Thursday Thirteen #13: Redux Entry

It's my 13th edition of the Thursday Thirteen. I really wanted to find something witty, but my brain has fried. :( So instead, I bring you to thirteen years ago, December 7, 1993.

Thirteen Things about Measi, Thirteen years ago 1. I was 18 years old. 2. I was a freshman at Boston University, planning on majoring in journalism but not allowed to declare it for three more semesters. 3. Classes for the semester had ended, and I was prepping for my first round of collegiate final exams (complete with the infamous blue books). 4. I was a new pledge to Tau Beta Sigma, having joined the organization through Concert Band. I knew absolutely nobody in the organization, but liked the idea of a sorority of bandswomen. Miracle of miracles, they accepted me. It was after I became a pledge that I began participating in Pep and Marching Band at B.U. 5. I wore size 14 clothes. (I'm now in a 24/26 *sob*) 6. I'd gotten a perm over Thanksgiving at my grandparents' house -- I recall it specifically because I had perfect little loose ringlets all winter. It was the last perm I ever had (to the present day). 7. My mom still lived in California at that time, so I spent Thanksgiving with my grandparents in Pennsylvania. They were my closest relatives to where I was attending school. (My mom moved to PA to be closer to my grandparents about a year and a half later). 8. I had just returned from my first ever trip to New York City. I went with a dorm floor mate who grew up in the Boston metro area and his mom. We took a bus to NYC, saw the Radio City Christmas Spectacular (the live nativity actually brought me to tears), went skating at Rockefeller Center, and got our pictures taken with Santa at Saks Fifth Avenue. 9. I lived in Warren Towers, which is a monster of a building on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston-- 1,500+ students in one dorm. My room was a standard double on the northwest corner of C tower, 13th floor. I never saw my roommate, Kathy, again after freshman year. 10. That December was the start of one of the snowiest winters in Boston-- over 100 inches fell in the city that winter. Coming from the eastern side of the Rockies (where the storms fizzled out before reforming over the Plains), I'd never seen so much snow at once. 11. I didn't yet know any of the people I now consider my college buddies. I didn't meet Ivanna until the next year (even though she's older than me), and everyone else was at least a year behind me in school. 12. I had a twice monthly excursion to all of the following places: Salem, Mass. (Pagan browsing), Tower Records (@ the corner of Mass Ave. and Newbury Street), India Quality restaurant (at its original location in Kenmore Square), Pandemonium Books & Games (at *its original location in Harvard Square over the German restaurant), the Harvard Coop (for no reason...except it was near Pandy), Arsenic & Old Lace (Pagan store formerly at Mass Ave between Harvard and Porter Squares), and Gypsy Moon (funky fantasy clothing store across the street from Arsenic). 13. I had never played any Dungeons & Dragons or any other role-playing game at that point. :)

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Geek Week

The Heart of Hakkar
Originally uploaded by measi.

While a mild-mannered administrative assistant at work, I tend to fall into pure geekdom mode once I get home. Weekends generally have some sort of a Dungeons & Dragons-esque game going on- not always one I'm personally participating in, but as we have a house where there are no kids that need quiet time after a particular hour, nor time limits to wrap up due to parking restrictions in the neighborhood, plus a good amount of room (and an accessible grill for making food), it often takes place at our place anyway.

On top of that, there are nightly excursions in the World of Warcrackcraft, where Erich and I play - together - while sitting in our own offices. It's silly and odd, but we do have a good time running around together and causing general mayhem.

Last week, however, was a "beat the game patch" week, where we were constantly playing the same game within the game (Alterac Valley, for those in the know) so I could get some nifty items that would be lost with the patch, due to some major changes in how the game fuctions (it was a large patch-- about 450 megs worth). For a straight week, we got home, we turned on the computers, we'd play WoW for about four to five hours, and then go to bed.

If you've seen the recent World of Warcraft South Park episode? Yeah... it was kind of like that. (sheepish) What can I say? I can be a truly pathetic lifeless loser when I need want to be.

I have to admit- I didn't understand the addiction to these online games before I played WoW. I've known several people who were addicted to Everquest when it was at its peak popularity. I've lost friends (and my fiance) to hours of Halo Online. Even when I started playing WoW, I thought it was okay-- a bit cartoonish, a little cheesy. But the detail in the game was so cool. Plus I didn't have to rely on others to play-- if I wasn't in the mood to do XYZ, I could just go run around and explore for a while. Friends who had moved to other states also played, so we could still hang out and goof off together.

In late summer, Erich (alter ego Abudiabudie... because he wants to annoy everyone who tries to spell the damn thing) and I (alter ego Tennetty) joined a guild called Burrito Bandits on our server. They're a fun-loving, wide age range bunch who just like to have a good time. Conversation on the text channel and our audio channel tends to be quite silly. We work well together as a group on some of the more challenging high-level dungeons (which require 20 or 40 people on a team).

It's 21st century social networking at its finest. :)

Commuting is (not) fun!

Ah yes... now that it's winter, the MBTA is showing its stupidity again.

This morning, we had no heat on our car-- and the system was blowing the cold air into the car for the entire hour's ride in. At first, I tried to excuse it as "Oh, it's the first run for this train of the day... it's probably just cold from sitting overnight in the yard." But nope, it was still as cold as when we boarded. I needed to thaw for a few minutes in South Station before trekking over to work.

I could put a complaint in on the MBTA website, but based on the response I got this summer, all I'll get is a generic meaningless "we got your email, now bugger off!" response about a month after the fact. Then they'll add my email to an MBTA mailing list where they send occasional spam messages about how MBTA service is improving (riiiiight) and what they've done to improve things (riiiight).

So if I put in a complaint today about the unheated car-- I'd probably get a response in.. February or so.

I would blow it off for the most part, except that as of January, my monthly commuter rail pass is going from $198 a month to $250 a month. For that much of a raise, I'd like to have cars working properly.

But above all of these fare increases, the MBTA still whines that it's broke. Broke after years of neglect with stations rusting through, platforms pitted and in need of complete structural rebuilding, escalators constantly out of service with permanent "temporarily out of order" signs, and trains that never get cleaned. When I was in college, we were greeted on Monday mornings with recently cleaned trains that had the over-powering scent of lysol within. It was deadly strong, but at least we knew that they'd made some effort to at least mop the floors in the cars.

While some station improvements have been going, the MBTA has wasted its money putting an entirely new fare system in place for the system-- with electronic reader cards (known as Charlie Cards... because the current generation is so familiar with the Kingston Trio's song) to eliminate tokens. It's similar in appearance to the BART system in the San Francisco area of the late 1980's and early 1990's (no idea if it's still the same out there). You get a single ticket, on which you place your desired amount of stored fare money. Each ride, the fare is deducted.

Only problem with Boston's system is that the old one wasn't broken- other than the fact that the token dispensing machines were always broken down. This new system appears to have only been introduced to eliminate booth workers. The sliding glass panes at the fare collection stations are slower than turnstyles. They're a frustration to exit, and I'm just waiting for about a year down the road when they start breaking and the MBTA doesn't fix them.

I realize that for a while, the MBTA was the cheapest train system in the nation- it was 85 cents to ride it the entire time I was in college. I realize that fares have to increase. But if the fares are increasing, justify it with at least comparable service. With each increase, the quality of service goes down. Another increase, and it's quite possibly no longer cost effective for Erich and I to commute by train. Right now, we have two zone eight passes (so... $500 per month, just for tickets), plus $60 for parking (assuming $3 per day for 20 days a month). Parking in Boston is about $15 per day at the cheap lot now located close to both of our offices. It's $24-26 at most other lots. Sure, it's wear and tear on our car... but if the train continues to be a frustration- is it worth it?

I thought mass transit was supposed to encourage people to not drive to work.

(sigh)

Cat-tastic Entry #1: Nobanion

So for the first of my five - yes five - entries to introduce and discuss the true rulers of our household, I figured I'd start with the comedian of the group:

Nobanion (pronounced No-BAN-yon)

But before I start this, you'll notice a theme with our cats-- they all have long, formal names, and then they have daily nicknames. I'm really not sure why. But they all do.

Anyway... Nobanion, or Noby, as we normally identify him, is now just about 18 months old. He's an orange and white tabby - all of his orange patches are very distinctly striped. The spots over his shoulder blades make a perfect Mickey Mouse ears image. He has light copper eyes that are just a couple shades paler than his orange spots. His whiskers are white, and both his nose and his paws are pale pink. He's the twin of Elly, who I'll talk about in my next entry.

His name is the god of cats (and is represented by a lion) in the Forgotten Realms universe. I loved the name, and with his personality... it fit. Immediately.

Noby (and Elly) arrived in our house in September 2005 by pure dumb luck. On our way home, we turned from the main road by our house (a U.S. highway) onto one of several side streets that connect with our street. It was very dark, so it had to be well after seven p.m. As we passed a streetlight, I caught a glimpse of a cat with two kittens stumbling behind her. I just exclaimed "KITTENS!" and we pulled over.

We could tell immediately that all three cats were feral. The mother was quite young and thin. The kittens were not in good health- with a myriad of issues (the first we noticed was the severe conjunctivitis in their eyes). We managed to get the kittens, but couldn't get the mother as she ran off into the darkness. After asking at a couple houses if they knew who these kittens might belong to (if anyone), we were able to determine that yes, they were in fact strays. And they were in dire need of medical attention.

Three hundred dollars in emergency vet bills later, we'd bought ourselves two kittens. The conjunctivitis was a secondary infection to a serious case of herpes-- the cat version of cold sores. They had fleas. They had worms. They had ear mites. They were definitely scummy little kittens. But the vet, after a second checkup about a week later, said they were just fine-- despite being ill, they were romping around like any other kittens, eating well, and doing just fine.

Noby warmed up to us first- that first night at the vet, we were in the exam room with him sitting on the metal table as the vet went to get some flea medication & run the tests for mites. Noby turned around to groom himself, and we could just SEE the fleas run away from the pressure. But as soon as Erich reached to scratch his ear... he purred. Seven weeks old, around complete strangers, and he purred, leaning into Erich's fingers.

He's never changed. Noby is definitely the extrovert of the bunch- he greets anyone who comes over to our house. He tends to be the performer, investigating things or playing with things in front of guests for their amusement. He pounces fingers on the bannister as we head down the stairs. He attacks the wall for no reason as we come up the stairs. And most recently, he made quite an impression with the roofers last Saturday as they worked on the sunroom. The entire time they were there, he hung out in the bedroom window, fascinated with what they were doing - the leader of the crew remarked how "that orange cat was just so friendly."

He's also incredibly affectionate. He comes up between the two of us as we settle down to sleep and generally flops down on my head for attention. He cuddles as close as he possibly can (normally... on my nose). He has specific ways of being held, though-- if you try to pet him when he's not in the mood, he'll start chewing on your fingers and kneading your hands as if he's trying to nurse.

Per the photo above- he sleeps in weird positions. We've wondered whether or not he's double jointed, although the idea of a cat (which is already made of rubber) being double-jointed just seems odd. Then again, so are those angles in which he rests his front legs as he sleeps every day- chin flat down on the chair, front legs splayed out and bent backwards, back legs tucked under him, and tail stretched out long.

He has the most pathetic little mew of a voice-- it sounds like the cry of a tiny kitten needing attention. It's not the voice of a nearly ten pound male cat. Perhaps we snipped him a tad too early? (but really... it couldn't be helped... we had both a male and female kitten of the same age... we had to be extra careful with our dates).

He's our little monkey cat, and I can't imagine life without him.

Holiday Music

Before I can start writing my “here are my cats” entries, I need to decide upon and upload photos of each of them to Flickr. So for now, I’ll use yesterday’s writing prompt:

"Holiday music: essential part of the season, or 'no way, it makes my ears bleed'?"

For me, it depends on the music. I get very sick of “Feliz Navidad” and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” over and over. I try to ignore most of the trendy renditions of the songs that appear on the increasingly sucky A Very Special Christmas compilations (ever notice the ones in frequent replay are off the first album only? There’s a reason for that…).

With the exception of Trans-Siberian Orchestra – who I really wish I could afford to see in a couple weeks when they come to Providence – I don’t care for a lot fo the current songs out there. Call me a purist. I want to hear Bing Crosby and Burt Ives. I enjoy most of the renditions off of the first A Very Special Christmas compilation. I’ll happily take some beautiful brass quartet renditions or the non-confrontational muzak or smooth jazz.

The one thing, though, that does make my ears bleed is hearing seasonal music before Thanksgiving. I don’t need Christmas music around Halloween, thanks. Nor do I want to see the decorations up in a store that early. If you have them for sale, well… I think it’s early but I’ll tolerate that. Christmas music shouldn’t be played through store speakers until Black Friday, in my opinion.

I do get tired of it, though, by the time Christmas comes around- and I think it’s because it’s the same stuff played over and over. There is so much Christmas music out there—I wish stores would both play a variety, and play stuff appropriate to the surroundings. When I’m going into the drug store, I don’t need to be blasted by a full choral version of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” or a Josh Groban’s over-enthusiastic rendition of “O Holy Night.” I need to be focusing on reading the warning labels at that moment. On the other side of the coin, hearing the songs from the Radio City Christmas Spectacular while skating at Rockefeller Center is great.

For me, holiday music isn’t so much about creating the atmosphere of the holidays—that’s accomplished just fine by the changing weather, the lights and the crazy schedules as we shuffle from one party to the next. Holiday music helps bring back memories from years past, thinking about loved ones now missed dearly, and enjoying a few more moments with them through those memories.