Comments

  1. John Morales says

    [eavesdropping]

    Josh on previous thread:

    Dhorvath:

    Are you tone-deaf (not a provocation, but an honest question)? Do you have trouble carrying a tune?

    Dunno about Dhorvath, but (inside my head) I can.

    (My meat, however, is utterly incompetent at physically doing it)

  2. consciousness razor says

    gah, my Very Important Comment™ was portcullised!

    High-pitched ringing mostly in my left ear, and constant. What annoys me the most about it is I can’t isolate the actual note on the diatonic scale.

    You mean the chromatic scale.

    I wouldn’t expect it to fit Western tuning anyway (or for the timbre to match a piano, for example), but the perceived waveform could be complex enough that there isn’t a definite fundamental. Does it seem to “beat” or shift around at all? And about what octave would you say it’s in?

  3. Josh, Official SpokesGay says

    Oh, also, Dreams:

    Leaving aside the standard repertoire in my head (tornadoes, being denied my college degree because I dropped out of high school and forgot to complete one last class), I learn lots of interesting things while sleeping.

    The other night I learned about Pachyderms. Not the real kind, but the Josh Dream Kind.

    Pachyderms are small mammals the size of Maine Coon domestic cats. They have all the features and markings of a Tabby cat, but they have extra legs. Specifically two short, gimpy, extra-jointed legs that grow from just beneath their ears and just above their eye (this makes them six-legged, see). The extra “Pachyderm” legs hit the ground so as to foil smooth locomotion but not to contribute to getting anywhere. So the poor things kinda hop around being all special-needs.

    You can’t get them from an ordinary animal rescue or breeder; you have to get them from a graveyard. Specifically you have to find an undertaker digging a grave by hand who chances upon a Secret Underground Chamber, lit by paraffin torches, in which a weird-ass family is having a private burial ceremony underneath an already-buried coffin. It is from this chamber that Pachyderms emerge and colonize yours house.

    They’re wicked cute and cuddly, but you soon learn that their species farts constantly. Meaning a steady, never-stopping stream of methane gas. Most times you can’t smell it, but sometimes your guests can. That’s not the worst part. The methane is of such a character that even when it’s undetectable by scent it coagulates into hard matter. It leaves a row of origami paper cranes and squares stuck to the corners of your ceiling. Basically Pachyderm dust bunnies except overhead instead of underfoot.

    So keeping Pachyderms means a daily routine of Hoovering the ceiling corners instead of cleaning out the litterbox as you would a felid.

    And that’s the kind of insane shit my brain cooks up while I sleep.

  4. says

    I posted on Mano Singham’s thread about therapists, but it’s in moderation.

    I don’t understand why someone would go to therapy if they’re not interested in hearing that what they’re doing isn’t working. Isn’t the whole point of the thing to get just that sort of outside perspective?

  5. John Morales says

    Nerd,

    I’m thinking of taking a “catch-up” day to do things I just can’t do with the present schedule. For example, the dust bunnies are becoming dust kangaroos…

    I just know you’re thinking this is one way you can give The Redhead a present when she gets to come home.

    (May that be sooner rather than later!)

  6. Josh, Official SpokesGay says

    You mean the chromatic scale.

    Maybe, but I think in terms of the 7-note diatonic scale.

    Does it seem to “beat” or shift around at all?

    No, there’s absolutely no beating or anything resembling a vibrato. It’s pure and constant, almost electronic-sounding in its lack of overtones.

    And about what octave would you say it’s in?

    That’s the problem. It’s so damned high it’s above where you could get on the highest register of a piano keyboard. It’s basically “too high to hear” except I hear it. I don’t know how else to explain it. . .there’s some perceptual fuck-up going on.

  7. d(thunk) over d(MQ) = SQRRAWK! says

    One weird thing:

    I sometimes get lucid dreams, but only when they’re sleep-deprived.

    The one last night was about the EuroTrain project, which attempts to create a European high-speed rail network– but it’s like subway lines. Don’t ask me. And somehow, Lake Baikal ended up in there.

  8. Josh, Official SpokesGay says

    consciousness razor, the closest I can estimate the tone is an impossible A6 or A7. But even that’s very uncertain.

  9. John Morales says

    kristinc,

    I don’t understand why someone would go to therapy if they’re not interested in hearing that what they’re doing isn’t working.

    People are both simpler and more complicated than most of us think they are.

    Perhaps that someone considers that their life will be easier if they do go (given their environment) though they have no interest in that.

    (That’s precisely why I was an altar-boy in my teens)

  11. carlie says

    Wow, and the people who made the hoodie company? Members of Journey. No joke.

  12. Pteryxx says

    It’s basically “too high to hear” except I hear it. I don’t know how else to explain it. . .there’s some perceptual fuck-up going on.

    That exactly matches my (brief) experiences of tinnitus. It sounds just like that high-pitched electronic single note that an overhead projector or dying old-school monitor makes, which only a few people in a roomful can hear.

    Er, for y’all who’ve never heard that… like a home-issue smoke alarm that just makes one extremely loud note.

  13. Josh, Official SpokesGay says

    Members of Journey.

    For rilz? That’s fuckin’ awesome.

    Now get your knees flexin’ and your arms T-rexin’. . .do the creep

  14. Josh, Official SpokesGay says

    That exactly matches my (brief) experiences of tinnitus.

    I’d love to know what Oliver Sacks would write about this phenomenon.

  15. Pteryxx says

    http://www.columbia.edu/cu/alumni/Magazine/Fall2007/PitchPerfectMatch.html

    In this chapter, “Papa Blows His Nose in G: Absolute Pitch,” Sacks explores the phenomenon of absolute pitch.

    People with absolute pitch can immediately, unthinkingly tell the pitch of any note, without either reflection or comparison with an external standard. They can do this not only with any note they hear, but to any note they imagine or hear in their heads. Indeed, Gordon B., a professional violinist who wrote to me about tinnitus, or ringing in his ears, remarked matter-of-factly that his tinnitus was “a high F-natural.” He did not realize, I think, that saying this was in any way unusual; but of the millions of people with tinnitus, probably not one in ten thousand could say what pitch their tinnitus has.

    ?

    Although that’s the only mention of tinnitus in that excerpt. (I could swear Sacks has written more about tinnitus than THAT.)

  16. Josh, Official SpokesGay says

    Ah, thank you, Pterryx! I was certain I’d read all of Sacks, but this one is new to me. Nom nom.

  17. consciousness razor says

    No, there’s absolutely no beating or anything resembling a vibrato. It’s pure and constant, almost electronic-sounding in its lack of overtones.

    But it sounds like a definite pitch, right? I mean, it could be white noise-ish but within a very narrow range. Is it like a steady hissing sound or like a mosquito buzzing? Since it’s so high, you’d fry your brain trying to tell the difference, but I’m just trying break it to you gently that figuring it out may be impossible.

    That’s the problem. It’s so damned high it’s above where you could get on the highest register of a piano keyboard. It’s basically “too high to hear” except I hear it. I don’t know how else to explain it. . .there’s some perceptual fuck-up going on.

    Hmm. You almost certainly can’t hear its overtones to give you a frame of reference, and besides that, it’s probably not going to match the overtones of any of the lower notes you can find on a piano. Sorry, I bet it’s frustrating.

  18. Josh, Official SpokesGay says

    But it sounds like a definite pitch, right?

    Yes. But one I can’t identify. Grrrr.

    Since it’s so high, you’d fry your brain trying to tell the difference, but I’m just trying break it to you gently that figuring it out may be impossible.

    I know. I probably won’t be able to. No, it’s not like a mosquito or white noise. It’s pure, in the unnatural way that only electronic tones can be. Stripped of overtones and timbre. Barren. Cold.

  19. Josh, Official SpokesGay says

    It’s like Pterryx said. . a constant, high-pitched electronic whine, very artificial sounding.

  20. Josh, Official SpokesGay says

    Oh, oh, I know! It sounds like the highest pitches of the hearing test the doctors give you. You know how fake and thin those tones sound? That’s what it’s like.

  21. consciousness razor says

    Oh, oh, I know! It sounds like the highest pitches of the hearing test the doctors give you. You know how fake and thin those tones sound? That’s what it’s like.

    I think those are sine waves. If the register’s above the range of a piano, a difference of a semitone amounts to several hundred Hz. So while I don’t know how well you can discriminate pitches in that range, there may be more frequencies that don’t sound in tune compared to those that do. Or if you can’t discriminate them well, you could call it a 50/50 shot that something sounds in tune or else sounds a quarter-tone off, if you know what I mean.

  22. Josh, Official SpokesGay says

    Up in that range, CR, I doubt I can discriminate among tones reliably. But that’s where the tinnitus is.

  23. John Morales says

    [meta]

    Wow.

    Just refreshed, and what do I see?

    Recent Comments

    anteprepro on P.Z. Myers á Íslandi!
    sketch on P.Z. Myers á Íslandi!
    Brownian on P.Z. Myers á Íslandi!
    sketch on P.Z. Myers á Íslandi!
    Brownian on P.Z. Myers á Íslandi!
    municipalis on Thank you, Jesus!
    Brownian on P.Z. Myers á Íslandi!
    sketch on P.Z. Myers á Íslandi!
    anteprepro on P.Z. Myers á Íslandi!
    Brownian on P.Z. Myers á Íslandi!
    sketch on P.Z. Myers á Íslandi!
    Brownian on P.Z. Myers á Íslandi!
    sketch on P.Z. Myers á Íslandi!
    sketch on P.Z. Myers á Íslandi!
    Brownian on P.Z. Myers á Íslandi!

    (A bit like what PZ sees, I reckon)

  24. Cipher, OM, MQ says

    I am taking a break from my REAL ACTUAL STUDYING to tell you all this very good thing from yesterday:

    Yesterday, I successfully talked myself out of my weekly Tuesday for-no-reason freakout.

    I noticed it was going to happen when I was waiting to get my food and I realized my back and shoulders hurt from how much I was curling up trying to disappear, and I was clenching my jaw really hard, and my stomach hurt, and I felt really bad about myself. So I stopped and very firmly told myself that I was feeling like this for no reason other than habit and the persistent but wrong idea that nothing can just be good for me, went painstakingly through the reasons my day had gone well and I had done well, and pointed out to myself that the two things that went badly all day were both not completely my fault and virtually insignificant. And I made a point of relaxing my muscles and trying to be proud of myself for the good things that had happened that day, and kept running through them. And then I totally didn’t freak out.

    So… Yay! :D *throws confetti on herself*

    (Also, thanks to those of you who have pointed out some of the things I told myself. :D)

  26. John Morales says

    Cipher, grats!

    (You describe that to which Scientologists refer to as ‘a cognition’)

  27. Sili says

    I see Josh is of the four legs good, eight legs doubleplusgood school of thought.

  28. Sili says

    Also, Josh, is there any reason you can’t just stand next to a tone generator and dial it up until you hit a match?

    Is it like in dream-space, where stuff *cannot* match, no matter how much you know it’s supposed to?

  29. John Morales says

    Sili:

    Also, Josh, is there any reason you can’t just stand next to a tone generator and dial it up until you hit a match?

    Yes: “It’s basically “too high to hear” except I hear it. I don’t know how else to explain it.”

    IOW, his neural auditory system provides input to his sensorium which is outside the range of his sense-organs.

  30. John Morales says

    In the news — data on the “war on drugs” in Oz: Cannabis dominates drug seizure stats,

    Seventy-two per cent of seizures by number were of cannabis, while the drug accounted for 69.3 per cent of arrests.

    “Amphetamine-type stimulants” were the next biggest group in the seizures data, accounting for 16.1 per cent of seizures by number.

    Heroin accounted for 2.8 per cent of seizures while cocaine made up only 1.7 per cent.

    […]

    The research also reveals criminals are creating an increasing number of new substances to avoid prosecution.

    Crime Commission chief executive officer John Lawler says while “meow meow” is the most common of these drugs, there has is an increasing number of alternatives entering the market.

    “This is a planned risk management strategy by organised criminals,” he said.

    “It’s about them using analysis and compounds to actually operate outside the legal framework.”

    (Of course it fucking involves criminals; recreational drug use has been criminalised. O prohibition!)

  31. opposablethumbs says

    Congrats Cipher – I’m very impressed by the way you dealt with that!
    .
    re tinnitus – apart from things like having a fan on for white noise at night, has anyone found anything that helps? I know someone who would give a lot to know … :(
    .
    This got portcullised, but I think the legal implications make it worth re-posting (just the once!)
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-18097238

    The Diocese of Portsmouth is challenging a High Court ruling that the Roman Catholic Church can be held liable for the sex crimes of priests.
    [rcc whinging snipped]
    Tracey Emmott, the woman’s lawyer, said: “While it may be an interesting point of law because there is no formal employment relationship between priests and their bishop, this challenge to the High Court ruling is likely to be deeply offensive to victims of clerical abuse.

    “Why should the church be treated any differently from normal employers who must face legal responsibility for wrongful actions of their employees?

    “Sadly the church has a history of child abuse allegations against priests, which will not go away.

    “It publicly expresses a commitment to take sexual abuse seriously and to eradicate it, yet is chooses to challenge a high profile High Court ruling that finds the church is legally responsible for it.”

    A judgement is not expected to be announced until the autumn.

  32. says

    Good morning everyone,

    I got back from my camping trip to the Boulonnais (North of France) and I just wanna say it was wonderfull. We had really nice weather throughout the weekend, and I got to see lots of rare plants (including about a dozen orchid species and this weird little fearn) and… Amphibians! Yay amphibians!!! I spotted Natterjack toads, european treefrogs (man, those things are loud!) and common midwife toads. All in all a very succesfull trip. Then I got back and realized I still have a shitload of work to do for my thesis… Crap!

    That exactly matches my (brief) experiences of tinnitus. It sounds just like that high-pitched electronic single note that an overhead projector or dying old-school monitor makes, which only a few people in a roomful can hear.

    Woohoo! I’m not the only one on the planet who can hear that! Wait… Ahhh, does that mean that my only superpower isn’t actually a superpower? Damn.

    Cipher,
    Congratulations on not freaking out!

  33. John Morales says

    pentatomid, good arvo.

    I got back from my camping trip to the Boulonnais (North of France) and I just wanna say it was wonderfull.

    I had some bolognese* (nowhere near France) the other day, it was pretty good.

    —

    * With spag.

  35. says

    Good morning
    Oh ye heavens I’m tired.
    Last night we managed to get the old gnag together for a bit of traditional P&P roleplaying.
    My dice hated me. The only time they gave me a good roll was when they failed to realize that at that very moment I needed a high number instead of a low one. Got a 20.
    Finally switched to random.org…
    Best moment of the game:
    Well, early into the adventure we came into the posession of an artifact. In the meantime, we were attacked Hitchcock-style by all the birds of the heavens and hiding in the basement of the tavern.
    BUt all the pieces fell into place: We had detected the entrance to the secret passage, we had found the hidden key, we had concluded that we needed to put the artifact back into its place so the bird-attacks would stop. So let’s go do it.
    So we turn to the person who had the artifact. Right, let’s return it! And she told us “Ooops, I left it on the table upstairs”

    Nerd
    Good to hear the Redhead is making progress
    +++++

    Tracey Emmott, the woman’s lawyer, said: “While it may be an interesting point of law because there is no formal employment relationship between priests and their bishop, this challenge to the High Court ruling is likely to be deeply offensive to victims of clerical abuse.

    Well, does the church get to say who’s doing the priesting?
    Do they pay them?
    Can they fire them?
    Well, looks like an employer to me.
    German law says that if somebody works for you, even if there’s no formal contract, you have hired them.

  36. carlie says

    Josh – there are a few tone generators that give you different frequencies (a href=”http://www.freemosquitoringtones.org/hearing_test/”>here’s one, here’s another; maybe if you can tag the sound to a frequency, that will at least take away the nagging desire to pin it to a note?

    This is interesting – it’s a test of pitch from the National Institute on Deafness. It assumes familiarity with the American musical lexicon of the late 1800s and early 1900s, but should be easy to figure out. It’s one of those things where I can’t understand how anyone wouldn’t notice the wrong notes, but I guess that’s just my brain wiring.

  37. Louis says

    None of this, literally NONE of this is helping me find a delicatessen/shop that stocks Greek and/or Cypriot foodstuffs and drinks (especially zivania) in my locale.*

    Google is not being amazingly helpful, well it is if I want this stuff next week from an excellent (now bookmarked) online store. My Google Fu is weak, I must strengthen it.

    To the Bat Google, Robin!

    Louis

    * Of course I could also decide not to do a full Cypriot meze including pastourma and loukanika and lounza and proper Greek delight and zivania and halloumi and home made dolamdes and home made keftedes and stifado and my world famous kleftiko.**

    ** This should be made with stolen lamb, as is traditional. Much harder nowadays than one might think. Pinching lamb shanks from Sainsburies is fucking tough, and getting a sheep into the boot of a saloon without the farmer noticing is no mean feat. Plus, slaughtering the sheep in a domestic setting is murder on the drains and causes Issues with the neighbours. And my son is not amused by Baa-lambs being murdered in ear-shot.*** Apparently, according to the judge and child services it’s “child abuse”. It’s political correctness gone mad I tell you.

    *** Do you still hear the screaming of the lambs, Clarice?

  38. quoderatdemonstrandum says

    Tracey Emmott, the woman’s lawyer, said: “While it may be an interesting point of law because there is no formal employment relationship between priests and their bishop, this challenge to the High Court ruling is likely to be deeply offensive to victims of clerical abuse.

    Silly Atheists don’t you know the catholic church is a religion which is also a Nation State but can also be a corporation when that’s useful?

    You see being a religion gives us all the privileges, deference and power that that entails. Being a Nation State gives us direct access to Heads of State and allows us to interfere in other Nations’ affairs, plus our Head of State receives diplomatic quasi immunity from prosecution. Being a corporation safely preserves our assets from victims of our employees’, I mean independent contractor’s crimes.

    What do you mean “Do you think that’s what Jesus meant when he said Peter is the rock upon which I will build my church”?

  39. quoderatdemonstrandum says

    Louis @36

    Apparently, according to the judge and child services it’s “child abuse”. It’s political correctness gone mad I tell you.

    Years ago my friend photographed muslim families in France slaughtering lambs for a religious feast/celebration I forget the name of. The problem is that they were doing this in public housing tower blocks in Marseilles. The French authorities were not amused but did provide outdoor facilities for lamb slaughtering which I thought was surprisingly tolerant and accommodating.

    I just cannot imagine the mess (and for me, trauma) of a live lamb having its throat cut in my flat.

  40. Louis says

    Cipher,

    Nice work, fella!*

    Anxiety is, in the words of Sigmund Freud and the Prophet Mohammed, a total motherfucker. (They really said that. Honest!)

    Go you.

    Louis

    * I am actually assuming you are not a fella (as in male), but it’s an old expression and sexually neutral. Why? Because I said so. Whaddya mean that’s not good enough and it’s still sexist? Why?! Why must you break me!?

  41. Louis says

    Quoderatdemonstrandum,

    I just cannot imagine the mess (and for me, trauma) of a live lamb having its throat cut in my flat.

    Not to mention the unimaginable nature of the fun derived by completely smearing yourself in its blood and faeces, running around naked with its skull balanced on your head, its testicles in each hand and its heart hanging from your mouth whilst gibbering (not easy I can tell you)…

    …just me, eh?

    Louis

  42. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    4:30 am

    Caller: Mr. BDC we cannot connect into your server to check nightjobs

    Me: motherfucker

    2.5 hours later still down.

    me: motherfucker

    looks like today is going to be one of those days

  43. says

    OK, halfway into the thread that was briefly about whaling, that sketch-guy is amusing.

    +++++
    All slaughtering should be done humanely and in proper facilities. A bathroom and a kitchen knife are neither. But I cannot help noticing that people who are completely OK with what happens in normal factory-farming and slaughtering all get into delicately animal lover mode when muslims do it.

    +++++
    Sometimes it’s hard being married to somebody who doesn’t get that having a towel that says “Don’t Panic” is totally froopy.

  46. life is like a pitbull with lipstick ॐ says

    Ogvorbis,

    One of the claims I hear, quite often, from conservatives is that taxing the rich is class warfare; if we don’t let them keep all their money, we are communistsocialists who want everyone to earn the same amount of money and have the same benefits. Then, when a union stands up for workers and says, ‘no, you cannot cut their wages and benefits which the workers earn,’ suddenly you get the bullshit about similar workers earn less and have shitty benefits and it is suddenly okay to want everyone to earn the same amount of money and have the same benefits. It is commiesocialism when we ask the rich to pay a little more but capitalism when we do the same to the workers.

    Can I put this up on the wiki? I don’t know yet where I’d put it — maybe on your article page, maybe on libertarians — but I want it echoed somewhere.

  47. says

    Ever sat in a cafe with a Chinese person with unrecordable blood pressure? Friend was like “oh I don’t feel so well”, and whenever I have heard that at work, it usually meant trouble. So it did today (rule of thumb, if you can’t feel a pulse and the person is talking, the BP is around 60mmHg). Also, the blog isn’t accessible for me anymore as of this morning and I’m trying not to freak out too much about that. Maybe comparing the queues in front of the Mao hall with those on Red Square for the Lenin maosoleum upset someone. Censored in China, top that, Myers!

    I must be in hell.

  50. life is like a pitbull with lipstick ॐ says

    rorschach, if you want a way to use your blog from China, I can email you something. Just tell me an email addy and what operating system you are using (presumably you have taken a laptop along)?

  52. life is like a pitbull with lipstick ॐ says

    Eh, maybe. I just looked up the current state of the art and realized they have upgraded the Great Firewall. I dunno; it might take some work and be a PITA not worth your time. Your call.

  56. Moggie says

    Giliell:

    Well, does the church get to say who’s doing the priesting?
    Do they pay them?
    Can they fire them?
    Well, looks like an employer to me.

    The Catholic church does have a procedure for “dismissal from the clerical state”, after which the guy’s forbidden from most priesting in the church’s name – though he’s still considered to have access to cleric spells until he dies. It’s not hard to find examples where this has been done, even in cases involving child abuse. For example:

    WOONSOCKET, R.I. (WPRI) – A Rhode Island Catholic priest has been defrocked following accusations of sexual abuse.

    A spokesman with The Diocese of Providence says Rev. Timothy Gorton is being accused in allegations dating back 30 years.

    The Woonsocket Call is reporting Gorton has been ordered to move out of the rectory at Precious Blood Parish.

    Though I think this is more usually used for (cough) more serious offences, like consensual sex with an adult.

    I don’t see how the church can have it both ways.

  57. says

    sgbm,

    I’ve taken the crappy Acer tablet, and it’s giving me the shits again. I’m going to try the hotel business centre in a minute, see if that goes through. My email is on the blog’s contact page, help much appreciated ( although it might be a wise move to not upset the locals too much before I get out of here). Its just that every other site I try to access works fine ( apart from YT and the like obviously).

  58. carlie says

    Hey everybody, party at rorschach’s blog!

    How did the low bp person make out? If nothing else, they were lucky you were there to ascertain how serious it was.

  59. says

    So, Mr has just gone downstairs with my box of screwdrivers. I should mention that I bought that very box for his birthday two years ago and gave him a card as a prestent that stated that since he had them anyway, he could keep my old set of screwdrivers…
    Heavens have mercy on him if he doesn’t return these…

  60. dianne says

    Good morning/afternoon/evening, thread. Things that make me happy: In the US, tax information for non-profits are publicly available so anyone can see how much money the top 5 earners of a non-profit make. Things that annoy me, but may be useful: The CEO and president of my institution made a good 1.8 million in 2009 (most recently available year) and this was a 15% increase over the prior year. I think their “oh, but we can’t possibly afford to keep paying you $20/hour” argument is screwed.

  62. life is like a pitbull with lipstick ॐ says

    rorschach, I’ll send you an password-encrypted zip file in about a half an hour. Once you have it downloaded to your hard drive, let me know — here if possible, but email if you can’t post for some reason; I just don’t check my email that often — and I’ll give you the password.

  63. KG says

    “This is a planned risk management strategy by organised criminals,” he said. – John Lawler quoted by john Morales

    Well, duh! If they were disorganised criminals, they’d hardly have a planned risk management strategy, would they?

  64. marcus says

    Josh Tinnitus: Back in the early 80s i worked in a “holistic” dental office in West Hollywood where we “treated” tinnitus with homeopathy, acupuncture, cranio-sacral therapy and TMJ splints. I know. So much woo, so much fail (I was young and ignorant). I think the homeopathy was the final straw that my conscience couldn’t abide. Then I learned to cook for a living (a lot less money but it was the beginnings of living rationally). I also get some tinnitus (intermittent and temporary) so glad it’s not constant, interesting to hear other folks describe their experiences (perceptions) of it.

    Audrey, on the bright side Mr Darkheart now has a nice comfy pair of pants to wear while doing house chores. I myself have eleventy-eight pairs of pants suitable for doing house chores.

    Gilliel, If you haven’t already read it, (you probably have) I highly recommend “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline. Sci-fi, gaming, and 80s trivia. Loved it.

    Louis, You are a fucking hazard. Your brain amazes me
    constantly.

    Cypher, You inspire me. I quaff to your continued success.

    That is all.

  66. dianne says

    Giliell: I’m quite sure that I’m failing to understand. I’m fairly sure that the general public will also fail to understand it. (Wanders off looking innocent.)

  67. says

    Carlie, they were shall we say, reluctant to seek medical attention, it being Beijing. In my desparation I resorted to carotid sinus massage and Valsalva, and it fixed itself thankfully.

    sgbm,

    I get to that tomorrow OK, need bed.

  68. says

    Dianne,

    I think their “oh, but we can’t possibly afford to keep paying you $20/hour” argument is screwed.

    One can only hope. Of course, they might paint the janitoral and food service staff as shiftless bums, whereas the CEO et al. are the people who are making the Really Tough Decisions and therefore deserve more than their $2m/year salary.

    (Sorry. I think I just gave myself heartburn.)

  69. dianne says

    CEO et al. are the people who are making the Really Tough Decisions

    If they’re making the Really Tough Decisions and doing it well, why are we in this Horrible Financial Crisis in the first place?

  71. Psych-Oh says

    Rorschach – I used Securitales when I was in China. It allowed me to access anything. I think I paid for 2 months worth, but you can try it for free.

  72. says

    Dianne,
    Ah, that’s the question for the ages, isn’t it?

    There’s gotta be some way to pin the Horrible Financial Crisis on everyone below the CEO. I mean, if there’s anything we’ve learned from the US’s financial crisis, it’s that, right? Workers are to blame for everything!

    How about: Blame the unions for forcing the hospital to pay Those Shiftless Bums above minimum wage. *dusts off hands*

    *barf!*

  76. Ogvorbis: Illogical and Incompetant Liar (OM) says

    Can I put this up on the wiki? I don’t know yet where I’d put it — maybe on your article page, maybe on libertarians — but I want it echoed somewhere.

    Sure. Not totally clear on why you would want to, but go for it.

    I think their “oh, but we can’t possibly afford to keep paying you $20/hour” argument is screwed.

    Never mind. I now see why my paragraph is entirely apropos in multiple situations.

  77. Esteleth, Raging Dyke of Fuck Mountain says

    Morning, Horde!

    I decided that the thing to do was perform an experiment, and now I have data to present.

    *clears throat*

    Step 1: Acquire liquid nitrogen burns on the hand.
    Step 2: Acquire hot coffee
    Step 3: Due to burned hand from step one, fumble coffeecup, thus slopping hot liquid on the hand.

    By the transitive property of bullshit, these should cancel out, right?

  80. Esteleth, Raging Dyke of Fuck Mountain says

    *carefully notes: Observation: the reaction of the subject “Daisy Cutter” is to emit a high-pitched ululation.” More experimentation is required to determine the meaning and replicability of this phenomenon.*

  81. Louis says

    Esteleth, #75,

    Good experiment.

    Next I recommend alcohol.

    Louis

    P.S. Also: Ouch! I hope you’re not too seriously harmed.

  82. Louis says

    Rev BDC,

    Look at it this way:

    {tilts head to the right by 30 degrees}

    {squints}

    {hops on one leg, any leg}

    There. Doesn’t that put things in perspective? No, no. No need for thanks.

    Louis

  84. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    Rev BDC,

    Look at it this way:

    {tilts head to the right by 30 degrees}

    {squints}

    {hops on one leg, any leg}

    There. Doesn’t that put things in perspective? No, no. No need for thanks.

    Louis

    That position makes it difficult to effectively scowl at people coming in my office. Not nearly as effective while hopping

  86. Louis says

    Rev BDC,

    Very true, but it has the bonus effect of scaring the piss out of people if you silently keep it up whilst they’re in there.

    Trust me.

    Louis

  87. hence says

    Speaking of character flaws, most people in their lives develop a sort of map over intentions and outcomes. I forgot to do that. If this made sense, consider it an apology.

  89. carlie says

    Rev – love it! But to be more accurate, she’s kicking them right in the fucking nuts.

  90. Esteleth, Raging Dyke of Fuck Mountain says

    I am fine, everyone. Thanks!

    mmmsushimmm

    The last time I was at a sushi restaurant I had a drink with my meal called the screaming octopus.

    Incidentally, the sex shop in the same town as that restaurant sells an item called the screaming octopus.

    The two items do not resemble each other, except for both causing warm happy feelings.

  91. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    Rev BDC,

    Very true, but it has the bonus effect of scaring the piss out of people if you silently keep it up whilst they’re in there.

    Trust me.

    Louis

    this is a very good point

  92. says

    E,

    The last time I was at a sushi restaurant I had a drink with my meal called the screaming octopus.

    Incidentally, the sex shop in the same town as that restaurant sells an item called the screaming octopus.

    Sadly, my local sushi joint doesn’t have a bar– they serve beer and wine and that’s it. :(

    And our sex shops are monumentally skeezy. :(

    So, no screaming octopodes tonight. D:

  94. life is like a pitbull with lipstick ॐ says

    rorschach,

    I get to that tomorrow OK, need bed.

    Yep. Like I said, just let me know when you’ve got it downloaded.

  95. life is like a pitbull with lipstick ॐ says

    Ogvorbis,

    Sure. Not totally clear on why you would want to, but go for it.

    :) If I try to explain then I’ll run into existential questions like why do we even have a wiki? and whatever happened to that cookbook?

  96. Esteleth, Raging Dyke of Fuck Mountain says

    Audley,
    What, no curiosity about what the screaming octopus-drink was?
    (I think “tentacles” is enough info about the other item).

    Well, I shouldn’t drink tonight anyway. Driving and all that.

    As for skeezy: the one in my hometown mostly caters to long-haul truckers. The number of items that attach to steering wheels was impressive. And horrifying.

    (Sheep?! Why the animatronic sheep?!)

  97. says

    E,
    Well, my guess is that’s it’s rum-based*, but beyond that, I’d love to know what’s in a screaming octopus.

    Our sex shops are skeezy in another way (although I’m intrigued by gadgets that hook to a steering wheel), mainly ‘cos they’ve got viewing booths, which creep me the fuck out.

    (Also, hello? Internet? Whack off in the privacy of your own home, maybe?)

    *Nautical and whatnot. Yo ho ho!

  98. says

    NomNomNom
    Since today is one of those indistiguishable Catlick holidays I can’t tell apart since they’re always on Thursdays, I decided to treat the family with fresh homemade waffles, strawberries and cream
    NomNomNom
    Oops, I just remembered that I have to show up at my GP’s tomorrow morning to have my blood checked…

    Esteleth
    Ouch. I hope the hand heals quickly

    Greek Food
    Mr and I are going to our favourite Greek restaurant on Saturday.
    We’re late celebrating our aniversary, but we will celebrate

    …zivania….

    Oh my goodness, I had truely forgotten about that stuff, probably because it burned the brain cells the information to stay the hell away from it on consumption.

  99. Esteleth, Raging Dyke of Fuck Mountain says

    Actually, the screaming octopus was tequila based. It had pineapple juice, triple-sec, and rice noodles in it.

  100. Ogvorbis: Illogical and Incompetant Liar (OM) says

    Theater shut down so that a B&B group can use it for a conference. Everthing set up by 10 for an 11am start. It is now 11:30 and no one is here. But I am wasting my day dealing with a non-conference when I could be doing something useful!

    By the transitive property of bullshit, these should cancel out, right?

    Er, bullshit is additive, not transitive. Sorry.

    And I hope you are okay.

    That position makes it difficult to effectively scowl at people coming in my office. Not nearly as effective while hopping

    Though if anyone is willing to enter your office while you are hopping, at least you know it is important, right?

    What the fuck happened on the Iceland thread?

    Trollus estdeegoegoi

  101. life is like a pitbull with lipstick ॐ says

    Armed Glenn Beck fan caught taking photos at a base in Iraq. Right-wing media making a martyr out of her.

    I’m not sure I understand; is Suffolk County in Iraq?

  103. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    I have officially reached the point of caffeine diminishing returns

  104. Ogvorbis: Illogical and Incompetant Liar (OM) says

    Tequila? Bah.

    I don’t think tequila has anything to do with sheep.

  105. ChasCPeterson says

    Armed [a] Glenn Beck fan caught taking photos at a base [b] in Iraq [c].

    lol. Worst summary evar.

    a) unloaded target rifle in a locked case in the back of the car.
    b) public airport
    c) Long Island, NY

  106. A. R says

    Og: I don’t recognize estdeegoegoi. Is it in the taxonomy yet? Also what is the meaning of the species name?

  107. Louis says

    Giliell,

    My Cypriot grandfather used to swear at zivania. I too have sworn at it frequently.

    Louis

  108. Ogvorbis: Illogical and Incompetant Liar (OM) says

    Og: I don’t recognize estdeegoegoi. Is it in the taxonomy yet? Also what is the meaning of the species name?

    This is a tentative taxonomy.

    The species name is a pseudo-Latin version of It’sAllAboutMeMeMe. Literally, All About I I.

    The vernacular of the species name was introduced by someone (and I looked and cannot find it!) and all I did was ‘Latinize’ it.

  109. Ogvorbis: strawmadhominem says

    Damn. That should be ‘was introduced by someone on the Island thread (and I looked (again!) and cannot find it!)’.

  111. Richard Austin says

    So far this morning, I’ve screwed up three different numbers, and I’ve only been here an hour.

    I’ve never been able to get a consensus on if I’ve got dyslexia or dyscalculia. I can do math just fine, especially math with variables (I love calculus). It’s just numbers (specifically, sequences – I memorize things like my driver’s license because I’ll never be able to simply read it back without screwing it up two or three times), though I transpose and skip letters and words in my head all the time (those I tend to catch easily). So, one doctor said it was dyslexia, and one said dyscalculia. Though I tend to lean towards dyslexia.

    Doesn’t help when you lock out a system account because you can’t get the password straight, though.

  113. Ogvorbis: strawmadhominem says

    Have you ever seen a sheep wrecked on tequila? Not a pretty sight.

    Never seen a sheep wreck. Once saw an Old Town fibreglass kayak get turned inside out around a rock, does that count?

  115. Ogvorbis: strawmadhominem says

    Ever spent much time in Wyoming?

    Couple of times. But I hit the sheep (and, the same week, a moose) up in Montana. Didn’t wreck the sheep or the moose, but the whole plastic nose of my truck had to be replaced (luckily a rental).

    However, sheep wreck? Not a whole lot of deep water in Wyoming for a full sized sheep. Lots of boats, but not too many sheep.

  116. Pteryxx says

    Richard Austin: in my case, they just called it “sequencing difficulty” which may be one aspect of either dyslexia or dyscalculia. Sequencing as a cognitive function is separate from, say, calculation, or comprehension. (At least from a learning disability POV.)

  117. Psych-Oh says

    Richard Austin – Pteryxx has it right. I have the same issue. I am decent at math, and an avid reader. But I can’t recall number sequences for squat. I’ve never been good with phone numbers. For me, it is the transfer from short to long-term memory that poses the problem. If I want to remember any long sequence, I have to write it down many, many times. And my recall of it is completely visual.

  118. Pteryxx says

    Heh, my recall is kinesthetic/tactile – I can write the number out from memory, but not visualize it or speak it.

  119. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    However, sheep wreck? Not a whole lot of deep water in Wyoming for a full sized sheep. Lots of boats, but not too many sheep.

    sorry that was a big stretch of an attempt by me at a joke. Being woken at 4:30 am after not really sleeping to have to rush in to the office to deal with severs down has left me a bit… loopy.

  120. Richard Austin says

    Yeah, that sounds right. I *do* have mild dyslexia with words, but that I can manage. It’s just number sequences (especially “chaotic” unpatterned ones) that I get lost in.

    But today, I kept looking at a number and reading it wrong. Like, for twenty minutes, after actively double-checking and even trying to read it backwards (which usually works). And then I did it with two others. I think I’m just tired.

    I cheat with phone numbers. Anything I can put to a pattern, I can remember – including “poetic” style. So, if I can find a meter to recite the number to that flows easily, I can remember it. Otherwise, well, that’s what cell phone address books are for, right? :)

    (Do not, ever, ask me to transcribe a number from one place to another. That *will* come out wrong, guaranteed.)

  121. Desert Son, OM says

    Ogvorbis,

    Never seen a sheep wreck.

    Well, there was the Baatavia.

    (I’ll get my coat.)

    Rev. BigDumbChimp, good luck with technical difficulties.

    Katherine Lorraine,

    I thought it was only me who drank coffee through their pants.

    Such an excellent turn of phrase: eminently useful, rueful, and hilarious.

    Cipher, three cheers for successfully grappling the freak out.

    Louis, hope the weekend venture to London was marked by safe travels, hilarity, good cheer.

    Esteleth, glad to hear you are no worse-for-thermic-liquid-wear.

    Still learning,

    Robert”

  123. says

    I can only recite a phone number if I picture a phone keypad and the buttons getting pushed. However, if I need to dial a number I have to visualize the digits.

    My elderly dog is not only senile but losing control of her hindquarters. This morning she took a crap outside the front door and by the time I found out about it she had smushed it all over the brick steps. I scrubbed it off but apparently not that well – there are now a flock of flies desperately trying to find the shit on the surface of the bricks.

    For some reason this amuses me greatly.

  124. Janine: History’s Greatest Monster says

    Donna Summer just died of lung cancer.

    I Feel Love

    Sorry, not much time for me to do one of my obsessive tributes, pressed for time. Also will be away from the intertoobz for a few days. Be back Sunday night/Monday morning.

  125. Josh, Official SpokesGay says

    Oh no! Not Donna Summer. Sad, sad, sad. She was great in concert.

  127. carlie says

    For a long time, I associated phone numbers with math problems that matched them (first digit plus second minus third equals fourth kind of thing). Not on purpose to remember, I just kind of did it. Then it stopped, but I’m not sure why.

    One of my recurring nightmare motifs is that I’m trying to phone for help and keep getting the number wrong, no matter how many times I dial.

  130. Josh, Official SpokesGay says

    Austin, you are evil.

    And Streisand is always a penalty, never a bonus. Oh lord how I loathe that woman. Almost as much as I hated Thomas Kinkade (may he rest in pieces).

  131. says

    The arrangement on “I Feel Love” is one of the most perfect things ever. Never liked disco, but that song always sent shivers up my spine.

  133. Janine: History’s Greatest Monster says

    Myeck, “I Feel Love” is more of a German techno song.

  134. Ogvorbis: strawmadhominem says

    Never seen a sheep wreck.

    Well, there was the Baatavia.

    Bad pun! No donut.

    Amphiox
    16 May 2012 at 6:15 pm

    We need a new entry into the troll taxon;

    Trollus itsallaboutmememeus

    Bingo!

    Thank you.

  135. quoderatdemonstrandum says

    This just in from BBC radio 4:

    The birth rate of minority children has exceeded that of white children in the US for the first time.

    White racists gnashing of teeth and screeching furiously in 3, 2, 1. . .

  136. Josh, Official SpokesGay says

    The arrangement on “I Feel Love” is one of the most perfect things ever.

    Yes. Yes. Yes. There’s something about how it builds a vocal chord by successively adding the three voices during each verse that’s just sublime.

  137. Richard Austin says

    Josh,

    Oh, I see how it is. Richard makes you cry, but it’s Austin who is evil.

    … I can work with that :D

    (FTR, I usually go by “Richard” for mundane stuff and “Austin” when I’m feeling quirky/artistic/silly. So, it kind of fits.)

  138. Nutmeg says

    carlie:

    One of my recurring nightmare motifs is that I’m trying to phone for help and keep getting the number wrong, no matter how many times I dial.

    I didn’t want to bring this up earlier and prolong the nightmare discussion, but me too! In my dreams, I’m always trying to dial 911, but either I keep getting it wrong (3 digits!) or the numbers on my phone keep moving around.

    I often do the “math games with numbers for no reason” thing, and it seems to help with memory.

  139. Janine: History’s Greatest Monster says

    And Streisand is always a penalty, never a bonus.

    I have to double down on my fake hubby. One of these days, I really should link to songs that she has done that others have done so much better.

    Out of time.

  140. says

    So an ultra-wealthy entrepreneur argues that the rich actually don’t create jobs:

    So when businesspeople take credit for creating jobs, it’s a little like squirrels taking credit for creating evolution.

    TED is refusing to post a talk that he gave on the topic.

    In an email obtained by the National Journal, TED curator Chris Anderson told his colleagues that Hanauer’s speech “probably ranks as one of the most politically controversial talks we’ve ever run, and we need to be really careful when” to post it. He added: “Next week ain’t right. Confidentially, we already have Melinda Gates on contraception going out. Sorry for the mixed messages on this.”

  141. Ogvorbis: strawmadhominem says

    “probably ranks as one of the most politically controversial talks we’ve ever run, and we need to be really careful when” to post it.

    Oh, are they going to hold onto it until after the November elections?

  142. Josh, Official SpokesGay says

    I know have a new insult: TED Liberals. They can often be spotted in the company of traveling packs of NPR and Whole Foods Liberals.

  143. Josh, Official SpokesGay says

    Know what else is high-larious? Some nutter over on the TED article is snorfling over how we’re all just waking up to the evil that is TED. What were we expecting when they gave a podium to Bill Gates and his depopulation agenda through vaccines?

    Ah, stupid times.

  144. says

    Louis
    I once had the gret pleasure of coordinating an international youth project in Cuba. Among the groups were many people from Greece and cyprus and they treated us well. Oh dear, and that was at a time when I really needed a lot of alcohol to get drunk.
    Well, after that experience I had learned about 5 words of Greek, most of which are not used in polite conversation and they had learned something about men and women. Great folks, put machos without end.

    Richard Austin
    I use the techinque of making sentences with the initial letters of the numbers.
    So 123456789 would be something like: On Tuesdays they fuck for serious sex even naked.

    ++++++
    High Tech Machine Embroidery for Surgery

  145. carlie says

    Bill Gates and his depopulation agenda through vaccines?

    Vaccines make you sterile??

  146. Richard Austin says

    Vaccines make you sterile??

    What he actually said* was that we could reduce population growth by increasing access to vaccines; the population would still grow, but instead of being 10 billion, maybe only be 9 billion.

    I think the notion is that improved life expectancy tends to reduce birth rates.

    *Stupid facts getting in the way of a good narrative.

  148. cicely. Just cicely. says

    Ah, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog! Legen—-wait for it!—dary!!
    –
    After I broke my right eardrum (in the most violent sinus allergy episode I’ve ever had), I was picking up a sort of “buzz” accompanying everything I heard, just an infinitesimal bit behind the beat (reminded me of stored snare drums vibrating) and slightly flat. When the eardrum had healed and the “buzzing” went away, it was replaced for a while with a constant high C hum, that eventually went away in the night. Major annoying.
    –

    No, it’s not like a mosquito or white noise. It’s pure, in the unnatural way that only electronic tones can be. Stripped of overtones and timbre. Barren. Cold.

    Like that.
    –

    Yesterday, I successfully talked myself out of my weekly Tuesday for-no-reason freakout.

    Huzzah!
    *confetti*
    –

    Silly Atheists don’t you know the catholic church is a religion which is also a Nation State but can also be a corporation when that’s useful?

    I understand that it’s also a floor wax.
    –
    A friend of mine once lived in an apartment building in which a couple of guys undertook (as part of a religious observance) to kill and cook a goat in their apartment. They brought in a lot of dirt, dumped it in the living room floor until they could fashion a shallow pit, set up a spit arrangement (with the goat as the Featured Attraction), and lit ‘er up. Unsurprisingly, they caught their ceiling on fire, resulting in the fire department paying a business call. The owners had to pretty much demolish that entire building, between the fire damage and the smell, which soaked into everything.
    –
    “Spinach white”? I thought spinach was meant to be green.

    Or wait—is this Sewer System Spinach, suitable for consumption by mutants and the rare Herbivorous Albino Alligators?
    –
    Esteleth: wince
    –

  149. Esteleth, Raging Dyke of Fuck Mountain says

    Had meeting with boss. Because I had a fuckup last week, was certain he was going to yell at me.
    Instead, got told that the project plan I emailed him looked good and that I should follow it, with minor changes.

    I am breathing again.

    And I have (new) liquid nitrogen burns on my hands. I cannot feel the keyboard as I type. :/

    But! It is time for me to get on the road. Audley, I’ll see you in about 5 hours. Walton, Daisy, see you tomorrow.

    If there are people in Western Mass, drop me a line. I’ll be in the area.

    And I’ll likely not be back online until Monday.

    *waves*

  152. cicely. Just cicely. says

    One of my recurring nightmare motifs is that I’m trying to phone for help and keep getting the number wrong, no matter how many times I dial.

    Me, too. Well, not just 911; phone numbers in general.
    –

  153. says

    Josh:

    “TED Liberals”. They can often be spotted in the company of traveling packs of NPR and Whole Foods Liberals.

    I like it.

    Some nutter over on the TED article is snorfling over how we’re all just waking up to the evil that is TED.

    I have a feeling that Drudge or Beck or the like sent their flying monkeys over there. Another brainwave is calling TED “a communist propaganda site,” and then there’s this gem:

    If we could convince Tanzanians to want $365 more stuff they would be richer than Malians. The question is why don’t they want more stuff? Why don’t they want clean water, vaccines and affordable food?

  154. Sandiseattle says

    Not having any good days lately. Fondly remembering when I could walk on two legs.
    Any how doing some reading lately. Came accross a part of a story that made me recall Pharyngula.
    From the Tale of Genji, the main character falls for a 10 yr old girl. Some long timers here will know the dungeoned one I’m thinking of. Gotta wonder, did he know the Tale of Genji and pull our leg? coincedience maybe? eh who knows. Got that ‘its a small world’ feeling when I came on that part of the story.

  155. says

    Janine: History’s Greatest Monster #131

    Myeck, “I Feel Love” is more of a German techno song.

    OK, but still, aside from my being completely factually wrong, my point stands.

  156. says

    Angus Johnston posted about John Scalzi’s “cheat code” metaphor for privilege and all the d00dz whining about it. I really liked this reply:

    Angus, you said, “Nobody’s arguing that whiteness trumps poverty, or anything like that, so it’s not clear to me why the “BUT CLASS!” rejoinder keeps cropping up.”

    I think I can give a reason for the focus on class: It’s because the number of otherwise privileged people who have been hit by the current economic crisis has reached critical mass. They can now look around and see a lot of people like them (generally educated, straight, white men from a middle-class or higher family) who have recently acquired a set of related characteristics– poverty, unemployment, student loan debt– that have put them at a disadvantage. They notice the class marker because they’d grown up with the assumption that getting a college degree necessarily leads to a well-paying, satisfying job with good advancement prospects. And in the past, they pretty much could count on that– in part, because they DON’T face the issues that hinder people who are LGBTQI, POC, women, undereducated, disabled, mentally ill, from an historically poor family, etc.

    The otherwise privileged people who now have their shiny new label of “class underprivileged” see class as the single most important factor because it’s the only axis of oppression that directly affects the large majority of them. Therefore, they feel that if we can fix the class problem, that will fix all the other problems.

    The comment continues… worth reading in full.

  157. says

    I finally read through the crazy Iceland thread. I’m really hoping that it genuinely was that incomprehensible and senseless, otherwise my morning evaluation of “do I have a concussion” is called into greater question.

    I’m sleepy, and that’s not a particularly good sign, but aside from the tender head, I don’t think I have any other worrying head-injury indicators. (My dogs tried to murder me this morning.) Trying to keep myself awake, but the Island thread made me feel utterly baffled.

  159. Louis says

    Oh you hideous beast you come all over my umbrella.

    Louis

    P.S. It needed to be said.

  160. says

    @Ms. Daisy Cutter, at least this time I have something tangible aside from basic clumsiness. I don’t think it would have been so bad if I hadn’t hit three times: tripped over the dogs and hit shelf, then the wall below the shelf, then the floor.

    I’m super tired (I panicked a bit this morning when I noticed I’d actually fallen asleep for a bit and that’s bad), but I’m not feeling cognitively out of it aside from not being able to figure out what the fuck was being debated in the Iceland mess. I couldn’t keep track of points and everything felt circular. Reading other stuff seems perfectly normal, though.

  161. d(thunk) over d(MQ) = SQRRAWK! says

    Augh… Really annoyed at not going to WIS. Can’t afford the time and money investment (not on the east coast; student with no ability to go places)

  162. says

    Dreams and peeing in dreams. I dream on a regular basis about needing to pee and peeing, then half realizing I’m dreaming and that I must be wetting my bed, then waking up and finding out that I do need to pee, but fortunately have not done so already.

  163. Louis says

    Oh and by the way, the space dinosaur Breslow paper has been retracted. For the right reasons.

    Louis

  165. Pteryxx says

    but I’m not feeling cognitively out of it aside from not being able to figure out what the fuck was being debated in the Iceland mess. I couldn’t keep track of points and everything felt circular. Reading other stuff seems perfectly normal, though.

    It’s okay. That’s because the Iceland thread WAS circular, full of goalpost-shifting and failure to keep track of points, thanks to sketch. *offers head-hugs*

  166. Josh, Official SpokesGay says

    As you know, I have been menaced this spring by many-legged skitters-abouts. I have set my most recent victory to verse.

    Many-Leggeds (to the tune of “Single Ladies:)
    All the many-leggeds!
    all the many-leggeds.
    All the many-leggeds!
    all the many-leggeds.

    Now pick your Raid up. .

    Jumped in the tub
    ready to scrub
    and wipe all the grease offa me
    From the drain was crawlin’ something appallin’ wagglin’
    its feelers at me

    Long and skinny movin’ with a shimmy
    It came from the cret-a-ceous
    Hiding in the curtain, bathtub lurkin’
    Fixin’ to be creepin’ on me

    Chorus:
    If it skitters then I’m gonna spray some Raid on it
    If it slithers then I’m gonna put paid to it
    I got some poison with a centipede’s name on it
    Just be certain that I wiped out all the eggs from it

    No, no no! No-no-no, no-no-no-no.
    No, no, no, no-uh-oh!
    No, no no! No-no-no, no-no-no-no.
    No, no, no, no-uh-oh!

    Standin’ in a towel, cats on the prowl
    but the kitties think it’s all fun and games
    Lazy pussies actin’ like wussies while I try to cover my shame

    Creeper started crawlin’, I started haulin’
    Oh hell you’re not esc-a-pin’
    So I took my sandal and used it like a paddle
    And told the bug to SAY MY NAME

    Chorus:
    If it has that many legs it’s unacceptable
    In my house you use a mouth and not a mandible
    Won’t be livin’ with a thing that’s exoskeletal
    Don’t be creepin’ on a faggot who has chemicals

    All the many-leggeds!
    all the many-leggeds.
    All the many-leggeds!
    all the many-leggeds.

    Now put your legs up. . .

  167. Richard Austin says

    Okay, Josh, I’ll ship you my pocket HD cam if you’ll record yourself singing that to Youtube :D

  169. 'Tis Himself says

    Next Tuesday is my mother’s 90th birthday. So all too early in the morning, the wife, daughter and I will start driving to Wisconsin to celebrate this milestone. I’ll be gone until the 26th or 27th.

    Be good to each other in my absence.

  170. Nutmeg says

    If it has that many legs it’s unacceptable
    In my house you use a mouth and not a mandible

    That made my afternoon. Thanks, Josh.

  171. 'Tis Himself says

    Josh,

    That’s a song I can really appreciate, being a creepycrawlyophobic (or whatever the real name is) myself.

  172. Pteryxx says

    Josh: I LOL’d so hard my vision blacked out. Whose place in teh group sexings line do you need to record that on video?

  173. says

    Pteryxx @12

    Horizontal sync frequency for a TV or CRT is 15734 Hertz (cycles per second).

    I have heard intrusion alarms at about 19.2 kHz but that was when I was younger, in a jewellery store. They were screaming. I asked about it and was told they were off. No, they just weren’t connected to the audible warnings during the day. I had to leave.

  176. says

    You know, you might be able to find an online hearing test that would give you some high-pitched notes with their frequency, if not their actual note value (which you can then figure out from their frequency, more or less).

  177. Richard Austin says

    Markita:
    Assuming one’s speakers/headphones will reproduce them. I think consumer speakers only go to like 19-20kHz. Then again, I stop “hearing” and just “feel” it at about 19kHz, so that might be high enough for the average person. I assume Josh’s hearing might need better frequency response to work with them.

  178. Josh, Official SpokesGay says

    Markita Lynda—good idea, but I’ve tried that and it doesn’t work. It’s obviously a brain processing thing and likely unsolveable, but that’s OK.

  181. Ogvorbis: strawmadhominem says

    ‘Tis:

    Have fun and be careful.

    Er.

    You know what I mean.

  183. consciousness razor says

    Assuming one’s speakers/headphones will reproduce them. I think consumer speakers only go to like 19-20kHz. Then again, I stop “hearing” and just “feel” it at about 19kHz, so that might be high enough for the average person. I assume Josh’s hearing might need better frequency response to work with them.

    That shouldn’t be a problem. Josh said it was “an impossible A6 or A7. But even that’s very uncertain.” An A7 is 3520 Hz, the highest A on a piano. An octave above that is about 7 kHz and another octave is about 14 kHz. It’s most likely no higher than that. Anyway, his estimate would have to be off by more than two octaves before you’d need to worry about speaker limitations, and it’d be outside the normal hearing range for an adult even if it were. I guess it’s psychologically possible that he’s imagining a note he’s never been able to hear as an actual physical sound, but I doubt that’s the case.

  185. carlie says

    Oh Josh, that was gold. Please come to Rhinebeck and perform it live? :)

    ‘Tis, have a good time and best wishes to everybody.

  187. says

    Argh. Overslept this morning, not that I had anywhere to be, but I only had the one day left to get my rough draft paper for class typed up so I have something to take to the optional paper conference tonight because I have really nfc what I am doing and the paper is due in 10 days (yes, I procrastinated).

    Finished with morning coffee and Misterc arrived at the door with younger kid in tow. She had been sent home from school. Because they found a louse.

    DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT

    Spent the day trading off with Misterc to get the kid louse shampoo’d, wash all her clothes and bedding on hot, make sure her brother’s school gets called and checks him (he came up clean, at least, not that it would have been hard to take care of with his new mohawk). Fairly sure I’m clean. Still need to check Misterc.

    ARGH DAMMIT LICE DAMMIT DAMMIT

  188. Nutmeg says

    *passes kristinc a large helping of her preferred beverage*

    That’s so frustrating. I hope it’s easier to take care of the lice problem this time around.

  189. carlie says

    Oh, kristinc, I’m so sorry you have to deal with this again.

    Just saw this; it’s a shaded graph showing how common birthdays are on each day of the year in the US. here

    I always thought it was a bit of a joke that people got busy in the winter, but it appears to be true. And you can see an anomaly right at the July 4 holiday because I guess there are no scheduled c-sections that day.

  191. A. R says

    Ing: Yeah, that’s what it looks like. The defense lawyer is going to try to argue that Martin initiated the incident, as he was dis-inhibited by THC (if there were high enough levels in his bloodstream), and that Zimmerman was forced to use lethal force to defend himself from an “enraged” Martin. However, I can’t see any reasonable judge accepting a SYG defense, considering that we know beyond any reasonable doubt that he pursued Martin, which makes it very difficult to argue the he stood his ground (stood being, obviously, the key word).

  192. consciousness razor says

    I always thought it was a bit of a joke that people got busy in the winter, but it appears to be true. And you can see an anomaly right at the July 4 holiday because I guess there are no scheduled c-sections that day.

    Not as many birthdays around Christmas or Thanksgiving either. They’re too busy shopping, I guess.

  193. Mr. Mattir, MQ MRA Chick says

    Today I did a scout program for a whole group of first grade girl scouts on fossils. I talked about ages of fossils, explained the concept of bracketing fossil layers with igneous layers with known ages, and got them to ooh and aah at my almost HALF A BILLION YEARS OLD trilobite, which they got to hold (yes, I know that trilobites from the Wheeler Shale in Utah are pretty common and cost next to nothing – it still impressed the hell out of them…). Also threw in that dinosaurs had feathers and are the ancestors of birds. Then our craft, instead of being something silly, was going through a bunch of phosphate mine slag that I schlepped back from North Carolina a few years back and use for find-a-shark-tooth activities. The leaders did not seem particularly pleased at my subversive presentation and non-girly-gendered “craft” acxtivity. Bwahahahaha…

  194. Part-Time Insomniac, Zombie Porcupine Nox Arcana Fan says

    I hate holy days of obligation! I’d rather do centers then go to mass, but I’d rather sleep than do centers most days.
    ——————————————–

    I’m interested—do you have ringing in your ears normally?

    I don’t think so, Josh. The times I do remember having tinnitus, it was lower in pitch than what you describe. Umm . . . OK, you know those big plastic tubes that you can swing around, and they make that sort of humming noise? That’s sorta like what I hear.

    This, however, is higher-pitched. The closest comparison I can get is the one you made, of electronic feedback. It’s quite annoying on top of the muffled hearing.
    ——————————————-

    No date for me tomorrow. I want to make sure I’ve got this cold taken care of, and hopefully my ear will stop ringing as well! I only wish I had the guts to outright say, “I’ll be staying the night at J’s, don’t wait up for me.” Of course, if somehow word of THAT gets out, I think I could say good-bye to that letter of recommendation (or so I assume – the principal is far from consistent, no idea about the bigwigs in Hartford).
    ——————————————

    Because I can’t get it out of my head: The Gregorian version of “Scarborough Fair”. Also, I really like some of the pictures in the video.

    What is it about Gregorian chanting that makes it SO enchanting to hear? It’s great on its own, and if you add music, it just gets even better.
    ——————————————-

    Was going to play some DDO, but no longer in the mood. I’m gonna try some light exercise instead and practice guitar.

  195. Part-Time Insomniac, Zombie Porcupine Nox Arcana Fan says

    Er, that should read “than go to mass,” sorry. No, really. If I’m not struggling to stay awake, then one of the kids (tends to be one of the twins) is falling asleep.

  196. says

    Just a quick hello from me to share my experiences with tinnitus and pitch perception. I have close to absolute pitch (not of the instant-recognising-a-pitch variety; instead I have to ‘work’ at it using my memory, which is slower and less accurate) and I tend to get very high-pitched, steady tones that can last anywhere from a few seconds to minutes to the better part of a day. (Fortunately I don’t tend to get the more violent kind that sound a bit like white noise and ‘knocking’.)

    The reason they tend to sound like sine wave tones is because the tinnitus functions at a single frequency without overtones, which are responsible for our hearing perceving an associated tonal colour to a musical instrument – and if the fundamental is high enough, any natural overtones may be well outside the limits of hearing perception in any case.

    While I was reading Pteryxx’s post upthread, for example, I actually had a transient drone lasting for about half a minute, pitched roughly on G8, so a little bit over 6 kHz. I’m already experiencing age-related hearing loss and pitches higher than 11 kHz are more or less gone, thus I would not have been able to hear a natural overtone for that pitch.

  197. says

    … The leaders did not seem particularly pleased at my subversive presentation and non-girly-gendered “craft” activity. Bwahahahaha…

    Awesome.

  198. says

    Carlie:

    The Yo, is this racist? guy now has a relationship blog called Yo, should I dump this asshole?

    My night just keeps getting better and better! :D

    Anyway, I had a lovely dinner with Esteleth and the blanket that she made for Darkfetus is beautiful (the pics she posted don’t give it justice) and OMG SOFT! :)

  199. consciousness razor says

    What is it about Gregorian chanting that makes it SO enchanting to hear?

    Lots of sustained “open”-sounding intervals (P4, P5, P8). Slow, predictable harmonic motion. Smooth melodic contours. Makes you feel like you’re floating in an ocean of warm goo. Which is pleasant.

    It’s great on its own, and if you add music, it just gets even better.

    What do you mean by this? That you like reading the texts?

  200. dianne says

    @188: Oh, for fuck’s sake…THC is fat soluble. All finding traces of it in Martin’s blood means is that he ingested marijuana sometime in the last month or three. Much like at least 1/3 of American teens (those were just the ones who admitted it…the real number is undoubtedly higher.) So the fuck what? Was Zimmerman justified because Martin had tried marijuana at some time in his life?

    You’re right. Zimmerman is going to get off. The only reason for releasing this information is to paint Martin as a dangerous, law breaking thug. It’s setting up the acquittal. Then Zimmerman will go do it again, having learned that he’s licensed to kill (black people.) Nice work, Florida.

  202. consciousness razor says

    THC is fat soluble. All finding traces of it in Martin’s blood means is that he ingested marijuana sometime in the last month or three.

    Pot smokers aren’t exactly known for their rage anyway. He could’ve been smoking a huge blunt of high-grade weed right then while Zimmerman was following him, and I wouldn’t expect him to be aggressive. I’d expect him to take a fucking nap or start giggling, BOTH OF WHICH ARE EVIL!!!1!1!!!!

  203. Pteryxx says

    re dianne:

    @188: Oh, for fuck’s sake…THC is fat soluble. All finding traces of it in Martin’s blood means is that he ingested marijuana sometime in the last month or three.

    Or, was breathing in the same room with someone smoking marijuana. He was killed in the early evening of a basketball playoffs day, and he was at his father’s house for a game watching party.

  205. Part-Time Insomniac, Zombie Porcupine Nox Arcana Fan says

    Makes you feel like you’re floating in an ocean of warm goo. </blockquote.

    I won't say where my mind went after agreeing with this. *opens new tab for videos*

    What do you mean by this? That you like reading the texts?

    I’ve heard unaccompanied Gregorian chanting. I like it, and I think it’s even better with music added.
    ————————————————-

    Re: Zimmerman – Fuck them all. Trayvon is dead because some local nut got stupid and thought the trigger-finger was the answer. But that’s not going to keep selling papers and keep people talking, is it? Nope, got to ramp things up, got to make ourselves look even dumber than usual.

  208. consciousness razor says

    I won’t say where my mind went after agreeing with this. *opens new tab for videos*

    I have no idea what you’re talking about. Plainchant is the purest and noblest art, whereby Man can aspire to touch the naughty parts of God and/or the Intelligent Designer of your choice, if he/she/it/they would consent to that sort of thing or demand it from us, as the case may be, and if existence is something that might be said to apply to him/her/it/them.

    Also, I didn’t mention monophonic texture, which can be hypnotic in its own way, since you can focus so much on a single line… but then you say this:

    I’ve heard unaccompanied Gregorian chanting. I like it, and I think it’s even better with music added.

    Ah. Unaccompanied singing is still music, because I say so. :)

    PS: I don’t want to pry, but who’s obliging you to go to mass on holy days?

  209. Tony says

    I have a question for anyone who feels like chiming in.
    What is the religious climate like in other countries?
    I live in Florida, so I don’t have much personal experience with a non religiously permeated culture.
    I ask because I had a genuinely interesting conversation with a young man from Australia recently. He had never been to the United States and was visiting his parents for a few weeks. He sat at my bar on a slow night and was thrilled to drink a Yuengling. We chatted about a lot of things as I didn’t have anyone else sitting at the bar for a while. We talked about religion permeating American society, the Trayvon Martin case, politics, looking for the truth (rather than one’s subjective opinion), atheism, separation of church and state, gay marriage (and how there’s no significant secular reason to not make it legal) and several other topics. I’ve never done this at work before*, but I actually told the guy that I’m a gay humanist/atheist, to which he responded with nothing more than “I’m a Christian”.
    It was as if I told him I was right handed. He didn’t launch into a diatribe. He didn’t tell me I’m going to hell. He supported gay marriage. He literally acted no different than before. In fact, we continued to chat for a little while longer before I had to go wait on other guests. In the back of my mind I thought perhaps he was being polite and didn’t want to end the discussion abruptly, even though he didn’t want to continue the conversation (then the rational side of my brain kicked in and reminded me that I had no evidence that he would do such a thing and that giving him the benefit of the doubt is far more reasonable). He even shook my hand before he left that night and thanked me for the talk. I was awestruck** I’d just had a conversation with a believer who found out I’m gay AND atheist, and it just wasn’t a big deal to him. It really made my night (because y’know being gay and atheist really *aren’t* on the list of things that qualify as “a big deal”) and made me curious about the climate in other countries.

    *This is also something I’m wondering about with regard to others’ job environment. In the time I’ve worked at my restaurant, I’ve become good friends with two people who turned out to be atheist as well. A short time ago, I found out two more people whom I regularly chat with were atheist as well. There are *5* of us working in this restaurant who are non believers??!! We don’t have that many employees either. I think we have 7 or 8 bartenders, 5 or 6 servers, 2 managers, and maybe 6 members of the kitchen staff (we’re mostly a bar with a pizza problem :) I thought it was really cool. The other four (1 woman and 3 guys) are young (one is 20 next week, one is 22, one is 23, and the other is probably around the same age), so I have hope that future generations will see more and more people able to break free from the B.S. that is religion.

    **This guy was very surprised at reactions he got to his accent. I told him that he would have women in this area swooning over his voice (I’ve seen it often when someone with a Scottish, British or Australian accent is at my bar). Heck, I was swooning and I didn’t really find the gentleman attractive.

  210. Pteryxx says

    *correction re Trayvon Martin: it was February 26, during the NBA All-Star game.

  212. theophontes 777 says

    @ Rorschach

    Good to see you leaped the great cyberwall. Did the lipstick-wielding pitbull help? (I can’t post comments from Shenzhen.) (Now its suddenly gone through. Perhaps my cyberminders don’t mind after all? ;)

    @ AR

    I wonder what the next “revelation” about Martin will be.

    It is all so blithely after-the-fact. This when the legal system did not either know these “revelations” originally. The main point is that they appear to have made their decisions based on race, not on what they claim to discover months later.

  213. A. R says

    theophontes: Yeah, very true. By the way, Grape, Roosevelt, Table, Antler, Lock.

  214. says

    Good Morning

    Tony
    Yep, people in more secular countries usually consider it a private affair what people believe and what not.
    I’m German and an atheist like about 30% of the country (now, that number is screwed, It’s the official number of people without religious affiliation. So, people who believe in god but have left their church are counted amongst them, while people who for soem reason or other are still in church but don’t believe are not) and if religion comes up it really is something rather irrelevant. It’s considered mightily uncivil to bother somebody about their beliefs or to bother them with yours.

    kristincOh no, I’m sorry

  215. says

    With regards to the Trayvon case, I will be mouth-on-the-floor incredulous if Zimmerman gets let off without some form of punishment. The police dispatcher told him not to follow Trayvon. Zimmerman is negligent in that regard. He set up the situation, therefore responsible for the death. If he isn’t at least given a few years for manslaughter, the other states should sue Florida for cost of damages that the ensuing riots are going to rack up.

  216. Amphiox says

    One problem in the Trayvon Martin case is how the police completely screwed up the investigation on the night of the killing. They didn’t take proper witness statements. They didn’t treat the crime scene appropriately. They didn’t collect evidence appropriately.

    This alone might get Zimmerman off a murder charge.

  217. amblebury says

    Tony – as a New Zealander, I can tell you it took me some time to realise that the religious zealots/zealotry of the USA wasn’t isolated to a few pockets of extreme wingnuttery. It took me a while to realise just how pervasive, widespread and well, nasty, it was.

    (Also – if I’ve ever offended anybody by not taking the religious wingnuttery seriously enough, because of that mistake and ignorance on my part, I apologise.)

    I don’t think the guy’s attitude was far from the norm. By and large, NZ strikes me as a more live-and-let-live sort of place. Ichthyic might be the guy to ask about that. He has the perspective of having lived in both the US and Australasia.

    Simplistically, I get the impression that in many parts of the USA if you don’t proclaim your love for Jebus you’re considered weird. Here you’d often be considered weird if you did.

  218. says

    Oh my goodness breakfast
    I’m getting old. I met my sister by chance and where did we meet? In the doctor’s waiting room…
    But I’d really like to make her come over every night for a proper dinner. Being a vegetarian isn’t a problem in itself, but I’ve got the nasty feeling that being a vegetarian without a kitchen who lives mainly off sandwiches, chocolate, cookies and cake might have something to do with her bad health (alongside some serious thyroid problems, of course, I ain’t saying she just needs to eat a proper diet).
    Now let’s see what they dig up with my blood, they’ve taken enough, that’s sure.

  220. opposablethumbs says

    Good morning, Horde.
    .
    Hi Tony. Echoing more or less what Giliell said, here in the UK it’s also regarded as a private matter and it would be weird to ask someone about their religious beliefs, if any, unless a) the conversation were specifically about that anyway and b) you knew them well. It would be sort of like asking a stranger what they do in bed or how much they earn or something – wildly over-intimate, socially completely out of the ordinary. If a casual acquaintance or a stranger starts talking about their religion you probably peg them as a weirdo fanatic and edge away.
    .
    I’ve encountered doorstepping proselytisers precisely once in my entire life (I don’t know for sure whether they were morons or seventh-day-ers or some other flavour, as they never got a chance to open their mouths) and the neighbours were amused and delighted that the dog scared them off (I’d just like to add that I emphatically do NOT encourage or approve of this kind of behaviour on the part of the dog). (All my immediate neighbours are atheists). About 70% of the population is nominally xtian, but actual church attendance is way, way WAY lower than that; a lot of that 70% don’t go to church at all (except maybe once at xmas, and for weddings and funerals).
    .
    People who make a public display of of their religion anywhere outside of a church are regarded as being Odd and Not Quite the Thing. Politicians not only refrain from bringing their religion into their speeches; it would be overwhelmingly more likely to be bad for their prospects if they did. Former PM Tony Blair had to wait until he’d left office before he could come out as a convert to catholicism ::spits::
    .
    Attitudes to being gay, on the other hand, vary enormously. I’d like to think that most people would be fine with it, but sadly I suspect I’m probably being wildly overoptimistic. Someone who’s actually had relevant experience would know better than I. Fwiw I can say that there are at least one or two teachers at one of my Spawn’s (ordinary state, not posh private) schools who are out, though, and everyone – pupils and parents (and obviously other staff) – is more than fine with it. One head of department who is gay invites his SO to big school occasions. This may be better than you’d find in many schools, though – it may be that we’re particularly lucky in this respect.

  221. says

    theophontes,

    my cyberminders seem to have the day off as well ( not those who monitor the BBC, mind you) .My Chinese companion wants to eat Japanese tonight, so Japanese it is. I could bring my newly purchased mahogany chopsticks I guess.

  222. says

    Attitudes to being gay, on the other hand, vary enormously. I’d like to think that most people would be fine with it, but sadly I suspect I’m probably being wildly overoptimistic. Someone who’s actually had relevant experience would know better than I. Fwiw I can say that there are at least one or two teachers at one of my Spawn’s (ordinary state, not posh private) schools who are out, though, and everyone – pupils and parents (and obviously other staff) – is more than fine with it. One head of department who is gay invites his SO to big school occasions. This may be better than you’d find in many schools, though – it may be that we’re particularly lucky in this respect.

    My hope is that there’s some snow-ball effect happening.
    10, 15, 20 years ago gays were in the closet or in the “reservation” of gay subculture where “normal” people could watch them from the outside. Normal people didn’t know “gay people”.
    Yep, that’s what Mr. told me some 12 years ago when we first came together and he met some of my gay friends. About 2 years later his brother came out. There’s the gay mayor of Berlin, the minister of foreign affairs, one of the best-liked German actresses, and suddenly he notices gay people at his workplace, too and they’ve been there all the time.
    And they’re becoming more and more visible and more and more accepted and therefore more visible and so on.
    And I’ve seen how their run-off-the-mill “I have nothing against gay people they’re just not our kind of people” bigoted parents changed their attitudes and came to the conclusion that well, they’re after all just people.

  223. birgerjohansson says

    Drive-by science postings:

    “Study shows religion is a potent force for cooperation, conflict” http://phys.org/news/2012-05-religion-potent-cooperation-conflict.html
    About religion-related conflicts in western Asia “…But making strong symbolic gestures such as sincere apologies and demonstrations of respect for the other’s values generates surprising flexibility”
    — — — — — — — —
    “New study shows that workplace inspections save lives, don’t destroy jobs” http://phys.org/news/2012-05-workplace-dont-jobs.html
    -Of course, this will not in any way prevent Obama from folding on the issue…
    — — — — — — — —
    ASCO: For chemo’s nausea, olanzapine (Zyprexa) beats metoclopramide http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-asco-chemo-nausea-olanzapine-metoclopramide.html
    — — — — — — — — —
    The most profitable asteroid is… http://phys.org/news/2012-05-profitable-asteroid.html
    — — — — — — — — —
    Study finds herbal extract -the isoflavone puerarin- may curb binge drinking http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-herbal-curb-binge.html

  225. life is like a pitbull with lipstick ॐ says

    rorschach, you download that zip file yet?

  226. says

    “New study shows that workplace inspections save lives, don’t destroy jobs”

    It’s even more than that, it also guarantees a quality outcome. By now in Germany many big companies will ask for the workplace accident statistics. The logic is simple: If you don’t care about the rules in one area, in this case on how to ensure your workers walk out alive and well, you probably won’t care much about the rules when it comes to making the good you’re selling.

  227. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Taking my sanity/catch-up day today. Actually slept in a little. Appears to be working so far. Breakfast, then tackle the piles of mail.

  228. says

    An Arizona representative is trying to get a law passed banning abortions after 20 weeks… in Washington DC.

    WTF, United States? How is this legal? How can a representative in another state fuck over the citizens in an entirely different area?

  230. life is like a pitbull with lipstick ॐ says

    The rules are that everybody is allowed to fuck over the citizens of Washington DC, except for their own Delegate.

  231. birgerjohansson says

    Odd. Arizona has that big city, which should act as a brake against Appalachia-style insularism. And it is not part of the South. And it is a bit far south to be in the Morridor zone. Arizona has a lot of science institutions, so even the local Republicans would be exposed to the modern world.
    Is this a random mutant or has drinking arsenic-tainted groundwater led to a huge proportion of regressive voters?

  232. birgerjohansson says

    More drive-by science:

    Slo-mo microbes extend the frontiers of life http://www.nature.com/news/slo-mo-microbes-extend-the-frontiers-of-life-1.10669

    Rise of the coyote: The new top dog http://www.nature.com/news/rise-of-the-coyote-the-new-top-dog-1.10635

    “Brain oscillations reveal that our senses do not experience the world continuously” http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-brain-oscillations-reveal-world.html
    So we ARE living in a Philip K. Dick world?

  234. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    WTF, United States? How is this legal? How can a representative in another state fuck over the citizens in an entirely different area?

    The District of Columbia (DC) is run by Congress, with limited home rule.

  236. says

    @Nerd:

    I know why it’s legal. I’m asking how it’s legal. How can a representative from a whole other state fuck over DC citizens? He’s not even anywhere near DC! It’d be like a representative from Maine trying to pass a law to fuck over the citizens in San Francisco. The city of San Francisco is in charge of its own laws, and then above that its the state’s matter.

    DC has no state or voting representative, but it has a mayor, and yet that mayor has basically no power cause anything he decides to do can be erased by the rest of the government.

  237. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    How can a representative from a whole other state fuck over DC citizens? He’s not even anywhere near DC!

    From the Wiki article on the District of Columbia:

    The District is governed by a locally elected mayor and 13-member city council. However, the United States Congress has supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. Residents therefore have less self-governance than residents of the U.S. states. The District has a non-voting, at-large Congressional delegate, but no senators. D.C. residents could not vote in presidential elections until the ratification of the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1961.

    Note that Congress has final say. So any congresscritter can effect laws in DC.

  238. life is like a pitbull with lipstick ॐ says

    birgerjohansson, it’s largely due to being next to Mexico. Fear of the looming brown population causes the voters to choose exceptionally racist Republicans, who carry a lot of regressive ideas about other matters.

  241. Ogvorbis: strawmadhominem says

    Last night, we celebrated Boy’s 22nd birthday. We had a London Broil, which had marinated for two days in a homemade (and very garlicky) marinade, out on the grill and broiled vegetables.

    And Wife made a very delicious orange cake. She broiled it.

    Our convection oven, last time I used it, was set to broil. She didn’t realize it until she came back down stairs and smelled something burning. She switched to bake and the cake came out wonderfully, though the top was rather caramelized.

    The leaders did not seem particularly pleased at my subversive presentation and non-girly-gendered “craft” activity. Bwahahahaha

    Excellent.

    I remember, in Junior High, going on a field trip to a sand quarry in West Virginia to look for fossils. Which our science teachers (all of them) told us were left there by the Noatic flood. This was a public school.

    DAMNABLE MOCKINGBIRD.
    That is all.

    Would you prefer a Tequila Mockingbird?

    I wonder what the next “revelation” about Martin will be.

    He probably ran with scissors while in kindergarten.

    WTF, United States? How is this legal? How can a representative in another state fuck over the citizens in an entirely different area?

    Washington D.C. is a federal district, not a state, which means that the US congress gets to meddle in all sorts of otherwise local issues.

    It’d be like a representative from Maine trying to pass a law to fuck over the citizens in San Francisco.

    This sort of thing is done all the time. Tucking an ammendment into an unrelated bill to move a large federal office from one state to another happens quite frequently and can devastate the town that loses the federal office. When the military bases were closing in the 1990s the inter-state wrangling got quite vicious.

  242. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Washington DC was created using the US Consitution, Article 1 Section 8 “powers reserved to congress” which included:

    To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States,

  243. says

    From the article:

    “The gruesome late-term abortions of unborn children who can feel pain is in my opinion the greatest human rights atrocity in the United States today,” Franks said Thursday at the hearing.

    Fucking bastard. I was about that far along woth the little one when we noticed that she was lacking in the kidney department. It was some more weeks until we could rule out the worst case scenario which would have been Potter-syndrome.
    Potter-syndrome means no kidneys, which means that fetuses that are carried to term have one brief experience with the world and that is suffocating. That would of course be much preferred to stopping the heart of the fetus who mostly can’t feel pain anyway in utero. It’s so much more humane. not to speak about the woman who has to go through some 3-4 months knowing that every kick she notices is that of a dead child who doesn’t know yet.

  244. says

    Here’s a protip that no one needs: WHOA, DO NOT READ THE COMMENTS. There were only three when I checked and all of ’em are digusting.

    For instance, did you know that our high infant and maternal mortality rates are because of abortion? Trufax

  245. says

    For instance, did you know that our high infant and maternal mortality rates are because of abortion? Trufax

    One thing is that the American neonatal mortality is actually quite good. You know, at the point where you can walk into the hospital and be treated.
    It’s something people always mix up: neonatal mortality which is late stillbirth, premies and newborns up to 28 days, and infant mortality which is infants up to 1 year.

  246. says

    I am looking forward to tomorrow, a 5 hour high speed train trip across China to the city of Shenyang, where I will send companion to stay with hir parents for the night so I can watch the Champions League final at 0245 local time, priorities ! Then its cooking dumplings with the parents the next day, so Bayern better win.
    sgbm, you have mail.

  249. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    I went out last night and missed Community. I’m gonna catch up tonight after work– everyone has beeen raving about it!

    Which one? There were three episodes broadcast.

  250. carlie says

    Ok, I’ll refrain from saying anything in worry of spoilers, but all three episodes were GREAT.

  251. Matt Penfold says

    …where I will send companion to stay with hir parents for the night so I can watch the Champions League final at 0245 local time, priorities !

    Bayern will win.

  253. ChasCPeterson says

    the inter-state wrangling got quite vicious.

    Perhaps it doesn’t need pointing out, but this is exaclty the reason why the framers thought that carving out a special Federal District was a good idea.

    (p.s. to Brownian: have a nice day.)

  254. Ogvorbis: strawmadhominem says

    …where I will send companion to stay with hir parents for the night so I can watch the Champions League final at 0245 local time, priorities !

    Bayern will win.

    [attempted time humour]You’re forgetting the time zones! Bayern alread lost: 17 1/8 to 3.[/attempted time humour]

  255. says

    Og:

    I remember, in Junior High, going on a field trip to a sand quarry in West Virginia to look for fossils. Which our science teachers (all of them) told us were left there by the Noatic flood. This was a public school.

    I know I’m indirectly being all rude and inquiring about your age by doing this, but if you don’t mind my asking anyway, a) was the state school also a WV one and b) how many years ago was this?

    (/Always curious about how fucked up things are/were, is all.)

  256. carlie says

    Audley – all I will say is that they were obviously cognizant at the time of writing that they might not get renewed, and the season ending is also entirely satisfactory as a series finale.

  257. opposablethumbs says

    It’s taken me until now to find out that USanian “broil” means “grill”. I was going to try and come up with some silly thing or other to say about ha! US resorting to French! (brûler) when I remembered that of course griller is French too. So you get to burn stuff while we torture it by fire; doesn’t speak well of any of our cooking skills really ;-)

    PS no aspersions cast on the actual cooking skills of any actual Pharyngulite, of course. I am a very basic cook myself, but a lot of youse lot are clearly the crème de la crème and know your onions.

  258. Predator Handshake says

    Community was indeed amazing last night. The people I was watching with didn’t catch that the baby Abeds weren’t just making baby sounds, but were saying “cool cool cool” and couldn’t figure out why I was laughing at it so hard. Also, I really loved Jeff and Britta’s magic disguises.

  259. Ogvorbis: strawmadhominem says

    I know I’m indirectly being all rude and inquiring about your age by doing this, but if you don’t mind my asking anyway, a) was the state school also a WV one and b) how many years ago was this?

    No, not being rude at all.

    I attended Boonsboro Middle School, Boonsboro, MD. This would have been the spring of 1979. And it was bad.

    When I graduated from high school (same system), we had a baccalaureate and then, two days later, the graduation. If the graduate did not attend both, they attended neither. So I had to sit through a 50-minute fire-and-brimstone sermon in which I was told that if I did not personally accept Jeebus as my personal saviour in the right way, I would end up a drug addict failure welfare recipient etc. The goddism was strong at the school.

    It’s taken me until now to find out that USanian “broil” means “grill”. I was going to try and come up with some silly thing or other to say about ha! US resorting to French! (brûler) when I remembered that of course griller is French too. So you get to burn stuff while we torture it by fire; doesn’t speak well of any of our cooking skills really ;-)

    For me, I grill on a grill — fire underneath (well, electric heating element) and done outdoors with lots and lots of smoke. I broil in my convection oven — heat above the food being cooked and done indoors with very little smoke.

    Technically, both are broiling, but, to me, at least, there is a difference. For one thing, my electric grill can hit 800F which caramelizes the fat on beef very well.

  260. Ogvorbis: strawmadhominem says

    . . . and know your onions.

    But I have no idea where my towel is.

  261. carlie says

    It’s taken me until now to find out that USanian “broil” means “grill”.

    Not to anyone I know – broil is the heat on top, grill is the heat underneath.

  264. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    Not to anyone I know – broil is the heat on top, grill is the heat underneath.

    It’s the way I see it too, however…

    I spent about 5 years working in a kitchen at a fairly high end restaurant and for a large part of that I worked the “broiler station”.

    Which was a grill.

  265. Predator Handshake says

    Sorry Audley! It’s just really hard to watch something that good and then have to keep one’s mouth shut about it. I’m still trying to get a non-Community-watching friend who is a big Law & Order fan to watch Basic Lupine Urology without telling her the gimmick of the episode because I want that to be a surprise.

    I’m having the same problem with last week’s Game of Thrones; my friend is show-only at this point and he’s SO MAD about the end of that episode. He’s voiced his suspicions about what’s really going on but I don’t want to ruin what surprise they may have left in there.

  266. says

    PH,
    I totes understand ‘cos I’m the same way, too.

    God, this season has been so good– between the blanket fort documentary and the Law & Order ep, it’s been nothing short of briliant. That’s why I don’t want it spoiled. :)

    (Poor Starburns.)

  268. opposablethumbs says

    So to grill in USanian has the heat coming from underneath? I didn’t know that. To me, a grill has the heat coming from above – it’s one of the settings inside the oven, with a heating element set into the “ceiling”, or it’s a separate bit at eye-level (in the case of a different style of cooker design) with a gas jet again above the food. It’s what you use to make toast if you don’t have a separate counter-top toaster. You put something “under the grill”.

    The thing with the heat coming from underneath, if outdoors, is a barbecue :) If indoors, then I’m not sure – I think it might be a griddle. (If indoors I suppose it might be a grill, but the first thing you think of for that word is definitely heat-coming-from-above)

  269. says

    Do the Republicans really want to open the door and look inside the dank cave where all the religious leaders are squatting? If they want to look at Reverend Wright, (whom Obama rejected), why not take a close look at the men Mitt Romney reveres as “Prophets, Seers, and Revelators.”

    Apostle Boyd K. Packer is speaking in the quote below about a letter from a woman who was in an abusive marriage:

    “The woman pleading for help needs to see the eternal nature of things and to know that her trials — however hard to bear — in the eternal scheme of things may be compared to a very, very bad experience in the second semester of the first grade.”

    Source: http://www.zionsbest.com/face.html

    Here is Boyd K. Packer on the subject of women working outside the home:

    The question then is, “How can we give solace to those who are justified without giving license to those who are not?” The comfort they need is better, for the most part, administered individually. To point out so-called success stories inferring that a career out of the home has no negative effect on a family is an invitation to many to stray from what has been taught by the prophets.

    Credit goes to an ex-mormon for pointing me to the speech from 1993.

  270. opposablethumbs says

    Addendum; in the UK I think it may be different in the domestic and in a restaurant setting; I think we may have adopted the USanian style meaning of grill=heat-from-underneath for restaurants, but kept grill=heat-from-above in the home.

  271. opposablethumbs says

    PS I don’t know where my towel is either.
    .
    Do I even have a towel?

  272. Ogvorbis: strawmadhominem says

    “The woman pleading for help needs to see the eternal nature of things and to know that her trials — however hard to bear — in the eternal scheme of things may be compared to a very, very bad experience in the second semester of the first grade.”

    Ah. Women are children. [lays a bean on my goddist bingo card]

    To point out so-called success stories inferring that a career out of the home has no negative effect on a family is an invitation to many to stray from what has been taught by the prophets.

    Women who are empowered, check. Women with jobs, check. Women who are able to actually walk away from an abuser are not going to heaven, check. [a few more and I can shout, bingo!]

    PS I don’t know where my towel is either.
    .
    Do I even have a towel?

    How do you wipe up your spilled scotch? Your tongue?

  273. theophontes 777 says

    @ life is like a pitbull with lipstick ॐ

    I’d also like to try that cyberwall leaping software, if that’s OK. theophontesathotmaildotcom. No rush, I’ll only be able to try it out on Monday as I’m in Hong Kong this weekend.

  274. carlie says

    The thing with the heat coming from underneath, if outdoors, is a barbecue :)

    But only if there is the application of a spicy tomato-based sauce during cooking (SHUT UP DRY RUBS). Anything cooked on said device without said saucing is grilled. :)

    and for a large part of that I worked the “broiler station”.

    Which was a grill.

    *involuntary eye twitch*

    If indoors, then I’m not sure – I think it might be a griddle.

    Indoors the heat only comes from the coils of an oven, or a burner, in which case it’s a griddle if it’s a large flat surface, or by method of pan-frying, or if it’s big, a grill. In fast-food restaurants, that station in the back with all the burger patties is the grill.

    I’m starting to think this is one of those soda/pop distinctions and is different regionally (and even could pit neighbor against neighbor).

  275. Ogvorbis: strawmadhominem says

    grill/broil

    My family definition is that if the heat is underneath but there is no pan or pot or griddle or any thing else other than a ‘grill’ between the food and the heating element, with the heat below the food, it is grilling (of which BarBQ is a subset). Broiling is flame above with nothing between the heating element and the food (and using a torch to brulee your creme is not a subset).

    Sometimes I amaze myself. I drop a simple idea (broiling a cake) into a thread and suddenly we have DEEP RIFTS between those who know what grilling actually is and the unwashed heathens. Weird.

  276. Predator Handshake says

    Here in the south, grilling is something you only do outside, hopefully on a propane-powered heat machine and preferably while drinking a beer. Barbecue is pork only, made by sticking meat in a hole in the ground and throwing wood into a fire underneath it all day. Eventually it falls off the bones so you put that on a bun and slop sauce all over it.

  277. life is like a pitbull with lipstick ॐ says

    theophontes:

    what is your operating system?

    can you open a .7z file, using 7-zip or something?

    I ask because we’ve had a couple problems with the .zip files I’m able to create; GMail hassled me about sending it and rorschach either couldn’t download it or couldn’t open it, as it looked to his computer like it contained a virus. I can send a .zip if necessary but I’d like to try .7z — fuck it I’ll just send you both. That should do it.

    Same procedure: I’d like to send you the encrypted file first, then when you’ve got it downloaded let me know (a note here on TET is easiest) and I’ll give you the password. This way I can be fairly confident that the file you open is exactly the same one that I sent.

    +++++
    rorschach, you too, let me know if you’d like me to try sending a .7z file instead, since the .zip didn’t work out.

  278. Rey Fox says

    “In fast-food restaurants, that station in the back with all the burger patties is the grill.”

    Thus the ones that use an actual grill with the metal bars use “flame-broiled” or “char-broiled” in their marketing.

  279. opposablethumbs says

    Belated Happy Birthday to Boy!
    .

    How do you wipe up your spilled scotch? Your tongue?

    Depends what it’s spilled on. If it’s a) my favourite whisky b) the table and c) nobody’s looking, then quite possibly.
    Actually, strike that. The whisky Must Not Be Spilled in the first place. That stuff is precioussss.

    DEEP RIFTS

    Don’t get me started on biscuits.

  280. Richard Austin says

    From the Pfft:

    Grilling is a form of cooking that involves dry heat applied to the surface of food, commonly from above or below.

    Grilling usually involves a significant amount of direct, radiant heat, and tends to be used for cooking meat quickly and meat that has already been sliced (or other pieces). Food to be grilled is cooked on a grill (an open wire grid with a heat source above or below), a grill pan (similar to a frying pan, but with raised ridges to mimic the wires of an open grill), or griddle (a flat plate heated from below). Heat transfer to the food when using a grill is primarily via thermal radiation. Heat transfer when using a grill pan or griddle is by direct conduction. In the United States and Canada, when the heat source for grilling comes from above, grilling is termed broiling. In this case, the pan that holds the food is called a broiler pan, and heat transfer is by thermal convection.

    The main use of broiling (from how I’ve seen it, mainly with my mom) is when you want something cooked from the top but can’t flip it upside-down. So, like, when I make garlic bread in the oven (on half-rolls), I want the top crisp but I don’t want the bottom burned, so I set the oven to broil and put it on the middle rack. Broiling actually turns off the lower element in my oven. You could also use the broiler to crisp up the top of a mac-and-cheese dish or something, for example, when it’s done baking.

  281. Pteryxx says

    from Lynna’s links:

    The question then is, “How can we give solace to those who are justified without giving license to those who are not?”

    *rage* The hell with this solace-policing.

  282. says

    How do you wipe up your spilled scotch? Your tongue?

    All of us who don’t have towels use David Marjanović’s tongue to clean up spills.

  283. carlie says

    Thus the ones that use an actual grill with the metal bars use “flame-broiled” or “char-broiled” in their marketing.

    GODDAMMIT.

    But I bet if you listen when the manager is telling the employee what they’re going to do today, most of them say “you work the grill”. :p

    I guess the pfft entry covers all the bases.

    when I make garlic bread in the oven (on half-rolls), I want the top crisp but I don’t want the bottom burned, so I set the oven to broil and put it on the middle rack. Broiling actually turns off the lower element in my oven.

    I do garlic bread this way as well, and I can have either the lower element or the top element on, but not both at the same time. Alton Brown has the tip that when you broil, you should leave the oven door slightly ajar (and that THAT’s what that stupid stop point is for!) so as to make the element stay on. Otherwise when it gets to temp it turns off and starts cycling. He also says to always reset the rack to as close to the broiler element as possible, but I prefer the extra “give” in time between done and burnt that keeping it in the middle of the oven provides.

  284. carlie says

    The question then is, “How can we give solace to those who are justified without giving license to those who are not?”

    *rage* The hell with this solace-policing.

    No kidding. What’s the absolute worst that can happen if someone, god forbid, gives solace to someone who doesn’t absolutely “deserve” it? There’s too much comfort in the world? What the hell?

  285. carlie says

    ARGH There is a tiny red mite crawling around on my notebook!

    I’m singing Josh’s song while squishing it.

  286. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    Depends what it’s spilled on. If it’s a) my favourite whisky b) the table and c) nobody’s looking, then quite possibly.

    no never ever done that… ever… um

    no

    I haven’t

  287. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    Warning: very opinionated opinions that are 100% correct to follow.

    The thing with the heat coming from underneath, if outdoors, is a barbecue :)

    But only if there is the application of a spicy tomato-based sauce during cooking (SHUT UP DRY RUBS). Anything cooked on said device without said saucing is grilled. :)

    Wrong wrong wrong. Barbecue is a noun. People who have bastardized it into a verb need to be strung up and whipped with a basting brush.

    You broil from above.

    You grill on a grill.

    You smoke barbecue in a smoker (or a grill set up to smoke).

    There are no other answers.

    Period.

    What you get from smoking meat and then adding a bbq sauce is barbecue. Or not adding sauce in some instances and dry rubs are perfectly acceptable.

    Don’t make me don my BBQ boxing gloves.

    Because I will.

  288. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    And to make the Grill vs. Broil thing even more interesting (sort of)

    The device used in many kitchens for dry hot heat from above (broiling) is called a salamander.

  290. carlie says

    You smoke barbecue in a smoker (or a grill set up to smoke).

    I might agree with you on a technicality, but that would eliminate grilled pork steaks from being barbecue, and that simply cannot stand.

    Sure, hot heat. The cold heat is what you use when you do that fancy molecular gastronomy stuff. :)

  292. opposablethumbs says

    no never ever done that… ever… um

    no

    I haven’t

    :-D :-D :-D

    .
    Also too, no propane and NO “Barbecue Sauce” for it is an Abomination Unto Nuggan!!!1!!elebenty! ::makes sign of the cross, pausing only to note that this is not that kind of cross but an asador (shaped like an X)::

    You prepare your chimichurri the day before – olive oil, with salt and pepper, in which herbs and chili are steeping. You leave your bits of meat in some of this while you build your fire, and when you’ve got a good lot of hot coals you move the fire itself a couple of feet away and put your parilla over the hot coals (which you top up periodically from your fire as required). NO FLAMES are involved in cooking the meat; radiant heat from your hot coals only. If you get flames occurring, you stir the coals immediately to put them out or you are no parillero. Once the meat is done (nice and slowly) you brush a bit more chimichurri onto it before serving. Accompany only with local-equivalent-of-baguette/French stick/flauta and mixed salad. Copious amounts of red wine may be involved (beer is acceptable). No other variations can be tolerated. ::senses more DEEP RIFTS may be coming on::

  293. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    I might agree with you on a technicality, but that would eliminate grilled pork steaks from being barbecue, and that simply cannot stand.

    ORLY

    St. Louis-style barbecue refers to various pork dishes prepared in and around the city of St. Louis, Missouri. Although St. Louis is typically not included on the list of major styles of barbecue in the United States, the city was recognized by Kingsford as “America’s Top Grilling City” in its second annual list of Top 10 Grilling Cities.[1] In fact, many of the foods characteristic of this style are grilled rather than cooked over the indirect heat and smoke that is typically associated with the term “barbecue” in the United States.[2]

    Not

    Barbecue

    :p

    /swoosh

    /opinionated opinion

  294. says

    Opposablethumbs,
    Propane is an Abomination unto the Cooking Meat (and occasionally veg) Outdoors Gods. Now, if we could just get the heretics of the northeastern US to understand that 1) cooking with a propane grill will never ever ever produce BBQue and 2) if you’re cooking with propane, you might as well cook inside, you dirty heathen, we could transform this part of the country into the proper Grillers and Smokers that the founding fathers intended.

  296. opposablethumbs says

    Propane is an Abomination unto the Cooking Meat (and occasionally veg) Outdoors Gods.

    yesssss!!!!! ::waves tentacles in the air::

    if you’re cooking with propane, you might as well cook inside

    Zactly ::nods sagely::

  298. carlie says

    that is typically associated with the term “barbecue”

    “Typically” means there are exceptions. :p

    It’s just like buffalo:

    Tonight I’d like to have a barbeque, so I’m going to go invite some people over and fire up the barbeque and barbeque some steaks and add my favorite barbeque sauce so we can eat some barbeque. :)

    1. noun, party centered around grilling meat outside
    2. noun, item used to grill mean
    3. verb, to grill the meat with sauce
    4. adjective, spicy tomato sauce
    5. noun, the meat that has been cooked and slathered with sauce

  301. carlie says

    Um, “grill meat”. Nobody can grill mean when barbeque is involved.

    Unless it falls on the ground and everybody sees it before you can pick it up and brush it off.

  302. opposablethumbs says

    Psst Audley, I forgot to mention – there was one time we were just finishing the barbecue when it started to rain, so we scooped up the hot coals on a big shovel and brought them indoors. We put them on an old baking tray which we put on the table, protecting it with trivets. So we finished off sitting round the hot coals of an actual (OK, very small but actual) fire in the middle of the table, toasting marshmallows. It made perfect sense at the time.

  304. Ogvorbis: strawmadhominem says

    Propane is an Abomination unto the Cooking Meat (and occasionally veg) Outdoors Gods.

    Then I must be a whole ‘nuther level of evil

    I use an electric outdoor grill (it is energy efficient, easy, and neat). I can even produce passable ‘BBQ’ on it in the following manner:

    Rub a six-pound pork blade/shoulder roast with smoked salt, brown and/or raw sugar, garlic powder and jalapeno powder. Place a disposable aluminium pan under the heating element (very close, but not touching). Place the roast on the rack, set the grill to maintain 225F and cook for about six hours. Any fat and sugar that melts off collects in the pan under the heating element and turns to smoke (I get a nice smoke ring under the surface this way). The outside of the meat is black, but not charred. The inside is tender and juicy.

    Okay.

    Commence crucifiction.

  306. carlie says

    Og – no heat source snobbiness from me: my dad actually piped in his gas grill directly to the house supply, so he wouldn’t have to fiddle around with tanks. (It was bolted to the concrete patio, under which the pipes went, to avoid any leaks in the pipes due to jostling) I have to say, it was as convenient as outdoor cooking can get.

  307. says

    HOW DARE YOU, OGGIE!

    *pitchforks!*
    *torches!*

    Actually, that sounds delish. The problem with upstate New Yorkers is that they buy a fancy propane monstrosity, then just slap some hunks of meat down on the grill with no rub and no sauce (ruins the flavor of the meat, dontchaknow), then have the audacity to call it BBQ. More often than not, the meat ends up dry and pretty flavorless.

  308. carlie says

    Oh man, this brought tears to my eyes. A small business owner bought out the entire inventory of a local KMart that was closing, and not only gave it all to the county charity, he also rented a building to store it all in until they can get it distributed.

  309. opposablethumbs says

    Bro Og, well I won’t tell Nuggan but that does sound rather tasty … I do like the way you got round the whole but-what-about-the-smokiness issue.

    Audley, that would be such fun! Can’t guarantee a fire on the table every time, though :)

    Carlie I must admit we don’t do it all that often – hard to find a reliable bit of weather round here, for one thing – but making a fire is half the fun; the Spawn love it (well we get to burn stuff; what’s not to love) and we get to sit around the fire when it’s dark, and we might bake potatoes in the embers, and DaughterSpawn wears swimming goggles to do some of the cooking without getting smoke in her eyes and SonSpawn has to be told constantly to stop poking the bloody fire it’s fine no honestly if you poke it like that you’ll – no – yes you can put some more wood on in a minute, no not yet it’s big enough dammit … So it’s not just the heat source, really :)

  312. carlie says

    Giliell – well, if you want to go there, a “broiler” chicken in the US is a chicken slaughtered before 3 months of age (or even 2), where the meat is tender enough to be cooked lightly. (older ones are stewing chickens). :)

    Opposablethumbs – so you’re talking an actual wood fire in a pit, not coals in an (ahem) round unit used for grilling?

  314. opposablethumbs says

    an actual wood fire

    yup, it all starts off as just a bonfire on the ground, really – though we do add some charcoal as well so as to get a decent lot of embers for cooking over. The actual cooking surface has some bricks to stand on, when we get it over the hot coals. Haven’t done one since last summer … ::sigh::. Maybe we’ll get some decently hot days in June … or July … or August! (Well this is Blighty – we had hailstones a couple of days ago ::rolleyes::)

  315. cicely. Just cicely. says

    When I graduated from high school (same system), we had a baccalaureate and then, two days later, the graduation. If the graduate did not attend both, they attended neither.

    Sounds like my high school. The good news—while daydreaming my way through the baccalaureate with an attentive look on my face (I was strongly Xian, but easily bored), the wart on my right hand middle finger just peeled right off.
    :)
    –

    Barbecue is pork only,

    What!?! Have they not heard of “barbecued beef” in those thar parts?
    *shakes head sadly*
    –
    Well-wishing for a Perfect Wedding Experience tomorrow, Ing.
    :)
    –

  317. Nutmeg says

    Good luck with the wedding, Ing. I hope it’s enjoyable and minimally stressful.

    I’m always amazed that with all the fuss and stress leading up to a wedding, couples still want to get married at the end of it. That’s love.

  318. Richard Austin says

    I spent my best friend’s wedding (I was the best man) trying to keep his grandmother away from him. She decided that her goal for the day was to piss him off enough that he’d be mad at her and completely not stressed about the rest of the events.

    Yeah, not so much.

    Funniest moment was when I was dancing with the bride, and he came over, asked, “Can I cut in?”, and then when I stepped back to let the two of them dance, he took my hand and did a dance with me. I assume there are pictures of that somewhere, though people may have been cheering enough to forget.

  319. Louis says

    Barbecue:

    1) Outside.

    2) Fire

    3) Meat.

    THAT IS ALL.

    Deep rifts indeed.

    Louis

  320. Illuminata, Genie in the Beer Bottle says

    All this talk about hot meat is making me hungry. . . and horny.

    Anyone else want to partipcate in my self-pity party of those who weren’t able to got to WIS conference? I’ll be over here pouting into my beer.

  322. Ogvorbis: strawmadhominem says

    Tmy dad actually piped in his gas grill directly to the house supply,

    My in-laws in Florida have a gas grill in their sun room/patio that is hooked up to the same system as the oven. And the best part is, they can still cook after a hurricane.

    then just slap some hunks of meat down on the grill with no rub and no sauce

    The only time that works is with a really, really good cut of meat (like a ribeye (which is, like, once every six months)).

    I do like the way you got round the whole but-what-about-the-smokiness issue.

    Between the smoked salt and the burn pan it works nicely.

    In eastern Germany a “Broiler” is a grilled/roasted chicken

    However, in the uplands of Papua/New Guinea, a fryer was one of Franciscan guys — brown robe, rope belt — and they should never be roasted or boiled.

    Well-wishing for a Perfect Wedding Experience tomorrow, Ing.

    Seconded. Or thirded. And squared.

    I’ll be over here pouting into my beer.

    Still at work. They tend to frown on imbibing on the job.

    ———–

    And dinner tonight? Stir-fried beef, peppers and onions with lime juice and tequila, home-made fresh guacamole, and some broiled salmon. Served with soft corn tortillas. (That should make the rest of you a little hungry.)

  324. says

    GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

    The name of the game is Ing rushes to the next location where no one else gives a shit!

    1) Fucked up the simple cake order and it had to be fixed
    2) Location gave the wrong time for their closing, AFTER TWO CONFIRMATIONS TODAY! and closed up before I got there. I MADE THE TIME THEY TOLD ME. MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!

    I see why people go all bridezilla, what does it take to get people to do simple goddamn tasks! This isn’t even a big stupid wedding, it’s very simple, very small, all I literally need from people is to give half a fuck and not screw me over.

  325. says

    Seriously, I swear I almost killed my baker via bludgeoning them with frosting tubes. All they needed to do was do the printing of my design and make it be centered and not look like shit. I got something off center and with visible seams from the edible print. I was able to fix the border and hope no one else will care enough about the alignment. Just very annoying how I worked hours on the design making sure everything was symmetrical and good, only for the actual baker to not give a fuck.

  327. Ogvorbis: strawmadhominem says

    1) Fucked up the simple cake order and it had to be fixed

    Shit.

    2) Location gave the wrong time for their closing, AFTER TWO CONFIRMATIONS TODAY! and closed up before I got there. I MADE THE TIME THEY TOLD ME. MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!

    Double shit.

    What the hell?

    Nowhere near on the same scale, but in the late 90s, I was looking to get a train set for Boy. I called the local store and discussed what he had in stock and told I would be in at around 6:00. The owner told me they were open until 7:00. I got there at 5:50. He was walking out to his car. He told me it was so quiet he decided to head home early and no he was not going to go through the rigmarole of turning off the alarm for one last customer.

    Ing, I hope all goes well. My MIL said (during some chaos (or Kaos) prior to Wife and I becoming Wife and I) that a little chaos before the wedding makes for a smoother wedding.

  328. carlie says

    What!?! Have they not heard of “barbecued beef” in those thar parts?
    *shakes head sadly*

    Have you never had smoked brisket, PH? Definitely BBQue.

    I know, right? Burnt ends are the best food.

    then have the audacity to call it BBQ.

    There have been many tears shed trying to find good bbq upstate.

    If any of you end up near Kansas City, you must go to Zarda’s. It is much lesser-known than the main KC bbq places, but in my opinion it is much better. And their beans are the best ever.

    Happy birthday, thunk!!!!

    and then when I stepped back to let the two of them dance, he took my hand and did a dance with me.

    That is so awesome!

    Ing – deep breaths, deep breaths. Everything will be ok. The more that goes wrong, the more you have to laugh about later, and the more likely you are to win any “no, I had the most disastrous wedding” bets.

  329. carlie says

    Ing – TAKE A PIC AND SEND TO CAKEWRECKS!

    And then go out and get a little plastic Godzilla to put on top, and tell everyone he ruined the cake.

  330. Ogvorbis: strawmadhominem says

    I know, right? Burnt ends are the best food.

    Especially when there is a little big of fat and it gets all sweet and crispy.

  333. Grumps says

    God bless our gracious queen.. diamond jubilee, squee!

    No, no, no.

    Talk about privilege… fuck!

    What with her and the olympics, my god we’re into some nationalist shit now.

    Fuck!

  335. Ogvorbis: strawmadhominem says

    Grumps:

    Don’t hold it in. If you are upset or angry, don’t beat around the bush. Tell us what you really mean?

    And I agree with the nationalist bullshit. The McDonalds, Subway, etc., adverts for our Olympic athletes are already getting udder my skin.

    Which is annoying, because I really enjoy most of the Olympics.

  336. cicely. Just cicely. says

    Happy birthday, thunk!
    –

    Seriously, I swear I almost killed my baker via bludgeoning them with frosting tubes.

    Calm, Ing. Deep, slow breaths.

    Now.

    A frosting tube is wasted as a bludgeoning weapon, and you won’t get more than 1 or 2 points of damage, max (plus your situational modifier for Berserker Strength, obviously); and frankly, they aren’t much better as a stabbing weapon. However…

    …they are the Weapon of Choice for deployment of the Combat Enema.

    Go wild.
    –

  337. Richard Austin says

    Happy Birthday, thunk!

    Does that mean you’re now “d(thunk+1) over d(MQ) = SQRRAWK!” ?

  338. Grumps says

    @ Ogvorbis:

    Exactly. I love the Olympics too. And was so looking forward to having them here.. but what with the jubilee and everything.. I’m just tired of it already.

  340. Rey Fox says

    You guys can argue all you want about this barbecue stuff, just as long as you save me a slice or two. Actually, make that three.

  342. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    *noisemakersand silly hats and cookies for thunk!*

    Isn’t Thunk a little young for regular Grog and Swill? So, a virgin swill that looks like orange juice, and a zip drive of the best of the Pullet Patrol™ on Parade.

    Ing, the Pullet Patrol™ was thinking about streaking your wedding as a gag. They’ve run into the problem that is easy, but painful, to remove their feathers, but putting them back is problematic. I’ve suggested putting on costumes to mimic naked chickens, but they think the costumes make them look fat.

  343. Richard Austin says

    Synchronistically, my company had free barbeque for the employees. Burgers and hot dogs. Weren’t bad, and they were really grilled dogs rather than boiled (though the burger may have been done on a flat griddle; no char marks).

  344. says

    Hey, happy birthday thunk.

    Things are looking up today! It really seems like the school caught the lice before anyone but younger kid got them, and she didn’t have a very bad case at that. Misterc thought I was being a tad paranoid continuing to isolate everyone’s dirty laundry after we had gotten rid of the lice last time, but he’s certainly seeing things my way now *smirk*

    And, I saw my instructor about the paper I procrastinated on and thought I didn’t know what the hell I was doing with (those were my actual words to her: hi, thanks for seeing me, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing) and was full of nothing but praise for my rough draft, so apparently I do know what I’m doing and I have till Tuesday to work it into a second draft and will NOT procrastinate again, so that’s all swell.

    Today is a day off of schoolwork and appointments to clean house and make bread and lip balm, and then go to IKEA with the whole family tonight when everything should be calm and quiet there.

  345. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    My “catch-up” day was a success. While I wasn’t able to tackle the dust kangaroos, the guest bed is clean for a possible visit by an aunt, and all the mail has been shredded, bagged for the Redhead’s perusal, or filed away. Only my Sigma Xi membership sitting on my desk is outstanding. Time for grog.

  346. Part-Time Insomniac, Zombie Porcupine Nox Arcana Fan says

    Ing – I want a picture of that mastodon with a bow tie! And a big “fuck you” to the baker. It sounds like you didn’t ask for anything they couldn’t do, so I don’t see why it was so poorly done.
    ————————————-

    CR @ 206: I see what you did there.

    As for the mass, well, I work in a Catholic school. They don’t know that I don’t identify as Catholic anymore (well, except for one teacher who friended me on FB, but I guess she doesn’t give a fuck).

  347. John Morales says

    When I was a teenager, I worked as a kitchen-hand. The big grill was called a ‘salamander’.

    (Even then, the term amused me)

  348. carlie says

    Only my Sigma Xi membership sitting on my desk is outstanding.

    Dude, aren’t those due in July? Either you’re early or way late (says the person who is always almost a year late)

  349. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Dude, aren’t those due in July?

    For me, who usually submits on the first billing, way late, but not overdue. For example, I’ve paid my property taxes for the year, although the second billing isn’t due to September. But then, 0.5% interest on my checking account…contributes Pullet Feed.

  350. carlie says

    Ah, that answers my nagging question “does anybody pay up this early??” ;) Seriously, I admire your organization. I usually realize right around tax time (when I’m looking for deductions) that I never paid the year before, or sometimes around February when I realize I haven’t gotten a magazine in a long time. Now that they’re not sending the magazines, I won’t even get that mental reminder.

  351. d(thunk) over d(MQ) = SQRRAWK! says

    Thanks everybody :)

    Ouch ing; sorry about the astronomical wedding fuck-up.

  353. Louis says

    It is Friday.

    I am sober for the first time in what seems like a long time. It’s only a month, but it seems like a long time. I’m not 18 any more.

    Luckily I will be drunk tomorrow! Hooray. Health kick starts again on Sunday. Can someone post me some Baconators on high speed airmail to get here by Saturday evening?

    Louis

  354. Louis says

    Also:

    Thunk: Merry Birthmas.

    Ing: Wedding fucks = stress inducing. Nasty. They charge you triple for the privilege too.

    Louis

  355. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Seriously, I admire your organization.

    Well, my “organization”, or more likely Asperger’s, was seriously dented this year between the Redhead’s and my medical problems. (Like PZ acknowledged, the BP meds can do a number on you while you adjust.) Now that both are under control it’s like a fog has lifted.

  356. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Oh, and Project Rhododendron, appears to be a total success. The flowers, if kept with the stem in water, do last for several days. This is compared to the lilacs, who started wilting immediately, even when in water.

  358. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Nerd, I hear that if you whack the cut ends of the lilac stems with a hammer and put them into very hot water they won’t wilt. IIRC, it worked for me.

    I’ll try to keep that in mind for next year. Our lilacs are beyond blooming.

    *Looks at weather forecast to put out tropicals (>50 or the Redhead whacks me). Dang, one 48 degrees Monday night. Sigh.*

  360. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    humanape is confined to TZT!

    *sharpens titanium fang*

  361. ibyea says

    @life
    YES! Now I don’t have to listen to his constant slagging of religious people and his liberturds ideas. Don’t get me wrong, I think religious people are wrong, but all humanape does is insult those people, and it is tiresome.

  362. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    YES! Now I don’t have to listen to his constant slagging of religious people and his liberturds ideas. Don’t get me wrong, I think religious people are wrong, but all humanape does is insult those people, and it is tiresome.

    GASP! You mean liberturds can’t evidence their ideas??? SWOOOOOON! (making sure first the heavy duty faint couch is properly placed and free of Pullets, so nothing but bedbugs are disturbed by a dramatic swwwooooonnnn)…

  364. Cipher, OM, MQ says

    Aww Ing, that’s infuriating. I hope everything else goes more smoothly. *hugs* But yay wedding! Congratulations!
    —
    YAY TZT! For that one, I personally wish there had just been a ban. He’s smugly shitty, openly bigoted, and no good whatsoever comes of him. But at least he’s quarantined.
    —
    I’m having a mostly not good day that had a very awesome and fun bright spot.

    The awesome and fun bright spot was bellydance! I got to play with veils today, and I was so enjoying swooshing and spinning around the room with my instructor’s bright red veil that I didn’t notice I was actually really exerting myself to the point that I was having trouble standing up afterward. It was so good :D I even enjoyed the free dance period (which I usually kind of dislike because I don’t like not knowing what I’m supposed to be doing) and was bouncing excitedly while she was finding the music for it and all, because WHOOSH. VEILS.

    Also, at my instructor’s suggestion, I bought myself a veil online, then when I called my mom later I was mentioning how I couldn’t choose between two of them but I eventually decided on a red and black one because those colors are pretty much what I wear, so she bought me the other one :D It is gorgeous and fiery and whooshy. So now I’m very excited for that. I’m a little anxious because they’re scheduled to get here right around the date of my last class, so I might not get to use them in class, but it’s okay because VEILS.
    —
    The rest of the day… Not so good. I found out that apparently I’m supposed to be having a graduation ceremony this year despite the fact that I’m staying a second year, but the ceremony is two weeks after I am scheduled to leave. It’s honestly not important to me to be there, but apparently it IS really important to my mom, who now feels terrible, which makes me sad.

    Then I almost left during my German class because I was having so much trouble with sounds (I think it’s because I’m still fairly sleep-deprived? I don’t know if that’s a thing), but eventually settled on playing white noise in my iPod so I could stay til the end of class. Made it through that, went to the coffee shop to eat lunch (still with the iPod), and halfway through lunch someone slammed a door behind me really loudly, which, you know, always fun, but especially awesome today.
    Then I tried to cross campus to go to bellydance and there was a freaking rock concert going on in the central plaza, which at this point would have just been comical if I weren’t so on edge, and to add to that fun time, people were persistently trying to hand me things despite the fact that I was steadily staring at the ground, vehemently shaking my head no, clutching things in both hands, and presumably visibly upset.
    Then YAY BELLYDANCE YAY! Actually that was touch and go at first, especially when something went wrong with the sound system so it played a few horrible bursts of loud noise, but eventually I was able to settle into the music, and then YAY because VEILS.
    Then I got home and the kid next door is practicing his drums (he’s not good yet, I can’t make any sense of what he’s doing, it’s just LOUD LOUD LOUD BANGING). So I really really want to be left alone but my landlady is apparently feeling sociable so I don’t want to go to the kitchen to get food either.
    —
    SO. I’m going to try to watch Star Trek and have water and try to translate. And be calm.

  365. carlie says

    Cipher – if you’re staying another year, you should be able to be in next year’s ceremony. IIRC, most schools let you choose.

    Nerd, glad the flowers mostly worked out.

    Today I mowed the grass for the first time in two weeks (maybe three?), and we had a bumper crop of buttercups in the backyard, so I picked a bunch and brought them in before I cut everything down.

  367. says

    @Carlie, don’t you mean “pit neighbor against neighbour”?

    Australia almost follows UK usage here – grilling is heat from above in the home because that’s how stoves are made. But it could also be heat from below in a restaurant, or at home with a device such as the cast iron grill plate that I put on my stove top over a burner. BBQ is outdoors over heat, regardless of whether any sauces are involved, whether it’s on a wire grill (note usage) or a metal plate, or whether it’s gas, wood or charcoal. Broil is something only found in American style restaurants. Mostly it would be “char-grilled”.

    @Cipher: I haz a jellus. No way I could make it through a whole bellydance class. I have been practicing some pelvic tilts, though. I have found an exercise physiologist who is designing me a program. So far it’s just pelvic tilts and 3 minute walks and think about my posture, but next week we have a much longer practical session. Yesterday was the introduction and case history.

    @Tony, in my regular day to day life I never encounter anyone who would be so rude as to inquire about my religious beliefs or lack of them. And if the topic came up such as in some political discussion, in most cases it would be religion that’s bit weird and atheism that’s pretty unremarkable. It’s considered a little bit weird but still socially acceptable to go to church regularly. Fewer than 10% of us do that. Most nominal Xians are basically ceremonial – there for Xmas, weddings, funerals and such.

    I mostly encounter religion through my musical connections – my teacher and her husband are musical directors at a very liberal Anglican church. They support gay marriage, they have gay deacons and a female minister, they’re mostly along the lines of doing good and believing in some vague universal spirit thing. There are quite a lot of people like this across various beliefs: for example, my Jewish friends in Perth.

    My life is not extraordinary, but there are certainly other people for whom it matters more. We have serious problems with excessive religious interference in government, an ill-defined church-state separation, some biggish evangelical groups (Hillsong *spit*), and a few whacko fundies making a lot of noise. And while sects like Mormons and JW are in the tiny minority, they can still make life hell for people who get sucked in.

  368. Cipher, OM, MQ says

    I have found an exercise physiologist who is designing me a program. So far it’s just pelvic tilts and 3 minute walks and think about my posture, but next week we have a much longer practical session. Yesterday was the introduction and case history.

    That’s a good thing! I’m having a hard time figuring out how to phrase my question about pelvic tilts because how do you describe physical motions with words and no pointing, but I’ll try: are they where you contract and bring your pelvis forward and then release and let it go back? Or are they where you lift kinda one side and then the other one? I guess maybe, what muscles does it use?

  370. A. R says

    I love pseudoephedrine! It’s a bitch it get it where I live (meth etc.), but the stuff wonderful when your infected ear feels like it’s about to explode.

  373. Part-Time Insomniac, Zombie Porcupine Nox Arcana Fan says

    Ever seen those lovely floral pieces of art done entirely in gelatin? Edible they may be . . . but sweet Zombie Jesus in a Day-Glo shirt are they SWEET! After the first few bites, it stops being fun. This one was better than the first one I’ve had, but still, after a while, too. sweet. Seriously.

  374. says

    Carlie,
    I know! I audibly squeed and Mr Darkheart giggled. :D

    Random question: Is anyone else having a problem with an obscene amount of pop ups? Like, everytime I refresh the goddamn page.

    (The smart thing to do would be to stop using my phone, since the mobile Chrome browser doesn’t actually block pop ups, but I’m too lazy to drag out the laptop.)

  375. carlie says

    I think that episode must have been out of sequence – why else throw it in the middle of the Deangleganger problem? And the tag had Troy and Abed in the study room, when chronologically they’re still expelled.

    Have you watched the other two? They get even better.
    I loved how as soon as Abed could make babies, he made hundreds of babies. Poignant, somehow.

  378. cicely. Just cicely. says

    Boiled hot dogs are an abomination. If it ain’t partly blackened, with the casing split, then throw it to the peas!
    –

    I love pseudoephedrine! It’s a bitch it get it where I live (meth etc.), but the stuff wonderful when your infected ear feels like it’s about to explode.

    I used to love pseudoephedrine, too…but I’m not allowed to take it any more. For daytime, I’m allowed to take chlorpheniramine maleate (with or without dextromethorphan); Benedryl makes me way sleepy, so I save it for night-time.
    –

  379. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    Boiled hot dogs are an abomination. If it ain’t partly blackened, with the casing split, then throw it to the peas!

    word

  381. says

    YES! Now I don’t have to listen to his constant slagging of religious people and his liberturds ideas. Don’t get me wrong, I think religious people are wrong, but all humanape does is insult those people, and it is tiresome.

    Oh, he gets much worse than that.

  384. theophontes 777 says

    @ SGBM / lilapbwl ॐ

    what is your operating system?

    Ubuntu (but I also have WinXP on a virtual machine on my office computer)

    can you open a .7z file, using 7-zip or something?

    Yes. I have 7-zip installed with bells and whistles (.RAR).

    (Nothing in inbox, did you send yet?)

    ….

    re: Barbecue

    I just finished reading The Odyssey last week. The whole book is full of barbecues.

    (Summary: Ulysses tries heading back from Trojan war|Suitors have barbecue | Struggle | barbecue| shipwreck | barbecue | Suitors have barbecue | escape | barbecue | shipwreck | oops someone burned the lamb chops | boat sinks | suitors have barbecue | crew barbecue the wrong sheep | thunder and lightning | suitors drink wine and eat barbecue | Penelope complains about cost of barbecues | Ulysses invited to friend’s barbecue | barbecue ……… several more barbecue | Suitors get chopped up into little bits of meat | Ulysses visits dad | friends prepare barbecue …. This is a really entertaining book if you like barbecues.)

    The barbecue was raised by the Ancient Greeks (if we are to believe Homer) to the status of a religious ritual. Kind of makes sense in a way. Leaving the “chines” to the gods is still a good idea. All those fatty bits can’t be too good for one’s heart.

  385. says

    Pelvic tilts involve thinking of the pelvis as a bowl of water, and tilting it as if to spill the bowl directly behind you. It’s a tiny movement and front to back, not side to side. The complication is that you’re not supposed to use any of the big muscles, just the lower abdominal core. Not the same as any larger bellydance move that I know of, but uses relevant muscles. (Possibly it’s part of some advanced move; I seem to recall my teacher talking about it, but I haven’t been to class in over a year now.)

  386. says

    Good morning

    Belated Happy Birthday to Thunk

    Ing
    Have a wonderfull wedding day, even if small catastrophies happen.
    The perfect wedding means getting married to the love of your life, not the perfect cake.

    +++++
    Fucking privilege is fucking exhausting
    I’m desperately trying to teach #1 that a certain colour is called “peach”. I’m under the expression that I’m the only person who gives a fuck about it.

  387. opposablethumbs says

    I just finished reading The Odyssey last week. The whole book is full of barbecues.

    (Summary: Ulysses tries heading back from Trojan war|Suitors have “barbecue” | Struggle | “barbecue”| shipwreck | “barbecue” | Suitors have “barbecue” | escape | “barbecue” | shipwreck | oops someone burned the lamb chops | boat sinks | suitors have “barbecue” | crew “barbecue” the wrong sheep | thunder and lightning | suitors drink wine and eat “barbecue” | Penelope complains about cost of “barbecues” | Ulysses invited to friend’s “barbecue” | “barbecue” ……… several more “barbecue” | Suitors get chopped up into little bits of meat | Ulysses visits dad | friends prepare “barbecue” …. This is a really entertaining book if you like “barbecues”.)

    Thank you for letting me start this day actually laughing, theophontes. Of course you now owe me a new keyboard and monitor …

  388. theophontes 777 says

    @ opposableTHUMBS

    Thank you for letting me start this day actually laughing, theophontes.

    I see I might actually have skipped a few of the barbecues.

    Next up, The Illiad = gorefest (Brought to you by the TZT Department of Forestry.)

    @ thunk

    Belated ululations at the latest circling of our nearest star. (Please explain what your nym means…)

    @ Walton

    As a belated prezzie to welcome you back: Bastoey Island

    “It is in the public interest, when it comes to security, that you receive rehabilitation when you are inside the prison system so that you can go out and lead the life that everybody else takes for granted.”

    The result he refers to is a 16% re-offending rate among former Bastoey inmates. It is by far the lowest in Europe, quite possibly the lowest in the world. [my emphasis]

    Actually, read the whole thing, it is bloody marvellous.

  389. amblebury says

    Good evening, good grief.

    I was going to spend a pleasant hour catching up on Pharyngula, and spent it all reading through the Iceland thread.

    How is it possible for one person to be so bloody verbose, and yet say so little? Surely some laws of physics have been mucked about with?

    Sigh, anyhow, so much for that.

    I’ve visited Iceland, I thought it was gob-smackingly beautiful. And teh Icelandic ponies! And the Blue Lagoon.

    I think it was the Blue Lagoon. Or was that a bloody awful film.

    Forgive me. My thought processes are sketchy. G’night.

  390. carlie says

    Sony Britta’d Community – Dan Harmon is out.

    AV club article

    TV Guide says Sony is looking for ways to broaden the show, which pretty much means it’s dead.

    Now NBC moving it to Friday makes more sense – there was some hypothesizing that putting it there was admitting that the audience is small but dedicated, and that they’re willing to take the hit of its ratings being almost entirely from after the broadcast watching just to keep it on the schedule at all. But now it looks like NBC just knew that it’s going to start to suck so they put it there as a mercy killing.

    *apologies to the vast majority of people here who do not watch this show and don’t care*

  391. Ogvorbis: strawmadhominem says

    The Mexican-style stir fry and the heavily spiced broiled/grilled/BBQ’d salmon was delish.

    Happy Thursday, one and all.

    Og; just call me thunk. The rest’s for style.

    I thunk I can handle that.

    I think it was the Blue Lagoon. Or was that a bloody awful film.

    I’ve gone three years without thinking of that film. Damn you.

  392. says

    Pffffft, if I have to hear about Doctor Who, everyone else can deal with a little Community. :p

    I’d heard rumors about Dan Harmon being booted, so I’m not terribly surprised about it. That does make the season finale much more bitter sweet, though.

    As for the baby Abeds– I think they would have been cuter if they weren’t child laborers and canon fodder. :-/

  394. Ogvorbis: strawmadhominem says

    *waves at Oggie!*

    *Waves at Audley!*

    At the risk of being told that there is a Google and a Wikipedia, what is Community? (I ask here because I know that the answer(s) will be informative and amusing (no pressure!).)

  395. Louis says

    Today I have mostly decided to be a sex pest.

    That is all.

    {Looks at nearest lady}

    How you doin’?

    Louis

  396. says

    ni man hao !

    sgbm @ 275,

    it’s OK and working atm, so no need to send me any other format, but thanks! Maybe theophontes can comment on this, the Chinese, and in particular women, rely on pr0n for their, eh, sexual education, because it’s not taught in schools and parents would never talk about it? I was told this today, and was surprised by it.

  397. carlie says

    Og – one of the best shows ever. :)

    Let’s see if I can be brief. It is a show that amply rewards people who know a lot of tv history, because they riff intelligently on a lot of other shows. It plays to viewers who know about the structure of tv shows, because it riffs on the way tv shows are created and what themes exist (think tvtropes as an actual show). It plays to people who watch for stuff going on in the background. It plays to the people who always felt a little out of place and wished they had a tight group of misfit friends. And on top of all of that, it’s well-written and well-acted so even if you don’t get any of the in-jokes, it’s still enjoyable to watch.

  401. theophontes 777 says

    @ rorschach

    ni man hao ! ni hao ma? {you + good + [question]?}

    rely on pr0n for their, eh, sexual education, because it’s not taught in schools and parents would never talk about it?

    I could well believe that this happens often enough.

    But also consider what happens in the absence of pr0n! (There is an element of prudery about. But the problems do get resolved eventually. I have heard some strange stories though – about where babies come from (from kissing to simply laying on top of each other). I would also take things with a pinch of salt. The press can often exaggerate the problem.

    You are not coming past Shenzhen way? It is getting hot enough for an ice cold beer.

  403. life is like a pitbull with lipstick ॐ says

    rorschach, alrighty, good luck!

    +++++
    theophontes,

    (Nothing in inbox, did you send yet?)

    I was waiting for your OS. I had forgotten it was Ubuntu. I hope 32-bit is acceptable. Should be in your inbox now.

    +++++
    John Morales,

    For ॐ, who’s been on fire lately: blog entry illusion of control by Robert Todd Carroll.

    I like the “duck, duck, rabid radioactive goose” style of his examples.

    I’m reminded of the meaning maintenance model,

    “Reminders of Secular Authority Reduce Believers’ Distrust of Atheists”,

    “For God (or) country: the hydraulic relation between government instability and belief in religious sources of control”,

    and “Lacking Control Increases Illusory Pattern Perception”.

    By the way, which was that recent thread where you asked what Australians got that Americans don’t got?

  404. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    the fainting couch has bedbugs?

    Well, not for long. It gets dosed with grog fumes regularly. But we don’t know where the pearl-clutching tone trolls have been, and they seem to be the source of the few we get.

  405. Ogvorbis: strawmadhominem says

    It gets dosed with grog fumes regularly

    Not sure if drunk bedbugs would be an improvement.

  406. says

    theophontes @399,

    I’m off to Dalian from here (Shenyang) on Monday, and then back to Singapore for a few days respite in a weeks time.

    The lack of knowledge about the reproductive process and everything related to it is apparently so grave that women watch pr0n just to see what goes where and how exactly to achieve that. Or so I’m told. My tour guide has thankfully perused such educational material in previous years. TMI already. I have a football game to watch soon, and Matt P, I hope you are right about the outcome !

    Also, what really wins me over is when someone tells me “you have had 3 Corona tonight, too much drink, tomorrow you have to exercise”. Cultural differences heh. As Hitchens said, going to a country worse off than your own once a year may not prevent you from becoming fat, but it may help you not to become soft. Deepity of the day, I’ll take my coat now…

  407. theophontes 777 says

    @ SGBM ॐ (lilapbwl)

    I hope 32-bit is acceptable

    I’m on 64-bit. I’ll have a look at it first though. I might have to get the 32-bit libraries downloaded. …32 bit chroot apps … oh the hoops that I shall jump through!

    @ rorschach

    Dalian is really cool (as in kewl, not cold), unfortunately it is in the opposite direction to Shenzhen (you had better check your tour guides credentials.)

  408. life is like a pitbull with lipstick ॐ says

    No worries, I’ll send a 64 bit binary instead. Soonish.

  409. theophontes 777 says

    (ps, SGBM I have recieved two emails, I’ll try it out in the week.) {holds thumbs claws}

  410. Matt Penfold says

    I have a football game to watch soon, and Matt P, I hope you are right about the outcome !

    Well it is a home game for Bayern!

  412. says

    Okayyyy, I just bought a bed.
    We wanted to scan the market, since Ikea doesn’t have a bunk bed at the moment. There are hardly any bunk beds at all on the market because it’s obviously child abuse to put two kidses into one room.
    Well, there were two options. Option #1 cost a measely 2 grand, so we settled for option #2, which is about the same quality only at 25% of the price.
    There was a nice woman at the store who did kiddie make-up. She was very good, and very friendly and she suggested some ideas to the kids: flowers and butterflies and hearts. The girls settled for lion and snake :)

  413. Matt Penfold says

    A football GAME?!

    Not just a football game, but the final of the strongest club competition in the world.

    Which does make me ask, why the fuck is it between Bayern Munich and Chelsea ?

  414. Rey Fox says

    But surely this meeting of these two teams is a match! Why, next you’ll be telling me that they’re playing on a field rather than a pitch!

  415. Matt Penfold says

    But surely this meeting of these two teams is a match! Why, next you’ll be telling me that they’re playing on a field rather than a pitch!

    Would I confuse things even more if I said that the game/match can also be referred to as a tie, even though the result is not yet known ?

  416. life is like a pitbull with lipstick ॐ says

    http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1065912909359162

    «Do the middle classes in authoritarian, late-developing countries support democratization? Among scholars, there seems no clear consensus on this question. To fill this gap, this article examines the case of the middle class in China, based on data collected from a probability-sample survey. The findings from this study indicate (1) the middle class does not necessarily support democratization in authoritarian developing countries, (2) there is a negative correlation between the middle class’s dependence on the state and its support for democracy, and (3) the middle class’s perceived social and economic well-being is also negatively associated with its democratic support.»

  417. Ogvorbis: strawmadhominem says

    A football GAME?!

    Real American football? or that primitive abomination called soccer?

  419. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Not sure if drunk bedbugs would be an improvement.

    They surface for fresh air and the Pullets, who love anything soaked in grog, get a snack.

  420. David Marjanović says

    Sign this petition, everyone.

    More information: 1, 2, 3.

    Only caught up till my own comment 712 on the previous subthread. Gotta run, social life in meatspace.

    I find it very hard to get it through my head and really grok that gehen is not really go but walk (and have to make myself remember that fahren is NOT go but drive/go-by-vehicle).

    Fahren? On wheels, by ship, to hell, and up into heaven (in den Himmel auffahren). Not necessarily driving at all.

    Doesn’t gehen function as go, though? I mean, does child’s rebellious act stem from genuine misunderstanding, or was it deliberate nitpicking?

    I have no idea how literal-minded the child is.

    <blockquote<The main point being that I think my subconscious has written off AZ as a hopeless case. Between their tendency to elect nuts

    They almost voted for Obama!

    Male friends have told me that in their pee dreams, they urinate and urinate but can’t empty their bladders.

    Yep, that happens to me in the extremely rare cases that I urgently need a toilet when I’m still sleeping. It’s always been the bathroom of the place I actually was in, and is probably always preceded by dreaming of waking up.

    The fact that it doesn’t work eventually forces me to wake up for real this time.

    I have the lack-of-privacy one as well.

    I never have those about peeing.

    I finally got to see the handwritten note taped to the paper towel dispenser in the downstairs bathroom, visible right in front of your face as you sit on the john: It is NOT repentance that saves man, but the blood of [Teh Magikle Dead Jew™]. I presume that this is some sort of weird anti-wanking device

    … :-o

    LOL!!!

    Natural Law. Of course, what the fuck does that mean?

    It’s the naturalistic fallacy. The moron proudly and consciously commits the naturalistic fallacy, except he doesn’t notice it’s a fallacy.

    I sent MormonMom a note thanking her and the kids for the kitten, who was socialized beautifully and is healthy, curious, unafraid, and used to being handled already, and sticking in a note about a low-cost spay-neuter clinic in their community. Hope that helps.

    *thumbs up*

  421. Ogvorbis: strawmadhominem says

    They surface for fresh air and the Pullets, who love anything soaked in grog, get a snack.

    But what if the bedbugs are faster than a speeding pullet?

    Gotta run, social life in meatspace.

    Is Dr David allowed to have a social life in meatspace? I thought his role was to keep the rest of us updated on the significant happenings on the endless TET thread. :)

  423. cm's changeable moniker says

    Jubilee?

    “Aaaand down!”

    *bang bang bang*

    “I’m the bloody queen, mate. Basically, I rule.”

    (Kids are watching Dr Who.)

  424. Rey Fox says

    Would I confuse things even more if I said that the game/match can also be referred to as a tie, even though the result is not yet known ?

    As long as it’s not a “zero-zero” tie, I suppose.

  425. carlie says

    I was going to come in and try to stir up an argument about the differences between a cobbler, a crisp, and a crumble, but I see that football term arguing has already commenced. Carry on.

  426. says

    Pelvic tilts involve thinking of the pelvis as a bowl of water, and tilting it as if to spill the bowl directly behind you. It’s a tiny movement and front to back, not side to side. The complication is that you’re not supposed to use any of the big muscles, just the lower abdominal core. Not the same as any larger bellydance move that I know of, but uses relevant muscles.

    Some bellydance instructors refer to the side-to-side tipping movement of the hips as a pelvic tilt. Best to ask the instructor.

    The pelvic tilt you describe, Alethea, is a component of the bellydance move known as inner hip circles or omi. And of course yes the muscles are relevant, especially to keeping the pelvis engaged and avoiding swayback.

  427. opposablethumbs says

    Ooh, crumble wars? Moar rifts? Ace! (Oi, football is the one where the players (are supposed to) use their feet (and only their feet). (with the exception of the Hand of God, of course – unquestionable genius ::ducks and runs from fans of many nations simultaneously::)

  428. Rey Fox says

    I was going to come in and try to stir up an argument about the differences between a cobbler, a crisp, and a crumble

    Everybody wins.

  429. cm's changeable moniker says

    *glares at opposablethumbs for the “hand of god”*

    Anyway, if there’s to be rifts on the crumble front, it has to be between apple and rhubarb.

  430. A. R says

    I was watching some Star Trek, and I noticed that they had a shuttle named Dawkins. I was amused.

  431. Ogvorbis: strawmadhominem says

    rhubarb.

    Rhubarb is an abomination and should not, under any circumstances, be considered a food! Even peas are more of a food than rhubarb! Do not desecrate a good pie crust with rhubarb. Ever!

  434. Herr Mann says

    Thank you Jessa, I came here to bring the same news… Folks, check Google reviews, people are trashing that church’s reputation, and pharyngulites are welcome to chime in. :)

  436. cm's changeable moniker says

    (And, since I’m on football, West Ham are back in the Premiership (for now). danielhaven is unavailable for comment.)

  437. carlie says

    Even peas are more of a food than rhubarb!

    I brought it up specifically because I thought of it while making a dish containing my newly-purchased rhubarb. That I bought along with some roasted peas.

  438. carlie says

    here is a nice article about Community that explains some of the more esoteric episodes and what the whole thing is about. It’s a nice encapsulation of the show itself.

  439. John Morales says

    carlie, the more you write about Community, the more convinced I am that I would find it boring.

    (So, thanks for that)

  441. Part-Time Insomniac, Zombie Porcupine Nox Arcana Fan says

    Mmmm, strawberry-rhubarb pie….

    That reminds me, aren’t all crumbles supposed to be baked? A friend made an apple-blackberry one when I visited her, but I think it hadn’t been cooked. She just had the filling mixed in a glass bowl and the topping on top of it.

  442. says

    Kristinc, the pelvic tilts I’m describing are specific ones my newly acquired exercise physiologist has got me doing. Not a bellydancing move, but she does say that bellydancing is excellent exercise for the core. One day I’ll get back to that…

  443. carlie says

    PTI – raw topping? I don’t understand. Like a parfait, maybe?

    Audley – cool. :)

    John – possibly. It is an acquired taste; I’m not sure if the third season especially would hold up for someone who hadn’t been watching it because so much of it is dependent on knowing the characters and their personalities. But the first Christmas episode, in which they battle over whose religion is the best, is a great stand-alone for anything.

  444. carlie says

    Here is some random internet site’s distinction between the different types of fruit-and-dough dishes.

  445. Part-Time Insomniac, Zombie Porcupine Nox Arcana Fan says

    Hmm, seems like what I had WAS a crumble, but unbaked. Maybe my friend just forgot that step? It was tasty all the same.

  447. says

    An “unbaked crumble” should work quite well for a summer variant. But I’d use toasted granola for the topping, not being a fan of that raw cookie dough thing. Uncooked flour, no thanks, I’ll take my cookies baked.

  448. says

    Yep, ALethea, when I think “pelvic tilts” I also immediately think of the exercise (in my case I did it when I was pregnant). Bellydance being a mostly oral and folkloric tradition, the names of the same moves can be confusingly different from teacher to teacher. (I think my instructor calls the side to side tipping move “hip tilts”.)

  449. says

    Alethea:

    But I’d use toasted granola for the topping, not being a fan of that raw cookie dough thing. Uncooked flour, no thanks, I’ll take my cookies baked.

    That’s how I’ve had unbaked crumbles– with a granola-ish topping. Rather like a parfait w/out the dairy component. I would not have gone anywhere near an uncooked flour based topping. :-/

  450. says

    Sigh. I ordered special high-octane henna to use on my roots, because my roots are always lighter than my length (the color of henna builds up somewhat like wood stain and because I started my hennaing with several coats on my full head, the roots are always a couple coats behind). So I’ve had this stuff on all day and when I went to rinse it off I found that I had been too liberal with the application and it got all over the length of my hair as well as the roots so although it’s a lovely color, my roots are still lighter than the rest of my hair. *headdesk*

  452. Pteryxx says

    *correction: whoops, that’d be NO. Pardon the waste of post. Still sniffly though. <_<

  453. says

    Pteryxx,
    I was scanning over the “Red Pill” thread too, and I came across this gem from The Laughing Coyote:

    I cordially invite you to suck a fart out of my ass through a straw.

    I.
    Can’t.
    Stop.
    Laughing.

    Can’t.
    Breathe…

    *passes out due to giggle fit!*

  454. Pteryxx says

    Audley: I know, right? And when he caught his own sexism-think before anyone could even call him on it? *crushes on*

  455. Nutmeg says

    So, guess what I just did?

    I emailed my two closest female friends and asked to get together for coffee or a walk on Monday or Tuesday. And when I see them, I’m going to tell them that I’ve realized that I’m mostly gay.

    I’ve been wanting to do this for weeks, but the right time has never happened. If I don’t do it soon, I’m going to do something stupid, like stand on top of a lab bench and scream “I’m gay!”. So I’ve decided to make my own right time for it.

    I’m sure they’ve both already guessed, and I think the weirdness should be minimal. I’m nervous, but I’m also looking forward to being honest with them. And it would be really good to talk about things with someone in meatspace.

    Still, if anyone has any tips for minimizing weirdness, it would be appreciated.

    Side note 1: It would have taken me much longer to get up the guts for this without the example and encouragement of the Horde. So thanks!

    Side note 2: Did anyone else make a flow-chart to determine who they would come out to and in what order? Just me, then? All right.

  456. Part-Time Insomniac, Zombie Porcupine Nox Arcana Fan says

    Yep, granola-type topping. Considering this visit was done during the warmer months, yeah, it was actually very appropriate.

    Which reminds me, I should check around and see if I can find a steady supplier of museli. The stuff’s rather tasty and would make a nice alternative to Kashi when I don’t want Cheerios (for me, Mom wouldn’t like it I’m sure).

  457. d(thunk) over d(MQ) = SQRRAWK! says

    Oh wow… *goes back into hurricane junkie mode since it’s summer*

  459. says

    I’m just back from an Australian style BBQ lunch, which I think in the US might be called a cook-out? Anyway, in a park down by the lake there’s the usual assortment of picnic tables and the public BBQs. Gas, in this case – push a button for 10 mins or so of heat. Some BBQ spots have wood fires, and there’s a stock of wood there for you to use, but the more urban ones tend to be gas. Mostly free though there are the odd coin-op ones.

    We cooked sausages and satay chicken skewers for lunch, with bread rolls and salad. Very nice, it’s a lovely sunny autumn day. Perfect walking weather, though a tad chilly for just sitting down. (Waah, waaah, wish I could go for a walk.)

  460. John Morales says

    Nutmeg,

    Still, if anyone has any tips for minimizing weirdness, it would be appreciated.

    If your persona changes stereotypically after telling them, that might seem weird.

    …

    Just kidding!

    —

    Anyway, onya and good luck.

  461. life is like a pitbull with lipstick ॐ says

    theophontes,

    You should find a 64bit.7z.001 and 64bit.7z.002 in your email. Let me know when you have them downloaded to your hard drive.

  462. theophontes 777 says

    @ ॐ

    I’ll be able to tell you tomorrow when I’m back at work. It’ll be really cool if it works. (I have placed beer in the fridge for you. Collect any time you wish.)

  463. says

    Good morning
    Mr. and I had a nice night out (well, we were mostly in) celebrating our aniversary, though a bit late.
    Favourite food at the favourite Greek restaurant, Whisky and whiskey on the balcony (the second time this year that we could use it without being frozen solid or drowned in rain) and a night of sleep without having part of the brain on “kids might want something” stand-by.

    Also talked with him about the “apricot-issue” (even worse, in German the word is literally “skin-colour”. The good thing is that although he never thinks about those things himself (straight, cis, white man, do I need to spell privilege for you?), at least he doesn’t get defensive and just thinks about it then.

    Nutmeg
    Yay for coming out.
    If it helps, I felt deeply honoured to be one of the first non-gay people my friend came out to. It gave me a feeling of trust and importance. I was important enough for her to “need to know” and she trusted me enough to feel safe with me.

  465. says

    Did anyone else make a flow-chart to determine who they would come out to and in what order?

    Awesome! You think you could post an anonymized version of that somewhere?
    Also, how did you draw it? Free hand, with a template or on a comupter?

    Oh, and good luck, of course!

  466. opposablethumbs says

    Good luck and {{hugs}} to Nutmeg (and I think the flow-chart idea is awesome too).

  467. Matt Penfold says

    Well my prediction of a Bayern win was wrong. Still, they were the better team, and they should have won.

  469. John Morales says

    Matt:

    Still, they were the better team, and they should have won.

    I presume you refer to some sort of game of chance; in athletic team contests, the better team is the team that wins.

  471. KG says

    I presume you refer to some sort of game of chance; in athletic team contests, the better team is the team that wins. – John Morales

    It’s difficult to think of any athletic team contest that does not include elements of chance; certainly, soccer does.

  472. John Morales says

    KG, I suppose. Especially games like soccer, where scoring is low low low and many draws occur.

    Me, I’d find it unimpressive if a losing team claimed they were unlucky to lose, having been the better team.

  474. Matt Penfold says

    I presume you refer to some sort of game of chance; in athletic team contests, the better team is the team that wins.

    Not really, and certainly not in a single leg game.

  477. life is like a pitbull with lipstick ॐ says

    theophontes,

    I’ll be able to tell you tomorrow when I’m back at work. It’ll be really cool if it works.

    Yeah, well, the thing is, it won’t work till I gives you the password.

    (I have placed beer in the fridge for you. Collect any time you wish.)

    Whoa! I went to my fridge, and there it was. You even knew my brand!

  478. Ogvorbis: strawmadhominem says

    Hello.

    Happy Friday.

    One of my former coworkers had a habit of interrupting me and talking over me whenever we were in meatings. Now, he was mostly deaf, so he may not have been aware he was doing it. But it was, to say the least, quite annoying. That coworker is now gone and has been for almost a year. Another coworker has, in the past three months, taken up the exact same habit. Aaaaaargh!

  480. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Wedding was beautiful. Yay

    *confetti, champagne corks popping, whistles*

  484. Ogvorbis: strawmadhominem says

    Wedding was beautiful. Yay

    Fantastic! Bravo! Wonderful!

  488. says

    Hey, wonderfull, Ing
    Have a happy honeymoon, however you spend it.

    SQB
    OK, I didn’t say that properly: They don’t have any bunk beds at the moment that look neither like prison nor like youth hostel. Especially since the rest of the room is in the now extinct (for nurseries/children’s bedrooms) Leksvik series.
    I mean, seriously, what’s the first thought you have when you see this one? Mine isn’t “kiddie bedroom” for sure ;)
    The one we bought now has the big advantage that you can turn it into two single beds should we ever move into a bigger flat some day.

  489. Louis says

    Congratulations Ing!

    Now. As you are married you’ll be wanting to know about Conjugal Unpleasantness.

    When a mummy, and a daddy* love each other very much, sometimes they give each other a special hug.

    And that’s quite enough of that business.

    Louis

    * Or a mummy and another mummy, or a daddy and another daddy, or a combination of more than two of any of these.

  490. says

    (..) Leksvik series.

    De gustibus non disputandum est
    ;)

    I mean, seriously, what’s the first thought you have when you see this one?

    Well, okay, but I think the Norddal isn’t that bad. And sticking with the Tromsö series, this one + this one = lots of sleepover fun!

  491. says

    Or a mummy and another mummy, or a daddy and another daddy, or a combination of more than two of any of these.

    (mummy|daddy){2,}

  496. cm's changeable moniker says

    @Louis, kid #1 (age 10) came home the other week, announced “I know how babies are made” and proceeded to give a 100% accurate explanation. Playground chat is apparently much more scientifically-informed these days.

    (Saved me having to give The Talk™, too.)

  497. Ariaflame, BSc, BF, PhD says

    Theophontes @382
    I have a slight cold. I have now managed to get my breath back after reading that bit. *wheeze*

    I used to eat rhubarb raw as a child. The trick is, have stick of rhubarb (cleaned of course, and with leaves and lumpy end chopped off) and a cup with sugar in it. Dip end of rhubarb into sugar. Bite off crunchy sugared end of rhubarb. Repeat until you have no more rhubarb, or no more sugar.

    I love the tang that rhubarb can give to a crumble. I’ve never had a summer uncooked crumble though.

    Congratulations Ing! Have a great post-wedding trip.

    I’ve seen part of one episode of Community but I think I needed to come in earlier to appreciate it.

    Yay! I have a properly working computer again. Which of course waited to start working until I got it to the computer technician and heard those fatal words, “So what’s wrong with it then?” at which point it started working perfectly. Actually it may have been the time powered down without being plugged into a power supply that supplied the cure. Shall watch it like a hawk from now on.

  498. carlie says

    I’m trying not to be hair-trigger offended, but I’m pretty annoyed that it only took two comments for the “religion is bad for the species” post comments to go from being about what religion does to women back to a general “but what about overall society in general if we pretend women don’t exist” discussion that was the very thing the OP complained about. I’ll just be in the corner sulking.

  499. says

    cm
    We’ve been readin “Mummy laid an egg” for quite some time now. No idea how much they understand about this already, but I found it a very fun book to start “The Talk™”

    Oh, cute kids story:
    #1 is currently playing a game with us that is “name an animal that starts with ….” The person who says an animal can ask the next question. So, Mr. said “what animal starts with an O”. #1 was thinking a bit and Mr. wanted to give her a hint at “otter”: “the animal that snuggles a lot”*
    At this point the little one cut in and said “That’s me!”

    *their first encounter with otters were in a zoo where they (the otters, that is) were all asleep in one big pile of snugglyness. Since then the verb “to otter” exist and it means exactly that.

  500. carlie says

    I’m sorry – I had read the first few dozen comments yesterday, then read the most recent ones today, and didn’t see that it did go into discussing women in the middle. I take back my previous whine.