When in doubt, improvise

So I'm in an apartment with no A/C, and the windows aren't designed to allow for a window unit (even if something that simple could be had). What I do have is a fan, a fridge with a freezer, and a water tap.

The idea came from reading about some New York City buildings that cool their air by passing it over (and perhaps through) ice in their ventilation systems - they freeze the ice overnight, when it's cooler and takes less energy to freeze, and melt it during the day, leaching heat out of the air.

I figured, might work, couldn't hurt. So I gathered a few half-liter bottles, filled them with water, and chucked them in the freezer.

And the apartment does feel a skeetch cooler. Of course, that might be from it being one in the morning and having a window open. But still.

Update

So, I'm reading that the infrastructure of LiveJournal is gonna implode or something. Which is rather distressing, since about ninety percent of the communication I have with people on the west side of the Atlantic these days would vaporize. This says something pretty awful about me, though I'm trying not to think about it.

Instead, I'm doing things like trying to figure out how to properly use the word "indemnify". My first contract to actually draft, and it's on a topic I never covered in law school. Ah, well. Best I can do is the best I can do, and the last task I did (a translation which relied on Babelfish waaaay more than I like to admit to myself (though I doublechecked just about everything myself)) was, according to the person I did it for, pretty good. Which isn't to say that my confidence in my abilities is up there yet, so I definitely want to have my work checked before anyone else signs off on it. Big-shot corporate type depending on my work to protect his butt against lawsuits? Heck, I'd worry if it was just me depending on my contract-writing ability.

Apartment front: my washing machine broke somewhere in its timer. Last week, I threw in a load of clothes one night, turned the thing on to do its thing, and when I woke up in the morning, it was still sloshing away. Repairman's coming Wednesday. Not getting my hopes up. On the bright side, tho', either the weather's getting better, or my trick of plunking a half-liter bottle of ice in front of my fan (let the ice absorb the heat from the atmosphere as it melts) is working. Either way, a plus.

Here for a little while, anyway. No word yet on the work permit; the lady at the office who's in charge of handling those things is perplexed and frustrated by it. As has been mentioned in this space before, I'm told that the easy option is for me to take dual citizenship.

(Bright side to that is that since my paperwork's all apostille'd and translated at this point, citizenship can be conferred upon me automatically. No oath to be sworn, which is a plus, considering there's some parts of the Greek constitution I can't in all honesty pledge fealty to.)

More later, as it develops, as they say.

Forgot to mention

The office is apparently quite agressive in its firewalling procedures. Won't be checking LJ from work, or posting from there. I know, I know; shouldn't be fiddling with LJ from work anyway. But sometimes my job resembles that of a left-handed one-out guy (it's a baseball term; nothing dirty, except for spitballers). On the other hand, my work day ends when everyone else's begins. When most interesting things are happening Stateside, it's four in the morning here in Athens and (now that jet lag's been conquered) I'm fast asleep.

At least the office has air conditioning. Although the ice-bottle-fan trick seems to be doing okay. (Not to mention, I can just keep recycling the water bottles, chucking them back in the freezer.)

And yet another update

Oh, by the way:

If LJ does implode, I took a hint (thanks for the hint, havocthecat!) and created journals on both InsaneJournal and GreatestJournal. Same username. No content in either place yet.

(Wow. Three posts in one day. And I went a full week without one post just last week. What the hey?)

Signs one might be out of touch.

Filled out answers for a meme from lizbetann, got an answer about retreating to an island, creating a tolerable nation state, and then having it destroyed in a ship war.

The names in the ship war aren't really relevant. What's relevant is that when I saw "ship war", the first thing that came to mind was the Bismarck.