stupid data transfer

[da]

Things I've decided:

A flash drive is a stupid way to move 500mb of data from one machine to another, if the source computer only has USB1 and it's transmitting MUCH slower than that (something like 1mb per minute, tops). ..But, given that putting the second computer on the fixed network was too much of a pain, it's the only reasonable answer I had in this situation. Ah well.

A Greyhound bus to Toronto is a stupid way to get a signature authenticated, but since the only allowable authentication agents are US Notary Publics, and it couldn't wait until the next time I was in the US, I did it. Ah well. It certainly wasn't cheap- $23 ticket, $30 US notary public at the US Consulate, and it'll be something like $10 to mail the piece of riveted-and-embossed papers back. You want a story? Ok, here's a story.

The US Consulate is a strange place. It's so secure you can't bring in a backpack, briefcase, or anything electronic into the building. My morning went like this:

Go to the bus station at 8, queue for a ticket, queue for the bus, get on 8:30 bus, take a short nap, discover we're taking highways I don't recognize, decide they're the 407, go back to my book, get into Toronto at 10:20, put my briefcase/cell-phone/ipod into a locker, walk a few blocks to the back door of the consulate, tell them I need something notarized, go through the metal-detector, watch them radio ahead that someone (me) is going to the third floor, pass through no less than three security checkpoints, pass a large room with mostly-nonwhite people getting visas, have people with guns open doors for me, press my own elevator-up button, not see any security cameras in the elevator, get off at the third floor, get totally confused because I'm in a room full of Mennonite families, find the reception desk at the far end of the room (no signs), spend a while watching Mennonites watch the weird city folk, get my paperwork paid for and notarized and signed (she had a nice pen), go out the door at 10:50 only passing one security guard, waste an hour of the morning because of the 2-hour gap in busses back home, not buy clothes, not buy DVDs, buy an Alfred Bester book I've been looking for, buy a veggie dog and fries in front of City Hall, eat lunch, get on the 12:30 bus, not nap even though I really wanted to, and get home at 2.

Then, half a day of work, which fortunately seems to be finishing up right about now. :)

Comments

[dr-tectonic.livejournal.com]

Sometimes dumb is smart. People will often waste half an hour designing and printing out a sign on the computer when thirty seconds with a marker would really be just as good.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

...There've been the really annoying times where I really wanted was a sharpie but all I could lay my hands on was a computer.

[catbear.livejournal.com]

You could have asked to borrow The Computer Connection, you didn't need to buy it.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

dots. *google*

Oh. Gotcha. Maybe I will borrow that. I was looking for this.

I'm just recently (as in the last three years) getting into his stuff.

Yeah, some of us are slower than others with the classics.

[catbear.livejournal.com]

Neat, I'm not sure if I've read TDM. We can trade! Currently reading Saturn by Ben Bova, out from KPL.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm open to an exchange of hostages.

Currently reading... well, a pile of things. sci-fi: re-reading a Greg Bear I was very fond of in High School, and a third of the way into the Bester. I was thinking I should reread Wrinkie in Time too.

[pnijjar.livejournal.com]

Speaking of hostages, that is one nice thing about mass transit. Unlike when you are driving, there's no need to get stressed out when you find yourself on unfamiliar highways. Either your driver is the one who is worrying about getting you to the right destination, or you're being kidnapped.

[(Anonymous)]

But somehow, I get much more stressed about unfamiliar highways when on public transit than when I'm the one driving, even if I do get off-track myself. Go figure. ;-)

We've recently been having a Laurie Marks fest in our house, as the local library has Fire Logic and Earth Logic. Marks was an award recipient at the last WisCon, and we keep hearing good things about her. (We missed WisCon, but will get there one of these days!)

And I just found out that Water Logic has been released. Heh heh heh. Except that Ms. Math Genius needs to be writing research proposals, not reading good feminist science fiction.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing this is morgan_starfire? Or maybe Sue?

I like getting lost, and I like it when public transit gets me somewhere unusual- as long as I can know when it's my stop. That's the only worrying bit for me.

[morgan-starfire.livejournal.com]

Whoops, yes, that was me.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

You said it. That's much preferable to when I'm driving and I wonder whether I'm being kidnapped.

Yay for getting lost. :)