Here’s a promotional video for this place I’m at. One thing: it mentions the midnight sun. This is not a plus. It’s 2am here right now, and it’s still light out. It’s not making it easy to sleep.
(Episode CCCXXXI: Working on the tone.)
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Josh:
True enough. Really old names don’t though. Names like Lycoris or Halcyone. Or Ajax. ;D
Audley: How about Seleucus Nicator? Or Antiochus Eupator?
Don’t meet too many of those around your neighborhood.
Or Clytemnestra, which is a fucking awesome name.
OMFG. I’m so fucking screwed.
I still haven’t been able to get any kind of job. I am on fucking waiting list 6 months or longer for every fucking shelter. How the fuck are you suppose to find a place to go before living on the streets when the amount of time it takes to get into a shelter is double or triple the amount of time it takes to get evicted?!?
To top it all off just fucking found out that I can’t move in with my mother and step father. The reason is that my step dad gets rent help through a program because he is disabled. They flat out denied it, even just temporarily for a day or two. They straight up told my mother to her face she was lucky she was even allowed to live with my step father in their apartment. They are legally married and have been for years. They slept on the streets together. The program is for disabled people and their families! Why are they lying? Why are they doing this?Are you fucking kidding me?!?
FUCK!
Crip Dyke: I keep forgetting that I’m reading the ‘Real Scientists’ thread and not TZT, it’s so freakin bad.
What a tedious specimen of MRA ness.
Josh, at my previous place of residence, I had my bedroom windows open one warm night. From the street below, I heard the following one side of a conversation from a woman: “No, my mother’s not a lesbian. She’s all about the penis!”
Happy birthday, Mattir!
Misread as “shibari.” Don’t GIS on that at work, people.
Caine:
/dies and iz ded
Audley, I took my car to the car wash Tuesday morning. When I left work Tuesday afternoon, it was covered in a fine layer of green dust again.
Richard Austin, that’s not only vile on its face, but in light of what happened to Gabby Giffords it should be prosecuted.
So many posts.
Jennifer: so sorry to hear about what’s going on. Best wishes, and best luck with navigating all the legal nonsense
Josh: but…but who will be Spokesgay now? How will we ever again know what Teh Gays ™ think???
So I found out recently that I’ve been misusing the a href=”url” tag for links all this time on FtB, and finally gave up and plain pasted the link as tagless text…..
FtB, you are evil. EEEVVVIIILLLL…..
Just_A_Lurker: I am so, so sorry to hear that. Where are you located? There may be someone who will be able to take you in there, or there may be better resources that you don’t know of yet that someone else will know.
I truly hope that things get better. Our safety net is shit (assuming you’re USian).
Josh:
???
I didn’t think it was, I’ve just always liked it.
JAL, if you need help, say! I can kick in a bit more and Josh can administrate.
Aw. Why not a vuvuzela?
When was it that we had a subthread or two about Mormon names?
With the notable exception of ERV. Yes, the entire slimepit is up and running; the latest subthread had fifty pages last time I looked.
I hope this means the NatGeo overlords are restoring comments one blog after another, and they’ve started with the smaller blogs or perhaps alphabetically. Still, it can’t hurt to poke them.
Ah, yeah, the newfangled version. See Michèle Alliot-Marie, minister of first defense, then the exterior, and way too close friend of Notre Ami Ben Ali.
Be specific and use Thorgrimm.
What? No. “Fightfight”. Bat- is “fight”, and hildia is “fight”.
Germanic names don’t necessarily mean anything as a whole. They’re traditionally reshuffled from the elements the parents’ names consist of, and some of those elements lost their individual meanings long, long ago.
Hildegund(e) also means “fightfight”.
alle deutschen Idioten denken an Sex
</grade school>
:-o Details!!! Sister 1, who has a thing for deeply silly names, has long planned to marry an Erdmann… actually five in a row, if there are that many left in the world.
Erdmann is a Pietistic translation of Adam, BTW.
My mom made a family discussion of out it every time. That’s right, when I was 5 years old, I was given a say in how to name the older sister, and when I was 10, my brother was 7 and the mentioned sister was 5, all three of us were given a say in how to name the younger sister.
All seconded. :-)
Ole in ole, you’re just a – nother – brick in the wole!
Aw. That abovementioned little sister was globular for years; since then I have an urge to hug all soft balls. ^_^
I’m not saying who, but there is already an Eliana among us. Apparently it means “my (-i) god (el) has listened”.
=8-)
You’ve done so on a couple of occasions, though.
Ivan the Terrible has on rare occasions appeared in English as John the Dread.
(“Terrible” isn’t a good translation. “Menacing” would be better.)
Awesome.
Because the stupidity is finally hitting the fan.
*awards medal for bravery*
:-o Awesome.
*squee*
Cladistics = cover term for the methods of phylogenetics.
♥
Nothing can defeat the penis!
Sorry.
—
*hugs to JAL* I’m so sorry to hear things are going so terribly.
I didn’t mean to insult you, Audley.
Don’t worry. I’ll get back to SpokesGaying when I get tired of having fins.
carlie,
Ahahaha! My mom did that.
+++++
skepticalmath,
I don’t recall any voting the last time around. I surmise that the title must either come down as a directive from the HOMINTERN, or be claimed by whoever leads the most successful raiding parties against the institution of marriage.
Ms Daisy Cutter: ♥ you so much right now. By name, by nature :D
LOL!
No, the directive comes down from me. It’s mine, all mine. Mwahahahahhah.
See that? He’s just claiming it by fiat. When’s the last time he destroyed the sanctity of any straight couple’s bonds of matrimony?
And I just lost a piece of my front side tooth. You know why? No motherfucking dental insurance because the US fucking sucks.
Fuckity fuck fuck fuck!
Yeah that isn’t going help me trying to find a job at all.
Fuck.
‘Sok, Josh. I’m still on a hair trigger from yelling at
Mr DarkheartLobsterpoopface about names.We decided that there was no way in hell we were jumping on the Kayden, Jayden, Brayden names. I just… ugh. I could never saddle my kid with a “clever” name, you know?
Case in point: A friend of a friend is naming her boy Jaxson. Oh, how I wish I was kidding.
The issue we’re having (specifically to Max, not the list in general) is that whatever I like, Mr Darkheart doesn’t and whatever he likes, I can’t spell. :-/
Audley, I love Mr. Darkheart, but tell him Number One Ghey Uncle Josh says he needs to go fuck himself.
A rogue operative, then. I’d better call
The KremlinThe Castro.life:
Awesome mental image!
Is it bad that I pictured a bunch of orcs crashing a huge, traditional wedding? XD
Girl. . .better get a beer if you want thosestories.
Josh:
:D
Okay, you just secured the #1 Ghey Uncle spot. I’ll have to text my bff and tell him he’s out of the running.
Just_A_Lurker, how much does it cost to reconstruct that tooth?
….isn’t that a central part of traditional marriage? Like, don’t the godparents or something have to put together the orc raid?
Audley:
Right, ’cause that pointless s just makes it, right?
…..and I combined two discussions into one, and turned a wedding into a baptism.
I fail at tradition.
No, so long as you pictured them in fishnets and false eyelashes.
Caine,
So it’s clear that his name is Jackson and not Jason, maybe?
Hell if I know what she’s thinking.
sympathetic RAGEHULKSMASH
It really is pathetic, this country’s priorities are so fucked up.
(My teeth are pretty messed up too.)
Josh:
Feather boas, actually.
Just_A_Lurker, how much does it cost to reconstruct that tooth?
Oh god, I don’t even want to know. It’s not even the worst thing about my teeth currently.
Forgot to post this petition against the latest attempt of Florida to prevent people from voting in November.
Help me out. Am I the only one who can’t parse what this commenter means to say, nor whose “side” ze appears to be on?
Audley, I just figured it was the idiocy of “it will make it unique!” when it’s simply stupid. Yes, there are half a ton of other boys named Jaxon, however, it’s a perfectly serviceable variation on Jackson. Whatever, there’s just no need to get so silly over it all.
I still adore Macsen and you should slap Mr. Darkheart. Go with that Jayne business. :P
Nah, it took me a few seconds, but I think Valindrius was saying that DJ was being irrational to assume that the letters represented all the reasons women might not be attending, and also to assume that the reason behind those letters was “well-meaning women bloggers.”
Oh FFS. Now the little one is crying and worried and I’m trying not to cry. She’s asking if they are going to take her away. She’s asking because the people at the last shelter told her she would get taken away if I didn’t tow the fucking line.
God fucking damnit. I can’t do this. How am I suppose to do this? Fucking a I fail at life.
Josh: is he quoting from someone for the first half?
Even so, the rest of that comment seems completely meaningless, but he seems to broadly be on the pro-TAM/Grothe side.
*ze, sorry.
See, that’s the problem. Valindrius’ prose is so convoluted and laden with pseudo-BBC affectation it’s impossible to know what it means.
Just-a-Lurker—Have you found out whether there’s a dental school within reasonable distance of where you live? If so you can likely get work done for cost or less, done by students supervised by doctors.
Assuming that it is spelled “אליענה”, “ana” (ענה) does not mean “listened”, except by implication. The word means “answered”, or “responded”. “My God [has] answered”.
Josh: apparently Valindrius thinks DJ’s messenger blaming is uncalled for, shows bias, and is more alienating than anything he could possibly be complaining about.
Also, xe says “What they said goes for me too.” Second parag.
Josh:
Side: ours. Problem: they wanted to agree with what many had already said in substantial criticisms of DJG/JREF/TAM but also wanted to appear as though they had something substantial to say as well.
Just_A_Lurker, holy crap people are fucking assholes when they get to police other people’s lives. I’m so sorry.
I don’t have much to scrape up, but if necessary I can make long drives. And I’m listening.
Ugh… Broken teeth without insurance? I broke one bad enough to need to have it removed, and a bridge put in. About three large, iirc. Still paying it off.
J_A_L, so sorry to hear you’re back in harder times. If there is any way, try to get that tooth looked at before it rots. If it’s a chip, no huge deal (in the best of all possible countries where we can’t cover that kind of basic life sustaining shit), but if it broke to below the gums, that can lead to some major nasty shit.
Alas, I cannot ride in a saddle for long, for they cut off my buttock. (fucking Voltaire should not be this contemporarily applicable!)
I think it’s anti-TAM, criticizing Grothe’s reasoning. This is the tell:
Those are quotes from DJ. DJ has to be the one “claiming to note ‘problems of sexism in scepticism.’” Thus DJ is also the one misrepresenting or dismissing the legitimate views of women who’ve spoken up.
Have I pointed to this excellent name etymology site before?
http://www.behindthename.com/
Anyway, they agree with me.
http://www.behindthename.com/name/eliana-2
Interesting guys. Well, Valindrius could certainly be clearer. I have had two glasses of wine, but that’s not really enough to dull my wits that badly.
J.A.L
Damn. You aren’t anywhere near Northern California are you? Within say a couple hours drive? You’ve probably mentioned your twenty somewhere but I can’t find it. This shit is making my heart hurt.
Shorter Valindrius:
The below quotes were addressed to me from the DJ, please fix this genuine problem thread:
Okay. I don’t care, especially about the sexual orientation. Now I know which pronouns to use when referring to him.
I didn’t know that. However, like me, LILAPWL aka SGBM can be a real asshole at times.
‘Tis, don’t get snotty with me. I was only providing this for your file-in-the-back-of-your-head info. As a favor, not a judgment.
Thanks guys. I will look into the dental school. The problem with my teeth is that they are indeed rotting and need extensive work due to a very long fucking time without dental.
If anyone could chip in to help again it would be appreciated. I’m so sorry. I hate asking for it. I hate needing it. Links to other shelters, some money for a hotel if not enough for rent, anything. I will sleep in somebody’s storage unit in a another state at this point. I’m scared shitless,, especially due to the program that is supposed to help my parents.
I thought by now I’d have it under control again. It’s been months. I’ve done everything I can yet it feels worthless. All for nothing like I just sat on my ass because nothing has changed.
JAL:
what region of the country are you in?
Oh duh, should have included that.
I’m in Phoenix, AZ.
J_A_L, I apologize for my last comment. That was not what you needed to hear right now, sorry. If there is anything we can do, you know the bat signal is over to your left.
Thanks, Owlmirror, I was about to correct that. And there has been some amount of speculation as to what question that specific child might have been the Magic Sky Fairy’s answer for. I think it’s some sort of weird Zen koan thing, myself.
JAL, please allow the Horde to help. It’s done it before. It’s a monument to how fucking horrid our safety net is that random people on the internet have to form aid societies, like we are immigrants in 1910 Brooklyn or something. On the other hand, at least we CAN do this…
Like I said, JAL, I can kick in a bit more. Josh, you still have that account set up?
Phoenix. Shit, that’s a long way from me. Not that staying with me would help much, I’m in the middle of nowhere.
JAL, if I can do anything physical to help, I’m only two days’ drive away. (Me driving, I mean. I have a hybrid and I’m not afraid to use it.)
Where the hell did my comment go?
Anyway, JAL:
Google for “phoenix arizona dental school”. You’ll get a link to a teaching school with a clinic. They appear to be income-sensitive. It’s worth a call.
Worst-case scenario: Schedule an appointment, making it clear how dire it is. Agree to a payment plan, even if you know you can’t keep up with it (they build this in to their cost structure). Get it done. That’s more important than worrying about bill-collecting letters. They can’t get money from someone who doesn’t have it, and, if you’ll pardon me saying so, I’m sure your credit’s shot anyway. Mine certainly was when I had to use these tricks to get basic care when I had no insurance. Fuckers.
Yes, I can administer and the account is the same.
I know. It seems like no one is in the Phoenix area here. There are more of the Horde in Texas than in Phoenix. Not surprising all things considered. Texas has pockets of good places, I have yet to find one here.
/sigh
Thank you guys again. If Josh is up to it, he has my information and the PayPal account is up.
I was all happy expecting to be employed and being able to help out the next person in the Horde that needed it with a couple bucks. Instead, I’m asking again. =(
PROTIP: this hasn’t sounded like a pro-gay statement since the 90s.
Yeah. Starting a fight with me in that thread, lying about what I said, now neglecting to acknowledge that you just made shit up? Asshole moves, each.
Desert Son, OM – in re your puzzlement about what drives billionaires to keep on accumulating, way over there <— someplace, I have a couple of thoughts.
One is – it's racking up every single available percent or half-percent gain that gets them from being millionaires to billionaires. Shorter; you don't get rich by giving money away.
Second is – did you not notice that bit about them buying the Republican party?
A few million or tens of millions will make you comfortably wealthy. A few billion and you can start to shape the world.
JAL,
This site lists free/reduced-cost medical and dental clinics around the country. Search by state and city.
@TLC #6:
Yeah, the thread is horrible.
@Carlie, #480 or thereabouts in old comments:
I cannot tell you how much I love your spocktopus line. We make beautiful babies together. Beautiful, fictional word-babies.
If we’re lucky, Spocktopus will grow up to be a meme someday.
Josh: Could you post the information for that account again?
Pharyngula Horde Fund Information:
I’m willing to collect donations in my PayPal account, track them, provide totals but keep donor anonymity, and send the money to the recipient by PP or check. My email is spokesgay at g mail. That’s where you need to write me to get access to my PP account.
o.O
Well, that dental school idea works. I will call tomorrow morning. At the very least not being in constant fucking pain will be an improvement.
And my credit is shot. I don’t even have that much on there. This will be my first eviction on there. I owe student loans but it was under 5k, of course not paying screwed me. There’s a bank and a store I owe for a small amount all things considered. Sad how little it takes to fuck someone up in this society.
Josh, is the PP info the same as before?
Some advice that should calm your nerves from someone who’s been there. Fuck it. Very, very few creditors will go to the trouble of garnishing wages/welfare benefits/income, especially for small debts. The worst you’ll have to deal with is annoying calls and letters. Sooner or later they stop being scary, and just don’t answer the phone when creditors call.
I declared bankruptcy at 21. I’d bought a brand new car (stupidly) on my waiter’s salary, then got accepted to a prestigious college (with lots of loans and scholarships). I couldn’t keep up the payments or sell the car in time. So I turned it over to the bank and did a $200 quickie bankruptcy.
My credit sucked for a long time, but it wasn’t too long until I had opportunities to build it back up in better times. Hell, the credit card companies were going after me at usury rates a year after my bankruptcy was entered.
TLDR: You can’t get lower than bottom, so don’t worry about it.
Josh:
Thank you. Money sent.
MikeG and all other potential donors:
Yes, all the information about the donation fund is exactly the same as you remember from last time.
Thank you guys so much.
Josh, that makes a lot of sense. It helps knowing that. You are right.
Audley–My grandmother was Swedish and *hated* the middle name she was stuck with. It would be a good addition to your list, plus it’s screamable all on its own, no middle name required!
…
Ingegard
JAL: my HugsAndBacon-inator is warmed up and ready to fire. (Also a bit of more tangible help via Josh.)
Happy natal day anniversary to Mattir.
Welcome delurkers, and be sure to stop by the Pharyngula Saloon and Spanking Parlor (Patricia, Princess of Pullets, Proprietor). Your first drink of grog or swill (swill can look like normal drinks in a purposely dirty looking, but sterile, glasses) and bacon sammich is on the house, and a 10 e-ducat credit is added to your tab when activated. You also receive receive a copy of the blooper DVD, The Pullet Patrol on Parade.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MATTIR
I forgot to say that
HERE IS SOME CONFETTI
There are sparkles too
Hm.
“What passes through the gateless gate like 3 pounds of flax clapping one hand?”
Cipher – please tell me that I should sing that to the birthday tune.
Crip Dyke – I would be honored to make word-babies with you. :)
Oh . . .have y’all ever cleaned with bleach and been disgusted with the slime it leaves on your hands? Vinegar. Vin. E. Gar. Takes it right off. No surprise considering it’s at the opposite end of the PH scale, but wow. Do have some hand lotion ready, however.
Josh:
I hear you about the names. Especially ‘Josh’. It can get rather confusing when you work with several people that have the same name. Then it becomes ‘Bartender Josh’, ‘Kitchen Josh’, ‘Busser Josh’, etc.
Audley and names: some Names from my family. Mostly early turn of the century rural south.
Opal (grandma)
Virgie NOT Virginia (other grandma)
Elvie (grandpa)
M Z (granduncle) – yes, his first name was “M” and his middle name was “Z”. I never found out why. :(
Tony:
That’s so how it is! Except in my neighborhood it’s “Opera Singer Josh,” “Crazy Josh,” “Carpenter Josh,” “Gay Neighbor Josh.” LOL.
Josh:
2 things I’ve learned today!
Awesome.
That will come in handy when I’m cleaning at work next time.
Thanks Josh.
Just dropped in while packing for our weekend trip to DC (no time for meetups; it’s a quick-hit in-and-out to lay eyeballs on spawn’s GWU dorm for next year[1]), and happened to be in time to see the Bat-Signal for the Save J_A_L’s Face Fund™. A number of clams have been sent through teh intartoooobz to our estimable SpokesAdministrator.
Also, I gather there’s a conversation about names?
Spawn’s confirmation name (yeah, yeah; we got better) is Polyxena[2]. She wanted to choose Sexburga[3], but her mother drew the line at that… so her best girlfriend took that one instead. ;^)
PS: Thanks for all the congrats yesterday. The graduation was actually more than a week ago, but that was the first time I’d been on TET since.
___
[1] In case I didn’t mention it before, Spawn was accepted into the GWU American Studies PhD program, with full funding. So for the next ~5 years, I’ll always have a floor to crash on in DC.
[2] Yes, that’s a real saint’s name.
[3] That, too.
Josh, Official SpokesHash@66 (second page (566?)) How do we help Just_A_Lurker? Link or info, please? Thanks!
This country sucks, healthcare should be a basic human right!!!
The horde helps to restore my hope for humanity… again.
Just_A_Lurker@67 I can spare a few bucks to help a fellow pharynguoid, soon as I find out how. Good luck to you.
Ye Olde Blacksmith:
There’s something really cool about this name.
Owlmirror, I think I sense cross stitch sampler opportunities for that koan. Really.
Today has been a fabulous natal day. And tomorrow I get to do an actual science geology program for an evangelical school that schleps its fifth graders to my nature center for a day-long fossil hunting and geology activity. They’ve requested that I do their programs for five years running, despite the fact that (a) there are actual YEC nature educators on staff (makes my teeth grind to think about how someone with a biology degree from an actual public university with a good biology department can emerge as a YEC, but nevermind…) and (b) I told the teacher ahead of time that I would not do a program that neglected to mention the actual age of the earth or how fossils are actually formed. She told me later that my enthusiasm and awe at the age of rocks and my Cambrian trilobite fossil were exactly the sort of attitude she wanted her students to acquire. (In other words, she wants her students to become science-nerd atheists, but I’m not sure she realizes that…)
Just_A_Lurker:
YMMV, of course, but my own experience with a dental school (not in USA) was that they love that shit. Let us say that you present a wealth of teaching resources ;)
I am saddened by your housing situation and I wish I could help, but I’m on entirely the wrong continent for that. Is something like a tinyhouse or a tumbleweed house a conceivably viable future option?
AAAAAGH! @92, Pharynguloid, dammit.
Carlie, you certainly should. :D
I take it you work in restaurants Tony? I did waiting tables/bartending/catering for more than 10 years putting myself through school and beyond. Good, quick money, but brutal work. I still have those nightmares of going into the back of the house and realizing I’ve left 6 tables sitting for 25 minutes without putting their orders in.
Pharyngula Horde Donation Fund Information:
I’m willing to collect donations in my PayPal account, track them, provide totals but keep donor anonymity, and send the money to the recipient by PP or check. My email is spokesgay at g mail. That’s where you need to write me to get access to my PP account.
Thanks Nerd. I de-lurk every couple years just to get in on the free grog. The last time I had to earn it with a Trial By Truth Machine. Still stings a bit.
Bill:
Good Choices. :D I wanted Apollonia, but was made to take Paula. Bleah.
My (meatspace) name isn’t Josh, but it’s what my father wanted to call me. Never quite sure about why I ended up with the one I did get, which I later found belonged to one of his grandfathers – who, incidentally, was a USAnian who moved to Australia; that’s right, I’m actually one-eighth American…
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATTIR!!
Oh my tentacles, that I have been lax thus far in saying so :(
As you wish!
Josh, Official SpokesHash@99 Thanks, that’ll teach me to post before refreshing for new comments. You had already answered the first time before I posted @92 to ask.
I still have a spot on my tush that itches from TM. I found playing dead in dramatic fashion (squashed bug on its back, legs waving futility) helped. I could almost hear the chuckles over the intertubes.
YAY bacon and hugs. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve had bacon. Such a frivolous and expensive item for food stomps.
*homer drool*
Thank god dental schools love fucked up teeth. I’m calling for my step father as well tomorrow. He has meth mouth. Don’t google that if you don’t already know what it looks like. It’s fucking horrible. Mine is only slightly worse and I’ve never done meth. Fucking American for ya.
Yay!
That’s suppose to be food stamps but considering how people love to stomp on us welfare queens and all…
Blacksmith, Yay!
Tony @93:
I have always thought it a great name. I think nolstagia + my birthstone + absolutely beautiful mineral is probably why.
Dang, took a vacation day and drove the car for what was supposed to be rehab training on how to get the Redhead in and out of the Probes. And it rained. All day. No training. AUGH!!!! And when I get back, probably 500 posts to read in two hours. AUGH*AUGH!!!! Time for bed, brain overloaded.
Opal was on the list for names for Little One but it totally clashed against our german last name. Nothing goes well really with our last name.
Josh,
Is it a real pain in your tushie if I send a check again? Folks don’t go to the bank as often as they used to, and I hate to inconvenience you, but I have no idea how to send money via PayPal. And I assume you haven’t moved lately?
Blacksmith – I’m so proud!
Carlie: Our little baby is having its first sex! They grow up so fast.
Meanwhile, anyone have the mad photoshop skills to slap an octopus on a picture of Spock’s body – then maybe add back in the ears – or hair and ears, whichever looks good? On a meme background or still in a star trek context I leave to you. I totes wanna see that thing with, “Your denial of privilege is … illogical,” on it. Then see where the wild meme sex takes it from there.
Oh Nerd, I’m sorry.
That really fucking sucks. I can’t even imagine trying to deal with all of that. The delay to bringing Redhead home has to hurt. =(
(meta) I really think threadruptness is going to become more or less the default state… it has been for me, for a while. I just read backwards from the newest post until I see something to respond to, and then mostly search for my nym.
Imaginesabeach:
Ugh, blockquote fail.
We have a winner in the DJG thread. A real charmer.
Seems to think we expect DJ to solve sexism. Single-handedly.
Oh Nerd, what a disappointment. {hugses}
Ok. Scratch that one. How about John C. Welch?
I swear it was only second base! I wouldn’t want to impugn Evil and Spocktopus’ good name. It won’t happen again. Probably. Ok, possibly (but not likely.)
Nerd: since you’re in charge of the grog, you probably ought a help yourself.
Happy birthday, Mattir!
*cake* & *ice cream*
–
Been there, sneezed that, bleached the fuck outa the tee shirt.
–
*bemused*
…in a facially biased […] fashion….
o.O
O.o
Fascisticly biased???
–
Epidurals are Beyond Awesome.
–
Crip Dyke, these days is done with <q> insert stoopid here </q>
–
Magrat.
It’s literarary.
–
Mine, too.
–
JAL, I’m so sorry. *hugs*
Maybe the tooth is do-able, with a little help from your Phriends?
–
Josh—paper&ink check still okay?
–
Welch is a piece of work, eh?
The HugsAndBacon-inator has unlimited capacity (cheat codes Woot!) so I’m aiming at you both, Nerd and the Redhead.
Cicely:
Yep. Just know I’m out of town and indisposed until after June 10 (bidness stuff). That means I can administer electronic financial fuckery but that’s it.
Oh, and btw, I made the BEST pot of soup I’ve had in a long time last night. It was even better after a day in the fridge.
Wanna guess what it was? Yeaaah, I know you do. . .
cough suppressant and bed.
Nighty night.
Ack, somehow I acquired a hangover last night, it’s 1115 here but Im still in bed in my hotel room.
I thought the best comment on the whole DJG thread was Alathea’s remark that “not safe” is the default setting, and to make such events safe, we have to do something about it, be proactive, rather than handing out feedback forms after the fact. A very good point.
I had a whole fucking comment typed, then Chrome decided to go back. Lost it. GRRR
Today has been mixed.
The good:
-Went to Amazing Bar-be-cue place (Audley and Sally know it). It was amazing.
-Went to the symphony. Saw this. Awesome.
The mixed:
-Did all of the above with my Very Christian mother. She is visiting, because she felt like visiting.
-In addition to being Very Christian, my mother is very extroverted and gets grumpy and shouty if things are quiet for longer than about 30 seconds. I am very introverted who likes silence. The past day and a half have been trying.
We are going to Niagara Falls and then Toronto tomorrow. Hopefully, I’ll see Happiestsadist and Markita. Others in the realm can say so and join the fun?
Audley, re names:
Names in my family that I like: Zella, Audrey, Augustiana, Eva. All for girls.
JAL, I’m sorry to hear about your troubles! I’m sorry I can’t contribute anything this round, things have been tight lately (medical bills grr), otherwise I would. Hang in there! You have friends. ♥
Morning, all.
Sending *hugs* to keenacat. Also, here’s some for Jennifer and just_a_lurker.
Audley, I’m sorry Mr Darkheart didn’t like Macsen. What DOES he like? He’s sounding pretty fussy at the moment. If you want ridiculous and terrible, you really can’t go past http://bigbadbabynames.net/forum/ (The original site has transmogrified into a blog, but the forum is pretty funny.)
Antique names are often good for the modern ew factor. For boys -Ethelred, Adelbert, Edwig, Sweyn. For girls, Clotilde (if you are not French), Gunhild, Cunethrith. Or stuff like Oedipus, Jokasta, Clytemnestra, Servius, Publius, Biggus Dickus, Adolf, Bathory, Ghenghis, Torquemada etc.
On a related note, there’s a common trap for the unwary: thinking you won’t name your child that excessively popular name from your youth. The class is no longer packed to the rafters with Jennifers and Cathies. It’s now packed with McKenzies and Makaylas (ew). In a few years it will be Sophia and Isabella. Jennifer will be much less common. So check for popularity – here is best: http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/
Lots of fun looking at different decades, graphs over time etc. (Max is up in the top 100 but not ridiculously popular.)
David Marjanović, Macsen is usually equated to Maximus. There’s a genuine historical Roman who is often supposed to be the original of the myth. (Google Macsen Wledig if you care for more. It’s in wikipedia.)
Total ♥ to CripDyke for brekekekek koax koax! And Crypt Dyke.
PS: Yes, yes, Josh SpokesVertebrate, Clytemnestra is cool and would make an awesome nym. But for a real-life name, I’d steer *very* firmly away from anything starting with Clit.
Thanks Rorschach!
(And I hereby magnanimously forgive your typo in my nym. Think Lethe, Stygian river of forgetfulness. Feminised and negated. Inspired by Alethian Thoughts, an FtB blog that I rarely read.)
Cicely:
Or Margaret Note Spelling.*
*Yes, of course I know it’s actually Esmerelda Margaret Note Spelling of Lancre.
@ Owlmirror – will you translate your wonderful koan into Hebrew for the cross stitch project? Pretty please?
Also, it has just been revealed to me (by my imagination, at least) that Josh is actually TET’s Orgaynizer.
All hail Teh Orgaynizer. (And donate to help JAL…)
Alethea:
I’d be hard pressed to think of a more unfortunate name to saddle a sprog with, especially a USian sprog.
For girls, a name I actually like is Clio. She was the Muse of History.
Alethea:
Yah, that would tend to limit future career options, wouldn’t it? Sex worker, tattoo artist, and… what else? ;^)
My wife’s best friend from HS days always threatened to name her child Angharad apparently Welsh for “much loved”; she ended up naming her actual children Jeff and Meredith.
Josh:
Yeah, I work at a restaurant/bar. In fact, at 36, I’ve been working since I was 16 and the entire time has been in restaurants. I don’t even know what any other job is like. I made the mistake of taking a break from college back in ’97 and got sucked into this industry. I’ve tended bar since ’99 and have consistently made more money than some of the managers I’ve worked for, so financially I haven’t had much incentive to get out.
That said, and this is due in large part to lurking here and other blogs, I’ve become aware of more and more social ills and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to bite my tongue at work.
Case in point:
Last night I was training a young lady and one of our late night (we’re open every day til 3 am) patrons came in. There was an intoxicated young woman who passed by the guy and he couldn’t take his eyes off her. A short time later that same woman and my trainee were talking and the guy literally didn’t take his eyes off them. It was creepy, disgusting, sexist and offensive, but there wasn’t much I could do. At one point close to closing, he started talking shit in addition to leering at the women. This whole “women are nothing but sex objects” shit needs to stop. Yesterday.
All of that is to say I think I’m reaching the end of my shelf life in this industry.
As for nightmares, have you had the one where you’re waiting tables naked (I guess it’s a variation on speaking in class naked)?
I love the name Angharad. I’ve used variations of it as nyms in the past, even…
David:
Right, but I was led to understand that -hild[ia] had come to signify by aphesis a girl or woman who fights. Kind of like the second element of Andromache.
American version: All Day I Dream About Sex.
♥ back at you, Dr. B.
J_A_L, I’m so sorry.
Josh:
Dissolved skin tends to be slimy.
Bill:
LOLOLOL. Of course, the word elements mean, IIRC, “battle-axe” (whence Saxon) and “mountain”… David can correct me if I’m wrong.
Also, I like “Angharad.” Even better, “Arianrhod,” which means something like “Silver Wheel” or “Wheel of Light.”
Caine:
Was this too violent? I mean, I don’t want to inflict the vapors upon any FTBlog owners who might happen to be passing through…
Alethea:
He has a wife, you know. You know what her name is?
Tony:
No. I have had the dream, but oddly never in connection with restaurant work.
For me, it’s all about suddenly forgetting that I had responsibility for five other servers’ stations (who couldn’t come in that night) and I’d completely forgotten to send the orders to the kitchen before going on break.
Fuckin a
Re: Names
I can understand parents trying to find names for their kids that are unique or irreligious, but I don’t get the whole “use a word but spell it differently” style of name choice. I know a young woman named ‘Destanee’. In speech, it doesn’t sound any different than ‘destiny’. I guess it looks cutesy on paper, but I don’t get it.
Then there are the parents who name their kids something difficult to pronounce and I wonder how their teachers in school feel when taking roll (if they even still do that).
Are you implying that there is something comical about Incontinentia Butux, Ms Daisy? I have a vewy gweat fwiend in Wome, you know.
I was originally gonna call my cattle dog Kiana. But a girl I was friends with at the time decided it wasn’t unique enough and now I keep forgetting how to spell Keianha. I’m sure there are at least three or four ‘valid’ spellings. I keep forgetting where the H goes.
Also Tony:
I’m 37, so we’re contemporaries. Ever worked the overnight in a greasy spoon? I used to work the 11 to 7 at a Perkins restaurant (think Denny’s, but even more trashy) so I waited on all the drunks. As soon as the bowling alley closed (yes girl, yes) we got busy.
So one night this beat up old 1983 Firebird pulls up. Skin-tight-jeans-mullet-sportin’ douchebag Def Leppard-likin’ dude gets out and comes in with his bleach-blonde-gum-smackin’-camel-toe-workin’ (I’m sorry, but it’s true) companion. They each had Complete Crotch Bisection Syndrome on account of the tightness of their jeans.
They sit down at my table. I aks them what they’d like. Gum-chonkin’ bleached hairspray chick says to me (and you really can’t get the full effect since you can’t hear me imitating her), “[Scoff]. . .grilled chiss!”
SpokesGay: I’m sorry, what?
Bleach: Grilled. Chiss! Scoff!
It took me several minutes of staring into her open mouth to understand she wanted a grilled cheese sandwich. All the while her trailer park Romeo sat there with his arm possessively around her looking at me all smug as if to say, “Nothin’s too good for my girl, even if it’s more than 5 bucks.”
Ms. Daisy Cutter:
Perhaps, but then just reading a few of the comments in that thread by this ‘ally’ made me want to stick a hot poker in my eye.
Bill:
There’s nothing at all wrong with Angharad! It helps if you know how to pronounce it correctly, of course. One of my fave actors is named Angharad. She played Demelza Poldark.
If it weren’t for me being Caine on ‘net for so damn long, I would have definitely used Angua. Heh.
Ms. Daisypants, you were fine. Just fine on that thread.
Just a Lurker Major huuuuuuugs to you. It sucks so hard when things suck so much and you feel so helpless and powerless. You are in my thoughts, that place is a place I’ve visited sooooo recently (and am still slightly stuck in, but it’s getting better.) Hugz to your little one too! Reading what you wrote just about broke my heart, I wish there was something I could do from waaaaaayyyy over here.
Eventually, I’d like to go back to grad school. The field doesn’t matter. All I know is that my dissertation would be titled “Lyrics to Def Leppard Songs: The Worst Bullshit of All Time”. You can’t blame the 80s for that. They are what they are.
I have had that one before. Except it wasn’t a dream. True story (not to be told here) ;-)
Also Josh:
the first table I had when I started serving (’96 or ’97 I think; at Bob Baumhauer’s Wings Sports Grille in north AL-this is relevant) was a group of guys. Taking the drink order, one guy ordered a Coors Light, but the way he said it, it sounded more like “Curs Light”. I sat dumbfounded for a minute before someone else at the table pronounced it correctly.
Then there are the people who say “mariana sauce” rather than “marinara” or those that say “quesadillia” (or that pronounce the Q incorrectly).
What!? Pour some sugar on me in the name of love is pure poetry! It is transcendent!
Tony: out of curiosity, does your bar have a harassment policy?
*pre-emptively ducks*
What I learned on my birthday, volume 49: it is very important to clarify whether one is doing shibori or shibari. I don’t think, for example, that I should do shibari at the nature center where I work. It would also be unadvisable to do shibari at Boy Scout camp, although it would fit nicely with the how-to-tie-knots theme at scoutcraft…
This has been a public service announcement…
Oh Tony, don’t even get me started! Girl, you need to come over here, sit down with a cocktail and compare notes with me.
@115
Crip Dyke,
As it turns out, there is actually a spocktopus tumblr.
@147
Josh,
I did the graveyard shift at a Perkins my freshman and sophomore year in college. Hated the frat boys, loved the farmers.
Mattir, you didn’t know about shibari? You should catch one of Dita Von Teese’s shows one of these days… ;)
Um, no? I’m a sadly sheltered wannabee, and if only Brownian would get his act together and service the damn line already, I could go learn me some shibari.
I like Welsh names in general, even though I don’t have one. I’m from the generations between the suppression and the reawakening of the language: my great-grandparents had Welsh names and some of my grandparents, and my cousins’ children do, but not my parents and cousins.
Some Welsh names would work in the US, but a lot of them don’t translate well. For a start, -wyn is a masculine ending. (HATE Bronwyn. The name is BronWEN!) You wouldn’t want to call a boy Heddwyn or Caerwyn in modern America, I suspect. And I further suspect that Angharad, Aneurin, Blodwen, Bleddyn, Cerridwen, Ceinwen, Cadwaladr and so on would not work very well.
Alright, whatever, but can we all agree that the music is shit?
‘Spocktopus’?
fascinating.
*technically my Dad had a Welsh middle name: Gwyn. Definitely not recommended for a boy’s name outside of Wales.
Pteryxx:
No ducking necessary.
Just don’t say “I don’t know”.
Haven’t dropped a bucket o’ green slime in a while…
Josh:
You probably don’t have much of that wine left though :)
I have one notable story involving a trash can, my right hand, and an overturned styrofoam cup that contained someone’s dip. Let’s just say it was one of the more disgusting moments I’ve been involved in at work.
P.S. I have wondered where in the world many of you folks are.
Alethea, Gwyn was the name of my monster all white koi. Definitely a male.
indeed. Also NOT a green blooded hobgoblin.
Ye Olde Blacksmith:
Oh, wait, I know this one.
Transcendent music…
therefore God!
I like Clytemnestra, Maxime, Ajax, and Maximilian. I say that completely seriously.
Other names to consider:
Women:
Acacia
Alexis
Artemis
Athena
Chloe
Demeter
Galen(e) (final e is optional)
George (as in Sand)
Geva
Ian (yes, this is a girl’s name in Jewish circles)
iris
Inanna
Kallisto(s)
Katya
Hero
Pallas
Rivka
Semiramis
Seneca
Men:
Agni
Alexis
Assur
Anatolius (which means the same thing as Iris: sunrise)
Elijah
Galen(os) (final os is not only optional, but I prefer Galen. I really like the sound.)
Joxer (I know, I know, but I like the name)
Mani
Noam
Solon
Solomon/Salaam
Surya
But really, my favorite name (regardless of gender) is:
Nikola
Niccola
Nichola
However you spell it, I think it’s wonderful in its sound and rhythm, and there are plenty of famous named Nikola/Niccola/etc.
The absolute best name I’ve ever come across is a woman from England that I knew named Niccola Jayne Victoria Brown. The rhythm of that is just wonderful. And though Jayne seemed feminine at the time, now it’s gender flexible except for “Victoria”, but there are good 4 syllable names out there that could sub if need be (not least, “Victorious”).
Tony:
Native Southern Californian (Born Southgate, grew up in Santa Ana, later lived in OC, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa, oh, and Long Beach and Redondo Beach, geez), living in Norf Dakota* the last 20 years.
*Hazen, then Bismarck, now Almont.
QueQuoiHuh:
I had to check that out. Some interesting pics. Here’s one that’s suitable anywhere.
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_luk63jgm641qbcpvro1_1280.png
Aw hell, also lived in Idyllwild and Mountain Center. I was out of the familial house at a young age.
Caine:
Did you have any difficulty adjusting to the temperature difference? I’m guessing So Cal was quite a bit warmer than ND (brr, I get chills thinking about any cold locales; of course ya’ll probably aren’t very cold right now)
Tony, I’m in Canberra.
… And it hates us.
No other explanation for Def Lepard is so obvious, elegant, and sophisticamated.
Tony:
Vermont, in New England US. Basically Southern Canadiastan.
Tony:
Jesus Christ, yes. I *loathe* winter. I hate snow. I dislike cold. I’m still not over it.
I’ll always miss SoCal (at least the one I knew) and I will always seriously miss the ocean, but I left the day the last standing orange tree from the original groves was chopped down to make room for a strip mall. I’d had enough. I watched for years as one formerly unique town after another (like Naples or Sunset Beach) was hammered into homogeneous blah.
From what I understand, my SoCal is long gone anyway, so I’d rather have the one in my head.
My baby has a tumblr!
They grow up so fast. Off to see the pics!
(Puffs thoughtfully on pipe…)
Indeed, it is too often overlooked, that there are such hidden depths within the lyrics to that classic Pour Some Sugar on Me. But let’s give a listen, shall we?
(Places brandy on side table, lowers needle on gramophone…)
You got the peaches, I got the cream
Sweet to taste, saccharine…
(Lifts needle…)
This, you’ll note, is a complex, contradictory metaphor. Note especially the way the narrative turns, suddenly, jarringly. We start with the traditional simplicity and lush organic richness suggested by ‘peaches and cream’, but them move, without a pause, without warning, to a reference to the strikingly unnatural, overly sweet chemical cheat that is ‘saccharine’…
We are dealing here, obviously, with the duality of love: the sacred, the profane. And just as in certain traditional arcs, the object of desire is first deified and then defiled, here, the desire itself goes from images suggestive of Eden to images suggestive of Vegas.
Moving on:
(Lowers needle…)
‘Cause I’m hot, sticky sweet
From my head, my head, to my feet
(Lifts needle…)
It’s difficult to see this couplet any other way, of course, than as a reference to the Boston Molasses disaster of 1919, in which many, tragically, died, suffocated and drowned in several million gallons of industrial grade sweeteners from which alcohol would eventually be made. Here, an allusion is made to love as a reminder of our frailty, our mortality: our author, thinking upon his love, thinks, inevitably, of catastrophe, disaster, the end of his life, and how precious life is.
(Lifts brandy again, in toast…)
Truly, a modern classic, if ever there was one, and music for the ages to come, by which our descendants will know us, and know the glory of our civilization, our culture. Drink with me, will you, in tribute to these giants among balladeers!
Crip Dyke:
I still stumble over Clytemnestra when I try to say it. Takes a few times.
Something about Ajax is totally awesome.
I do wonder though, when it comes to naming children, how much (if any) consideration is given to what the child might think of the name later in life. Or difficulties others might have pronouncing the name. I’ve heard from parents before that some names they stay away from for those reasons.
Love these!
Galen rolls off the tongue quite easily.
??
That name reminds me a guy I know with the name Evangelo. It’s really cool.
Pour some sugar on me in the name of love is pure poetry!
all of a sudden I’m reminded of an old Guess Who song.
(/Curse you, The Italic That Will Not Die! Curse you!)
Tony:
Rural central Texas :(
then Japan :)
then Finland ♥ ♥ ♥
then north Texas :/
AJ Milne, you have a great career ahead of you in LitCrit!
You could even make $7!
Unless you get lucky and land a professorship, then you can make $60k/year. It’s a gamble, but i judge your talents at least as great as those of Judith Butler.
Crip Dyke:
I totally missed ‘Kayta’ on your list!
That’s the name of my orange tabby. She’s adorable (and thankfully her belly doesn’t drag the ground any longer when she walks; people used to come by the house and tell me I had a pregnant cat…of course she’s an indoor cat with no contact with males…and she’s spayed).
AJ, I am ♥ing you so much right now. I wish I had even a smidgeon of your wit.
Ye Olde Blacksmith:
hmmm, do I detect a lack of affection for Texas? I lived there (El Paso and San Antonio) as a child when my father was in the military, so I don’t have an adult perspective on the state. Did Rick Perry screw the state up that bad?
Good night, y’all. Tomorrow is the first day of summer vacation for offspring. I need a good nights rest before the
I’m bored!
We can do something fun after I finish the laundry.
But, that’s boring!
Ad nauseum…
:-)
AJ:
That was brilliant.
Have you always been able to break down music in that manner?
Tony:
Which is why it’s long been one of my favourite names and I started my list with it. I know it would be a tough sell here in the States because of Ajax Cleanser (assholes, ruining a perfectly good name), but it’s one name I would love to see back in fashion. Well, to an extent.
Shibari:
I didn’t know what it meant. Had to look it up and everything.
…
And, you know, completely unrelated fact: I’m having trouble paying attention to my translation homework for some reason!
Tony:
My feelings towards my home state are …complicated.
There are many aspects of Texas that I love very much. The converse is also true. I think my primary dissatisfaction is based off of my experiences in Europe. As much as I love Texas, there are so many other places I would rather be.
Regarding your question about Rick Perry, the answer is Yes, but he didn’t do it alone. This state is a mess but there are bright spots.
Re #188:
(Bows…)
Re #191:
Well…
So can’t you see me standing here
With my back against the record machine…
… this, of course, is the now de rigueur reference to that central and ubiquitous modern anxiety: in a sea of millions, am I invisible? Can you see me? Or am I just another nameless, anonymous, invisible cog in the mechanism? And note that he’s leaning on a record machine, specifically…
So, naturally, he might as well jump…
As might we all. As might we all.
(Nods knowingly…)
I, too, had to look up shibari. I must say that I’m feeling very mixed up over it. I found some of it to be so beautiful and intricate. But I am also disturbed by it.
I don’t think I can. It was pretty off-the-cuff, and koans reflect a rather idiosyncratic use of language anyway, and the translations from the original are themselves are rather ad-hoc and sloppy.
For example, WP says that the phrase “Gateless Gate” was not the most correct translation from the original Chinese, itself, given all the various nuances of Chinese, especially as used by Zen Buddhists.
And “three pounds of flax” was “masagin” in Japanese, where ma=flax, sa=3, gin/kin=unit of weight, not exactly a pound. Hm. This page says it was about 1.3 pounds. And very close to 1 (biblical-era) mina, or מינה.
Would you prefer ” שלש מינות פשתן”? I kind of like it, and not just because the weights are close. While the plural of “mina” is “minot”, the lack of vowel pointing makes the word look like “minut” — which means “heresy”. Heh.
If you don’t like it, feel free to use “ליבראות” (pounds), or “פאונדים” (pound-im; and why not?), or even “קילוגרמים” for “מינות”.
A very rough attempt at translating “What passes through the gateless gate like 3 pounds of flax clapping one hand?” into Hebrew:
Feminine grammar:
מה עוברת בין השער ללא שער כמו שלש מינות פשתן עם מחיאת כף יד אחת? א
Masculine grammar:
מה עובר בין השער ללא שער כמו שלש מינות פשתן עם מחיאת כף יד אחת? א
The extra aleph is there because stupid confusion of R-T-L in my browser kept putting the question mark on the wrong end of the sentence when it wasn’t there. Bah.
There’s probably a better workaround, but I’m too tired to figure it out.
Caine:
See, to me, Ajax evokes not so much a cleanser as a Cold War era surface-to-air missile. Ditto, Hercules.
Mind you, rocket geek that I am, that, per se, wouldn’t stop me from giving those names to a kid.
Prolly just as well I won’t be having any more, eh? I actually toyed with the idea of calling our daughter Persephone, ’til my Lovely Bride© talked some sense into me.
Now off to the curb with the garbage, and then off to bed with me; see y’all sometime next week.
PS: That translation attempt was your birthday present. Pretend that it was gift-wrapped with your favorite wrapping paper. And a bow.
Does doG have Buddha-nature when translated into Hebrew?
…and on my way out the door:
So we’re talking about “sugar” songs, are we?
AJ:
Hmmm. I don’t know that I’ve truly *listened* to that song before. I’ve heard it many times, but have never really processed the words. I actually have some degree of difficulty doing that. How to word this…
When I buy a new CD and listen to the music, I don’t automatically listen to the words. I think I process the instruments, the vocal style, the rhythm and the lyrics at the same time, and the lyrics lose out. I hear them, to be sure, but parsing the themes of a song takes more effort for me. In fact, I have to sit down and block out any distractions to concentrate and focus on what’s being said in the song. Unfortunately, I can’t enjoy the song in this manner. Like my mind is in “focus and listen to the words” mode, rather than “relax and enjoy the music” mode, with the two modes almost never overlapping. This has resulted in my decision not to watch musicals (whether they’re performed on stage, or as a movie). Every time I’ve tried to watch a musical, I have to concentrate on what’s being said, but in the process I miss out on everything else. I don’t have that problem when watching plays or non musical movies. To this day, I haven’t mentally digested the S6 musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (‘Once More With Feeling’, IIRC), even though I’ve watched the episode several times.
One of my roommates laughed when I told her that I haven’t seen many musicals (such as Moulin Rouge). She threatened to revoke my gay card…but then I told her that I love ‘Too Wong Fu: Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar’ and ‘Birdcage’.
On that note, good night all. It’s 1:11 am and I do believe I should try that sleep thing.
Oh, Esme & Rubin. I put out various thieving goodies on my desk (bits of garlic bread, raspberries, pistachios and the like) and they are doing their absolute best to be wonderfully furtive in their thievery while knocking bowls over and racing over the top of one another.
Esme just ran up and stomped all over my keyboard until I caved in and gave her a certs.
I don’t know if it’s because Disneyland makes everyone delusional, or if it’s just because we’re behind the Orange Curtain, containing enough of the worst of typical christofascist conservative pablum for the entire state of California, but the city of Anaheim has decided to retrogress and add ‘In God We Trust’ to it’s council chambers. One small step for morons, one giant leap towards theocracy.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/motto-356444-city-phrase.html
Please feel free to bring your most scathing invective to the comments section under the article.
Bill:
I like Persephone.
Auntie Ron just dropped off a beautiful comment on the DJG thread.
as soon as the spokestuna tells me where to send it, a donation to the Pharyngula Horde Donation Fund will be made.
and Just_A_Lurker, I know you’re at the opposite end of the country, but if you ever need a break from this shit of living on the edge of eviction/getting bullied by homeless shelters, I do have a tiny spare room. with its own entrance. We’re in Fargo, so not what I’d call close by, but the room’s there (so are jobs, even though they’re all rather shitty).
So, was I the only one the read the new sea creature as SOCKtopus? I keep picturing an ocotopus made of sock monkeys.. I think I love it!! :)
I can’t keep up at this speed of TET.
As for names, my gran has the longstanding tradition of using all the names of the female family members in a chronological line until she hits the right one
Happy Birthday, Mattir!
@ Caine
OK, your ratties have done it this time! You are hereby instructed – on pain of having non-ROFL-ing tardigrades about – to video them and post to teh youtubez.
Theophontes:
Eek! Er, I’ll try my best to at least get photos…I haven’t tried to video anything before. It is hilarious to see Esme try to figure out how to stuff 4 unshelled pistachios into her mouth for transport to the Rat Cave™ though. :D
Er, I keep reading Caine’s new moniker as . Not sure why.
@ Caine
Rats!!!
(As your pictures are so good, I just assumed you would be a dab hand at video.)
Janine:
Oh no!
Theophontes, I’ll try! Give me a while to figure it out.
@ Caine
:D
Tony asking where everybody is from,
I mainly cover the night shift here, as does fishman, Wowbagger and Alethea, so we’re the antipodeal faction…:-)
@ rorschach / Tony
Same general timezone as the antipodean faction: Shenzhen, Southern China.
Pharyngula gets really quiet on the wrong end of the big pond… :'(
I’m in the Central Time zone, but I’m also nocturnal, so I know what you mean :-p
@ Jadehawk
Jadehawk ——> Nighthawk‽
I’m also part of the antipodean contingent.
:-p
Official Spokesfish
Careful, I hear the Fish Speakers are protective of their brand.
theophontes,
I think what I will miss most (apart from tour guide obviously) is the great fresh and variable food. I just had a wonderful Cantonese noodle soup with seafood, veg, pork, just lovely. I’ll be home same time tomorrow, and in the coming days I want to get the asian cookbook out again.
Good morning horde.
Tony,
I am from Mainz, Germany (but am currently in Hamburg). I cover pretty much all the time because I am sitting on my computer all day, being supposed to write my dissertation.
For everyone who has been so kind to take note of my current issues: I have an appointment at the womens centre on monday to see a psychologist for a check up and possible referral if necessary. Thank FSM for low-threshold intervention!
I also feel better with the increased antidepressant dosage and have not had suicidal thoughts since yesterday evening and less pressure to hurt myself. I even sent a message to an old school mate to get together for coffee and will continue to find some company for me.
I also found this: moodgym.anu.edu.au and will work through the program over the weekend. I’ve had CBT before and it helped a bunch.
But most of all, having somewhere to dump my problem and distribute it on the strong shoulders of the horde is invaluable. If ever again somebody tries to tell me the intertoobs make us lonely, I will slap him.
Keenacat
You’re in Mainz? We’ll have to meet for coffee some time anyway, I’m in the Saarland.
Tony
On a global scale, I’m right next to keenacat ;)
Ah, Mainz ! I did 10 days “Notarztkurs” there back in 2001, and my dad has a vineyard there somewhere, in a place called Nierstein. I also lived in Bernkastel-Kues for almost 2 years, which is not far from Trier (and France and Luxemburg).
Fucklord McFuckerton!
The ex-boyfriend was supposed to be at our flat today since we’re supposed to have smoke detectors installed. Guess who’s not there and who got a call from the landlord a few minutes ago? Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. Luckily the lardlord keeps a spare set of keys for us (if scatterbrained me or dumbfuck ex forget our keys), so he was able to let the installation guys in so we won’t have to pay extra. Fuck.
I just hope he doesn’t forget about watering the plants daily, or my friggen balcony garden will be dead when I get home. I will call a friend now and make sure somebody checks my plants out. Fuck.
The latter two are two of the reasons why i fricking love living here :)
Keenacat
Fuck.
I know how you feel about the balcony-garden. That’s my little bit of Eden, too
Baby Names: someone suggested that Mum should have absolute naming rights on the children they carry and give birth to.
With all due deference and admiration for women who carry children, I think “Mum has naming rights” is a terrible idea on many levels (yes, I am a man).
We just had a sprog 5 months ago so just went through this. The child’s name is something all 3 of you (+rest of family) will live with for the rest of your lives. It seems to me a marriage/partnereship/civil union etc is all about agreeing and finding ways to agree, not asserting rights. I could not, nor would I impose a name I love on our child if my spouse hated it (or even if she didn’t also love it).
Tony: London (ex: Paris, New York, Washington DC, New orleans, Boston)
Alethea:
Damned if I know what names Mr Darkheart likes. He really hasn’t been too much help in that regard– I know what names that I’ve picked that he likes, but he has only found a couple to contribute to The List™.
I’ve decided to leave the whole issue alone until we find out if the DarkFetus is girl-type or boy-type. I figure that will cut my options down by half and the whole name issue will be easier to deal with.
Giliell,
we will totally make a coffee date when I get back.
____________________________
I am so angry. When we talked last he was all “I’ll help you the best I can, you are still one of the most important people to me, I will take care of everything flat-related while you’re gone blah blah” and then he’s being an inconsiderate asshole. Fuck my life and the people I have in it.
Milne: *happy face emoticon*
Tony: I’m in Damascus now, but from Antioch*
*Damascus is what I call Huntsville, Texas, and Antioch is what I call a small town in southeast Ohio**. I have also spent time in Lawrence, KS, which may be the nicest place I ever lived. Just call that Larrytown.
**Not to be confused with the college of the same name.
A friend is pregnant too, it’s gonna be a boy.
A friend of hers commented that of course it’s a boy, with the sperm of her strong manly boyfriend what else could it be. Har, har, that guy’s a joker.
#232
boyfriendhusbandStill haven’t gotten quite used to that.
Audley Darkheart,
We both made lists. Mine was much longer than Ms. Q.E.D’s. It didn’t matter in the end since we both had Alexandra on our lists (we both have BFFs with that name and they both rock in their different ways) and I loved her choice of Mathilde. I would think that if Mr. Darkheart is happy to agree to a name on your list this will be an easy decision!
A friend of hers commented that of course it’s a boy, with the sperm of her strong manly boyfriend what else could it be.
The difference between a sperm that will (usually) make a boy fetus and one that will (usually) make a girl fetus is whether it contains an X or Y chromosome. The Y chromosome is a very small, light, almost gene free chromosome capable of little except making male bits. (And, IIRC, hairy ears. Apparently the gene that promotes hair growth in the outer ear is on the Y chromosome. I think.) Sperm can actually be centrifuged and the chances of getting a boy improved by taking the lightest fraction.
So, if it’s a boy one can conclude that the partner’s sperm is kind of lightweight.
Names. Names are fun.
Names are really fun when you have to make up ones that sound fantasy-like but are still not really extremely super fantasy.
Hence: Karthus (Curtis), Owin (Owen), Mara (Moira), and Shaura (Shara) in my new story.
beatrice
When my male cousin was born my grandpa told my dad he should ask his brother how to do such things “right”.
I think my dad’s response was that he considered getting married, putting together a life and then consciously deciding to have children better than knocking up your girlfriend and then getting married because what else could you do*.
I think most people just. don’t. think. They don’t want to tell girls and women that they’re worth shit, but they do and you can see from their angry “I’m just joking” reactions that they’re embarrassed at themselves.
keenacat
That’s a sad and sadly common story.
How did I tell my therapist today? If my life were a movie I’d have turned the TV off some time ago. The director is overdoing the “suffering heroine” stuff.
(((hugs)))
re: names
I still think the most important factor to consider is that the child has to live with the name. Which means that their wellbeing should take a big priority over the fancies of mum and dad (and great-aunt Petunia and 3rd cousing Egbert)
*My aunt and uncle are wonderfull people and still a reasonably happy couple
“Apparently the gene that promotes hair growth in the outer ear is on the Y chromosome”
You musn’t have been to the Mediterranean, I take it.
dianne,
Thanks for the informative comment. I love Pharyngula.
—-
Giliell,
Oh no. This guy really is a sexist asshole. The continued conversation included saying that he’ll, when he becomes a member of the board in the firm where he works, get all his (girl)friends jobs. They’ll have to pay of course, horizontally and then by popping out one of his babies. That’s his sense of humor. I have no idea why those women are friends with him, because all I have ever heard from him was sexist bullshit.
Tony: I am in southern New Hampshire.
Also, I’m fascinated by how you “process” music, and how people do so in general. Also by what makes a piece of music good for someone — genre? lyrics? musicianship/vocals? melody? — and where and when they listen, and how active they are as listeners.
I say “active” because I can’t really do music as aural wallpaper, unless it’s instrumental and then only in some cases. My mind is so damn busy that I require a lot of silence, or at least quiet, or I can’t focus. I can’t read with music on, and I can’t carry on an optimal conversation. I listen to music when I’m moving around, especially driving, but even then I have to turn it off after a while. Yet I very much love and enjoy music and can feel intensely transported by it. Maybe the intensity is why I have to enjoy it separately from other activities.
Some people seem to relate to music only through the lyrics or only through the purely musical aspects. I do both. For me, a good piece of music will be in a genre I like (there are various of those), I need to like the melody (though once in a great while a melody will grow on me), and I need a balance of lyrics and technical skill. Neither has to be absolutely brilliant, but terrible lyrics won’t redeem excellent musicianship for me, nor vice versa. I don’t think I focus on either exclusively when I listen, but most definitely I have a tendency to focus on one or the other.
I dislike musicals, but that’s because I find them cheesy and contrived. My tastes run to “roots” and “ethnic” genres, with a bit of folk and “alternative” worked in.
Janine: “Meatypants” would work as an MST3K name for an action hero. MACHO McMEATYPANTS!
QED:
I’m a woman and I agree. The most important person in the equation is the person who will bear the name. If the mother is an idiot who gives the kid a really ill-thought-out name, I’m all for the father (or non-birth-giving mother, or even step-parent) overriding her.
Keenacat, I’m glad you’re feeling significantly better. Your ex is a total asshole, and I hope your recognition thereof will help you continue to feel better.
Speaking of music: Are there any other synesthetes here?
You musn’t have been to the Mediterranean, I take it.
Only Spain. Also I’m out of date with respect to current thought on inheritance of the hairy ear gene.
Keenacat – think of it this way: he’s handing you a free winning lottery ticket to the world of “he’s proving that getting out now before getting married was the best thing to ever happen to you”. Every shitty thing he does to you now is just another piece of evidence that you avoided getting stuck with an asshole.
You’re in Mainz? We’ll have to meet for coffee some time anyway, I’m in the Saarland.
For no good reason I thought you were from Hamburg. I’m afraid my first thought about Saarland was that there’s a wonderful cancer registry there. Probably not what the tourist industry wants one’s first thought about Saarland to be.
@Audley:
So… at age 15 then???!?!?!!?
Solves some problems, creates others. In the meantime, might I suggest a placeholder name? There are some good ones, such as:
Heijuu!
(never forget the exclamation point)
I guess I pay a fair bit of a attention to them, then. Relative to that, anyway…
It sorta annoys me, even, when the lyrics are mumbled or unintelligible or the performance leaves ambiguity about what they’re actually saying (as in: what the actual lyric they wrote and performed is, not so much what it means or doesn’t–the latter being unclear, this obsession seems to regard as fair enough). Or maybe annoys is too strong a word: I’ve perfect respect, say, for Cobain choosing to growl and mumble it out, as sure, that’s part of the whole package, and I do quite like the whole package, but some part of my brain still insists upon knowing which morphemes he may actually be aiming for anyway. This compulsion can get to me even, oddly enough, when it’s a song I don’t particularly like, and would really rather never, ever hear again, even in my head. And even in stuff like dance pop and the myriad strains of electronica when it’s perfectly clear the actual content of the very brief lyric is pretty much secondary to the aesthetic of the song (‘Stop the rock/Can’t stop the rock/Check yer paranoia’). The advent of the internet and lyrics sites has done much to ease this anxiety.
… and also for all that I’m taking the piss out of Def Leppard (and they sure as anything deserve it, in this case, at the very least), I have a fair bit of respect for a lot of pop. And I’m not just talking there about the Tom Waits of the world…
The funny thing, there, speaking of, for me is watching folk hate on contemporary artists who, sure, probably aren’t exactly sweating the meaning of the lyric…
… but then holding up as exemplars of deep thought and profound lyrical poetry some equally disposable commercial noise from their own era, for contrast…
I kid you not, I have seen both of the following, in the wilds of the web:
1) Someone bemoaning the apparently unprecedented vapidity of contemporary commercial hip hop, and holding up for contrast the Beasties. Who, see, were really saying something, apparently, and
2) Disparaging Lady Gaga for her dreadfully derivative, meaningless trash, when, see, in my day, you heathens, we had that compelling poetess Madonna.
… and just what the Beasties were actually saying, and what exactly Madonna’s music compels is left (necessarily) as an exercise for the reader.
Mostly, seriously, I do more normally take pop for what it is, without a lot of expectations, and am more just pleasantly surprised when the song both has the hook it takes to get airplay and some actual lyrical power…
(/On the flip side, now and then, like some kind of short circuit, I’ll get stuck on some notably horrible or just jarringly empty lyric or delivery thereof and my brain won’t let it go, and it’ll totally wreck what otherwise might have been a perfectly fun song. And the unspoken thought is something like, I wish I could just say, to the singer: ‘Oh just shut up if that’s the best you’ve got or the best they’ve written for you… Seriously… I’d really have been fine with just the bass line or the guitar, there… At least they’re not embarrassing ’emselves and the rest of us quite so directly… Arrrrgggghhh! Did someone actually get paid for writing that? ‘Cos that just ain’t right. There are doctors trained in India driving cabs ‘cos they can’t get a job and you got money for this? Enough! Our civilization must fall, as it is rotten to the core, and here is the final proof! To the barricades!’)
And re:
That’s generally my reaction to them, too, and I’ve even played in pit bands for a few of them. I think the hangup is: I’ve just never developed the ability to suspend disbelief through the transition point of someone suddenly breaking into song. Tho’, oddly, I actually quite liked Dr. Horrible, but I think that’s like about the only time I can think of that happening.
Josh, can you accept checks for JAL again? I’m still paypal deficient.
Audley re names: May I suggest Test Data? Or, alternately, Robert’); DROP TABLE Students;?
Roberta could be substituted in case of a girl type fetus.
I seem to recall some other synesthetes here. Not me, though. The closest I came is getting to be a control in a friend’s perception study.
Daisy, I can’t listen to background music unless it’s superbland. Maybe Enya. My brain gets too busy listening to it to do anything useful like reading, coding etc. I like so many different types of music that it’s hard to specify exactly what – in some cases it’s lyrics and delivery; in others complexity or pure simplicity of pattern (Bach!); in others sheer lushness of sound; there’s just so much to choose from.
And I do like quite a few musicals, just not the Rogers & Hammerstein pablum (which Mum likes so I grew up with them). Hairspray is the most recent one to register for me. Rocky Horror was probably the first out of childhood, with Cabaret a close second. Thus indirectly introducing me to Weimar cabaret and Brecht/Weil.
Dianne
No worries, we’re very proud of our University Hospital. I was a frquent guest there while pregnant with the little one and a with her ever since.
But we also have nice other tourist spots :)
Katherine: You’re writing fantasy, so your character names have to have lots of “k”s and “y”s and apostrophes in them.
If we all step up and give our hometowns, we can easily push this thread to 1,000+ comments by the evening and make Poopyhead mad. I took the nontraditional wildlife biology student path of moving down from the Wild West (Idaho*) to the Midwest (Missouri) to get my masters degree.
* Well, Boise, Idaho. I’m a child of the suburbs and thus usually don’t feel like I’m really from anywhere. I didn’t farm potatoes when I was growing up and I never shot any grizzly bears or even rafted a whitewater river.
I’m more into music than lyrics, which is one reason why rap doesn’t appeal to me. It’s hard to stomach a lot of artists if you look too closely at the words they’re singing (Billy Corgan, eyes in your direction). I wish there was more contemporary instrumental music out there, it’s nice to hear a good melody and harmony and other such musical accoutrements when they’re not marred by some high school poetry. I appreciate lyrics when they’re from the skilled hands of folks like They Might Be Giants.
@dianne:
I read that one when it came out. I’d not laughed harder since reading the Sartre Cookbook.
Seriously. Read the cookbook – especially if you’ve read any existentialism before, but I’m told it’s even funny if you haven’t. The first time I
readheard it, I started out reading it, but was crying so hard I couldn’t continue. Then, while my then-partner, now best friend went on, I rocked back & forth on the floor until I couldn’t sit up, then I simply gasped for air and had to reach out and swat her leg to keep her from reading until I was ready for more.I have *never* laughed like I laughed reading that cookbook.
Seriously. Read the cookbook
Got as far as the omelet and had to stop because people were looking at me funny as a snickered at the computer. Thanks for the link!
Crip Dyke, you might enjoy this.
They do have medicines for that now.
I don’t have any personal experience since I couldn’t get an epidural during childbirth.
I have recieved a spinal block for my last five or six knee surgeries. Wife had an epidural when Boy was born (65 hours of labour on that one).
But remember, misogyny and sexism are not toxic. Or they are not part of US culture. Or they are relicts from the past. Or something like that.
Too late. I showered last night.
But does it pill up in the shower?
Whew. Luckily, we do not need permission from the cats. They are big on “no!” (for others, anyway, not for themselves).
That’d be, what, the opposite of Goody’s Headache Poweders?
Same here. And that’s with two kids, one boy, one girl, and, at the time, four and a half cats.
Here in the US it came out as “All Day I Dream About Sex.” I was in junior/senior high school at the time. Early 1980s.
The creationists are correct? We evolved because a fish decided to become a tetrapod? Damn. I missed that paradigm shift.
Next time, use the clutch.
That fucking fucks.
[Sound of record needle sliding across a Foghat LP]
I knew a young woman with the first name Jenny. Her middle name was Mae. Her maiden name was Fulk. No, I am not kidding. Sher married at age seventeen. I think that at least part of the decision was getting away from the name, Jenny Mae Fulk. In high school. (First name changed, last name intentionally mispelled).
I feel very put out. No one has suggested the name of the great Icelandic saint, Saint Ogvorbis (11th century, considered the founder of the idea of public parks, an early, and outspoken, advocate of the preservation of special places for the enjoyment of all, martyred by Chenae Halliburtonson when he tried to stop the building of a mine in a sacred area).
Mine made do with sippy cups.
Y’know, that IS probably true.
See, he’s actually a caring and wonderful person with remarkably few issues and he’s helped me through a fuckton of depression-related crap. But sadly, he is super out of touch with how his own emotions work. Like, he fails MISERABLY at self assessment, at working out where his issues come from and at working with his own shit. He is also constantly stressed out by things changing in his life. We had a massive fight over moving in together, already. I was sorta pressing for it, as we’d been together for 3.5 years already, hardly spent a night alone and moving between flats was just annoying. Also, his roommates sucked. He reacted by being irritable and depressed and then it erupted in a huge fight and us putting the relationship on hold… And then he found out, geez, he missed me like crazy, actually loved me and wanted to move in and we did, and all was well… Until he was scheduled to start his intership, that is (german med students have to do one year of on-the-job training before the finals).
He started out by being moody and irritable and depressed again, was talking about how much would change after finals and about all the friends he’d lose due to them moving away and stuff… And then we had another big fight about him maybe not wanting the relationship anymore, that culminated in him moving out for 5 days (during which we not talked at all) and realized he’d fucked up again and he still loved me and wanted me back and all was well.
Point being, he has a history of relating his fear of change and the resulting emotional issues to our relationship.
And here we are, in the middle of this bullshit again. Surprisingly, about a month before he’d be done with the intership and has to start studying for his exams. Because ZOMG CHANGE!!!!11elebenty
There is a chance he actually is right this time and his feelings for me have changed and he doesn’t love me anymore. But it is totally possible he is having one of his change-fits again and will be back.
This sucks in a multitude of ways right now. I still get my hopes up sometimes that maybe he’s coming back and we’ll fix it this time. That is sorta interfering wth me coping, because I WANT THAT! I love him, he is my best friend and my family.
But even if he’ll be back, we totally need to work this crap out because really, if he leaves jut to come back everytime there is a life-changing event there’s no chance in hell we’ll make this work. Can you imagine the shit going down as soon as I get pregnant? Major life changing event ahead, retreat to the bunkers! Avoid women and children!
This is so sad because he is such a fabolous person otherwise. But this is major and I still want to work through it with him, y’know? I’m not sure if he’s able to, though.
@Rey:
Actually! The letter “C” doesn’t exist in my world’s language, so any hard “C” noise is replaced with a “K”. (I also don’t use the letters J, Q, X, or Z. The Dragon Tongue goes further and removes other letters that would be difficult to pronounce correctly if one had no lips.)
“Y” is used as it would in our own language. If it’s a vowel, it typically fills the role of a long “I”, but that’s also filled by the double vowel “AI” so at that point it’s stylistic rather than functional.
My vowel sounds are much like Japanese, “A” being a short “O”, “E” being a long “A”, “I” being a long “E”, “O” being a long “O”, and “U” being a long “U”. It also has double vowels which change the sounds slightly, and an attempt at adding the short “A”, “E”, and “I” by making tick marks over the letters.
Oh, now we’re listing where we’re from? Tony, I’m in upstate New York (specifically the Capital District).
Crip Dyke,
Crap, I thought I would be able to find out Darkfetus’ sex when I have my next ultrasound in a week and a half and now you tell me I have to wait until it’s in its mid-teens?? Crap!
Darkfetus (DF for short) it is, then! Hope you like the name, kid! :p
A cute side note: Yesterday, Mr Darkheart told me that he can’t wait until Darkfetus (or, as he calls it, the bean) has a pronoun. :)
Daisy and QED,
Before I found myself in this situation, I would have totally agreed with you about both partners having input on baby names. However, after talking to Mr Darkheart last night, I’m not sure that’s going to work for us.
Here’s the thing: We have total control over the name and it’s going to be something that the DF has to live with for the rest of its life*. This idea of permanence has taken root in Mr Darkheart’s mind and, quite frankly, freaked him out to the point where he can’t make a decision. He knows it’s not rational and he feels terrible about it, but he can’t just snap himself out of that frame of mind, you know?
Anyway, I told him that we are going make no decisions, no additions to/subtractions from The List™ until after my next doctor’s appointment. If at that point he’s still feeling like he can’t make a decision, then I’m going to do it on my own.
*Or until it’s 18 and has a couple of hundred bucks to file name change paperwork.
Musicals always confused me until I saw them described as a subset of science fiction/fantasy. Now they make perfect sense. That applies particularly well to the musical episode of Buffy. I really love the musicals of Rogers & Hammerstein, but they way they wrote dialect drives me completely batty. And I hate pretty much every tune Andrew Lloyd Webber ever wrote.
I can’t do the sonic wallpaper thing. If I’m not doing something, even just browsing the web, I can’t have music playing.
My biggest hate with song lyrics is what I call the Cheap Rhyme – where you can tell the end of a line is only there because they needed something that rhymed. Arrrrgh!
Also, it’s free donut day at Dunkin Donuts! Fuck yeah!
*om nom nom*
Today (in the US) is National Donut Day. So all you kids with your high horsepower muscle cars, go grind your tyres down to the rim and make lots and lots of foul smelling smok . . .
What?
Oh.
Nevermind.
Real ‘Murkuns don’t use these “tyre” things you speak of.
@LILAPWL:
“The nearby Dostoyevsky Hotel also received low marks…”
Squeeeee
Alethea, yeah, Rocky Horror etc. are much different from Broadway musicals. To be fair, not all B’way musicals are pablum; sometimes their lyrics are quite clever and pointed (South Pacific, Carousel, etc.). The musical style is what annoys me. And even then I can make a few exceptions, such as West Side Story.
Audley, I don’t think that the mother should be overridden in every babby-naming situation, just when she wants to give the kid a really awful name and her partner objects. I think your idea of postponing the decision is a good one.
Audley @ 258
Mr. D need not freak out. Use names that you already like the nickname of so there is an additional name for him/her to opt for. First names can be ditched for middle names. And then there are nicknames that stick I have childhood friends whose birth certificates are Charles and Lisa but have never been called anything other than Ahab and Lizard.
Also, be careful with naming the child after anyone at all. Family member, friend, anyone. I was to be named “Jenny” after a close friend, but (very fortunately) my dad said that they should name me the full name at the last minute and I am eternally grateful. They had a falling out not too long after, but my name is perfectly serviceable and I like it very much.
One of my children is named after a family member with whom I am extremely angry right now and am not liable to cease to be angry with for the duration of my existence. I love him, and he is who he is to me, but I’m sorry that he has to bear the name of someone who turned out to be an abusive control freak. I’d name him Galen if I could do it again.
My daughter has my favorite name ever (partially because the character she is named after kicks so much ass), and I have never once regretted that her biodad was never involved. Having full executive control in this resulted in awesomeness. I wish I could recommend her name, but it would possibly be too much personal detail, so. A secondary choice would have been Eowyn.
Tell him the name doesn’t matter. When DF is 6, he/she will either barf or fart in class, and be called Stinky or Barfy for a few years. This will change in middle school to either Cupcake or Sweetums if a girl, and remain Barfy or Stinky if a boy. By college, the name will change to (LastName)-ster or (LastName)-y regardless of gender. Somewhere in there, the child will fight to be called by their middle name for a year or two, and this might take, but probably won’t. And then after college when they move somewhere new, they will choose their own name and attempt to convince everyone it’s what they’ve always gone by, which just might work. :)
Christ, not this stupid dismissive bullshit again, from yet another Chill Girl™.
QED,
Nicknames, yes! That’s how my mom named me: she wanted “a little girl with a little boy’s name”, so I have a masculine nick and a very feminine formal name. It has suited me well, I think.
Jennifer,
I’m not too worried about family names– on The List™, we only had one that belonged to a family member. It was one of my great grandmama’s middle names and she’s been dead for 35 or so years.
Anyway, as long as we’re talking about Darkfetus:
I’m starting to feel like a piñata that’s being beaten on from the inside. I swear, it’s like the DF is breakdancing in there. :-/
Jennifer, UBGM
OK daughter, namesake “kicks so much ass”. I’m guessing Boadicea.
Hey everyone. So, if anyone’s interested, I made a comment on JT’s thread that I think is actually a good start at better understanding the JAQing-off phenomenon and why so many of us don’t respond so well to noobs.. I wondered if anyone wanted to read it.
RahXephon: Read it on my subscription (I’m serious about my flounce; I think that he’s ineducable) and it looks good to me. However, I am so very addled by my raep!brain that I might be incapable of comprehending English. I certainly seem to be incapable of using it, if JT’s responses are any indicator.
Sorry; I still find his responses to me to be so infuriatingly dismissive (why don’t you just word your arguments the way that *I* would, and then I will listen to you?) that I’d kind of like to punch him in the face. He’s the worst JAQer of his bunch.
@Jennifer
Well, I’m hoping you caught it, but I was actually including JT as a JAQer in my description of JAQing, like when I talked about how people faced with incongruent phenomena become arbitrarily strict about what evidence they’ll accept to prove they’re in the wrong. JT is the poster child for doing that as far as I’m concerned.
If I was your teacher, I would have explained a Bible verse in Isaiah 40: 22 that states the Earth was not flat, but a circle.
@Jennifer
Oh, and yes, he’s a total asshole for his ridiculous “I’ll believe you if you just word your comments the way I want you to! Don’t have a brain of your own!”
He does the exact same thing with his supposed “ally-hood”. He already admitted his ally status is conditional and contingent on the behavior of the Marginalized People who post there, hence the Banhammering of the Queers.
Being a lousy multitasker, I find music too distracting if I’m doing something that requires thought, like writing or reading. I primarily listen when I’m driving, doing a jigsaw, or playing some mindless game.
When I do listen to music, I *don’t care* if the lyrics are what someone else would call cheesy. I *don’t care* if it’s not what music critics would consider sophisticated or whatever. If it’s “manipulative”, that’s fine by me. Music, IMO, is *supposed* to make you feel stuff. To me, if a vocal and/or melody and/or lyric “gets me” in that indescribable way that bypasses my intellect, the song will quickly join my list of favorites — which includes some stuff that critics are legally required to hate, but screw ’em.
I also unashamedly love musicals. There’s something about a character bursting into song that just heightens the emotion for me, if the song is good and performed well. And I love to watch people dancing, particularly in big crowd-type numbers.
*hands in my Cool Person card, which was forged anyway*
Has anyone named their kid Namesake?
All this discussion of music, and then I go to the bathroom and there is, of course, a crossword puzzle in progress. “Franz Ferdinand, for one” reads the clue.
Several minutes later I realize they’re not looking for a musical genre. *facepalm*
Chris Hallquist, caring not for facts:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/hallq/2012/06/01/i-support-dj-grothe/
Slow clap for Chris Hallquist. He totally supports DJ Grothe and who shows up in his comments right away? Slimepit and The Scented Nectarines. Chortling over Rebecca pulling out of TAM so they can begin the work of ridding skepticism of the “cancer” that is Greta, Rebecca/PZ/et al.
Brah. You made it.
Morning, All.
(Frustrated rant warning) I’ve done nothing worthwhile for almost a week. :( I’ve had something started on the Chill Girl™ / women hurting other women phenomenon for over a week, but find it overwhelmingly difficult to complete. Crap like the doctor in OK who refused a rape kit and pre-emptive BC to a rape victim sends me running to the keyboard – and then I stare at it in despair, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of hatred spewing over women everywhere all the bloody time. Seriously, 1500 words and I haven’t even nipped off the tiniest tip of the iceberg, or one region of the planet, or one page of legislation, or one religion, or… .RAGE/SOB/RAGE! (/End rant)
Belated Birthday wishes to Mattir!
J A L that stinks. :( Josh, I will do what I did before, if that is OK. I think I can find the info in our old emails.
Audley, hang in there! The baby-naming thing can be a minefield. Don’t let extended family know it is anything but completely in hand between you and Mr Darkheart or your troubles will quickly multiply!
Threadrupt, sorry. Must. Try. To. Do. MOAR.
279, 280, LILAPWL, Josh – good gods, it is like a multiple car pileup in the fog! One after another. WTF? It is hard to fathom how other people can be thinking sometimes.
But, yeah, looks like lurching toward the default position of the culture – harass, subdue, force out the less than humans (sorry PZ, by supporting equal status for the untouchables like women, GLBTQ people or anyone else not quite in the club, well, I think that means you traded in your entitled privileged dood card (-whoops! did I say untouchable? I meant: always fucking touchable if/ when a dood says so and however he wants!)
Caine:
You can come visit me! In Pasadena, it’s against the law to cut down most of the trees (we’ve a lot of old California Oaks).
(SoCal native as well, but I’m still here. I’ve lived in L.A. County all my life and have never lived more than an hour from where I was born.)
Heya Nifty – careful with trying to fight ALL THE FIGHTS. I’m having to seriously triage the threads now. (And the allies. Yikes.)
Sigh…
Is this clusterfuckup about Rebecca Watson ever going to stop?
Fuck it all, at times, I really hate the species I am part of.
How the fuck can such a mild mannered rebuke, Guys, don’t do that. keep rumbling through the brains of people, bringing about bigoted rage. While I hate analogies, I can only compare this to the loud sound whose vibration releases the avalanche. All that shit was already piled up and it just took one sound to overload the potential shitfall.
Pteryxx,
QFT. Words to the wise – yet, like most of the people here, I want to do something and so I am trying. The thing is to remember – and try hard – to bite off little bits at a time. Very hard to do since the mechanisms of privilege and cultural pressures to maintain privilege are all tangled up in everything.
Janine – oh yes, I hear you (285). About the only relief from the nearly constant barrage lately is coming to Pharyngula and reading – the evidence that none of us is ever completely alone on the planet with all of this horror. There are other people out there who understand and care.
Good news, everybody!
You know how One Million Moms* has been trying (unsuccessfully) to boycott JCPenney because JCP refuses to pretend that gay people don’t exist?
Well, the Father’s Day catalog is out and it features two dads and their kids. I ♥ how JCP isn’t bowing to pressure from bigoted assholes!
(Gawker, sorry.)
*Give or take. *snerk!*
I’m waning myself, in fact. I was thinking this morning that there are too many of them popping up everywhere, and I’ve already neglected some needed life things this week. I’m gonna have to draw back.
Hopefully pointing people at what Rebecca just posted on Skepchick will help people understand, but in all probability, not.
Tech geek time:
APIs cannot be copyrighted
This is actually A Big Deal™, as any other ruling would have further blurred the lines of intellectual property and severely crimped innovation.
I’m actually impressed that a judge got the technical concepts correct and ruled this way.
@Janine
*sigh* It’s hard for me to figure out, too. All I can think of is that the situation she was in was probably similar to what a lot of men have been in, where they propositioned a woman on an elevator, and they just hate the idea that they could’ve been at all threatening to someone.
Also, I think the mildness itself probably pisses people off. If Rebecca had used it as an opportunity to drag out lots of feminist arguments and talk about Patriarchy and stuff like that, she could’ve been easily dismissed as a “kooky feminazi”, but instead she said something as simple and straightforward as “this makes me uncomfortable, don’t do it”.
As I pointed out to JT on his thread when people complained about him using the term “bitching”, when someone tells me a word or phrase hurts them, I stop using it, and that’s not because they were making an argument. They weren’t. Expressing one’s feelings isn’t an argument, and just like these guys, JT could not deal with that for some reason, the idea that one doesn’t have to justify everything with precision.
That is like Welsh, except in Welsh there is C which is always hard and no K. Taxi becomes tacsi for example.
I have to admit I have been amazed at how some people have reacted to what Rebecca said. I always knew there were men who think behaving like the elevator guy was OK, but I had not realised there were quite so many, and that they were quite so vociferous.
Sorry, sorry. If my link doesn’t work it’s ‘cos I linked the the mobile site. Let’s try this again: http://gawker.com/5914527/jcpenney-responds-to-homophobic-boycott-calls-with-gay-fathers-day-ad
@Audley
After all the crap the past couple of days, that warms my no-heart.
Yeah. I’d add also:
It’s irresponsible conjecture and dimestore psychoanalyzing and all, but the self-image I’d expect a lot of people at conference like this would have would be: listen, I’m one of the better ones, one of the enlightened ones… Not one of them dang wife-beating, patriarchal fundies or dang bearded Mooslims, anyway…
… and now you’re coming along pointing out I’ve got issues, too? Fuck that. This is too much. I’m one of the better ones, remember? I’m your ally, or so I say, or as much as I feel like, anyway, so shut it and where’s my cookie already? I’ve got this one thing I figure I can feel slightly superior to the rest of the world about, and now you’re going to shake that up, too? What does that, exactly, leave me? So it’s lalalalala, not listening… Especially as this does so strike at self-identity that’s kinda central to my whole damned sense of self…
That and some nasty hangovers from a sense of victimhood, too, I shouldn’t wonder, as sure, there is some significant marginalization in being atheist lots of places (not all), and now you’re going to go and tell me that, sure, suffer as you might have for that so far, actually, you’re still not that much better ‘n those frat boys at the church picnic, either, when it comes to certain other dominance issues dear… Or not so much as you might be*, oh, and also, actually, you’re kinda grinding others down, innocently or no…
And honestly, before anyone says that’s total bullshit, listen, confession time: there is a lil’ evil AJ on my shoulder who’s whispering shit very much like that, now and then. Granted, I’m a sample of like one, but still: it doth make me wonder, reading the screeds of some of those still being such complete asses about this.
(*/Which is a mite sobering since the stabilizing ‘reward’ for those next to the bottom of most hierarchical systems always was ‘let ’em lord it over ‘their’ women, at least’, and so that impulse doesn’t exactly impress me as a great sign of how far we’ve come.)
RahXephon,
:)
Plus, dad on the left has dimples! DIMPLES!
Fuck knows and fuck yes.
@288 –
Hmm, I think I feel the sudden need to go to JC Penneys and, I dunno, buy stuff.
@AJ Milne
Exactly! I think that’s why the term “fauxgressive” was invented. There are people who, say, claim to be a feminist because they don’t actively hate women, but actually acknowledging that one still fucks up and makes mistakes can’t happen because one has “done” feminism already.
It’s like the “post-feminist society” fallacy playing out on an individual scale.
@LDTR:
Fortunately advertising doesn’t affect me.
@Audley
Awwwww, Dimples!
Maybe I need a new desk?
Campbell’s Horse with Vegetables and Barley? Horsey Mushroom? Or something from their Chunky menu: Horse and Dumplings with Hearty Vegetables, perhaps?
–
OrGaynizer?
–
Violently so.
–
keenacat, glad to hear that you’re feeling better today. :)
–
*snortle*
–
Music processing…Unless I’m listening hard, I think I just process the vocals as if they were instrumentals; I “get” the sound of them, but not necessarily the sense of them. Many’s the time I’ve been startled to finally find out what a song I like is about.
–
“I want to create an omelet that
expresses the meaninglessness of existence, and instead they taste like
cheese. I look at them on the plate, but they do not look back. Tried eating
them with the lights off. It did not help.”
*snortleroflgaspwheeze!*
–
True story.
We drive on the rims.
–
@RahXephon:
Yeah, that’s why I tend not to like “fauxgressive”.
It’s not that they aren’t for progressive solutions, it’s just that they don’t think progressive action should affect THEM.
It’s more NIMBY than “faux”. Wish I was clever enough to come up with a good witty, pithy name for them that was better than the one we have…
If only there were some way to crowd source the task…?
Another Moment of Mormon Multilevel Marketing Madness.
Ah, so that’s one of the skills mormon missionaries learn.
Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/54219645-79/catledge-investors-fraud-million.html.csp
James Catledge with Mitt Romney: http://jamescatledge.com/images/james_04f.jpg
Thinking about baby names: the mister and I have two elementary school-aged boys. They both have very old-fashioned, “traditional” names that were popular in the US about 80 to 100 years ago. Our last name is unusual, so they’re always going to have to spell it, so I wanted them to have first names that would probably end up getting spelled correctly most of the time without them having to spell it out.
It also helped that after all the paring down and negotiation for Kid #1, we had exactly one boy name left over that we could agree on. So, there’s your name, Kid #2.
I feel as though I should jump in and start doing some of the heavy lifting with these jackasses (illithid, holy fuck) but it’s just so goddamn depressing. Hrmph.
Thinking of you and hoping you’re okay, Just_A_Lurker.
AJ Milne @296
Make that a sample of two. Sometimes my lizard brain reacts that way too before the thinking brain engages and kicks the lizard brain’s arse.
I agree that feminist criticism can make a guy feel like crap especially if he thinks he’s “one of the good guys”.
If one is a privileged, white, educated, professional, male who would never think of harming a woman or even making her uncomfortable, it can be feel (note “feel”, not think) awfully unfair to be told that when in an elevator with a woman one [yeah, that’s you Lizard brain] can be thought of as a potential rapist. It just doesn’t feel good. Which, of course, has no bearing on the fact that it’s true.
Privilege: it’s not 100% an advantage.
Audley #288 LOL! I left here to scroll news and saw this very story! So I chucked the soul-sucking crap that was killing me and wrote a post immediately on that very thing! Good news is so bloody rare these days that we must capitalize on the rare bits all the time. Revivify the troops! :D
http://www.niftyatheist.com/2012/06/j-c-penney-fair-and-square.html
LDTR, Me too! :D As a matter of fact, I think I’ll browse their website right now. :) Maybe take the nifty boys over after school to buy some summer duds! They’ve grown since last year.
Oh thank good news!
@niftyatheist
Seeing as it’s in your nym, what does threadrupt mean? I think I missed that day of Pharyngula School.
Nifty,
If they have any cute maternity clothes, I am all over that JCP shit. :)
Grumble moan complain. (There was a link here to Pipeline on Corante, but it seems to prevent the comment working. There’s a story about Astra Zeneca today)
I’m going to hide under the sink drinking terps until the world sorts itself out.
Sexists and anti science financiers and war and homophobia and child sex trafficking and poverty and famine and Piers Morgan and…
Wake me when you adults have got things under control.
Louis
P.S. Hmmm this comment doesn’t seem to have turned up the first time.
@RahXephon
Threadrupt = informationally bankrupt as regards to the thread in question.
Shorter threadrupt: haven’t read others’ comments.
Often used preemptively on long threads when commenting to avoid having others’ berate a commenter for bringing up previously discussed issues.
RahXephon, what Crip Dyke said!
For child 1, we had a name very carefully picked out to honor a relative.
For child 2, we chose a name off of the “these are the names neither of us hate” list on the way to the hospital for delivery.
If we’d had a 3, it probably would have been named after an ingredient off of the cereal box.
Wake me when you adults have got things under control.
You may wish to drop yourself in a vial of DMSO and freeze that in liquid nitrogen…it’s going to be a while.
Audley, looks like they have 10 or so pages of maternity wear online!
http://www.jcpenney.com/jcp/XGN.aspx?DeptID=70656&CatID=72501&SO=3&Ne=4294957900+5+29+3+11+1022+596+8+1031+585+904+1545&x5view=1&N=4294953594&Nao=0&PSO=3&CmCatId=70656|72501
@Matt Penfold:
Yea, that’s what it’d be in my language. Taksi (Taxi), Kassoo (Kazzoo), Kwikly (Quickly) and Yump (jump.) Of course, they have different words entirely for those terms, so yea.
Steve Benen, writing for the Maddow blog, discusses the value of scientific literacy.
Nifty!
Woo hoo! I’ve already seen some dresses and shorts that I like. :)
Huh, what a weird comment from a FB acquaintance. I never would have pegged her for this weirdness. Have I missed something here, do you htink?
Your are going to be drinking turtles? Terrapins? Terps? How?
Wake me when you adults have got things under control.
Can’t help you there. I’m a thirteen-year-old stuck in a 46-year-old body and am doing a mediocre job of faking it. Don’t believe me? Look at everything I have written today. All of it is peurile garbage.
Ah, good old Riboflavin Tocopherol. Flav-a-Flav to hir friends.
re All The Fights:
I limited myself to just a half dozen threads, then three, and I’m still reacting so badly that I’m having to take a break and hating myself for it. In a triumph of remedial self-monitoring, I’ve stuck a Very Large sticky note on my monitor saying STAY OUT OF IT.
(Just throwing that out there in case it’s helpful.)
What is it with dresses that are super cute in front but really ugly in back? “Oh wow, this dress is really cute – would work nicely with my frame, it’ll cover up my bra straps and keep my forms from being easily seen… oh, it’s like a bunch of straps in back… eck…”
Pteryxx
This is awesome. But will it work?
Yep. And straight people say queers are obsessed with sex. Huh.
nifty: Uh….
<_<
Lynna: So true, but I would also add that, even if someone is generally science-friendly, or they pick the science they like and reject that the science that they don’t like, there is still a great danger to the idea that we get to pick what reality we like and toss the rest. An example would be my parents, who like the science that they like, but are young-earth creationists and genuinely believe in the Left-Behind style of eschatology. This is particularly devastating to me because my father is mathematically and scientifically inclined and loves science fiction and buys pretty much everything about distances between stars and everything; it’s just, somehow he fits it in his head with the Earth being six thousand years old, and I literally want to weep because he is incapable of grasping how amazing reality is.
Anyhow, the ability to reject what bits of reality you don’t like translates to politics as well, and in dangerous ways. I just finished The Republican Brain, and it is one of the scariest fucking things I’ve ever read. (If anyone has any criticisms then I would be very interested in reading them, though.
In the Republican rush to see who can win “most tone deaf” and “most offensive, misogynist statement” I think perhaps Jay Townsend has won.
Townsend is, supposedly, a communication expert.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/01/12008109-hurl-some-acid
Nifty,
Your friend obviously didn’t read the copy, which refers to two dads. Also, the Gawker story I linked to makes it clear that those two men and the two kids are one family unit.
Come on. Are gay dudes so icky that when we see two men presented as a family us straights just can’t accept that they sleep together? (Wait, don’t answer that.)
Utter bullshit.
Pterryx @322
I’ve stuck a Very Large sticky note on my monitor saying STAY OUT OF IT.
Heh, that feels like my basic mode of living. I am not so good with the confrontation, but I’m trying to get better.
Ogvorbis @321
Ah, good old Riboflavin Tocopherol. Flav-a-Flav to hir friends
Heh. Since we tend to end up with crunchy-granola cereal, ours would’ve probably been Organic Evaporated Cane Juice. So many horrible nicknames!
Ech, I fail at tags.
@Lynna, that study is worthless.
I spoke to 14 of my friends and like 120% of them said that they had all the scientific literacy that they needed. And when I asked if they were really sure scientific illiteracy wasn’t causing problems they said the less climate science we read, the better.
So there.
Good evening
Kids and cat are a dream team, especially since it’s not our cat. My sister says that yesterday the cat came searching for the kids. And I’m amazed what the little one can get away with. I’m sure I’d have earned very bloody wounds the first time I’d try to cuddle her like that.
Millicent
Yep, not having to spell everything was important for us, too. Their last name is not that unusual, but there are about 6(?) different spellings. I love Gaelic names but I wouldn’t have had them explain that Saoirse is pronounced Seershe for the rest of their lives.
Oh, Louis, did I metion that the cat who’s totally not ours looks like the one in your ava minus the hat?
Thanks for the link about JP Penney, Audley. I really am gonna have to find some reason to buy something from them now.
And I share the bafflement about the fixation some people have with gay sex. I see a happy couple, I smile. I just can’t figure out why I should be imagining sexual acts in detail if the partners are the same gender.
@Giliell
I had a friend who wanted to name her daughter Aoife, which is a lovely name, but the kid would have to spell it every single time. So she went with the more familiar spelling (Eva, although pronunciation-wise that’s not quite right) but it bummed her out.
The JC Penney ad seems to be obviously a family. Dithering about that seems…like someone is having trouble with the idea of gay men and their child/ren being a family, perhaps?
QED:
That’s the whole point. You’re supposed to feel uncomfortable. Same as discussions of racism don’t exist to coddle my fee-fees.
@Maroon:
In Real Scientist 250-253 (start with this.):
Any reading of Kel is a misreading. It’s like all sex with Brownian is Ghey Secks. But, sure, might as well make it explicit.
…
…(wait for it)
…I mean the misreadings.
Is this a trick question or what?
This poor kid. :(
Wait, they’re not? I thought that they were supposed to make me feel good so that I would want to be their ally. Quid pro quo, my friends.
…
Yes.
Top prize is a pony.
Exactly, Josh. here was this FB commenter ironically saying that she doesn’t think about two people having sex when she looks at a pic – and yet…well, obviously that is exactly what she was thinking! Duh. The obliviousness, it is blinding!
Ms. Daisy Cutter
Quite right. I understand that . . . now
How can I know that people are afflicted with The Gay if they aren’t having sex right in front of me? Otherwise I would never assume something so unspeakably terrible about a person.
@Jennifer, #344…
An old friend talking to a coworker about problematic statements she’s made re: Judaism and Jews.
Cow-orker’s response? “I’m not antisemitic. I would NEVER call someone a JEW!”
Plus ca change…
Richard:
I would love to visit you! I always did like Pasadena.
Audley, as Mr. Darkheart is in “oh gods, it’s a kid and it won’t go away!” paralysis, tell him that if you pick the first name, you’ll be sure to choose a middle name he’s comfy with, that way Darkfetus will have choices (nicks, full first name or middle). That should reassure him a bit. It’s nice when parents are thoughtful that way – I got no thoughtfulness at all, first or middle name. Both of ‘my’ names are someone else’s, and of course, I grew up with the someone elses. It goes like this:
Great Grandmother – Alice Ann
Grandmother – Virginia May
Mother – Alice Ann
Me – Virginia Alice.
My grandmother was Ginny, my mother was Alice/Al/Ally, so I got stuck with…Ginger! Wonderful, eh? Christ.
Jennifer: if I ever get to the front of this line, I’ll be glad to provide evidence. *reflexively checks ticket*
(meta: Trying, dangit! *sticks note on face*)
Funny you should mention that. The “less we know, the better” tactic is actually not just a religious speciality, but also a Republican specialty.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/01/12008411-heads-in-the-sand
Millicent:
I know someone who named their daughter that. I asked how it was pronounced and they couldn’t explain.
Aoife is pronounced “Eefa.”
Oh Caine. Ginger? That’s not you at all.
I like your suggestion, though, and I’ll do that if Mr Darkheart is still paralyzed about names when we talk about it in a couple of weeks.
Gaelic pronounciation is weird. There’s the rule that although you can cluster about as many different vowels together, as soon as there’s a consonant in between, it can only be either open (A, O, U) or closed (I, E) on either side.
You ignore half of them but then go on and insert some that aren’t there (Deidre, pronounce Dee-o-dra)
I know someone who named her daughter the beautiful Caoimhe (which means gentle, precious and beautiful). It’s pronounced “Keeva”. You can see the obvious difficulties this might present in any culture outside Ireland. I love this name, but could not name a daughter Caoimhe.
Same with Siobhan (Shavon) another name I love and which was quite popular where I grew up (and did not pose a problem there amongst a largely Irish cultured population).
I would be unwilling to cause a child to spend even minutes explaining spelling/pronunciation every time she meets someone new (not to mention the risk of her being passed over for recognition/opportunities because people are intimidated by the difficult name – people in power, like everyone but more so it seems, are loathe to look ignorant).
More on the war against women…
Josh, Official SpokesDisco:
Your name changes are cracking me up.
New take on old meme, at the suggestion of Happiestsadist: Privilege-Denying JT Eberhard.
Here’s one caption I came up with.
20th installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt’s mendacity.
1. At a campaign stop in Craig, Colorado, this week, Romney argued, “The president, when he got elected, he said, look, ‘I’m going to go out and borrow $787 billion and I’ll keep unemployment below 8 percent.'”
Romney says this just about every day. It’s not true.
2. In the same speech, Romney said Obama can’t “blame Congress” for economic problems: “Remember that he had a supermajority in both the House and the Senate in his own party for his first two years.”
Putting aside the fact that the current Congress is more relevant, the truth is Democrats did not have a supermajority for the vast majority of Obama’s first two years.
3. Romney also argued, “That stimulus he put in place, it didn’t help private sector jobs; it helped preserve government jobs.”
That’s the exact opposite of reality.
4. He went on to say about Obama, “He promised when he was running for office he was going to cut the deficit in half. He’s more than doubled it.”
I don’t know how Romney defines “double,” but the deficit on Obama’s first day was $1.3 trillion. Last year, it was also $1.3 trillion. This year, it’s projected to be $1.1 trillion. When he says the president “more than doubled” the deficit, as he has many times, Romney’s lying.
5. Romney also argued, “There was an effort to impose unions on businesses and employees that didn’t want them by having quickie elections and taking away the right to a secret ballot. Do you think imposing unions where employees don’t want them is helping create jobs in this country?”
Putting aside the fact that he’s mischaracterizing what card-check is, Romney is making it sound as if the policy passed and is hurting the economy. It never became law.
6. Romney went on to say, “You see, when businesses have lower taxes, they’re able to invest in their future, put people back to work. Do you think President Obama’s tax increases will add jobs in America?”
President Obama has not increased taxes; he’s lowered them. Government spending, taxes, and deficits are all lower today than when Obama took office.
7. On energy, Romney argued, “[Obama] says he’s for all of the above when it comes for energy. You heard that. And yet he’s made it harder to get coal out of the ground. He’s made it harder to get natural gas out of the ground. He’s made it harder to get oil out of the ground.”
In reality, coal production is up; we have more natural gas than we know what to do with; and oil production is up. Obama’s support for “all of the above” continues.
8. On spending, Romney added, “The one place we should have shut back — or cut back — was on government jobs.”
That’s the place the nation has been cutting back.
9. On his own budget plans, Romney said, “I think it’s immoral for us to pass on those burdens to our kids. If I’m president, I’ll go after that deficit and get America on track to a balanced budget.”
That’s plainly false. Romney says his plan “can’t be scored,” but independent budget analysts have found his agenda would make the deficit bigger, not smaller, and add trillions to the national debt.
10. Romney told Fox News this week that President Obama is waging “a personal attack campaign,” adding, “He’s going after me as an individual.”
To date, the Romney hasn’t been able to point to any examples of Obama making a personal attack against Romney unrelated to substantive issues.
11. In an attack on teachers’ unions, Romney said, ” Their attitude was memorably expressed by a longtime president of the American Federation of Teachers: He said, quote, ‘When school children start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of children.’ ”
If we’re being generous, we might call a claim like this “unsubstantiated.” If we’re being candid, a better description would be “apocryphal nonsense.”
12. Romney began arguing this week that “80 percent” of the companies Bain Capital invested in grew and created jobs.
Nice try, but no.
13. In Las Vegas, Romney told a crowd, “He came into the White House and told people not to bother to go out to Las Vegas for conventions or meetings. That sure as heck didn’t help did it?”
No, Obama actually said, in reference to Wall Street recklessness, “You are not going to be able to give out these big bonuses until you pay taxpayers back. You can’t get corporate jets. You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers’ dime. There’s got to be some accountability and some responsibility.”
14. In the same speech, Romney said “When the president proposes, as he has, raising the personal income tax rates took from 35% at the margin to 40%, it means less money for people [who own small businesses].”
In reality, Obama has cut taxes on small businesses, and raising the top income tax rate would not adversely affect small businesses, no matter how often Republicans argue to the contrary.
15. In an attack ad going after federal loan guarantees for energy companies, Romney claimed, “The Inspector General said contracts were steered to ‘friends and family.'”
That’s ridiculously misleading.
16. The Romney campaign argued this week that it focuses exclusively on substantive issues, regardless of passing distractions: “Every time the president trying to get off to something different like the attack of Governor Romney because of his dogs or the attack on Mrs. Romney we keep going back to what’s important.”
Putting aside the fact that neither Obama nor his campaign “attacked” Ann Romney, the truth is, the Romney campaign has obsessed endlessly over these side stories.
17. Romney told Fox News this week that voters are still getting to know “a new candidate like myself.”
Romney has been running for president, nearly non-stop, for six years. He’s anything but “new.”
18. Romney told CBS News yesterday, “[D]omestically, it’s hard to call what, now, 39, 40 months of unemployment above 8% a success when even he said by now, it would be in the 6% range.”
That’s a new twist on an old lie (see above), but it’s still wrong.
The estimable Jamelle Bouie, clearly frustrated with Romney’s resistance to honesty and the media’s coverage of the problem, asked a fair question this week: “What does Romney need to do to receive any scrutiny for the mendacity that has defined his quest for the presidency?”
I wish I had a good answer to that question, but it’s worth noting that a growing number of observers are at least noticing. Eugene Robinson explained this week, “There are those who tell the truth. There are those who distort the truth. And then there’s Mitt Romney…. Not to put too fine a point on it, he lies. Quite a bit.”
Source: http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/01/12010806-chronicling-mitts-mendacity-vol-xx
Source post provides links to references that prove each lie or misleading statement.
A little background on xtrog.
Also, regarding the perception of computer programmers as clueless neckbearded mansplainers, here’s Exhibit A: “Skepgineer.”
How a bout: Bitching is a non-gendered verb, can’t you read a dictionary?
Here you go, Giliell (albeit with a slight change of wording).
Ms Daisy Cutter: Excellent.
BTW, I just NOW noticed the moustachioed, sunglassed, badge-flouting ‘Sleuth’ character in JT’s OP, which I’m assuming is supposed to represent ‘me’. Love it. Absolutely love it.
But I don’t know where the ‘sleuth’ part comes in… I mean, how much ‘sleuthing’ did I actually have to do to come to that conclusion?
Ms. Daisy Cutter: slight variation, but what about something like: “bitch” carries negative connotations? Oh well, not my intent.
JC Pennys.
The first one was in Kemmerer, Wyoming, which is a hop, skip and a jump from one of my favourite national parks: Fossil Butte National Monument. A place where, thanks to an anoxic lake bottom and incredibly fine-grained sediments, you can see what the fish had for a last meal.
Sorry, that should have been ‘Badge-flaunting’ rather.
TLC: the first thing I thought of when I saw that picture was the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” video. If memory serves correctly (which I’m quite doubtful of), that makes you either Cochese or The Chief.
You don’t understand: Romney didn’t lie. Just look at the record! At the end of Bush’s term, the deficit was 1.3 trillion.
Over Obama’s term, the deficit is nearly 5 billion!
Science!
I thought I’d make one too.
I think it really gets to the crux of the “ally” discussion.
Oh, how do you make one of these Privilege-Denying JT’s? My heart is all aquiver.
RahXephon: BURN.
Predator Handshake et al., you can go over to ROFLbot, plug in the URL for the blank, and add whatever text you like.
Owlmirror, thanks, I had misremembered.
…You actually increased my heartrate. It’s not common that that happens when I sit in front of a computer. If technically feasible, I’ll chip in in less than 24 hours. I’m fucking scared about your teeth.
*bacon chocolate*
*hugs*
…so… …awesome…
~:-| What’s a confirmation name?
:-) :-) :-)
Heh. That’s the only reason they still exist. In Europe, they were immediately abolished when the economy recovered from WWII.
Seconded.
That name has disappeared from German, because of Klo “toilet”.
Oh. Yeah. Thanks!
(…I ended up spending several hours in and around Wikipedia, though. :-( )
*slow, meaningful nodding*
Well, Hildebrand and Hildiger are male. The gender of the last part determines the gender of the whole word, and that has to fit the sex of the bearer.
And I’ve read that Greek female names were just random male names given a female ending, but that’s all I know about them.
Ah.
“Short sword” rather than “axe”, AFAIK. And definitely not “mountain”, that’s Berg; Burg is “medieval castle”, “fortress”.
Doesn’t make sense together; doesn’t need to.
Amazing that he found anything to fuck up, given his predecessor. But, yes, he found something to fuck up.
Fun fact: it’s actually Clytemestra; the n is a misinterpretation of some sort!
A pun of Biblical proportions!
You’re killing me!
Forgot to mention: only caught up till comment 700!
Well, I think by now DJ Grothe (who owes me several Es I wasted on his name) and all his supporters should look very hard at who supports them and what they’re saying and then go into their bedrooms, cry a bit and then think hard instead of hardly.
Oh, and after you make your macro on ROFLbot, the site offers you options for automatically uploading it to Imgur or other hosting sites.
David M., thanks for the language corrections.
#356 360 367 those are great! Can I haz to use sometime?
OT, can anyone tell me how to put captions like that on photos? Do I need Adobe photoshop or is there an easier/cheaper way to do it?
David
How long’s Jules stying in July? Might actually be that I make it to Berlin…
Miscell. science news.
Predicting burglary patterns through math modeling of crime http://phys.org/news/2012-05-burglary-patterns-math-crime.html
New small solid oxide fuel cell reaches record efficiency http://phys.org/news/2012-05-small-solid-oxide-fuel-cell.html#firstCmt
High-temperature superconductivity starts at nanoscale http://phys.org/news/2012-05-high-temperature-superconductivity-nanoscale.html
Geoengineering: A whiter sky http://phys.org/news/2012-05-geoengineering-whiter-sky.html
— — — — —
Today I attended the funeral of a much-loved aunt, and even had make an unplanned effort as a pallbearer.
Among the grieving family was another much-loved aunt who has Alzheimer’s and is no longer able to recognise me.
I have obviously spent much of the day thinking of loss and entropy and the inevitability of death.
.
If we don’t exterminate ourselves it is likely that our *distant* descendants -biological, AI or hybrids thereof- will be able to upload much of their memories and personalities into a more durable medium.
This is of no use to us today, but although we are the analogs to the hapless anonymous coral polyps who build up reefs and islands we have the comfort of knowing it will not all be followed by decay and entropy. In some future Alzheimers disease will be conquered, giving people the possibility to enjoy their entire lives. And in the distant future, death will be if not conquered at least indefinitely postponed.
I hope one day our descendants will be able to look back at us with the pity we might feel for the Taung child* and feel gratitude that we kept building “progress” (to use a much misused word).
[* a fairly complete Erectus specimen]
Ah yes, the Seax or Scramasax. I intend to make one next time I have some spare time and good steel. The historical examples appear to be simplicity itself. Just a blade, tang, and wooden handle.
None of the ‘viking’ movies I’ve ever seen, within my memory, has given the ‘scramasax’ its proper due, despite it likely being far more common than the more glamorous and expensive swords.
RahXephon – that is perfection. That’s exactly him. I abandoned his blog after his post about Obama’s tepid support for gay marriage because HOLY CRAP i can’t believe someone so devoid of a clue is calling himself an ally.
So I went over to read what’s been going on since, and LOLOLOL wow. What an asshole. Banning people objecting to bigotry because bigots might just be JAQing off? LOL yeah what an ally.
Apparently, he wants to bring a watered-down slimepit to FTB.
Rahxephon: love it!
Now if only someone who hasn’t been banned yet could post these on his next trainwreck…
Cyberhugs to you.
Thanks everyone, I’m glad you enjoyed mine.
I made another, but it kinda references Jennifer’s issue and if she’s making one I don’t wanna steal her thunder.
I didn’t see what JT posted about StatesRightsGate (which is what I’d call Obama’s non-support for gay marriage statement), but we had pretty much the same discussion on Lousy Canuck. Even Jason is nice/not douchey enough to not ban people and make gloaty posts about it.
Yes, his argument is predicated on the marble bedrock of:
1. It’s vitally important that we EDUCATE EDUCATE EDUCATE first and foremost, and
2. Telling the difference between ignorant doofuses who wanna learn and ignorant doofuses who don’t is OMG so hard to do!
Needless to say I don’t find his bedrock logically or tectonically sound.
Birger: My grandmother died after going through something described to me as ‘parkinsons-like, but not actual parkinsons’ (I was about 14). My grandfather had alzheimers, but apparently enough of him was still left to remember what he lost, and he wasted away and died a month or so later.
#369 Ms Daisy thanks for the linkl!
“Here is mine”
@nifty
Your link is borked.
Dianne, allll the way back at #315,
Freezing in DMSO and liquid nitrogen? Hmmm if you insist, but I’m going to stink after metabolising out all the DMS. No fun at all.
Louis
P.S. Just F everyone’s I, I have run out of turpentine and white spirits, I’m now on the meths. I might move to Mad Dog 20:20 if things get desperate, or perhaps even Thunderbird and the favourite of the gentleman of the road, Special Brew.
OMG those macros are killing me guys! Someone please round them up to plop down at JT’s.
Uh oh, Josh, I think JT has an issue with your plan.
Rah—HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA
Oh why are you so meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeean!!!!!!!?
I love it so!*
Louis
* In honour of the late JAD.
Rah: You are raining on no parades if you post one about me, I promise.
:( :( :(
Whip him with a Horse, then throw him to the peas.
–
Birger, I’m so sorry. *hugs*
–
Miss Crawford no is happy with JT.
@Josh
LOL! I love that movie so much.
Also, more “ever/eberhard” puns plz.
Birger, my condolences.
Audley:
No, never was. And combined with my surname at the time (think about where you go to skate), oh Christ, the teasing was constant. Kids are such bastards.
When I was around 14, an older cousin I was visiting asked me “what are you going to do about your name? It sounds like a stripper name.” Yeah, thanks, that helps.
SQUEEE! I’ve seen it at least 500 times. It is my Rocky Horror Picture Show. Know all the dialogue start to finish. And the music cues.
Josh @ #393: Flawless.
Caine,
Your surname is “half pipe”? Interesting!
Personally I like “Ginger”. It’s got a certain devil may care attitude about it. Never met a dull person named Ginger.
Mind you, your point about the stripper name…yeah…erm…kinda…sorry. But strippers are good people, that’s not a bad thing.
Louis
@Josh
“I will always beat you.” is a pretty ironic line considering what happens later in the film…I’m betting that was intentional, lol.
Over in the DJG thread, leebrimmicombe-wood just came up with the *perfect* phrase to describe the delicate flower menz, who just can’t cope with criticism:
Seconded.
And I’m going to be laughing about that hetsplainin pic for the rest of the night.
Louis:
That would have been acceptable! :D
Miss Crawford is on a tear (1, 2).
Louis & Illuminata:
It’s not a name. It’s a descriptor, a hair colour, often an insult and a cookie. It’s also the name of every other fucking Irish Setter on the planet.
Caine,
I never said there weren’t downsides…
Louis
Birger: Sympathies.
Josh: Those Crawford macro are genius.
Macros, even.
IN my world, it’s a spice and one that I love. I’m a red-head (or rather, I was) so i fuck people who think that’s an insult. And Irish setters are ADORABLE!
I still like the name. That said, I can empathize with disliking your name to some degree because I, having been born in the late ’70’s, am named after a singer who had her heyday back then and I’m really tired of people signing her most-famous song at me.
Illuminata, I’m a redhead too (more when I was younger). Doesn’t matter. It’s a shitty name unless you pick it for yourself.
I have a bit of an attraction to ‘natural’ redheads (with the whole freckles and pale skin thing to go with it). But, you know, just a physical thing… kinda meaningless in the whole grand scheme of ‘attraction’.
One thing that bugs me is the number of people I come across who are all attracted to ‘ginger’ women, but call ginger men ‘weird looking’ or ‘creepy’ or ‘gross’. I’ve met more than one person who sees it that way.
‘Ginger’ is also, of course, The Movie Star.
TLC:
See? It’s used as a descriptor. It’s a fine name…for a dog.
Ah, freckles. I’ve taken up running and so have been spending more and more time out in the sun. Wearing sunscreen, of course, because I spontaneously combust in the sun. I’m not burned, but WOW the freckles have come out in force. I didn’t know it was possible to have <i<freckled fingers
Caine – I do hear you. People tell me they like my name too, but, as you said, I didn’t pick it and so . .. I probably shouldn’t have just done to do what they do to me. .. . . *blushes* sorry.
Caine: Of course.
I dated a redheaded girl for a while named… for a certain type of red-breasted bird that apparently likes ‘bob-bob-bobbin along’. And yeah, I’m pretty sure her parents did it on purpose.
Sorry, Illuminata. I suppose it’s clear just how much I loathed being saddled with that ridiculous name.
I had a thing that kinda started as liking freckles on pale faces, then had a best friend with whom I made out with a bit (ah high school, those were the days …in which it was impossible to speak about actual desire and everything had to be either minimized or maximized and nothing pleasant could just *be*) who was a red head with freckles, pale skin, dimples and red hair. Suddenly i started noticing red hair. But I’ve never once had a red-haired partner. Not once. Other things were always vastly more important.
But yeah, we all have our kinks.
Hi Caine. Yesterday ‘Tis Himself erroneously stated that I “claimed that Louis’ sarcasm was sexist”.
You quoted his erroneous statement and you asserted that it was true.
But it was not true. As Louis confirmed, I “didn’t actually say a thing about [his] joke”.
I remain hopeful that upon rereading me, you will see that you were mistaken.
SG, whatever I quoted was in order to clarify that you weren’t a her. If my quoting upset you, I’m sorry.
No, that’s not true.
You quoted ‘Tis saying I “claimed that Louis’ sarcasm was sexist even though it quite obviously parodied sexism.”
And you responded directly to that quote by saying “True enough.”
I think it’s clear that the inaccurate claims bother me, not simple quoting.
McCthulhu:
::SIGH::
Do they ever ask themselves should we trust god before adding that stupid motto?
Caine:
Surely this would be a unique name for a child. I like it too. When I was younger, I used to shorten peoples’ names, inventing my own nicknames for them (looking back, not a nice thing to do). With ‘Persephone’, the name that springs to mind is ‘Sephone’, which has sounds nifty.
rorschach:
runs off to look up ‘antipodeal’. Ah, gotcha!
keenacat @223:
I’m glad that you’re feeling better.
Giliell:
You know those images of the Earth with lights indicating various locations? I have a similar image in my head of all the places people have listed. It’s really quite cool.
quoderatdemonstrandum:
Ah, so this is considered by some parents. I’ve encountered a few people who aren’t terribly happy with the name their parents gave them.
Ms. Daisy:
I have a hard time accurately describing the way my brain ‘processes’ music. I remember watching ‘Sweeney Todd’ at the theater and realizing that I wasn’t able to follow the movie because the singing took effort to comprehend, which resulted in my not being able to devote much attention to anything else.
Now that I think about it, there’s another difficulty I have with information multitasking: subtitles. I recall some horror movie sometime in the last decade or so (involving wolves or something) that was in French (?) and had English subtitles. Following the subtitles and watching the movie was an arduous task for me. So much so that I couldn’t just *enjoy* the movie (it also didn’t help that the movie was visually darker, so it was hard to figure out what I was viewing at various time throughout the film). Contrasted against a movie like The Avengers (my now all time favorite comic book movie) which I can follow easy peasy. I’m more than a little curious why following conversational dialogue is a snap, but following dialogue that’s in musical format is difficult.
I can’t wait to see if AJ chimes in on this. Given how xe(?) broke down ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’, I’m prepared to declare awesomeness again.
As for me, that’s a good question. One I’d have to mull over.
Quick Thoughts:
Genre: Pop, Adult Alternative, R&B, Soft & Classic Rock, House, Singer/Songwriter (is that considered a genre?). Not a fan of Hip-hop/Rap, Country, and music with no lyrics.
Lyrics: Hard to answer this one. As I mentioned, I have to concentrate to listen and comprehend the words to songs. I haven’t taken the time to do that with the vast majority of music that I’ve heard. I have done so with a few songs. To my chagrin, btw. In a handful of cases, I’ve found that songs I like have some religious message behind them. In more than a few instances, the version of a song I like has been remixed into a dance club version, and it’s not until I hear the original that I realize what’s said. I absolutely love to dance-though I haven’t had the chance to since before my best friend died in ’10-and I specifically like dancing to house music because I like the beat combined with the lyrics.
Something even more strange: I can sing the lyrics to an entire song, but not really comprehend them. I can’t tell you how many 80s songs I know by heart that I didn’t realize the message behind until I saw the lyrics at some karaoke bar.
Tim time!
In other news: I just bought something from one of the ads (a side-effect of visiting my mother without my laptop charger, thus actually seeing the ads) – I don’t quite know if I should feel like I’m contributing or if I should feel dirty.
David Cameron unveils passing of enormous buck http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/politics-headlines/cameron-unveils-passing-of-enormous-buck-201203195020
Leveson protestor had sacred dagger http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/politics-headlines/leveson-protestor-had-sacred-dagger-2012052928841
Crap – I am so useless with computers, I should get offa my own lawn. :(
Try that again: Me #384
#369 Ms Daisy thanks for the linkl!
“http://wigflip.com/roflbot/save”Here is mine
LILAPWL,
Is this really a fight worth having?
Louis
Chas in a glass. Goofy boy.
Bloody hell. Well, OK then stupid a href!!
Caine,
Guinness glass…quality. Coincidentally I am drinking Guinness at the moment.
Louis
Louis, :D
Borked link, Nifty.
There isn’t any need for it to be a fight.
I point out someone said something inaccurate; I provide them with all the links to confirm this for themselves.
There is a very easy response available: “oh, I see I misspoke.”
I was friends with someone named Ginger. She was one of a circle of nerdy friends that I had. Then she turned on my best friend, who was also part of that circle. By “turned on” I mean she badmouthed my BF behind her back, and used the occasion of my BF’s mother’s *death* to air some grievances she had, which were all unjustified as far as I could see. That tore it.
Not sure what she got mad at my BF for in the first place. (Possibly jealousy.)
But anyway, since then I’ve had bad associations with that name.
@Josh and Tony: your stories of food-service sound chillingly familiar to me (just got off a 10 hour shift in prep/production)
@Katherine Lorraine re: Language
I haven’t been around it/them for a while (mostly because of college and a TA job in linguistic anthro takin’ up my language time), but have you ever frequent the online conlanging (constructed language) community(-ies)?
Ms. Daisy 430, yes, I know. :( Blast! I can’t remember how to do it and the allowed tags info above the box here does not make sense to me computer illiterate that I am. :(
Loved all of your pictures! :D LOLed!
The only Ginger I ever knew was a tom cat.
I still have the scars.
“and the allowed tags info above the box here does not make sense to me, computer illiterate that I am. :(”
Ok, make that straight up typing failure of the first order. ARGH! I need a drink! Is it Friday, yet? (Don’t answer that, Ogvorbis – I must have Friday right now!)
nifty
<a href=”put URL here”>put YOUR link name here</a>
you should be able the check the link in preview
especially check the quote marks “”, my browser sometimes changes them
This had better bloody work!
Thank you, chigau!
SWEET JEEBUS A TINY PYGMY HIPPO EATING LETTUCE
(it’s number 16)
I devote these adorurble picshurs to everyone who had a shitty week.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/pictures-you-need-to-see-before-the-world-ends
Also, ZOMG BETTY WHITE AND A GIRAFFE
Caine, I hear you on “Ginger” . Speaking of dogs named …well, you know :(… two years after we had our second daughter, Mr. Nifty’s sister and her family acquired a golden lab and named it our daughter’s name. Yes, seriously.
Later, she claimed that it was their little boy who did the naming, but still WTF? You tell the kid, NO, that is your cousin’s name, let’s pick another name! (grr)
Years later when the poor dog died, I was the worst in the world because I was “insensitive” in my note of condolence – I failed to name the dog in the letter.
True story!
Ms Daisy:
I like having music (or television on) in the background (but not loud music). I’m frequently online in my room with the tv on as background noise. Occasionally one of my roommates streams music on her laptop and that works as well. In neither case am I actually listening to the music. Yet I don’t like complete silence. Nor do I like hearing the noises outside (police cars, fire trucks, etc). My absolute favorite background “noise” are nature sounds. Specifically thunderstorms or just rain.
AJ:
Is that automatic for you? Or do you have to make a concerted effort to pay attention?
I have some idea what you mean here. There are many times I’ve been dancing to a song and certain lyrics aren’t clear and it’s quite annoying.
Rey Fox:
For my specific tastes, I’ve never considered rap/hip hop to be music. I tend to associate some level of vocal talent with music and I don’t hear much of that in rap.
Come to think of it, I *can* process rap as I hear it, unlike other forms of music. What I’ve heard often offends the hell out of me.
BTW, when you say ‘…more into music’, what do you mean by that?
Audley @260:
Do what? Free Donut day at Dunkin’??!!
<—-gets in his car to head there.
I love the chocolate glazed donuts. The last 2 times I went there, they were out. ARGGHH!
I haven't eaten Krispy Kreme donuts since Pensacola got a Dunkin Donuts a few years ago. Prior to that, my only opportunity for DD was traveling to Orlando to see my parents. I practically salivated each time I passed a sign for DD.
LDTR:
Nah. Keep it. You’re still cool :)
/\ /\/\ THIS!
I used to feel bad for liking Britney Spears’ music. I stopped feeling bad when I realized that my appreciation (or lack thereof) for music begins and ends with me. It affects no one else, so I’m not going to feel guilty for liking something that others deride.
That said, I *do* recognize that Ms Spears isn’t terribly talented. What I like are the over the top performances, and the catchy lyrics (some of which I’ve actually taken the time to process). Mostly, I like the songs that are dance friendly.
__________________________________
ME: Just found out that Florence & The Machine will be performing at this years DeLuna Fest in Pensacola. If I’m not working one of the bars, I may actually go to listen to them.
__________________________________
Janine:
I’m still scratching my head on this one. To think that “hey guys! Don’t do that.” can turn into this mess boggles the mind.
I do like your avalanche analogy. How big is this mountain? When will the shit stop flowing?
Audley:
I loved reading about this. Makes me want to go buy something from them. Hmmm, I *do* need new pants for work.
QED:
The following isn’t related to sexism at conventions, but I think it’s relevant.
I recall a conversation I had with my female roomie last year involving women staying ‘on guard’. This is an extremely fit young woman (she just left for her first Triathlon), with martial arts training, and is skilled with the use of katanas. She explained to me that despite *all* of that, she stays on her guard when walking by herself. Especially at night. She used to teach self defense courses for women and some of the things she taught:
1- be aware of your surroundings; even more at night
2- have mace or pepper spray on your keychain or somewhere quick and handy
3- walk in lit areas wherever possible
4- don’t walk too close to alleys or close to vehicle
5- have your keys ready to enter your car before you get to the vehicle
I came away from that conversation (actually, I just sat back and listened) thinking “Fuck. Women should NOT have to deal with this crap.”
Names,
Gingah!
It’s probably tacky, but somehow I like the idea of the legal name being a versatile diminutive. Like, the legal name is Max but what extended name it stands for can be fluid.
From Illithid, with the Ill-itude
Bros behind hoes!
chigau @437:
Sweet Jebus, thank you!
The tags above the comment box don’t help me. I have John Morales to thank for instructing me about blockquoting, and now you have my thanks as well.
With that, I’m off to work.
By the time I get back, some of you may be waking up for work.
Adios!
Nifty:
Jesus. Some people. When I was growing up, Irish Setters were the breed to have, so I was constantly running across people who were terribly amused I had the same name as their dog. :eyeroll:
Tony:
I have the Sleepy Time app on my nook, set to play Rain 2/Distant Thunder 2/Rain 1 damn near constantly (it plays up to three choices at a time and has a ton of different sounds.) It’s very soothing to me.
ROTFL!
Caine,
I realize you don’t consider me your equal, but I was human once and I retain the desire to be treated fairly.
I am now only slightly less hopeful that upon rereading me, you will see that you were mistaken in endorsing an erroneous statement about me.
10 American Heroes You Didn’t Know About http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-martin/american-heroes_b_1543449.html
Forty minutes into Saturday (local time). Cat begins to wake up, demand attention.
I just assumed turpentine. But then it’s been that kinda day.
Re:
Quite automatic. Not at all voluntary. I tend to soak up lyrics, in bits, at least, too, if they’re intelligible enough/there for the soaking. I didn’t at all need to look up those bits of Pour Some Sugar nor Jump (tho’, full confession, I checked on Jump, just in case… it’d been a while), and I wasn’t exactly a huge fan of either of those bands. And it’s quite possible a song I’ve heard enough and which is clear enough, I’ll have all the lyrics rattling around, somewhere, tho’ not necessarily exactly in order. And also not just songs: verse with or without music with any kind of rhythm or rhyme, too, I’m likely to be able to recite bits pretty well.
I always just sorta assumed that was normal. If not, I dunno. I have performed a fair measure of vocal music over my lifetime, in total, I guess. Might have something to do with it.
It’s good at parties. It also means I get a lot of earworms, however. Frequently without even actually having to hear the song anywhere in actual sonic/airspace as a trigger.
(/Soooo… Grandmaster Flash’s The Message, anyone? I happen to have the chorus playing on autorepeat somewhere in my right hemisphere right now, anyway, if you happen to need it.)
SG:
I really don’t know where in the fuck you get such whacked out ideas. I have already explained why I quoted something and apologized. That’s all there is to it. Drop it. FFS.
My reaction to illithid.
Regarding music, lyrics are the most important thing for me. I must know them, and they must not annoy me. If they’re good, I’ll almost definitely like the song. Vocals are next in line. Sometimes I notice piano. I tend not to notice what else is going on. I also still have that weird thing where I can’t watch people performing music.
I knew someone who named her daughter, born late 90s iirc, Persephone. Kid’s nickname was Sephie.
Keenacat: if you haven’t seen Betty White’s visit with Koko the gorilla, you really should Google it up (I’m too lazy). It’s super sweet.
Making pizza tonight!
*dance dance dance!*
From scratch ?
Caine,
From responses like this, and that.
Except that your “explanation” was not true. So you either take me for a fool, or you simply do not care to give your previous statement the cursory look sufficient to address me fairly. Or both.
The evidence demonstrates you did not quote what you quoted for the sake of saying I was not a her. You did that much already prior to the quote.
You quoted ‘Tis saying I “claimed that Louis’ sarcasm was sexist even though it quite obviously parodied sexism.” And you responded directly to that quote by saying “True enough.”
What you quoted was a false statement, and you asserted that it was true.
Not really: “If my quoting upset you, I’m sorry.”
I.e. you don’t acknowledge saying anything wrong; you place the fault upon me for being bothered that you said something untrue.
To be clear, I’m not asking for an apology. I don’t expect that you are capable of regarding me as deserving such. But I do think you are capable of acknowledging that you erred.
I would feel able to drop it if you would acknowledge that you misspoke.
Withholding any acknowledgement of error from me is apparently some kind of expression of dominance for you, and I understand if you need to get that out of your system, but I hope you’ll eventually come around and deign to condescend to me a minimal expression of fairness.
I’ll be making macaroni casserole tonight, as soon as the dishwasher finishes. And by tonight I really mean night, it’s 2:30 already.
(I’m so hungry all the pasta and minced meat will definitely not see the inside of the oven at all.)
Ah, illithid and his angry inch failed the flounce. Who’s surprised?
Matt:
Not tonight– I’m too tired/achy/generally grumpy. So, store bought dough, but it’s still delicious!
He is a very strange fuckwit. He shows signs that he could know what his problem is, but for some reason he is not able to recognise it.
Caine:
*snerk!*
Speaking of that (in conjunction with the name discussion), Mr Darkheart’s grandmama’s middle name is Hedwig and she HATES IT.
I almost ended up as Galadriel. Sadly, my dad vetoed and gave me a rather uncommon and incongruously feminine name, then tacked on an unusual spelling which makes me named after a well-hated person in American history of whom he was previously ignorant.
I think I would have liked Galadriel better.
Audley:
Hahahahahahaha. Ah, Hedwig. According to my name book* it means “strife and fight”. Not the nicest thing to hang on a kid.
*Stands by to be corrected.
Oh, and as to what makes music awesome:
I think a lot of different things can. And there’s different kinds of awesome.
Songs that actually move me–like really move me, half the time it’s beyond easy analysis why. A powerful, heartfelt lyric, a good story, those work…
But honestly, those just aren’t the only things. This may sound like an awfully cliché thing to choose to bring up, but there are two moments in Beethoven’s Ninth that almost always do it for me, and they’re nothing to do with words. Both openings: the very beginning of the first movement–that weird, almost melodiless thing–that drone in the winds, with the higher strings dropping through those ambiguous arpeggios… There’s this absolutely devastating foreboding in it. Like he’s saying: here it comes. This is past due, this was your last warning, so do yourself a favour, and hold onto something solid, now.
And some minutes in the fourth movement, after he wears you out with all that opening cacophony, and the ode finally comes in, low and musing, at the very first, on the bass (here, for reference, but you’d probably need to listen to the whole thing or at least the whole of the fourth for it actually to work)…
… but then, oddly, speaking of lyrics: the choral part that follows, with the howling Germans, honestly, that doesn’t do it nearly as much for me. Comes off as a bit too bombastic, for my tastes, and by then, the orchestra’s already pretty much made the point that needed making anyway. You ask me, the orchestra just says it way better, there.
But, then, I guess, I also don’t speak German. Might have something to do with it.
And then, let’s see: Tom Waits Downtown Train and Tom Traubert’s Blues. That scratchy, glassy guitar at the beginning of the former, oh yeeeeahhhh, that’s good for goosebumps. Sure, the guy’s a legend for his words, but that guitar, without that, it’s just one more ballad, if, sure, a good one. That guitar, that’s what makes it properly haunting.
The latter–Traubert, that builds more slowly–I really start getting into it somewhere around ‘No I don’t want your sympathy’, and it all comes home at ‘And it’s a battered old suitcase/into a hotel someplace’, and I think that effect is more about the whole of the story, the mix of scratchy images, the boozy, regretful character he’s playing there has had time to register, make himself heard, like you were just sitting next to some random drunk guy at the bar and just listening because you might as well or because you were being polite and then, shit, you realize: this guy does have one hell of a story in him, and now you’re so glad you heard him out.
I like a sharp, scratchy texture and a good hook, too, for no good reason I can work out, and contrast is always awesome… like put a powerful, compelling voice with some real presence against the dirt of that, and you’re very likely to make something happen… As a for instance, sure, it’s not really the same kinda thing at all, nor even moving, exactly, either (but neither were any of those last three things the same thing, either), but before anyone accuses me of going all self-consciously highbrow, here, with Waits and Beethoven, listen to Snap!’s The Power for how you create a hook from absolutely nothing that’s going to dig in and stick in the brain for decades, and just be something weirdly, intriguing/immersive, in its own little way. No idea why. Just works, y’know. And I’m not particularly into Eurodance, but, y’know, that sound is that sound.
Nepenthe:
Oh, that must be wonderful. Yikes.
I was going to be called Guy, until my parents realised I was due on the 5th November. In the end I was two days late, and got called Matthew.
NEW THREAD!