Philly, yo! Those of you who know me are probably aware that I grew up in Philadelphia and spent a few years working in a cheeseteak and hoagie shop (“The Original Steak and Hoagie II”, now closed). I take my cheesesteaks and hoagies seriously. Possibly too seriously. As a field organizer I have the opportunity…
Author: DebGod
Puberbiebs: Did Justin Bieber’s Voice Drop Yet? A Quick Investigation for No Good Reason.
Recent pictures suggest that Justin Bieber is not a kid anymore. A few nights ago I wondered if his voice has broken yet and how that might have affected his singing—or does he still sound like a chipmunk version of Usher? Because I generally don’t give a crap about Bieber, I didn’t know, so I decided to spend some…
Sweet Car, In Line…in Front of Me at the Airport
While picking up the boyfriend at the airport, I waited behind this car:
Conversations with Spambots, Part 2
Today I sat down at the computer to see a new IM from a potential new friend. I didn’t recognize the screenname, but that’s not unusual. I considered briefly that it may have been from a spambot, but “mattp204” didn’t seem like a sexbot’s screenname, so I responded. After a couple of lines, however, the…
Baking on a Sunday Afternoon
On Saturday my coworker and roommate reminded me that there’s a CFI community potluck on Wednesday! It’s like the best day all month, with all sorts of tasty noms for eating and a fun crowd to hang out with. He plans to make pork and vegetarian dumplings, although I can’t believe he’d want to spend so much…
Fortune Cookie Consideration: Letting Things Be “Good Enough”
I always read the little slips of paper that come in fortune cookies, and if I get a good one, I save it in my wallet for a while. My favorites are the actual fortunes, like this one from last week: “Tomorrow will be a productive day. Don’t oversleep.” Thanks, Fate! That’s a great fortune, and…
JibJabbin’ with the Family
Last weekend I was hanging out with the fam back home in the Philly region for my brother’s wedding on Saturday. My younger sister came in from LA, my older one flew up from Miami, and I drove down from Buffalo. It was a lot of fun! On Friday night we were sharing funny stories,…
“Sliding Board” v. “Slide”: Some Notes on the Mid-Atlantic Dialect
When I moved from Philadelphia to Buffalo a handful of years ago, I thought I was pretty prepared for the major dialect differences. Pronunciation-wise, I had steeled myself for the Western New York pronunciation of words like car and crab shack, and I knew I wouldn’t be understood if I asked for a glass of…
On Writing Things for Stuff (or, How I Didn’t Do That Last Weekend but Am Doing So Right Now)
Cake, mmmm… Last weekend I set a goal of finishing a blog post for Skepchick and writing a new post for this here personal blog thing. On Saturday night, I sat down in my office and started poking at the things on my computer screen. But my roommate was hosting a birthday party in the…
Conversations with Spambots, Part 1
(Last week, this was my first post ever on my newish Tumblr account. Then I realized Tumblr doesn’t do what I want it to, so I will probably never use it again. Therefore, I am reposting here.) A few times in the last few months, I’ve received random unsolicited IMs from spam accounts trying to…