Deirdre.net

Idiot Bicyclist

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My mother and I were driving into downtown Menlo Park today, stopped at a stop sign. A woman with a wheelchair was crossing the street, so I decided to wait. Just then, a bicyclist plows through the stop sign, across the intersection, and nearly hits the woman in the wheelchair.

At the next intersection, he didn’t even slow down for the stop sign, just plowed through.

I never thought I’d consider it justifiable homicide if a bicyclist got hit, but this dude changed my mind on that point, because he has such utter disregard for rules and safety.

Washing Wool

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A friend asked the other day what to use on wool, knowing my dislike of Woolite.

Simple answer: wool is hair. Use shampoo. Might as well use the same shampoo you use on your own hair: one fewer bottle to have hanging around the house.

I use a sulfate-free shampoo that’s designed for dyed hair, as I figure that’s about as ideal as one can get, but any shampoo that makes your hair look nice will work fine.

More complicated answer: sometimes wool garments say to dry clean because of sizing or dye. Most dyes these days are colorfast, but it’s worth trying a small handwash somewhere inconspicuous before dunking the whole thing in water. Garments lined in acetate are likely dry clean only due to the lining (or interfacings) rather than the wool per se.

Wash wool in warm water (about the same temp you’d shower in) and do not agitate it (because if you do, you’ll create felt and it’ll shrink).

Lay flat to dry.

Not so hard, really.

Migrations, Migrations

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Or, “Migrating a blog is always more painful than you think.”

I hope you can see this. If all goes well, this blog has been migrated from WordPress to Typo, running Ruby on Rails over Lighttpd. I’ve seen a few feed hits coming through, but I’ll check when I wake up (yes, it’s almost 7 a.m. and I haven’t been to sleep yet…)

I’ve broken a lot of links, and I’m starting to go through them, so if there’s something you don’t see, realize that I am putting everything back together and it’ll take just a tidge of time, especially to get the redirects for the old permalinks up.

I’m changing the categories to be broader and instead going with more of a tag approach, as I think that offers finer granularity with less long-term hassle.

Press 1 for English

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This is a pent-up rant that’s been waiting for a while, but bear with me.

Last time I had to contact our state government’s Employment Development Department by phone, I had to “Press 1 for English.”

Now, really, does that make any sense at all? Shouldn’t English be the default? Especially when there’s separate phone numbers for other languages?

I mean, it might be A Clue that if you don’t happen to speak English and you call the English phone line, maybe you should press 1 and get some message like, “Well, maybe if you learned English (or one of the other supported languages), you might not be unemployed.”

Your tax dollars at work, making the UI harder for everyone.

I’m reminded, as an aside, of Nick Moffitt’s response when being panhandled, “I’m sorry, but I don’t speak a word of English.” Still makes me laugh.

Getting Ready for Boggs Class

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Going to be going to Northwest Woodworking School for a week for a class. I’m really looking forward to studying for a week with Brian Boggs. Traditional chairmaking is still very much in vogue, and I’ll be interested to see How Things Are Done.

Patriotic Gestures, Real and Imagined

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I’m writing about my annual thought-experiment, so that some of you can play. I’m posting early so that the Canadians can also play on Canada Day.

Given the recent near-pass on the anti-flag-burning law, I’d like to propose the following: if you happen to see anyone wearing a flag or “USA” or anything like that over the next few days — ask them where said garment or accessory was made. (In my experience, they don’t know. I’ve never seen one actually worn that was made in the US, fwiw.)

Personally, I’m far more tired of people wearing “patriotic” gear made in some sweatshop in a third world country than I ever could be of people burning the flag. It’s faux national pride, and I think it’s time we called attention to it.