that now as well.) An excuse to eat steak? *snorts* This should take care of some things. Hey now we have an extra excuse to think about a vacation some where sunny next year. "The wife...she ails."

Anyhow...

I am making chicken with onions and peppers. I will cook up some polenta and a spinach salad with that. This damn chicken seems to be lasting forever. I will be happy to see it gone. I shall think of it as practice for Thanksgiving.

Now to not move for a few minutes.

bifilms, posting in i_am_pansexual @ 6:58pm: [SoCal/Greater LA Area]: Call For Extras for "Rose By Any Other Name. . ."
( Monday, November 9th 2009 and Tuesday, November 10th 2009, Day and evening, Looking for a number of men and women to be extras in several scenes )

madsquirrel @ 12:03am: Recently Twattered

• 00:06 Black folk, when you're in a horror film hide yo ass and let whitey die first. #
• 00:19 Three black people and one cracker bitch, i think this bbc one zombie film is a bit racist. #
• 00:20 @JayJager i felt some sick in my mouth when i read that. #
• 00:34 Great the twinky got messed up by the living dead. Was this horror made by the bnp? #
• 14:04 Watching dog the bounty hunter. Go with christ brah. #
• 19:43 There is a serious level of cockassery on the roads tonight. #
• 21:14 Casualty is successfully providing me with weekend crazy. Just like outside my window. #
• 22:50 The government can if stuffed now we're being told um drive 5 miles less. How? Going to letvitate my ass the last few miles? #
• 23:00 @bifnaked bankers ruined the economy with their lack of orange related humour. #
• 23:20 @colmirl i'm glad to be that itv-less tweet. #
• 23:28 @cherylprolapse spread aids for christmas? It's the gift that keeps on giving! #

May this have been a meaningful post.

rising_dawn @ 4:35pm: broadcasting from Remedy one last time
I've been wearing a groove in my favorite sofa at Remedy in Edmonton. I've been here on my laptop for the better part of 4.5 hours, finally digging through all sorts of things I told myself I would take care of this weekend. There is still more on the list, but I have dinner with Elaine tonight.

I had a great coffee and breakfast conversation with Ron this morning of
The Urban Farmer. It was good to catch up on his news and hear word of the permaculture universe in Edmonton.

tomorrow morning I am going to Westwood, then a potluck lunch, library, and heading back to the farm. There are a few more things I want to do tomorrow at the farm, and a local straw bale owner-builder is coming over for dinner.
*
+ nice weather! every warm clear day feels like a blessing. I guess I should fuel up on sunshine before going back to the west coast
- woke up at 4 am and never fell asleep again
++ 4 days
- um, still no bed to sleep on in Victoria, but a strong lead.
- um, do I have a vehicle to move in?
++ Tristan Taorminos book "opening up" is rocking my world

allinthecookies, posting in customers_suck @ 2:50pm: Witnessed WTF!?
I was heading out of the ladies room when I heard this lovely exchange...

OW: Older Woman
E: Employee

The OW is pushing her cart towards the restroom when an employee stops her, the following ensues:

E: M'am I'm sorry but you'll have to leave your cart out here.
OW: Why?
E: We don't allow unpurchased merchandise in the restroom due to problems with theft.
OW: What do you think I am, a Jew?
E: -blinks several times- uhh...
OW: That's it isn't it!? YOU THINK I'M A F***ING JEW!
E: M'am it's just company policy--
OW: I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU THINK I'M A JEW! THIS IS RIDICULOUS!
E: It's company--
OW: POLICY I HEARD YOU THE FIRST TIME! THIS COMPANY IS PROBABLY RUN BY JEWS!

She then pushes her cart towards the employee and storms off. The cart missed thankfully but seriously I haven't been that shocked by anything in a while.

hitchhiker @ 3:43am: in this house we obey the second law of thermodynamics!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TotMdAV2Llc