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I was going to write this several days ago, but I've been pretty well laid-up with something flu-like. I've been very achy and cold, and I have this horrible cough. I'm feeling a little better today though, so I'm optimistic that this will be behind me in a few days.
---
I'm so very behind on writing up my continuing adventures. Life has kept me a very busy dog.
I've been up to UW-Parkside a couple times. The first occasion was for an appointment with the students with disabilities coordinator. I'd told the advisor I talked to about being prosopagnosic, and she wanted me to talk to the disabilities services folks. The conversation went pretty much as I expected. I explained that while being face-blind contributed a lot to my having done poorly at my last attempt at school, much of it was because I hadn't actually figured out that I was face-blind; I just knew that I was terrified of people and didn't want to talk to anybody, be they other students or my professors. That's not really the best way to go about college, as could be told by the lack of success of those efforts. I explained that I know myself much better at this point and have found work arounds for most of the social issues I have and that I actually don't think I need any special accomodations. Not that I'd probably be eligible for any, given that I have no official diagnosis.
And I talked about my suspicion that I'm on the autism spectrum too. There are still a lot of things that make me think that that's true. On the other hand, I suspect that my level of affliction is rather less pronounced than I once thought. I used to think that I was an incurable introvert. Now, nearly the opposite is true. I think I'll do just fine.
Along that line, in my second trip to Parkside, wherein I talked to a professor of anthropology, I learned about the anthropology club on campus. It sounds like a lot of fun, and I'll definitely get signed up with them. He and I talked for about forty-five minutes about what doing anthropological work is like. He's primarily an archaeologist and had some great stories about the people he's met while digging up their yards or fields.
We talked about the program and why I'm interested in pursuing anthropology. I talked about not only my interested that come from urban ruins and changing urban landscapes, but I even talked about my notion that anthropology and studies of the way groups form and interact might interest me because, for most of my life, I've never felt like I was a central part of a group. I have this perspective of looking in on all kinds of social behaviour from a sort of external vantage point. Whether that's the high school kids in America interact or the way people behave around each other on a subway train in Tokyo. I'm fascinated by people and the way they deal with other people because so much of it is just so strange when viewed from outside the group.
So I have contact info for another anthropology professor who is more interested in linguistic and cultural work, so I'm going to get in touch with her and see about chatting with her as well. This is all very exciting for me!
---
I wrote briefly about my trip to Madison with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lisagems for the protest against Governer Walker's budget bill. It was a great experience and whetted my appetite to see and photograph more such events. There's a thrill of being somewhere where people are gathered in mass to make a statement. Being a part of that, and making a record of it.
It was a real pleasure to spend some time on the road with Lisa too. I haven't talked to her very much in quite some time, and I'm actually quite a changed person since that point. I got to express that I still remember some nice things she said to me years ago at Silverleaf Renaissance Faire when I was still a very shy and quiet pup, and that they still mean quite a lot to me. I'm finding myself reconnecting, or connecting on a deeper level, with people I've known for a long time and it makes me feel really good.
---
While I was here in Kenosha this past weekend, Super-mechanic Juan finally had the chance to do install the new bearing that he ordered for me some time back. There's definitely something odd about my car because, as usual, there were issues. Leaving aside the fact that he actually could not get the wheel off of the rotor and had to just move the whole assembly out of the way, there was a big surprise when we got the bearing out. After inserting the new one in the housing and realizing it wasn't quite right, we compared the two to each other. They had exactly the same part number, but were not the same part. And the old one, which was pretty much dead anyway, had already been cut to form a drift to use to press the new bearing into the housing.
So Juan installed the new, too-tall bearing. It fit, but it covered the slot for the retaining ring that's supposed to hold it in, so Juan wasn't able to install that part. He believes that the pressure from the two parts of the halfshaft on each side will keep it in place anyay; there's really nowhere for it to go. But he suggested I check on the Suzuki forums and ask whether anyone else has had this problem and how to get the right part. This is a dealer only part that's apparently very hard to find, and Juan even made sure the place he ordered it from cross-referenced my VIN to make sure it was right.
So, with Percy put back together, we got on the road for a test drive. Sadly, the bearing noise was not at all reduced. Juan and I were both, in a word, disappointed. He believes now that the problem is within the transmission, especially given that in the quart or so of fluid that drained when he pulled out the halfshaft, there were clouds of fine metal particles. (Rather pretty actually.) Something in there is slowly eating itself. It may be related to first gear, which has always been growly, or it might be something else. Either way, I'm going to look at getting a new transmission. Fortunately, since my car is itty-bitty, that will only be around $350.
---
I've gone over to visitcranberrynomiko a couple times lately for 日本語 べんきょう, as well as silly Japanese games. She showed me a cute candy wrapper that I was actually able to figure out the gist of, with a little help from her. It said something like "Pick your favorite animal." on the front, and then you choose a dog, a cat, or a hamster and follow a line around the back where it gives you a fortune for each one. She also lent me her Gamecube and a very cutesy game called Chibi-Robo, wherein you are a household robot whose purpose in life is to make your family happy by doing things like cleaning up garbage or scrubbing muddy dog-paw prints. The family is typically dysfunctional; the daughter wears a giant frog-head over her head and won't say anything but "gero-gero" (ribbit ribbit). I've explored that a little more as I played it for Danae while she was over, and have had fun with it. Thanks for the loan Raecchi!
---
Speaking of Danae, she and I had a lovely couple of days together the week before her then-upcoming travelling. Posicat had come down that Friday. He and I and Lisagems all went to a showing of Labyrinth at the Gennesee Theatre (so awesome) and had late-night diner food together. On Saturday, Posi (who'd spent the night) and I met up with Danae in Chinatown and had dim-sum at Phoenix. So good! I was introduced to dim-sum years and years ago by Jimcyl, who was able to point out things I would and wouldn't be willing to eat. I'm actually a lot more adventurous now when it comes to food and sampled just about everything that we had at the table, including water-chestnut jelly dessert (not so great). Oh man were the lotus buns good though!
After that, we explored a few shops around Boystown, looking for costumey bits for Danae's upcoming LARPs. I had fun just kind of looking around the building itself, which used to be a theater back in the mists of time, when we were in The Alley. Then we drove back to my apartment, Posi left for home, and Danae and I enjoyed a peaceful evening of videos and snuggles. I'm definitely missing her and I won't get to see her for another...hmm. Week and a half I guess? Scheduling is interesting when both people involved are travelers!
---
I think that's about everything that's been going on past tense. I have things to write about that are coming up, like my trip to Michigan next week, but I'll get to that next time. And if there's something I wasn't thinking about when I wrote this, please let me know! I'll try and write more frequently in the future. I hate getting behind and losing bits.
---
I'm so very behind on writing up my continuing adventures. Life has kept me a very busy dog.
I've been up to UW-Parkside a couple times. The first occasion was for an appointment with the students with disabilities coordinator. I'd told the advisor I talked to about being prosopagnosic, and she wanted me to talk to the disabilities services folks. The conversation went pretty much as I expected. I explained that while being face-blind contributed a lot to my having done poorly at my last attempt at school, much of it was because I hadn't actually figured out that I was face-blind; I just knew that I was terrified of people and didn't want to talk to anybody, be they other students or my professors. That's not really the best way to go about college, as could be told by the lack of success of those efforts. I explained that I know myself much better at this point and have found work arounds for most of the social issues I have and that I actually don't think I need any special accomodations. Not that I'd probably be eligible for any, given that I have no official diagnosis.
And I talked about my suspicion that I'm on the autism spectrum too. There are still a lot of things that make me think that that's true. On the other hand, I suspect that my level of affliction is rather less pronounced than I once thought. I used to think that I was an incurable introvert. Now, nearly the opposite is true. I think I'll do just fine.
Along that line, in my second trip to Parkside, wherein I talked to a professor of anthropology, I learned about the anthropology club on campus. It sounds like a lot of fun, and I'll definitely get signed up with them. He and I talked for about forty-five minutes about what doing anthropological work is like. He's primarily an archaeologist and had some great stories about the people he's met while digging up their yards or fields.
We talked about the program and why I'm interested in pursuing anthropology. I talked about not only my interested that come from urban ruins and changing urban landscapes, but I even talked about my notion that anthropology and studies of the way groups form and interact might interest me because, for most of my life, I've never felt like I was a central part of a group. I have this perspective of looking in on all kinds of social behaviour from a sort of external vantage point. Whether that's the high school kids in America interact or the way people behave around each other on a subway train in Tokyo. I'm fascinated by people and the way they deal with other people because so much of it is just so strange when viewed from outside the group.
So I have contact info for another anthropology professor who is more interested in linguistic and cultural work, so I'm going to get in touch with her and see about chatting with her as well. This is all very exciting for me!
---
I wrote briefly about my trip to Madison with
lisagems for the protest against Governer Walker's budget bill. It was a great experience and whetted my appetite to see and photograph more such events. There's a thrill of being somewhere where people are gathered in mass to make a statement. Being a part of that, and making a record of it.It was a real pleasure to spend some time on the road with Lisa too. I haven't talked to her very much in quite some time, and I'm actually quite a changed person since that point. I got to express that I still remember some nice things she said to me years ago at Silverleaf Renaissance Faire when I was still a very shy and quiet pup, and that they still mean quite a lot to me. I'm finding myself reconnecting, or connecting on a deeper level, with people I've known for a long time and it makes me feel really good.
---
While I was here in Kenosha this past weekend, Super-mechanic Juan finally had the chance to do install the new bearing that he ordered for me some time back. There's definitely something odd about my car because, as usual, there were issues. Leaving aside the fact that he actually could not get the wheel off of the rotor and had to just move the whole assembly out of the way, there was a big surprise when we got the bearing out. After inserting the new one in the housing and realizing it wasn't quite right, we compared the two to each other. They had exactly the same part number, but were not the same part. And the old one, which was pretty much dead anyway, had already been cut to form a drift to use to press the new bearing into the housing.
So Juan installed the new, too-tall bearing. It fit, but it covered the slot for the retaining ring that's supposed to hold it in, so Juan wasn't able to install that part. He believes that the pressure from the two parts of the halfshaft on each side will keep it in place anyay; there's really nowhere for it to go. But he suggested I check on the Suzuki forums and ask whether anyone else has had this problem and how to get the right part. This is a dealer only part that's apparently very hard to find, and Juan even made sure the place he ordered it from cross-referenced my VIN to make sure it was right.
So, with Percy put back together, we got on the road for a test drive. Sadly, the bearing noise was not at all reduced. Juan and I were both, in a word, disappointed. He believes now that the problem is within the transmission, especially given that in the quart or so of fluid that drained when he pulled out the halfshaft, there were clouds of fine metal particles. (Rather pretty actually.) Something in there is slowly eating itself. It may be related to first gear, which has always been growly, or it might be something else. Either way, I'm going to look at getting a new transmission. Fortunately, since my car is itty-bitty, that will only be around $350.
---
I've gone over to visit
cranberrynomiko a couple times lately for 日本語 べんきょう, as well as silly Japanese games. She showed me a cute candy wrapper that I was actually able to figure out the gist of, with a little help from her. It said something like "Pick your favorite animal." on the front, and then you choose a dog, a cat, or a hamster and follow a line around the back where it gives you a fortune for each one. She also lent me her Gamecube and a very cutesy game called Chibi-Robo, wherein you are a household robot whose purpose in life is to make your family happy by doing things like cleaning up garbage or scrubbing muddy dog-paw prints. The family is typically dysfunctional; the daughter wears a giant frog-head over her head and won't say anything but "gero-gero" (ribbit ribbit). I've explored that a little more as I played it for Danae while she was over, and have had fun with it. Thanks for the loan Raecchi!---
Speaking of Danae, she and I had a lovely couple of days together the week before her then-upcoming travelling. Posicat had come down that Friday. He and I and Lisagems all went to a showing of Labyrinth at the Gennesee Theatre (so awesome) and had late-night diner food together. On Saturday, Posi (who'd spent the night) and I met up with Danae in Chinatown and had dim-sum at Phoenix. So good! I was introduced to dim-sum years and years ago by Jimcyl, who was able to point out things I would and wouldn't be willing to eat. I'm actually a lot more adventurous now when it comes to food and sampled just about everything that we had at the table, including water-chestnut jelly dessert (not so great). Oh man were the lotus buns good though!
After that, we explored a few shops around Boystown, looking for costumey bits for Danae's upcoming LARPs. I had fun just kind of looking around the building itself, which used to be a theater back in the mists of time, when we were in The Alley. Then we drove back to my apartment, Posi left for home, and Danae and I enjoyed a peaceful evening of videos and snuggles. I'm definitely missing her and I won't get to see her for another...hmm. Week and a half I guess? Scheduling is interesting when both people involved are travelers!
---
I think that's about everything that's been going on past tense. I have things to write about that are coming up, like my trip to Michigan next week, but I'll get to that next time. And if there's something I wasn't thinking about when I wrote this, please let me know! I'll try and write more frequently in the future. I hate getting behind and losing bits.