Pastor John Hagee would like all us atheists to get on a plane and leave. I’m hoping he’ll send us all airfare soon. Where would you like to go? I can imagine retiring to Ireland, for instance. I hear New Zealand is nice, and I had a grand time in Iceland.
Or I could just tell ranting idiot to get stuffed.
(Episode CCCXXXV: The Sparlock thread.)
Atheists creep out preachers like Hagee because we look like the arrival of time travelers from the 22nd Century or something. Our example suggests to him that his religion doesn’t have much of a future.
TLC, Yay!
You register an account, listing a credit or debit card. Via email, you let people know your paypal address so they have a ‘send to’. If you don’t want to do all that nonsense, I can easily write you a check or get a money order to send snail mail.
Man, all the stories about happy rats is making me feel bad about all the rats that are killed in the rat traps of my parents’ business.
Oh Hagee, having problems coming up with any reason to believe in God?
His inability to back up his pack of lies is no doubt plenty of reason for him to try to shut up any challengers.
Glen Davidson
Well, if Romney gets elected and the GOTP starts dismantling the programs that we were counting on for retirement and destroying our economy and atmosphere, I just might want to take him up on the airline ticket!
Caine: That would be awesome, thanks. I tend to be a bit paranoid about online transactions.
I also have no credit card. The bank sent me one, but it smelled like a trap so I tossed it in the fire. The last thing I need is that kind of potential debt.
All unwanted atheist scum are welcome to the Yarra Valley, here in Victoria. It’s like Ireland, New Zealand, and Scotland had a three-way, and this is the result. You might need John to add a bit extra for connecting flights though.
Interesting thought though. Assuming all the godless heathen left the US, what would it be like in 5 years’ time? 30? A land of disease, violence, homophobic repressed homosexuals, vitriolically anti-wife-bashing sermons by wife beaters, and an underclass of teenage single mums? Or worse?
Coyote, no problem. You can grab my e-mail address from my zenfolio and let me know how much, money order or check and where to send it. :)
I’m sorry to sound like an Internet Tough Guy, but…
Make us, Hagee.
Threadrupt. I might catch up tomorrow, but I might just not have time.
In any case, I find this statement interesting b/c I am leaving the US – Goin off to Canada to school, found out that my short-term teaching gig in Costa Rica might actually work out (still not confirmed, but I’ll love it if it happens) and since my sweetie grew up part of the time in Africa, I may very well go there with the Canadian State Dpt after law school, if I can, to study African constitutional theory and law while shilling for the white man. It obviously entails compromises, being an agent of a government, but Ms Crip Dyke has only been able to visit Africa in short chunks in recent decades and one of the littles (still pretty little @ 4) hasn’t been at all. Giving them a chance to live in Africa for a bit is something that Ms Crip Dyke wants and I’d be more than happy to get a chance to see part of the world I don’t know anything about while broadening my understandings of international rights law.
So, sure, Hagee. I’ll leave…but not for you.
My first rat was a wonderful, energetic and curious little female. Unfortunately she managed to escape, and a few days later I found the back end of her on the porch – the cats had eaten the front half.
After that I had two males, brothers from the same litter. To this day I don’t know what went wrong, but they were nasty, lazy, filthy, fat and bitey bastards.
Wait. Now I’ve watched the thing: he wants to ban “witchcraft and satanism” but thinks that it’s the atheists who will be targeted by that ban?
I think he’s unclear on the concept.
Personally, I would love to leave. I wish someone could give us enough money to cover our expenses and my debt to the university so that it could be feasible.
Crip Dyke,
I think he’s unclear on the concept of being clear on a concept.
tell Hagee I already left for NZ, and expect compensation.
@Crip Dyke
Yeah, I have always wondered why some religious people think atheists worship satan if that is not even possible under the definition.
Weed Monkey: That sucks.
I’ve only had one ‘asshole rat’, and even then he was just kind of an asshole. He was a himalayan. Named ‘Bluntman’. His cagemate ‘Chronic’ (get it?) was a nice guy, but Bluntman was kind of an asshole. He bit me once or twice, though I dunno if he mistook my finger for food or not. One thing that I know he did intentionally was escape his cage, break into the cage of a russian dwarf hamster, and casually murder it. No interest in eating it, just a bite to the head.
He tolerated handling though, and was occasionally affectionate, and rats are known to be aggressive to other rodents…
ibyea: Back in my christian days, it was explained simply: Satan is everything that is ‘not God’.
If you’re not actively kissing God’s puckered and unwashed asshole, you’re probably worshipping the devil whether you mean to or not. And Atheism is clearly the worst kind of (unintentional) devil-worship.
Cross-posting this comment I made at Culture Wars.Excuse me if it’s already been mentioned (threadrupt).
Check your Texas voter registration status here:
https://team1.sos.state.tx.us/voterws/viw/faces/SearchSelectionVoter.jsp
Word has it the Texas legislature has Florida purge envy.
Come party in Australia. The beer is cold and the girls are hot.
As a matter of fact, I was googling “Why are Australians so” (to see what the world wants to know about us) and 2 of the 4 results were ‘hot’ and ‘so good looking’. The other 2 were rude and fat. But 2 out of 4 is acceptable?
Meanwhile, being a Slovak born, I googled “Why are slovaks so” and there was only 1 result!.. it was “so rude”. All other countries had 4 results, but only 1 for my rude kinsmen.
Ing, *fingers/tentacles all crossed* on your behalf. When will you know if you got the job?
–
And a discerning appreciator of his more…visible…aspects, as well. ;D
–
Pretty blankie pattern, Esteleth!
Most of Son’s baby stuff was either red or green.
–
It was Hagee’s church retreat that Matt Taibbi smuggled himself into and wrote about in The Great Derangement. The whole thing is gobsmacking, hilarious and pathetic all at once. This is an excerpt.
I left the UK for New Zealand 2 years ago and have a had a smile on my face like a Cheshire cat ever since. Totally recommended. I haven’t heard the word ‘God’ mentioned once here in all that time, and Kiwis are SO nice.
I’d be happy to put you up here in Adelaide, South Australia, for a while and shout you the odd beer or two PZ! (Grins hopefully.)
New Zealand is nice, in many ways including attitudes towards atheism. But if you want to come here you better be prepared for the horrible current government.
Caine
I think the new ratties are adorable, and I just love Havelock.
I was also very sad to see that Chas has died. I will miss hearing about him. He was an exceptional rat.
Tethys! :tackle hugs:
Thank you. Havelock just ran across my keyboard, but I didn’t have the cursor in the comment box, so his comment was lost to the ages. I’m sure there will be another. :D
GOOD NEWS EVERYONE!
Remember that email I sent to my local newspapers in anger and disgust at the repulsive anti-abortion pamphlet left on my front porch?
Well, the Chilliwack Times printed it! On the same page as two other letters making fun of some ridiculous fundie’s letter from earlier!
A win for reason in this shitty town!
Esteleth #647 last Thread
*photo of a cute kitty*
Nice ferret.
:D *hugs Caine right back*
TLC, that’s great!
gratz TLC! *cheers ranting* they didn’t print directions to your front door, did they?
—
random: Extra Credits video on the upcoming bandwidth crunch. FCC predicts wireless use will overwhelm the available airwaves by 2014…
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/spectrum-crunch
Fuck him.
As a person that has several female ancestors in the US and England that were hanged as witches, I wish to tell the pastor that he can go fuck himself and stick his dumbass bible up his ass. An imaginary friend isn’t worth killing someone for. Shit for brains.
Pteryxx: No, but I attached my real name to it with no second thoughts and they did print that.
Oh, and they also felt the need to soften the impact a bit by titling it “Pro Life Message Often Goes Too Far.”
Whatever, it’s still a win.
I don’t plan on ever leaving this country to this hate-filled turnip and his fellow parasites. The only planes I’d board would be part of a fleet of F-35s on a mission to herd these pestilent wads into the pacific and make them swim to R’lyeh.
I’m beginning to notice a trend: the biggest douches to comment at FTB link their nym to their Facebook profile.
@Pteryxx
Ooh! You watch Extra Credit too? I love that show!
“get on a plane and leave”
COME TO SCANDINAVIA!
And in the winters you can go to New Zealand and Australia. Get Hagee to pay for business class.
Evader, the “girls”? Really?
Australia: the beer is cold and the women are stroppy.
Did someone say rats? I reallly like rats C:
I lost my elderly(3yo+) ladies earlier in the year and I’m bummed. Dainty was more of a smart, sneaky independent rat but Ella was affectionate and cuddly(and she looked just like the rats photographed holding tiny instruments), I miss her chilling on my shoulder/lap and I miss Dainty’s ratty rampages through my stuff. I discovered this week that one of my two remaining does, Ermintrude, has a frikken lump at 9 months old, argh it’s so damn young for this shit. My pressurised aquarium co2 system can wait, it’s rat surgery time(and right after my birthday, yaay).
At least I’m also on a waiting list with a serious rat breeder, I’ve always taken on unwanted/rescue rats but I fancy having some that were actually bred for health, for a change. The breeder focuses on russian blues/russian blue agoutis so I’m spoilt here. <:3 )~
New Zealand is gorgeous, though rather isolated from the rest of the world. I’d still prefer a ticket to Firenze – or almost anywhere in Italy really.
That Xian wit!
Did he tell us to “make like trees” as well?
Hagee is Yosemite Sam to atheists’ Bugs Bunny, and the short is “High-Diving Hare”.
Also, to join the general feeling here, he can fuck off, immediately.
Good morning horde.
I got some sleep and feel okayish. Hopefully this will keep up for a bit. I can haz breakfast now, just wanted to check in.
Esteleth,
that is such a cute kitteh. Kittehs make everything better.
TLC,
YAY! You rock.
Let’s go for shock value and build a Babylon Station fleet and live on that. When they ask if they can come on board we say no until they are willing to trade the continental US.
We of course won’t teach them how to fly the things.
John Hagee is a raving nutbag. The ten suggestions were removed from public places because of people recognizing the reason for the separation of church and state, not because it offended anyone. He’s certainly not the horse, but very much the horse’s ass, but he’s wearing the blinders anyway.
Good morning
It really seems like the little one is trying to make up for yesterday. MOst snuggly kid ever :)
And well behaved.
David
Talked to my aunt yesterday and will start looking for traintickets today. So we’re going to meet in July!
+++++
[bitter sarcasm]
Didn’t you know it is perfectly OK to discriminate against Roma because they were no *real* victims of the Holocaust and somehow deserved what they got?[/bitter sarcasm]
I’m wondering what would happen if this were done to a Jewish community. But somehow with Sinti and Roma that’s OK.
Caine
Wait, even your pets get pets?
I’m jealous! ;)
BTW, the cat that is not ours and Anton the rabbit have made nose-to-nose contact. Pünktchen the rabbit is still trying to find a black hole whenever the cat appears.
You’re allowed to guess which one is the chief-rabbit of the warren
One of our rabbits regularly “escapes” their outdoor run to hop back to the stable and get inside.
oniongirl
*whispers* I watch Law and Order SVU, too. I think the one thing they actually get wrong is to have cops that care. But quite often they get the victim-blaming, the asshole lawyer and the prosecuter who says “pfff, no Jury is ever going to believe her anyway” right.
Good wishes to Ing for new job.
Keenacat
I call that part of my brain the monkey-brain. The part that tells me that every young person on the college campus is going to graduate in about 5 min while every person my age is already a tenured professor. The rational part of my brain knows that a solid proportion of those youngsters is not going to graduate and that another portion is going to take a long time and that I used to have classes with people my age and they were not the ones doing the teaching.
By calling it the monkey-brain I’m better able to deal with it. I give it bananas.
esteleth
I has an amazed. That blanket will be the best one ever.
Apart from the duckie-quilt, which is a quilt and not a blanket.
He probably believes that thinking is magic and magic is bad…
Nice one, TLC! And clearly you’re not alone; if they printed two other letters alongside yours, and assuming that only some small proportion of readers with any given opinion will summon the energy to write in about it as you three did, there must be at least a handful of people around who all think the leaflets are not on.
Anyway, go you for writing in!
All of you Americans wanting to get out are welcome here in Belgium! Hey, we’re far from a perfect country, BUT we’ve got beer and chocolate and our prime minister is a gay, socialist son of Italian immigrants who wears a bow tie!
Oh geez, this is adorable. The Symphony of Science guy has autotuned Mr. Rogers for PBS. here.
I’m glad for John Boswell that he got to work with PBS, and I’ve always loved Mr. Rogers (can anyone not?)*
*for anyone not of the age and US-centricness to know, Pfft entry.
Giliell,
Ahhh yes the discrimination against Roma and Sinti…
{sigh}
…proof positive that we in Europe are just as human as anyone else and have yet to learn the lessons of the past. Hateful fuckwittery is hateful fuckwittery regardless of the target. Is this really a difficult concept?
Don’t answer that. It was rhetorical. I know the answer. We ALL know the answer. Hell, the answer is why I drink so damned much! ;-)
Louis
All this talk of pets is making me yearn for the days of yore when I kept a pet snake (Royal/Ball python).
I may have to have a discussion with She Who Must Be Obeyed and see if I can arrange permission for an Expenditure. ;-)
The Magic 8-Ball of Louis Being Allowed to Piss Away Money Frivolously does not give me a favourable answer, but I’ll do puppy eyes and make faint whining and sniffling noises combined with promises of mind blowing oral sex, that usually does it.
Louis
P.S. Some of the above might not be serious, in fact the only serious bit is I want a pet snake again. But, despite being able to afford it, probably should save the money for a holiday or a home improvement or something adult-ish and {hack, cough} “sensible”. I mean, I can afford financially to go on a cocaine and hooker binge of legendary proportions. I might not be able to afford to do it personally and matrimonally however. Money, it’s not the only currency that matters. Hock Shorror!
PZ, and all our american friends: welcome to Europe.
Our universities, science academies and technological institutions need your help!
The States, on the other way could gain a lot of money in the tourism industry, imagine something like this: “Travel back in time to the Bronze Age: Visit USA today!”.
Ireland could use a major influx of atheists. We’d have to do a lot on work on the economy, though.
This Rachel Maddow segment is one of the best I’ve seen in some time.
Fernando,
Whilst I’m a European I don’t think it’s as simple as that. Far be it from me to defend the worst excesses of our American cousins, but it’s far from all bad.
Does the USA have stunningly terrifying religiosity by EU standards? Well, mostly, yes. But go to Cyprus sometime. My relatives and their compatriots are astonishingly religious…painfully so. I hear that Jesus is big in the Vatican too. ;-)
The simple point is that, yes, whilst it’s easy to rag on the downsides of the USA, it’s equally easy to do that everywhere. Scandinavia is wonderful in many ways but has issues with racism and diversity that other countries have less of (or less obviously have). France has a far right party that is practically electable and we Brits are small minded conservatives on average in the most painful way possible.
I find it more constructive to reflect on all our shortcomings rather than point the finger, however unintentionally, at THEM. You know, THOSE DIFFERENT PEOPLE. It’s too easy.
Louis
P.S. Oh and the USA doesn’t have the scientists we need here in the EU, them Yanks is only second best. In terms of publications/results per pound spend the UK tops all. Or it did last time I looked and I want it clear that I am never looking again so this will always be True (for a given value of True and comedy). ;-)
fernando,
Europe.
Louis,
I absolutly agree with you.
My post means to be a bit sarcastic, because i find incredibly stupid so many americans want to see so many of their more brilliant countrymen out of their country, only because they don´t follow their “True Religion”… that is simply dumb.
John Morales,
Thanks for the link to that comic, i already know that comic, but its always fun.
And by my personal experience with Americans, they are much nicer than appear in that particular comic.
Hello, just checking in. Went to WordPress to change my password after deleting my LinkedIn account (I never “got” what its purpose was and never used it for anything anyway) so I thought I would just briefly resurface to say “Hi”.
Hi
I still lurk from time to time, but devote all of my social networking (which isn’t much) to making the occasional posting on Plus (which gets to Facebook “write only” via some third party css gadget) and inviting people to my Office Hour Hangout several evenings a week.
I did enjoy resurfacing a while back in the whisky thread, but evidently that satisfied my jones to make inane self-aggrandizing food/booze/dope chitchat, which is mostly what I did here when I was more active anyway.
I’m sorry to hear the news of people’s pet deaths (Caine and Rev spring to mind. I don’t remember seeing others, but I haven’t been that assiduous in my lurking). Made me look at the picture of Daisy on my desk and cry.
My only interesting news is that I’ve been collecting spores of Polystichum acrostichoides (Christmas Fern) in the hopes of establishing an attractive, maintenance free ground cover for the bare dirt beneath our big dogwood tree.
I can’t help it but whenever Hagee speaks all I hear is this.
This guy is EXACTLY why you don’t put “In God We Trust” on money.
And, I don’t know what disgusts me more: this guy’s hate speech, or the fact that he gets applause and cheers in response, instead of boos and people exiting the church in protest.
Fernando,
Oh for fuck’s sake! Don’t do that! However will we get a really good argument and proper name calling going if we go about agreeing all the time!
;-)
Louis
P.S. I kinda guessed you knew all that, but I thought I’d jump on you nicely before the Americans wake up and kick your arse! Tee hee. Eurocentrism…or even UScentrism…is frowned upon in these parts and it’s awfully common in some species of troll (see Porco Dio’s vomitworthy output for recent examples).
I’d suggest that Hagee and others of his ilk move to the Republic of Gilead. They’d be made welcome, and would enjoy it there, as it’s very much to their tastes.
Well they could all just move to the Kingdom of Heaven and then we’d be done with them.
a tragic event -however, statistically, it is the SANE people who “obey the voice of god” that account for the majority of beheadings.
“Canada cannibal says he believed victim was an alien” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/canada/9283963/Canada-cannibal-says-he-believed-victim-was-an-alien.html#
Rev BDC,
I, an atheist, want the Rapture to be a) real and b) vastly more extensive than proposed.
Does that make me a bad pookie?
Louis
Why does “weekend away with kids” equal the same luggage we had when we went on a 3weeks holiday BC (before children) including the fucking tent?
keenacat
Something else: Don’t let the monkey brain cheat you on the resources and good things you have: You are a fucking doctor, you have a wonderful family, you are not alone.
Fun fact. Did you know that The Netherlands is the only country in the EU to put a religious motto on its Euro coins? Not even the Vatican does it, but Dutch the 2€ coins have it.
And what does it read, you ask? “God zij met ons”, or “Gott mit uns” in Dutch.
pentatomid:
Oh, you have a government now?
I like beer
Humm. The brain fart of the month just became obvious to me.
in a drunken stupor I agreed to shoot this upcoming beer festival for an extremely reduced price thinking I was going to go any way and this way I’ll get paid and get to drink and have full unfettered access to everything.
Well I did this knowing from experience shooting these types of events I’d want to rent a particular lens.
Well, the lens rental? Comes out to exactly what I’m getting paid.
Looks I’m now working for beer. Which isn’t all bad.
PZ, retiring to Ireland? Did they repeal the blasphemy law, then? I don’t see anything about that happening.
Good morning, everyone!
TLC:
*high fives!*
Caine,
I showed your rattie pictures to Mr Darkheart and he is head over heels in love!
Thanks, everyone who has seen Prometheus, for not spoiling anything! I’m going to see it tonight.
And now it is time to eat some Cheerios and a peach. Om nom nom!
And I am just full of exclamation points today. I’m just excited that it’s Friday*. :)
*Wednesday.
Our local rag never prints letters I write criticizing other letters. They’ll only print ones criticizing a topic.
Unless of course you’re a right winger criticizing another letter.
Me, I think Hagee should leave.
No, it wasn’t really on any trumped up principle of imaginary civics. Tho’ I suppose I could concoct something like one count* of ‘contempt for the constitution and the civil rights of his fellow citizens’, one count of ‘self-serving revisionism attempting to buttress the former’, and one count of ‘poor citizenship given post-Enlightenment expectations’. Both of which, were they exiling offenses, seems to me, should be pretty easy to make stick.
But, really, it’s just that he’s an asshole. And this seems like as good a reason as any of his, anyway…
But don’t send him here, dammit.
Sorta more seriously: the cheek of certain of the clergy in the US amazes me, continually.
What part of ‘you aren’t the state religion anymore, you useless roaches, and haven’t been in hundreds of years now’ didn’t you understand, you posturing fucking sleazeball**?
(*/Or should we give him one count for each and every unbeliever residing in the US? Decisions, decisions…)
(**/My working theory: exactly none of it. They knew perfectly well, always did; it was especially hard to miss at the time, given the squabbling that did occur over it. But selective hearing will do wonders. Revolution? What revolution? I haz served the King by telling all they must submit to him in my invisible friend’s name, and now I will serve the Preznit the same way. It’s what my kind do, dammit. And if I cannot so pompously elevate my station, how am I one step above a fortune teller at the local carnival? This will not stand. So I hear nothing.)
I’m basically staying off the Internet until I’ve seen Prometheus. Can’t be too careful.
Hey, if Hagee arranges for appropriate jobs for me and my partner in Germany or maybe Canada or the Netherlands, we’re totally out of here! Though I have doubts about his ability to comprehend what appropriate jobs for a tenured astrophysicist and tenure track hematologist even are, much less find one.
Growing up an untreated aspie tends to give one a distaste for one’s birth place and childhood homes. I’m happier for having left Texas, but would like a little more distance, culturally and literally.
Just searched a bit. There was an opening for a hematologist earlier this year in the university hospital in Maastricht, but it’s been filled, apparently.
@42. madscientist : “I’d still prefer a ticket to Firenze – or almost anywhere in Italy really.”
Wait, wut? Firenze is a place?
I thought it was the name of one of the Centaurs in Harry Potter?
@71. Rev. BigDumbChimp : “Looks I’m now working for beer. Which isn’t all bad.”
Sounds like an ideal salary to me! I’d like that.
People I grew up with used to toss out this phrase all the time. “Do what you want. It’s a free country.” The older I got the more I would hear the phrase, “this is a Christian nation.” It has to be one or the other. It cannot be both. If it truly is a Christian nation then I have been horribly misinformed about that “freedom” thing. If it truly is free, then anyone infringing upon the freedoms & rights of other citizens are the ones that can kindly get the fuck out.
Fuck
We drilled some holes (big business in this house).
We hit a bit of luck, eh a stone.
Now we have a size 8 hole on the kitchen side of the wall and a size my fist hole on the entrance hall side of the wall.
Like I’ve told to other would-be fascists, I rather like the mountains and trees and rivers in this country. You’re gonna have to keep dealing with me.
And anyway, all the good countries have cold weather.
I heard it theorized once that long and/or cold winters force communities to band together and tolerate each other and others in ways not experienced in warmer climates. Has a certain truthiness to it, though it doesn’t explain Russia. And global warming doesn’t bode well for that. Unless the Gulf Stream gets cut off. But I’m getting too depressing.
I used to write letters to the editor when I lived with the folks and actually got the daily dead tree. One of our neighbors would clip them out and give them to us, which was weird because we also got the paper, and she probably knew that. Well, she was proud, I guess. My parents begrudgingly tolerated my views. The last one I wrote was in protest of some anti-choice anti-woman law or other passed in Idaho a year or two ago. Never heard back from them on that. No way they could have not noticed, there aren’t many people with my name writing to papers in Idaho from Missouri.
Did they edit your letter at all? When I read it, I thought that maybe a couple of the parenthetical asides could have been trimmed for non-internet communication.
Isn’t this the christain whose endorsement McCain want so badly who then said something so mind-blowingly asinine that even McCain couldn’t stomach it and then told him to go away? Is this the same John Hagee? Well, at any rate, does anybody know if Australia or New Zealand have any jobs for a 56 year-old steam plant operator? Cuz I really wanna blow this popsicle stand and move someplace where a mediocre intellect like me isn’t considered way above average.
The Hives – “Go Right Ahead”
random via BB:
http://boingboing.net/2012/06/07/model-crowdsources-name-and-sh.html
The article’s more about crowdsourcing than harassment, but the comments are full of the usual “but it’s natural for guys to hit on women who aren’t interested and can’t get away” and that the woman should have known better than to get the poor guy in trouble, or she didn’t say “no” clearly enough, natch. Anyway, real-life example, there ’tis.
FSM but that piece of shit joey on the compendium thread is a putrescent slimebucket. I really take my hat off to all of you who have been dealing with him and showing him up for what he is to anyone reading. Fuck but he’s nasty.
^ seconded.
But folks have put forth some amazing answers and evidence to expose joey’s lies. Which means, by joey-logic, that we all owe him gratitude for trolling and have a moral obligation to go become trolls in our own right, or something.
Yes Pteryxx, agreed. People’s responses to joey have been pretty impressive.
@carlie: Thanks for the Mr. Rogers link. I loved that.
This news report (see link below) begins with a lot of analysis of other people who have been caught “misspeaking,” and who have then corrected the error, tried to wriggle out of the lie, or issued a cover-up lie. People who have, in other words, exhibited some sort of shame over putting out wrong information.
At at about 9:30 in the segment, the analysis of Romney begins. When you put your name and your credibility behind something that is untrue, how do you deal with that when you are informed that you were wrong? How do you feel about it? Even taking into account our generally low expectations for official-speak, “this is something qualitatively different” when one looks at Romney and at mormon leaders in general.
This is a defining characteristic of mormon culture, of mormon religion, and of too many mormon-run businesses. Most of the media seems to be as blind to this characteristic as are mormons themselves.
It’s refreshing to see someone notice, to see someone document this aberrant behavior. “Mr. Romney gets caught saying things that are factually wrong, and the thing that is different about him is that he does not mind. He doesn’t fix it. He doesn’t even try to worm out of it. He doesn’t appear to feel any shame about it at all. And he’s happy to keep telling the lie once he knows it is a lie. What is that?”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#47730618
Weed Monkey & Rumtopf, my condolences. Rumtopf, I am sorry to hear about the lump in your 9 month old, that’s tough to deal with.
Audley:
Aaaaaaaaaw! They are adjusting very well and Esme & Rubin have been really good with them.
Couple of things people have been saying lately about interactions with doctors have sparked off some very powerful memories (as in, seething). I hope you don’t mind if I rant a minute …
I am bearing in mind that the great majority of doctors are NOT like this, and I’ve only ever encountered this attitude 3 times (2 doctors, 1 nurse).
I’ve mentioned in the past that SonSpawn is non-neurotypical, and as it ‘appens he wasn’t able to talk until he was about 6-7 years old. So round about age rising-four we were in the process of getting a diagnosis (anyone who’s ever had dealings with a neurotypical 3-4 year old knows that they usually talk. A LOT. Try getting them to stop when they’re on a roll). Part of the process was eliminating possibilities, of course, so although we had no reason to think there was any hearing problem we were happy to take him for a hearing test for the purposes of elimination.
Also relevant is the fact that it is extremely common for children with speech and language delay/disorder and suchlike to “jargon” – to babble in meaningless sounds superficially resembling language, in imitation of the behaviour of those around them.
One of the doctors who saw him for the hearing test listened to our explanation – that he was jargoning, not talking – heard him babble a few syllables – and triumphantly and dismissively said something to the effect of what’s that then, he’s certainly chatting away all right now.
So gobsmacked that it took a moment to realise this bloke had heard us talking between ourselves in a language other than English and had promptly – on the strength of about 30 seconds observation – decided these stupid parents were talking nonsense, that the kid was obviously talking in foreign. As if we couldn’t tell the difference.
Fortunately his opinion was totally irrelevant to the process of getting a hearing test done and ticking hearing off the list, and we did go through all the five million two thousand and eleventy-one steps and hoops and battles to get the Statement of Special Educational Needs that then entitles a child to some extra support in school … but I still remember him.
I appreciate that many doctors are rushed off their feet and really do get a lot of parents who are being needlessly over-worried about a child’s development. But this kind of dismissive attitude is going to miss more problems than any time saved might catch. And assuming something is genuine language when two people who actually speak it are telling you it isn’t still makes me feel … really rather miffed when I think back on it.
“We don’t want you, we don’t miss you.”
This is a good video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbef07aQtB8, out there responding to this type of sentiment (although it makes a mistake by including Hawking).
I imagine there are others that list all the high profile past and present atheists/agnostics who probably would be missed (ie. Jefferson, Twain, Paine,…up to celebrities like Brad Pitt). On top of all the scientists/engineers who would also leave, I think he would miss the resulting brain drain…then again…
Threadrupt. I’ve been gone for more than a week pretty much. Relatives are dispersed to their homes, the wedding went okay despite some stormy weather (& was completely godless, so that was a bonus–the long speeches were about the bride and groom’s sanitary habits rather than about God or Allah or Jesus none of whom even got a mention). My mum handled the trip remarkably well and is still feeling good, so that’s quite a relief.
@TLC I never read your letter. Do you have a link to it?
@Caine I’m guessing you lost one of your rats. Condolences.
More thoughts, re my post @91:
It’s part of the psychological mystery. Romney doesn’t realize that his tactic of ignoring corrections of lies is a tactic that won’t work. How is being that clueless protecting him from self-desstruction?
To some extent, I think he is depending on some news organizations to repeat his lies until they become accepted “truth.” Kind of like having nationwide correlation, ala the mormon “correlation” efforts of the 1960s and 70s. “I know the Romney man is true.” In the name of Utah cheese, amen.
On the other hand, I really think that Romney is so used to dampening down or shutting off his facts-vs-bullshit meter that he literally is brain damaged. The mormon church taught him that discrimination between likely facts and effing bugnuts fantasy threatens his salvation, threatens his well-being in this life, and threatens his financial status. So he trained his brain to go blithely forward without reality-based input.
Friggin’ scary if you ask me.
A volunteer and I were practicing for a folk concert here in the valley. Just the two of us — one guitar and one banjo. His father-in-law just passed away and he is heading down to Florida to give support to his wife. Which means: do I cancel the gig (non-paying (well, I’ll be on government time but the festival people are putting up no money)) or do I do it solo? Not sure if I have the voice for a solo gig (well, two 15-minute gigs) and, since I am a rhythm/flat strummer, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to maintain interest. I fucking hate dilemmas like this.
Then again, if the Ramblers do cancel, I can go on the fire call out list sooner.
Damn.
I hear you. I sympathize. When we were trying to get a diagnosis for Boy’s developmental difficulties (turned out to be Aspbergers (or whatever it is now)) and ran into more than one doctor who was either dismissive or a cookie cutter doctor.
I fail to grok in fullness.
Because he has an entire television network dedicated to getting him elected?
People confuse self confidence for trustworthiness and competence. It’s a brilliant tactic in my mind. They saw how it worked with GW, now they’re adding nitro and going whole hog! no doubt, no ground ceded, no admission.
Lynna @ 91 + 96
I’ve been having a very long FB conversation with conservative USian friends about my observation that Republicans have figured out that the truth doesn’t matter any more and that the Republican faithful believe patently false propaganda in preference to, despite and/or in wilful ignorance of easily checked evidence to the contrary.
All I get in response from them is outrage, disbelief, tu quoque arguments and false equivalence.
I have downloaded Mooney’s latest book (his accommodationist fuckwittery really pissed me off) only because it addresses this very point. Only 20 pages in so too early to tell if he makes his case The Republican Brain
This “skill” for ignoring facts goes very well with the talent for rejection of reality that is bred by religions.
I think Romney has progressed to the auto-pilot mode. He no longer has to engage in conscious effort to keep himself free of truth. This is definitely an indication that his brain is physically constructed to reroute all signs that Romneybot might be wrong, (or self-contradicting), straight to the spam folder.
@Ogvorbis Instead of short toasts to the bride and groom during the reception, the father of the bride spoke, the mother of the groom spoke, the cousin of the groom spoke, the brother of the bride spoke (and who knows who else–my brain was glazed over by the end), each for 15 minutes at minimum. Some of what was said were about personal habits and such. For example, the bride’s brother went on and on about some conversation he’d had with his sister one day about how she needed a shower. It was very, very, strange. They are my cousins but I don’t know them very well. Thankfully perhaps.
You can imagine what my 69 year-old mum and her sisters thought about it all.
Ibis, yes, Chas died. I’m glad the relatives descending and the wedding went well and you can decompress and relax a bit now.
Argh, that’s very awkward about the music Ogvorbis. I take it there’s no-one available who could carry the melody line on another instrument that “duets” nicely with voice? I have clarinets on the brain at the moment, ’cause SonSpawn sometimes accompanies singers and the timbre seems to me to go well with the human voice. Violin could be good too, or recorder or whistle … just to give the whole thing a bit more texture. Or of course another singer, to sing a harmony line with you.
Of course if you had a solution like that to hand you probably wouldn’t be having a dilemma in the first place … :(
We were fairly well-served for the most part when it came to doctors, the hearing bloke was an exception. Sounds like you had more frustration there than we did (the nasty business came when we had to deal with some of the bureaucracy in the Local Educational Authority; it’s a lousy system even for those who are trying to help – and of course you’re extremely stressed out if you’re in the circumstances that require you to deal with them in the first place).
There may be, but I am not a professional musician, so with any other person, a few hours to learn timing? starting and ending songs? tempos? Ain’t gonna work.
The biggest problem was the insurance company that would not actually cover the visits unless there was an existing diagnosis. And we couldn’t get the existing diagnosis without the visits. But the last of those will be payed off by October of this year.
Boy, by the way, is now 22.
Think on that for a moment.
The GOP claims we had the bestest system in the entire worlds.
Bullshit.
Ing @98
That is just fucking horrifying.
I’m going to do some gardening.
Fuck. Fuckfuckfuck. Sometimes I hate the US healthcare system almost as much as if I lived there. We spent some money we didn’t have on speech therapy and music therapy (which were brilliant, as it turned out) but at least the bare basics and getting the damn diagnosis in the first place were free to us. I have heard of a lot of people paying out of desperation because it’s so time-sensitive in the early years and it takes forever to jump through all the hoops, but I’m hugely hugely grateful for what help was available.
Might another person be able to follow your lead with just a run-through, if they were experienced enough? I do see the problem, though :(
Nothing quite like going on stage and knowing you haven’t had enough time to prepare the way you want.
The Hyperon clone has entered TZT. I find this video to be appropriate.
Argh, wrong video above this one is better.
Oh, music therapy maybe sounds a bit woo-ey (I don’t mean to anyone in particular, this is just me havering out loud here) but it’s basically aimed at providing a medium of communication in its most basic sense for those who (for whatever reason) can’t use actual language.
Um, just in case that is remotely of interest to anyone dealing with communication problems and who hasn’t come across it.
We were lucky enough to live near a centre where they train therapists, and they charge on a sliding scale depending on your income.
No, but it should be… around… a few TET’s back. I can try to see if it’s still on the website, maybe. Can any other regulars help out?
CAINE: OK. Got the tang mostly forged out. I had a terrifying moment when I first started, the end of the file broke off! But a bit more heat, and three breakfast-beers later, the steel softened up. Oh fuck I hope this turns out good!
If all goes well, I’ll be working on the ‘business end’ this afternoon.
Good evening
Thank the Wirtschaftswunder for Döner Kebap delivery services.
Mr’s aunt and uncle showed up unexpectedly thus delaying us somewhat.
Shitty doctors?
There was one who really stuck to my mind. The little one is lacking a kidney, which was diagnosed in utero. No big deal as it turned out, but nothing anybody could really tell you before she was out. So I was a frequent guest at the university hospital women’s clinic. For part of my check-ups, one of the urologists would drop in. During one of those visits with the assistant urologist the question of delivery came up and I said that I planned to deliver in my usual hospital with my midwife and my Ob/Gyn. And he started to shame me and paint me as an irresponsible selfish woman.
Now, there’s nothing about kidneys that can be done within seconds or minutes after birth. Actually you can’t even tell how well they’re working until a few days after birth, so there was no additional risk.
He left with a “That’s your decission and you’ll have to live with the consequences”. When he closed the door, the Ob/Gyn looked at me flabberghasted. “Did his boss mention any about this last time?” No, he didn’t. “Did your regular Ob/Gyn say anything about this?” Neither did I, what are you saying? “Stuff it, there’s really no reason you shouldn’t go ahead as planned.”
I haven’t seen that guy since in the Urology.
So, it’s at the same time a story about shitty and good doctors.
Bad doctor stories: My step mother was visiting me last year and broke her ankle stepping off an uneven step. She went to the hospital and got it set and casted perfectly properly. All well so far. They sent her home with a prescription for antibiotics. Anyone notice what’s missing from this description? She had a broken bone and they sent her away without any pain medications! WTF? Broken bones are supposed to not hurt now or what?
Not bad but rather strange doctor story…My nephew had appendicitis. My sister took him to the hospital where it was diagnosed reasonably promptly. The surgeon then attempted to have a discussion with my sister about treatment options. There’s only one treatment option in appendicitis except in a few really extreme circumstances, but he’d evidently just finished sensitivity training or something and kept saying things like, “We won’t do the surgery if you don’t want it.” (Pause.) “Of course, then he’d die.” Finally she had to tell him, “Shut up and get out your scalpel” (possibly in those words), at which point everything started going well again. Maybe surgeons shouldn’t try quite so hard to be sensitive.
TLC:
Don’t worry, it will be brilliant! Take your time. I’m glad the file was okay.
Bad(?) or just weird doctor story.
When I was in high school, my first sophomore year, I came down with a case of mononucleosis. My doctor told me that 90% of people with mono don’t even know they have it. Ninety percent of those who know they have just feel tired for a week or two and everything clears up fast. So now we’re down to the 1%. Which was me. My spleen was so enlarged that they considered removing it. I slept 20 hours a day for a couple of months. It was bad. I was on four different steroids. I lost 30 pounds (and this was back when I was thin). It was not fun.
The worst part, however, was the trips up to the hospital. They called in interns from almost every hospital within a hundred miles of Hagerstown to come in and feel what an actual enlarged spleen feels like. Picture me, lying on a hospital bed, with a line of twenty-something year old interns lined up out the door to palpate the spleen of a fifteen year old kid.
And my parents and I agreed to this. We had no idea how many it would be, but we agreed.
They were lined up out the door and down the hall.
I felt so special.
And I felt so miserable.
Swollen spleens hurt.
(warning, more rapey news)
Via Jason Thibeault’s twitter sidebar:
Amanda Marcotte’s currently live-tweeting the heck out of some panel or other on military rape, with the hashtag #NN12. No idea what this is yet but it looks massive:
The conversation is ongoing.
As I was delving into the E3 coverage at GameTrailers, I discovered this.
On a similar note, Deepak Chopra’s Leela was recently made available for XBox 360 On Demand, so you can get a taste of his hokum whenever you like.
Ogvorbis, I had close to the same mono experience. By the time it was diagnosed, I was in bad, bad shape.
ah, Amanda Marcotte’s tweeting from Netroots Nation in Providence – that’s what #NN12 means. She’s also on two panels there: one on youth activism for reproductive rights, another on how funny feminists can be.
http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/netroots-nation
I’ve told this before, but in San Antonio, Hagee can clear out a restaurant just by showing up with his disgusting family. He and his similarly corpulent pig family eat like animals, talking with their mouths full, food flying out of their mouths, getting all over the floor, the tablecloth–they snuffle and snort while they eat.
They are by far the grosses, most disgusting pack of pigs in San Antonio.
And that takes some doing.
Oddly enough, the reason they act like pigs might be because they have huge pig farms al over Texas. So any Texans out there: John Hagee provides most of the stuff sold in Texas.
Boycott it, and make the fat fuck suffer.
Caveat: Egocentric single-issue-whine ahead!
So, so, so painful.
I keep alternating between relative calmness, massive sad/despair and utterly pointless hope for everything to get back to normal.
My dissertation is so far behind, I don’t even update my journal anymore. I just can’t. get. shit. done!
I also dunno what to do about “our friends”. Because of “our friends”, no a single person got in touch to ask me how I am.
I admit, I have issues with regards to keeping in touch and left the social stuff to the ex, but still…
Aquaria: Fat shaming is not appreciated here. Probably not your intent, but using “fat” and “corpulent” as parts of blatant insults is bad. Please don’t do it.
Bad doctor stories?
I have tons of them. My mother was a CRNA, so I know more than most. Most of the time, I’ve had good luck with doctors, because my mother knew how to go to, and who to stay far–far–away from.
Of course, there was the time an entire team of doctors were baffled when my white blood cell count was through the roof, and my lymph system that had gone insane. Most of them thought I had leukemia, but some were sure it was a non-Hodgkins form of leukemia. Worse, I was presenting with some odd symptoms, like a persistent fever, blinding headaches and impaired vision. One of the doctors suspected optic neuritis for that, and now they were even more confused. Either way, they had all decided that I needed chemotherapy, asap.
My usual doctor, one of those old country doctors, finally came back from his vacation, and rushed over to see what was going on with me while they were arguing about what to do with me. He asked a few questions of them, shook his head at last, and asked me one question:
“Where did your kitty scratch you bad?” And I told him where it had been, right inside my navel.
I had cat scratch fever.
Then there was the doctor who gave me nothing but some of the stupidest, most insane arguments for why I shouldn’t have a tubal ligation at 30:
“You’ll want more kids.”
Obviously I didn’t, because I was in that office. Sheesh.
“I’ll need your husband’s permission.”
1) We were getting a divorce, so it wasn’t any of his business.
2) Even if we weren’t, I still didn’t want anymore kids, and, since any man I was with wasn’t the one who could get pregnant, he wouldn’t make that call–I would.
3) Would he need my husband’s permission to remove a tumor from my body, or give me a boob job? If not, why did my husband have any say about what went on with my body?
And the worst line out of this douchecanoe’s mouth:
“What if your child dies? You’d want another child then.’
I went totally gonzo on that scumbag at that point, telling him that only a goddamned man would be so fucking stupid as to think another child could replace the Aquaria spawn in my heart, that I would even want to try to replace him. And to take it back–that was like saying he wanted my child to die.
After I left, I went to pick up my kid from the future ex, who was keeping the kid while I was at the doctor, and instructed Mr. Aquaria #2 what he would tell the doctor, if he wanted to breathe for the rest of his life. And then he called the doctor and chewed him out, too, for acting like I was too stupid to know what I wanted to do with my own goddamned body. I thought a little better of him that day. But not enough to take him back or anything. Gross.
Ah, and one of the tales from my mother’s experience, was the OB she worked with who was the kind to scream and yell at the women in labor, calling them lazy and stupid. On several occasions he actually said to his patients: “Push, damn you, push!” or “You weren’t whining like this when you made the baby.” Just a horrible sexist piece of shit. And if you thought he was an asshole to his patients, imagine how he treated the nurses and other women unfortunate enough to work with him. He was horrible to them, and treated them like they were all idiots.
Then came the day he was screaming at one of the patients to push, she did–and shot a stream of urine right in his face.
My mom and the nurses all cheered, right in front of him.
Non-hodgkins lymphoma, not leukemia. All those L words got turned around in my mind, I guess.
keenacat, hang in there – it’s early days yet, so not surprising if you feel you’re all over the place. Never mind the journal for the moment, you’ll get back to it when you’re ready; as for the dissertation maybe try to set yourself a really modest daily target – just to keep it ticking over for, say, a tenth of however long the time is until your deadline (adjust as appropriate – I don’t know the scale of the work to be done, or the timescale) and then after a while see if you’re able to step up a gear. Clearly you’ve succeeded with this kind of work so far; this is a temporary bad time even if it’s really bad right now. You can do this.
And as for the friends, well again of course I don’t know the people involved but it occurs to me that some people, at least, might be feeling incapable of saying or doing the right thing and are burying their heads in the sand because they don’t know what to say. All the more so precisely because you’re hurting. I don’t mean that this excuses them, just that they may be flailing around embarrassed rather than not caring. Or they may be thinking you wouldn’t want to hear from them right now if you associate them with your ex. I’m sorry, though – that’s really rough. Are there people who you know from before, or some who are sort-of more your friends than his? Or maybe are any who are worth it for you to get in touch with anyway, even though you might have hoped they would contact you first?
Lots of hugs. Don’t expect yourself to cope brilliantly; just be a bit lenient with yourself and get through each day for now, then each week, then … Sorry if this is full of platitudes! But take it as easy as you are able.
Totally random. Watching Family Feud. They have tons of messed up questions I’ve been noticing. Like one about “Which professions will end up in hell?”. Those answers were lawyers, strippers, prostitutes, politicians and athletes (WTF?). One that was suggested by the family but not on the board was tax people. I was literally screaming at the TV “render onto ceaser” and “Mary Magdalen”. Know your motherfucking bible people! GRRR. Of course, not mentioning the problem with the question/assumptions itself.
The last most fucked up question yet though is “Name something you know about Rosie O’Donnell. The 4 answers on the board, she’s gay (with 70), loud/opinionated, pleasantly plump and adopted children, in that order. SERIOUSLY? Nothing at all about her career or anything? Not to mention the problems with the shit on the board. WTF?
Oh, yeah this is the newest one with Steve Harvey. No “it’s old, outdated” excuses for this one.
Marketers. Lobbyists. Reality TV producers.
Thank you. I’ve always wondered why, if a person is above the “ideal” weight (whatever that is), people so often have to make sure to mention that fact when saying something negative about them. As in, “so-and-so is a big fat idiot”, “some fat bitch cut into line ahead of me”, etc.
Well, no, actually, I don’t wonder why. I’m pretty sure I know. Because being fat is considered a moral failing, as Louis pointed out in this thread. Because mentioning that someone doesn’t fit your physical ideal is a way of further justifying how disgusted you are with whatever they did to piss you off. (Or maybe not fitting your ideal *is* what they did to piss you off.)
I agree that that was probably not Aquaria’s intent, at least I hope not, but I’d like to echo what Richard said. Please don’t do it.
LDTR et alia:
I can’t see how that’s fat-shaming, that’s declaring gluttony and the actual insult is comparing them to pigs.
(Now, will I be told I shouldn’t belittle gluttons?)
Evangelists. Priests. Popes. You get the idear. ;p
I should have a little banner that I can just throw on here “threadrupt…again”
Last night, I read that Rev Big Dumb Chimp lost a pet – sending sympathy. I know that is hard.
I also read that Caine has two new rats! Exciting! WRT Bender’s Duckie, I so admire your beautiful needlework, but I was also quietly thinking it will be nice when you move on to a more colorful one. I wold not have the patience BUT I bet the soft greys of Bender’s Duckie will be a perfect foil for all the other more colorful duckies, so it works.
keenacat (((many hugs))) It will get better. Allow yourself to grieve. You are going to be fine – and the swinging up and down is totally normal.
Have to move the sprinkler again and take a shower – spent the afternoon in the garden, am scratched and got the hose spray in the face several times – I am wet, dirty and tired but feeling like I got something accomplished.
I plan to catch up for real tonight (huh, I guess we will see) but I have to tell you all, I laughed! Somehow, someone came to my blog using the keywords search “sparlock the warrior wizard”. I haven’t mentioned “Sparlock” on my blog, but I definitely saw it here! I wonder what was up with that? Does google or someone make connections that circuitously?
Except for the “similarly corpulent” part.
John, thin people can have disgusting table manners too, the comment conflates being fat with being disgusting and uncouth (a stereotype commonly aimed at fat people). The point can be made that they’re gross without even involving body size.
niftyatheist,
Why wouldn’t it?*
(Nor is it that circuitous: your nym links to your blog)
—
* Comments are flagged with
rel="external nofollow"but all that means is that the link is external and that robots aren’t supposed to trawl the link target.Doesn’t mean they can’t, or that the link itself can’t be indexed.
What’s ironic (or it seems so to me) is that the guy who made the targets with PZ’s face was going on and on about how fat PZ supposedly is.
Like that in itself would be sufficient reason to hate PZ and want to shoot him, never mind disagreeing with PZ’s outspokenness or his ideas.
It’s wrong when aimed at PZ and it’s just as wrong when aimed at John Hagee (much though I despise the latter).
Finally watching Mythies. Buster and bubble wrap. *plays taps on the kazoo in anticipation*
TLC, I copied your earlier post about the knife and emailed it to Mister, and he responded:
He’s pretty excited about it. :)
John Morales 133, I could see the connection if I had ever mentioned Sparlock here or anywhere else, but I never have. I only read it in TET… it seems to me that if a person was googling SParlock warrior wizard, they might find this thread here on PHaryngula or one of the comments that directly mentions Sparlock…wouldn’t that be correct?
*high five* and hurrah!
–
Tethys! Cannabinacae! *waves*
–
*hugs* and commiserations for keenacat. The “who gets custody of the friends?” dilemma strikes again.
–
Aquaria—when my sister had her second child, with complications, her primary gyn having told her that she had a 50% chance that a further pregnancy would kill her, she asked for a tubal ligation (since they had her open anyway), and the doctor (knowing this) refused. Why? Because “what if you should get divorced, and then re-marry in the future, and your husband wants kids?”
*spit*
*belated cheer*
–
Faux Nooz execs.
–
I’m just going to leave this comment thread link here:
http://www.joplinglobe.com/editorial/x1561304750/Your-View-Hypocrisy-on-display?fb_comment_id=fbc_10151024068269574_25307536_10151024069299574#f2bf17bc1b5afde
Marginally threadrupt, since I’ve realized that I have ridiculous amounts of summer camp preparation, scout leader work, homeschooling parent work, and LIFE stuff to do. But in the meantime, could someone with Jstor access send me this article about rocks…?
Email me at mattir dot om at verizon dot net
And thanks…
Howdy, slightly threadrupt, but it’s still too early to go to bed.
The worst doctor experiences I’ve had were the neurologist who saw the queer-related button I forgot to remove from my jacket (I tend to closet around medical folks, for safety’s sake), and instead of talking to me about, you know, my brain tumour, spent the entire appointment demanding information about my orientation. So my GP pulled some strings to get me a new one (Back home, neurologists are rare, and by rare, I mean there are two, and hard to see. The other was lovely.) And the one at the after-hours clinic who decided from hearing me cough through a closed door that I had bronchitis and prescribed the codeine-iest syrup I’ve ever had. Oddly, he later got his license yanked. And then there’s the nurse who saw me literally just before my tubal ligation and tried to convince me to change my mind. LOLNO.
And tomorrow, the Mr., three friends of ours and I are doing the local sake brewery tour. The Mr. doesn’t drink sake, so it seems I’ll be stealthily getting all his. This should be fun!
And a pic I got earlier: Gatsby and Leviathan
Rev BDC:
Simpler: Unless they can use your letter as bait.
Classical Cipher took care of my article needs – much thanks! I’m awed by the fact that the gravel in my driveway has Cambrian-Ordovician fossils in it, layed down, uplifted in the closing of the Iaptus, eroded and layed down in coastal gravel deposits in the Cretaceous. That is a fuckton of history for a driveway rock…
Now tomorrow to convey this same awe to a group of Boy Scouts…
niftyatheist,
It kinda seems far-fetched to imagine raw data mining could make an association between your nym blog link and the topical content of blogs you visit, when you put it that way.
*plays taps off tape for Buster, James Buster, in two instances, with Lilac Berets standing at salute*
Regulars, the Redhead (or rather her therapists) want a nubby ball to be used to stimulate her bad hand (I use a smooth spongy ball for my carpal tunnel syndrome). Any suggestions, as it appears pet store/sports stores/toy stores all carry a version? I’ll read your replies in the morning, as its bedtime for Nerd. Nanu-nanu.
Nerd – I would try ToysRUs, and if they don’t have something useful, go to Southpaw Enterprises, an excellent source for all sorts of wonderful occupational therapy stuff. Actually, I might get something from a local store AND order something more fun from Southpaw.
Mattir! My comment to you on TZT wasn’t about you, it was about the unnecessary drama manufactured in the Hutchinson thread. Sorry for any misunderstanding.
It’s fine, Caine. I was just so mad I could spit. Not that I would do anything so uncouth HERE.
Mattir:
Believe me, I understand. I also posted my sorry to you on TZT and I have no doubt will cause all manner of drama again. At least it will be in the right thread this time.
I do think the Hutchinson thread had great potential. Perhaps it can be rescued, now that the derail has been stopped.
It’s mainly that I was saving that thread to read carefully, since I love Sikavu Hutchinson’s writings and since she really helped me clarify some of my thoughts about the role of religion and gender in my family of origin (basically subsistance farmers in the rural South, at least until the early 1970s). I was a tad perturbed to find it derailed into a variety of Menz Issues.
The great thing about my 2-1/2 years at Pharyngula is that I am a whole lot less willing to let such bullshit slide now, for which I thank all of you confrontational atheist types (insert snark about nastiness of commenters on Pharyngula here).
Caine: Yeah, That’s pretty much the process. I got a rough blade shaped out now. I couldn’t find a working angle grinder, so I used a shitty dimestore hatchet and a sledgehammer to cut it.
Caine:
Congratulations! Thank you for sharing all your new, exciting, and wonderful rat stories and pictures. Havelock and Sam are very cute. I look forward to getting know them with great anticipation.
Never. ♥ ♥ ♥
JeffreyD, I am very happy you’re back! I’ve missed you. A lot. ♥ ♥ ♥ And, yes, you do look very dashing with a cane.
Ogvorbis, I’m glad you didn’t leave!
Onion Girl, I’ve missed you! *joyful hugs*
Rev. BigDumbChimp, you have my condolences on your loss. Losing a beloved pet is never easy.
ibyea, I’m so sorry. *hugs*
keenacat, *chocolate* *hugs* *kittens*
Tethys, welcome back! *joyful hugs*
Okay, saw the Rachel Maddow segment linked above. Resisting. Urge. To. Punch. Mitt. Romney…
Well, it does make for bad target practice when the subject is as broad as a barn. The willowy Dawkins fella would be a far better choice.
PZed, incidentally, isn’t fat.
Threadrupt.
Saw Prometheus. For now, I will say that it made me happy because nffhzvat gung gur Nyvraf jrer ovbybtvpny jrncbaf gung unir erznvarq qbeznag sbe gubhfnaqf bs lrnef, gurer’f ab jnl gung Nyvra if Cerqngbe pbhyq unir rire unccrarq. NiC gnxrf cynpr qhevat cerfrag qnl, naq gur Nyvraf jrer abg “npgvir” orsber gur raq bs guvf praghel (be ng nal gvzr orsber abj, oneevat fbzrguvat tbbsl yvxr gvzr geniry). Fvapr gur cybg bs NiC znxrf vg pyrne gung gur Cerqngbef unir orra uhagvat gur Nyvraf sbe gubhfnaqf bs lrnef, V guvax jr pna abj svanyyl jevgr gung bss nf snasvpgvba gung fbzrbar cnvq jnl gbb zhpu zbarl gb cebqhpr.
Anyway, after seeing Prometheus, I feel like it’s only a matter of time before Charlize Theron straps on some heavy armor and a blaster and plays Samus Aran.
Hekuni Cat:
Thank you. :) Sam is doing an hour in jail* tonight, he has 10 minutes to go before release.
*Lockdown in the Rat Condo, alone. Crime: harassing Esme non-stop, even after repeated warnings and multiple hits from the water bottle.
Audley: Nsgre gur qbhpuronttrel bs znxvat gur Fcnpr Wbpxrlf SHPXVAT UHZNAF, V jbhyqa’g or fhecevfrq vs ur qbrf gel gb znxr gurz gvr vagb gur NIC fuvg.
TLC:
Gvzr geniry vg vf, gura!
And now it’s time for bed. Good night, everyone. ♥!
Caine – Poor Sam. I hope he settles down soon. I don’t think he’ll like spending much time in jail, especially if all the other rats are having a good time without him, as well as free to roam. :D
It’s late, so I’m off to bed. Good night all.
Audley: Be nygreangr qvzrafvbaf?
Naljnlf, V qba’g jnag gb xvyy lbhe ohmm be nalguvat… vg’f whfg gung gur uhzna fcnpr wbpxrl guvat ernyyl fhpxrq sbe zr.
Url, vf vg whfg zr be qvq gung yvggyr jbez nyvra guvat ybbx qvfgheovatyl yvxr n cravf jvgu grrgu va fbzr fubgf?
V zrna, V xabj gur krabzbecu’f onanan funcrq urnq vf boivbhfyl cunyyvp gbb, ohg gurer’f n yvggyr guvat pnyyrq fhogyrgl…
Good night.
(random) Today in Recently Suspicious Privileged Person (me):
I noticed this news article somewhere or other:
Link to AP article
Well, schools do stupid authoritarian things and punish students excessively for no good reason; nothing unusual about that.
But, because of the research into sundown towns, Jim Crow, and racism in criminal justice and school suspensions, I got suspicious. Family overjoyed that a kid’s graduating from high school? Punished with community service or else the diploma’s withheld, over an admitted matter of “decorum”? The articles I found said nothing whatsoever about anyone’s race, of course, but when I found one with a picture:
http://gawker.com/anthony-cornist/
Yep, he’s black.
So was the mother taken out in handcuffs during her daughter’s graduation, then charged with disorderly conduct for cheering:
http://www.carolinalive.com/news/story.aspx?id=761693#.T9LuwOnWeYF
I didn’t have to find pictures to confirm that these students and their families were black; I could guess just from those news stories that never mentioned race at all. Sure, it would have been nice to be proven wrong.
@Pteryxx
The first thing I thought of when the student was punished was: “I bet the family is black, the school is ruled by a bunch of racist assholes”. I read further down, and I wasn’t disappointed. The fact that I was expecting it and wasn’t surprised by it is seriously messed up.
@Audley
A Metroid movie would be pretty exciting.
Well, Sam almost landed his furry little ass right back in jail, but he seems to have calmed down a bit now. At least he’s figured out what SAM!, when yelled, means. I think.
Havelock:
Saying good bye for the weekend
Off to a short holiday.
Maybe
We killed our battery :(
Today is horrible. After a night full of dreams about the ex throwing breakup parties and similar stuff I woke up full of despair and suicidal thoughts. I can’t seem to shake it.
In local news: D’Arcy and Monk to be sent home early.
(If I cared about sport, I might care about this allegory)
keenacat: *buries in ratties*
Not your fault. Not YOUR fault when someone decides not to give a shit. You have every right to save yourself.
Hang in there keenacat. Your worth as a human being is independant of anyone else, whether you believe it or not right now.
keenacat, just read yours.
Hey. :|
If venting helps, vent away. Please.
Mattir @151:
I had heard the name Sikavu Hutchinson before but couldn’t put a face to the name, so I looked her up on pfft. I just about fell off the chair laughing when I read the paragraph about her responding to Steve Harvey after another one of his classic ‘tirades of the morons’. Having someone like Sikavu going after a brain-dead git like Harvey is like sending the Death Star against an ant hill.
I’m going to add her to the picture collage of heroes I have started in my upstairs hallway and order her latest book to have a boo.
Keenacat, you’re worth a dozen of him and a hundred of all the shitty “friends” who couldn’t even ask how you’re doing. You will get through this. Please, keep on talking with us, vent, cry, scream, whatever you need to do.
Thanks everyone. Venting here and having people commiserate helps.
*cuddles with ratties courtesy of Pteryxx*
TLC,
thank you. I need to hear that. Evil monkey brain needs to hear that!
Which is invalid. Pigs tend to try to keep themselves clean and are very smart. The grunting and snorting is due to their adaptations as rooting animals.
keenacat:
I don’t have a lot to say, but I can say this: I appreciate everything you’ve been here. If you want to dream of parties, dream of a Pharyngula bash.
It’s way better that way.
Ing:
And, it’s quite endearing.
Our dog Elvis is known as “The Pig” just because of these noises. He’s damned cute.
but is piglike grunting and snorting endearing when a family does it in a public restaurant?
This is disappointing to me.
Are table manners really an indication of moral or intellectual standards? It’s a nonsequitor.
Ing:
Oh, I don’t know. I think table manners are quite telling about someone’s character, especially when they are out in public.
Especially if it’s as bad as the earlier poster said… if they’re driving other people out of the restaurant, it’s gone beyond the occasional burp or fart at the dinner table.
TLC:
Oh, Aquaria would know. One thing that is always noted among waitstaff, now and back in the days when I did my time as waitstaff is just how freaking awful the after church christian crowd is – messier than all hells, loud, crude, always complaining and can’t leave a tip to save their lives. They often leave tracts in lieu of a tip. Altogether nasty people and it shows when they’re out to eat.
Threadrupt as usual – is it just me or have there been like three or four of these threads in a week? I don’t think I even had time to look at the Sparlock episode before this one had begun.
Anyway, I’m very sorry to hear about Caine and Rev’s pets dying, but glad that Chas’ bereaved rat companions have two new friends?
My little bit of news (for those of you not up on PET or Twitter) is that I’ve at long last voiced my gender dysphoria to my GP and in the next week we’ll be organising various referrals for pursuing gender transition and going on HRT.
Apologies if I haven’t confided this before now – I’ve been a somewhat mercurial poster here since 2008 or so, and am not really comfortable outing my old name here in public (but feel free to find my blog and leave me a comment if you’re unsure of who I am).
Waiting for car assistance to show up…
keenacat
Big fat hugs coming.
You know, I think in the long run you’ll be the one to fare better.
You got dumped by somebody obviously unable to have a mature relationship and that will hound him for a long time. But were just unlucky to end up with him.
Xanthë, congratz/best wishes as appropriate (and rats, plenty of rats!)
Xanthe:
Yes, Havelock & Sam, who are both being serious trouble tonight. (Havelock is now doing jail time. Crime: non-stop harassment of Rubin.)
Yay! Brave news, Xanthe. Let us know how it’s going.
Wonderful news, Xanthe!
Thanks Pteryxx, Caine, and Giliell *offers tentacular trans hugs*
I’m sort of emulating Josh – do I want to even speculate how he came by his current title of SpokesKraftDinner?! – in that the only blog where I’m still using my old FTB account currently is B&W. :)
My forefinger needs a rest from Diablo’s mauling, so here I am.
If someone lacks table manners, that suggests an absence of corrective influence, or ongoing obstinance in the face of it. In other words, chronically ignorant or obtuse. There’s a semi-hard cap on how much of those attributes can be part of a meritorious character.
Xanthe:
Josh’s use of Official SpokesGay came from when he was a reporter and managed to slip Official Spokesfish into an article. During the debacle at JT’s blog, there was, of course, at least one idiot who took the whole official spokesgay seriously and wanted to know just who Josh thought he was, speaking for all gay peoples, etc. Now Josh be playing and having fun with it. :D
So, car services will take about another hour to show up, which gets us dangerously close to the time-line of fuck it we’re staying at home and I’m going to cry if that happens.
This makes me so angry. I hate authoritarians.
The Laughing Coyote:
That’s so odd. I thought everything was supposed to be ‘part of God’ or ‘connected to God’. If everything is part of God, then nothing exists that is ‘not God’. So Satan is also God. I’m God. You’re God.
Kim Kardashian is god.
George W Bush was talking to himself.
Jason Statham is god (well, the man is so damn hot, he’s *like* a god).
ooooh, that means PZ is god, and since TET is the hangout lounge area of his home, then
TET=HEAVEN…
Hi Xanthe! Congrats again, it’s a big step to take.
BTW, it occurred to me that if you’re going to be using both nyms here at FtB, you should probably let PZ know so he doesn’t mistake you for a sock.
I think I sighted Mormons in our street.
But sadly it seems like our souls aren’t worth saving, better said the incomes of people living in a 13 storey house probably aren’T worth bothering.
I would have liked them to show up, I’d have liked to be able to blow off some steam.
EURO 2012 time. 4 weeks of very unhealthy waking habits ahead, starting tonight with the Germany-Portugal game at the sweet time of 0445am. I have to work at 8, so can make that fit somehow, but other nights will be more difficult. Wrong continent for football, definetely.
Crispy Fried Christ Onna Stick, Bender’s Duckie is finally finished. After my fingers recover a bit, onto Nerd Duckie.
Sili @156
That’s why I said “how fat PZ supposedly is”.
Crazy Target-making Guy must work in the fashion industry, where anyone who looks like they might have eaten something within the last week is a lumbering ox.
Havelock:
With that relayed, I gotta get some sleep.
Hi Alethea,
I accidentally posted on Pharyngula a while ago ago using the wrong account, and I was surprised that my post went through without the requirement for first-time-posting moderation. So I was encouraged to stop posting with the old account, and have been continuing with the new for some weeks now… and I’m not going to literally sock-puppet, by using the two accounts on the same blog (or even the same thread) at the same time – I really don’t want to go back being that person :)
(Plus, several people on the FTB back-channel know who I am, and would be quick to point it out if they saw me doing this). So I think PZ’s okay with what I’m doing :)
Yes, it’s funny how bible thumpers claim to put their hope, faith and concerns with their god…yet they’re still trying to control, hurt and imprison.
If you’ve put your full faith in the god, you should be sitting back and letting that god do its thing. Instead, you’re hurting those who believe differently. Shame on the idiotic cruel believers.
Morning everyone! I’m at my parents’ house visiting for the weekend. My cousin graduated from high school so I decided to come up and visit. So far no awkward kinds of conversations have gone on so much but I don’t know if that’ll continue.
That’s fantastic, Xanthe!
Nerd – try looking at Office Playground. They have a lot of the same kinds of hand toys that rehab companies sell, but at much lower price.
I don’t know what happened yesterday. I came home from work early and was so tired I took a nap from 4:30-7. Got up for dinner, and went back to bed at 8, stayed asleep until 7 this morning. Urgh.
To be honest, I could probably take a nap for another hour or so. Missed my one good chance to mow the grass, because now it’s raining. Again.
In the nice thread I will apologise once again to all for derailing an important thread or two yesterday. Stand on me, that’s my bad. Don’t blame anyone else.
I will now leave that aside and describe my comedy morning:
5 am: Go to bed with SIWOTI syndrome ringing around my head.
5:30 am: Fall into fitful, unsatisfying sleep after watching a few minutes of The Wire to sooth my soul and reading a few pages of Brooke Magnanti’s new book.
7 am: Decide that fuck it, I’m not sleeping anyway, get up apply shorts and running clobber inexpertly to parts of my anatomy.
7:05 am: Run in the manner of a pregnant yak (heavy, hairy, mooing and carrying a baby yak).
7:30 am: Realise that a certain discomfort is present in my Gentleman’s Spherical Rhomboids.
7:35 am: Adjust shorts.
7:40 am: Note discomfort is still present but not longer exponentially escalating.
9:10 am: Return home.
9:15 am: Sob like a broken hearted child due to bruised plums.
9:20 am: Hot shower. Sobbing abates.
9:30 am: “Invigorating” switch to very cold shower. Sobbing resumes.
9:40 am: Insert toast into orifice at one terminus of my alimentary canal.
9:40:35 am: Inhale coffee in near fatal dose.
9:50 am: Inhale more coffee whilst reading internet. Grudgingly acknowledge presence of Wife and Child. Coffee has had humanising effect.
9:51 am: Re-establishment of pathological SIWOTI syndrome. WOOOO let’s ride the merry-go-round again!
I consider this day seized.
Louis
Thanks Caine! I don’t know how I missed hearing about the Spokesfish history of Josh’s nym – that’s hilarious. Alas I saw the stupidity over at JT’s first hand and it wasn’t the Spokes bit that I was pretending not to be curious about – the “Kraft Dinner” bit is a new one on me :)
Thanks also carlie. :)
Caine, #166,
He’s doing better than my 3-year old son then! Mind you, I suspect your rat is figuring this out and my son has figured it out and just doesn’t care.
I’m not sure if that credits the Boy with too much cunning. ;-)
Louis
Off to teach Boy Scouts about observing nature, collecting cool stuff so that they, too, can have a room full of random bits of wood, rocks, dead bugs, and fossils, and (on the Secret Agenda) realizing that Teh Ghey and Teh ZOMG Atheists™ are actually just fine and dandy.
Keenacat – huge (((hugs))) for you, and remember that friends made via the internet ARE real friends. The Horde has been fantastic when I’ve had serious relationship issues, to the point of offering to host the Spawns for a weekend, allowing me to call or text at odd hours, and generally being fantastic.
I’ve begged. Begging is a very very bad sign.
Mattir,
You’re teaching scouts about gay atheist fossils?
Wow, my knowledge of palaeontology is out of date. That’s one fuck of a fossil analysis.
;-)
Louis
Looks like a good internet place to order from. I’ll check a couple of stores on my way to visit the Redhead today.
Now, on to putting in the screens on the main floor.
Today I shan’t be sailing. Instead, the wife, daughter and I will be doing the Sea Music Festival. There is a minor bone of contention. At 3pm today the wife and daughter are thinking of going to the Songs of Whaling workshop while I’m more attracted to the Northeast Traditions workshop. There may be deep rifts in the ‘Tis Ourselves family at 1500 today.
Hey Xanthe, I didn’t mean to suggest you would *be* running a sock, just it could happen to look that way, by accidental wrong login. I’m just being stupidly over-solicitous in ways that are none of my business. Mother-henning. Sorry.
TLC:
V jbhyq unir orra uvtuyl qvfnccbvagrq vs gur jbez nyvra qvqa’g ybbx yvxr n cravf. V zrna, fgnaqneqf, crbcyr!
Qba’g jbeel, lbh’er abg xvyyvat zl ohmm. V jnfa’g hcfrg ol gur fcnpr wbpxrlf/Ratvarref– va snpg, V ernyyl yvxrq gur qrfvta (Ebzna fgnghrf! Gbgrf pbby)– znvayl ‘pbf gurl ghearq bhg gb or havirefnyyl uhtr nffubyrf, naljnl. Ohg gur cneg gung ernyyl ohttrq zr jnf Qe Funj fghzoyvat vagb Jrlynaq’f ebbz naq ab bar rira npxabjyrqtvat gung fur unq whfg cresbezrq fhetrel ba urefrys. V zrna, tnu! Znlor vg jnf fhccbfrq gb fubj ubj pnyybhf Jrlynaq jnf, ohg gurer jrer bgure crbcyr orfvqrf Jrlynaq naq Qnivq va gur ebbz!
Rebirth Brass Band tonight.
Forecast is heavy boogie and adult beverage consumption
That is all
I’ve had a number of lousy doctors; the creepy podiatrist was only the most recent. There was the idiot midwife who had never heard of Essure and who put me on Depo-Provera despite my history of depression… that was a fun winter, let me tell you. (Of course, the board of medicine found in her favor after I complained; white coats, like blue uniforms, all stick up for one another.) There was the gyn. who, when asked if she’d be willing to prescribe Plan B for me if I needed it, implied that I was an irresponsible slut who couldn’t be bothered to use birth control. There was the fat-obsessed GP who blamed my high blood pressure at the time on my weight and made me get a bunch of expensive labs (I was unemployed at the time, mind you), when taking me off the antidepressant I was on was all that was needed. (My blood pressure has otherwise always been in the healthy range; same with my cholesterol levels, FWIW.) And, further in the past, any number of first-time appointments with therapists and psychiatrists that turned out to be last-time appointments, because they were abusive, condescending, nonlistening, or just not very smart.
Oh, and yeah, Og’s mono story reminds me: The doctor in the ER when I was in college and brought in with a temperature of 104° F who yelled at me to open my eyes “because I order you to!”, even though the light was killing me and I was incoherent. I found out later that the hospital in question was held in low regard by the locals; a woman I struck up a conversation with on the bus told me that she went in for an appendectomy and they gave her a medically unwarranted hysterectomy. She sued them, even though she knew the lawyer would get most of the money, just for the joy of sticking it to them. Sometimes vindictiveness is entirely warranted.
Giliell:
Uh, read my comment about Hungary again. They are doing this to Jews, as well as to Sinti/Roma and to GLBT people. Why else would they have desecrated the statue of Raoul Wallenberg with pig flesh and blood?
Pteryxx, I was reading that Boing Boing thread yesterday. Oh, the neckbeard RAEG. Largely from d00dz who wouldn’t even blink if one of their own revealed all the details of some woman’s life online.
I especially liked the one who whinged, “This is why I don’t talk to pretty girls in public anymore,” and another who said that he was thinking of following the same rule. The world has lost so much, let me tell you, because a couple of douchebags who don’t understand the concept of boundaries are now too intimidated to hit on women.
Aquaria, WTF?!
Fuck you and fuck your fat-shaming. Really. The idea that being fat is inherently bad is why I had a doctor who forced me to spend a few hundred dollars on tests I didn’t need.
And, Morales, it’s none of your damn business how much people eat, and, yes, calling attention to people’s weight in the course of shaming them IS fat-shaming. BTW, your track record in figuring out what is and what isn’t oppressive sucks ass.
Ing, table manners != moral or intellectual standards, but it can be argued that the Hagee clan is being inconsiderate of those around them. The issue of culture clash doesn’t arise here.
Xanthe, good luck with the transition!
Woke up this morning naked (normal) no sheets, half a melted whiskey by the bed, dog licking my face, blood everywhere (not normal), missing a toe nail, phone under my ass cheek, and tv on TBN with religious people yapping.
Loud.
Good start to day.
Truly a dangerous, vicious fighting dog. Such barbarity should never be tolerated.
Another murderous canine. That poor child is about to have his face eaten off!!
Next weekend, hopefully, I’ll finally get a chance to meet up with a long-time internet friend who has a mini-menagerie in their apartment, including a pitbull who was a rescue. Teh doggeh’s coat has spots like a Holstein cow. Her name? “Moo.”
Daisy:
*snortle!*
Oh yeah, the pretty girls* are really missing out there.
!!
Dude, you totally should have put a trigger warning on that. :p
(I miss having dogs.)
*Not women, of course.
Oh and I’m doing a Real Estate shoot at a house on
John Galt Way
Uh
Ok
Rev:
LOLwut?
Someone should be filming your day– it sounds a little absurd.
FTFY-HTH
Rev. BDC, there’s also a John Galt Way in (I think) Florence, New Jersey. Another street in the vicinity is named for libertarian Jacob Hornberger.
I’ve been trying to resist making this old joke, but fuck it. Rev:
‘Round these parts we just call that “Saturday morning.” (Har!)
Seriously, though, are you and the dog OK? I’m guessing the blood is from your toe, and a little antiseptic ointment and a bandage took care of the problem?
Daisy:
Google maps to the rescue! Yes, yes there is a John Galt Way in Florence Township, NJ.
Libertarian New Jerseyers*? Oh, barf.
*What do people from NJ call themselves?
A: Snooki
Audley
You had me at “Charlize Theron straps on”.
Anyone want to bet that the streets in question are maintained with public funds ?
Sounds like a blues song to me.
Just as an aside, usually the streets in subdivisions are named by the general contractor and/or the folks who put up the money for the development.
Rev BDC, hope that’s a minor injury …. ?
Hallo hallo! Feeling much better now. This is the weekend of the whole subdivision yard sale (just prior to the annual “put anything at all on the curb and we’ll take it” town trash pickup), and we did pretty well. Child 1 is mad because he saw a dart board, didn’t tell me about it until half a block away, and then by the time we wound our way back to it, it was gone. But he did get a guitar for $3, and Child 2 got a vintage Mad magazine board game for $2. I got an “Eric Idle sings Monty Python” cd for a quarter, a CCR cd for same, a few records from a nice guy the next block over who used to be a DJ (including an original Framton Comes Alive!), a Puffin Project Place pin for a quarter (squee!), a couple of nice planters for spare change, and the prize, a tupperware pie rolling mat with all the sizes marked for fifty cents. I missed out on a huge fabric measuring board (it was also gone when we got back to it), but all in all not bad. Plus it was a nice walk.
So John galt way is in a really high end neighborhood called Ion in Mount Pleasant. Really nice houses in the Multi million range.
However
They are built literally 5-10 from each other. You are looking directly into your neighbors house when you look out a side window.
It’s fucking creepy as shit.
And my poor Wilde toe is ok. I snagged the nail on the couch last night and ripped it off.
Day is looking up though, soon it will be time for beer and I’m going to see the Rebirth Brass band at the Cistern.
5-10 feet
Wow, your neighbourhood has a regular bring-out-anything-sale? That’s brilliant, I wish we had one!
In my village we have an annual freecycle day, where you put out stuff you don’t want anymore and you neighbours can come along and help themselves.
Our neighborhood is having a joint yards ale today as well. Which means all kinds of idiots who think it is ok to block my driveway will be out in force.
The Netherlands vs Denmark, the boys are already watching while eating pizza. Mine is still in the oven.
No, not home made, store bought. I don’t care.
Now I have to think it involves a yard of ale. I’ve seen those; never going to try drinking one though! Better stick to joints instead.
Great haul, Carlie!
Today, I picked up a copy of America’s Test Kitchen Best Summer Desserts* and it’s got a recipe for 7UP pound cake!
I know what I’m bringing to Father’s Day dinner.
*Pretty expensive for a magazine ($13!), but since I’ve found that cookbooks by and large suck ass (especially desert cookbooks), I think it’s worth it.
Or, “dessert”, rather.
Eep!
meh
I drank from one once at a bar off the Yale campus one long time ago before a Phish concert.
They kind of give me the same impression of really huge mugs or plastic cups of beer. Too much served at one time.
Beer should be served in pints or less so that you retain a good temperature and “freshness”.
But I guess it looks cool?
There is a tumblr with a cute owl to help with depression. I especially like this one.
That’s sort of how this works. The sales themselves are the weekend, and then the trash company comes along starting on Monday, so people roam the streets for free stuff on Sunday afternoon/evening. I’ve gotten two side tables, a chair/sleeper sofa combo, a couple of lamps, a work desk, and a bunch of planters that way. It’s kind of awesome, but more and more of the towns here don’t do it any more because of the cost to the trash company.
Audley – there is a bookstore in Ithaca that had two whole boxes of little booklet cookbooks, the kind that companies made to sell more product, with things like that “Cooking with coca-cola” and so forth. I wanted them ALL, but the bookstore knew their worth and were charging 3-5$ each. Great stuff.
Carlie:
Awesome. I’ve been looking every time I go into a used bookstore around here, but even the ones with a decent cooking section didn’t have any.
Frontal Cortex, an article by Jonah Lehrer discusses Why we don’t believe in science.
Excerpt:
xactly.
Bit o’ good news from Texas: word is that much of the anti-gay language was removed from the GOP platform during the state convention.
http://www.dallasvoice.com/report-texas-republican-party-removes-anti-gay-language-platform-10117274.html
Also, the local four-day pride festival wraps up with a big street party tonight. I may just stroll over there.
http://www.dallasvoice.com/razzle-dazzle-days-10116441.html
The fuck? What do you mean, 0-1?
The “Discover America” campaign is designed to bring tourists to the USA.
A well-produced, and fairly innocuous video from the Discover America series is making waves on the religious right.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/09/12139612-this-week-in-god
David Barton thinks we can get people off the welfare roles by making them read the bible.
Link.
The issue of prayer in public schools in the USA is settled, right? No, the Governor of Mississippi wants to bring prayer back into the schools.
Link.
Get to work, Serfs! It’s what the good lord wants! And even if we fuck you over here, remember, you’re storing up treasures in heaven!
I’m in a bad mood. Nothing constructive to add, I just can’t stop wondering what human slime like this would taste like.
It’s really hard to come up with an animal-based insult for twits like Hagee. It just seems like you end up insulting the animals instead of the intended target, which says a lot about the character of the target. Maybe we need to start looking more at the parasitic critters for inspiration?
—————————————–
Kindergarten graduation was yesterday. Everything went well, but man, my feet ached by the time everyone was gone and the cafeteria/all-purpose room was cleaned up. With running around hanging out programs, ushering the kids to a waiting spot while they got their diplomas, and then cutting and serving the cake, I was surprised I still found the energy to go for my run. At least some of the older siblings who came down to see the kids graduate helped out a bit with the cake and juice (I made sure they got some, too).
The trash can is missing from its usual spot in the cabinet near the back door. Either Mom decided it was time for a new one, or it got seriously trashed on its own when she went to empty it. Also, I apparently was too tired to remember to put away the leftover soup last night before I went to bed – I only remembered this morning on my way down to get a drink. Too late – into the trash it must have gone since I didn’t see a container in the fridge. Oh well.
Today I just want to relax as much as possible. Later on I’ll be trying to get a toon on DDO up to level 20, but oof, right now thinking about it makes me want to go back to bed.
I don’t even think it’s fair to the parasites, PTI. After all, no parasite acts out of hate or malice.
Carlie: Hmmm, I like this owl.
Seriously? Sounds like a bit much. I realise it’s just a kid’s version, but still.
Lynna:
Apparently, Perkins doesn’t realize that there are other countries out there that are a-okay with same sex marriage.
Not terribly shocking, is it?
Elizabeth Warren is looking more and more like a reality-based politician, a rare breed indeed.
She doesn’t mince words. She calls the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) “despicable.”
http://www.salon.com/2012/06/08/elizabeth_warren_doma_is_despicable/
She has become a target of rightwingers, who are slinging mud but consistently missing.
http://www.salon.com/2012/05/18/the_national_reviews_fishy_plagiarism_scoop/singleton/
Another televangelist has been arrested.
Link.
Fuck! Four minutes left and still 0-1 behind. The Dutch are desperate.
Fuck again! Didn’t get a deserved penalty.
Lynna:
Perhaps Elizabeth Warren should think of giving the White House a go one day…
___________
I found this article to be refreshing:
A nice break from *Christian* privilege.
What’s his excuse for not knowing the NYPD’s policy on beards? Didn’t they give him a few things to read during the initial hiring process?
Wouldn’t/shouldn’t his beard length be discussed during the hiring process?
Or maybe he was just arrogant enough to think the NYPD would make an exception in his case, despite their regulations.
Fuck. Lost. And this was supposed to be the easiest game of the pool. Both Germany and Portugal are harder.
Pteryxx:
The first (and only) time I visited Dallas was for PRIDE…’09 (I think). I love being able to barhop/walk (vs drive). Lots of fun was had. Need to go back one day and actually see the city.
Oregon may have a big ecological problem on their hands in the years to come.
Awww. Legend of Korra is awesome, have I said that at least 200 times yet? They just showed an early-morning scene with Tenzin and his wife sleeping in bed, and their youngest child is co-sleeping with them, no big deal. So cute.
And then there was a pee joke. Several in a row, at that.
carlie: I saw that but didn’t realize it was unusual. Is co-sleeping a Big Thing?
(also holy CRAP does shit get real in Legend of Korra. I have to watch the last several eps off the DVR to make sense of what I just saw.)
Pteryxx – it’s highly controversial in the US (I don’t think it is elsewhere?), because it’s uncommon and people are scared of it, so just having it presented as if it’s entirely normal is a statement in itself.
Speaking of something being noteworthy just by being presented as normal, good on whoever wrote this story for they way they discussed Cher’s family.
Co-sleeping, for those who want to do it, is the best thing ever in my experience – for the period when you are chronically, horrendously MURDEROUSLY sleep-deprived. If breastfeeding: infant hungry in the middle of the night – wake up just enough to snuggle baby, get it to latch on, go back to sleep. Change sides as required – without waking up completely either – go back to sleep again. Nothing, NOTHING meant more to me right then than getting MOAR SLEEPS. Both infants certainly seemed to take to it.
Obviously it’s an individual thing, there’s no hard-and-fast rule and what feels right and works for one parent-baby combo may not be ideal for another.
Pteryxx:
Oh my god, yes. Depending on what side you’re on, you’re either depriving your child of much-needed bonding time (you horrible monster) OR you’re risking your child’s safety (to uphold your granola munching ideals).
It’s one of those divisive parenting issues (like breast feeding) that I feel more people need to shut up about and realize that what works for one family isn’t going to work for another and leave it at that.
Hey guys! Audley! Howzit going?
I just ended up camping out in the boonies at my parents’ summer “dacha” as they call it, and now I’m in a coffeehouse waiting for my phone to charge so I can find a way to my brother’s place to go visit him and my other niece.
So I’m sitting here engrossed in my screen and a dude comes and sits down next to me: “How you doing?”
“Good,” I say, and continue staring into my screen.
“Whatcha looking at?” he asks.
“A blog,” I reply, and raise my hand to my chin.
That was the end of that. But you know what? It made me tense. Funny, that.
Anyway, I’m off soon.
I got laid a few nights ago and it was of the Wild! Monkey! sex variety, and it’s hard to wipe the silly grin off my face. Fuck, but I do like fucking.
Cheers, catch you all later! (This self-absorbed, threadrupt info dump has been brought to you by the letter U for UNwanted attention while in public.)
Pteryxx:
Sniff. Sniff.
Haven’t gotten to watch any Legend of Korra. My cable is screwed up. I suppose I could watch it on my laptop, but I really want to see it on a bigger screen.
I’m so glad one of my roommies turned me on to Avatar: The Last Airbender. Prior to watching that show (I still need to finish the final 5 episodes of the series), I think Batman: The Animated Series or possibly Superman: The Animated Series were my favorite animated shows. Then ATLA came along and quietly took over the top 5 spots. I would really have to think long and hard to muster any significant criticism of the show.
Just a few of the things I love about the series:
1- Characterization.
The people that inhabit Aang’s world seem like *people* (as much as you can expect for a tv show; but surprisingly more than you’ll find in many prime time television programs). They have their own distinct desires, their own speech patterns, their own sense of right/wrong. Moreover, the stories advance because of the actions (whether right or wrong) of the characters. Plot driven this series was not.
2-Serialized Stories
I’m a huge fan of shows that have an overarching theme as well as ongoing connectivity (or continuity) between the episodes*. I love the fact that the characters grow and change; that at the end of a given season, they were different than they were at the beginning
3-Animation
I just loved it.
4-NOT Cliche
The episode that absolutely cinched it for me was ATLA’s version of ‘The Zeppo’. Every. Single. Turn. of that episode, I kept expecting things to go one way and they didn’t. Not only did the writers not go down a cliched route, the paths they took remained exactly within the parameters of the characters.
*For all that I like various episodes of Star Trek: TNG, the show as a whole was too plot driven. Also, I’m just too cynical to buy into many of the utopian concepts of the show. I don’t buy that Earth (let alone any neighboring planets) would unite in the way they have by the 24th century. Not that utopia is impossible (improbable, perhaps?). Just not by the 24th century.
Sally:
Going good!
Catch you when you get back!
SallyStrange:
Hey! Congrats on the getting of sex. How long do you think you’ll be riding that high?
QFFT
Seriously, the nurses in the hospital didn’t even agree. Then the shelter I stayed at was allllll up in my business because of it. Well, if you don’t want us sleeping in the same bed provide a fucking crib! Assholes. They were all preaching about the safety of my Little One and talked about CPS. Okay, I get CPS does great things mostly, but seriously I’ve always had it used as another way to oppress the poor. It bugs the fuck out of me. That’s not what CPS needs to waster their time on! Go deal with real issues and not co-sleeping FFS.
Us sleeping together worked out marvelously actually. Moar sleeps and bonding since I was working and going to school 4 day after I had her. It worked for us but obviously that’s just us. I don’t give people shit for giving newborns their own room/crib so why give me shit about co-sleeping?
It’s been hard to transfer her to her own bed and room mainly because she never had one before. However, she’s taken to it so well. We are in a one bedroom but I sleep in the living room because I wanted her to have a room of her own finally.
Tony – try reading the AV Club’s recaps of Avatar. It’s almost poetic.
But holy crap, they’re already advertising for the season finale of Korra? What do they think this is, a British show or something??
Oh yeah. We started co-sleeping on accident. When Child 1 was about 3 weeks old, I was out in the front room feeding him at ungodly o’clock and accidentally fell asleep with him on the couch. It was the only good sleep I’d gotten in a month, and I announced to Spouse that I was going to be doing that from now on regardless of whether he decided to be in bed with us or not. (I wouldn’t have been so demanding, but the NO SLEEP). I’m not a zealot about it though, because it did have pretty high costs. By the time child 1 was close to a year old and I was pregnant (sigh), there wasn’t enough room for all of us in the bed and child and I ended up on sleeping bags on the floor for more time than I care to remember. So it’s definitely not for everybody.
TLC- Hmm, you have a point there. Maybe “shit-flinging monkeys” would work. It’s pretty much all Hagee and his ilk do anyway.
—————————————–
SQB- It is a bit much. But I guess the idea is that the students get to feel like they’ve gone from being the babies in the school to the “big kids.” First grade doesn’t seem like a huge leap, but for them it is, because they get homework and stuff like that. I don’t recall having homework at that age, but I could be wrong. Besides, cake!
—————————————-
Just ran across a program that offers apprenticeships on organic farms around the world. Even the prospect of working in a huge field during a rainstorm is beginning to sound like a nice change from my usual job.
I’ve been thinking the same thing myself. Not sure if she wants to take that much punishment. But she seems strong.
Elizabeth Warren is big on practical regulation, on regulation that actually works. Big Money must hate her with bile-dripping passion.
I’d like to see her take on issues like this one that Matt Taibbi brings up in Rolling Stone:
In the how-dumb-can-you-get category, the Pastor who burned the Koran has stepped up to the plate to see if he can hit another I’m-stupid home run. He has hanged President Obama in effigy.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/obama-hung-in-effigy-678923
SallyStrange: Happy Monkey!
Co-sleeping: Yeah, we’re warned against it here in The Netherlands. Being suffocated by the duvet seems to be the biggest danger. Rolling over on to your kid, not so much (can’t imagine that happening either). We only do it occasionally, when they’ve had a bad dream or can’t sleep for some other reason.
I would like to do it if we had a big ole’ bed, instead of the 4⅔ ft. wide one we have, and if our two sons didn’t sleep like dogs — all over the place. If you’ve got even one of those two in bed with you, you’re likely to end up on the floor. And of course, we need to get up at different times. With their own rooms, it’s way easier to let them sleep.
But to each their own.
In other news, it sure feels like the Mother Nature has opened the floodgates on Pensacola.
This is a shot of downtown roughly half an hour ago. https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/c0.0.403.403/p403x403/294922_248111518631678_188142856_n.jpg
I work downtown. Wondering if that’s going to happen tonight. It has literally rained every day since Monday and the rain has been continuous since around 11 pm Friday night. Sheesh!
Now, back to trying to figure out how to get from my house to work by 6pm without a vehicle, no phone to call a cab, and neither of my roommies home…*
*genius me told roomie #2 she could use my car, rather than go to work on her motorcyle. Even if it wasn’t raining, her tires are so bad she finally decided to stop driving on them. I figured I would just call a cab to take me to work. No big deal right? Except for the fact that I left my phone at work last night.
Facepalm…
If she can’t go to work on her motorcycle, maybe she should go work on her motorcycle.
Perhaps a Pharyngulite in your vicinity can call a cab for you?
I am having a bad Duckie day. It’s official. *sigh*
Alright, back to fucking work.
SQB:
Even if she weren’t next to completely broke, Pensacola is currently in the midst of a city wide torrential downpour. We literally have cars floating down the streets, restaurants that are flooding, and entire parking lots that won’t be seeing traffic til the waters abate.
Yeah, you do have to have non-fluffy bedstuffs. And probably a queen-sized bed (60 inches across) if there are three of you. But I always knew there was someone next to me, you know? I never bumped up against Spouse in the middle of the night while sleeping, so I’m not sure why I would suddenly start bumping into someone else. Even a baby stretched out is at least half the length of a big person, so it’s a noticeable thing.
Tony, one of the other reasons I loved the Avatar cartoon is that it passes the Bechdel test in spades. The female characters on that show are fantastic.
I has a productivity! We collect our plastic bottles all year for a local bottle drive, but it didn’t happen this spring. I was going nuts with the mountain of plastic in my garage, so I made my kids load them all up and we took them to a redemption center. Made $25! And I have an emptier garage.
Oh, I have a co-sleeping story. Child 1 transitioned to his own bed fine, child 2 not so much. When we had tried to get child 2 in his own bed, we’d consistently wake up in the morning and find him in bed with us, with us having no knowledge of how or when he got there. Finally one night something woke me up in the middle of the night, and I realized child 2 was at the foot of the bed, sloooooowly guerrilla crawling right up the middle. I stayed very still while he moved an inch or two at a time, then just to test I coughed and shifted a little. He froze, and stayed still for probably a good full 3 minutes before he started moving again, slooooowly, until he was up at the top and in the sheets. It was all I could do to not burst out laughing at how sneaky he was.
People have varied ways to spend a Sunday morning. I’m off to playtest the new upcoming D&D version. Avec umbrella, it seems.
Have dice, will travel.
I meant the tires, natch. I can’t help with the water.
carlie:
had to look up _Bechdel test_. Boy oh boy does Avatar pass the test with flying colors. In fact, I think it passed that test with the first episode.
What are some of your favorite episodes?
______________
SQB:
If you and all the other members of the Horde could join in silent prayer to merciful YahWallah that HE, in HIS infinite wisdom, power, love, compassion, and generosity could respond to a damn tweet asking when he’s coming back home to turn off the faucet he left running…Still not sure why Captain Sky Daddy the Ineffectual can’t multi-task.
That’s no faucet. He’s taking a piss.
Piss be upon him, and so on.
Elizabeth Warren tells Mitt Romney why corporations are not people.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002789965
Aauugghh, godsdamn *everything* to all hells and fuckety fuck fuck. That’s it. I’m shutting down and going to have a long wallow in a puddle of self pity. It isn’t going to be pretty. Catch you all tomorrow.
Another co-sleeping story. My brother had a habit of getting into my parents bed some time during the night, much like Carlie’s child #2. I had grown out of that, but my mother tells me that one night, I couldn’t sleep and had crawled into my parents bed. Later that night, my brother came into the room, looked at the full bed and returned to his own bed, disappointed.
oooh, favorite Avatar episodes? *rubs talons* These are more for what they mean to me than critical analysis or anything (I’m working on that part. Rly, I’ve got a geek mentor.)
– Puppet Master – late in the series, this happened to be the first ep of Avatar I ever saw and HOLY CRAP. For a few days I had nightmares that were *not* my own flashbacks.
– Bitter Work – when Toph is training Aang. Rewatch every chance I get as a reminder.
– Appa’s Lost Days. Chokes me up just *typing the title*.
– The one about Sokka’s sword, whichever that was.
– oh, and Zuko Alone.
Avatar hit right as I was getting away from my abuser, so it’s closely tied with my learning-to-survive time.
yes
Caveat: Single issue whine ahead, also possible triggers
Sister and I went to see the soccer games at a friend of hers. It was good, sweet people, nice food, some alcoholic beverages.
Still: Today was horrendous, I am afraid to go to sleep and I desperately need something to take the endge of the suicidal thoughts.
I’d normally go to my psychiatrist and have her recommend something, but since I’m at my moms/away for three more weeks I can’t. I consider making a prescription for myself (I can do that now), a small pack of some benzo or other… I don’t feel comfortable about it though and maybe I can get an emergency appointment with a psychiatrist on monday. If they will get me a sedative prescription after a single visit, I don’t know. Maybe I’ll still be stuck doing it myself. :( Fact is, I’m super bad right now. Possibly an alltime low, I’ve never had so much pressure to hurt myself.
keenacat: *offers hugs* this is where I’d recommend a gaming or movie/TV marathon as suits. Keep talking with us?
Keenacat: I have medication I prescribed for myself. Unfortunately, it’s illegal over most of the world, can quickly stink up an apartment, and gives you, like, unbelievable munchies, man.
If talking about it will help, then I certainly have no problem with you making TET ‘all about you’ for a while.
keenacat:
I second TLC:
I’d like you to keep talking with us.
Keenacat, I logged back in to look some embroidery threads up and decided to check TET. I’m glad I did. Trying for an emergency appointment sounds like a good idea, because maybe having pills around when you’re feeling suicidal isn’t the best idea? I’m not sure here…
Having someone to talk to though, that would be good, I’m sure. Is there anyway to contact your psychiatrist, say by phone? Keep talking with us, please. We care about you.
I’m back out of the thread for now, but I’ll check back in later tonight. Consider yourself hugged and hugged and hugged and hugged. ♥
Hi Keenacat. I second this emotion. Who can you call, do you think?
Also, Keenacat:
If it would help to talk to someone in “real time” shoot me an email (ourdeadselves [at symbol] gmail) and we can chat over google messenger or AIM* or another messaging service like that.
*I’m sure I’ve still got an AIM account– if not I can sign up!
It’s 1 am here, so I can’t call my psychiatrist now. I am still at my sisters, however, and she is here so I won’t do anything stupid. It’s just the thoughts that torment me.
I just can’t talk to her about this particular issue. She’d be terrified and I won’t have that.
The ex wanted to call me tomorrow to talk about moving out but I don’t think I can do this. He’ll have to wait a few more days.
Caine,
I considered that, thank you. Benzos are a comparably safe choice, it is pretty hard to kill yourself with ’em. Actually, overdosing on my antidepressant would probably be worse. They could, however, take some of the pressure away I’m currently feeling. I will still try to get an emergency appointment or go to the ER if necessary. Telling them I have suicidal thoughts should get me to a doc, stat.
I also have another appointment for crisis intervention at the womens centre on thursday.
TLC,
thank you, but for me getting some benzos is easier and completely legal. :)
@ Keenacat: I’m so sorry you’re feeling so low. Keep talking, keep reaching out. Stay here if you can–as you can see, there are people who care for you here.
If you begin to get overwhelmed, would it be possible for you to go to the emergency room for help? My best friend is going through something similar, and going to the hospital helped her enormously.
Hugs.
I know that experience. It is pretty tough.
That seems pretty sensible.
Audley,
<3
Thank you so, so much! I really appreciate the offer.
Currently I feel safer posting here on TET, though.
Yeah, what Brownian said.
keenacat:
Totally understandable.
We’ll be here for you.
Something I’m going to do right now: Send the ex a short message telling him I can’t talk to him about this at the moment and will get back to him when I’m stable enough.
Yes, thats possible. There is a ER in walking distance from my moms house (where I’ll go tomorrow).
@Keenacat
Here’s a picture of a Minion of Basement Cat I helped rescue a couple of weeks ago. She now lives with me. I’m unemployed and somewhat depressed, but she keeps making me laugh.
Sister and I are going to bed now. I just hope I’ll get some sleep without nightmares. I’ll check back in tomorrow (in 20 hours or something).
Just, thank you all. I can’t even begin to articulate how much this outlet means right now.
I understand how you’re feeling here, but it will help you and your loved ones if they know what’s happening. Talk about whatever you’re comfortable with, of course. You don’t need to dive into lots of details or drag it on longer, if it’s making you feel worse, but please don’t worry about it scaring them. You don’t deserve to be terrified and deal with it all by yourself. Maybe they already have some idea what’s happening, but your friends and family can help. I’m sure they want to help however they can. It’s not something you’re inflicting on them by talking with them about it.
Indy,
ye gawds, she is adorable. Thank you for providing a sweet picture to take with me going to bed.
keenacat:
I have nothing to add to the advice you’ve already gotten, but I can add as many virtual hugs and long-distance good wishes as you want/need. Please take good care of yourself.
PS: There’s nothing magic about morning; if you get to a point where you need the ER, just go.
Whatever you do just take care of yourself, keenacat.
Goodnight, keenacat. For lack of being able to do anything more potent, I’ll be here thinking of you with my fingers crossed (yeah, I know) that you’re able to get a good night’s sleep.
@Keenacat
Bill and CR gave excellent advice: please reach out for any help you need! Best wishes for a peaceful and quiet sleep, and I hope you feel better soon. Hang in there.
(My kitten sends you purrs!)
keenacat:
*Hugs* If you can’t sleep, don’t try to force yourself to. It’s just after 7:30 here, so I’m sure there will be plenty of us USians and Canadians lurking around TET for a while longer.
Please check in tomorrow and if anything changes, take Bill’s advice about going to the ER as soon as you feel like you need to.
keenacat, here are hotline numbers for Germany: here. I know it probably seems weird, and we’re here for you too, but those are people who are linked into systems there who could probably get you in anywhere even though it’s the middle of the night (There are probably psychiatrists who are on call at night for this kind of thing that they’re linked with)
International Helpline Berlin
Postfach 580251
10412
BERLIN
Contact by: – Phone
Hotline: 6-12pm English service: 030-44 01 06 07
Website: international-helpline.com
Telefonseelsorge Deutschland
National
Hotline: 0800 1110 111
Hotline: 0800 1110 222
Website: telefonseelsorge.org
Yep! Also, in a pinch, a wait in the ER would make for a good, long distraction from dark thoughts.
FFS http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/2012/06/05/trolling-with-niceness/#comment-60825
I don’t understand why otherwise intelligent people wind up acting like fucking 1st graders on simple concepts.
keencat:
I don’t have the expertise or experience to think any advice I could give would be helpful, but I just wanted to add to the voices saying you are not alone and that people are here for you.
Look forward to hearing from you here tomorrow.
@myself
keenacat*!
I really need to learn to preview.
Keenacat: I consider making a prescription for myself (I can do that now), a small pack of some benzo or other
Please don’t do this. For one thing, you know perfectly well that benzos and alcohol don’t mix. For another, this is the way that doctors get addicted to benzos. Get a psychiatrist’s opinion on whether benzos are what you should be taking right now or not. If you’re feeling bad enough to consider prescribing yourself benzos, you are definitely feeling bad enough to go to an ER for evaluation. Active suicidal ideation is an indication for admission. Don’t put it off any longer. Please.
Thank you, Ing. I don’t think I have the reserves to wade in there right now, but thank you for doing it.
More hugs to keenacat. I hope you’re able to get some sleep, love. We’ll be here in the morning.
Same here. I hope you’re getting some sleep keenacat.
<3 Hugs.
Nice to know that when yet another man posts lengthy paragraphs telling women what we “should” do in order to be considered equal human beings, and I object, I get tone trolled by the blogger. For “jumping on him”!!
Seriously, do any the pontificating men on the internet who complain that “women should be fighting for their rights” pay any attention to feminist activism at all? Just because you haven’t heard of it doesn’t mean it’s not happening! Hey, douchebros, how about YOU fight for our rights, too? Oh, and how many of them are out protesting in the streets against economic injustice or indefinite detention or the other problems that affect them?
Since I’m commenting here right now and not there, Gordon Willis can take his whining about how I’m being mean to the poor dudes and cram it up his ass. And Ophelia can do the same…. christ, what the fuck is it with most of FTB, which is all too happy to declaim its “feminist” cred and preach about how the tone argument sucks, except when women are meeeaaaaaannnn to the poor mansplainers? I’m getting really fed up with just about all of this site except this blog.
Ing, I saw that earlier. I crossed AXP off my list of blogs I can be bothered with.
Those situations can be some of the most difficult. It is good, but there are emotions, expectations,…
If you think you need to, you should definitely contact a hotline or stop into the ER. If you want to talk about stuff with compassionate people, there are many here.
Big e-hugs to keenacat. Go get help ASAP. And meanwhile, it might help to remember that it’s not really you that’s trying to hurt you, it’s your crazy monkey-brain. My own conceptualisation of this is “brain-spam” – my brain is misfiring to send me stupid wrong messages; DELETE/IGNORE. (Can take an annoying fuckload of DELETE at times, but that one step meta is sooooo much better than taking it seriously.)
Daisy Cutter; You know what, me too.
In fact, I’m fed up with most of life except for TET.
And there’s another incident which involved sanctimonious Xtian assholes. They didn’t take too kindly to lengthening the “e” in jeeeeeeeesus.
Keenacat: Hang in there. If you need to go to the ER, do so. Be aware that we’re hanging in for you. *hugs of every sort*.
And I honestly don’t know why I keep reading the rest of FTB. Probably because my monkey brain insists on trying to tone-troll everybody.
Thunk, there are a few other online places I like, some of which are friends’ “homes” on the intertubes, but I too mostly stay here nowadays.
Keenacat, I hope you’ll be okay. As other people have said, please go to an emergency room if you feel like harming yourself in any way. We care about you and would be devastated if anything happened to you due to that shitmonkey you used to date proving how useless he is as a romantic partner. You deserve better.
*sigh*
Of course not an hour after posting that post earlier this morning I got asked by my sister about my beliefs and I acknowledged my atheism. Cue mother getting upset, sister and brother-in-law using every single argument in the book to convince me that I’m wrong. (Including the stupidest one, “logic is a Satanic thing”)
Also some lovely emotional blackmail, some complete and utter misinterpretation of not only what science is, but also what being an atheist is. They constantly think that it’s my relationships with other people, and not my own ideas and my own interpretation of the world that fuels my viewpoint. It’s annoying, and I get it every time.
When I’m Christian, I’m strong and I’m independent. When I’m an atheist, I’m a sheep and I’m being lured away by you people. It’s so frustrating. I know they mean best, but FSM it’s annoying.
We got away from it fortunately, we watched Disney movies, and hopefully they understand my PoV.
If logic is a satanic thing, then I <3 Satan all the way.
Kat Lorraine:
I know, obtuse they are. *hugs*.
Daisy & thunk: yeah, no. Or maybe no, yeah.
I mean, yes, the world sucks, there is heterosexism capitalism patriarchy racism able-ism fat-ism classism cissexism ethnic-ism US-centrism anti-atheism anglophonism and probably more that I’ve temporarily forgotten or never even noticed. Yes, allies on one point of the whole clusterfuck can be shit-heads on another. And yes, you have every right to call them on that, and you have every right to choose what media you consume.
But also no, we can’t afford to have only the purest of the pure as our allies. Because the People’s Front of Judea fighting the Judaean Popular Front will never, ever have the slightest chance to defeat the Romans. Some allies are only OK, rather than perfect. No, in fact, most. No, in fact, ALL humans. You and I are probably just as screwed up as the rest of humanity about something that we haven’t noticed yet.
Sure, there are some lines to be drawn – for example, anybody who’s called Rebecca Watson a cunt over elevatorgate is firmly on the other side. And Fred Phelps. But there’s also the “Dear Muslima” and the Hitch on Iraq moments, when you mentally classify someone as basically OK on some dimensions and a total fuckwit on others, without 100% dropping them.
It scares me, the amount of “YOU’RE DROPPED” that I see. Because the last time I saw social justice movements fragment themselves into internal squabbles, we ended up with Thatcher and Reagan.
How we manage to be both kinder and more demanding I leave as an exercise for the reader. (And if you solve it, can I have a peek at your answer?)
Alethea: Actually, that’s what I’m doing (I always confuse myself here). Everyone, i think, have some form of bigotry or another. But we can support the other things they do, but say that is problematic. Such categorial shunning is not necessary; more of “you’re wrong on this”.
Also, for some reason I think I’m agreeing with you so I don’t get drawn into an argument; I don’t have the energy for these.
I should really stop that, it’s hypocritical.
keenacat:
what he said. it has worked for me, in most instances.
That one goes all the way back to Martin Luther at the least.
Of course that’s what they say. If they didn’t actually have that as an ingrained article of faith, the whole religion would have died out centuries ago.
All the failed religions are the ones that forgot to include that in their articles of faith.
Sorry to hear about your family’s reaction, Katherine. At least it didn’t get very out of hand, though. Maybe they just need time to digest the news and accept that you’re not a believer. I find it amusing that they see you as being a sheep for being an atheist, when they are just as much sheep for moseying along with the Christian crowd (I’d have used the term “lock-step” but that always makes me think of less-than-pleasant things. I don’t know enough about what your folks are like to draw that comparison).
—————————————-
Keenacat: Don’t you dare do anything that could cause harm to yourself. Get yourself to a professional ASAP. Take care of yourself. Tell the monkey-brain to stop spamming you with bullshit. Just . . . right now, your biggest priority is yourself. If the ex has a problem with that, too bad. He doesn’t seem to be having problems with his hindbrain yelling at him about being single.
Oh, for fuck’s sake. A float depicting Ahmedinejad being sodomized by a bomb doesn’t belong in a Pride parade — or any other kind of parade, for that matter.
Kitty:
Oh, well, I’m glad you can at least still spend some enjoyable time with them.
Alethea, what a pile of bullshit. “Allies” don’t take it upon themselves to lecture me about what I “should” be doing. That’s nothing to do with “purity” and everything to do with whether or not they actually have my back.
And don’t lay Thatcher, Reagan, et al. at the feet of those “divisive” leftists, either. How about actually blaming the people who voted for either — many of whom did so because the “uppity” types were starting to get “too many rights”?
If logic is such a satanic thing, I am wondering why religious people who believe that statement are not just derping around, making decisions in a random fashion..
Kat:
*headshake*
♥ and *hugs*
I saw a movement fragment. Monty Python wasn’t making that stuff up out of nowhere. I saw the decline and fall of the left as a powerful movement in the 80s, and internecine squabbles were a huge part of it. And the right took full advantage of every wedge possible. And of course some of that was appealling to privilege, as we can see in the US right now: pit the poor & working class against blacks and/or women and/or gays. Blame those Others for all ills; ignore the Koch behind the curtain. It works only because those fault-lines are actually there. If there were a strong alliance, it would not work.
If you want to call out somebody for being all YEAH RAH RAH in overly preachy language, fine, go ahead. Cut them dead for it. Never support them ever again. If that’s your style, then I certainly can’t expect you to have my back. What I will expect is that any time I say something phrased slightly wrong, there’ll be a knife right in there, just like that.
Allies are not friends, and should not be held to the standards of friends. But in one way they are like friends: there’s no such thing as a non-reciprocal ally.
keenacat
I’m late but *hugs* and don’t suicide. It doesn’t help.
—
Katherine Lorraine
You go!
I think your family is weakening, keep pushing.
People who sit don’t have to at a a NOLA Brass band show….
Sigh
And don’t have to
To which the official left’s answer was, seemingly, to give in. Completely. We got Clinton and Blair, and now the leftist parties are almost completely indistinguishable from the right.
And any real leftism is just irresponsible pipe dreams, of course.
thunk,
Nah, not really.
What it was is being self-critical, always a good thing.
(Just not always a good thing to tell to others)
Superstition ain’t the way
Bah, then.
You influence my opinions way, way too much. Take that as a sign of how great you are. *runs off for independent thought*
keenacat, looking forward to your next post, see if things are getting better for you (or at least not worse!).
Hopefully so.
Shit. Did I really send that? I meant to say *create my own opinions without pulling them directly from people’s mouths*. Of course you’ll influence them.
As for the whole *imperfect allies thing*. Daisy Cutter has made me realize that privilege has colored my previous comment; I haven’t had much experience with x-splaining. But the whole “I’m such a great ally” shitfest has gone off the rails. I honestly think I am, but I can’t get an honest appraisal from many people here (most are either partially or wholly sexist shitstains).
But the primary role of an ally is support. LISTENING. Not talking over the people you claim to help. It’s not that hard of a concept to understand.
Rev.BDC
Today, since your morning revelation, I have had a hard time taking you seriously.
(I will take you seriously tomorrow.)
thunk,
Well, yes, though I think there’s a connotation of mutual support.
Which is why I make no claims about trying to help or being an ally.
I dunno if it’s a selfish reason or not, but one of the reasons I want to be an ally is that if I don’t try to help defend others against oppression, what right would I have to any kind of help or defense if I was being oppressed? I mean, usually I try to fight my own battles alone and spurn help (because many people let me down when I was a whelp), but no one’s invincible.
I mean this all besides the ‘basic fucking human rights’ reasons, of course. I’ll never forget that gay kid I met that was scared of me years back. It didn’t feel good. I hope that guy’s doing well right now.
TLC, that’s basically the concept of enlightened self-interest.
It comes in non-selfish (humanism) and selfish (Randianism) versions.
Well John, it’s not my only reason, and I suppose I’m gonna have to shoot for the ‘non-selfish’ thing.
Pteryxx:
You have talons??!! Some people get falcons, some get talons. Me, I get a t-shirt and a mug (at least the t-shirt is from Roadkill.com; awesome site, btw).
On a completely serious note, if/when you finish the analysis, I’d love to read it. We can set up a geek peer review or something :)
You too, huh? I recall watching that episode at night (I didn’t get into the original series until it had ended, and there’s some benefit to watching multiple episodes in a row) and being incredibly moved. Then surprised. A cartoon moved me to emotion? I’m still not sure why I was shocked*. Every medium has the potential to move people (as a comic book reader, I should have known that).
This was the ep about Sokka feeling useless, right? If so, I think that is my favorite episode of the series. In no small part due to the non cliched way they handled *everything* about the episode, while remaining true to the characters.
It sounds like Avatar was something you needed at a crucial time.
Did you get hooked on the show immediately, or did it take time? Also, were you watching first run episodes, or season sets on DVD (as I did)?**
*I think that-similar to how many people view comic books-the perception that cartoons are for children and that there’s something wrong with adults watching them has seeped into my mind. Despite the fact that while cartoons have long been marketed to children, there’s nothing inherent in them that says they *have* to be for kids (just like comic books)
**One of the things I lament about Buffy is that I didn’t get to watch the show each week or sit in suspense and awe as a season reached its climax. I watched it consistently from the end of S5 til the end of the series (and have gotten most of the S8 in comic book format from Dark Horse Comics…if anyone doesn’t know, the series has Joss’ stamp of approval as the *official* Season 8, and they started S9 in the fall of ’11). I wish I would have gotten into it sooner, as watching ‘Becoming Pt. 1 & 2’ would have been a nail bitingly (<—-that's a word? Spell check didn't bat an eyelash) awesome time. If I'm ever bummed out or melancholy and need a good cry, I know I can put in the final disc of S2, watch Buffy send Angel to hell, then pack her bags and leave town, all the while hearing Sarah Mclachlan in the back ground.
And no, I have *no* idea why the tense scene between Buffy and Joyce in Becoming pt.2 resonates with me…
Brief Interlude:
“I’m a slayer, not a postal worker.”
“Cops can’t fight demons. I have to do this.”
“I would love to be upstairs watching tv, gossiping about boys, or GOD, even studying. But I have to save the world. Again.”
“I lost a friend tonight; and I may lose more. The whole Earth could get sucked into hell and you want my help because your girlfriend’s a big ho {interlude within interlude: I’m just quoting here. Is that considered ok?}? Well let me take this opportunity to NOT care.”
“No friends. No hope. Take it all away and what do you have left?” -Angelus to Buffy; her response: “Me.”
“You walk out of this house don’t even think of coming back.”
-End Interlude
keenacat:
Add me to the list of ‘those who will listen’ if you want talk about anything here. Please don’t hurt yourself. Do you have a list of accomplishments you’ve made in your life? Perhaps a list of goals you’re looking to achieve? Places you want to visit? Food you want to eat?
Oh, and lots of hugs. Beaucoup hugs.
You have people who do care about you. You do matter.
Katherine @333:
It sucks beyond the telling of it that you are having to go through this.
I find this utterly baffling. Many believers will say that their faith is strong or that their faith in god is their foundation/rock/what have you. Much of that is said in response to questions from atheists. Why then do so many believers feel you can be lured away from theism with such ease? All it takes to convert to atheism is abandoning responsibility (because you see, no atheist has children, or a job, or bills), accepting invites to drunken sex parties (apparently theists, agnostics, woo peddlers, deists, et al don’t have drunken sex parties-Ever- It stays in Vegas, remember), and writing best selling books (but only if you’re a *true* Gnu Atheist).
Ms. Daisy:
I completely agree with you.
This is *PRIDE* for pete’s sake. One of the key themes in these celebrations is embracing who you are…taking pride in yourself no matter what the bigots say (and of course, there are other themes, so this was not meant to be inclusive of every perspective).
Who the hell sat down with a laundry list of things to take Pride in, saw ‘rape a foreign leader I don’t like with a brutish display of ‘Merica’s militaristic might’, and then thought it would be a good idea to display to the world?
Keenacat,
It is off label and no large RCT yet, but there are suggestions that low dose ketamine can be useful for relief of suicidal ideation and depression within a few hours of receiving a low dose. IF no effect within a few hours it will not work so no use taking further doses.
Hope you are feeling as bit better.
(A good dose of Pharyngula snark, humor and bacon wrapped babies often helps)
Not sure if anyone would be interested, because Yeehaw! is the capital of SIWOTI and obtuse moronics, but there’s an article and comments thread regarding the tech company ASUS making double nintendos on Twitter about their spokesmodel’s hynder (which mysteriously disappeared – the comment, not the derriere). I read about half-a-dozen comments then wanted to make people die of ebola, so I’m probably not the best one to try to rectify the SIWOTI, but if someone else feels like wading in, here it is:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/asus-tweet-stirs-controversy.html
(fair warning: this one is more of an EIWOTI…everyone is wrong in the comments)
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort @333:
Stick around here long enough and you can mentally file away very convincing and concise arguments to make when dealing with the family. And seriously, take notes if you have to, and use them if you have to when the subject comes up. They will still have nothing but Pascal’s wager. You have a right to be upset and angry here. They’re treating you like it’s your fault that you have decided logic and reason and evidence are worthy things.
Early on I used to sit in quiet when religious rellies started expounding on the greatness of their blind superstition. A few books and websites in I would ask a few questions. After awhile a little sarcasm and ammunition from sites like this one would cause them to have to think and critically examine everything they had been saying. And that is really the end result you are aiming for. Once they see that they aren’t entitled to tell you anything about your decision without having examined their beliefs with at least a modest amount of skepticism they will either leave you alone about it or start to ask the right kinds of questions. Then they’re really in trouble. Next thing you know they’re going to reason rallies and PZ lectures with you.
McCthulhu, um. Katherine is no n00bie here.
Oh.
O.
.
It’s my bad. My memory is complete shite unless someone says something that makes me laugh-snort Pepsi out my nose.
Would that this were always true.
Sadly, there are far too many people out there that shut down the conversation when you say something uncomfortable (such as even trying to discuss any belief critically) or they just double down on the cognitive dissonance.
Echoes
Occasionally an article comes along that restores a fraction of my respect for the Globe and Mail.
Racial equality looks different from behind bars
Another one for examples of the Right attempting to whitewash their “centrist” shills: Malcolm Gladwell apologists complain about his rampant corruption going up on his wiki page, even though his conflicts of interest are matters of public record.
To expose the Right’s abusive tactics, all one needs to do is seemingly call them out.
Hi. It’s 6/10. I’m doing a really bad job writing my paper tonight. But look at my new nym! *dramatic arms flourish* It’s triggery and reclaimy and badassish all at once!
—
*hugs to keenacat* I can’t wait to see you post again tomorrow. I never know what to say, but you can get through this, and you have a lot of people who want you to. I’m sorry this hurts so much now, but it will get better.
—
Below please find a really fucking long letter to PZ.
—
Dear PZ,
So, I’m having a concern/question/problem/thing with the new rules you posted a few days ago.
I’m under the impression that everyone agrees that nasty, extended fighting is Seriously Not Fun™ for everybody involved. In fact that’s part of why I temporarily flounced or, to be more honest, went into semi-lurker-skimmer mode – the lengthy fighting here was very stressful for me, especially because it involved people I care about a lot and I didn’t know how to react to the situation and I felt like whenever I posted anything that wasn’t involved in the argument I was maybe being insensitive and when I posted things that were involved in the argument I was probably making everyone upset. PLEASE NOBODY IGNORE THIS PARAGRAPH. I do not object to extended derails of the type that were happening being moved to TZT. And I like pillows and nice pictures and joke books! (I still insist on dragging in a refrigerator box. And probably a fluffy blanket.)
But. The way you stated the new rule, and the ensuing response to it, were unfortunately rather confusing and troubling for me. Your wording (“friendly disagreement,” “back down when tempers start to rise”) heavily implied to me that forceful disagreement was now considered too antisocial for this social thread, and that we were not supposed to express anger here.
[NEXT TWO PARAGRAPHS ARE ONLY APPLICABLE IF I UNDERSTOOD CORRECTLY.]
I would be troubled by that for two major reasons. One is personal and individual although I’m assuming far from unique around here. It’s that, well, despite my deep affection for a lot of people here, my general ability to not lose my temper hugely often, and my genuine willingness and desire to be diplomatic with most everyone who posts in TET, I, personally, find it stressful and frustrating to know that anger is an unacceptable response in a given social space. One of my worst coping mechanisms is my tendency to tamp down and silence justified anger, and it’s not something I want to be practicing on the internet – really the opposite. It’s not that I want to be always pulling out the big guns, I really really don’t, it’s that I need to know I can, if the situation calls for it. That’s just me, but it’s a big thing for me. It’s why I rarely feel comfortable commenting on other FTB blogs even when I agree with the blog owners, and if I am correct in my understanding of the new rules, it is also why I will not feel very comfortable posting in TET in the future.
The other reason is somewhat more significant. I can remember at least one situation in which “social, friendly” posts resulted in someone seriously needing to get knocked back hard, in a way that became increasingly obvious when people forcefully disagreed with the implications of the posts. (I vacillated about naming names, but because I’m trying to use this as a general case to explain a point, I decided not to. I will, however, if people think it would be better if I did. It’s not someone who’s been posting lately.) As we all generally know here, people can say things in “social” contexts and in “friendly” tones that make the space just as unsafe as if they’d started spouting open hostility toward everyone. I am not inclined to disagree in a friendly fashion with that sort of behavior, and I know for a fact that many people here aren’t. I don’t find it terribly likely that people who are being called out for actual bad behavior are going to be terribly willing to move it to TZT; the willingness to fight about it is often not mutual. And PZ, from what you’ve said in the past about how you read threads, it seems like the “grassroots enforcement” style of the Horde is actually how you pick up on such posts. (I could be wrong, but that’s how I read your post long ago about your meta-level view of thread dynamics.)
I was not the only regular who understood what you said to be effectively a call for us to stifle open, honest disagreement in favor of niceness and not making waves. I understand that other people read it differently, but to be honest, from my perspective, your wording was fairly unambiguous. It seems to me that people are basing most of their reading on what they’d expect you to say in the context, which is probably fine and sound and wise, but I am inclined to read Rules from On High™ in the most literal (and, to be honest, the most restrictive) way, and to put some energy into following them as best I can. It’s probably a bit of a personality flaw, but it really bothers me if I know there are rules and I am not (completely sure I’m) following them properly. (So the fact that you would probably not even have the time let alone the inclination to come in and ban us all for, I dunno, getting in a loud fight about gummi bears isn’t terribly relevant to what I’m saying and needing clarification on. It’s the actual rule itself, not the likelihood of enforcement, that matters to my brain.) (It also seems to me that some people have been posing a false dichotomy, in which people who have concerns about the new rules as PZ laid them out are assumed to be in favor of lengthy, toxic fights and opposed to those being taken to TZT. Please don’t do that.)
I recognize that there are other places on the blog, as well as other blogs, to comment. I recognize that TZT is an option for off-topic stuff. But I’d rather not end up feeling safer posting in the troll quarantine than in the social thread just because my over-literal brain misunderstood the rules! For my peace of mind, I would really appreciate it if you would clarify exactly what it is we’re supposed to be doing in here.
Thanks.
[meta]
PZ, I can attest that I too think more than one person feels similarly to Cipher, above.
Alethea # 336 : Yes. I think you are basically right. (I should probably try to explain why I think so, but my head is full of concrete at the moment.)
Katherine, good for you for coping with your family in anti-reason mode, and surviving to tell the tale! Hang in there!
keenacat: HUGS!!! It certainly sounds like you should not be trying to handle this without irl professional help right now. It’s only sensible to consider that your own objectivity – though I’m hugely impressed with how you are dealing – might not be all that it normally is. Please, please get a competent extra, outside person aware of your situation and helping you get through this stage. Stay here and keep talking to us for the hugs; but despite your own expertise you must (“must”? I mean, I very much hope you will decide to) get a professional involved before taking any medication for the way you feel (and even if you don’t take any).
Strange dream time:
I dreamt my father tried stealing three baby penguins from the zoo. He called them his Beachboys.
And this was not the night I’d been drinking.
Sili
Sounds like he wanted pets.
Dreams are typically strange, but I’m lucky if I can remember so much as a sentence of them. Usually has to be a nightmare to stick.
Well, mine usually evaporate by the Noon sun as well.
I guess it’s pertinent to the discussion, that I’m not on good terms with my father, and my sister collects penguins.
Penguins?
Sorry to hear that, about your father. Penguins, as the only bird which can swim, are quite fascinating. Apparently not all of them live in cold climates either.
Anyway, bedtime for me now.
I only remember dreams when I’m sleep-deprived.
’nuff said.
O hai!
Terrifying sex organs of male turtles: augmented edition!
kthxbai
My part of the woods has seen a series of teen suicides in the last 18 months, mostly rail jumpers aged 14-19. They are from local schools and organise suicide pacts via social media. It’s all a bit tragic. Had to institutionalise a couple over the last few days, who were trying to keep their part of the pact. I don’t get this shit at all.
John Morales. Forgot a word, lol.
Doing something unpleasant like killing yourself (or others for that matter) becomes easier when you manage to couple it to a sense of duty. Also, almost everything becomes easier when you’re not doing it alone but with some kind of friend.
Setar:
Exactly. Well, first, you had government co-optation of the left (the “official” labor movement, National Public Radio, etc.), then you had the purges of the 1950s, and then you had a critical mass of baby boomers and their Gen-X offspring deciding that because they were prospering, nobody “needed” economic activism anymore.
So the left in the U.S. became a ghost of its former self, and here we are now. That the left was “too militant” and “too alienating” to its “allies” is propaganda not only from the right wing but from comfortable middle-class “Love Me I’m A” Liberals who want to feel good about their politics but not effect any deep and long-lasting change.
Of course. We don’t want to make our allies uncomfortable, do we?
Thunk:
♥
I almost never blogwhore here, but I went to bed angry and I woke up angry, and so I just wrote this. I see such menz all the fucking time in “liberal” spaces, plus their female coddlers, and I’m heartily sick of it.
McCthulhu:
Also ♥.
Tony:
Indeed.
Penguin lust:
Daisy Cutter: Well done :)
Hi horde.
I look forward to coming here everyday, I couldn’t wait to get home from my sisters friend (we had breakfast there). So many people sending hugs and caring and checking with me… *sniff* If meat space were more like this my load would be lighter.
Also, extra special thanks for whoever posted Boggle upthread. http://bogglelovesyou.tumblr.com/
I’ll do a little exercise now, listing things I did already, things I will do on short notice and longer-term stuff. Thanks for the “postponing suicide”-idea. Since my former future plans (marriage and kids with the ex) went down the drain I should start asap to develop new ones.
Things I did:
Postponed the move-talk with the ex until further notice from me. He was understanding and will not try to contact me without permission.
Decided against self-medication (thanks dianne).
Told my sister I am not doing well and might need to go to hospital. She understood and suggested I get my psych from back home to call the hospital so they can get a heads up on my medical history.
I decided on which hospital so I can go there without delay. I picked the one close to my moms, it has the double feature of both the closest ER and the closest psych ward. I can be there in 5 mins if I need to. There is a specialized psych ER around but it’d take me 45 mins by car to get there.
Things I will do on short notice:
E-mail my doctoral advisor and tell him my dissertation must be delayed due to personal reasons and I’ll get back to him. (today)
Call the secretary of my future boss and a) ask her about my position, b) possibly delay said position to 1st of august. (tomorrow)
See a psych, either via ER or, at the latest, monday morning via emergency appointment.
Things I will do later:
Move-talk with the ex (when stable).
Resume dissertation.
Get therapy at home (call old therapist).
Try to reconnect with some of the estranged friends in hopes of establishing a social circle again.
Let my bestest friend from uni take me to his archery class.
Find a martial arts studio, I’ll benefit from increased physical activity, new people and the opportunity to act out my aggressions in a safe and healthy way.
Start working.
Check with the local animal shelter if they need volunteers for playtime or taking goggies for a walk. Getting a pet now might add too much stress, but hanging out with animals might benefit both me and them.
Rearrange/refurnish/redecorate appartment to make it my own. Find a sewing machine and make stuff.
Things I plan to achive in life and stuff that’d be wasted if I was to do stupid things:
Be an awesome, smart, caring, empathic, evidence-based doc, because there are never enough of those.
Get a kitteh.
Have a veggie garden I can grow edibles in.
Advance my snowboard skills.
Possess fabric stuff I made myself: Pillows, maybe a quilt, individualized clothes.
Have a family and kids.
Go to atheist/humanist conferences.
Meet some of the horde. Show off how well I do and how much they did to help me.
Jeebus crisp on a stick.
Writing this and rereading it now and knowing you people will read this and cheer me on and generally give a fuck just made a huge weight drop off my chest.
I guess there is actually a life I can look forward to.
Also, as a side note: No evil dreams last night. I slept pretty well and blame it on TET.
Whew. I’ve been refreshing this morning to see if you let us know how you’re doing, keenacat. You have an awesome list. :)
Yay keenacat for all-round awesomeness! I salute your now-soon-later list – both for its content and for your being able to make it.
Seriously, go you. You are doing all the right things. Keep hanging in there, and I’m so happy that TET can play some part in helping.
HI KEENACAT!!
*pounces with hug-pounce*
I’m now feeling inspired to make a list of my own. I’m not feeling depressed, but I do need to get some stuff done. It’d be good motivation to get off my ass.
Keenacat: Good. Awesome. It might be a big mental storm around you, but we’ll help you with the ship. *nubby metaphor*. It’s all right. :)DDD
You’re quite welcome.
keenacat: awesome list, it makes a lot of sense and is full of problem-solving and even has a future to it. I guess I mean it’s not just a list of thrown-together wishes for nice things, it’s a freakin’ *game plan*. Excellent work.
(about-me ramble)
…and reading it over is giving me some sense of how useful such a thing could be. I’ll have to choke down some self-hatred and make one for myself. A bad side effect of a lifetime of abuse plus poor theory of mind is that I’ve got almost no sense of a future and poor comprehension of long-term planning as a thing that exists. There was no point in learning the concept, because I’d just get ordered or forced to do something else anyway. That’s why part of my remedial geek training is watching stories like Avatar or Korra that have continuity and story arcs – my mental framework just treated all episodes as stand-alones with no understanding that anything was missing. My mentor’s watching them with me to explain how the parts are connected.
…anyway, so Keenacat’s list helped me realize “so THAT’s what having a future looks like.” I read it over and over and saved it to adapt for myself. Thank you.
I forgot:
keenacat, it’s particularly awesome that “ask to postpone dissertation/starting work until specific goal dates” are high on your list. It’s eminently reasonable – someone who had an emergency health problem, or who lost a close family member, would obviously do better work with time to recover. (And having a loved partner *leave* is approximately as traumatic as a death.) Yet some of us feel that healing oneself is never a priority or even an option. Grieving time’s definitely indicated; kudos for according it to yourself.
Dang, temperature has started climbing already (90 F predicted). Better get the yard mowed before it gets too high.
Tony @366:
I had the same experiences, up until I didn’t let them happen. You are dealing with people you have to live with for a very long time. Letting either side end it like that results in a degeneration into passive-aggressive quiet or some other kind of cranky dogbuggery. If they have had enough for the moment, you must insist that the discussion is not over, rather only on hold until a more thoughtful and sane moment. People have had entire lifetimes to put this stuff into their head and they think it’s real. Until they understand why you have decided to un-think their pet hypothesis, you will remain the one in the wrong. It’s like watching the prisoner pitying the jailor.
All you are looking for is a moment of clarity from the rellies where they realize that there are ample grounds for doubt, and beyond. It doesn’t have to happen in one swell foop. And writing things down in a letter or email, where you can clarify or amplify points with quotes and/or evidence, is a good idea at some point.
I’m not the one being glanced at with pity or scorn at family get-togethers. A few actually apologized when they wanted to do a hand-holding, pre-dinner prayer thingy. I said no apologies were necessary, it was obvious they understood this isn’t a thing everyone can passively buy into just because it’s been there for too bloody long and nobody thought to follow Toto behind the curtain.
Oh that was all serious
This morning was better but is x-rated
Now I’m deciding on breakfast
Pteryxx,
Do it. Go for it! If you want, post it on TET. I literally feel lighter now, because writing that thing down proved two things to me:
– there is a future for me and it’s gonna be good.
– I am actually able to come up with something and pave my own way, hah! All by myself. In the middle of one of the most horrendous situations in my life while crippled by depression.
FUCK YEAH AWESOME!
Just imagine what I, we, can do when we nurse us back to health.
{behind on TET}
@ keenacat
Yay. keenakat!
/bows to Thunk
Keenacat, I am so glad you have made plans to keep yourself safe and get through the right-now.
keenacat: I would still have to vet it before any public posting, as I’m not safe here, but I’ll consider it. Thanks. And go you!
Pteryxx
*copious amounts of hugs*
Keenacat, remember this about the regulars: *voice of Frasier Crane* “We’re listening”.
Hang in there.
Thanks, Agent Silversmith, whoever you are.
But I didn’t mean to sound like I need sympathy. My life has been all rainbows and unicornfarts compared to so many of the regulars here.
keenacat:
:)
Good to see you today, keena! *hugs*
Sili, your problems are important too. (hugs)
Pteryxx: Yes, go do it! You’ll feel much better, I know that. *anklehugs* That reminds me I want to do such a list now. It’s catching on.
Hm, breakfast.
*rummages around kitchen*
Toast and oranges it is!
David:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
*gasp!*
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Why did I click that link? *hides Emery the turtle’s eyes!*
Sili: We won’t forget about you *hugs*.
@ Keenacat
So glad you had a good rest, and your list sounds great! I feel inspired by you as well; I’ve been in such a long, horrible funk (exacerbated by unemployment and fear of the future), and so I’m going to follow your example and make my own list. I also intend to be productive and to Get Things Done today.
Keep on keeping on, and I hope that things continue in a positive arc for you. Hugs from me and the kittehs.
Thunk, if I may interrupt here, I was wondering about your nym. It made me laugh the first time I saw it and I was wondering if there’s a story behind it? Also, wouldn’t the “d”s cancel each other out? :)
FossilFishy:
It has some of a history. I thought of it sometime long ago as a spiffy addition to birth name, but kept it in the back of my mind. When I joined foldit, I used that, which eventually got pared down to “thunk”.
The SQRRAWK!! is a cool sound effect I tend to make.
The rest is for the obligatory nym joke.
It’s an abuse of dy/dx.
Cipher: Of course you are allowed to disagree here, and be angry here, and argue forcefully here. This is not happy fluffy sleepy time blog.
But I do want to put my foot down on the sometimes vicious, personal, long-running squabbling that has gone on at times. If you’re fuming over something that idiot Myers said, and really want to lay into how much you hate him, don’t do it here, take it to TZT. If you want to argue over how badly Myers got it wrong, do it here…but if it escalates into a raging feud, step back, don’t turn this place into a boxing arena, and move it to TZT.
Long derails into personal battles do not belong here, OK?
OH for fuck’s sake.
I mean everyone is so very happy about cannabis but let’s not start ascribing magical fucking powers to it.
Is there any medical evidence that ingesting cannabis in any form can actually treat prostate cancer? Not treat the symptoms, actually treat the cancer itself.
It’s news to me if that is so.
Hi all. I’m finally delurking on this thread after probably 2-3 years of following you all. Pharyngula has been one of the few blogs I check up on daily, so I feel I know a lot of you and I’m ready to take the plunge. This is a fabulous site and despite my silence over the years, you’ve all made it clear that I’m likely to be welcome and I’m pleased this is the first of the many blogs I follow on which I feel happy and comfortable to delurk on.
Moments of Mormon Madness make an organized appearance, make that Flood, on the internet. Some of you may have noticed that a lot of mormon propaganda appears in the comments sections of online newspapers and blogs when mormonism or Mitt Romney are mentioned.
Mormon leaders run a program called “MormonVoices Volunteers.” They frequently send out emails instructing “volunteers” where to post comments online.
A couple of years ago there was a big push in my area to gather the email addresses of all mormons, even inactive mormons, and even underage mormons. Each Ward worked hard on this task. Now mormon leaders use the Ward email lists to try to affect political outcomes and social outcomes.
Here’s the latest such email:
Rev,
But it’s Tommy Chong. Can you really expect to take him seriously on anything?
*waves at kage!*
I was wondering because I’m a bit of a cookbook electronic hobbiest. I’ve built myself a bunch of electric guitar gear over the years and even attempted a Theremin during a brief fit of optimism. The SQRRAWK part of your nym reminds me of the awful sounds several failed projects made. Failures that I suspect could have been fixed by someone who properly understood the equations and whatnot involved in electronics. So every time I see your nym it makes me smile with ruefully nostalgia. Anyway, thanks for the explanation.
Also, from Rev’s link:
Yeah… I’ve read that men of his age who have slow prgressing prostate cancer often aren’t treated– they’re just monitored by their docs for any changes and it’s left at that. So, yeah, hemp oil isn’t doing a Tommy Chong a damn bit of good, he’s just convinced himself otherwise.
Prostate cancer isn’t necessarily something that you need to fight aggressively.
Kage: Well done *celebrations all round*. Nice to meet you on ph’a, I only delurked recently too. Come in, sit down, and have a drink of your choice. (I recommend the bacon grog.)
Just stopping in to say I’m glad you had a good night and have a plan, keenacat!
Lynna: Reminds me of this: http://xkcd.com/1019/
Except they don’t even have to pay people.
Is there any medical evidence that ingesting cannabis in any form can actually treat prostate cancer?
Sort of. There is some lab evidence that some prostate cancers might have cannabinoid receptors and might undergo apoptosis (aka “die”, for the non-bionerds) when the receptors are stimulated. Reference However, there are no clinical trials on the issue, as far as I know.
I’d also like to see marijuana or derivatives tested in a couple of diseases that result in chronic pain. Also, maybe just chronic pain in general. Dog knows opioids don’t cut it for chronic pain.
Interesting. I was not aware (obviously)
Hi, Kage!
I just clicked David’s link about turtle peens. And I am reminded that, in Chinese culture, to call someone a “turtle” is to call them a sexual degenerate.
I’ve mentioned this before, I think, but YouTube videos of turtles humping each other or various inanimate objects make for delightful, puerile watching. Eeeee!! Eeeee!! Eeeee!!
Audley, I’d take Tommy Chong seriously on his political activism, but, no, not on much else.
(Also, because they were really popular when I was a kid, looking at that picture of him and Cheech makes me feel old.)
*Adjusts age in mental image of Ms. Daisy Cutter from about 10-15 years younger to about 5 years older*
@ Lynna
Re the Mormons: I’ve noticed a lot of advertising about Mormonism here in NYC. There’s this “I’m a Mormon” campaign going on, in which they feature Shiny Happy People doing Shiny Happy People Nice Things. I’ve seen the ads in and on cabs especially. Also, if I’m looking at something on YouTube, there’s usually an “I’m a Mormon” video in the sidebar.
I always want to cross out the second “m” when I see the ads in NYC: I’m a Mor
mon.Yes, xkcd gets it right again.
Not only do mormons not have to pay their “volunteers,” but in some cases the “volunteers” pay the church. This is the case for missionaries, including Senior Missionaries who may be assigned to troll the internet. Last I heard, missionaries pay the LDS Church about $400 a month and buy their own supplies.
I put quotes around “volunteer” because LDS Bishops and other mormon leaders put so much pressure on members to accept “callings” and to perform as requested that members often feel they have no choice but to comply. As long as you say people are free to refuse callings it’s all good, right?
Change of subject. What happens when we deregulate industries, when we expect the free market to take care of safety issues etc.?
http://www.salon.com/2012/06/09/when_libertarianism_fails/
LOL SQB. Yes, middle-aged in body, 12 years old in spirit.
Speaking of which, I saw a yard sign for this guy the other day. A quick Google search indicates that he’s yet another right-wing Catholic. If he ever gets any national notice, Dan Savage won’t have to make up a new definition of his surname.
More anti-contraception nutbaggery on the right has been documented by Sarah Posner of Salon.
Texas man of very little brain, David Bereit, was considered too out-on-the-fringe to be taken seriously as recently as 2006, but now he has an audience, a big audience.
That’s actually rather beautiful. Got a little misty last night reading it. Glad you’re doing better, keenacat.
David Attenborough narrates a turtle humping a Croc shoe. No, seriously.
I’m going to go to the new Belgian beer bar today to wistfully look at the beer selection. *sigh* Should be fun.
(Okay, rumor has it that they’re serving Belgian waffles, too, so maybe it won’t be completely frustrating.)
Yep. The LDS Church is spending big bucks on this slick campaign. However, the “I’m a Mormon” ads are completely disingenuous. They paint a false picture. And it’s quite telling when a religion has to paint a false picture of itself in order to appear to be acceptable.
See My Brother, the Mormon poster boy.
You will see a more realistic view of mormonism is you watch “I’m an Ex Mormon” videos on YouTube. Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3lvKgN_htA
“if you watch” not “is you watch” — sigh
Ms. Daisy Cutter:
Jeff Semon? Let’s hope he makes a big splash, because that could make things sticky for the GOP.
@ Lynna
That’s fascinating (and horrifying) stuff.
I also happened to come across this story on Gawker today: I’m a Gay Mormon Who’s Been Happily Married for 10 Years.
Keenacat: A good night’s sleep can help so much. Like the list of goals you made, and I’m sure there won’t be a problem with delaying your dissertation. Good that the ex is willing to wait to talk about plans for moving – I was a bit afraid he’d act like a jerk all over again.
———————————————
Well Mom is bound to be home with the groceries at some point. I’d better on with stuff. *sigh*
Still thinking about that farmer’s apprenticeship program. I just want to do something. SOMETHING besides filing papers to go home and all that. Maybe the farming thing can be done during the time I’m looking for a new job (assuming the market hasn’t miraculously recovered by then and I get hired barely a month out).
Hi kage!
*hugs* and a high-five for keenacat.
Keenacat: It’s wonderful to see you posting today. (Even more than the usual happy caused by your posts.) That looks like an excellent list. I got the top thing on my similar list tattooed on my upper inner arm this spring, so I always have a clear reminder.
Kage: Hello! Welcome!
Sake brewery tour yesterday was really fun, though I got sunburned on the way back. But it seems a fair cost for having the best sakes of my life, plus sake kasu ice cream with friends on a Saturday, even for a very sun-intolerant Happiest.
For some reason, I’ve been having awful nightmares lately too. Even worse than when I went back on Effexor. Bleh.
Hi there, I’m back home
Car service came and got the car running in seconds so we could go on our trip. It was really nice but I don’t think I could take Mr.’s dad and uncles for more than one day all together. Privilege, they haz lots of it. My least favourite part was at the end again when we needed to hitch the caravan. Great. Three guys who know zilch trying to tell you when to give what commands and how when Mr. and I’ve been doing that for some years already…
Co-sleeping
It was not for me. I ended up doing it with #1 anyway. She stealthily moved into our bed when Mr had 2 weeks of holiday and I didn’t have the enery to kick her out again after that. And since she didn’t have a pacifier I turned into her pacifier until I was freaking out. Mr. was absolutely forbidden to take the little one into our bed. Much, much better.
keenacat
Shit. Big, big hugs. Maybe the emergency psychiatrist can give your regular one a call? I understand that they’d have some problems giving you medication at first sight, but if they could consult with your regular one things might go allright.
I see in your update that your sister is clever as well :)
Yes, please.
He can wait until he’s blue in the face.
This. I dealt with my issues in my head for so long and my loved ones didn’t have a clue. They would have helped me, but they couldn’t because they didn’t know. They love you, they’ll be there for you.
Archery is wonderfull: Concentration, relaxation AND really good shoulder work-out.
Your update reads really good. You’ll kick ass in this world!
katherine
Big hugs for you, too.
I don’t know about christianity, but about overbearing parents who don’t accept your decissions are no stranger to me.
Every time I see one of those “I’m a Mormon” ads, I think one of two things:
1. “They misspelled that”, or
2. “I’m so sorry, is there anything I can do to help you get over that?”
Keenacat: hope you continue to get better.
Kage: Hi and welcome!
noted because it so rarely happens: mikmik, a commenter who was stubbornly defending DJ Grothe over at Jason Thibeault’s, has changed their stance and apologized. (I think now I’ve seen about ten of those in a year.)
http://freethoughtblogs.com/lousycanuck/2012/06/01/the-dj-grothe-quote-that-sticks-in-my-craw/#comment-64772
Keenacat, good work on your list. It sounds like you’re organizing and ‘getting it all together’, which I must say sounds a bit more effective than my general ‘drag myself through it on three legs if I have to’ methods.
Personal experience with this: I’ve used pot to ‘medicate’ against physical pain from injuries before. It’s not really a ‘painkiller’ though. It doesn’t work like that, at least on my biology. Instead it does something to my mind that often allows me to ‘separate myself from the pain,’ if that makes sense.
Where it gets interesting is when I discussed reefer for physical pain with some people… the general topic was ‘getting stoned while being tattooed’. A few of them told me it’s quite the opposite for them, that it actually makes them focus more on the pain.
I suppose it’s kinda the same idea, the way pot reduces my anxiety but can give other people panic attacks. It’s, what, 420 different chemicals that make up THC (I’m just going by what I read long ago, correct me if I’m wrong) so it makes sense that such a complex substance would effect things as complex and individual as human brains in different and varied ways.
[This episode of all-caps sparkling brought to you by happy.]
YAY KEENACAT! YOUR LIST IS AWESOME! HERE’S A GIANT HUG *GIANT HUG*!
—
THANKS, PZ! YOUR REASSURANCE IS AWESOME TOO!
^_^
Yayayay! :-) :-) :-)
:-D :-D :-D
Subthread won.
What a coincidence that the prime minister is neither a Fleming nor a Walloon. What an incredible coincidence…
Good that “the only Belgians are the royal family and the Jews” needs to be updated. :-)
(See also: “The number of Spaniards varies between forty million and two: the king and his prime minister.”)
For a boob job, I’m sure he’d insist on the husband’s permission.
*sigh*
+ 1
*clenched-tentacle salute*
*headdesk*
Écrasez l’infâme.
(…That’s Voltaire’s way to say HULK SMASH.)
*out of words*
You can do it.
*hugs*
*chocolate*
*cocoa shell tea with rooibos and vanilla and aniseed and cinnamon*
*more hugs*
*ratties*
*kittehz*
What is your thesis about?
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGH
♥♥♥
There is no such requirement on Pharyngula. PZ is not afraid.
(In Soviet Russia, PZ scares YOU!)
Seriously dark weather makes me very tired.
Oh crap. *hug* When I go to bed too late, I don’t sleep well either.
Oh yes, it is.
Awesome!!!
Ooh! Self-pity! So soft! May I join you in that puddle? ^_^
That’s nice. :-)
I’m not saying they won’t do any good; they probably will. Still, I think I should mention that there’s Seele in there, “soul”. This is “care for your soul” by priests, by people who have studied theology rather than psychology.
If you’d like to visit me in Berlin, maybe when Jules and Giliell + family will be there and I’ll show them ALL THE DINOSAURS, just tell me. I’ll have 2 air mattresses and 2 sleeping bags.
Sounds good!!!
Sounds even better.
^_^
:-) :-) :-)
:-o
Collateral awesomeness!!!
Oh, good. That sounds much better. :-)
Interesting. How did you get your grubby Gentile paws on that e-mail?
Apoptosis is clean suicide that doesn’t leave problematic waste lying around. Messy destruction from the outside is called necrosis.
Heh.
Om lingalingalingalinga kilikilikili…
Somehow that put me in mind of Better Off Dead: “We have french bread, and french toast, and french fries, and french dressing…”
TLC:
Hey, that’s exactly what happened to me when given nitrous oxide for dental work. The pain was still there, it just wasn’t worthy of attention or distracting from the general happy feeling. Looks like some sites call nitrous an anesthetic and some call it an “anti-anxiety agent”.
Memes are ruining reality for me.
I’m trying to (re)learn classical mechanics from Leonard Susskind, and just now he said “all of the p’s and all of the q’s”, and I went straight into Hyperbole and a Half mode.
Second.
I spent almost the entirety of my working time yesterday replaying Call Me Maybe over and over because: First a few days ago I accidentally found it in memes, and was like “hm, those lyrics or whatever are really sticky.” Then, yesterday, my friend sent me the video because he discovered I hadn’t heard the song yet (and I think he might be the devil). I successfully didn’t get it stuck in my head, went on to work, and then was trying to look up something else and ran across it AGAIN in a meme. Then it was just stuck and I had to listen to it, and then I couldn’t stop. And it was terrible.
Will awesomeness never cease…
It does! There is a way (…usually brain injury…) to separate the part of the brain that notices pain from the one that finds it unpleasant.
THC = tetrahydrocannabinol is one of the chemicals in hemp.
*bliss*
Pt’xx: And those are the ones that post.
Some, like me, lurked in the shadows, slowly absorbing the little bits of red dust that gradualy showed them the light of reason. Many more of those, I think.
Despite what people say, the Horde IS making a change.
Pothead.
That is to say, David is right.
But pot must contain other active and inactive substances than THC, just likes there’s more to red wine than EtOH, antiöxidants and resveratrol.
Marjanovic: Yeah, but I remember reading that THC itself is made up of 420 or so different compounds and chemicals. Maybe I’m not being accurate here.
Also, ‘hemp’ and ‘pot’ are slightly different. Strains bred for smoking… that is, ‘pot’, have kinkier stems with way more bud growth on them… good for smoking, because stems taste truly awful. ‘Hemp’ strains are the opposite- longer more stretched out stems with less growth on them. Goes without saying, the THC levels in ‘hemp’ are slim to nil. Especially since the hemp fiber industry doesn’t care whether the plant is male or female.
Sili: Good point. I always thought the ‘420’ number sounded too convenient.
My point, originally, was that it’s an intensely complex substance.
Lynna:
I’m really, really glad that my fertility is on the wane. Not that I take any chances, mind you, especially since I have multiple things going on that would make pregnancy medically catastrophic for me.
Moggie: I LOL’ed. If Semon is running, that could be messy for the entire GOP. However, the entire party seems to have gone to seed anyway.
Pteryxx, Mikmik is a mixed bag. He’s said intelligent things before, but he’s also said really stupid shit, apologized for some of it, and doubled down on the rest of it. But good on him for walking this back.
David, quoting Happiestsadist:
Another friend of ours, also childfree, once dealt with an ob/gyn who attempted to tell her that it was “time” for her to find jeebus and a nice husband and start pumping out babies.
Our friend told her to go fuck a train with her face.
Thunk:
It’s us, but it’s also lots of other people around the internet, focusing on various aspects of social justice, and it’s been filtering into meatspace for a while now, too.
thunk: *nod*
At least ten times as many lurkers, probably more, come out of the woodwork for every vociferous ass during one of these feminism scuffles. (I lost count of THOSE a long time ago – but there were a dozen or more on Pharyngula and TET just during Harassment Week.) Probably far more lurkers read and think without necessarily saying anything.
The vociferous asses that change their minds in any given scuffle, though, can be counted on one hand. I think in this round I saw three: mikmik, the woman on PZ’s thread who said it never happened to her, and somebody over on Ophelia’s somewhere. Oh, make that four: the guy at Skepchick who asked what was so bad about handing out naked sex cards did eventually get the point after two or three days of flaming and explaining.
(‘nother possible observation: changing one’s stance on something like this, for someone willing to consider the other side instead of just doubling down, seems to have a two- or three-day incubation period.)
And also, this. Second this too. Keenacat, your work to get yourself back on track is hugely important for its own sake and justified all by itself (sometimes difficult to remember!), but thank you so much for posting about it here, because sharing problems and getting advice in a place like this helps other people too.
What, like antifreeze?
For the language buffs here: This graph of the Indo-European language family isn’t anything groundbreaking, just very lovely.
SQB: Ha, now I know what that simpson’s episode was riffing on! “The Crepes of Wrath”
I’m not drinking Italian today, SQB.
Whooops. Sorry for blaming the wrong country. Damn prejudices.
Logs on… keenacat you’re good! That’s a rather beautiful list, by the way :)
*gazes in humbled appreciation at the many people who cared and helped*
Cipher is reassured. Yay Cipher!
Hi Kage :)
I see my 12-year-old off to school. She meets up with her two friends, they’re chattering gleefully about what they’re singing at choir practice tonight. And they’re all on their scooters. Our place is at the top of a large-ish hill, so it’s “Wheee! Fun!” all the way to the school gates.
Then…turtle penises. AAAH! Marjanović!!
Sounds like a win to me. I do the same thing ALL the time but it hasn’t annoyed me at all. It brings a smile to my face. I went “caps lock ALL the letters” when reading Cipher’s comment up thread. I enjoy it. /shrug
To each their own.
————
Major hugs and ALL le happy things to make Keenacat feel better. Your lists are great and I’m so glad you’re sticking it out with us.
THC, tetrahydrocannabinol, is one compound. “Compounds and chemicals” doesn’t mean anything.
*still out of words*
That’s a good response.
David Marjanovic: Well, that’s what I get for getting my ‘science’ from Cannabis Culture magazine, I suppose. thanks.
Glad to have been of service. *toothy grin*
Sili
Who I am is a forty year old white heterosexual cis man who’s addicted to coffee and computer games. There’s some stuff in life I really wish wasn’t true, but I can live with it.
Still, it’s good to be heard even if what’s happening wouldn’t win any trauma awards.
Er, belatedly realization that my comment may have come off rude or taunting to you Sili. That was not my intention at all. I wrote the part to Keenecat first and thought I should explain that I love the meme so it didn’t come off badly. But re-reading how it is, it still could seem taunting. My apologies, I simply love the meme and not trying to rub it in or anything.
The worst ‘meme’ for me is Ievan Polkka.
It’s such a catchy song… in a language totally incomprehensible to me. Combined with that stupid ‘leekspin’ video, the effect is almost hypnotic.
Agent Silversmith, aren’t you the former Agent Smith? I’ve been enjoying your posts for a considerable time.
Indy @439
A few excerpts from the Gay Mormon article:
Mormons are always happy. Just ask them. They are also never confused.
David M. @448
I have stealth ex-mormon friends who still attend church, usually to keep peace in the family, or because their spouse insists. This makes them privy to all the crap the LDS Church usually hides from we infidels.
From the first page of the previous subthread:
Hah. Over here, for parliamentary elections, you vote directly for a party, not for a person. The party presents a list, and the first few people on the list end up in parliament – how many depends on the number of votes.
Fair enough.
*bacon chocolate*
He keeps using that word. I do not think it means what he thinks it means.
(Which word? Good question. Probably either “gay” or “enjoyable”. Perhaps even both…)
I see.
“hides from us infidels,” not “hides from we infidels,” or perhaps in my case it should be “hides from wee infidels.”
Hello horde!
I took your advice (because you people are smart) and just got back from a visit with the standby psychiatrist at the hospital I picked earlier today. She was super helpful, we had a long chat and she gave me promethazine as a light sedative to try. If this doesn’t cut it I can always go back and we’ll try something else or they will take me as an inpatient if I get worse.
I also talked to my mom (who was worried and came to pick me up at the hospital) about how I’m feeling unwell at the moment and she was understanding and supportive and didn’t freak out. Kinda duh, as she went trough her own breakup with my dad and must know how it feels.
All you people loving my list and making your own… I haz a warm fuzzy feeling inside. It might be a happy.
*gathers everyone* GROUP HUG!
Failed to close the goddamned fucking bold tag, in part because my left hand still only knows what it is doing in a half-assed way. It frequently fails to hold down the shift key when the right hand is typing “>.”
On the other hand, I drove myself all over town today to do my shopping. Being able to drive is a big step in the post-stroke recovery. I did well, though I must admit that with all the mormons in church, the town is sort of post-apocalyptic empty.
I do not give my left hand permission to steer on its own.
No problem, JAL.
I’m not actually at a lecture with Susskind, so it doesn’t matter if I occasionally shout out “ALL THE P’S AND Q’S!!!” in the privacy of my own room.
Food?!
I made a lovely light dinner tonight, something entirely new to me. (I was the only one to eat it, but what the hell. The rest will be my lunches this week). It was cheaper than it looks because almost everything was staples or leftovers I already had, but I have a lot of stuff in my kitchen (and went on a Japanese food bender earlier in the spring).
I mashed together a few different recipes I found and made a watery dressing out of 1/4 cup mirin, 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup orange juice, 2 Tbs miso, and 2 Tbs rice vinegar. It came out a little sweet, so maybe a dash of soy sauce would help? Or more miso/less oj.
Anyway, made a stir-fry out of some carrots, red pepper, baby bok choy, and onions, with garlic and ginger. Also did pan-fried tofu using a suggestion I read of pouring boiling salt water over the tofu and letting it sit for 15 minutes before drying and frying, and the salt really drew the water out and helped make it good and crispy. And I threw in a leftover half a pork chop cut up.
Then I soaked the stir-fry in the sauce for awhile (saving the tofu out to stay dry and crispy), and served it over soba noodles. It was good.
Caine
One and the same. I dropped back in here after several months of PS3 gaming and trying to learn a bunch of programming languages, with varying success. Good to see the place hasn’t changed, even with the odd bit of drama.
And thanks!
Sounds delightful, Carlie.
My breakfast (at 3:22) consists of a quick-made chicken wrap, and a beer.
carlie,
awesome. Re the dressing: the mirin might have been the issue, not the oj. I suggest substituting maybe half of the mirin for sake.
Now I want stir fry. In the middle of the night in a house devoid of tofu or pork.
Oh jeebus crisp, Cracked.
Substituting exboyfriend-nightmares with horrendous jaws from hell? Why not.
http://www.cracked.com/article_19871_the-7-most-terrifying-mouths-in-nature.html
Keenacat: I’m disappointed, they skipped the Moray Eel’s Xenomorph-style second set of throat-jaws.
Though they did at least get one Alien reference in…
carlie:
:D Pretty much nailed it (even though the 30 odd beer list wasn’t only about half Belgian/Belgian style).
The waffles were really tasty! They were made from scratch with either chocolate* or strawberry syrup which was also made from scratch (!!), and vanilla ice cream.
I did taste Mr Darkheart’s beers– there was one called Maudite that I hadn’t had before which was OMG amazing (not really all that surprising, since Unibroue also makes La Fin Du Monde, which is one of my all time favs). It’s nice to know that I haven’t lost my taste for the good stuff. ;)
*Made with one of the Southern Tier beers, but damned if I can remember which one.
[SIWOTI]
Hagfish are jawless, actually.
[/SIWOTI]
WHAT THE HELL HAGFISH
Also, can we like, never, with the anglerfish? Anglerfish are not okay.
The most amazing thing I learnt about hagfish is that some people actually eat them.
I’d eat a hagfish. They even produce their own sauce!
Speaking more seriously, I had no idea about the ‘eating with their skin’ thing. Cracked was more interested in HOLY SHIT FREAKY JAWS, but I find myself wondering why they evolved such an impressive array, if not for eating.
I think the hagfish teeth are for boring entry holes into carcasses so they can bathe in the innards properly; but they also use them for eating the “normal” way – clamp on and slide a knot down from their tails to wrench a chunk off. Who needs jaws when you can knot yourself!
also, penguins. Dangit, why do so many vertebrates get to have throat and tongue teeth but not humans? SIGH. (Were hands and oral sex really *that* important?…)
Pteryxx: Yes. Yes they were. What did you expect? We’re fucking primates!
I know what you mean though I’d KILL for a set of functional retractible claws. And they have to be the real deal, not just pointy things on the ends of my fingers, but full on claws with tendon attachments and everything.
TLC: would you sacrifice the first joints of your fingers though?
One fictional hand design I’ve messed with is retractable claws on the outside fingers only, with two or three pure manipulator fingers in the middle plus an opposable thumb or two. (A wrist-mounted raptor claw might work too…)
…
It’s really nice to see you’re up again, keenacat! :)
—
Welcome etc, kage.
From keenacat’s link:
Anyone know why it’s always the left nut that is offered up? Is the right one more valuable? I don’t have any, so I just don’t know.
Pteryxx:
Um.
Yes.