totient and I are looking to replace our quarter-century old oil furnace with a modern system. The buzz-words for the thing we're thinking of getting include:
Mini-split (small units in each room, connecting to a single heating unit outside), Multi-zone (separate controls for each unit), Ceiling Cassette (vs wall-based), and "Hyper Heat" or something similar ("Hyper Heat is Mitsubishi's word for the systems that can function down to -13F).
We're pretty sure this is the right answer for the third floor, but I don't want to sink boodle-bucks into something we've never seen, or, more importantly heard in use. How loud is it? Do you have a system similar to this? Does someone you know have one? Thanks!
Hi! Our household has two tiny new residents! What would you name them?
They're a pair of twin brothers, nearly identical, though one leans slightly to the stripy and the other has a faint swirl marking. They're super friendly and brave and into exploring. One is a tiny bit darker than the other, maybe, but it's not clear if that will continue to be true (we may never be sure which one is which). So... names...?
Some of you admired my "Putting the B in LGBTQ" design last week. Now it's for sale! I'm trying out Spreadshirt.com with a new "shop" of my own, Oldspeak Designs. Check out my new "Putting the B in LGBTQ" designs, and the revived the 4th Amendment tote bags (now with laptop sleeves available, too!). [note: the first-run 4th Amendment totes had zippered-shut tops, the new ones do not.] oldspeakdesigns.spreadshirt.com
I'm new to Spreadshirt, but can tell you this: they are a "print-on-demand" shop meaning their prices are considerably higher than if I printed a whole run of shirts and sold them myself. On the other hand I believe you can poke around on the site and put the design (with or without text, it's available both ways) on any style of product they offer. If you can't do that through my Oldspeak Designs shop, then you can do it through the "marketplace." Again, I'm new to Spreadshirt, so I'm just figuring out how their site works, so let me know if you have any troubles with it.
It's my birthday today. Do something awesome for a random person and tell me about it!
Treat a stranger or passer-by or estranged college in some small (or large) nice way.
Yesterday I dropped one of my gloves while I was unlocking my bike, putting on my headlight, and kitting all up for the cold. It was going to be a hassle to get it out of the gutter without accidentally dropping my loaded-up bike. And I watched as a dozen people walked past, thinking how great it would be if one would just hand me the glove. And then, as I latched up my panniers a passer-by just swooped down, picked up the glove and handed it to me, barely stopping to accept the "Thank you, so much!" Simple, beautiful, helpful, free, and priceless. Made me smile very deep inside.
So do that little small thing- tip a little extra when you get a coffee, or let some in front of you in line, or something. Share it here to remind us all how awesome people can be. Feel free to post anonymously if you prefer.
Tonight, while at a rally for my State Rep, I learned an interesting thing:
She talked in her speech about a series of studies done on cities and communities "in trouble"; that is, areas with high crime, vandalism, poverty, etc., and then one particular factor that turned out to be a reliable indicator of whether that city would improve, survive, and possibly ultimately thrive.
It turns out that reliably, the municipalities that improved and thrived were those that had a high number of community groups. And it turned out that it wasn't even all that important what the community groups were: which is to say, that while, sure, a literacy-assistance group is a great thing, having a checkers club seemed to help too. Communities, it turns out, thrive when people act together with their neighbors at common interests.
Then my state rep looked around and indicated in the audience members of all sorts of groups, including STEP, Grassroots Somerville, the Historical Society, Honk!, and even gave me a nod as she mentioned Somerville Open Studios. She could have gone on to mention Theater at First, and the Somerville Garden Club, the S'ville Community Choir, and many other groups you and friends of yours are involved in (if you're in S'ville. If you're not from 'round here, this still hold true for your town, too).
That thing that you do, that thing that you're a part of because you care about it... it turns out it helps contribute to a better life for your whole city, apparently just because you are doing something you care about with people in your community.
I try to be aware of and appreciative of the ridiculous level of privilege I have. But sometimes I just get hung up on the smallest things. Last night I wanted some water. There I was in bed, and not 20' away, I had a tap in the wall with clean, fresh, delicious water always available to me. I'm on the third floor--which keeps me safe from flooding, mud, most vermin, and casual n'er-do-wells--and I have fresh running water at my ready disposal whenever I want it, in pretty much any temperature I want.
Sometimes, honestly, I just can't get over that.
We say all the time how awesome "living in the future" is, but clean running water has been around--for some people--for a pretty long time now. And seriously, it's pretty freakin' awesome.
What I mean to say is that there was an almost that was so very terrible that I really don't want to think about it, except every once in a while the young boy's face pops into my head with that look of abject fear, as he barely dodges on his bike around the hood of my van, just in the nick of time. Everyone is fine. Nothing actually happened. Still, it scared the jeebus out of me. Nothing good can come of a collision between a 1.5 ton hunk of steel and a 90 lb child wearing no helmet, even if the van isn't going more than 5 mph, and the child is pacing no more than 10 mph.
*Please*. Don't let your kids ride their bikes on the sidewalk in the city. Think about the sightlines, if a building is up to and abutting the sidewalk. A driver in an automobile can see a kid on a bike in the street who is 20 ft away still, but if the child is riding down the sidewalk, the kid has to be about to slam into the hood of a van just as it noses carefully out of a driveway, before either can see the other.
And if you know of a kid who wants to ride and cannot afford a helmet, please talk to me privately. I'll do what I can.
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act, S. 2043, is a blatant attack on health care. I urge you to staunchly oppose this bill. I understand that birth control is a complicated issue for you both personally and professionally. I understand that you must weigh both the views of your constituents, and your own, personal spiritual beliefs.
I cannot speak for the latter, but as a constituent let me be perfectly clear about this:
The US government does not have any place protecting the views of any one religion over the individual freedoms of all women. You may debate whether you believe the government can or should mandate health care at all, but within the context and framework that we in Massachusetts especially, and we in the US in general have established, the government has a vested interest and obligation to protect employees and ensure they have proper renumeration and support in access to basic health care. Debate the question of health-care access as a whole separately. As long as we do have government regulations regarding health-care access, however, those regulations must not favor one religion or spiritual belief system over another.
You may or may not, personally, believe that a woman should have access to birth control or abortion services. Will all due respect, Senator, this is not your place. You do not have a uterus. There are no bills being debated that discuss my personal and spiritual views toward your prostates. If reproductive health services are outside of a person's religious believes than that individual will make appropriate choices regarding such care.
In as long as the government has ANY legislation regarding access to health care, it is absolutely inappropriate for the religious views of persons other than the receiver of that care to be considered. Employers do not get to decide if their taxes should support foreign wars. They do not get to decide if their health care provides services to which they are personally opposed.
This is not an appropriate place for your own, or for an employer's own feelings or convictions. It would only ever become an issue is an employer held one set of religious beliefs and the employee held an alternate one. In that case it is not up to the employer or Congress to over-step their bounds into the actions of the individuals.
I strongly urge you to reject the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, S. 2043.
This weekend one of the painters in my studio building died.
She was just passed 70 years old—coincidentally nearly exactly the same age my mother was back when she died, although in much better health and mobility. My artist colleague died suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack while vacationing in Vieques with a friend. As sad as this is, I do find myself thinking that dying while vacationing on the beach is not a bad way to go (except in how, for as awesome as it is to go that way, it sucks that much to be the friend left behind that way.) Just this past Christmas another painter from my building died, also suddenly and unexpectedly, having only recently moved to a new and larger space in the building.
I find myself returning to thinking on a meta-level about my work, what I'm doing and what I'm slacking on and not getting done. The year after my mother died was one of my most active and productive in realms that I care about, as I realized on a visceral level: I don't have forever.
totient and I are looking to replace our quarter-century old oil furnace with a modern system. The buzz-words for the thing we're thinking of getting include: 
