April 3, 2008
"Rise of the Digital NEH" article
"With more and more humanities scholars embracing scholarship that is either conducted or published online, funding agencies and a network of “digital humanities centers” are stepping up to provide money and organizational structure for what has been a grassroots movement."
More here. (By way of Dan Cohen's Digital Humanities Blog.)
In other news, I'm kind of tired of my own schtick. I'm not saying I'm giving up -- just that the "idea blog" seemed fun five years ago, and now I'm a little over myself. Maybe it has something to do with being depressed the last couple of years. Maybe I'm working too much. Or maybe it was the ideas that just got boring. ANYWAY -- if I don't do ideas, what DO I do? What do you do with the url, "Mary's Great Ideas" after the ideas are gone? No wonder I'm depressed! Maybe twitter will help.
Posted by mary at 9:43 AM | Comments (4)
August 22, 2007
New Blog Entry
It's come to my attention that I haven't updated my blog for awhile, so here's some proof that I am, in fact, still among the living -- albeit in Tucson.
Posted by mary at 8:52 PM | Comments (1)
January 26, 2007
Two Beers, a Tail, and a Time Machine
Spine has hit me with the meme stick -- that is, a chain writing assignment that seems to come aus Vermont. Since it doesn't come with any death threats or predictions of doom if I don't participate, I think I will. So, here are my answers:
1. My: You’ve heard the saying “I’d give my right arm for…”. So, what would you give your right arm for?
A: Time travel. My first trip would be to the future, where I'd have a bionic arm attached to where the arm used to be, and a monkey tail attached to my butt. It was suggested that this way, I could use the tail to operate the time machine, and have two hands free for whatever I wanted, leading to the autobiographical screenplay entitled: "Two beers, a tail, and a time machine."
The children's book would be, "Monkey tails and time machines."
2. Me: What’s one word that describes how you want people to see you?
A: Attractive.
3. Meme: If you could be any blogger, which blogger would you be… and why?
A: Maybe Stacey Nightmare, for the exuberant punctuation, Bob Powers for the unrelenting optimism, or Cute Overload for the bucks.
Now, I invite Justin, Drew and Rich to respond, or ... absolutely nothing will happen.
Posted by mary at 8:10 AM | Comments (4)
December 8, 2006
The Saga of My Car Accident Continues Slowly or, What Will Happen After You're in a Four-Car Pileup
I'd never been in an accident before (let alone a four car pileup on a busy freeway at rush hour!!), so I wasn't sure what to expect. Here, for your low-key, low-stakes rubbernecking pleasure, is the kind of excitement I've experienced so far:
The police officer who took everyone's statement called bright and early the next day and gave me everyone's contact information. He also told me the driver who had caused the accident (the one on her cell phone) had been cited for reckless driving. He was super nice. I'd taken some people's information, but not the woman who caused the accident because she seemed really distraught, and the cops told me they'd give it to me.
The woman who caused the accident was driving a car covered by Farmer's Insurance, although it's called Mid-Century Insurance for some reason, when you call the number, they say "Farmers" -- nothing like an insurance company with a pseudonym to make you feel like you're in good hands.
"Bad Faith Insurance Companies" (dot org -- catchy url!) rates Farmers as #5 in the NON-PAYMENT OF CLAIMS HALL OF SHAME. (My insurance company, Travelers, is #4, which isn't much comfort, given that they cover my house and car. Maybe I'll check out these guys next time -- they got a really good rating in the Consumer Guide to Oregon Insurance Complaints [PDF download]).
I called Farmers/aka Mid-Century to file my claim and it turned out (or so they said) that I was the first one involved to call, so they wanted to take down everyone's information (contact, and insurance, car etc.) from me. I was like, "um, why don't I call you back later, after you've had a chance to look over the police report, rather than spending the next hour on the phone with you?" The guy who took my call described to me in detail an apparently hilarious ad that my insurance company has on TV. He was like, "That's one funny ad -- I'll give 'em props for that!" So, that was friendly enough.
I filled out an accident report form and biked it over to DMV. That was quick and easy -- just a matter of dropping it off. I didn't even have time to eat my burrito in the waiting room which, as it turns out, doesn't allow eating, anyway. I was kind of irked about that for no good reason -- ask Chris: it doesn't take much to make me surly.
While I was in the parking lot at DMV (which, by the way, doesn't have a bike stand -- I thought that was appropriate but funny), the Farmer's agent called to take my statement. I had her call me back at home. She recorded my account of the accident on the phone, making a big deal out of getting my agreement and all (as she should) and during it she'd say things like, "and then the green car hit you?" and I'd say, "no, then your client's car hit me" or, "and then the green car hit the pickup?" and I'd say, "no, then your client's car hit the pickup." When she turned off the recorder I said, "Now we can start cussing!" and it took her a second to realize I was joshing her, not that it was all that funny.
After my statement, when I asked about a rental car, she said that Farmers may not be liable, even though the driver was cited for reckless driving and had told the police officer on the scene, "it was my fault!" The reasons is because the policy on the car didn't name her. (When I talked to the Oregon Insurance Commission, they said that if the owner said she'd taken the car without permission, it's possible they can get out of it, even if the car wasn't reported stolen.)
She also told me that there might not be enough money to cover us all because the policy only had $50,000 on it for property damage. I said given that the cars involved were a 2001 Hyundai, a 1988 Volvo wagon, and an older pickup that drove away, I didn't see how that would be a problem. She said, "yeah, well, maybe there will be enough." I think she was just trying to get my expectations really, really low in preparation for low-balling me (but really, how low can you low ball a 1988 Volvo with 220K on it? I guess it's probably just reflex). I assured her I wouldn't rent a Kompressor, in any case.
Now it's been three days since the accident, and I haven't heard back from Farmers since the day before yesterday. Yesterday, I rented a Ford Focus, which is a piece of shit but at least the heater works! I talked to my insurance agent this morning. Because I only have liability (I don't even know if they issue collision for cars as old as mine) they won't do much more than give me free advice. She didn't improve my optimism about dealing with Farmers much -- she said sometimes they tend to stall on cases -- but she had a good suggestion, which was to talk to the Oregon Insurance Commission. I called their consumer information number, 503-947-7984, and they were super informative. They told me that the insurance companies get 45 days to investigate an accident, and that if I haven't heard anything by three weeks I should file a complaint and they might be able to "put a fire under them."
I've left two messages on the Farmer's agent's voicemail today with no response. She gave me a Vancouver number.
I wish it didn't feel like I was dealing with a bunch of used car sales people, especially since I may soon be doing that, too.
Update
The insurance agent called me back to let me know that the car the cell-phoning-accident-causing woman was driving was not named in her policy, and she doesn't know who was named on the policy -- maybe it was CPACW, maybe not - she's not handling that part of the case. SIGH.
Posted by mary at 2:47 PM | Comments (1)
September 18, 2005
Wierd Fish Body
Posted by mary at 4:24 PM | Comments (0)
Wierd Fish Head
We saw this dead fish at the beach about a month ago. Funny colors, eh?
Posted by mary at 4:20 PM | Comments (2)
December 24, 2004
and HAPPY NEW YEAR - (and remember -- CATS LOVE CHRISTMAS, TOO!!)
Posted by mary at 12:13 PM | Comments (0)
February 22, 2004
Procrastinating
No time for great ideas today because I've got to finish writing this grant -- man, life is going to RULE when I only have 2 jobs and start up my own business. I may add a poll here so that people can weigh in about which great idea I should persue to make my millions. Anyway, as I was VERY hard a work writing and not procrastinating at all, it occurred to me that maybe there was a website, procrastinator.com which of course there is - and I think that's a pretty good idea in itself -- because you know procrastinators are going to want to visit a place like that to buy crap and feel less guilty by reading about other procrastinators -- but the best part is, most of the site is unfinished.
Posted by mary at 10:58 AM | Comments (2)
July 28, 2003
Tank at Stalingrad
Posted by mary at 8:29 PM | Comments (1)