A lot of pens, somewhat less dough, more focused

[pseydtonne]

chaggalagirl and I have been cleaning. Not very rapidly, mind you -- we're taking a break and we both want to pass out for a while. We got her tabletop stereo set up on our bedroom's low bureau (which had been covered with all sorts of crap, most of which is still on our bed).

Then we cleaned off the kitchen table. For those of you that haven't been to our apartment, I should explain that our huge kitchen is also our entrance, dining room and computer room. The kitchen table thus becomes a convention center of stuff. Therefore cleaning the kitchen table is a major event, usually reserved for holidays. International Workers' Day is a busman's holiday these days, but it's close enough for government work.

Then we cleaned off our computer desks, although most of that stuff is still on the... err, kitchen table. Oops. Like I said, we're taking our time.

I wanted to clean today. I also wanted to get my cousin's laptop running today, but that comes second to the cleaning process. I want to have the mess straightened out before I took up my next big project: taking my first college class since 1996.

Tufts has a program called the post-bac minor in Computer science. You take five or six courses (in my case, six) and get a minor you can add to your degree. The easiest way to blunder into the program is to take the foundation comp sci course in the summer. So I asked for a shift swap on Tuesdays and I'm going to use my tax refund to pay for the class. My employer may reimburse me later, but I'll assume I'm paying for this trick.

This means I need a cycle-monster for compiling code and a basic laptop for writing first drafts of code and taking notes. I may have the cycle-monster when I can finally sit down with the dual-slot-1 mobo zsquirrelboy gave me and get it running. The laptop works but it has no CD-ROM drive, so I'm looking at setting it up for non-X Linux via a network install.

I also dug up fangirl715's USB Zip drive. This could help with the laptop: while the laptop has no USB port, the other two Zip drives I own (got 'em at a nutso auction two years ago) still don't have a power supply but this USB drive does. So I'll hook the USB Zip to my main computer for the faster throughput, then use a parallel-port Zip to carry over some of the starter hunks of data. The network install is not happening as fast as I'd hoped.

So yeah, Maggie and I had a fine day. We walked around the neighborhood, spotted many dogs Maggie wanted to cuddle, and ran into our friend Luke at Redbone's. Then we waltzed around the picket lines in front of the Somerville Theater to get ice cream.

The IATSE local decided that the Boston Film Festival, a long weekend loaded with flicks made on shoestring budgets, was exactly the time to protest the non-union conditions in an art house known more for hosting concerts and "Jesus Has Two Mommies". Is working for minimum wage in 100-degree (Fahrenheit) unventilated rooms with polyvinyl flecks filling the air a reason to unionize? Sure thing! Will yelling at even poorer dudes trying to get their flicks signed the moment to yell? Imagine the debate:

Guy handing out fliers: "Fight for higher wages! Don't cross the line!"
Filmmaker: "Dude, I'm 30 large in the hole from making a film on 16-mm stock. Can I join a union?"

Robin just got back from just such a conflict. the union protester yelled "Scum from Hollywood!" and a film maker yelled back "but I'm from Newton." Well, Newton is the Pasadena of Boston, so maybe the sandwich man had a point.

If y'all wanna get into the union argument, get crazy. I'm torn. After all, the union put food on my table when I was in high school and my mom started teaching in a prison. However, non-union labor is how I sell cable modem with free installations. Hmm...

-still sorting out old floppies, Dante

Comments

[graciana.livejournal.com]

Sounds all too compelling. Really, it is. One can find interesting things while cleaning - and not of the disgusting variety either. Fore example, I cleaned my room and I found a vinyl single of "Bad Religion" signed by two of the memebers. I forgot that I had this, till I cleaned my room and found it. :)

And to answer you're last survey:
When I type my journal entries, I usually have some music going in the background. I just type the name of a particular song that was playing when I started/while I was/when I finished typing.
Then I saw how you did your music entries, and I realized why should I limit myself to the standard definition of music? So I decided to be like John Cage and note particular sounds in the background as I typed my livejounal music entry. Besides the hum of my computer, I've also noted birds singing in the morning, the heavy breathing of my dog, the tone of my parents conversing in Tagalog, that kind of thing. Sometimes, when I think of a song to describe the entry, I post accordingly. Yet most times, my music entry is the sounds that I hear while typing.

[epanastatis.livejournal.com]

Given the current relations of production, a filmmaker, even an "underground," "indie" type, is still a businessman. He's got his employees (camera crew, actors, etc.), and he's trying to sell his product that has been created through the labor of those employees in order to have a prayer of realizing a profit. If he's lucky, he "makes it." In all likelihood, the only people who ever see a dime out of the deal are the credit card companies and banks that he's maxed out on loans from. Those are the pitfalls of the petty bourgeoisie; it's no different from that other money pit of an industry, the restaurant business, of which, as you know, I know a thing or two from experience. Even desperately poor exploiters are still exploiters.

It's not a matter of "union" vs. "non-union" but working class vs. non-working class, or anti-working class. And if you're on the first side of that line then the union gets to be pretty important. For example: How are your health benefits? And can you put Maggie on them as a "domestic partner"?

No, it's not anti/working class

[pseydtonne.livejournal.com]

First off, I later found out that one of the picketers got locked in a chokehold by a cop and had to go to a hospital. That's rough stuff, especially in a peacenik-laden town like Somerville. Bad scene.

Next, I can't get Maggie on my health insurance. I tried to do that this week and failed. I even said to the HR rep "well, I'm swishy and she's butchy, so it's like we're the same gender" (since a same-sex domestic partner would get the same coverage as a spouse). She laughed, but I still didn't qualify.

Now, as to working class versus against it: what in tarnation are you talking about? "You're either with us or you're with the terrorists" from one side, "you're either with the working class or you're an evil powermonger" on the other. Polarization. Great! Does that mean it's either a donut or a chicken wing? What about salad? What about heterodoxical, non-bifurcated thought?

ah, forget it. You'll just yell at me. I don't need it. I'm too old for that. Maybe I'm too goofy for that.

-trying to leave work, Dante