wispfox | Entries tagged with places.boston

This[1] seems like a fabulous thing!

"Nearly all buildings constructed on filled land in the South End and other similarly developed neighborhoods in Boston are supported on wood pilings. These pilings will last for centuries if they remain submerged in groundwater. However, if groundwater levels drop, the tops of the piles are attacked by microbes and eventually rot, which result in severe foundation problems for supported buildings. In addition to declining groundwater levels, stormwater runoff that flows over the paved sections of the South End contributes pollution to receiving waters nearby."

"The project, engineered by VHB, involved retrofitting a section of the alley way with porous asphalt to filter the stormwater from the adjoining area and recharge groundwater. While the project involved repaving the entire alley way, only the publicly owned part of the Alley was retrofitted with porous asphalt. The retrofit allows for increased area groundwater recharge and also filters stormwater naturally into the ground, rather than funnel the polluted runoff into nearby receiving water bodies. The construction on the project was completed by late summer of 2014."

Given troubles with loss of groundwater - especially in place where there used to be swamp that got replaced with asphault - and the fact that the water that used to be supplying those locations is instead getting polluted and requiring far more energy-intensive actions to make use of it, this seems like a _really_ good idea. I hope it both works well and gets implemented in far more locations!

(the ground is an excellent place to store water, and swamps and marshes help clean water)

[1] http://www.crwa.org/blue-cities/demonstration-projects/porous-alley

My first poly speed dating (http://boston.polyspeeddating.com/) event ftw! I think it went well. There were two or three women (of 7) who would love to see again, and would be happy to chat more with all of them (I really do like people, generally).

Very glad that the lovely people in charge of the programming were able to handle my last minute request to have a wall behind me. I hadn't thought about it until I got there and saw the venue (definitely will request in the future), but if I have people talking behind me, I can't hear the people talking in front of me. And it was _loud_, both due to numbers of people and to inexplicable background music.

Tasty snacks included edamame and hummus with pita bread. Other things, too, but those were to my taste. :)

Very glad for a quieter area outside the main conversational area. Wow, my ears are full. Thankfully someone reminded me to project rather than kill my throat trying to yell.

Whee! Very tired now.

The Real Boston Tea Party, as described by

lilairen:

"Tomorrow, from I believe 10 am until 1 pm, Boston Common: permit achieved for near the visitor's center which is I believe by the Park Street T. While our festivities are in response to certain gentlefolk who have contributed to the decline of civil discourse, we intend to be genteel in our gathering.

Should you desire to attend for tea, kindly do endeavour to bring an appropriate contribution: cookies, wee sandwiches, other appropriate foods; tea, of course; drinking vessels and similar supplies. Do dress in a manner appropriate to polite society, and, "if not to the nines, at least to the four and a halves". Polite signs in favor of decorum, cucumber sandwiches for ready money, and excellent tea are encouraged; the official website has some suggestions."

I cannot go, I'm very sad. It's my second-to-last day at work, though, I can't really convince myself it's a good idea.

Facebook page for it. (it is indeed from 10-1)

(I kind of wish I had the tea icon that I see around, involving tea as the solution for everything. Can't find it, though)

At times, my reaction to things is surprising and unexpected.

I was not surprised to have some discomfort at many of the various items in the North America Native American sections of the Peabody museum at Harvard. For much the same reason that I was unhappy at the term 'acquired' to describe how the items got there, that I suspect that most of what is there was taken from the people to whom they belonged, quite possibly involving their deaths.

I mean, I'm glad we went, and that

metahacker thought of and suggested it. I'm glad that it exists and that there were things which had been returned to the appropriate people according to signs put in their place. I'm glad that they try to work with the people who are affected. But at the same time... uncomfortable.

My reaction to the room in which there were spiritual masks on display, though, _did_ surprise me. It was Not Okay. Very strongly Not Okay to have those on display, so public, so not what they were made for, used for, meant for. I don't know where their home is, to whom they should go, nor even if there is anywhere they should go. But that was quite strongly Not Right.

Sometimes I forget that I am sensitive to such things. (and when I'm not _in the moment_, sometimes I try to convince myself that I imagined it, or was reacting to distress that I expected to be there. Of course, if that were the case, I'd expect to react more strongly to the clothing...)

Y'know... I'm really damn lucky.

I have the world's bestest roommate (really, any other roommate(s) have one hell of a set of shoes to fill), who I barely knew when she came to live with me. And yet, it worked out well, even when my wrists got stupid at me and she suddenly had a bunch of extra things to do because I could no longer do them.

World's purryest cat. And sufficiently _unlike_ Ash that I rarely have attacks of 'but you're not _my_ cat!'.

I have a job that, while it is part of the problem with my wrists, also understands the problem (possibly better than most medical professionals. Sigh) and works with me around it. And I'm improving. And I make enough money that I can _afford_ the various things that allow me to keep working and also improving.

I have many, many wonderful people in my life, even though some of them are far away and I don't see them often. I am loved, and understood far better than I'd ever have expected to be possible.

I am living in a time when it's _possible_ for me to have met all these people (all? of them I met through the internet, one way or another), to not be completely debilitated by my brain brokennesses, and indeed to have some of those brokennesses actively useful for my job. Where my difficulty with spoken communication can be worked around, and improved upon. Where being born 12 weeks early was not a death sentence. Where I could figure out various of the ways in which I am unusual by finding others similarly unusual online in email lists and newsgroups and such, and discussing things with them. Where I could get my first degree-related job while still _in_ school, because I was involved with a linux users group and friends from there happened to work at a place that was hiring.

Yeah. I? Am damn lucky. And sometimes it's nice to point that out. Perhaps especially when I'm underslept and stressed from work and the insufficiency of direct light.