• Having a co-ed bathroom. It’s not that bad until you learn that some guys prefer not to close the stall door when they take a piss.
• Showers that alternate between hot and cold water. At first I thought there was a pattern to it, no doubt the water gets cold when someone flushes the toilet or uses the sink, but I soon learned that there is a phantom in the A4 North bathroom.
• Crappy lighting. This really isn’t a problem anymore since my roommate’s parents bought us a standing lamp, but it’s kind of annoying turning on three lights to read something comfortably.
• Paper thin walls. I usually get to bed a lot later than I hope to because people like to have loud conversations as they pass by our room. I also have to make sure that our TV isn’t too loud, bleh.
• Living right next to the RA. It’s not like I’ve partaken in any wild debauchery (yet), however, living next to big brother can be a tad uncomfortable.

Welllllll, I moved into my dorm room at UCSC a couple days ago and couldn’t be happier.

Of course, things have since shifted because we’re still figuring out how to arrange the furniture. My roommate’s parents were nice enough to give me a fifty-foot ethernet cable so that we wouldn’t have to trip over the one pictured. Yesterday, as I left the building in the morning, I was greeted by three deer outside. I’m not used to friendly deer! (Or aggressive raccoons…)

I was so excited to download the newest update of iTunes because of the Genius playlist. However, I was angry to discover that they removed the option to hide the genre column in the browser! How annoying! I mean, who in their right mind browses by genre?! Who even tags their albums with a genre?

Anyway, I found a solution (Mac only):

1. Open terminal
2. Enter the following command and hit enter:
defaults write com.apple.itunes show-genre-when-browsing -bool FALSE
3. Close and reopen iTunes

To reverse changes, enter this command:
defaults write com.apple.itunes show-genre-when-browsing -bool TRUE

Source

Other observations:

• Apple can’t seem to make up their mind about whether bands starting with numbers or symbols should appear first or last in the alphabetical artist’s list.
• I haven’t met a single person with more than 10GB of music who browses their library by album artwork.
• The Genius playlist looks awesome (I haven’t tried it out yet), but a sidebar? Really? As if the left sidebar doesn’t take up enough room as it is…

…funny how that works out.

Anyway, instead of updating every time I decide to post a picture on the internet, I’ve added a recent Flickr uploads mosaic to my sidebar. You can also find a link to my Amazon wish list there ;) I’ll only post pictures in my blog entries if I’m especially proud of them (or have run out of material).

Jason taught me how to use rsync the other day! Good thing it allows me to resume my uploads, because I don’t think backing up my iTunes library will be done any time soon.

I have a lot of problems imagining myself as a mother when I’m an adult. While I was certainly a little girl who played with Barbies and enjoyed the color pink, I would probably try exceedingly hard to save my children from societal gender binaries.

The fact that it’s acceptable to publish an article about child development without stating specific studies or which “psychologists at the University of Cambridge in England” believe that boys like to watch mechanical motion demonstrates that a gross majority of people assume that socialized gender roles should be biological… including a female obsession with fashion and shoes. I will admit that of course there are differences between males and females (besides the obvious plumbing) that can be observed from birth, but this frightens me.

Is it really possible to raise a child without gendering it? Can you inculcate your child with the belief that his or her abilities are not limited to those deemed appropriate for their sex? The biggest question is: would society allow it?

Related links: The incriminating CNN article, Binary Land (NES game referenced), Feministing

Here they are, pictures from my new camera!
(Click them for their awesome full-sized, detailed glory)

I’m not sorry that there are only two because I was feeling uninspired okay?! Perhaps I will bring my camera to Sunset Junction tomorrow.

Perhaps not. Hmm.

Maybe it’s not entirely unique, but a.) the reviews on Amazon were good and b.) Costco was selling it at a slightly lower price than what I found elsewhere. I can’t tell you what I think about the image quality yet because my battery is charging :( But expect pictures soon! (I am so excited OH EM GEE.)

Mmm, so I’ve wanted to buy a DSLR camera for a while, but I decided to wait to spend my graduation money so I wouldn’t make any hasty purchases. (That, and I got a job, so my paychecks have been chillin’ with that money in my savings account.) Over the last few months, I’ve done a little bit of research and played around with cameras, but I never fully made up my mind.

Until now… sort of.

Currently, I have five rolls of film that need to be developed and I believe there’s still a roll in my [sister's] film camera. This has obviously made me think about the cost-effectiveness, convenience, and immediate gratification of digital photography. Unfortunately, the never-ending argument between Nikon and Canon customers about which is better makes finding a digital camera difficult.

So, I’ve decided to purchase neither. I mean, sweet Jesus, look at this Pentax K200D.

I guess we’ll see what happens.