23.2.11

Adventures in Technology

Being a newly-minted Linux Ubuntu user has destroyed my technological confidence. Think you understand your laptop? Try reconfiguring your BIOS or disabling your ACPI settings, or converting Ogg Vorbis files in order to use your iPod, or running script after script in the scary Command Center, whose bleak, blinking interface shows me just how weak I am in the face of this monster called Open Source Software.

I've come to some sort of impasse with my Toshiba A135, whose original settings were designed for optimal functioning with the not-so-optimal Windows Vista. I've had to disable the suspend/hibernate settings, and have managed to have a script run automatically on startup in order to allow my system to recognize external devices. (You can imagine how scared I was upon realizing that my "new" computer wouldn't recognize my external hard drive, which contains all my files, music, pictures...) I'm currently having some compatibility issues with music files, juggling between Rhythmbox (music player), GTKpod (iTunes for Linux, but no playback capabilities), and Sound Converter (to convert those .ogg files), all which require their own very tricky set of plugins.

While this all sounds like a huge pain, it give me the same smug satisfaction as does anything handcrafted. Why make beer when you can buy it? Why go out of my way to scoop spices into tiny bottles at the co-op when I can just buy the pre-ground stuff at Key Foods? It's all a part of the same cycle, in my eyes -- using your own energy and creativity to make good use of what some enormously generous individuals have made available to the public for free or at low cost. Using free software to convert files in order to use them on my free operating system is nowhere near as large of an inconvenience as paying some Microsoft person to develop my software, provide me with nonsensical updates, and give me useless tech support. And what do you end up learning from that kind of experience?

7.2.11

Creeping Around, Doing Things

Things have been on the up and up and I've been not writing about them as a preventative method against jinxing myself.

!!

So I started school -- Methods in Research and Literary Criticism, a.k.a. lit theory as applied to 18th century British literature. What a difference from Delaware! -- my professor is Indian; my classmates are various shades of brown and peach, and of various ages; no one is falling asleep or dumb; urban campus. There is something entirely more real about walking to class down a city block, with fat mothers and music blasting from the fake Louis Vuitton store and the teenagers slouching around outside the fried chicken place and the dried fruit vendor reading a magazine, than strolling through a colonial-style Ugg boot-wearing campus. I miss trees sometimes, but not those trees.

Going to school in Brooklyn has also helped to reboot my tourism -- I've been casually exploring Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO (home of my beloved Jacques Torres), and Downtown Brooklyn on foot; nice weather will bring me out on my bike. I've also discovered a new co-op, the 4th Street Food Co-op in lower Manhattan, which is a huge improvement over the incomptetently-run (and overpriced) organic store across the street from me ("what is tare weight?"), as well as more flexible and accessible than the massive, 14,000-member Park Slope Co-op.






Next: MORE BEER! Don and I made another batch of beer last week, and thus far it has proved itself to be far superior to the semi-carbonated, vaguely bleach-flavored batch of "Rye PA" we made a few months ago. This one is a bit darker than the first, with less hops and more barley; it was a Chestnut Brown Ale, and indeed, we threw a couple of home-roasted chestnuts in there for flavor. The batch is already bubbling and perky, and should be ready for bottling in a couple weeks, meaning it should be drink-ready by the end of March. If this one turns out well, our plan is to buy the grain and yeast ourselves (from the co-op!), and make our own batches, since right now we've been using the pre-measured ones from the Brooklyn Brew Shop. I'm thinking, replace the barley with quinoa or brown rice, or toasting the hops, or adding herbs and spices, or growing our own hops...


And finalement, a cat! Don and I adopted a two-year old stray about two weeks ago, who had been found by the NYC animal police and kept in kitty prison since August. She was discovered wandering around the south Bronx with a sketchy older man cat, and was nearly euthanized for "questionable behavior." She's long-haired and green-eyed and has a broken tooth. Her name is The Wizard.






Her fur was patchy and dull when we first got her, and she stank (she had some bad hygiene when she arrived..). But the dullness has given way to a fluffy white cravat of fur and a puffy tail, and her behavior is certainly not questionable. She chirps instead of meows, and will hit you (clawlessly) if you anger her. It's nice coming home to a little wild, chirping creature every day.

...And I think that's it. There are more changes (which may involve me having to leave my cheesemongering job...), but I'll post those as they occur. I'm feeling invigorated and excited, and still have the impression that I just moved here. I haven't even touched the techno/club scene or independent film, and am just starting to get a feel for the food microcultures that exist all over this city. It seems like the busier I get, the more time I have for active exploration...