algeh

So, there's another The LiveJournal Sky Is Falling thing going around. Rather than scrambling to back up my journal (which I did a comprehensive job of several years ago - I'm not too worried about my recent entries since they're just me whining about LiveJournal going downhill and I have comments emailed to me so I probably have them all saved about 5 times each anyway), what worries me is the loss of contact with those I read.

There are some people on here that LiveJournal going away wouldn't affect my ability to stay in touch with at all - I'm pretty sure I'll be able to stay in touch with greatblondelf unless he enters the witness protection program, or at the least gets a restraining order, moves, and convinces his mother and all of our mutual friends to stop telling me or anyone who knows me about his life. Many more are a step down from that but I bet we have enough mutual friends that if I broke down and got a facebook or twitter account I'd be back in touch with them almost immediately.

However, there are a fair number of you that I really only know through LiveJournal, including some people that I really enjoy reading and who seem to be only here. You may have at one point posted a link to someplace else you are but since I don't do any other social networking I haven't added you there. Now I'm kind of wishing I had, just in case. However, I don't have time to keep up with the entire internet, so I really can't join all of these things (I'm stealing the time to write this from my sleep time, which was supposed to start at 20:30 and didn't because I am on the damn internet).

Anyway, if LiveJournal goes away, I am also found at http://www.algeh.com . There is basically nothing there now, but there will be if I ever get around to it and it's my internet "home base". I plan to start a blog there as soon I have time to figure out how to do protected posts without it being a pain in the ass (or if I change careers again to something where public non-anonymous blogging is a little more tenable than it is when teaching). I'm also at http://www.aracnet.com/~linnea , although I have not updated it in about 5 years (the email that goes with that still works, though.) I should really take that old angsty crap down one of these years.

Anyway, please comment to this entry with the places you also are so I can keep in touch with you if LiveJournal goes away. (I have comments emailed to me, so that makes some kind of sense.) If you make a post like this, I'll comment to yours too so we can all have this information in one place each. I'll also post a locked post right after this one for those who don't want their other places public. This is for the other places you're ok with linking to your LiveJournal for the Whole World.

(last post for a while - sorry - it's hard for me to get to a computer while moving so I want to get everything out of the way while I can)

Is anyone here planning on going to the Lewis and Clark College reunion this October? I probably will since it's my 5 year reunion and I live nearby (within about 5 miles, not right by campus). Since I live nearby, I'm also offering crash space to select LCers that I remember from college.

I've got one guest room which will probably have both a twin adjustable bed and a crummy old double bed, another room with a pretty nice double futon, and my living room has a sectional sofa that can sleep two people as long as they don't mind playing footsie. The arrangement of aforementioned furniture is speculative and may change by then, but the actual furniture is unlikely to. There is also ample floorspace.

Comment here if you're interested.

( an email I just sent to the FCC )

Does anyone know of any way I can do some additional stink-raising on this issue?

I have a new little game that I've started playing with myself, just in time for Valentines Day. I eat Conversation Hearts two at a time and string their messages together. Clearly, I am easily amused. Also, I've been eating far too much candy. I will be fat but jolly! (Fat I know I can manage.)

I realize that I haven't been posting much recently. This is due to a combination of things, but I think it's mostly how much the direction LiveJournal's been going annoys me. They're a private company so it's not like the owe me anything, but their choices do affect my interest in using their service and lately that interest has been going way down. Also, I've been real-life happy lately and being happy tends to make me less introspective and/or whiny, which are pretty much the things that cause me to post.

Anyway, I realized that I forgot to tell the internets at large that two_star and I are dating now (not exclusively - he's still seeing thegrungediva as well and I reserve the right to have all kinds of fun makeouts with others should good opportunities present themselves). Internets, consider yourself informed. So far, this wins the prize for Least Drama And Angst Ever In A Relationship, but in fairness I should hold off on awarding that prize in any meaningful sense until around the 6 month or 1 year mark.

I had 3 Christmas Things today, and have two more tomorrow on actual Christmas. I should totally be asleep right now, but I seem to not be doing that. I am waiting for Santa!

I think I like SF cons a lot more than anime cons. There didn't seem to be any pointlessly shrieking girls or long lines, and there were actually panels on topics that interested me enough for me to listen during them. I never had an hour that I'd rather sit in the hallway than go to any of the choices, although I did have hours in which the obvious choice was to bail and go get food.

This is a good sign, because it gives me something to go do that involves meeting new people and I don't think I have enough of those things. I'll probably start dragging myself to Washington cons as time and money allow, and maybe even range up to BC if I ever get off my ass and get my passport. I kind of assume that there aren't any other SF cons in Oregon or there would have been posters up about them. (Lately I am feeling the need to Have Adventures on weekends so I may weekend-travel fairly often after the holidays.)

Also, I finally got to go to a filksing, which I've been meaning to do since around '98. Yay. I may now have to start playing guitar again, last done (coincidentally) in '98. Mom and I need to negotiate the division of our instrument collection so I can take whichever guitar(s) are really mine home with me now that I have a place big enough to keep instruments in.

Cons are also much better when you have someone with you. Thanks, two_star.

So, I've been moving lately. One of the joys of moving involves calling a bunch of companies to have things connected or disconnected at various residences. I've gotten pretty good at it, particularly as I'm renting a house this time and so have a lot more things I'm responsible for ordering.

However, I've been having the weird problems with phone companies. Every time I call a phone company, I end up sucked into a long and unrelated conversation with the person who is supposed to be doing something to my phone lines. This has happened with both Qwest and Verizon now (who are in some kind of Stupidest Name Vaguely Based On A Word Contest, but that's unrelated). I understand about them asking about television, internet, diaper-delivery services, singing telegrams, or something else they might want to try to sell me, but these are more the kinds of conversations one has with strangers at parties. Today, for example, he spent a good ten minutes telling me about his children and Washington State testing after he found out I was a teacher. This couldn't possibly be related to selling me some kind of service, since Verizon does not (as far as I know) sell instructional materials suitable for use by a middle or high school math teacher.

I dislike this new trend. Phone calls are already not my favorite things (yet I sprung for the I'm-a-sucker-and-want-unlimited-long-distance plan again, because I am dumb and really like predictable billing amounts) and this does not help.

Does this happen to other people, or do I just have a really lonely voice?

I want this. I have no justification for this whatsoever.

I've been crazy with the packing hell lately so I haven't been writing in here. Anyway, I finally got a call back from one of my interviews (I went on a total of 4 different interviews and got two different job offers as a result) and I have a teaching job, which starts Monday. It's in a really small town, and for now I'm not going to mention which one in this journal in an attempt to not come up on searches for [town name] math or similar. It's near enough to Portland that I'll be more-or-less around and will probably start coming to meetups again. I'm keeping my same cell number for now.

I have moved out of my Eugene apartment. I am trying to find a rental in Small Town but it is not going well so far. They don't have any non-cruddy apartments that I've been able to discover (or, for that matter, any vacancies at the one out of three that looked likely enough to ask), I didn't want to live in the duplex after the other tenant told me how the landlord treats women, and there don't seem to be any other rentals advertised. On the various bulletin boards around town, I found two other people posting notices looking for places and no places advertised. I've got a lead on an old lady who rents out a one bedroom cottage on her property, but she needs to get it cleaned out and get her kids to agree to let her rent it out again.

This is driving me crazy. I feel like I've finally got a good, steady job, and I want a NICE FUCKING APARTMENT, not the kind of crap I had to choose from while I was a student. I want to have my own parking spot, at least 2 bedrooms, air conditioning, a dog, and a reasonable belief that the landlord won't take an unhealthy interest in my personal life. I have not found an apartment offering anything approaching this combination. I think I may have to live someplace cruddy for a few years while I save up to buy a house, and I just want to feel settled sooner than that. Bah.

Anyway, the upshot of it is that I've moved back in with my dad in Aloha for now. This also doesn't offer most of the amenities I'm looking for, but it is free and I didn't have to sign a lease so I can move as soon as I find something better. He'll probably even help me.

Also, on an unrelated note, is it safe for little old ladies to take Greyhound by themselves these days? We're trying to figure out how to get my grandmother back from Idaho. She seems to think she'll be fine because "if anyone tries to take my purse, I'll hit them with my cane" (I have an awesome grammy). She hasn't ridden Greyhound in about 25 years or so (probably longer, but that's how long she thinks it has been) and I'm looking for more recent stories.