a place to call home...

Another bit of good news, and I cannot help but update this with a personal post.

We found a place to live in New Paltz. I put a deposit down on a condominium right in town, located in behind the Gilded Otter Brewing Company, next to the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail, and .7 miles from the campus proper.

It has a terrace that runs the length of the unit, but it's actually a first-floor condo. The building is built on a grade, so the entrance is ground-level, but the back overlooks a grassy spot, the railtrail, and the Wallkill river. When the leaves drop, we'll have a view of the Shawangunk ridge and Skytop.

It's gorgeous and spacious, and I cannot believe our luck at both getting the spot and having what seems to be a really cool landlord.

I do believe that we deserve this, as we went through a miniature version of hell to finally get it.

We've been checking out every apartment in town, and a lot of them just weren't what we were looking for, or we were in competition with potential renters that were perhaps better qualified; we've got the money, but I think some of the landlords in town are spooked by "students". But karma has smiled upon us, and we got one.

I'm ecstatic right now.

Also: we are going to have pet fish.

James Doohan Beams Up.

"In a 1998 interview, Doohan was asked if he ever got tired of hearing the line 'Beam me up, Scotty' -- a line that, reportedly, was never actually spoken on the TV show.
'I'm not tired of it at all,' he replied. 'Good gracious, it's been said to me for just about 31 years. It's been said to me at 70 miles an hour across four lanes on the freeway. I hear it from just about everybody. It's been fun.'"

I used to go to 'cons when I was younger, and I had the pleasure of having dinner with Doohan and one or two others... He was down-to-earth, had a great sense of humor, and told amazing stories. He affected the brogue for a few irish jokes, and I, never one to get excited about celebrities, left with a sense of how normal they can be.

Harlan Ellison was also with us, and he was funny too, acted like a jerk, but he's kind of known for that.

Charges Dropped Against Mayor Who Performed Gay Weddings

Jason West is the mayor of New Paltz, where I go to school. He's a good guy, and I'm glad he won this one. [He's a good politician, a Green, and concerned with his constituency.]

More on Jason here.

I was going to post a NYT link, but they want you to register to view the article, which is absurd.

The Portrait of the Counselor Idealist (iNFj)

INFJ Profile

and another description here...

INFJ
Introverted Intuitive Feeling Judging
Strength of the preferences %
11 / 25 / 12 / 11

also: RGSM

there's nothing to see here, move along...

ABC News: "Downing Street Memo": 0 segments; "Natalee Holloway": 42 segments; "Michael Jackson": 121 segments.

CBS News: "Downing Street Memo": 0 segments; "Natalee Holloway": 70 segments; "Michael Jackson": 235 segments.

NBC News: "Downing Street Memo": 6 segments; "Natalee Holloway": 62 segments; "Michael Jackson": 109 segments.

CNN: "Downing Street Memo": 30 segments; "Natalee Holloway": 294 segments; "Michael Jackson": 633 segments.

Fox News: "Downing Street Memo": 10 segments; "Natalee Holloway": 148 segments; Michael Jackson": 286 segments.

MSNBC: "Downing Street Memo": 10 segments; "Natalee Holloway": 30 segments; "Michael Jackson": 106 segments.

Where the media's [and ours, evidently] priorities lie...:

brought to my attention by spilon at MetaFilter

Television isn't good for anything but entertainment anymore... not that it was before, really. Plus, it makes you stupid. But we knew that already.