Very cool tech:

A self-proclaimed “ordinary citizen from Omaha, Nebraska,” horrified by President Obama’s “hard-left agenda,” has set up a right-wing tea-party lobbying group. Having worked for a right-wing think tank, she is “a fan of Rush Limbaugh” and is “intrigued by Glenn Beck” and listens to him “carefully.” By all measures, this person is about as hard-right-wing as you can get.

It should be no surprise, then, that she is the wife of Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas. Justice Thomas recently represented the tie-breaking vote in a case (Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission) which allows organizations like his wife’s to spend unlimited amounts of corporate donations on political ads naming specific candidates without full disclosure of where the money came from. Naturally, he did not recuse himself.

Just got finished with a day of furniture construction. I already made several pieces of furniture following our move, including a 6-foot by 3-foot shoe cabinet, which was a bear to get done. After a day of wrenching screws in with the screwdriver, I wanted no more of it. Later, when Sachi and I visited a “home center” (a Japanese “Home Depot” kind of store), I looked at power drivers for the hell of it–and was surprised to see that they sold for as little as $25. Hell, I thought, that would be totally worth it! So when the big desk I’d ordered came in, I went out and bought one. Very good choice–it sped things up and was way easier than doing it by hand.

First, today, I put together a cabinet we bought for the toilet room, which has a big, open alcove behind the seat, perfect for placing a cabinet to take advantage of all the vertical space. I measured the alcove’s width to be 91cm, and we ordered a cabinet which was 88cm wide, which I thought would fit nice and snug. What I neglected to consider was how we’d get it into place. Too wide to fit in the door, we had to turn it first–and that’s when I realized that the whole room was 91cm wide, and turning back an 88cm-wide cabinet with any depth to it just won’t work. But no problem–we discovered the cabinet looks great in the living room.

My desk was a much bigger task. I still have my old PC desk, but wanted something more, so my cabinets and shelf space wouldn’t be jammed full of stuff. So I went for a second desk in one room. I bought it for $300 online, and like all the other furniture we got, it’s a project you have to piece together from parts. And this was a nice, big desk–150cm wide, 60 cm deep, and 145 cm tall. It comes with shelf space on top, sliding panels for a keyboard and photo scanner under the desktop, and a separate file cabinet on casters below it. It took most of the day, but the power driver helped speed it up–but still, I finished at about 10:30 pm, and it took me another hour to clean up and rearrange. But now, this is what the room looks like now (stitched panorama to show more):

It’s a bit crowded, but it’s a room for me to sit in, not to play badminton in. I sit in the office chair and have desks on either side–one with my iMac, and the other nicely serving as a place for my MacBook Pro. The new desk:

In case you’re wondering, the blue banner with stars behind it is the Admiral’s flag from the USS Blue Ridge, the flag ship of the U.S. Seventh Fleet. A student of mine who is recently out of the Navy gave it to me (a very much appreciated gift), and it makes a very nice backdrop for the desk.