This is the lounge. You can discuss anything you want, but you will do it kindly. How are you going to type with a baby bat snuggled up to your finger like that?
Status: Heavily Moderated; Previous thread
Oct 28 2012
Oct 28 2012
This is the lounge. You can discuss anything you want, but you will do it kindly. How are you going to type with a baby bat snuggled up to your finger like that?
Status: Heavily Moderated; Previous thread
1 comments
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Rev. BigDumbChimp
31 October 2012 at 7:14 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
This is troubling
rq
31 October 2012 at 7:18 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Giliell
Actually I just need you to click some buttons, but I need lots of people to do it. It’s ok, though. I think I’m more or less resigned to the fact that we won’t win this time. (700 extra votes seems a bit extreme.)
Thanks for the recommendation. One show that I’ve enjoyed is Country Mouse and City Mouse. The boys so far have loved it. It’s about two mice who travel the world, having all kinds of adventures, where everything is fun and the boy-mouse doesn’t always have to rescue the girl-mouse (in fact, quite often it’s the other way around). It IS, however, extremely steoreotypical in its representation of different world cultures. Can’t have it all…
John Scanlon FCD
31 October 2012 at 7:19 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
As part of a course of learning, a third-order acquaintance has made a 2-minute video titled Take Your Place, the stated aim of which is “to inspire young women to take action and become involved in politics and the world”.
She would welcome constructive feedback via comments at the link.
Thank you, and have a safe and happy hallowe’en.
Rev. BigDumbChimp
31 October 2012 at 7:24 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
So I started reading Salman Rushdie’s new autobiographical retelling of the events around The Satanic Verses (and his life), Joseph Anton: A Memior.
I’m only a little way into it but so far it’s very good.
rq
31 October 2012 at 7:29 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Rev. BigDumbChimp @498
I’d heard about the possibility of 3 more movies previously (even a couple of years ago, I think – about the period of time right after the fall of the Empire) but I don’t really trust Disney (even with Lucas at the helm, but he’s only ‘creative consultant’ at the moment).
Television series? No thanks. Too much of a good thing going bad.
Rev. BigDumbChimp
31 October 2012 at 7:31 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I don’t trust Lucas or Disney.
Just has me thinking of JarJar Binks done by Disney.
Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist
31 October 2012 at 7:37 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Jesus Christ! Don’t say things like that. Gives decent people nightmares.
rq
31 October 2012 at 7:42 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yes, don’t say things like that. Think of the children.
Rev. BigDumbChimp
31 October 2012 at 7:50 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Who should direct the new Star Wars Trillogy?
opposablethumbs
31 October 2012 at 8:02 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Extra piles of hugs today – and my admiration – to all those who are dealing with/have dealt with alcoholic or otherwise fucked up family members. Sometimes it feels like despair, sometimes things seem to repeat (with variations) from one generation to another.
Sometimes
youI try to persuade someone either to helpyoume or to accept help or to help themselves, and nothing seems to work, andyouI look atyourmy kids and worry that maybe some of the fucked-upness could repeat yet again (with variations) in the next generation andyouI knowyou’veI’m letting them down.rq
31 October 2012 at 8:12 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
You really said it, opposablethumbs. It’s the ‘letting them down’ part that gets to me
sometimesoften.AussieMike
31 October 2012 at 8:19 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Aussie scientists and science teachers getting some love. Well done guys. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-31/astronomer-to-be-honoured-at-pm27s-science-awards/4344624
AussieMike
31 October 2012 at 8:24 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
If you can, watch this very sad report from Australia’s Nightline on ABC about female genital mutilation. Very cruel and upsetting. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-29/women-speak-out-on-female-genital-mutilation-in/4340294
AshPlant
31 October 2012 at 8:35 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
MYKURL BHEY!!
AussieMike
31 October 2012 at 8:37 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh look. Millions of dead Americans are going to climb out of there graves on Election Day and vote. They’ll probably demand some welfare payments as well. You know because being dead is a real disability.
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=rQR-aSyLwNU&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DrQR-aSyLwNU%26feature%3Dyoutu.be
Thanks Glen Beck.
AussieMike
31 October 2012 at 8:43 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
As For star wars, how about Peter Jackson, Ang Lee or Scorcese.
Something dark and gritty.
opposablethumbs
31 October 2012 at 8:48 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yup, rq. It’s worse because you really are (partly) responsible for them. :(
Ogvorbis: broken and cynical
31 October 2012 at 8:52 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Without looking it up, let’s see how close I am. They are fleshy growths, usually caused by a fungus, on one’s skin. They can be be as small as 1mm or up to 15mm long and about 3mm thick. They usually do not have nerve endings in them and can be frozen off. During the middle ages, witch hunters sometimes stripped the accused and looked for skin tags — these were the places where the witch’s familiar gained nourishment and were a good way to get burned as a witch. I’d've been dead meat (well done, of course) — I have about thirty of the damn things. I get them frozen off, they come back. You can’t explain that.
Fresh asparagus wrapped in a sheet of phylo so the tips are exposed, brushed with butter and sprinkled with freshly grated Asiago and baked.
No parboiled and chilled garden peas? Heathen.
chigau (棒や石)
31 October 2012 at 8:53 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Direct the new Star Wars?
Who is going to write them?
Rev. BigDumbChimp
31 October 2012 at 9:13 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
No. Fucking. Shame.
MLK was a Republican.
Vote Republican!
rq
31 October 2012 at 9:31 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
opposablethumbs
I would argue not only partly for the first little bit of their lives, when they’re most impressionable and when it’s so sad to see them learn that life isn’t all about smiles and rainbows. I dunno, but now, seeing how happy #3 is in his little five-month oblivion, my heart is already squeezing for those moments soon to come when he will be disappointed and saddened and crushed.
And the trouble is, I won’t know if I’m guiding them right and actually helping them face their issues and be decent human beings until they’re adults, or very nearly so. Won’t know for sure, at any rate…
Josh, Official SpokesGay
31 October 2012 at 9:37 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’m going to self-immolate. New Honda for Her features pink paint and molding, plus special air-conditioning and a UV-filtering windscreen to help prevent wrinkles.
Yes, really.
Rev. BigDumbChimp
31 October 2012 at 9:42 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
All that needs is a Hello Kitty steering wheel
AussieMike
31 October 2012 at 9:45 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
They have thought of everything
If pink’s not your color, the model also comes in shades of brown and white, that Honda hopes would complement women’s eyeshadow color—
WTF.
Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist
31 October 2012 at 9:49 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Did they even put any sparkly bits in there? And they expect women to buy this shit? It needs to be pink and sparkle. Seriously, people.
JAL: Snark, Sarcasm & Bitterness
31 October 2012 at 9:50 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’m such a cynic.
Ogvorbis: broken and cynical
31 October 2012 at 9:51 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Does it come in a “My Little Pony” package? What the fuck is wrong with Honda? Do they actually expect this to sell more cars?
JAL: Snark, Sarcasm & Bitterness
31 October 2012 at 9:51 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Upgrade to the optional Edward package to get sparkles.
Nutmeg
31 October 2012 at 9:55 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Seriously? After the whole Bic for Her thing, someone still thought this would be a good idea?
(Yes, I know it must have been in the works long before the pen incident. Still, I doubt it will get a much better reception.)
chigau (棒や石)
31 October 2012 at 10:00 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I ♥ wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
31 October 2012 at 10:06 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
rq @477:
Do what..??!!
She clearly doesn’t know how destructive alcoholism can be to an individual and his or her family. It’s not a badge of honor.
Also, was she just addressing your husband or speaking in general? To say that it “…suits a man” sounds really sexist-as if either there aren’t female alcoholics or that it doesn’t suit them.
****
RevBDC:
from your link:
I’ve long wished Lucas would create some movies *NOT* focused on Han, Luke, Leia, Chewie, et al. The Star Wars universe is filled with many fantastic characters (as we’ve seen with the animated Clone Wars) and so much potential. I hope any Episode 7 is *not* a continuation of Episode 6, but rather, something new. They can slap the title Star Wars on a movie as bad as I am Legend and people will go see it.
****
JAL: Snark, Sarcasm & Bitterness
31 October 2012 at 10:06 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yeah, really not buying eyeshadow angle. I mean eye shadows come in all kinds of colors and women change them all the time. I think for women and colors the only ones that came to mind were PINK and skin color.
Bleh.
Richard Austin
31 October 2012 at 10:06 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’d just like to point out a recent SF series Disney was involved in, and we all know who directed that, right?
(No, it’ll never happen, but I think I’d rather trust Disney to handle a series like Star Wars than, say, the folks who brought us Jar Jar Binks.)
rq
31 October 2012 at 10:11 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh boy! I mean, oh girl! When can I get one? And how do I upgrade to class Edward? (Does that mean it sparkles only in sunlight, or all the time?)
Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist
31 October 2012 at 10:18 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Do cars from class Jacob have fake fur seats?
Ogvorbis: broken and cynical
31 October 2012 at 10:22 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
rq:
Wouldn’t Class Edward have scissorhands? Or am I (as usual) being culturally clueless?
Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist
31 October 2012 at 10:24 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Wrong Edward, Ogvorbis. I present you : the sparkly vampire
rq
31 October 2012 at 10:26 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tony @529
That’s what freaks me out so much. Their father – father! – is an alcoholic, and she has seen even more than my husband how destructive and ugly it can be. Very much so. And yet, and yet, and yet… I think in the intervening years, she has changed her mind somewhat, but she still can’t accept a man who enjoys his children. Even when it is her brother changing diapers with nary a complaint.
Oh and mostly, yes, it’s ok for men to be alcoholics (goes with the territory, ya know?) but not women, because women are supposed to be proper and calm and in control and responsible. That’s how it rolls over here.
rq
31 October 2012 at 10:27 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Beatrice
Faux fur, please. :P Let’s not be crass and use English, ok? (Can I get sparkly zebra stripes?)
chigau (棒や石)
31 October 2012 at 10:28 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oggie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Cullen
Ogvorbis: broken and cynical
31 October 2012 at 10:30 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Beatrice and chigau:
I plead cultural ignorance. Sorry.
Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist
31 October 2012 at 10:30 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Excuse-moi, I will try to be properly in vogue.
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
31 October 2012 at 10:31 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
rq @6:
IIRC, Lucas was thinking of the children when he created Jar Jar.
So they need to *not* think about the children-as much.
****
RevBDC:
Christopher Nolan or Joss Whedon. I lean more toward the former (even though I love Joss), because of how mind blowing and thought provoking he makes some of his movies (Inception and Memento spring to mind).
****
I’m handing out USB brownies to everyone. It seems like many have family member struggling with alcoholism. I’m so sorry for the stress that puts you all (and your families) under.
****
AshPlant @12:
Now *that’s* something that should never be uttered! M*****L B*Y seems to display as much talent as Uwe Boll.
****
chigau @17:
Meh.
Who needs a writer?
M*****L B*Y has released 3 Transformers movies, and they didn’t appear to have a writer at the helm, just a string of explosions and fights strung together with a bare bones plot, no character development and bad dialogue. Yet those movies raked in the big bucks.
****
Beatrice @23:
They’re trying to appeal to women with this sexist ad, not gay men ()
****
And the laugh of the morning goes to JAL’s comment @26!
****
From Josh’s link:
Firstly (that’s in honor of Josh), who came up with the name for this vehicle? It’s deeply dumb. Are they going to create a Honda Fit: For Gaze of Honda Fit: Just For Menz next?
Ok, the sexism just *reeks* off this ad.
In addition, why do they think that this is something only *women* would want? Depending on how effective it is, I think many men would like a windshield that blocks 99% of UV rays. I want to know how an AC system can improve skin quality.
Hah! I just got this image of a female driver and male passenger. The car wasn’t made for guys so clearly we would melt into a Wizard of Oz puddle of liquid, or spontaneously combust, or be ejected from the seat.
Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist
31 October 2012 at 10:32 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ogvorbis,
You were better off not knowing. I fondly remember the times when I knew nothing of vampires that sparkle and imprinting (shudder) and similar horrors.
Ogvorbis: broken and cynical
31 October 2012 at 10:35 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Beatrice:
Yeah. That’s the problem wit this place. I keep learning things I really ddn’t need to know. Or want to know. In addition, of course, to the really useful stuff.
Ogvorbis: broken and cynical
31 October 2012 at 10:36 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Obviously, spelling was not one of them. All Hail Tpyos!
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
31 October 2012 at 10:39 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I don’t have a green thumb-more from a lack of never having tried.
I would like to start growing a few herbs at home. Does anyone have any tips?
****
Oggie:
I have weeds and dead leaves in my garden. No peas. If I did, I’m sure even the weeds would die.
****
Ok, you folks are on a roll today. I’m laughing my ass off from rq @32 and Beatrice @33. Will you folks (and JAL) be here all week?
****
rq:
If I may, what part of the world are you in?
I thought the sexist stereotype was “women are irrational and overly emotional. Men are the level headed, responsible, rational types.” Perhaps that’s largely in the U.S.
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
31 October 2012 at 10:40 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ok, so if Honda gets Twilight, can Mazda have Buffy? Oh, and GM can have True Blood.
vaiyt
31 October 2012 at 10:42 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I would buy that Honda Fit, if it came in hot pink or rose. That shade is hideous.
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
31 October 2012 at 10:43 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Beatrice @42:
It’s going to be ok.
Just remind yourself that this is one of the rare cases where No True Scotsman can be invoked and not be a logical fallacy.
Twilight vamps aren’t real vamps.
Azkyroth, Former Growing Toaster Oven
31 October 2012 at 10:47 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Cancer doesn’t cause behavior that victimizes others. This is not a fair comparison, and it’s one that I find both incredibly irritating and rather triggering, perhaps because I’ve had it manipulatively brandished at me too many times.
Rev. BigDumbChimp
31 October 2012 at 10:53 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
When evangelicals were pro choice.
rq
31 October 2012 at 11:07 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tony @45
I tried the herb thing a little while ago, but apparently watering them once a week doesn’t do much good (especially when it’s a deluge every time). That being said, basil is hardy (still have a few surviving leaves from three years ago), rosemary is resilient (can dry it out then drown it and it will grow new shoots), but everything else dies easy. Sage, especially. This is why I like African violets. I water them close to never, when I do I overwater, and they still bloom something like 6 months of the year.
I am in Eastern Europe, yes you may ask – Latvia, to be more specific (it’s not like anyone actually knows where it is without looking it up :P). And no, I don’t speak Russian. BUT. What makes it a little different from other places is the post-Soviet and might I say Russian influence. Not that Russian women are supposed to be quiet and even-tempered, but the men definitely have the upper hand when it comes to (violent) emotionalness. The saying ‘If he doesn’t beat you, he doesn’t love you’ is more than just something to laugh about in a circle of friends (although going out of style, is true). Latvia has been routinely occupied by all kinds of forces, was a county of Russia, Sweden, a part of Germany, heck – we even had a whole Crusade come our way, once, when we were all Christianized oh so nicely (the one that went to Livonia). Since the early 90s, the country has been recovering from the Soviet occupation, with mixed (mostly, IMO, negative results). The whole idea of feminism is different here – not completely, but definitely so. It’s hard to put my finger on how, exactly, but there’s a different flavour to the women hating. Maybe because it’s a lot more insidious. Maybe because the mentality is still all about how now that we have capitalism, we ALL have it good. (Yet, oh boy, oh the opinions, oh the commentary about women, abortion, rights… Racism, homophobia, we have it all. Being in the EU has done nothing (very little) to improve the general opinion – more like an entrenchment (“We are the last bastion of morality in a dying continent!”). And yes, the government IS discussing the banning of abortion outright, because a lovely
pro-lifeanti-choice group has received funding from the US (which they deny). Anyway, that’s where I’m at right now.Back to the point. Women are supposed to pick up after the men – uphold the family, be more upstanding, drink less, party less, wear longer skirts… The low demographics are due to feminism (because men themselves couldn’t possibly be the problem, or the really low wages, or the really poor social support network…). If only women wouldn’t be educated, they wouldn’t want to get out of the house, while men would be free to drink, roam, and party to their wits’ end. So, a woman alcoholic is stepping outside of her gender-norm, because it makes her look ugly (and yes, apparently women have been placed on earth in order to look pretty for men).
What shocked me A LOT? When a friend of mine said, outright, that she believes that women were placed on earth to serve men, and those around her nodded contentedly. She is also an atheist and went way out of her way to have as non-religious a ceremony as possible.
And yes, I’ll be here all week, although I can’t guarantee that level of wit. It comes and goes, you know, like my hormones. :P Actually, I’m going to be here more regularly, though still intermittently, from now on. I’ve decided I like it here.
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
31 October 2012 at 11:17 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
RevBDC @50:
WTF?
Someone needs to circulate that to every Christian organization across the world.
Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist
31 October 2012 at 11:19 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yay!
rq
31 October 2012 at 11:27 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Beatrice
Just wait until I get settled in. ;) I’ll be plying everyone with home-made apple wine and various Latvian delicacies until you’re all sick to death of bacon, pork chops, potato salad and whipped cream pastries.
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
31 October 2012 at 11:30 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
rq:
I’m glad you like it here.
This really is a wonderful place.
What’s worse than ::headdesk::? Whatever it is, I just did that 5 times back to back.
What the hell??
Obviously your friend hasn’t analyzed her views once she became an atheist. I’m not aware of any secular reason to believe women were put on earth to serve men. AFAIK, there are only *religious* reasons. If you reject religion, you should reject that line of thought. I know it’s not easy to do, but damn, that’s just blatant religious indoctrination there.
…and this is a bad thing, why?
(this wasn’t directed at you)
broboxley OT
31 October 2012 at 11:33 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
It’s alright OG I thought the edwards reference was to a “piece of crap politician wannabee who still owes me money”
rq Latvia, isn’t that where swedes go to buy booze?
what? No Sprats?
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
31 October 2012 at 11:34 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
rq:
There are many people here that love bacon. I’m not certain you’ll reach a bacon saturation point for them.
I’m not sure how long you’ve lurked, but food is a recurring topic here. Along with recipes, knitting, adult beverages, books (especially book recommendations), tv shows & tropes, and more.
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
31 October 2012 at 11:38 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
rq:
I’m in luck then.
That’s my favorite herb!
Rev. BigDumbChimp
31 October 2012 at 11:40 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
BLASPHEMY
cicely
31 October 2012 at 11:40 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
*gag! choke! gaspgaspgaspwheeze*
Not while I’m drinking, please.
*shudder*
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O.o
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Plus, of course, thinking of the merchanidising to/for children…and Disney is all about the merchandising.
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*sigh*
Oh, bright and shining (but not sparkling; never sparkling!) days of Yesteryear!
And imprinting on a newborn isn’t creepy at all, no it isn’t! </sarcasm>
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True. If it’s functionally immortal, has supernatural powers, and sparkles, it ain’t a vampire, it’s a faery of some sort. Break out the cold iron bolts.
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Good news! :)
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rq
31 October 2012 at 11:43 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tony @55
Tony, my dear (may I?), gender-norms are THE thing here! Did you read my comment about the child in my son’s kindergarten who wants to play with dolls? Well. Boys don’t do that, don’t you know. Just like girls don’t run around, they sit quietly still, even at the park.
Girls need dolls because they’re natural mothers, boys need cars because they need to learn to drive fast (and also while drunk, but that’s unofficial). (Aside: If girls are natural mothers, yet society wants better fathers, why aren’t boys trained with dolls and prams, since they’re the ones who need the practice…?)
As for those outside of gender norms: If you’re gay, you’re automatically a pedophile; if you’re trans-gender (what’s the proper way to say that?) of any kind, you’re just sick; if you’re a woman who likes to work but doesn’t want kids, you’re a freak of nature; if you’re a woman with kids who would rather work, you’re a horrible, horrible mother; if you’re a woman with no kids and no boyfriend, you’re obviously doing your life wrong (and probably ugly, too)… I could go on, but I’m getting upset, and anyway, it’s the same list brought out everywhere, that people here have no doubt heard from end to end several times. And yet here, these are the prevailing views, the ones in government, the ones on the streets. Of course, if you asked everyday people, they’d have the ‘proper’ response of, Well, I don’t mind gays, as long as they don’t hit on me. Which means, of course, that they’re so not discriminating.
Please read all of the above with a lot of sarcasm. I try to break the gender-norms that I can, and I hope all of my boys will, too. Mostly I do that by being blase about leaving my Husband alone with the kids some evenings *GASP*. People honestly wonder how he deals with them. I tell them he’s a father, not a random donor. And he likes it. And that I don’t like being the caring one as much as he does. I don’t think they believe me.
And I think it’s the post-Soviet atheism – where god didn’t exist because Communism, but there was no alternate world-view of men and women on equal footing presented – just the same old models, without god. But with Communism (you know, ‘Women serve Communism by giving birth to good little Communists!’). I think. I haven’t done any research; I think it would be painful. Horribly, horribly, headdeskingly and facepalmingly and beyond painful.
cicely
31 October 2012 at 11:44 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Mash-up:
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rq
31 October 2012 at 11:46 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
broboxley
I’m a heathen-Latvian; I don’t like sprats. That being said, I can inflict them on the rest of you in the blink of an eye. And you’re right about the Swedes. Now I’m wondering, did you already know that, or is Wikipedia up-to-date on the drinking habits of Swedes?
Rev. BigDumbChimp
Blasphemy? I do that well.
Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist
31 October 2012 at 11:47 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
rq,
Never!
You remind me, I haven’t made potato salad in a while.
rq
31 October 2012 at 11:48 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Very nice, cicely , very nice indeed! Can I have a song-and-dance with that?
rq
31 October 2012 at 11:49 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Beatrice
That’s a never on the plying or the sick-to-death?
Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist
31 October 2012 at 11:50 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
rq,
On the sick to death. Sorry, I wasn’t clear.
rq
31 October 2012 at 11:56 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
It’s too bad the Husband’s grandma no longer keeps pigs, because when she did, they made their own bacon – home-smoked and salted and delicious. Duh-LISH-usssss…
Rev. BigDumbChimp
31 October 2012 at 12:01 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
yes
broboxley OT
31 October 2012 at 12:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
rq
I try to keep up with geohabits in different spots and I love sprats, especially these
http://parthenonfoods.com/smoked-riga-sprats-160g-p-258.html
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
31 October 2012 at 12:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
cicely @62:
I was all set to say “Hey, don’t mash-up my bacon with rosemary”, until I realized that might taste good…
rq
31 October 2012 at 12:07 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Rev. BigDumbChimp
Yes, like that, but we do it in here . Yes, we cleanse our bacon. Slightly different process, same location.
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
31 October 2012 at 12:07 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
what the frackin’ frack are sprats
::too lazy to peform Wiki-Foo::
cicely
31 October 2012 at 12:08 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Why, certainly, rq!
*producing and handing over Song Inna Bucket™, all the while lurch-stepping with Unnatural Rhythm™*
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rq
31 October 2012 at 12:09 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
broboxley
Funny thing, my antivirus just blocked that site because it has potentially dangerous content.
And alas, the Riga sprats were bought out by a company based in Russia, if I remember correctly. Just like our herbal remedy for everything .
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
31 October 2012 at 12:10 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
rq (from your link @72):
I’m not seeing the appeal of this. The rest of it sounds wonderful.
rq
31 October 2012 at 12:10 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thank you, cicely . Love it.
And Tony , sprats are little fishies kind of like sardines but not.
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
31 October 2012 at 12:12 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Nevermind.
I engaged my Wiki Foo.
Sprats look similar to mackerel or sardines!
Sounds yummy in my tummy!
Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist
31 October 2012 at 12:13 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
*searches for sprats on wikipedia*
Ooooh, you mean papaline. I like those.
Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist
31 October 2012 at 12:14 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tony,
Very similar to sardines, yes.
rq
31 October 2012 at 12:14 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh and I forgot – here’s the potted flower for your efforts, cicely !
Tony
Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. :) It’s like a massage – a very interesting, unique, sort of massage, but it has to be done right. The word for it in Latvian is actually the equivalent of spanking, not swatting. Most would argue that the whole point of the sauna is the spanking part – techniques very from hard to light, with honey and without, with salt and without, in steam or not… Call it a beautification process. Supposedly it does wonders for the skin and circulation.
thunk, Blob Alert!
31 October 2012 at 12:16 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hia all. *pokes people*
Oh, all the hugs and USB brownies for people affected by diseases and natural disasters.
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
31 October 2012 at 12:17 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Beatrice @79:
I read palpaline as ‘Palpatine’…
thunk, Blob Alert!
31 October 2012 at 12:18 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh yum. They’re delicious; I still have fond memories of eating them. Until I bit into one and discovered caviar. No thanks. The ones without are fine.
rq
31 October 2012 at 12:19 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The ones with the caviar are supposed to be the best ones. But it’s the reason I don’t like them. Don’t like caviar; don’t like fish with surprise caviar inside them.
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
31 October 2012 at 12:19 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
rq:
I began learning how to communicate with a partner several years ago. Let’s just say I don’t like spanking in *any* context, and the next day, I informed him of that (plus he like to scratch-hard- and I don’t like that either). To his credit, he never did either one again.
I’m thinking I wouldn’t like spanking in a sauna either.
Rey Fox
31 October 2012 at 12:20 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I was under the impression that regular glass filtered out UV enough.
thunk, Blob Alert!
31 October 2012 at 12:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
One of my family friends has a sauna. I’ve never actually been in one though, unlike the rest of my family.
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
31 October 2012 at 12:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
re: Riga
I might try that (if I can ever find it and have money to buy it). I’m a little wary given the ingredients, but I love Vodka.
rq
31 October 2012 at 12:24 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tony
Ah, I see. In that case, the steam may be enjoyed in peace and quiet. :)
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
31 October 2012 at 12:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
thunk:
I like saunas. I’ve been in both a wet and a dry sauna (the YMCA has both). I prefer the wet sauna as the dry one feels too intense. In the wet sauna, you still get the heat, but the mist feels refreshing. I don’t recommend either if you have problems breathing.
rq
31 October 2012 at 12:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tony
If you do try the Balzams (I think it’s available some places in the US), get the black-currant flavoured one. The regular flavour is atrocious, but good for colds and coughs (in small doses). Only the hard-core patriots drink it straight, and even then, most of them fake it. But the black-currant flavoured one is amazing.
Richard Austin
31 October 2012 at 12:27 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Rey:
Normal glass doesn’t block UV; things like car windows and even home windows are often treated with a coating to do so, but I think “plain” glass offers minimal blocking.
Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist
31 October 2012 at 12:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I don’t like surprise caviar either, so I usually clean all but the littlest fish.
—
Sauna sounds like something I would enjoy for the peace and quiet. Being in there by myself would probably be a requirement.
rq
31 October 2012 at 12:33 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
That’s the best way to enjoy it in my opinion, as well. Not in a crowd.
And on that happy note, I bow out for the night – my quiet time has come to an end and I must return to the noise and activity of the family returning. A good night to everyone and best wishes all around to those who need them and want them – hugs included.
Thank you for talking. I am grateful for being heard and having a chance to express some things that have been on my mind for a while. Thank you all and once again good night.
cicely
31 October 2012 at 12:34 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thank you, rq; I will treasure it always.
And for you, a flowered pot.
-
chigau (棒や石)
31 October 2012 at 12:35 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hi thunk.
rq
31 October 2012 at 12:40 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh the wit is just flying as I walk out the door (@ cicely ). :) Thank you! And a calm, floaty, paranoid evening, to you too (I AM allergic to the stuff).
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
31 October 2012 at 12:43 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Beatrice:
If you’ve never been in one, yes, they are quite peaceful and relaxing. I’ve only been in a sauna a few times when it wasn’t quiet. Oddly enough, at the YMCA, some people want to chit chat while you’re trying to relax in a sauna. Even more funny-the last trip M and I went on before he died, we went to a gay Bath House in Orlando. I liked the wet saunas they had and frequently wandered into them to relax. They were *very* quiet (and occasionally populous), which was eerie given that I know what *some* people were doing…
Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist
31 October 2012 at 12:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
rq,
Wait a moment, what was that thing you needed us to click until midnight?
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
31 October 2012 at 12:46 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
rq:
You’re more than welcome. Anytime you need to chat, you’re sure to have several ears listening.
I hope you and yours have a good night.
cicely
31 October 2012 at 12:51 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hey, me too! I never make it to a “calm, floaty, paranoid” state, though; the “eyes and sinuses swelled shut” stage gets me every time.
-
rq
31 October 2012 at 12:54 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Beatrice
I need masses and masses of people in Europe, though. Doesn’t work in the States.
Here’s the rundown, though.
Go here , and on the right-hand side, find your country in the list (Vācija = Germany, Horvātija = Croatia, Apvienotā Karaliste = UK, Krievija = Russia, Igaunija = Estonia, Somija = Finland, the rest are more or less figure-outable), then enter your cell number, and once you receive a text message with an alphanumerical code, enter it into the new space provided and hit ‘Balsot!’.
You’ll be helping my choir get to new concert regalia (ok, just regular old nice dresses but new and shiny).
We’ll be going to Canada in 2014 for the Latvian Song and Dance Festival there (everyone’s welcome!).
But like I said, I need masses and masses of votes and there are only 4 hours left. We’re currently 6th and behind by 700+ votes; we need to make the top 5. Anyone willing, please help; if not, well, it’s not like we’re ahead anyway! :) Good night, and thanks in advance for this, too!!
And I will definitely be back to chat to the several listening ears. :) *smiles all around*
Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist
31 October 2012 at 12:56 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tony,
Nope, I’ve never been to a sauna. I doubt I would be comfortable with semi-naked strangers there with me. I’m too self-conscious and paranoid for that.
Even being there alone would probably make me paranoid about touching something that somebody’s naked ass touched before. But I’m weird like that (in the locker rooms in high school, I would never sit on the bench in my underwear, like others did, because that’s just gross)
Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist
31 October 2012 at 1:00 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I might be an idiot, but I can’t find Croatia (Horvātija) on the list. :/
Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist
31 October 2012 at 1:02 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
… I assume it needs to be the right country because of the country code
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
31 October 2012 at 1:07 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Beatrice:
Many people use towels to cover themselves in a sauna. I don’t like being naked in them either, so I towel up.
Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist
31 October 2012 at 1:12 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
But there’s ASV (USA) on the list.
*confused*
rq
31 October 2012 at 1:14 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Beatrice – yes, precisely…And you’re right, it doesn’t seem to be there. Croatia isn’t yet in the EU – the snobs. That’s why it’s not on the list. :/
Portia
31 October 2012 at 1:15 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Judge in Trayvon Martin Case Refuses to Ban Defense Lawyer’s Blog and Comments
rq
31 October 2012 at 1:15 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
That’s the weird bit, and it won’t work from the US. That’s been tried and tested. :( It confuses me, too. Considering the US isn’t a part of the EU, either. Oh well, thanks for trying, at any rate! If you just want to hear the choir, try here , playlist on the right. Thanks for trying!
Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist
31 October 2012 at 1:16 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
rq,
Sorry I can’t help!
broboxley OT
31 October 2012 at 1:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
me too
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjrthOPLAKM?feature=player_embedded&w=640&h=360
Giliell, Approved Straight Chorus
31 October 2012 at 1:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Good evening
*yawn*
After a massive tantrum by the little one we made it to the zoo for Halloween, pictures will follow.
Azkyroth
No, it doesn’t. But alcoholism does. It’s part of the symptoms and that’s actually why I don’t consider drugs to be solely a question of bodily autonomy.
Ogvorbis: broken and cynical
31 October 2012 at 1:33 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Wegmans (where else?) carries an unsmoked, fully cooked Italian ham in the deli which is flavoured with rosemary. It is fantastic. I bet bacon cured with rosemary would be good, too.
Small human beings. Usually, but not exclusively, male. Archaic usage (my childhood memory).
Must not be the steam I am used to. Ours is loud. And smelly.
Janine: Hallucinating Liar
31 October 2012 at 1:46 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Eli Manning Looking At Things
I feel so wrong for laughing.
broboxley OT
31 October 2012 at 1:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
well said
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/michael-ignatieffs-timely-warning-on-the-politics-of-fascism/article4753299/
Janine: Hallucinating Liar
31 October 2012 at 2:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Behold!
The Anus Dagger!
Giliell, Approved Straight Chorus
31 October 2012 at 2:40 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Wait, there was a total of 3 kids trick or treating. What do I do with all the candy?
rq
Anecdotal evidence from my neighbourhood confirms your observations about men, women and alcohol for some parts of the Russian-German community here as well.
No, I’m not saying that the “German German” community is much better, only different shitty attitudes (actually in terms of “nice, clean and friendly” I would say the Russian German community wins hands down. Largely because the women care a lot)
Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist
31 October 2012 at 2:42 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
That was rhetorical, right?
Janine: Hallucinating Liar
31 October 2012 at 2:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The Most Stupid Man In The House Has Spoken!
Stephen King has never been as terrifying as Steve King. And enough people like him well enough to keep him in office.
chigau (棒や石)
31 October 2012 at 2:48 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I bought 150 little chocolate bars.
It is -10°C.
I expect to be eating 140 of them.
Giliell, Approved Straight Chorus
31 October 2012 at 2:50 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
At that temperatures you’ll need the calories
Giliell, Approved Straight Chorus
31 October 2012 at 3:16 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
So, here’s of our Halloween costumes
a_ray_in_dilbert_space
31 October 2012 at 3:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Greetings Threadlians,
Useles News and World Retort needs some help remembering that reality is not determined by the results of a poll.
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2012/10/30/was-hurricane-sandy-caused-by-global-warming
opposablethumbs
31 October 2012 at 3:49 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Such cool bats and spiders, Giliell! They’re great (I especially love the black-on-black bat – stunning).
ImaginesABeach
31 October 2012 at 3:56 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Giliell – both are great, but I really like the spider on your little witch’s head.
Ing:Intellectual Terrorist "Starting Tonight, People will Whine"
31 October 2012 at 4:43 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Were ok. 48+ hours without power though with no clear end. Food has all spoiled :(
Nutmeg
31 October 2012 at 4:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
This thesis would be a lot easier if someone would just build a time machine already.
/evolution student problems
broboxley OT
31 October 2012 at 5:04 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ing, ouch, do you any insurance that covers that?
rq
31 October 2012 at 5:12 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Giliell
Excellent costumes!!! Love the spiders, and the bat is superb.
Rev. BigDumbChimp
31 October 2012 at 5:18 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
It was costume day at work today. I’m trying hard to keep my “someone who gives a shit” costume on, but it is getting itchy.
chigau (棒や石)
31 October 2012 at 5:19 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hi Ing!
Glad you’re OK even though dark and cold.
chigau (棒や石)
31 October 2012 at 5:24 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Rev.
Do up the zipper.
Janine: Hallucinating Liar
31 October 2012 at 5:26 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Just what the people left without power because of Sandy needs, fools talking about god. People who are supplying emergency generators so people can change their phones are doing an infinite amount more good that some one out to spread their religion.
ednaz
31 October 2012 at 6:22 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Rev. BigDumbChimp @ 498
I enjoyed Star Wars (the first three, er, I mean episodes IV, V and VI) but I thought it was funny that after 6 movies they still were missing 20 years. We see Luke and Leia being born – next thing you know they’re a young man and a young woman. (???)
Still fun, though.
New movies? Hopefully about new characters. : )
ednaz
31 October 2012 at 6:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
rq @51
This is very cool. : )
ednaz
31 October 2012 at 6:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ing – Very glad to hear you’re o.k.
And sorry to hear about your power and food situation. Wish I could do more than send hugs. : (
ednaz
31 October 2012 at 6:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Horde Parents One and All –
Sending big hugs and nothing but the utmost respect for all the parents invested in their children’s lives. I am so proud and so impressed to be in the company of such a fine caliber of people.
More hugs.
broboxley OT
31 October 2012 at 6:42 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sandy wasn’t global warming
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4299880,00.html
ednaz
31 October 2012 at 6:43 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze– @ 439
Yes. THIS. 100%.
ednaz
31 October 2012 at 6:46 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Giliell @ 123 – What sweet pictures! Thank You for sharing them. : )
Portia
31 October 2012 at 6:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Cute costumes Giliell!
I’m having fun shoveling candy into the total of 8 trick or treaters I’ve seen. That last one got chastised for taking too much because I don’t think Mom could hear me telling the little vampire to take more and more.
On the Star Wars note, a Stormtrooper has been the only kid to decline my encouragement to take handfuls, demurring with “I can only take one” Maybe his parents want him to walk further for his candy. Or just be polite and not take too much.
opposablethumbs
31 October 2012 at 7:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
This house is one that full-grown and hard-bitten adults hesitate to approach after dark, because it is … The Spooky House (bwahahaha). Srsly, no trick-or-treaters ever dare come up here.
broboxley OT
31 October 2012 at 7:38 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
one barely old enough to walk gorgeous red devil in a red dress. Thats it so far. Most of the kids around here have graduated highschool
chigau (棒や石)
31 October 2012 at 7:48 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
One 10ish clown-like creature with mother.
It’s warmed up to -8°C.
Menyambal --- Sambal's Little Helper
31 October 2012 at 7:51 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Here’s a Halloween treat for you—Eric Idle has redone the Galaxy song with biology, better astronomy, and Brian Cox.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/31/eric_idle_brian_cox_galaxy_cox/ is where I read about it.
http://www.nerdist.com/2012/10/eric-idle-on-galaxy-song-the-new-biological-version/ has Eric Idle’s story and the lyrics.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5WaLqcRmCIWZm10LTNNZ0NMbk0/edit?pli=1 is the vid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpROxIq0Tec is the YouTube version of the vid.
It is beautiful.
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
31 October 2012 at 8:18 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
broboxley:
Well duh.
Everyone knows God sent Sandy because of The Gayz.
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls
31 October 2012 at 8:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yesterday the Redhead ran an experiment. She had a friend take her on the commuter train (Metra) into Chitown, and they took in the opera Electra at the Lyric. I drove into the city to pick them up afterwards. Success, except her friend had a bag containing her vote by mail ballot stolen while noshing sammiches I made at the OTC. The next two operas have now been exchanged for handicapped “seating” (end of row seat taken out making room for a wheelchair). The downside is that I can no longer go directly to bed when we get home, and have to get her to bed first. Some assembly required, as they say.
chigau (棒や石)
31 October 2012 at 8:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Two bigguns collecting for the Campus Food Bank.
They got a 12-pack of KD.
AJ Milne
31 October 2012 at 8:38 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Approx. 50 kids here, guessing from candy stock depletion.
We’ve lots left. It’s always so hard to call. We’re in this weird spot: nearby blocks where people just go all out–mad decorations, streets take on this carnival atmosphere. We’re a slightly quieter block, sometimes I think we get overflow from the carnival, sometimes we don’t.
It’s a bit scary, seriously, how much some of ‘em do though. When did this become a thing, anyway? Smoke machines, sound systems, animatronic skeletons rattling their chains. Last year, someone had a live band trying to look goth on their lawn. And there’s these places just seem to go for volume. Cover the lawn in ghouls and orange lights.
Fun, though, I guess. I’m not complaining. Even my seven year old is less than focused on the candy. It’s more: let’s go here; this place looks sufficiently awesome.
Me, I tried to do a kinda tasteful (by this holiday’s standards, anyway) gothic-tinted graveyard this year. Tombstones, cobwebs, candles, antique lanterns. And, okay, a skeleton with a pulsating, glowing skull, digging itself out of one grave…
Kids liked it. But the little guy figures it needs sound.Possibly something motion-activated, he figures…
I guess I could be talked into that…
I’m drawing the line at animatronics, though.
ednaz
31 October 2012 at 8:40 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hooray for Redhead’s successful experiment!
One tiny Batman perched on his dad’s shoulders showed up at my door tonight. He was so cute! Success!
Chigau – What’s a 12 pack of KD?
FossilFishy (Νεοπτόλεμος's spellchecker)
31 October 2012 at 8:44 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Love the costumes Giliell.
Here’s the Small Fry in her first door-to-door Halloween adventure.
Cuteness courtesy of her mum. The spiders are of course redbacks. The handmade fairy dress was bought last year. Friends of ours who own a toy store wanted kids to model them in a parade. The incentive was that they would sell the dress to us at cost after the event.
Trick or treating partners in lollies. Note the sandals.
This is what trick or treating looks like in small town Australia. The witch is the mother of Batman. Like many a new convert she’s pretty keen on her new-found holiday.
I have to admit that over and above the novelty being the parent in this situation I found it strange indeed to be wearing shorts and sweating whilst collecting the candied goodness.
chigau (棒や石)
31 October 2012 at 8:47 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Four high-school? girls collecting for themselves.
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
31 October 2012 at 8:51 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I swear this oath:
****
I got to speak briefly with a co-worker tonight who made a comment about his Hyundai Santa Fe being girly. I told him there’s nothing masculine *or* feminine about a vehicle and even if there were, there’s nothing wrong with femininity. I also told him it was sexist to make that statement. He didn’t have much to say.
broboxley OT
31 October 2012 at 8:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
#148 Tony
couldn’t be. Iran has assured us that they don’t have teh gayz
chigau (棒や石)
31 October 2012 at 8:56 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
ednaz
behold!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraft_Dinner
broboxley OT
31 October 2012 at 8:56 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
mind blowing, I love their commercials
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVvc_0YY0uM?feature=player_detailpage&w=640&h=360
broboxley OT
31 October 2012 at 9:22 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
#157 a co-worker was describing a drive thru new jersey when he passed thru an area that he was convinced a mustard gas was being released. He was scared, gagging and choking and after he got thru the miasma he stopped at a gas station so they could call the authorities. He was informed that it was Thursday, the day kraft cooked up a fresh batch of “cheese” for that product.
broboxley OT
31 October 2012 at 9:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
#155 beg to disagree. Cars are always feminine. You ever hear someone call their car “Bob”? Yes he was being sexist in describing it as girlie. My wife doesn’t like the new pickups because they look feminine, she prefers the looks of our old 85 as it looks manly. Even if it looks manly I still call the pickup “old girl”
Jessa
31 October 2012 at 9:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
chigau:
I remember when, back in grad school, I would be thrilled with that because it would mean food for the week. I don’t miss those times.
cicely
31 October 2012 at 9:44 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ah, the bad old days—no jobs, a newborn Son, and nothing but generic mac&cheese and vienna sausages on our menu.
-
ednaz
31 October 2012 at 9:49 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
chigau – O.K. *thumbsup* Also, left several bottles of Rum on the counter.
ednaz
31 October 2012 at 9:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze– @155
Good for You, Tony! And good for all of us.
FossilFishy (Νεοπτόλεμος's spellchecker)
31 October 2012 at 9:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Nope. But the first car I drove that wasn’t parental or driving school owned was a 70′s VW Bug with a sticky clutch called Hans. Absolute statements are often wrong, who knew?
ednaz
31 October 2012 at 9:56 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
FossilFishy @ 153
Adorable trick-or-treaters and impressive costumes!
chigau (棒や石)
31 October 2012 at 9:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
broboxley #159
That is hilarious!
—
I once saw a neighbour leave his dwelling and walk down the street eating a styrofoam bowl of microwave KD.
It was about 10°C and raining. He was wearing shorts, sandals and a nice warm hoody.
I concluded he was an engineering student on his way to the nearby University.
FossilFishy (Νεοπτόλεμος's spellchecker)
31 October 2012 at 10:00 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
ednaz, aren’t they though? I’ve no idea where the boys got theirs, Halloween still isn’t much of a thing here.
ednaz
31 October 2012 at 10:04 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
In the late 80′s my folks bought an older powder blue station wagon. The owner made sure to tell us the car’s name was ‘Bucky’.
Bucky had been parked for years and backfired – much to the mortification of his teenage drivers. : )
FossilFishy (Νεοπτόλεμος's spellchecker)
31 October 2012 at 10:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Another moment in my ongoing “Where am I, and how did get here?” file: At one point during the trick-or-treating we wanted to cross an overgrown lot. I was sent ahead to scare any lurking snakes away. It’s moments like that that make Canada and my youth seem very far away indeed.
FossilFishy (Νεοπτόλεμος's spellchecker)
31 October 2012 at 10:08 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Best car name: an eighties Ford panel van that had gone through several small level touring bands: Muffy the Highway Slayer.
Mattir
31 October 2012 at 10:16 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Happy Halloween to me – this evening I managed to get struck hard, by the classic array of flu symptoms, including a lovely fever and all over achiness. And because I know too many people from Pharyngula, my auto-diagnosis was promptly endorsed by an actual virologist. So now I’m too miserable to spin, knit, read anything beyond the most trivial, or straighten up after the hurricane prep from Friday and Saturday, Also not particularly sleepy, so commenting on blogs and FB it is…
/whine
ednaz
31 October 2012 at 10:17 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Links to a chart showing Halloween Celebration Around the World.
http://chartsbin.com/view/5vy
broboxley OT
31 October 2012 at 10:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
#165 can we call exception makes the rule? I had a 1965 vw camper bus called maude in 1986. Lived in it for 8 months or so. Wished I had one just like it. I would run away from home.
ednaz
31 October 2012 at 10:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Mattir – I am sending warm slippers, hot tea and very gentle hugs (if you want them).
ednaz
31 October 2012 at 10:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
FossilFishy – ‘Muffy the Highway Slayer’ – Hee hee. : )
Thanks for sharing about Halloween in Australia. It’s fun to learn.
chigau (棒や石)
31 October 2012 at 10:38 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Mattir
I’ll add some Rum.
ednaz left me some.
FossilFishy (Νεοπτόλεμος's spellchecker)
31 October 2012 at 10:40 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
broboxley: “Exception that proves the rule”, “Special pleading”, however you want to pronounce it I suppose. ;)
Mattir: Soothing balms and a sound sleep heading your way via the intertoobs.
Menyambal --- Sambal's Little Helper
31 October 2012 at 11:13 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’ve never regarded automobiles as gendered, except when using the phrase, “Fill ‘er up”, which I haven’t ever said, now that I think of it.
I hid from Halloween. Today I went to fill out a job application, after fighting the computer for a printout of my resume, and wound up doing an interview with the owner of the biz. I think I did well, and parts of the job sound excellent, but it left me exhausted.
So I gave the girl cat a flea bath, and took the boy cat into the bathroom, then just let him go—lucky for me, he says.
Kraft dinner? Ew. I used to make boxed mac-n-cheese when I was on bicycle trips, using my little camp stove, then I decided to just buy a loaf of bread and a chunk of cheese, instead. It was a lot less work, and even a sweaty, greasy lump of unrefrigerated cheese was better than the powdery stuff. (Now I’m off cheese for digestive reasons, and tend to just buy canned chili with beans and eat it cold—still better than KD.) (When I do eat home-made mac-n-cheese, I like to put Worcestershire sauce on it, and that’s the only time I use it.)
The kids are home, still in costume and looking cute …
Azkyroth, Former Growing Toaster Oven
1 November 2012 at 12:27 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’m currently driving the first car I didn’t.
chigau (棒や石)
1 November 2012 at 12:48 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Now that there is worthy of being a Zen koan.
Alethea H. "Crocoduck" Dundee
1 November 2012 at 2:03 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I knew someone back in college who called his VW “Ringo”.
Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist
1 November 2012 at 2:50 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Word car is of masculine gender here, so cars are a “he” unless stated otherwise by someone who gave them a feminine name. But I don’t know anyone who’s named their car. It’s a car.
(But Muffy the Highway Slayer is an awesome name for a car.)
rq
1 November 2012 at 3:02 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Good morning all.
Interesting – cars are feminine here, but they don’t get named.
When I was younger, we had a giant Chevy Caprice in a pinkish-beige colour, basically a tank and so much fun to drive (the feelings of invincibility). My older brother named it Christine. Yes, after the Stephen King book.
StevoR
1 November 2012 at 3:21 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Not sure if this has been posted here already but worth a look :
http://www.whiteribbon.org.au/heymate
Via Ophelia Benson’s “You’re all a of bunch of feminists!”thread :
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/10/youre-all-a-of-bunch-of-feminists/
And it is.
Giliell, Approved Straight Chorus
1 November 2012 at 3:58 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Good morning
Thanks for the compliments. The bat turned out way more elegant than expected, given that it’s acetate lining fabric found in my stock…
I didn’t take the kids trick or treating so far because after the Halloween at the Zoo they’re usually just tired. The little one fell asleep in the car. What was really cool there was a kid dresed up as a ghost. While the costume itself wasn’r spectacular, xie wore those shoes with rolls integrated so xie looked really like floating over the ground.
Portia
On the Star Wars note, a Stormtrooper has been the only kid to decline my encouragement to take handfuls, demurring with “I can only take one” Maybe his parents want him to walk further for his candy. Or just be polite and not take too much.
Or just reduce the total amount of candy. I know I threw away the last of the carnival candy last month.
Fossil Fishy
Cuuuuute.
I see that Halloween in Australia definetly has advantages. Mine wore 3 shirts on top of each other and tights and trousers.
broboxly
Not Bob, but the majority of our cars had male names.
Mattir
Ouch, I’m sorry. hope you get well soon.
Ing
Glad to hear you’re OK, sorry about the food
opposablethumbs
1 November 2012 at 4:28 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
RIP Maurice the Morris Minor (deceased).
.
FossilFishy, I have to say your small relative looks awesome. I swear her expression conveys “naturally I will not be taking anything you say as incontrovertible fact unless accompanied by hard evidence; I am open to argument” ;-D
mildlymagnificent
1 November 2012 at 5:48 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’m afraid we call our car ‘Mary’. Unfortunately, because it has a turning circle of the same dimensions as the Queen Mary.
Never even heard of it when I was a kid. Our kids never got into it. It’s only been much of a thing here for kids for the last 10 years or so, even though adults already knew that it was something American in horror films and not much more. (And a lot of people of my generation, or older, would snort something about US cultural imperialism if you pushed them too hard.)
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
1 November 2012 at 7:00 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I love writing. I love writing interesting characters with realistic stories that make my novels more interesting.
Like the transgender gnollen woman – Tala – who was kicked out of her home by her parents because she was a woman and yet had the body of a male of her species. Who has been taking an herbal remedy that causes the same effects as HRT. Who is the owner of a tea cafe which makes awesome sandwiches and usually has one or two guards eating and drinking on their breaks so she has some safety from assholes.
Or the Wivverin woman who lives a life without education, under the iron fist of her very abusive husband, because he subscribes to a culture that considers women to be subservient to men, disallowed from achieving an education, and forced to stay at home according to the wishes of her husband – because it’s for her own protection of course.
rq
1 November 2012 at 7:05 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
mildlymagnificent
I laughed. About the car, that is.
Growing up in rural Canada, Halloween was the usual tedious three-house stop with the neighbouring kids for the first few years (yesss, looooots of candy…), and then, when development moved in, a few more houses, but it never FELT like a big thing. Just the pumpkins, and later, wreaking havoc on the golf course and being chased off of it by security guards in golf buggies. Ah, the memories.
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
1 November 2012 at 7:10 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Wups. Yes, the Wivverin woman has a name. It’s Farah.
Menyambal --- Sambal's Little Helper
1 November 2012 at 7:19 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My mom had a huge station wagon that we called “the barge”.
Dad had a big car that my sisters sometimes called “Wretched Excess”.
rq
1 November 2012 at 7:22 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Katherine
How can I read more?
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
1 November 2012 at 7:28 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@rq:
Travel forward in time most likely to late 2013 and pick up the book “Millennium” by , most likely in the Kindle marketplace.
rq
1 November 2012 at 7:28 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh and Tony @41 re: Jar Jar Binks
Oddly enough, the original (and still the best) Star Wars movies are actually more child-friendly, even without the so-called help of Jar Jar Binks.
We just finished showing all 6 movies to the young ones. The new 3 were hard for them, a bit heavy on dialogue and backroom politics, and the whole mother-love-loss-dark angle went right over their little heads. We even cut the 3rd movie short because once Palpatine grows old in the space of seconds, he and Anakin get pretty terrifying for the 6-and-under crowd. (The eldest was scared of Gandalf for the longest time simply because he is old. Yes, we’re working on it.)
BUT once we turned on Episode 4 (the Husband insisted we watch them in the ‘real’ order, even though I said it would be better to watch the old ones first – from a kinder, gentler era), the kids were back into it. Even all the other monsters like Jabba and Darth Vader himself weren’t nearly as evil and threatening. And ewoks were the final straw – the old ones were definitely better than the new ones. :) I was QUITE pleased with that opinion.
(Sorry missed this part of your post yesterday.)
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
1 November 2012 at 7:29 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
That is, *by [insert real name here]. Stupid angle brackets.
rq
1 November 2012 at 7:30 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Katherine
I’m on my way. One day at a time.
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
1 November 2012 at 7:39 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@rq:
I’ve also introduced a middle-aged lesbian couple of a species that is, for lack of better phrase, a hyperactive, scientifically minded, obsessive, steampunk race of draconic humanoids. Aaand I also have an asexual, female elf who is not at all your typical “I’m a woman so my purpose in this story is to have sex with the main character” and is one of the best fighters in the story.
Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist
1 November 2012 at 7:48 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Katherine,
The way PZ’s book is going, yours might be out before his. :P
Since you probably wouldn’t want to share the name you use in meatspace here, I hope you’ll “recommend” your book when it’s out, or in some other way nudge us in the right direction.
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
1 November 2012 at 7:55 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@Beatrice:
Yea. That’s probably what I’ll do. I doubt I’ll have transitioned enough by the time I publish the book to go by the name Katherine Lorraine (I may include that name in the by-line anyway? So “by [meatspace name] and Katherine Lorraine”) When I do transition to that point, I can just drop the “by [meatspace name]” part of it.
It will definitely be titled “Millennium” though. I have no doubts about that part of it.
rq
1 November 2012 at 7:59 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I agree with Beatrice, nudge.
You have me intrigued with all those characters.
What’s PZ’s book about (fact or fiction)?
Matt Penfold
1 November 2012 at 8:05 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
It is non-fiction.
From the Amazon UK blurb:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Happy-Atheist-Dancing-Graves/dp/0307379345/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1351775014&sr=8-2
broboxley OT
1 November 2012 at 8:06 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Today’s WTF
(7.8 inches) is the correct measurement
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/chinese-university-beauty-pageant-organizers-mandate-contestants-nipples-7-8-inches-article-1.1154271
I am looking at a ruler in puzzlement
rq
1 November 2012 at 8:11 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Eh?
Rawnaeris, FREEZE PEACHES
1 November 2012 at 8:16 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My dad has always named his cars. The first one I remember was a 1987 mustang named Mean Mr. Mustang, then several years later he got a 2003 Mini Cooper, it was Mongo, then a yellow Mini that was Queso.
I didn’t name my first car, but my current one is a Hyundai Genesis named Eve.
Ogvorbis: broken and cynical
1 November 2012 at 8:19 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Gilliel and fossilfishy:
Cute kids and costumes.
Amazing. My 1970 VW Microbus Transporter (Der Bussenwagen (I know it is fractured non-German, no need to tell me.)) was named Hans. Had a four-speed manual but, once you were out of first gear, you could shift, sans clutch, by watching the engine rpms.
Wife and I’s first car (she was still protoWife at the time, but we chose the car together) was a Subaru wagon. I think her name was Janice.
Broboxley:
Gave me, and my coworker, our first what-the-fuck of the day.
carlie
1 November 2012 at 9:21 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
It just hit me that I’ve been in my current job longer than I’ve ever been anywhere else, even counting all schools and other places of living.
I feel weird.
chigau (棒や石)
1 November 2012 at 9:31 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
carlie
You’re all grown up now.
It’s all downhill from here.
(kidding)
carlie
1 November 2012 at 9:32 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
on the WTF – I assume that what they really were going after was a minimum cup size, but didn’t want to seem quite so crass. The larger the hemispheres they’re on, the further apart they’ll be.
rq
1 November 2012 at 9:45 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
This way is even crasser.
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
1 November 2012 at 9:47 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Janine:
I believe I am scarred for life thanks to viewing the Anus Dagger (which was a bit too blunt to be a dagger).
I hold you responsible.
I wonder if they make companion pieces for other body parts…
****
Beatrice @183:
I’ve only heard people refer to their vehicles as “she”, never “he”. And I’ve heard that *a lot*.
****
Katherine @189:
How’s your book coming along?
****
rq @195:
I beg thee-please stop.
The thought of Ewoks is horrible.
Worse still coming on the heels of Jar Jar talk.
I cannot stop the thoughts percolating in my mind. They must come out. I. Must. Share. The. Torment:
I give you: Jar Jar-woks. Please take a minute to allow the thought and image to fully seep into the recesses of your brain.
****
rq
1 November 2012 at 9:55 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tony , no! Ewoks for kids is SO much better than Jar Jar, but you have now ruined them by… making a new species! A revolting one. Well, basically I pictured a long-haird (a la Persian) Jar Jar, who not only sprays saliva but also tufts of shed fur every time he shakes his head. Does that improve anything on your end?
This topic should end. *shudder* JarJarWoks… Nightmares there, too.
+++
carlie
I’m almost at that point in my current job, except I’ve actually spent more time away from it on maternity leave than actually doing it. Does that count as time spent on a job? :)
+++
In other dream news, I had another dream about Pharyngula commentors, where there was a whole thread dedicated to congratulating all those commenters coming out as feminine online. Because everyone was coming out as feminine all over the place (and no, I don’t mean female). When I woke up, I wasn’t sure whether I should laugh or cry. And yes, I’ve been dreaming about Pharyngula commenters even before I started lurking at the Lounge. Weird. I know.
Menyambal --- Sambal's Little Helper
1 November 2012 at 10:03 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Maybe that “nipples apart” distance is to prevent pushup bras mashing up some fake cleavage. Which is still wrong of the pageant people. (The whole idea of getting some metrics into a subjective field is oddly amusing, though.)
Ogvorbis, I learned clutchless shifting in my VW, and still like to do it, just as a challenge. In my little red truck, which my daughter calls “the Jolly Rancher” (that’s a type of red hard candy, BTW).
rq
1 November 2012 at 10:07 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
How does one shift clutchlessly?
Sounds like something with which to freak the Husband out, just for fun.
Ogvorbis: broken and cynical
1 November 2012 at 10:13 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
World’s worst idea for a Chinese restaurant chain.
Portia
1 November 2012 at 10:17 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
FossilFishy
Very fun costume on your little one.
opposablethumbs
:D I agree
Mattir
Feel better soon : (
=====
Re: Cars and names. My old thunderbird is named…Tony.
Richard Austin
1 November 2012 at 10:18 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My first car was named Rocinante – a definite male.
My current car is referred to by my mother as “the black bandit” – largely because it often appears and disappears in the driveway without warning (they generally have a rough idea of when I’ll visit, but not specific) – but also because it’s sleek and black and damned near silent and probably mischievous. I never officially named it; I tend to refer to it as a “he”, though.
Ogvorbis: broken and cynical
1 November 2012 at 10:19 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
This works best on cars or trucks with older transmissions.
You are in 2nd gear, accelerating. When you reach the top of 2nd, push the gear shift gently into neutral. Allow the rpms to drop and, at the correct rpm for your speed and 3rd gear, slide it in. You do need to know speed and rpm ratios for your gears, but it works in Boy’s Hyundai Accent which is only 3 years old, so maybe not older vehicles, just broken in vehicles.
carlie
1 November 2012 at 10:20 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
rq – I think that counts!
Also, I’ve been meaning to say – my husband has stayed at home with our kids since they were just wee little things, and he’s loved it. It would have driven me crazy. And he does about 90% of the laundry and cooking, and to bash any stereotypes, he’s a football-lovin’ gun wanna-be owner midwest Baptist Republican. So there’s another example counter to what your friends say is normal.
Richard Austin
1 November 2012 at 10:23 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
rq:
Modern cars use “paddle shifting” in a lot of engines – it’s a kind of automatic where you can control which gear it goes into, but the actual shifting of gears is handled by the engine. My car has this. I have the normal “automatic” center-console gear shift (P, R, N, D), but there’s a slot to the side of the “drive” section that I can shift to. Doing so puts the car in “paddle shift” mode, where I just tap up on the gear shift to shift up a gear and tap down to shift down. If I come to a stop, it automatically shifts to 1st.
Sometimes the “paddles” are on the steering wheel.
This is now the accepted way to build “manual” systems – even NASCAR race cars are clutchless shifts now. It’s a bit contentious for a lot of reasons, but it’s where the market is going.
Richard Austin
1 November 2012 at 10:29 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
… or there’s that :)
cicely
1 November 2012 at 10:30 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
*hugs & chikkensoop* for Mattir.
-
Son used to call our (now late) green van “The Great Green Whale”—and make whalesong noises as he lumbered around the corners in it.
I think he would have preferred to learn to drive in something more…nimble.
-
That question sounds pretty rhetorical to me.
-
chigau (棒や石)
1 November 2012 at 10:39 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Who wants some little chocolate bars?
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
1 November 2012 at 10:40 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
rq @212:
My job here is done :)
****
Ogvorbis @215:
Yes, but the food is Fab!
For dessert, they serve JarWok Ears, dipped in chocolate and caramel, then tossed in crumbled cashews. They are to die for. If you pay extra, you can have it delivered to your table via vine swinging servers (don’t ask me where the trees come from).
And how can you knock Jolly Ranchers?? They’re so good (though not good FOR you). I remember in high school (back in 1990), I was on a Jolly Rancher kick. I would bring bags of them to school almost every day for months. I used to share them with classmates, but looking back I don’t know why I didn’t try to *sell* them to classmates.
****
carlie @219:
given what rq has said about Latvia you’re totally screwing up some gender roles. Those things are supposed to be rigid and there you are upsetting the cart.
Good job!
rq
1 November 2012 at 10:49 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Richard @220
Thanks for that, but yes, I was looking for the 218 version (thanks, Ogvorbis – I haven’t yet discovered the gear ratios, but I have a general idea… Trial and error, here I come!).
And carlie , yes, you have upset the cart and rocked my world . The shame.
Personally, my friends can put ‘normal’ in their pipe and smoke it any way they like. I am my own normal.
chigau (棒や石)
1 November 2012 at 10:55 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
FYI
There is a poll to Pharyngulate.
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/11/01/a-shonky-poll/comment-page-1
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
1 November 2012 at 10:58 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I love to Pharyngulate a poll…heh heh.
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
1 November 2012 at 11:06 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@Tony:
It’s coming well. I’m doing my edits, and I’m adding a new section to make the case go a little bit slower than normally it would.
dianne
1 November 2012 at 11:06 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hi, thread. A petition suggestion for you: http://www.no-cuts-on-research.eu/index.php?file=petition.htm
Save European science. US science is probably a lost cause.
Giliell, Approved Straight Chorus
1 November 2012 at 11:07 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Well, Halloween is over but #1 decided to dress up as a unicorn by bumping her head against the couch table…
We made up by crafting a paper-unicorn (with pink wings! No glitter!) together and making shortbread (currently on the cooling-rack)
rq
Mr. is working in a different town during the week but he’s still a very much hands-on dad. At the weekend, the laundry and poopy diapers are his job.
Me, I went back to my little job (teaching 2 nights a week) 6 and 8 weeks after kids were born.
Guess we’re just plain evil…
+++
Car names:
First one: Puck (a blue Peugeot 106)
Current: Little Red Ridinghood (a Citroen Berlingo, you’re allowed to guess the colour)
Mr.’s former car: Yoshi (a grey Toyota Avensis, in its last days known as “piece of shit”)
Our current big car: Lion Tidje Shadowfax (a black Peugeot 5008)
The legend goes that Mr. wanted to name it shadowfax from the beginning, but told #1 she could pick a name, hoping he could trick her into choosing “Shadowfax”. She said “Tidje” (a Northern German name). He said “but it’s a lion, something more lion-like?” and she said “Lion Tidje!” He was allowed to add Shadowfax…
My friend had a car named “Asfaloth” To the end she couldn’t decide whether it was the mighty steed from LOTR or the archdemon from our RPG
Ogvorbis: broken and cynical
1 November 2012 at 11:15 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
You obviously didn’t try the JarJar roll.
Because anything that glues itself to my teeth is anathema!
Go for fewer errors. It can be very hard on the transmission. Picture the sound of a paradigm shifting without a clutch for instance.
Yellow? Green? Octarine?
Our current car is a 2008 Ford Taurus. We call it The Boat or The Luxobarge. Boy’s car is a 2009 Hyundai Accent. He calls it Manuel (it has a manual tranny).
Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist
1 November 2012 at 11:17 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
dianne,
signed!
UnknownEric
1 November 2012 at 11:33 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Though I can’t complain too much, given how badly NYC and NJ were hit, my block has been without power since Monday. And we were basically told that since only six houses are being affected, we’re a low priority for BGE (gee, thanks). A lot of huddling on the living room floor with blankets, entertaining the kiddies with endless games of Go Fish for us.
dianne
1 November 2012 at 11:33 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’m afraid my car, when I had one, was mostly called **explicative deleted**.
chigau (棒や石)
1 November 2012 at 11:47 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
What a coincidence!
**explicative deleted** is what I call my computer.
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
1 November 2012 at 11:53 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I used to call one of my old bosses **expletive deleted**
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
1 November 2012 at 11:56 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
dianne @229:
Signed!
Ogvorbis: broken and cynical
1 November 2012 at 11:59 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I call my computer **obscene gerund piece of obscene noun**. Can I be in the club?
broboxley OT
1 November 2012 at 12:03 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
If any here has voting rights in Alaska
http://www.adn.com/2012/10/31/2678544/anchorage-chief-judge-targeted.html#emlnl=Morning_Newsletter
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
1 November 2012 at 12:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Facepalm.
Headdesk.
Rise.
Lather.
Repeat 5 times:
At what point in the early indoctrination years of a child’s life are they exposed to points of view that they are to evaluate?
Esteleth, Elen síla lúmenn' omentielvo
1 November 2012 at 12:08 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My sister was taught how to drive a stick shift by my dad at 15: he drove the car to just below the top of a hill, put it in park, and then made her get behind the wheel. When she was capable of driving the car over the crest of the hill without dropping the clutch, she was declared “trained” as a driver.
I did not get this lesson, because when I was old enough, the family no longer owned a stick-shift car.
Ogvorbis: broken and cynical
1 November 2012 at 12:13 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Esteleth:
All three of us learned to drive in a 1978 Ford Fairmont with a 3-speed manual. And each one of us burned out a clutch doing stop-and-goes on hills on Antietam National Battlefield. Car went through 3 clutches in it’s 125,000 mile life.
Giliell, Approved Straight Chorus
1 November 2012 at 12:18 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Unknown Eric
Glad to hear you’Re OK, hope you get power back soon and it’s not too cold (or you have a place to go to if it is)
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
1 November 2012 at 12:22 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
You say you want DC Comics inspired Kia cars? Look no further:
http://www.newsarama.com/php/multimedia/album.php?aid=47947
The Cyborg car just doesn’t work for me. First off he lacks a visual iconic representation of him (like Superman’s shield, the Flash’s lightning bolt, Green Lantern’s ring, Batman’s bat), so the car loses out in the recognizability factor. In addition, there’s no distinguishing feature of him that can be placed in the interior that says “Cyborg” (unlike all the other cars).
Of course the flip side of this is that the other cars have too many distinguishing features in the interior. There’s an image overload. Someone should have told Jim Lee that less is more.
Someone should also have mentioned to the colorist that bright or puke green within the interior looks awful. The red in the Flash car is too overwhelming.
While we’re talking about the Flash car–I get it. It’s the Flash’s car. We don’t need lightning bolts all over the place. Again, less is more.
This is a neat idea, and frankly, if I had the disposable money and these were actual cars, I’d *almost* be inclined to buy the Flash car (with a few tweaks).
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
1 November 2012 at 12:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Esteleth:
I still don’t know how to drive a stick shift.
The first and only time someone tried to teach me was 10 years ago. An ex BF took me to an abandoned field and let me go at it for 20 minutes-of grinding gears. That was the first and only time I’ve tried. I just don’t understand how people say driving them is easier than an automatic. With the amount of information you’re processing and the things you need to keep your attention on, it’s strange to me that having to worry about shifting gears-one more thing to take your concentration off the road-is considered a good thing.
broboxley OT
1 November 2012 at 12:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tony #240
and
seems reasonable,
mythbri
1 November 2012 at 12:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Have to do a quick rant here, similar to some previous ones.
I work with a lot of engineers, most of whom are conservative, all of whom are male. They had a lovely discussion today that started about firearms in general but escalated in the best ways to dispatch people they felt threatened by – whether these people were home invaders, or muggers, or what have you. They were more focused on the “killing and getting away with it” part than the “people” part.
I finally had to say something, so I walked up and asked, “You guys do realize that you’re talking about killing people, right?” And they laughed a little and stopped their conversation.
But seriously. These guys are conservative, and based on that and their respective religious beliefs, they’re probably “pro-life” as well. Seriously?! The hypocrisy is astounding. I just don’t understand it.
I already get a lot of flak from them because I work on our facility’s safety and health program, which they see as nothing but interference and useless.
Let me ask the Horde then:
Let’s say you worked in the production/maintenance departments of a manufacturing facility with dangerous chemicals and machinery.
Who would you rather have looking out for your rights as a worker to return home alive and in one piece at the end of your shift?
A. A “pro-life” guy who thinks that firing a shot into the ceiling to make it look like he fired a warning shot, after he’s killed the person who entered his house to take his DVD player, is a great strategy to cover your ass with the cops so that you don’t face any legal repercussions for taking someone’s life.
B. A pro-choice bleeding heart liberal (yeah, that’s me) who actually cares about whether or not people die, and does their best to prevent it from happening at your workplace.
dianne
1 November 2012 at 12:58 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
**explicative deleted** is what I call my computer.
I used to call my computer that, but felt it unsuited to work. So now I call my computer “stupid hunk of microsoft”.
Menyambal --- Sambal's Little Helper
1 November 2012 at 1:04 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
If you want to learn to shift a stick without the clutch, just work on making your shifts more and more smoothly—which is a good thing, anyhow—then when you have a good feel for matching speeds, start pushing the pedal less. It may get you home someday when the pedal breaks (if you need to start the car without the clutch, put it in first, get some help pushing it, and engage the starter—it ain’t good, but it will get you going).
I like driving manual when I have it, but generally speaking, I prefer automatics for city driving, manuals for country life. (BTW, if you are dating someone who insists on a manual transmission because they “must be in control at all times”, run like hell.)
My dad once drilled a hole in the gas pedal, put a point on a broom handle that fit into the hole, and had a hand throttle. Which was real handy for manual-transmission uphill starts.
broboxley OT
1 November 2012 at 1:04 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
#248 dianne 1,$s/stupid/steaming/g
#247 mythbri A. is too stupid to know that in most states the requirement is that they be inside your dwelling so if you shoot them on the steps, drag them across the doorway
So lets check B. politics dont matter, cares about his job so B it is
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
1 November 2012 at 1:13 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
mythbri:
That’s easy: B is answer.
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
1 November 2012 at 1:15 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
broboxley:
Or conversely, don’t shoot them at all and just hit them 5 times with a baseball bat.
Esteleth, Elen síla lúmenn' omentielvo
1 November 2012 at 1:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The only things I have that are named are things that I’ve given descriptive names to in Bluetooth. These include:
“[Esteleth]‘s laptop”
“YAY IT’S A PHONE” (my smartphone)
“[Esteleth]‘s iMac”
“Typing Thingy” (my keyboard)
“Moving Thingy One” (wireless mouse)
“Moving Thingy Two” (second wireless mouse)
and
“Lindale” (my iPod). Side irritant: I was not able to use accent marks in this. It should be “Lindalë.”
Azkyroth, Former Growing Toaster Oven
1 November 2012 at 1:27 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Interesting. My computers are all named after genuses of albatross, and my flash drives and such after things albatrosses eat. O.o
Esteleth, Elen síla lúmenn' omentielvo
1 November 2012 at 1:30 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh, I forgot. My backup USB drives are named, respectively, “iMac Time Machine,” “Laptop Time Machine,” and “Backup.”
My jump drives have not been renamed, and thus have names like “Kingston 4GB.”
chigau (棒や石)
1 November 2012 at 1:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My flash drives are called “the black one”, “the blue one”, “the one on the pink ribbon”, etc.
Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist
1 November 2012 at 1:37 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Not getting the “naming things” thing.
I have only ever named my dolls when I was little. And three names that I remember were all after cousins. I could imagine they were with me that way.
I suppose the conclusion is: lonely, but unimaginative.
Lynna, OM
1 November 2012 at 1:46 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
More Republican hypocrisy: remember when the Republican National Committee cut off all funds for Todd “legitimate rape” Akin? Well, it turns out they didn’t really mean that. Empty threat. A show of sensitivity for women’s rights, not actual support for women’s rights.
Now that they think they can get away with it, it looks like the RNC is funneling ad money into the Missouri Senate Race.
Politico link.
Maddow Blog link.
The Maddow Blog link makes a good case for the fact that the ad blitz money is coming from the RNC.
mythbri
1 November 2012 at 1:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@broboxley OT
I agree with you that politics shouldn’t matter, but I think that they do.
Several of my colleagues regard the EPA as “the nation’s #1 job-killer.”
You know what else kills jobs? Killing people with jobs, because you were too lazy/too cheap/too Libertarian to do due diligence and put protections and contingency plans in place.
Rey Fox
1 November 2012 at 2:05 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ooh, Red Rock Canyon!
Um…yeah the cars. I don’t mind that comics have sort of gone mainstream and adult-accepted, but this is sort of taking it too far.
Menyambal --- Sambal's Little Helper
1 November 2012 at 2:10 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My flash drives do have names, mostly so I can recognize them when more than one comes up in the computer. And some so I can tell them apart in the pile I keep obsessively accumulating.
One is named for one of my best “inventions”, which can’t get off the ground, literally, as life keeps getting in the way. Seeing the name on the case, and the research files inside it, always gives me a twinge, and a little more motivation to get moving on it. I’ll write it up for NASA soon, or someday, surely.
kristinc is writing a book called "50 Shades of STFU"
1 November 2012 at 2:13 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Last car was the Blue Beast. This car — a beige minivan given to us by the painfully suburban inlaws — is the Whitebread Wonder.
My iPod is Louise.
My sewing machine is Rosie.
The roomba is HAL.
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
1 November 2012 at 2:16 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My computer is named Lucy. My laptop is named Nyu. My iPod is named Little Ninja. My network is called Cocytus. My bluetooth network is called Gehenna.
Lynna, OM
1 November 2012 at 2:31 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Cross-posting this news from the “Romney is a very devout man” thread:
The Mellow Monkey: Caerie
1 November 2012 at 2:33 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My laptop is Billy. Previously, I had a desktop named Matthew. My wireless network is Lindy. There’s no real pattern to it. They just needed to be called something.
Giliell, Approved Straight Chorus
1 November 2012 at 2:35 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My sewing machine is my preciousssssss
although I’m suspecting the little one to be related to Gollum: Give me the fish, keep the potatoes and take away those vegetables!
Ogvorbis: broken and cynical
1 November 2012 at 2:40 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My wireless network at home is “Uncle Frodo’s House of Pain.” Which probably raises some eyebrows when the neighbors look at available networks (it is password protected etc., but they still see the name). Someone in our neighborhood has a network called “usethisoneforporn.” It only shows up occasoinally and is very weak.
chigau (棒や石)
1 November 2012 at 2:42 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Come to think of it we did have a computer named “the doorstop” until the name was changed to “finally this city has a place to recycle electronics”.
cicely
1 November 2012 at 2:43 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My sewing machine is named [expletive deleted]. We hates it, precious, we hates it forever….
-
dianne
1 November 2012 at 2:43 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Latest drug shortage where I am: injectable B12. How the bloody hell does one run out of B12?
Nick Gotts (formerly KG)
1 November 2012 at 2:52 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
dianne,
Signed – thanks!
My laptop is Albert, but I haven’t named my new desktop.
In the department where I did my doctorate, the computers (there were only a few in those days) all had names with the syntax:
c
so the first Sun acquired was csuna (the “c” was the first letter of the department name – Cognitive and Computer Studies – and was pronounced as “see”). The department accidentally acquired a cat: ccata.
Nick Gotts (formerly KG)
1 November 2012 at 2:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Damn! Syntax was c[manufacturer's name][letter of the alphabet].
ednaz
1 November 2012 at 2:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
StevoR @ 185 – Thank You for your oath.
UnknownEric
1 November 2012 at 3:04 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The last time I named an inanimate object of mine was when I named my crappy old late 90s computer “The Ultramega Trashcan.” In my less enlightened days, however, I did name my first bass guitar Nicole (though I don’t remember why 20 years later).
Orange Utan
1 November 2012 at 3:08 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@Ogvorbis
It’s not how
bigstrong it is, it’s what you do with it.Lynna, OM
1 November 2012 at 3:12 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Republicans never waver in their efforts to keep reality a bay. Remember when they decided not to publish a report that showed sea levels rising? Well, now they have a new target, inconvenient economic data. We the taxpayers pay for the output of the Congressional Research Service, but Republicans have quashed publications:
UnknownEric
1 November 2012 at 3:13 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I named my wireless network “Series of Tubes” in “honor” of good ol’ Ted Stevens.
Esteleth, Elen síla lúmenn' omentielvo
1 November 2012 at 3:13 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh, WiFi networks?
I went to visit a friend once. I get there, and I ask for the WiFi key. She replied, “My network is ‘Cuddlefish.’ The password is [password].”
So I open my laptop, check the list of networks, and see “Throbbing Cock.”
She claims to have no idea which of her neighbors is “Throbbing Cock.”
But then, I’m the person who named a WiFi network “myosin turnover.”
Ogvorbis: broken and cynical
1 November 2012 at 3:15 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My guitar is named Marty. The name makes sense: a 1964 Martin D-35.
Lynna:
How the fuck do conservatives get away with this shit? Why are they allowed to decide what federal papers are available when we are all paying for them?
Lynna, OM
1 November 2012 at 3:17 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Democrats liberated the Congressional Research Service report that so effectively rebutted Republican theories that giving rich people tax cuts will benefit everyone.
http://www.dpcc.senate.gov/?p=blog&id=193
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
1 November 2012 at 3:18 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Did Ann Coulter say something vile and hostile that I’m just now hearing about?
Why yes, she did.
Pond scum is better than she is.
****
What’s with the naming of electronic devices? That’s a new one for me.
Now once you start talking about naming genitals, then we’re in familiar territory (no, I haven’t named anything, but I’ve certainly been around guys who do).
Ogvorbis: broken and cynical
1 November 2012 at 3:22 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Every time I think Ann Coulter can’t get any more disgusting she one-ups herself.
=========
Leave Mr. Happy out of this!
Lynna, OM
1 November 2012 at 3:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
They get away with it because most of the media doesn’t cover it, let alone call them on it. And they get away with it because Faux News thinks they were right to pull the paper from the CRS website because it was flawed, in their view. Republicans didn’t like its “tone” for one thing, which was very straightforward. It called the Bush tax cuts “the Bush tax cuts.”
Mitch McConnell realized he couldn’t let a thing like that go public, so he invented the “partisan tone” argument, plus he voiced some ignorant claims about methodology. If Mitch has a case, he is free to present it. He shouldn’t get to demand that the report go bye-bye.
rq
1 November 2012 at 3:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tony @224
I remember Jolly Ranchers in high school. They were like currency. And there were valuable flavours, and less valuable flavours. My parents refused to buy them, though. Said they were ‘unhealthy’ or something weird like that.
+++
I don’t name objects, but I name pets after objects. Does that count for anything?
Oh wait, my last laptop was named the Feisty Maggot. This one doesn’t have a name. I think we expected it to be too short-lived to grow personally attached to it. Alas, it has outlived our expectations.
+++
Just got home to once again discover that, yes, the Husband was fully capable of feeding, washing, dressing, and putting to bed two small children (youngest still travels with me). Yay! Muffin for him and lots of muffins for me.
Good night to all!
UnknownEric
1 November 2012 at 3:34 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My kids probably think I’ve named my off-brand eReader “Turn the page, dammit!”
Lynna, OM
1 November 2012 at 3:46 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tales of excommunication and purges in the LDS Church, where the pursuit of history is dangerous. Slate link.
Excerpt:
Quinn was excommunicated in September, 1993.
Here’s an excerpt that illustrates how the mormon community can work behind the scenes to harm an apostate’s career:
Lynna, OM
1 November 2012 at 3:48 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Mitt talking about mormon theology: YouTube video link.</a.
Effing strange to see Mitt so animated about theology.
Ogvorbis: broken and cynical
1 November 2012 at 4:04 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Lynna:
At some western national parks and national forests (not sure about the BLM), people jokingly refer to ‘the mormon mafia’ when it comes to who gets hired and who doesn’t. I remember the reference back in the 70s and still hear it when I’m at fires today. Now I’m not so sure they mean it as humour.
Menyambal --- Sambal's Little Helper
1 November 2012 at 4:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Of course trickle-down doesn’t work. The rich just get richer.
As Terry Pratchett’s Sam Vimes puts it, a poor man has to buy cheap boots that wear out, while a rich man can buy good boots that last. The poor man spends more on boots, over time, and still has wet feet. And is still poor.
And since many of the rich get their money buy exploiting the poor, they keep making money. I owe more money than I can comprehend, and I’m going further into debt because I can’t keep up payments, while Mitt has so much money he can pay people just to use his money to make even more money, some of that by lending it to people like me, and I borrow it in hopes I can use some of it to make more money, but I don’t have enough, and I can’t pay people to do anything but take my money, so I borrow more money ….
Whereas when Donald Trump goes ten million in debt, he has the bank by the short and curlies.
It’s a divergent series, and in a capitalistic system, only the people with capital are going to succeed.
mythbri
1 November 2012 at 4:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@Lynna
My dad was ex-communicated after he was divorced from my mom. It took them about six – no, seven years before they would let him get re-baptized.
And I remember the great “ex-communication and firing of feminists” purge back in the nineties. :P
Really nasty stuff.
Rey Fox
1 November 2012 at 5:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
A couple years ago, I named my wireless network “My Damn Network” in a fit of temper from trying to get it to work for the first time. Some time later, the student apartment people included a bit in the newsletter about not using naughty words in your wireless network name because there are kids about. I wasn’t sure if they were referring to me or not (“damn” isn’t even in George Carlin’s Seven Words), but I hid my network until I could figure out how to change the name, then I changed its name to H. Jon Benjamin.
My old Honda Civic was named Ed after its first owner, my maternal grandfather. Haven’t bothered with my new car.
Also, the voice on Google GPS is named “Gerty”, after the unknown person that Grandpa Simpson tried to talk to on the iron.
I think that’s the extent of it for me.
Matt Penfold
1 November 2012 at 5:43 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I call all the computers on my network after biologists, but only dead ones so none called PZ. In the past I have named computers on a network after characters from the Magic Roundabout.
Alethea H. "Crocoduck" Dundee
1 November 2012 at 5:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’ve never named a car, and my bikes have only been named extremely obvious things like Suzy, Kwaka and Bonnie. But electronics need names. You have to identify them on networks. My current lappy is thyme. Older ones have been sage & ginger. Our home networks are named after the cats.
Previous work systems have had themes – astronomical (I had ceres), sea creatures (nereid) etc. But now my computer at work is WS-037. There are remnants of older cooler days in the main server names: we still have timelord and tardis, though stargate is defunct and has been replaced by something like svr04p or whatevs.
Alethea H. "Crocoduck" Dundee
1 November 2012 at 5:54 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@Matt, back when I had naming rights over a small server at uni, I called it Dayhoff.
Matt Penfold
1 November 2012 at 6:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I did once call a computer Dobzhansky, but I had to change it since I could never spell it the same two times running, and not getting it right when doing stuff via the command line is a pain
Janine: Hallucinating Liar
1 November 2012 at 7:17 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Republicans Are For Black Americans!
Because Abraham Lincoln freed slaves.
And because Republicans passed the Civil Rights Acts. Never mind that it was LBJ’s bill, one that he got passed knowing that his party would rebel. Which is what happened, most southern Democrats in the late sixties and early seventies switched to the Republican party.
How fucking convincing.
FossilFishy (Νεοπτόλεμος's spellchecker)
1 November 2012 at 7:24 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My laptop is named The Spanish Inquisition, because no one expects The Spanish Inquisition (to work).
Ing:Intellectual Terrorist "Starting Tonight, People will Whine"
1 November 2012 at 7:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Still no power…exhausted no real break between stress and work since sat.
@Tony: Jim }ee’s design work is always attrocious. No idea why DC took a look at the shitty 90s and said “YES THAT MOAR PLZ!!!” Oh wait yes I do.m idiots. On a related note DC art putting so much attention into nonsense like frelling costume seams and then still drawing women without any sense of anatomy is whiplash inducing. Its so much effort put into the wrong place. If you want stylized anatomy then do stylized art, the pick and choose is glaring.
Ing:Intellectual Terrorist "Starting Tonight, People will Whine"
1 November 2012 at 7:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
No mere hurrican or act of God can keep me from nasaly whining and moaning about comics and/or scifi.
If yawl had mentioned ME pretty sure I would have commented via spontaneously developed telepathy
The Mellow Monkey: Caerie
1 November 2012 at 7:30 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Because things never, ever change and the actions of a single person within a political party at one point in history reverberates to the present even when that party has completely changed membership and platform!
This is why Republicans harass and kill Irish Americans to this day, because of all of those Know Nothings who switched affiliation in the mid-nineteenth century.
blogofmyself
1 November 2012 at 7:33 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
All the laptops in the electronic music studio at my university are named after modern composers and electronic music pioneers like Lansky, Bukvic, etc.
Tigger_the_Wing
1 November 2012 at 8:13 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Almost all my/our vehicles have been named, although I don’t remember them all (my ‘nym is actually my motorcycle, called Tigger the ‘Wing to distinguish it from my first Tigger). I name other stuff, although rarely name electronics anything other than the obvious (‘silver laptop’, ‘white Mac’, and ‘the Windows laptop’).
Tigger_the_Wing
1 November 2012 at 8:15 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I have named my walking sticks, though. I have a plush toy horse that I use as a lumbar pillow; hubby once asked me (before I had even thought to name it) “What’s it’s name?” I answered “Yes.” so it became ‘What’. After that, it seemed logical (to me, anyway) to name my outdoor walking sticks (which have hobby-horse heads) ‘Who’ and ‘How’. My indoor quad-cane, a pink unicorn, is called ‘Not Very’ (as in ‘Not Very Invisible Pink Unicorn), and my bicycle (which has a white unicorn head on the front) is called Charlie.
Ogvorbis: broken and cynical
1 November 2012 at 8:19 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I just remembered. My kayak, back when I was in high school, was named “This Side UP!!!” The name was painted on the top of it where I could read it from the cockpit.
Ing:Intellectual Terrorist "Starting Tonight, People will Whine"
1 November 2012 at 8:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Big post was eated so block points
*no power possibly till 5th
* our area is good with services returning
* water in cities being reported as possibly contaminated
* no power to cook and no heating…very cold
*gas shortage rumored. Tensions high at gas lines . Lines are over hour long in places without power
*today was first day we got news and reliable phone. Coast of state fot hit hard it seems.
*Donald Trump is a selfish sociopathic asshole dancing on the graves of people who died.
*mothers house had dowbn wire and fire…cannot get to it yet due to closed roads so don’t know if its still standing (she had left when the line went down so no lives in danger)
Ogvorbis: broken and cynical
1 November 2012 at 8:34 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Right wing asshole in office: “Just watch. Obama’s going to make sure that the rural areas have the power on last so they can’t vote. He’s using the hurricane to steal the election and I guarantee that real Americans will not let this stand. We have the second amendment, right?”
These people (right wing extremists) scare me.
Menyambal --- Sambal's Little Helper
1 November 2012 at 8:52 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oy. I just saw a child repeat some of its parent’s irrational behavior, with its own hateful spin on top.
Ing, I’m not a comic book fan, really, but what little there is was always Marvel all the way. DC comics always bothered me. Thanks for explaining some of it.
Tigger, I like the bicycle.
I had a kayak that I called Kotik, after Kipling’s white seal, because it was white and it was a Seal model. (I sold it because I didn’t like the way it handled in the water, and then had to lie to the designer about that.)
Menyambal --- Sambal's Little Helper
1 November 2012 at 8:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Right-wing asshole at garage sale, “I was just in a neighborhood with Obama yard signs. God, I wanted to shoot those people.”
Ogvorbis: broken and cynical
1 November 2012 at 9:07 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Memyambal:
Mine was one of the Perception tupperware boats — 14 feet long, 40 pounds, and damn near indestructible. Took it down Great Falls on the Potomac a dozen times. Broke four or five helmets, but the boat never had a problem.
The Mellow Monkey: Caerie
1 November 2012 at 9:12 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The other day I overheard a conversation between right wing assholes about factory workers “whining” about jobs being outsourced. They called the employees minions and plebes without a drop of irony, and then said that those damn plebes just don’t get how hard it is to be a CEO and the terrible burden there is of trying to maintain a high profit margin.
It was like a cartoon come to life. I’m still baffled that they could say this crap without twirling their mustaches.
Janine: Hallucinating Liar
1 November 2012 at 9:14 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Pity the billionaire.
ibyea
1 November 2012 at 9:46 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@Ing
Be safe.
Pteryxx
1 November 2012 at 9:51 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
damn, Ing. *offers drive-by hugs*
—
Meanwhile…
http://americablog.com/2012/11/computer-glitch-votes-black-florida-county-election-fraud.html
AJ Milne
1 November 2012 at 9:52 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The machines at a student newspaper I long ago worked at got various vaguely Russian-sounding names, in the first round of networking thereof.
(Yes, there was a time when computers were not universally networked, and didn’t even always come with the interfaces on the motherboard. And this particular exciting leap forward, partially requested/instigated by me, production manager at the time, was all 10BASE2 coax, baby… Also, I believe we had cars with stone wheels held on by cotter pins made from broken branches, and you had to do this weird running-on-the-spot thing to get them moving. Anyway…)
It started as a sorta baby-eating type reference. ‘Vladimir’ was named for Lenin, as we periodically got right-wing ranters in the letters section claiming we were Communist provocateurs or useful idiots at the very least. I suppose for proper continuity we could have named the later machines ‘Alexey’, ‘Vyacheslav’, ‘Joseph’ and so on, but somehow the whole Comintern-specific vibe got lost in the shuffle somewhere and we wound up going more toward Rocky and Bullwinkle…
… And so we wound up with Vladimir, Boris, and Natasha.
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
1 November 2012 at 9:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yes, I think I shall sing Justin Timberlakes song ‘Cry me a river’ tonight when I shower. It shall be in honor of all the poor billionaires.
AJ Milne
1 November 2012 at 9:56 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
(… Checks news sites for stories indexed on ‘Trump’…)
(/… immediately regrets it. As usual.)
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
1 November 2012 at 9:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Pteryxx:
Pouncehug!
Long time no see.
broboxley OT
1 November 2012 at 9:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
#313 Pteryxx thats broward county, its a glitch or human error. That county is solidly dem with the clerk in charge being a dem. No republicans allowed unless they walk real small.
Ogvorbis: broken and cynical
1 November 2012 at 9:59 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
G’night, folds. To bed, perchance not to dream.
Rev. BigDumbChimp
1 November 2012 at 10:02 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
George T Stagg Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey is like angles tears
On fire
I’m in love
broboxley OT
1 November 2012 at 10:03 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ing, good thoughts heading your way.
Here in the deep south we are used to long lines with no gas. Every idiot in Atlanta waits an hour a day or longer to top off their tank. They don’t understand the gas delivery system isn’t set up for that level of demand in a time of shortage.
I feel sorry for the folks in staten island, wish I was rich I would haul a tractor trailer full of food and water over there.
Take csre of you and your family.
Rev. BigDumbChimp
1 November 2012 at 10:03 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Or if you like
Angels tears
Pteryxx
1 November 2012 at 10:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
*wave* heya Tony, peepz. Mostly I’m over at A+ forum nowadays, when I’m active, but I try and lurk FTB as much as I can manage. Sooo damn many blogs… loved reading y’all’s spot of rape-apologist-kicking in the old AA thread just now. ♥
cicely
1 November 2012 at 10:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sharp, and to the point?
-
broboxley OT
1 November 2012 at 10:10 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I miss me some bourbon, however a broboxley drinking bourbon is like a meth head at full throttle with a Satan’s Choice (defunct MC) attitude and priapus problems. Funny how histamines affect the system.
JAL: Snark, Sarcasm & Bitterness
1 November 2012 at 10:15 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. FUCK!
My abusive ex found us. He found us. He knocked on my parents door in the apartment complex while Little One was out with Grandma! He said he didn’t know my exact apartment number but that he would find me and that he would see Little One. He knows about Roomie. He knows she goes to school down the way. Grandma took Little One to their house while Step Dad was out chasing off the asshole and she had no idea what was going on. Now we’re scared to bring her home in case he sees. Roomie works nights so it would just be me and her at least at Grandma’s step dad is there if he has to be physically stopped. Step Dad is also really loud and his friends would come out to help him.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I’m scared what if he tries to take her?
ibyea
1 November 2012 at 10:22 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@JAL
Can’t you put a restraining order?
JAL: Snark, Sarcasm & Bitterness
1 November 2012 at 10:27 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Nope, it’s been years since he abused me so going back they ask “what’s he done recently?” because I couldn’t keep up the original restraining order. It’s not like they believed me then either even bruised and battered. Plus the restraining order wouldn’t and previously didn’t do shit to protect Little One because he’s the biological father and the court refused to list her on it. They said that issue is for family court.
broboxley OT
1 November 2012 at 10:33 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
JAL if you dont mind, what city are you in?
JAL: Snark, Sarcasm & Bitterness
1 November 2012 at 10:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’m in Phoenix, AZ.
broboxley OT
1 November 2012 at 10:52 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
okay any hordelings with contacts in phoenix?
JAL: Snark, Sarcasm & Bitterness
1 November 2012 at 11:04 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’d don’t think there is much to do but sit and wait out tonight. Then warn the school and her teacher tomorrow. I’ll start looking into shelters but it’s going to really, really suck. This whole situation just sucks. It’s not fair to live in fear and have to move her from her school, friends and grandparents.
ibyea
1 November 2012 at 11:05 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Holy crap. I hate how unfair the world is.
JAL: Snark, Sarcasm & Bitterness
1 November 2012 at 11:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Fear is going to make tonight and tomorrow while she’s at school very, very long. I don’t think I’m going to sleep a wink.
Rob
1 November 2012 at 11:13 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I thought I’d share some news of social progress
Source
Sad that “no you can’t rape your wife” has to be regarded as progress, but still, rape in the Solomon Islands has been a huge issue and the Courts now seem inclined to start doing something about it.
Portia
1 November 2012 at 11:22 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
/rant
Totally threadrupt,but I got in a stupid online argument with at stupid guy who said stupid things, made personal attacks, then told me to get a thicker skin when I fired back. What is with this epidemic of assholes who are assholic then blame you for telling them they’re assholes? Huh? How does telling him he’s an asshole make me weak? Rarg.
Portia
1 November 2012 at 11:27 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Holy shit! I’m sorry I should have looked for two seconds, JAL. I’m so sorry. Keeping you in my thoughts. I wish there was more to be done. I can’t believe they wouldn’t list Little One on the order. Fuck.
Tigger_the_Wing
1 November 2012 at 11:35 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh, JAL, that’s terrible. I wish there were something I could do. Damn, I hate a world where people like him exist and no-one in authority can be bothered to do a damned thing about it. Stay safe, wishing you all the best for tonight and tomorrow and I hope you get somewhere safe really soon. Damn, it shouldn’t be you and Little One having to move.
mildlymagnificent
1 November 2012 at 11:41 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I had a stock reply for some people at the church the girls went to. These people thought it would be ‘nice’ if the magnificent mr and I could be ‘properly’ married so surely I could approach ex for an annulment. All those problems were soooo long ago.
There are only 3 options. He’s the same now as he always was, he might be better, he might be worse. 2 bad options out of only 3 looks like a pretty poor bet to me.
(Given that “better than” violent asshole doesn’t give any guarantee of good enough to be regarded as civilised anyway.)
mildlymagnificent
1 November 2012 at 11:48 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I know I’m on the other side of the world but I’m wishing and hoping that you and Little One can stay safe long enough to get out of harm’s way. Deal with the safety first. You’ll have time enough to feel the feelings about family and friends.
How to maintain contact with them without putting them in the position of having to conceal your whereabouts is a slightly longer term thing. Sounds as though skype from ‘location unknown’ might be a good option when you can get around to it.
JAL: Snark, Sarcasm & Bitterness
2 November 2012 at 12:12 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thank you everyone.
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
2 November 2012 at 12:13 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Pteryxx @323:
I figured you were spending time over at A+.
I’ve popped over there a few times, but as you say all these blogs!
****
broboxley:
Satan’s Choice?
I take it you’ve had some bad experiences with bourbon?
****
Ing:
I’m glad you and yours are ok. Here’s hoping power gets back on ASAP.
****
Menyambal @307:
TL;DR
One of the biggest differences is the approach to the characters. DC was born shortly before the United States entered WWII. Like many of the costumed characters various companies created, Superman, Batman (my laptop doesn’t recognize fraggin’ Batman in lowercase, but does in uppercase; that’s odd), Wonder Woman et al. had fairly simple adventures, and very one note characterization (of interest though is Superman’s tendency to be far rougher with human opponents, as well as an interest in social justice-that said, this was 1938). Like DC’s heroes, The Timely characters (which later on became Marvel’s characters) encountered Nazi’s as well as the regular criminal element. Timely/Marvel and DC thematically were somewhat similar. Fast forward to the 1950s. After the war, the US Senate began cracking down on wholesale retailers because comics were seen as bad for kids (I wonder what their argument for this was). Along with superhero comics, there were horror and true crime comics. The Comics Code Authority was founded in the mid-50′s and comic books sales declined substantially. The Comics Code criteria was rigid and ridiculous (although I do like the fact that it stated female figures were to be drawn realistically and not exaggerated; I doubt they were approaching that from a feminist perspective though; more likely it was to draw women in UNdesirable ways, as comic books were seen as causing juvenile delinquency).
In 1956, DC comics began re-imagining it’s stable of characters, beginning with the Flash (Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman were-and remain to this day-the only continuously published characters in comic book history-though there were hiatuses for at least WW)
I can only speculate, but reading DC Comics from the time (in an era retroactively labelled the “Silver Age” of comics), I get the feeling that they were constrained by the Comics Code Authority. The heroes were bright, shiny paragons of justice. They were virtuous, and had few moral failings. They were nearly perfect (in the most simplistic ways possible). This became something of the golden standard of DC comics for decades to come.
When Marvel debuted in 1961 with the Fantastic Four, they tried a different formula. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby wanted the heroes to be more human and realistic. Yes, these were still comics, but the “sibling” rivalry between the Human Torch and the Thing was intended to reflect how siblings and/or close friends interacted. Mr. Fantastic was meant to be the dispassionate scientist. The less said about Susan Storm (later, Richards) the better (the weakest power set; routinely captured; constantly nagging; trying to get Reed’s attention; worried about shopping–it was like Comic Book Sexism Bingo). Stan and Jack set out to do super-heroes in a new and exciting way and it worked.
They quickly created Spider-Man (few people add the hyphen), the X-Men, the Avengers, etc. With Spidey, they had an everyman character. Almost the complete opposite of Superman. He was powerful, but had girl troubles, worried about school and was trying to balance super heroics with both. He was also a nerd and was bullied. The X-Men were ostracized (though Stan Lee didn’t play up this angle much), and were a metaphor for disenfranchised minorities. Marvel was an attempt to better reflect real world personalities.
All of the above is to say that Marvel started off (the official company started in 1961, prior to that it was Timely Comics; Timely is retroactively considered part of Marvel) treating its characters more like people than DC, which treated it’s characters as shining perfect heroes. The distinction between both companies remained for more than a decade until the 1970s, when the Comics Code was relaxed. Horror, true crime and drug usage were allowed (though they still had limits to what could be shown or talked about). DC changed Green Lantern’s title to a buddy book: Green Lantern/Green Arrow. One of the stories dealt with Green Lantern being perceived to not care about black people. Another dealt with Green Arrow’s ward-Speedy-becoming a drug addict. Even though stories like this were created, by and large DC still had unflinchingly heroic characters, while Marvel still had heroes with feet of clay. To this day, the differences between both companies remain, though DC has attempted-with some degree of success-to make their characters more human.
I know this was probably more than you *ever* cared to know, but I was trying to explain why DC and Marvel appear so different. The above is my analysis, nothing official.
Special thanks to Wikipedia for the information on the 1950s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_comic_book
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
2 November 2012 at 12:19 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
JAL @326:
I am so sorry to hear about your abusive ex. Do you have friends/neighbors that can assist you in looking out for him?
****
Rob @335:
Thank you for sharing that bit of good news. So nice of the Solomon Islands to join the late 20th Century (yeah, I know we’re in the 21st, but when did the US make the same changes to its marriage laws–in the 1980s?)
****
Portia:
Ah the joys of dealing with assholes.
Next time tell him you don’t need thick skin, he needs empathy.
chigau (棒や石)
2 November 2012 at 12:33 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
fecking hell
JAL
stay safe
ednaz
2 November 2012 at 12:57 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
JAL – I am so sorry. I wish there was something I could do.
Janine: Hallucinating Liar
2 November 2012 at 1:00 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
JAL, does your ex already have a paper trail, that is, has he been arrested or reported on for actions against you?
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
2 November 2012 at 1:02 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
(Also posted to the Thunderdome)
cm @157:
So I clicked on your link. Interesting stuff there.
I made the mistake of clicking one of the links in that article. It took me to a TakiMag article by John Derbyshire. http://takimag.com/article/the_talk_nonblack_version_john_derbyshire/print#axzz1rC3fsLMv
I really want to scrub my brain right now. Along with drink a bottle of vodka. Along with break something.
Excerpts:
Fucking racist scumbag this guy is. Of course I see that Pat Buchanan is a columnist for the same magazine. Ugh.
rq
2 November 2012 at 1:08 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
JAL
I hope you’re safe and I wish I was in Phoenix for you. :(
In other news, good morning all.
Janine: Hallucinating Liar
2 November 2012 at 1:08 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Here is a link to the Arizona Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Even if there is not a threat of violence, you can at least talk to someone who, hopefully can provide help for your daughter.
The national hotline number is 1 800 799 7233.
Good luck.
JAL: Snark, Sarcasm & Bitterness
2 November 2012 at 1:10 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Several times. Each time they gave him probation, even though he was already on probation. He also has a gun charge for bringing a weapon that wasn’t registered into the airport, which they also just gave him more probation even though he was already on probation. The longest he was in jail was 30 days because he refused to take a plea deal, then he took it and was immediately released.
That’s just the stuff I’m aware of that’s he done as an adult. No idea if he’s kept getting caught for stuff.
raven
2 November 2012 at 1:12 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’m sure this will be all over the news for weeks.
Another fundie who couldn’t tell the difference between being obnoxious and incompetent and being “persecuted”.
Janine: Hallucinating Liar
2 November 2012 at 1:12 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tony, recently, John Derbyshire was a columnist for the National Review. But he was fired when he wrote a racist column supportive of the murderer of Trevon Martin. This too much even for the NR. He got a new home at the VDARE.
I will provide no links.
Janine: Hallucinating Liar
2 November 2012 at 1:15 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
JAL, that should be enough to get an order of restraint. While that is no guarantee of protection, you can use it to bring the police over. And be used to punish him if he does something.
Please, call any of the numbers I have provided and get an advocate and a lawyer. Call now.
raven
2 November 2012 at 1:23 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’ve been following the superstorm saga like most.
A while ago, in the context of North Carolina’s declaring that sea levels can’t rise by law, I came up with the following.
1. Global warming sea level rise is projected to be 3-6 feet by 2100. It’s not that much and it isn’t going to be a huge problem.
2. The real problem is 3-6 feet sea level rise plus a hurricane at high tide i.e a storm surge.
Obviously the oceans level changes a lot on minute, hour, day, and monthly basises.
From the news reports, a huge amount of the damage in NY, NYC, and NJ was a storm surge.
We are getting to 2100 conditions a lot sooner than 2100. You can imagine what 2100 is going to be like on the low lying and often times subsiding coastlines.
Not sure how you adapt to storm surges. Higher sea walls I guess or houses tied to sturdy foundations or something.
We have similar problems on the Pacific coast. Parts are washing away. Local governments are having to deal with it. Some of the global warming denialist politicians still refuse to call it global warming though.
JAL: Snark, Sarcasm & Bitterness
2 November 2012 at 1:40 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I did. Thank you. They gave me a list of numbers to call in the morning. It helped to do something now at least. She asked about the precautions we are talking and said we were doing what she would suggest to do.
She said the exact same thing, that his prior charges should be enough for another restraining order. I wonder if it was just a stupid and/or new person I talked to in the court or if AZ has some different requirements. Would it matter that he was charged with assault against me and not like domestic assault or something? We were living together at the time of his arrests, except the first one. One time he even started beating me in front of his case worker. He was at least 18 then and older with the subsequent arrests. Funny, how every time there’s a witness the cops acted differently and believed me.
Setár, genderqueer Elf-Sheriff of Atheism+
2 November 2012 at 1:45 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Don’t like Harper trying to force Canada into a contract that gives China first right of refusal over all Canada’s natural resources? You’re an extremist, even if you happen to be the Leader of the Opposition.
Janine: Hallucinating Liar
2 November 2012 at 1:51 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Good luck, JAL. Please, take advantage of anything that you find to keep you and your daughter safe.
It sounds like your ex has enough of a paper trail and witnesses, you should be able to get an order of protection.
And while this is not at all fair to you, it sounds like you need a new place.
Janine: Hallucinating Liar
2 November 2012 at 2:01 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Here is the Mittbot 3000 talking about his Mormon faith.
Pteryxx
2 November 2012 at 2:05 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
JAL, I’m so sorry, and angry for you.
…Or they’re fine with blowing off their responsibilities if nobody’s around to hold them to it. Suggestion… could you ask your contacts that you call in the morning if they can provide an advocate to go with you and hold the court person accountable? Having someone officially on your side could induce them to treat all the past incidents seriously.
chigau (棒や石)
2 November 2012 at 2:07 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
To interject a really serious First World Problem:
the velcro-cord-wrapping-thingy was caught on my sock and as I moved, pulled my netbook off the table.
I caught it (as I slipped and fell to the floor).
(no injuries)
(but my kitteh laughed at me)
Janine: Hallucinating Liar
2 November 2012 at 2:13 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I suggested it earlier and I want to stress what Pteryxx said, have an advocate. Your advocate should know what being in court is like, what to expect and how to get the results you need.
You cannot be expected to know all of the ins and outs, you need someone on your side.
Giliell, Approved Straight Chorus
2 November 2012 at 2:21 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Good morning
Tigger
I know a girl who would totally steal your “not very”
Networks
My Networks always had very mundane names, but I have a history of people using the wrong one. When I moved into my first flat together with a friend, another friend did all the computer stuff for us. Only the next week we called him again because the connection was so bad. On close inspection he found out that he’d forgotten to turn on our router and we had been surfing in somebody else’s. When I moved here it was the other way around. We had this flat a few months before we actually really moved in and so I hadn’t really set up the network. Turned out somebody else had (must be one of my immediate neighbours because the concrete here blocks the WIFI really well). Within two days of me finally connecting to it and trying to set it up it was suddenly password protected. That person must have been mightily pissed that I had finally set up my own WiFi correctly!
+++
It always amazes me time after time again how much being middle-class allows us to remain middle-class. I can save a lot of money by having enough to spend it in the first place, not to mention that nobody will trash-talk me for “being so poor I can’t buy my kids clothes at a real store”. No, I get credit for being economical when I shop second-hand or at the discounter.
Ing
Fuck. Is there anything we can do?
Menyabal and Ogvorbis
I would be scared to hell. Not that people around here might not engage in some violent rethoric à la “I’d really like to smash their head against the wall”, but, well, it’s just that. Stupid talk. And it doesn’t happen because somebody supports the other major political party. And people don’t run around with weapons…
JAL
Shit, shit, shit, shit.
*big hugs*
I wished I could just beam you two over onto my couch and get you asylum or something. :(
Giliell, Approved Straight Chorus
2 November 2012 at 2:52 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
And something funny to cheer everybody up:
Conversations you never thought you’d be having with your husband.
Last night I was chatting with Mr. about the idea that maybe next semester I could do some sports at college. Maybe they even had archery? Well, clicking on the list it turns out that sadly no, no archery, but looking at the list Mr. noticed “Irish Dance” and said “That’s something like table dance, right?”
I couldn’t tell if he was kidding at first, but when I saw he wasn’t we took a short trip to youtube for educational purposes
vaiyt
2 November 2012 at 3:31 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Fucking racists on Youtube, and I just wanted to enjoy a sports video but nooo, I HAD to look at the damn comments.
emburii
2 November 2012 at 3:43 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
So my insurance company charged me early for the money we didn’t have yet and my account is in the negative, and even with my partner’s check coming in we’re going to have seventy dollars for the next two weeks’ food after bills. I doubt anyone’s going to care since last time I tried to talk with (not at, with) people here I was roundly ignored, but might as well vent somewhere.
Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist
2 November 2012 at 3:47 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
JAL,
I can offer you nothing but sympathy.
*hugs*
emburii
2 November 2012 at 3:52 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
JAL…
I wish there was something I could do to help. It’s pretty feeble, this entire comment, since I don’t know what I could do, but count this as another voice hoping for the best? You’re in people’s thoughts, and if anyone in the thread is in AZ maybe they can help.
mildlymagnificent
2 November 2012 at 4:11 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Don’t worry, emburii, we all feel a bit helpless. But when people like JAL are all alone with serious problems, it can’t hurt to tell her that we hope for the best and that she’s free to vent here or ask for whatever advice or help we can offer. (You never know when someone might just know someone else who really can offer practical help. If we’re not told of the need, the chance never arises.)
Tigger_the_Wing
2 November 2012 at 4:27 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Gilliel,
There’s a similar one here but, of course, it doesn’t have a quad-cane inside it and thus no legs. I crocheted and stuffed the body, legs and tail at the request of the little girl across the road, who made the reins.
JAL,
I’m relieved that you are getting some help. I hope that there is someone in the horde close to you who can give you a hand.
John Morales
2 November 2012 at 4:36 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
There are two kinds of people: those who worry more for those whom they love than for themselves, and the other kind.
opposablethumbs
2 November 2012 at 4:51 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ing, I hope you and yours are safe … that it turns out your mother’s house is not damaged, and that you get the power back on soon (fingers xd)
.
JAL, oh shit that’s awful. I hope the school respond well, I hope the people you’ve been in touch with can help, and that you have an advocate/official Friend to help you through proceedings, someone who knows the law and who will be a witness to how officials/the police deal with you and your case. I’ve been reading all the great things that Little One and you have accomplished – all the drawing and reading and thinking, and how hard you’ve been working to make a good life for both of you – and I hate it that this guy can turn up and you have to think of moving. I wish I could do something more than send all my hugs and best wishes. I hope you both stay safe.
rq
2 November 2012 at 5:11 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tigger
I love the description of all your walking sticks. I have the faint suspicion that you like unicorns. ‘Not Very’ is particularly fantastic.
Ing
I hope things improve speedily! And that everyone’s safe!
Tony @342
Thanks for the comic book short-history. That is one strange, strange and unknown world to me.
JAL
Good thoughts for you; I hope all the number calling comes to something positive in the end! Rooting for you.
emburii @365
I don’t think it’s a matter of not caring or ignoring, but a matter of following the conversation. Go ahead and vent; someone will read your posts, at any rate – even if there’s not much we can do to help. See what mildlymagnificent said @368.
Giliell, Approved Straight Chorus
2 November 2012 at 5:12 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hmm, college just forced me to have a muffin. OK, Ok,
actually I only needed to break down the banknote so I can make deposits…
Tigger
Your link is borked (or blocked at college)
Last night #1 told me a wonderful bedtime-story about how all the unicorns got in a storm and then their fairy-friend had to rub them down :)
emburii
Sorry to hear about the financial strain. Can you change the payment mode for the insurance for the next time, like you sending them the money instead of them deducting it?
As for the “I was ignored”: just don’t take it personal. Conversation flows and just because nobody answered you it doesn’t mean people ignored you. They just didn’t have any meaningful to say.
+++
Sop, in the wake of Sandy Mr. and I decided to send the money we usually spend on a new-years eve party on hurricane relief for Cuba which has also been heavily hit by Sandy.
rq
2 November 2012 at 5:28 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh and Tigger I second Giliell @373, something’s up with that link – couldn’t open it from home.
Improbable Joe
2 November 2012 at 5:34 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
JAL,
I’ve got nothing to add except that I hope the advice you’ve gotten here helps in some way, and that you know if there’s something more concrete we can do all you have to do is ask.
rq
2 November 2012 at 5:45 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Instead of the gold standard, perhaps we should return to the even older salt standard . For those of you planning on hording gold, like all good libertarians should. :P
Tigger_the_Wing
2 November 2012 at 5:57 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Funny, the link worked when I tested it in preview.
Here it is again!
Giliell, Approved Straight Chorus
2 November 2012 at 5:58 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Well, I’m currently in the college library searching for literature for a presentation. There’s a number of books I’d like to send to Stedman et. al.: Criticism of politeness theory…
Giliell, Approved Straight Chorus
2 November 2012 at 6:03 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
looks at link
Funny how traditionally a hobby-horse was more of a boy-toy but now that all girls are about pink! and horses! the poor boys miss out on a hobby horse.
rq
2 November 2012 at 6:05 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Since when did horses become more of a girl thing? I’ve noticed it a bit, too, that horses are more geared towards girls these days… But you’d think such a large animal historically connected to manual labour and war would work for both.
Tigger_the_Wing
2 November 2012 at 6:19 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yes, I know. I really hate the return to gendering toys. I had four hobby-horses when I first arrived in Canberra and a small boy fell in love with the dark brown one so I gave it to him.
When I was a child, I wanted a hobby-horse more than anything, but we were really poor so I had to make do with imaginary ones. So I imagined a whole stable of them and would imagine riding them to and from school. I always gave them turns! When I was working in Adelaide I suddenly realised that I could fulfil my childhood dream and buy a real stableful of hobby-horses.
OK, it’s childish; but although I won’t be able to fulfil all my dreams, I could do that one. And now, adapted, my stableful (since added to by the pink unicorn hubby bought me for Monkey two years ago, replacing the brown one) actually does accompany me everywhere, taking it in turns just as my imaginary horses did all those decades ago.
Giliell, Approved Straight Chorus
2 November 2012 at 6:24 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tigger
Pfff, who cares. Mr.’s birthday present was a huge Ikea plush hippo which I imported from the States because they’re not avaible anymore (and apparently not as highly sought as here).
He was 100% happy.
As somebody once said, the only reason to grow up is so you can have rainbow-cake for breakfast and nobody can tellyou not to.
rq
2 November 2012 at 6:35 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tigger
Exactly what Giliell said. Love the story.
I also wanted a hobby horse when I was little, and of course a bunch of real ponies, but I haven’t got around to either one yet. I tried to make a hobby horse when I was little out of an old sock and a broomstick, and I failed miserably (in my own mind) and I never tried again. Considering the boys are huge knight fans (when we travel to other cities, the first question is, does it have a medieval castle? – most do), perhaps I should try again.
As for the real horses, a friend of mine with a similar dream actually had the guts to drop everything and start keeping horses for a living, and while I still want horses, it’s so much easier just to go and visit… :)
Oh and my Husband’s secret ‘childish’ wish was colourful suspenders; his last birthday, I bought him some. Haven’t had opportunity to wear them out yet, but his work’s annual Christmas thing is coming up. This time around, I have to find a dress to match him.
John Morales
2 November 2012 at 6:38 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’ve said it before, but I consider one of the joys of adulthood (tinged with wistful melancholy as it may be) is to sometimes be able to please the child one once was.
rq
2 November 2012 at 6:42 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Giliell
Also, your point about shopping secondhand, and getting praise for it.
It’s a bit the other way around here, although opinions are slowly changing. If you can buy stuff new, you’re cool and obviously doing well for yourself (appearance is everything – shiny car but crappy apartment seems about the norm); if you buy secondhand, obviously something is wrong with you because you’re not spending enough on your appearance.
For a while, it was a necessity for us (children’s clothing prices here are atrocious), even with the mail-ins from Canada, but I discovered some secondhand shops that had excellent-quality children’s clothes, practically new and sometimes completely unworn, for about a quarter (or less) of the price of brand-new, store-bought items – which tend to be of rather poor quality here. I got into the habit, and now, while we COULD afford a whole lot of stuff new, and for some things (like snow suits) we do it, it’s still less painful to go spend a day in some secondhand shops and find the bargains.
To top it off, a lot of the stuff comes from out of the country, and thus is also more unique and interesting than the boring clothes in stores. (Also, the boys’ section tends to be about a 3rd of the size of the girls’ section.)
We’re thinking of roadtripping to Germany (Poland quality is a bit low) when there’s a huge sale going on and buying new winter clothes (coats and the like) for myself and the Husband; yes, the drive pays off, the difference in prices can be THAT big.
Tigger_the_Wing
2 November 2012 at 7:01 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
When my children were young, living in Sussex, I and my friends in the village formed a clothing exchange. We all had boys and girls of different ages; clothes and toys in good condition as they got outgrown got passed to the mum with a child/children just coming up to that size who would then pass their outgrown clothes to the next mother. It worked brilliantly. It reduced the number of new clothes we each had to buy dramatically* (and there wasn’t a clothing shop, new or second hand, within 10 miles so it was convenient).
*Except, for a while, for socks. I was variously blaming the washing machine, the tumble dryer and the dogs for the fact that the twins’ socks were vanishing in huge numbers. I was buying a packet of six pairs a fortnight to replace them. Then, one evening, a toy got dropped behind a radiator by Number 4 Son. When I went to retrieve it for him, I discovered the missing socks. Several dozen of them had been stuffed behind the radiator by Number 3 Son who thought it was huge fun to see me searching for them. Toddlers!
Tigger_the_Wing
2 November 2012 at 7:05 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh, in other sock-related news, I just got an e-mail. I won third prize in a competition; yep, a pair of socks. =^_^=
rq
2 November 2012 at 7:12 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hooray for socks! Especially wool socks. Are they wool socks? I love my wool socks. Especially now.
And hooray for toddlers (those little social experimenters). The sock story reminds me of the time we moved the couch and found all the Lost Toys.
We have a bit of a clothing exchange going on, but we’re the leaders – the Husband and I were the first to have children in our group of friends, and only now, with #3, would it be possible to have a full-fledged clothing exchange (beginners, heh). :( I did get some from friends in Canada, also some of MY old-old clothing that my mother brought over, but we’re blazing the trail for all our friends – plus we have three boys, so everything just gets handed down one more time. All our newborn clothes have already been recycled 3 times and they haven’t even gone out of the immediate family. Also, my babies have a tendency to be on the small side of the current large-baby trend, so even a difference of 3 – 6 months in age means the younger baby is already wearing the same size of clothing as mine, making exchange rather difficult. :( We’ve also offered to pass our little clothes on to others, but they laugh at us because they’re always too small. :)
Giliell, Approved Straight Chorus
2 November 2012 at 7:14 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
rq
I think the different attitude is well explained by the different wealth of the countries. (shit, do you notice that I’ve been reading academic texts?) Here in Germany I only get praise because I’m actually well off enough thatI could buy the more expensive stuff.
When #1 was born I got a hellotof clothes from a friend of my sister. But that sister had a sister herself who had given birth to a girl herself only a few days after me. But that sister would not take the hand me downs. For her it would indicate that she herself was not able to buy her daughter clothes and had to rely on hand me downs.
It’s like Sam Vimes says:* Too poor to paint, too proud to whitewash. For poor people, new clothes signify “I’m not that poor, look at me, I don’t have to buy second-hand”, but for middle-class like me the discounter stuff and the second-hand stuff signify “look what a sensible person I am, I’m not wasting any money!” (Of course with the implicit assumption that if those good for nothing poor people just acted like us they wouldn’t be poor while of course judging them at the same time if the stuff is a bit worn).
My kids are not permanently checked for signs of us being bankrupt or them being neglected and ungroomed, even if they’re a bit grubby from time to time, but with poor people’s kids, every tear in the jeans and every bruise on the knee is an indicator of evil things.
For Germany I recommend C&A. They have good quality for decent prices. My most favourite place for shopping clothes is although Aldi Süd, but that’s no use for you since their programm changes every week.
*There’s a Pratchett for everything
Giliell, Approved Straight Chorus
2 November 2012 at 7:20 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Socks are my permanent nightmare. There are never enough. They are always gone. Each week, more socks end up in the lonely stockings box than go out of it.
As I said, we got lots of hand me downs. Our baby-stuff has been used by 5 kids already and is now going to make its voyage never to come back to me to a friend’s place and I guess she’ll pass it on as well.
And now I’m off for a while, making copies and begging the librarian to let me borrow the one book already over the weekend.
rq
2 November 2012 at 7:29 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Giliell
You’re like that butler from The Moonstone except you use Pratchett instead of Robinson Crusoe.
Thanks for the tips! When does Germany have the giant sales? After Christmas, like everybody else? For example, would January be a good time to go for the discounts? When we get more organized, I’ll probably have a lot more questions.
And the national wealth discrepancy probably explains the attitude, but also the importance of appearance/superficiality. Image here is SO important (falls into the whole gender-norm idea) – what car you drive, how fast you drive, what you say about other drivers, what clothes you wear, your make-up, nails, heels, the beer you drink… Everything is keenly observed and noted and then a whole lot of things are assumed about you.
For example, I was born in Canada; that makes me a foreign-Latvian (already bad). Also, supposedly, that makes me rich, but because I don’t buy new, I’m obviously stingy. Also, it means I have a poor grasp of the language, a terrible accent (oh noes!!), and probably strange ways of thinking. In other words, I am not a real Latvian.
[Aside: Never mind that my first language was Latvian, my grammar is better than most people my age, I know my history better, my folk songs better (at least more of them), and I bothered to return to Latvia as a third-generation exile (those who don't return, well, they're not real Latvians either because they're obviously too Canadianized to care about their country).]
So, when I don’t buy new clothes in a(n) (expensive) store for my kids, something must be wrong with me, because I can obviously afford it. What with paying the bills on time and all. :P If you can afford it, you’re supposed to buy it, to prove that you can afford it. (Pictures or it didn’t happen…)
FossilFishy (Νεοπτόλεμος's spellchecker)
2 November 2012 at 7:35 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Threadrupt and exhausted. Sorry if this inappropriate to the current conversation.
Last night I looked to the stars. No big deal of course, after all I live in the country and the stars are so very bright and thick overhead here. After all, we might be at the bottom of the map but our face is turned towards the heart of the galaxy. But it’s been awhile since I stood and looked up after sunset. You see, I wear glasses, and over the last few years they’ve grown more and more scratched. Slowly, one almost invisible line at time my sight had dimmed. It had got so bad that work was getting difficult and the stars had become one dim smudgy streak in the sky. Yesterday I got new glasses and the night sky once again is pricked with uncountable sparks of ancient light.
We all get knocked around don’t we? And some of us more than others. Life, never in the whole of human history from australopithecus to homo sapiens could be considered even remotely fair. Some of us get bumped and bashed, abraded and abused far more than our fair share. Those injuries are not always obvious. Damaged trust, broken hope and crippled confidence don’t leave scars upon the skin as a flag of past harm. But it takes its toll, the vagaries of life’s hardships. Layer upon layer upon layer it all builds up trapping us within ourselves with no obvious way out.
But like the stars, the world is still there. People, good people, are still there. They’re all around if only we can see them through the crazing and cracking. There are no new specs for this, would that I could invent such a thing. All I can do is stand ready to listen, to bear witness to the horrors of other’s lives. To offer the paltry comfort of an auditor who hears, believes and understands to the best of his ability. To be the the bright insubstantial spark through the haze, a reminder that beyond it all, beyond the cruel few who grind and gouge, compassion still exists. It’s not enough, it’s never enough, but it’s all I have to offer.
Be strong my friends, and know that you are heard.
rq
2 November 2012 at 7:38 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
FossilFishy , that was beautiful. Thank you.
I also agree that new glasses rock!
And once I get the larger bits of unspoken conversation out of me (a few years’ worth, so be warned), I swear I’ll take up less threadspace.
dianne
2 November 2012 at 7:42 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Good morning, thread. I just want to say that today’s XKCD is 100% accurate for me. Google voice, though. I’m not sure…
broboxley OT
2 November 2012 at 7:44 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tony
http://www.blueharvestfarm.com/pic/339a4559.jpg
Have you ever watched the movie “Unforgiven”? I turn into Will Mony when I drink bourbon
dianne
2 November 2012 at 7:45 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Also, totally threadrupt and probably checking out for at least the day. Alles gute, Horde! Tschuess.
broboxley OT
2 November 2012 at 7:53 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
cool evolution bumper sticker
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Zylv6EXqwTI/TyGLrgYp4mI/AAAAAAAAADU/CLZS2HdLS58/s1600/evolution
Tigger_the_Wing
2 November 2012 at 8:26 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh no, rq, please don’t reduce your input! I look forward to reading your comments. They always have a fresh take on things.
My older three children were the oldest kids in the clothing exchange, but the twins were the youngest so I did benefit!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beautiful as ever, FossilFishy. Where’s your blog?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I had a real sign of the snobbery of the middle classes when the twins were small. They were born six weeks prematurely so for their first eighteen months they were looked after by a pædiatrician at the hospital where they were born. It was the nearest hospital to where we lived, but was over the border in Kent so we eventually had to start taking them to a Sussex hospital many miles away.
When we turned up the first time, not knowing anyone, I had to answer endless questions about the family. Now, Number 4 Son takes after his Dad’s, Scottish, side of the family. He is small and dark and at twenty months he was tiny. His twin, however, takes after my side of the family and is tall and fair. At twenty months he was 50% bigger than his brother just as he had been at birth. Well, it was obvious that the woman taking notes had immediately come to the conclusion that the twins were unplanned (true, as it happens, but irrelevant) and unwanted (completely untrue) and that being the youngest of five Number 4 Son was being neglected.
I was getting utterly filthy looks from her as the boys played at my feet, the older one just walking but the younger still crawling.
Then she looked down her nose at me and asked where the older three went to school. As soon as I started rattling off the names of the three schools (prestigious selective schools in Kent, rather than the local comprehensive) her attitude did a complete 180º and she started treating me with something approaching deference, and now Number 4 Son’s failure to grow and walk was obviously a medical problem. I was utterly furious. I would still have been the same woman if I hadn’t sent the older three over the border to school in the town where their Dad worked, largely to avoid the bullies from primary school (who had gone to the local school). But now, in her eyes, I was ‘middle-class’ instead of ‘working-class’ and thus above suspicion.
Anyway, I should say that the pædiatrician, when he arrived, turned out to be a small, dark Scot. His attitude was “There’s nothing wrong with being small!”
He got out his charts and after asking my height (5’7″ – “Good, good – that’s in the top 10% of women) and hubby’s height (5’8″ – “Oh. That’s in the bottom 20% of men”) told me his conclusion that our children could turn out any height at all and not to worry about the difference in the twins’ sizes (he was right; apart from a brief time between twelve and thirteen when Number 4 Son overtook his brother, he has always been smaller; their adult heights are 6’2″ and 5’7″). He also examined their joints and diagnosed both with a minor connective tissue disorder which resulted in loose limb joints, which was more pronounced in the younger (“He’s built like a marionette – when he picks his foot up he no longer knows where it’s pointing”), and wrote a letter for me to take to the shoe shop explaining that Number 4 Son needed boots to support his ankles and keep his feet in line or he’d never learn to walk. (Good shoe shops usually refuse to sell shoes to not-yet-walking children).
Number 4 Son was walking two months later. He wore boots until he was twelve. I have still not forgiven that pædiatric nurse’s snobbery, though.
opposablethumbs
2 November 2012 at 8:41 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
FossilFishy, I really needed to
hearread that today. Thank you.Tigger_the_Wing, I loved your photos! And I know what you mean about the paediatric nurse … (mine was a consultant and it was my non-English-speaking OH that triggered the reaction, but it was the same ignore-the-parent shite. And it still makes me angry that I didn’t smack him down instead of trying to keep calm about our toddler’s fucking real problems).
emburii
2 November 2012 at 8:49 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
mildymagnificent, rq, Giliel, thank you for the responses. I apologize for my fit of pique in mentioning past experiences, it wasn’t relevant and I shouldn’t have let my bad mood try to shame anyone here. I was just so worried and stressed, especially about my partner; I can handle being poor and foodless, but he does so much and he tries so hard and the unexpected shock practically destroyed him. If they’d waited even one more day…
Giliel, it was a mix-up on my part as well as the agent’s. I didn’t think to mention post-dating it, since my last insurance providers had done that as a matter of course, and he didn’t make it clear that the funds were being drafted that day. It won’t happen again.
Fortunately, a family member was able to help with even more than I expected. And our friends are kidnapping us for the convention that we didn’t think we could afford. The day’s turned around in just a few hours, I just hope there’s good news for JAL and anyone else in trouble as well.
rq
2 November 2012 at 8:51 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tigger
As I mentioned, I have several years’ worth of all kinds of observations to get off my chest, so the input is not likely to be reduced anytime soon.
That doctor sounds like he has an excellent attitude – ‘any height at all’ and ‘built like a marionette’ made me giggle.
That nurse, though. Ugh. That’s just just snobbery coming out of her pores.
Government workers like to use it here, those who have to deal with people. But they go for the ignorance factor (into which, of course all other factors are factored, but what I mean by that is that their default assumption is that you know nothing). Then they play for power, in the sense that they know everything and you know nothing about what you need, yet the attitude they put on is that ‘It’s so obvious, and you’re a fool and an idiot for not knowing!’ and it takes great amounts of effort to get any kind of information out of them.
I say that, but it mostly applies to the older generation (MOSTLY), most of whom grew up in the Soviet system and know nothing about customer service and smiling, because when they were small and growing up and learning, everyone was bitter unsmiling and also impolite (since being polite could land you the wrong kind of attention because it made you stand out). So they carry it over even now, but what worked for me (haven’t had need to try it out but it might still work) is to play the dumb card right back – put on the most vacant expression ever an explain that you have no idea because you’re not from around here and you’re trying to figure things out for the first time.
Now, here’s where I’m uncertain about the results: either (a) being a newbie just pulled on their heartstrings enough for them to be more open with information (ah, so it’s on the third floor and to the right), or (b) the realization that I was not from this country (slight accent) put me on a different ignorance scale (I have never even tried to look particularly wealthy, just well-kept and healthy, but I’m pretty sure that would get me extra points). Either way, I have always hated the first-impression-negative attitude around here, but at least I learned to manipulate it, a little bit.
That being said, it always helped to ask questions very politely and with a slight emotional lilt. Don’t know why, but speaking in sing-song also brightened people right up.
rq
2 November 2012 at 8:56 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
emburii
That’s very good news! :)
broboxley OT
2 November 2012 at 8:59 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
oooers nice fin on the intartubes
http://esperanto.org/Ondo/Libroj/Libroj.php
I’m very rusty but this might help
Ogvorbis: broken and cynical
2 November 2012 at 8:59 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Well, according to many modern evangelical literalist Christians, women are evil. And horses are evil.
One of the perks of my job is a uniform allowance. And I’ve been around long enough that I really don’t need to buy that much each year. And they have really really good smartwool wool blend socks with arch support and extra padding on the instep for a really good price. I now only have one pair of socks that is not work socks (a pair of Acorn fleece socks given to me by my parents). I wear the wool socks year round and they are cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
Between Pratchett and xkcd, there is an apropo quote for just about anything.
See what I mean?
=
And yay new glasses. I got new glasses earlier this summer and got to see stars out at the forest fires — high altitude, no clouds, no humidity and no pollution (well, other than the smoke plumes from the fire).
rq
2 November 2012 at 9:07 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ogvorbis
Besides carrying the Four Horsemen, I was under the impression that horses are Useful Animals. How are they evil??
Ogvorbis: broken and cynical
2 November 2012 at 9:13 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
They are maleviolent. I once had a Morgan stand on my foot and lean against me, pushing me into an electric fence. For five minutes (seemed much longer) until my friend could turn the power off. I have been bitten by a pony at a carnival. I have been stepped on, kicked, shat upon, and abused by horses on many, many occasions. On the evil scale, peas are about a 1 (1 to 10 scale). Horses are 13 or 14 (right below modern US conservatives) on the same scale.
rq
2 November 2012 at 9:19 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh, I thought there was some biblical basis for it. (You put them in the same category as women.)
I get the feeling you’ve been meeting all the wrong horses. A whole lot of them.
rq
2 November 2012 at 9:25 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
One for the geologists and one for the heartstrings (I’ve always wished all animals could talk).
broboxley OT
2 November 2012 at 9:34 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
rq there are people that think horses are evil, then there are people that know that horses are extremely large ground squirrels except with a smaller brain than their tree climbing cousins
rq
2 November 2012 at 9:37 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Fine, everybody insult horses and compare them to oversized rodents. I’m going to go pout in that corner over there until you all get it out of your system.
*mumble mumble beautiful intelligent ungulates mumble mumble*
JAL: Snark, Sarcasm & Bitterness
2 November 2012 at 9:39 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Everything is still okay. Roomie finally got home a little while ago. He had to work late since he got promoted and has to do two jobs until they hire someone to take his old job next week. Feel much better with him home and not alone. Little One is at school and they are all notified. We’re going to be picking her up a bit earlier since they open the gates to let the parents in like 15 mins before school is out and just taking her home then. Will notify my landlord and start making calls to legal places at 8 when they open. I don’t know how much we can do on a Friday without notice but at least I’ll know what steps to take next week is all else fails.
Eventually, there will be sleep again.
broboxley OT
2 November 2012 at 9:47 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
rq, horses are fine. I have owned fed cleaned rode and cleaned and herded and cleaned them a lot in my yout. You do have to understand that they think that sticks are snakes, people will cook them when they get old and, every little strange sound needs to be shrieked and hit at followed by running madly.
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
2 November 2012 at 9:49 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
In today’s news of a game company doing it RIGHT: Permabans for online users of Halo 4 making sexist comments. The writer (Casey Johnston) says:
My guess, from the 235 comments, is DRTC. But it’s a good article. I’ll have to check the actual interview when I get home (Gamespot is blocked at work.)
rq
2 November 2012 at 9:54 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
broboxley
I know horses aren’t evolution’s Answer to Everything. It’s ok. I’m not being particularly serious. Guess I should specify that. :P Learning.
rq
2 November 2012 at 9:54 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
JAL
Fingers still crossed for you.
UnknownEric
2 November 2012 at 9:55 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
JAL, my thoughts are with you. Glad things are okay at the moment.
broboxley OT
2 November 2012 at 9:55 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
quote of the day
broboxley OT
2 November 2012 at 9:58 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
good news, the gay are off the hook for sandy
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2226642/Muslim-clerics-say-Sandy-Gods-way-punishing-America-anti-Muhammed-film.html
Tigger_the_Wing
2 November 2012 at 10:00 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh, rq, I missed your comment about the socks. I have no idea if they are wool because I only got the email a minute or so before I commented, so they won’t get here for a week; but if they are you are welcome to them (provided you don’t mind socks with an internet service provider logo on them!) as I’m allergic to wool.
JAL, so glad that Roomie is back so you aren’t alone and that the school is being sensible with Little One. Can you take a nap for a while?
I wish I could offer you something more than my hopes that everything works out the way you want.
emburii, I am delighted for you! That is good news, I was worried but didn’t know what to say.
Ogvorbis, please stay safe in those fires! I’m glad you got to see the stars. Some beauty to compensate for the horrors. I’m afraid, though, that I don’t agree that horses are all malevolent. Most of them are just very, very stupid. Beautiful; but stupid.
And peas are delicious except when processed or mushy.
The Mellow Monkey: Caerie
2 November 2012 at 10:00 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Horses are not extremely large ground squirrels. They’re guinea pigs.
Grazing animal? Check.
Herd structure that’s primarily led by a dominant matriarch with a single male with breeding access? Check.
Prefer to sit still and get fat rather than do what you want? Check.
Prone to flinging themselves about over silly things and often injuring themselves? Double check.
Portia
2 November 2012 at 10:10 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I had a horse* as a kid that was terrified of men, having been abused. I had the saddle on her and my dad walked out of the barn, 30 feet away, untangling the bridle. She lost her mind. Reared up, pulled the post she was tied to out of the ground, which hit me and threw headfirst into a 7 foot high stack of chopped wood. She landed on her back, saddle first, scrambled over onto her feet and ran off. Dad managed to run after her and coax her back with a handful of grain. I still loved her. It’s surprising to me that I don’t have a more healthy fear of horses, actually.
*She was named Rahab, after the harlot of the Bible (Was it Jericho that she betrayed? I can’t remember) because we got her from a Bible camp I attended.
And I have a fun google voice number, but I never point out what the numbers spell because I’m always too embarrassed of my dorkiness.
chigau (棒や石)
2 November 2012 at 10:11 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Wait ’til cicely gets here.
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
2 November 2012 at 10:17 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Horses?
They’re more related to dragons than anything. Fierce monsters they are. I’ve heard through the grapvine that they breathe fire, have a venomous bite, and can cut you to shreds with their knife-like talons.
Portia
2 November 2012 at 10:21 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
*snort* Erm, ahem, I mean, horses are evil and rightly terrifying and should be avoided at all costs.
Tigger_the_Wing
2 November 2012 at 10:26 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yes! Having spent a fair bit of time around both species, I can confirm the kinship between horses and guinea pigs.
Once upon a time, my daughter, like many young teenagers, was desperate for a pony. I agreed that she could have one – after she spent a year getting up early every morning and mucking out at the local Riding for the Disabled stables where she volunteered, in addition to her after-school riding (as much a reward for the volunteers as needed exercise for the animals). Needless to say, before the year was out the idea of owning her own pony had become a lot less attractive! Meantime, though, the twins and I got to spend a lot of time there waiting for her to finish her chores.
Number 4 Son adored ponies and horses. As soon as he could walk he would toddle over to them. Some of them were rescues and rather skittish, but they were all as gentle as could be towards this tiny little ape – even the one who had been beaten about the face would let him stroke its nose, lowering its head so he could reach. I never fail to be amazed that these huge, usually rather dim, animals can suddenly show amazing intelligence and understanding when dealing with very young or very disabled people.
Improbable Joe
2 November 2012 at 10:27 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Horses? I don’t know nothing about any horses. My wife rode show horses when she was young, but I don’t think I’ve ever been on one. Just not something I mess with, animals bigger than me.
rq
2 November 2012 at 10:34 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’ll be back later.
Lynna, OM
2 November 2012 at 11:03 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
In its endorsement of Barack Obama for President, The Economist made a few pithy statements, including this one:
And this one:
blogofmyself
2 November 2012 at 11:04 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hello all! I miss talking to you. My computer has been flailing about miserably trying to decide if it wants to die for the past week now, so I haven’t been online too much. I hope you all are well.
—
JAL: That is terrible. I am so sorry that he found you. I’m glad that Roomie is back and that everything is ok for the moment. I hope that you are safe and that all the legal/school/everything people help you in every way that you need. We’re all thinking about you.
—
I just saw this ad on one of the posts here. It made me laugh in that sort of cynical I-hate-everything way. Oh Rmoney, you certainly know what women need.
http://twitpic.com/b9oawe/full
Ogvorbis: broken and cynical
2 November 2012 at 11:12 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I just had to take a break. My computer just got replaced and I am now repopulating it with all the shit I need to do my job.
Lynna, OM
2 November 2012 at 11:13 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ogvorbis @288
Yeah, I’ve heard and seen that same mormons-hire-mormons effect.
I think the mormon influence is slowly, very slowly, being diluted in western states. We still see a disturbing partnership between conservative mormon groups in Utah and environmental protections being weakened in states as far away as Alaska. They’ve got money. They are connected, networked.
When I was working a guidebook to the wilderness and proposed wilderness area of Utah I saw a lot of hatred toward the BLM, most of it from mormons descended from pioneer stock. But they hated the environmental groups more, far more. There are a lot of mormons working for the BLM in Utah, Idaho and Arizona, so that softens mormon hatred toward what is, after all, a federal agency. Local mormons tend to be wary of, or to hold in contempt, BLM employees that come from “back East.”
The generalities above paint with a broad brush. Not all mormons are like that, including not all mormons who work for the Bureau of Land Management.
As far as land management in Utah and Idaho goes, most of the hardcore mormons that I know want ALL federal lands returned to the states. As far as they are concerned, it it their land, not the land of we the people.
Rey Fox
2 November 2012 at 11:18 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sadly, today’s xkcd is no longer accurate for me as of about two weeks ago. My last tangible tie to Idaho has been severed.
Wait, actually, I still have a bundle of checks from 2005.
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
2 November 2012 at 11:20 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Giliell @363:
Did you make him read the comments as punishment for not knowing what “Irish Dance” was?
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emburii @365:
There’s plenty of sympathy to be had here, as many of us are going through financial struggles as well. I’m sorry you’re stressed about money.
Not everyone reads every comment, and even those that do may not feel compelled to respond. Some people may intend to respond at a later date, but life gets in the way and they simply forget.
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Tigger @386:
What an awesome idea.
The amount of money all the families saved by NOT buying new clothes was probably substantial.
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FossilFishy @392:
You have a *stellar* ability to lift the spirits of others in a secular manner. My hat is off to you.
Oh, and I’m glad you acquired new glasses so that you can enjoy the stars above you.
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broboxley @397:
That is one *sweet* evolution sticker!
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rq:
That. Does. Not. Compute.
In all seriousness, you’re not taking up any space. Not only are we happy to have your voice here (and heard), we welcome you and any conversation you choose to have. Aside from kindly discussion, there’s no limitations on what you can post and when. From what you’ve said previously, it seems like you’ve been unable to express some of your inner thoughts, despite a desire to do so. Let them flow freely as you will, for as long as it takes. There’s no pressure here and we certainly aren’t going to hurry you along. I’d tell you to kick back, relax and have some Sangria, but someone here in The Lounge drinks it all up as soon as it’s made…Grog it is!
mythbri
2 November 2012 at 11:24 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@JAL
I hope that everything turns out okay. My thoughts are with you, and I’m glad that the various people you’ve contacted seem to be acting sensibly.
broboxley OT
2 November 2012 at 11:24 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
#431 Lynna ,OM in Alaska the enviro groups are hated because of the proposed rules making for access to “the land of we the people.” is restricted to the rich and well connected. Poor folks without airplanes are not allowed to visit some of the most beautiful spots in America.
blogofmyself
2 November 2012 at 11:25 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Here’s a happy story:
Last night I was talking to my mom on the phone, and she was telling me that my little brother is preparing to take the SAT. He is currently practicing for the writing portion, so they’ve been doing practice essays. One of the prompts was “If you could pick any person to be President, who would it be and why?” Apparently, my little brother wrote the essay on why I should be president, because apparently I’m smart and I care about people a lot. Is there anything more adorable or touching than that? Seriously, I basically started crying when she told me that. I’m getting all watery-eyed now just thinking about it. I feel so special I can’t even handle it.
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
2 November 2012 at 11:34 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tigger @398:
Argh!
Damn snobbery. Who the hell was she to express such barely hidden disdain?
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Oggie @406:
Um, damn.
I can completely understand why you don’t like horses. For some strange-unsupportable-reason, I’d thought horses to be friendly and kind towards humans. But I guess like all animals, horses have varying temperments.
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JAL @411:
I’m glad things are going well enough for now. Hopefully if the ex reappears, you and a support group (or person) are ready for him.
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chigau @422:
I was thinking the same thing.
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I’ve never ridden a horse. I don’t know anyone who owns one, or how to go about doing this, but I really want to ride horseback one day.
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
2 November 2012 at 11:36 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
blogofmyself:
That is wonderful.
To know that your sibling holds you in such regard is a true honor.
I’m quite happy for you.
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
2 November 2012 at 11:37 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh, and you *should* feel special.
You are.
Ogvorbis: broken and cynical
2 November 2012 at 11:43 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Horses are quite intelligent. They can even be creative. Which can lead to maleviolence. I’ve heard that there are some nice horses out there. I have also heard that the GOP still has some moderates.
Ogvorbis: broken and cynical
2 November 2012 at 11:44 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
JAL:
I hope things work out to your benefit. Could the fact that the ex tracked you down after so much time be used as evidence that the ex may mean you harm?
Portia
2 November 2012 at 11:58 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Nice!
FossilFishy
Thank you for the pick-me-up. I needed it. I’m working on a case the last few days that is tearing me up and giving me chest pains and migraines and all manner of anxiety-induced yuckiness. I’m hoping it can be resolved soon. I
maywill most likely pass it off to another lawyer.Richard Austin
2 November 2012 at 12:00 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
A friend of mine used to be an instructor/guide at an equestrian camp. Her favorite horse used to play “fetch” with itself: it’d grab a blanket in its mouth, swing it around and toss it, then chase after it, pick it up, and do it again.
For like an hour.
Lynna, OM
2 November 2012 at 12:00 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ogvorbis, sometimes I feel sorry for the BLM in Utah. They see hikers writing “Fuck the BLM” in trailhead sign-in logs (mostly due to frustration with cows and with seeing portions of land that looks like the cows brought the apocalypse with them); while on the other hand ranchers, ATV riders, and even “green” outfitters that guide horseback expeditions disparage the BLM for the restrictions they impose. The BLM rescues a lot inexperience tourists in, for example, the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
Lynna, OM
2 November 2012 at 12:04 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
mythbri @290
Yeah, I remember that too. Keep those uppity wimmen in their place. Mormons were a major force against the ERA.
Sorry to hear that your dad had to go through the inanity of excommunication. It always kills me that that mormons call those excommunication hearings a “Court of Love.”
Lynna, OM
2 November 2012 at 12:12 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My daughter is back in her apartment in Lower Manhattan. She is in one of the few buildings that had power as of yesterday.
Unfortunately, the madness is not yet over for her. The steam heat pipes (about 1980s vintage) sprung a leak behind her bedroom wall. She woke at O’dark thirty to find her bedroom full of hot steam. Paint was billowing off the walls in big bubbles. It took workmen three hours to arrive to fix it, thanks to massive traffic jams.
The leak is fixed, saturated, (and partially burned!), sheet rock has been removed. She now has sheets of plastic instead of a wall. More repair to be done soon, she hopes.
She said she can’t even muster what ever it takes to be upset because the damage in her bedroom is so much less than a lot of people are putting up with in New York and New Jersey. She did lose one favorite comic book to steam damage.
Ing:Intellectual Terrorist "Starting Tonight, People will Whine"
2 November 2012 at 12:13 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Update:
House fine. Power eta now the 9th still no food or heat. Temperature seems to be dropping. Getting worried.
Rest of area has power: signals, stores etc but we are apparently fucked till 9th…nmaybe time table keeps getting pushed back
Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–
2 November 2012 at 12:22 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Fuck.
Ing, I am so sorry. Are there any prospects on food?
Beatrice, anti-imperialist anti-racist Islamophobiaphobic leftist
2 November 2012 at 12:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ing,
Shit. I’m sorry. And what Tony asked.
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls
2 November 2012 at 12:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
When we had a series of wind storms about 15 months ago, the local power distribution company explained that they worked on the lines using a triage type system. First hospitals, traffic signals, police and fire stations and public transport. After that would get the downed lines effecting the biggest number of people back up first. We had a tree over a line servicing about a dozen houses including ours, so we were late in the queue.
Lynna, OM
2 November 2012 at 12:30 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ogvorbis @306
I am convinced that far-right-wing doofuses say this kind of stuff because it reflects what they would do if they had the chance.
For example, Republicans have taken every path they could come up with to suppress the vote of populations likely to vote for Obama. Some of these efforts have been beaten back by the Courts, but others are still having effects. There are long lines for early voting in Florida, with some voter saying they’ve tried two or three times to vote but had to give up. This is true mostly in neighborhoods dominated by persons of color. Republican legislators in Florida were successful in reducing early voting days by half.
The Romney campaign itself never gives up on surreptitious voter suppression tactics. Think Progress posted an exclusive story about the Romney campaign training poll watchers incorrectly, and in a such way that Obama vote