November 27, 2006
This is Winter?
I used to joke that when I moved up to Wisconsin I brought Maryland weather with me. The irony of the fact that we are currently having the sort of winter Maryland usually experiences is not lost on me.
It's 55 degrees out and it's been foggy and just as warm all weekend. Not a single patch of sunshine in the whole thing and it was pouring rain last night. Where is all the snow I was promised?!?
November 21, 2006
So we got some snow a little over a week ago. It was practically blizzarding in the afternoon while I was at work. The picture was actually taken later that weekend. The colors of the sunset were so soft and pretty that I just couldn't resist. Also, I really love that tree. It's what ultimately sold me on my apartment. I feel like I should do some sort of photo essay of it.
I'm signed up to go to Intercon G this March. I'm not entirely sold on some of the games I signed up for, but at least I got into the Girl Genius LARP. That should be awesome. In general I'm looking forward to having some idea of costuming a few months in advance instead of a week or two. I'll still procrastinate, but hopefully I can keep it to a minimum.
November 15, 2006
I made this lovely little banner to use on the parts of my site which are generated with IceFrog (that would be everything except my blog), but I couldn't figure out any way to incorporate it in the pages that I actually like. Argh.
At least the banner came out well, I guess.
November 09, 2006
I ordered a present for a friend from CafePress this Monday. I need to give it to him this weekend when he's in town, so I paid for the expensive two day shipping in the hope that it should give the box plenty of time to get here. It's a good thing I did, because rather than shipping on "the next business day" advertised something went wrong and the box shipped today (Thursday).
Now I understand that sometimes things go wrong and businesses can't help it, but I paid a hefty shipping fee and now I don't even know if the present will arrive before the recipient leaves town. I was a little annoyed. I called up CafePress' toll free line to ask what happened and was pleasantly surprised to talk to a polite friendly and knowledgeable operator. Once she looked up my order, she immediately apologized to me, saying the box should have gone out on Wednesday (which is still a day later than I would have expected, but wouldn't have been a time crunch), and she offered, without prompting, to refund me half of the shipping charge.
I was more than a little surprised. My tentative plan had been to demand a refund of all my shipping, but as I had expected to spend half an hour on the phone and go through multiple managers before I got it, I was more than happy to accept just half and no fuss at all.
So I just wanted to say, Congrats CafePress, you did the right thing. You are $7.12 richer and you made me happy instead of stressed.
November 06, 2006
The moon is a lovely sort of orange rust color tonight on top of being full (or near it) and very close to the horizon. It looks absolutely huge. I really wanted to take a picture of it, but I unless it's rising rather than setting I don't think I'm going to get to. Damn apartment buildings getting in the way of photography.
There's something about full moons that nearly always makes me want to take pictures of them. They're just so stunningly beautiful. I am not a terribly good photographer. Maybe I'll eventually improve.
When I was a kid (in the 10 - 17 range I think) I don't remember loving full moons, but I do remember one of them changing how I look at my world quite a bit. There was something busy/loud/boisterous going on in my parents house (I have no idea what since I don't think it was a holiday) and I was hot and a bit stressed. It was winter so I stepped outside to cool down and looked up at the perfectly full moon through the front yard's skeletal trees. It was still and silent outside as well as being cold. I stood there for a few minutes, looking up at the crisp blue-white moon. I could see all the craters and darker blotches on its face clearly. It hit me just how huge and far away that moon was. The sheer scope of the perspective which made it look small to me was somewhat of a revelation.
I know it will never happen, but it made me want to be able to travel there, so I could really understand how I compare to the distance of even a relatively tiny hop across the vastness of space.
All posts and other content on DigitalChangeling.com are © 2005 - 2006 Eva Schiffer.