This is the lounge. You can discuss anything you want, but you will do it kindly. Man, it’s hard to find an insect picture tagged with “cute” and “baby”.
Status: Heavily Moderated; Previous thread
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
cicely,
Unseen Academicals is my favorite, at least for now. I loved Nutt. (and Glenda and Trevor and Juliet and that dwarf that employed Juliet and Ponder and, and… everyone, but especially Mister Nutt)
Death’s books (at least those that I have read) are serious competition, because Death is brilliant.
—
The quilt is beautiful, Caine. The amount of effort and love that has gone into it makes it especially precious.
Audley,
Jeez, just sounds ugly. Although it could be worse, because my first thought was that you were talking about peers or superiors, rather than subordinates. There’s not much worse in the world of working than being bossed by someone who is several orders of magnitude dumber than you, and insists on taking the lead all the time. I could tell stories all night about just ONE of those bosses. Drove me into the arms of anti-depressants, that one did… :(
I had to give them all a basic math test a few months ago
Oh. Dear. Perhaps I should put you in touch with my sister. She’s an administrative assistant at an aerospace company. She deals with engineers a lot-people who are highly competent in their field but have…odd…ideas about how the rest of the world works. For example, I understand that she’s achieved job security by being the only one in the department who can figure out how to label items for shipping in a way that won’t get the package rejected, the company fined, or risk the package exploding in midair. She’s been known to be sarcastic about people who can work partial differential equations but not put a battery on a scale to see if it’s the right weight for a given package and shipping method or not…
Joe:
I’ve had bosses like that, too. Stupid subordinates I can handle, stupid people giving me direction… not so much.
Dianne:
Yeah, I’ve got a lot of engineers in my family and I know there’s a considerable number that just don’t grasp day to day tasks.
Hey! I’m trying to be an engineer!
@Audley, Though to confess the horrid truth, there are times when insurance companies send me forms, I look at them, my brain goes on strike, and say, “I just have no idea what to do with this.” At which point I run to an administrator and ask him or her to save me. I’m sure there is much eye rolling when I leave.
I got Mr. Wyrd Sisters and he didn’t like it. Poor guy never managed to pick up much in terms of fairy tales of movie classics so he never got 90% of the humor.
Setar:
The government doesn’t (and shouldn’t) control the Fed.
I explained this already. (Lightly edited.)
Also:
I already explained “monetising the debt” on the A+ thread. You should also look at the experimental evidence.
—
This is weird: What they do write is about how the US doesn’t need to cut everything (yet). They just can’t write the 101 you want because they’re constrained by reality.
(P.S. Did you know DeLong is a neoliberal?)
The Romney War on Math continues:
Ah yes, Todd Akin, the gift that keeps on giving. That guy is what he is and he just can’t hide it.
Link to National Journal story.
Lady. Fucking. Like?!
Karl Rove’s dark money group, Crossroads GPS, is paying for robocalls against Democratic Senate candidate for Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren. The script for the calls is full of lies:
Mother Jones is warning of an Impending Global Bacon Shortage.
Impending Global Bacon Shortage?!?!?!
No. My mind cannot process. Must buy pigs. Must breed my own pigs, and build a giant smoking pit. Must. Must. Cannot compute. Caaaaa. Daisy Daisy, give me your answer do. I’m haaaalf craaaazeeeee…aaalll foooor the loooove of youuuuu… please, Dave.
The Darkheart Duckie blanket is just gorgeous. I think I’d be afraid to put a kid on it, as strongly as I feel that baby gifts are meant to be used for babies!
On the subject of embroidery, can any of the artists here recommend a cute, retro-feel bee embroidery/patch/applique pattern? I have a sweater I’d like to decorate with multiple small bees based on a famous sweater design of the 40’s.
@Lynne: My interpretation of Akin’s remark is that it means, “She beat the crap out of me and I looked like a fool in the debate. It must be her fault somehow.”
Beatrice & Kristinc, thank you. ♥
Kristinc, there are tons of vintage patterns on the net, it depends on what you’re looking for – there are comical bees (mostly in kitchen towel patterns called Bee Smart) and regular bees drawn every which way.
I’d check flickr’s vast pools of vintage embroidery patterns/ transfers – a quick glance brought up this ordinary bee from a 1912 transfer.
This is a thing. I just saw it when my sister-in-law linked to it on Facebook (she’s relatively liberal as Mormons go):
http://www.feministmormonhousewives.org
*headasplode*
Kristinc, this is a good ’40s style bee.
Thanks, Caine! I should have been more specific though, I probably need to look for commercial patterns or something similar so I have a transfer to stitch directly over. I suck at freehanding.
well at least drudge’s racebaiting is unionized
(TW: racism)
A Massachussetts business owner has put up extremely racist signs calling Elizabeth Warren “Princess Little Big Liar”.
You know, I’ve noticed something: everyone making a fuss about Elizabeth Warren’s ancestry is decidedly white.
Lynna, OM
Basically they’re saying that 2+2=5. It is simply not possible to keep tax rates the same for those making under 250k per year, raise taxes on those making more than 250k per year to 38%, and leave the distributive structure of the tax code unchanged. Call it “Obama’s Dilemma.” … An 8% percent across the board raise isn’t going to work.
that’s why this election is a bitter joke on the american people.
If the CPUSA isnt on the ballot will be voting green
Setar, etc not all of them are white
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/Senate/2012/0602/Cherokees-hammer-Elizabeth-Warren-on-ancestry-claim-ahead-of-Mass.-party-convention
some folks take those claims very seriously
Sigh.
Over the past two weeks, four local teenagers have committed suicide. In all four cases, bullying appears to have been a major factor. I overheard two older (mid-50s? (old to me, anyway. for now.)) discussing the idea that bullying was a problem. Then both thought, loudly, that the bullying was just a way for bad parents to ignore being bad parents. After all, said one (approximate transcript), “I was bullies all the way through school and it taught me to be strong. These kids today are crybabies and their parents need to knock some sense into them.”
Assholes.
Being bullied does not make one stronger. Being bullied can make suicide look like a solution.
The newspapers are taking this very seriously. One of them (the Citizen’s Voice) published a front page editorial telling children that suicide is not a viable option and that bullying needs to be taken seriously and eliminated. Or reduced.
@23: Warren is claiming ancestry through her maternal line. A simple mitochondrial genetic test should solve the issue. If it matters.
broboxley, CPUSA hasn’t run a presidential campaign since Gus Hall versus Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale.
CPUSA wants Obama to win this election. This is part of the current popular front strategy outlined in section 4b (unity against the ultra-right) of the party platform.
So if your plan was to vote CPUSA, they’re asking you to go ahead and vote Obama.
Brown or whoever put up the signs is still a hopeless racist or at least incredibly deliberately “naive” about race. Compare and contrast. Race seems to be, um, not coming up quite a lot in this campaign.
dianne #27: Well, other than Brown opening the debate with the ancestry criticism…
Setar: That’s what I mean by “not coming up”: I’m sure Brown would argue that he’s not really bringing up race, he’s just bringing up Warren’s “dishonesty” or something. Just like all the talk about Obama’s birthplace are ostensibly about whether he’s technically qualified to be president and nothing at all to do with his Kenyan ancestry.
Stephen Harper has won the first ever Richard Nixon Prize.
(Only problem, Nixon IIRC had some good social programs.)
Kristinc:
No problem – print out what you want and trace it. You have several options from there – you can use a transfer pencil or pen, which will make your pattern an iron on transfer. If your fabric is light enough, you can tape your pattern to a light box (or a bright, sunlit window), then place your fabric over and draw directly on it, using a fabric pen. You can trace your pattern on tracing paper or a tear-away embroidery stabilizer. Fix the paper on your fabric, stitch, then tear away the tracing paper or stabilizer.
SGBM since cpusa will not be on the ballot, green party it is. I refuse to vote for someone who is in charge of
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2012/09/tsa_freeze_drill_videod_at_sky.php
and the total stupidity of trying to tell the american public that the 911 attack against our embassy in benghazi was the result of a spontaneous attack due to a video that had been floating on youtube for months. That is strategic reaganesque incompetence at the highest level.
#30 Setar, the link doesnt work?
Setár: Your link is borked. I found something about it here.
Hey now, Mrs. Fishy is an engineer. There might be a few folks in engineering who are good at technical tasks and bad at everyday things because of how their minds are wired, but I think that more often than not this is learned helplessness.
I also suspect that there’s a heaping of confirmation bias involved in this stereotype. Mrs. Fishy is on the board of an engineer’s social/networking group. I’ve been to any number of functions and they are full of sociable, reasonable, fully functional adults. But of course at the end of the night we end up talking about the one or two, er, unique, individuals rather than forty to a hundred neurotypical folks.
as the CPUSA points out, “pushed through:
* Affordable Health Care Act extends coverage to 35 million uninsured people, outlaws denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions and extends until age 26 coverage of children under their parents plans.
* Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act for equal pay for women.
* Stabilized the economy with $789 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that saved or created 3 million jobs. Invested billions in clean energy jobs, saved the auto industry.
* Unemployment benefits for millions of workers despite Republican threats to shut down the government. Obama was forced to yield on Bush-era tax cuts for the rich that he wanted to terminate.
* Appointed two women to the U.S. Supreme Court, including the first Latina woman, who support the rights of working people.
* Established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and used a recess-appointment to name the director over Republican opposition.
* Created a new food safety agency to protect people from food-borne illness.
* Ended profit-grab by private banks on students loans, reestablishing Federal control on these loans and used the savings to extend loans to more students.
* Doubled the funding for Pell Grants to $32 billion, increasing size of the grant $819 to a maximum of $5,500.”
But go on, stamp your feet and refuse to use your vote to help anything but your feelings of personal purity.
Ooh, thanks! Sounds like I can use any image of a bee at all, which is fab.
Graph paper, pencil, lotsa eraser…and carbon paper.
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Not so:
Massachusetts Senatorial Race: Identity Standards, Not Identity Politics
and
Senator Scott Brown’s Racist and Anti-Indian Campaign Rallies: Why Progressive People Should Give Money to Elizabeth Warren’s Campaign in Order to Get this Bigot Out of Office
and there were earlier articles on the same American Indian news site as well.
–
#35 SGBM shouldnt there be chapter and verse notations on some of that woo?
Maddow 3:16
Stamping away here
To all the engineers (and lovers of engineers):
As I said, I’m related to/know many engineers. Most are lovely people, even the one or two that I know that are… a little bit awkward. I did not intend to paint you all negatively and I am so sorry that I did.
It’s common knowledge, broboxley. I’m citing it from the CPUSA because you expressed interest in them. If you dispute something in particular, say so.
Nothing to be proud of. You are refusing to use your vote to help make real people’s lives better. It is functionally equivalent to not voting at all.
Augh, how did that happen to my link…
Stephen Harper has been awarded the first ever Richard Nixon Prize.
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sgbm #40:
What if you live in a district that is guaranteed to go to the wrong side? I almost voted Green in the 2009 provincial election because regardless of whether I voted Green or NDP the incumbent BC Liberal candidate, who is now the Deputy Premier, was going to win.
well SGBM I could move to Canada and vote NDP to my hearts content and no one would begrudge me that right. Too lazy and pissed off to go to thunderdome and argue so have a nice night.
Got REALLY depressed at work today. 4 female work mates late 20’s to mid 40’s discussing how absolutely shitting all men were and their particular long time SO’s describing in detail how much they loathed them. I was with them, listening, keeping my mouth shut. If I ever end up single I am so screwed….
Oh joy. Ocular migraine. It’s pretty. It’s annoying. It’s pretty annoying. Ah well, it could be a real migraine.
That sounds like calculating, instead of relying on gut reactions about moral disgust and personal purity. And as long as you calculate carefully, that can make sense, as long as each federal, state and local vote is calculated on its own merits.
+++++
I’m not begrudging you any right to make any choice; I am critiquing the consequences of your choice.
Setár,
That’s something that is rarely discussed in the mainstream of the political media. Nixon, and Reagan, and most of the Republican party from 30-50 years ago, were pretty goddamned terrible by liberal standards. They were also fortunately interested in governing a working democracy within a functioning country. For all of their flaws, Nixon and Reagan could look at a disaster like factories poisoning tens or hundreds of thousands of people, or workplaces crippling the same number of citizens, and say “You know, maybe it is OK if we try to not kill/poison/maim our own population.” Even if the thinking was just “we need healthy people to fight communism and build more nukes” at least they were capable of thinking past the next 12 weeks.
The current crop of Republicans look at the same situation and if they recognize that there’s a problem at all, they seem to think “if you get poisoned, you must be marked by God to die. Profits come first. If God wanted profits to go down, he would make the pollution back up into the factories.”
Woo?
Refutations please.
Citations a bonus.
Are you intending to draw the contrast I think you are here? :/
I’m stealing this phrasing.
Clean Water Act and strengthening of the Clean Air Act (amendments including federal enforcement) just for starters. Nixon’d be drummed out of the modern GOP. And he’d be to the left of many Democrats, too.
Broboxley how did you go from libertarian to cpusa?
SGBM
Ah, thank you
#50 Rev BDC didnt, but I live in BCF Georgia and I wanted the locals looking over their shoulders
Stalin was a libertarian with the freedom of choices
besides Communism isn’t bad if you have Beria in your back pocket
Shit, now that you mention it Azkyroth I can see a blindingly obvious interpretation of what I wrote that implies non-neurotypical cannot be reasonable, fully functional adults. I’m sincerely sorry, that is obviously not true.
I’m not unaware of these issues and yet I keep fucking up like this. I really have to think more carefully when posting on this stuff.
Wut
So, uh, did you go from libertarian to green? Still interested in how.
#53 Rev BDC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarianism
First description fits the man of Steel all right. The second sentence also describes Stalin prior to his takeover of the Soviet
After he took over he had the liberty to do what he wished without government interference. You really didn’t think he was a communist did you? :-)
ARGH now my sewing machine is dead ARGH ARGH ARGH
#54 SGBM I am a believer in freedom. Can a green party in charge provide me with the wiggle room to allow my freedom as much as a republican or democratic government? I believe the greens would not allow waterboarding except in the cases of strip mining or clearcut logging. Political beliefs? Maybe I am naive but I dont think so.
I don’t understand the meaning of this phrase.
Anyway the question was did you indeed give up libertarianism and go green?
Or are you straddling the libertarian and green parties right now? You’re sort of making it sound this way, but you’re anything but clear.
Ah, but naive people never think they’re naive.
That is so adorable
SGBM #58 a green part president, a green party majority in either house would be the definition of in charge.
not straddling any fences, Democans or Repocrats have done nothing useful in many years except line their own pockets and set better income traps to move cash from their base to their owners.
blows white makeup encrusted kisses Ing’s way
So you’re Green now, and not Libertarian or Tea Party anymore?
Bear with me, please. I’m going my best to read Oxlish here.
Caine:
Congratulations on being featured and finishing Darkheart Duckie Project. I think Velma is my favorite duckie, but I love them all. You are amazing! ♥
@cm
That article you linked looked like Brad was saying the neoliberals looked right, but now they are wrong. It doesn’t look like he is supporting neoliberal economics.
Also, he did used to be a neoliberal economist. Here is him admitting he was wrong: http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2011/01/what-have-we-unlearned-from-our-great-recession.html
Although I am not sure how much of neoliberal economics he thinks is wrong or right from that article.
Broboxley
You think the Green Party actually has a chance under the winners take all electoral system?
About some things. There’s a variety of neoliberal nuances. Your link goes to January 2011 — and by my reading amounts to saying “I am a neoliberal and here’s some things I was wrong about.”
But anyway six months later he is still calling himself a neoliberal.
@strange gods
Thanks for clarifying things.
Anyway, a critique from the left (here in the body of Arin Dube, rather than norbizness) of the link I just gave in #65.
Reckon some folks may find this :
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4284048.html
news article interesting –
Late to the Pratchett discussion — and heck, I should be in bed anyway, since I have to be up in 6 hours — but I’m going to toss my favorites out anyway: Witches Abroad and Hogfather, though all my Watch or Death books are much-beloved and frequently re-read.
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Ogvorbis
One of my friends lives in the same area. Her daughter attends PAHS and was close to the boy who killed himself. (And she’s now quite distraught and blames herself because she had no idea he was even thinking about suicide.) When my friend first posted about it on Facebook — literally a single line, “How many more?” and a link to WNEP’s story — she and I were both horrified by the number of people who commented more more or less the same way as those you overheard.
They were eventually drowned out (and shut up) by the great number of people who commented on what assholes they were (those condoning bullying), and/or shared their own experiences with bullying and how much it affected them. Still, that kind of empathy-deficit is disheartening, though not at all surprising.
—
Caine
Adding my adoration of the Darkheart Duckie project. I haven’t picked a favorite yet because they’re all amazing.
I am so envious of people with needle skills. I can sew a button, if forced, but only if someone threads the needle for me…and stands by to knot it when I’m done.
Good morning
In for another day of Soccer-moming.
Hate it, but it’ll get better once the little one stays at the daycare for longer.
kristinc
Here’s a mean old trick o’ mine.
Get yourself some of the water soluable stabilizer. You want a pretty soft and light one, because it doesn’t really have to stabilize much. Also get yourself temorary spray adhesive.
You can trace the pattern onto the stabilizer by just putting it on top of the pattern in a good light. Now spray the back of the stabilizer generously with spray adhesive and place on your fabric. When you’ve finished you can just wash the stuff and the stabilizer is gone.
Fuck for sewing machine.
That IS an emergency.
Ogvorbis
Oh shit.
And yeah, those people you hear just realized that (apart from it being totally untrue) the flipside of “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is that it might kill you. And they decided it was OK.
dianne
Would it? I mean, my maternal line includes as many men as women, so if my maternal grandfather was X, my mitochondrial DNA wouldn’t tell you anything…
I’ve said this already over at Almost Diamonds:
Catch 22: Now they’re making a fuss because she ticked the box. If she hadn’t they’d surely have found out that she has Indian ancestry and would be calling her a racist wh’s ashamed of it.
It’s complicated, I think. It’s at least problematic to claim an identity of a minority when you’Re neither rooted in that culture nor getting any shit for it. I neither claim Hungarian Gypsie nor Russian German.
Caine
Absolutely no surprise here. You really should be.
Those with cats:
Does anyone else have a cat drips mucus (from the nose) when he/she is pet? Kayta is the only cat I’ve had that does this. Even then, it’s only when she’s been pet for a period of time. It’s kinda gross on the one hand, but on the other, it seems like she’s extremely happy/content, and I can’t begrudge her that.
Tony,
One of my mom’s cats drools an incredible amount when he’s content. So, yeah, cats are weird.
(I’d be worried if the mucous was green, but if it’s clean and drippy, eh whatever.)
*clear. Need coffee.
Again, wut?
I’m no fan of libertarians but I’m pretty sure that going by definitions like your’s above, the campaigns of repression and the great purges kinda sorta go against that.
Well he was, he was just a lot more.
Libertarian is a gigantic stretch and leap.
So I spent about 1 1/2 hours under my house yesterday replacing insulation that some sort of rodent type varmint had torn down.
I mean all under the house, the whole floor plan.
I got about maybe 1/4 of the way through and…
found the nest. No live critters, but
uh
that was unpleasant.
Had to punt and reassess my tactics.
I stopped and went to the bar. Have to go back today to deal with it.
Not
Looking
forward
to
it
Desperation
BDC
Urgh, comiserations
+++
Ah, yeah, I’m a good girl.
I just apologized to somebody whose job it is to answer students’ questions for having a question. And it turns out that she had made a mistake*…
But, well, 6 months ago I wouldn’t have asked, so I guess this counts as a success. And 7 credit points…
*Can happen. But yeah, to have scruples asking somebody about that problem is really a sign of good girl conditioning. Better getting those 7 Credit points again instead of wasting 5 minutes of somebody’s time…
Giliell,
Good for you that you asked.
Being assertive is difficult when it goes against one’s upbringing or personality.
Do you also apologize when someone steps on your foot (as just one example)? I do that.
beatrice
No, but I make sure that they feel totally not bad about my bleeding toes.
SGBM
the correct term is boxlish. What on earth ever gave you the idea I was a teapartier? I have spent enough time fishing hunting and hiking in various backwaters of the world that I am very aware of how man intersects nature.
I always find with jobs like that, it’s the smell.
I have a high-quality face mask I keep loaded with fine particle cartridges for working around the ancient/nasty mineral wool I still have in some of my cathedral ceilings, but I doubt it would cut the smell much… Maybe if you got such a thing and loaded it with the cartridges rated for harmful vapours? Can’t say I’ve ever tried it, mind.
So I have no great suggestions. Apart from obviously, I guess: while doing it, try to keep in mind going back to the bar after.
RevBDC: There’s a possible alternative to putting insulation on the floor. If you have a sealed crawl space you insulate down the walls and out across the ground for meter or so. The idea is the heat from the house warms the exposed earth which acts as thermal storage keeping the house at steadier temp. You don’t have to crawl under so much of the house and as a bonus you get warmer floors.. You should check with an expert, this all from memory of a discussion with the bloke who did the energy audit on a former home.
Would it? I mean, my maternal line includes as many men as women, so if my maternal grandfather was X, my mitochondrial DNA wouldn’t tell you anything…
I thought the claim was for her mother’s mother’s mother’s mother’s mother. You’re right, if it were anyone else, the mitochondria are lost and no conclusion can be drawn.
I’ll still need to removed the insulation that was wrecked along with the remnants of the critters (said to include all possible definitions of remnants).
So either way I’m going to be crawling under the house a bunch.
Plus I’m putting up some tougher wire fabric on the inside of the vents so they can’t get back in as easily.
Little fuckers chewed through a metal grate to get in the first time.
Poor Rev. :(
So, I’m at work, finishing up the paperwork for the fender-bender that my new guy got into yesterday and I look at his driver’s license info…
… He was born in 1990.
1990.
1990.
For shit’s sake, I feel old.
The problem with assertiveness is that it can end up looking like “aggression” to anyone who has a bone to pick with you.
Like Anna Johnstone and myself.
Yeah, it doesn’t work if unless the floor is uninsulated. I’ve done enough of that sort of work to feel that the best renovation is completed with a can of petrol and a match. Best of luck.
-d
Yeah it’s not really a renovation. It’s a repair, of sorts.
House is only 6 years old. I should know. I spent a long hot Charleston year building it with my chimpy hands. Those fucking rodents had one hell of a party down there.
At least my father in law is going to help.
I’ll expect lots of grunting and pointing from him.
Mmmm, bork, bork, bork…
Very cool Rev.
Sometime in the next week or so the builders will start on our new home. The 2 acre block we bought is zoned for two dwellings. The plan is to live in this first, small, very energy efficient home for a couple of years and then start building a straw bale, er, dream home for lack of better term. Paging Kevin McCloud….
ibyea
#64
here is how
http://www.greenpartywatch.org/2012/09/21/jill-stein-85-can-vote-green-next-question-is-how-many-will/comment-page-1/#comment-67500
only 50% of eligable voters turn out and split their votes pretty evenly between democratic and republican parties. If all of the rest would show up and vote green it would be a sweep. Its not going to happen in one election cycle. It took decades to get the whigs out of power but it can happen. If you accept the fud and fear of “dont vote third party, vote for the less suckage candidate” then it wont happen. That will be your fault, not mine. :-)
Audley
A very good friend of mine plays in a theatre group. They’re having a new play and they usually put out promotional postcards. I found one of them yesterday and sent him a message who the young lady next to him was. I usually know the whole troup, but since they were wearing joker-like make-up I didn’t recognize her. She was dressed in an orange turban, a blue glittering shirt and some wide frilly trousers.
He said “young lady? Do you mean Iason?”
And I looked again and thought “shit, shit, shit”. The skinny young lady is a skinny teenage lad, only that I remember the skinny teenage lad as a cute primary school kid…
vote NDP to my hearts content and no one would begrudge me that right.
Damn dyslexia. I initially read this as “vote NPD to my heart’s content” and was…concerned.
No, that can’t be. Boy was born in 1990 and he’s . . . .
Damn.
He’s 22.
What the hell?
Hekuni Cat:
Thank you! ♥
Socio-gen:
Thank you.
I feel the same exact way when it comes to people who have sewing machine skills and I have needle envy when it comes to what other people can do embroidery-wise. I’m routinely stunned when I see the work students at the Royal School of Needlework can do!
Giliell:
I’m pretty excited to be included in such talented company. It’s not like I make my own personally embroidered shoes!
I don’t understand houses without basements.
I know they are the majority, I’ve just had no first-hand experience.
Caine, let me join in the needlework lovin’ pile-on. That quilt rocks, and the fact that you hand stitched the whole thing does my head in. I’ve sewn on buttons and occasionally trussed up a failing pack and the like, and if I had to do that much work with a needle I’m pretty sure I’d end up accidentally stitching myself to the cat, even though we don’t have a cat.
I feel the same way. And it still weirds me out to see people’s hot water heaters sitting outside. Tain’t right that, it’s like me sitting around with my liver sticking out for all to see.
I don’t understand houses without basements.
When the water table’s 2 feet under the surface, houses without basements make sense.
FossilFishy:
The houses in our neighborhood have their hot water heaters in the attic, but at least they’re not all hanging out, right?
#94 dianne that would’nt concern you, you would go daang, they are being infiltrated
Audley…
I was born in 1997.
…
…
Second-third-fifth-sixthing the congrats, Caine – glad to see that your creation is getting the appreciation it deserves!
Um, well, I totally never was sitting trying to mend something and ::cough:: sewed it onto my jeans. That I was wearing. Nope, never ever happened. At all.
Indeed Audley, very proper that. If you could perhaps persuade your abode to correspond with the local accommodations, get them to see the error of the exhibitionist way as it were, I’d be much obliged.
This year’s college freshmen were born in 1994.
Audley, um, Darkfetus will be born in *gasp* 2012!
FossilFishy & Opposablethumbs, thank you!
Trinioler:
*counts on fingers*
Oh my word. Maybe it’s because I feel so young (and, to be fair, I’ll be 31 in two weeks, so I am still kind of young), but it still astounds me that there are young adults who have never known life before the (popular use of the) internet. Not in a bad way– I know some awesome teens and 20 somethings– it’s just a reminder that I’m not a kid anymore. :)
FossilFishy:
My neighbors keep all of their internal housing bits all covered up, never fear. We can’t have our waterheaters outside ‘cos the neighborhood regularly floods (hence keeping that stuff in the attic).
Caine:
I know! Trust me, I’ll be wigged out when she old enough to vote, too. ;)
Yikes. I gradumatated in ’95.
Confarnit!
Of course not! It never happened to me either. Seriously. What a ridiculous notion. *shifty eyes*
Yep, living on the coast of South Carolina sort of makes that difficult.
Our hot water heater is the in the garage for downstairs and in the attic for upstairs.
Trust me, I’d kill for a basement. Think of all the beer fermentation I could have going on down there in a cool basement.
100° F Charleston summers make that a bit difficult in the garage, and I’m pretty sure Mrs. BDC isn’t going to go for a couple carboys fermenting away in one of the extra bathrooms. She’s already dealing with sour dough starter and sauerkraut and little does she know while she’s away this weekend I’ll be starting some hotsauces a’fermenting.
’95?
I don’t approve of ’95. Bad year.
I’ve got more than a decade on you Audley and I don’t feel old either. Well, emotionally I don’t, but my eyes (no, I’m not going to the optometrist because xi’s going to tell me I need bifocals), my knees (No, darling daughter of mine, I can’t spend another hour on the trampoline with you) and my, my, er, what was I saying….
Hah! I’m 37, I’m not… oh wait. Today I’m 38… I am old. Never mind.
I’ve stitched stuff to myself…it happens. :D
Not blue jeans.
And certainly not the table-cloth.
Happy birthday, Improbable Joe!
Happy Birthday ImprobableJoe?
Happy birthday Joe! May your pickhand never slow, your capos never slip and your distortion never dim, and may your next year be so much better than your last that you’ll wonder if it all ’twas but a dream.
And with that I bid you creatures of the North a good day, us oldies need to be abed at a decent hour and for the love of pete stay offa my lawn!
Happy Birthday, Joe!
Happy Birthday, Joe.
Happy happy happy, joy joy joy, Joe!
Audley:
Since I’m mostly in classes or surrounded by kids the same ages as my own, “old” is a feeling I’ve come to know so well…
opposablethumbs:
And I never, ever sewed my finger to the fabric of the pillow sham I was making in home ec class. Or made it worse when the pain of the first stitch caused my foot to slam the pedal and send the machine into turbo drive.
—
Improbable Joe:
Felicitations!
In the older comments section of this chapter of [Louge #370] I mentioned an article on the Drudge Report that featured a video of a black woman fulminating over the “free phone” Obama had given her.
Of course right-wing radio, TV, and blogs have really gone to town with this video. As is usual, reality does not quite fit their take on this issue.
Text excerpt above is from The Maddow Blog.
The Atlantic Wire posted a more detailed analysis of the video and of the issue.
When bedrock is a foot below the surface, basements also have little to offer.
Basements also don’t work really well (or at least cheaply) when the ground likes to periodically stretch its legs and go for a jog.
There are safe ways to build subsurface structures in earthquake zones, but they aren’t cheap enough to be used for the average house.
On Romney and torture:
Excerpt above is from The Maddow Blog.
Nice to see that Romney’s advisors are feeding him “a number of factual errors and misleading statements.” Yeah, as if Romney needed any help in the dishonesty area.
Lynna #125 yes the lifeline program has been around for a long time. The idea that all telco users should chip in to allow basic services for the elderly and others. Good idea but something happened in 2008, where the cost for cellular service (great idea bcause homeless means no land line) was $772 million. Now the cost has ballooned to $1.6 billion in 2011.
Why the change? Aggressive marketing and lax oversight. Folks are drummed up outside of grocery stores, mass mailings and door to door hawkers. Fill out a form, swear that you qualify and you get a free phone with free minutes. So folks have multiple free phones with multiple carriers.
As far as calling it the obamaphone? Why not check the source and sign up if you really need one
http://obamaphone.net/
cant blame the right wing for calling that out, its how it is marketed
Stalin did what HE wanted and other people had to live (or not) with the consequences.
Broboxley’s on to something here.
broboxley,
“Why the change?” Maybe a massive recession?
broboxley:
You really fall for anything, don’t ya?
Okay, one: to receive the cell phone (in PA, at least) through a local company you usually have to provide verification of your status with a particular program (usually your SSI, TANF, or food stamp case number) or income verification.
Second: “Obamaphone.net” — not actually connected to the government or the Obama administration. Actual government services and agencies use “.gov” addresses.
Thanks for the birthday wishes everybody! My parents sent me birthday money! *does a little dance*
Citation fucking needed that people are gaming the system and doing so in a meaningful number.
I have a safelink phone because I can’t afford a phone otherwise. It’s used for Little One’s school emergencies and looking for a job. It was easy to get because I was able to submit proof online showing I’m on foodstamps. It’s the kind of application that’s needed and not needlessly difficult or anything. I qualify and I got one. My parents qualify and have one.
Prove this statement or you are no better than those complaining about welfare fraud.
Improbable Joe: YAY ! *Snoopy dancing*
*smash*
Y’know, when I do a monster experiment where I’m collecting samples every six hours for three days (please, do the math and try to determine what my sleep cycle has been), I would like it to fucking work.
>:(
So did I. Of course, I spent five years in a four year high school, so I cheated a little bit.
===
Happy Birthday, Joe!
===
There is dynamite. And C4. And other things that go usefully boom.
Neonatalish?
I see my fellow Pharygulites have answered the inaccurate “Obama-phone” claims for the most part. Well done.
I will point out that cell phone charges in the USA do often contain ever-escalating little add-on fees that often add to up big bucks for the companies. Lax oversight and gaming of the system do occur. That’s no reason to kill the phones-for-poor-people program.
US cell phone plans are among the world’s most expensive, for a variety of reasons. tech.slashdot link.
The cost in the US is mostly a result of policy mistakes. EU countries make an effort to correct policy errors. Link.
On another subject, the Republican National Committee has been caught … again. Real voter fraud does exist, and the Republicans are masters of hidden fraud.
More, and yet worse details available here.
Businessweek article on the Lifeline fraud
So, the jump is because they started covering cell phones and basically doubled the number of accounts they were serving (probably also impacted by the recession).
The “fraud” was 269k out of 12.5 million – that’s roughly 2%. Not exactly a huge amount here.
Also, big-ass highway-standard pneumatic drills…
That’s what they use around here. Which, yes, does get noisy. The bedrock is like maybe a foot and a half below the surface, in places, but it’s also mostly limestone, so, y’know: heavy to move, but soft…
… with, okay, bits of broken glacial gneiss, too, of course, in places. Which is heavy to move and not soft.
Anyway: and we all have basements.
It kind of pleases me. There’s this appealing bullheadedness about it. Rock? Like we care: one has a basement, them’s the rules. Who’s whining about a little rock?
(/Granted, it can get inconvenient. Anyway, hand me the that C4… I have to go weed the lawn.)
I graduated from high school in 1973.
Follow up to my comment @138
Link.
As Richard Austin noted above, “The “fraud” was 269k out of 12.5 million – that’s roughly 2%. Not exactly a huge amount here.” Now, I don’t like 2% fraud, and would prefer to see fraud addressed. But I don’t think we can administer any large-scale program to help poor and lower middle class persons without exposing taxpayers to a certain amount of fraud. Let’s be practical and take steps to keep fraud to a minimum. This idea that we should scrap programs with a 1% or 2% fraud rate is the stuff of right-wing hysteria.
The really big frauds are perpetrated by industry lobbyists and their congressional lackeys who pass laws that allow industries to rip off consumers and taxpayers.
Oooooooh. Better start drug testing them all to make sure they aren’t using government money to make drug deals! And searches too, I’m sure that’s next. Let’s stop a little fraud by spending more money on stopping it than what’s being defrauded! After all, who needs more minutes? What you mean they had phone interviews that go on for half an hour or have to wait an hour on hold to get a hold of DES? Pfffft, lying thieves!
Goddamn, I wish I was kidding.
Esteleth:
Ugh! That stinks!
—
Lynna:
Oh, gee….what a surprise.
—
Richard Austin:
Same as Florida — instituted drug testing of welfare applicants, only to discover that less that 3% tested positive, and that testing cost the state more than paying benefits would have. Source
Ah, yes indeed. You should see the equipment that road crews use to work on the highway that crosses The Craters of the Moon. I want some of that.
sounds like abuse to me
http://mccaskill.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1428
please note the senator in question is not exactly a right wing nutjob
Same thing happens outside of food depot in acworth GA. They wanted to give me one. I pay for 4 cell phones now, didnt matter as (according to the signer) if I lost my job and couldnt pay the bill I would still have the free one.
Isn’t it odd that, for a private company, a fraud or theft rate of 2% would be a dream come true? The store in which my son is an assistant manager does very well controlling loss and their theft and fraud rate is around 3.5%. But, for a government run, or government affiliated, program, any fraud at all is completely and totally unnacceptable. Guess what? No government programme, or affiliated programme, can eliminate fraud. The fraud rates are, as this case shows, pretty low. And, compared to private groups? Really low.
How much would it cost the programme to eliminate the fraud? If eliminating a 2% fraud rate means an increase of 10% per unit, what’s the point of pursuing the fraud?
chigau:
I started kindergarten in 1973. :)
—
broboxley:
No one is saying fraud doesn’t exist; we’re saying it doesn’t exist in the massive amounts that the right-wing (and you) claim it does.
And, yet again, you’ve made the mistake of assuming your personal experience is the universal. Stop doing that.
Hee hee. Big toys, yes…
They recently redid the water and sewer stuff, here. Explosives where they had room, but in my neighbourhood, the house fronts were too close. So they mostly used big Cat excavators–first the big drill to pound the rock down enough to move, then the scoops to lift it out. So the big machines tended to be parked in the mostly closed street, in front of us, for some weeks, evenings and weekends.
I think it was one of you mentioned you had a key for one of those, and they’re mostly all the same.
Anyway: it sounded like fun, all right.
Chigau:
I graduated from high school in 1975.
Does anyone here have personal experience of selling tee shirts or such over the Web? I’m…considering giving it a try, and would appreciate informed opinions on whether this is a good and viable idea. You know, before jumping off into the potentially shark-infested waters.
–
Now to read the Thread.
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Lynna! I have a question from the gay marriage thread: Does the Mormon church teach that sex for pleasure within the confines of a church sanctioned marriage is permissible?
145# No one is saying fraud doesn’t exist; we’re saying it doesn’t exist in the massive amounts that the right-wing (and you) claim it does.
Show me the post where I claim there is massive fraud. I did point out that a democratic senator pointed out that the oversight of the program as it applies to her state is negligent. Supplied the link. Now my presumption is that paying people to get folks signed up for a free government phone on a piecework basis is a bad idea.
Amelia has figured out how to open drawers and is firmly of the opinion that since she can open them, she has ownership of anything within.
That works for small children, cats, dogs, me, er, no, not me. But if the drawer is stuck (I didn’t know we had that spatula (thank you, Annoya)) and I get it open, I’m sure gonna look at what is there and see if anything useful . . . er, valuable? er, um.
Nevermind.
broboxley @ 129:
That, to me, reads as if you are implying fraud on a large scale.
Except, as has been shown above at 139, that turns out not to be the case.
Caine
Yes.
Makes sense to me.
Does this explain the black paint episode?
But the way you linked the massive increase in the expense was with fraud. Aggressive marketing and lax oversight lead to fraud which is why it’s so much more expensive. It jump was massive you only bring up the fraud and go on about the fraud as an excuse. You completely came off all wrong.
In my case it was my shirt that I totally never sewed a chemise onto.
The sewing machine and I are not friends.
–
I wish we had a basement.
Tornadoes aren’t allowed in basements.
–
Happy birdsday, Joe.
I recommend the penguins.
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I graduated from high school in 1976.
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*raised eyebrows*
Of course. Always Loot The Room.
Also, monsters sometimes swallow stuff; it pays to see if you can get them open, as well.
In fact, it’s probably best to disassemble them thoroughly; some parts are salable.
–
Er, Socio-gen at 156 explained it better.
I don’t approve of ’95. Bad year.
In 1995 I was an intern working 100-120 hours per week. I don’t remember 1995 much at all.
Happy birthday, Joe!
Finished the experiment last night at about 5 pm, went home, had a bite to eat, fell over into bed.
Slept 13 hours. Woke up still feeling tired.
Ugh.
Worse, am coming down with something.
Also, had truly batshit dream, where I was still dating the ex and she had been arrested by ICE and threatened with deportation back to her home country, which in dream-land is now viciously homophobic and kills LGBT people (Ex is from Norway, for the record). So vivid that I woke up, grabbed my phone, and dialed 5 digits of her number before I realized how wrong this was. My subconscious is fired.
Good evening
I remember somebody on the UT blog mentioning that she stiched something to the baby who was sleeping in her lap.
++++
Kids, don’t do this at home.
I just had the news that my second cousin is pregnant. NOw, here’s the fun: The kid will be uncle or aunt of an already 2 year old. I guess their son is just laughing his ass off as he surely got some lectures on safe sex and such when he got his girlfriend pregnant…
Chigau:
No. That was a case of climbing. I’ve never seen climbing skills like these guys have, they are downright amazing. They simply grab any edge and shimmy up. There’s nothing they haven’t been able to climb so far, especially as they view electrical cords as handy dandy bridges to whatever is proving difficult to climb otherwise.
Socio-gen #156
so your assertion is that the above incidents are an outlier? Your reference is a business week article describing an older audit
note that this request was made after the initial audit
and what was the audit actually saying?
that audit only found folks with multiple phones, there has been zero audit of who is qualified to have a lifeline phone versus who is not and from the description they havnt even built the system which can actually track that data. Simple safeguards need to be put in place. It appears from JAL’s remarks that they are in place in some areas, lets expand that requirement to other areas. Georgia in particular.
Oh fuck that sucks. I’m sorry. =(
How do I fire mine? Can I set it on fire?
Dreams fucking suck. I hate them. Even those that don’t drag up my past leave me crying and terrified. The other night I had the weirdest vivid dream where Roomie and I were riding on his bicycle (how that’s possible, I don’t know) and I was in control. I caused us to get hit by a car. I woke up freaking out and was running to call him. My brain caught up with me though before I made the call. The thought that stopped me wasn’t “It was just a dream!”, it was “What if you call him and that’s what causes his terrible accident? You’re going to kill him! Why are you trying to kill him?”. Fucking panic attack kicked in. Then he came home and he was fine. I freaked him out badly, then he chuckled and shook his head when I told him why. I wanted to hit him for that part. If I never have another dream again, I’ll die happy.
I am trying to think of how the Ex would have reacted to a call at ass o’clock of me thinking that (1) she and I were still together (it has been five and a half years) and that (2) she’d been arrested by ICE and that (3) Norway is we-hate-LGBT-people-land.
Probably not terribly well, I think.
Oh, by silly fluffy ladybrain forgot it:
Happy Birthday, Joe
Esteleth, *hugs*, for tiredness and for incompetent subconsciousness.
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Does anybody else have a truncated main page for Pharyngula?
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I think I know what set off the one part of it. She has been griping (in very carefully private locales) about how she and her partner cannot marry (even though they live in a state with marriage equality), because DOMA prevents her partner from sponsoring her for a spouse visa, and because to ICE, marrying a US citizen would look like intent to stay in the country. For someone here on a visa with an explicit end-date, this is a major no-no. So they aren’t marrying, which frustrates the both of them.
Do your research.
Safelink, Assuance Wireless and Reach Out Wireless all have applications online that require your SSN and case number and you submit the documents online.
Unless you were talking about the drug testing, then you can just fuck yourself.
Esteleth:
I always have the same nightmare when I’m stressed and coming off sleep-deprivation (luckily, not a frequent occurrence): that nuclear war has devastated the US and I’m trying to get my kids and myself to safety while scrounging for food and shooting looters. *shudder* I blame the movie The Day After and the book Alas, Babylon which I saw/read in the same year when I was 14.
The last time, a couple years ago, I screamed so loud (and repeatedly) that my neighbor called 911 thinking I was being attacked and/or murdered. Eight cops with guns, two fire trucks, an ambulance….and me in Hello Kitty jammies with a cup of tea, trying to explain it was just a nightmare.
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broboxley:
Again, I repeat myself: most states (I have no idea about GA) require PROOF of eligibility. This is usually one’s case number for benefits which are usually verified through the agency handling those benefits. And which is often alerted to multiple requests from a single case number OR requests from multiple beneficiaries of a single case number. In other circumstances, eligibility is verified through tax returns, court documents, etc. — which are trickier.
These safeguards you want put in place already exist. No, they cannot catch every act of fraud but nothing — I repeat: nothing — can catch them all. However, fraud is not occurring in numbers significant enough to eliminate or restrict the program.
And I want to point out that you’re talking about Missouri. Missouri — a state which ranks at the bottom of nearly every indicator of human well-being and still votes Republican. Yes, I’d consider them an outlier.
Socio-gen
You are the only other person I’ve ever ‘met’ who read Alas Babylon.
(well, two. I found my old paperback in my mother’s basement and made my SO read it. He thought it was crap. So do I, but I read it many times when I was 14 or so.)
Clarity in my #171, Georgia is included in those states. Put in a zip code and you can see the application for yourself. I put in the Alamo zip code (I got it off list online) and was able to verify what’s needed on the application. And your information does get checked and if you don’t pass, you don’t get a phone. Not all three carriers are in all states yet, but there’s coverage everywhere and the applications are basically the same.
Simple as that.
Okay, got the signature tag done and on the quilt. Now The Darkheart Duckie Project is finished. :D
Nicely done Caine! And congrats on being featured.
And Happy B-Day Joe.
Sorry, I got all caught up with the argument.
nuclear war has devastated the US and I’m trying to get my kids and myself to safety while scrounging for food and shooting looters. *shudder* I blame the movie The Day After and the book Alas, Babylon which I saw/read in the same year when I was 14.
I’ve had those. They’re fun, aren’t they? Somehow my subconscious always seems determined to make sure I get all the minor inconveniences of living in a post-nuclear war world as well as the great horrors so I’ll have moments in the dream where I’ll realize that I have permanently missed my opportunity to see a movie I’d wanted to see but put off going to because there’s always something else going on or that I can no longer tell people in the Pharyngula lounge about some political silliness I heard about (yes, you’ve invaded my dreams…congratulations) or that birth control is impossible and so sex is right out from now until menopause, if I get that far. All intermixed with scrounging for food and avoiding being shot as a looter, trying to find my partner and kid to get them to safety, etc. Also, the injuries and deaths in my dreams tend to be graphic. I’ve seen burn injury and trauma so can come up with some realistic images of what a post-bomb site would look like…well, at least, they’re probably toned down from what the reality would be still, but more realistic than what you’d see in a movie.
Caine:
Woo hoo! ♥!
I am too fucking easily amused.
Bad Brains: Yes, That Is an 18-Year-Old Brooke Shields Smoking Up With Rastafarian ’80s Hardcore Icon H.R.
Re-Ignition
Heh.
You are the only other person I’ve ever ‘met’ who read Alas Babylon.
Make it 3. I also read Alas Babylon.I read it in high school as part of a recent US history class (does the Cold War still count as “recent history”?). As I remember, it was the most optimistic of the three books we read about nuclear war. A Canticle for Leibowitz was one of the others, can’t remember the third any longer. Maybe Fail-Safe.
Damn! The song is cut short. Sorry.
chigau:
We had to read it in 9th-grade English. It definitely appeals to the 14yo mind, the idea of the people rebuilding their society. I loved it so much that I bought a copy off the teacher at the end of the year.
Many years later, of course, I realized how utterly stupid and “American can-do” nonsensical the entire thing was. But I still have my copy.
—
Congrats, Caine!
—
dianne:
Oh yes. Much fun. Fun for the whole neighborhood when done properly. :)
It’s funny how real life sneaks in. As I got older, one of the constants of my dream became breaking into a pharmacy to get my medication — because the dream isn’t as much fun if you die early because you couldn’t get your refills. And realizing I can’t ever have sex again because no birth control (glad I’m not the only one dreaming that!) And trying to figure out how to contact family because Facebook isn’t working and I don’t know anyone’s actual numbers because they’re listed by name in my phone’s contact list which is dead because I forgot my charger. (No idea how I think I would charge it — I guess I’d go MacGyver and hook something up from a car battery?)
JAL of course I believe in drug testing, should be mandatory for legislators in session otherwise no need for it
and if I could fuck myself I would never have to leave the house
Re-ignition is good for you.
(/Has many bits of I Against I spread around various devices. And the disk itself somewhere in here.)
JAL, thank you! ♥
Don’t apologize – you’re in a prime position to counter that river of bullshit.
Audley:
:D Working on the sleep pillows now. Yes, Mum & Dad are going to get one, too. I figure you guys will need all the help you can get in the “oh gods, I need sleep!” department.
Well, I made several comments about several things. It’s not like you were clear about it. It’s not like you couldn’t have looked it up yourself.
So yeah, I made a snappy passing remark since I don’t know where the fuck you stand on it and I’m irritated with always having this fraud discussion regarding poor people.
I apologize to the Lounge for that, since it’s not in the spirit of the safe space here and will drop it.
And thank you Caine. That makes me feel better.
I don’t know anyone’s actual numbers because they’re listed by name in my phone’s contact list which is dead because I forgot my charger.
I have, in real life, this little hand crank charger thing that claims to give you 2 minutes of air time for 30 minutes of turning the handle. So I could get as far as having power…but the cell towers would all be down and the land lines probably also.
Ah, what am I worried about? I live on the eastern seaboard. I’ll be ozone if there’s a nuclear war.
(/Doh. Apologies for vid directly in thread. Forgot about that ‘feature’.)
I, too, still have my copy of Alas Babylon.
I notice that the (recently written) article in Pfft doesn’t mention the (normal at the time) racism and sexism.
(Which, of course, I didn’t notice when I first read it.)
JAL,
I don’t blame you for getting pissed off. It is ALWAYS the poor who get scapegoated for everything, even when there’s no legitimate problem. It is genius in a way isn’t it? You get everyone to punch down at the people even slightly below them, while the folks at the top commit crimes on a scale that we can’t even begin to comprehend. And won’t address because “Oh noes, somebody who has next to nothing managed to get some little something that they don’t ‘deserve'”
Awe, thanks, Caine!
Dianne:
Living in ND, I’ll be among the first to be vaporized, so not much point worrying.
I never got that movie, The Day After, out of my head. It actually made me feel better about being vaporized, however.
JAL no apology needed. My comments were not about fraud by the poor, they need all the help they can get. What I was pointing out that while I am broke I am not poor and was offered one of these phones in exchange for a signature on a paper. I would have had the phone in my hands that minute.
I have been homeless for long periods of time in my life, living with the clothes I was wearing and nothing else. I dont forget those days.
Caine:
I remember figuring out blast radii for various potential targets in and around PA and discovering my little part of PA was out of direct range — unless Scranton and/or the Tobyhanna Army Depot was a target. That comforted me somewhat…until I saw The Day After and realized being vaporized was the better option.
Alright, now I’m going to exercise some of the privilege I have. I’m going to whine about extra things like games and books that make my life enjoyable and better, and complain about the things ruining it, like slow as mail and lack of money. Obviously, you guys have been great and are helping me with books. I thoroughly appreciate it all. I just have to get this out since I don’t have your nice things yet.
I can’t vent to my Roomie because he’s the only one working and supporting us and it makes me too ashamed and guilty for words to complain about anything.
Feel free to scroll past this terrible post.
[whine]
I hate the slow as mail. I have books that could be good that I won for free that has been over a month in shipping. Then there’s books I know are good and want to read. I’m stuck winning and reading these terrible Christian fiction books trying so hard to be like Twilight. It’s awful. They maybe well written but it’s worse. It’s less creative, more teenage angst and blaming demons on teenagers wanting to have sex. I mean UGHHHHHHHHHHHH. At least a little part of me likes being the only one to put up a review about how terrible shit it is and how they need to fucking label it correctly as Christian fiction so they don’t get people like me giving truthful nasty reviews. I feel Twilight should totally have a warning label as well.
Then I hate Steam. Seriously, makes me want to whore myself out for games, be a gaming wife to get games gifted to me. I have some games but I miss my games. I have Skyrim and Oblivion but there’s no ps3. And Roomie has a ton of games like Borderlands we used to play together. His ps3 is gone and it’s all my fault. I miss my games, he misses his games and whineeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Life sucks. I hate myself and hate this shit.
[/whine]
I actually feel a bit better now. Thanks.
One afternoon many years ago I was on my way to our trading card night. And that very thing happened to me: I came to the place and time and nobody was there so I took out my phone and saw that it had gone dark. And although there was a public phone it was no use because I didn’t know any numbers.
Well, I decided that it was not worth the trouble driving from home to home finding out where my friends were, but went home, charged the phone, read the message that they were at location X, excused myself and then I sat down and wrote down all those numbers.
I also keep a good old paper calendar in my purse.
Caine
Wow, even that is art.
Socio-gen:
Yeah. In such an event, I wouldn’t want to survive only to die of radiation sickness and nuclear winter and all that. Much better to *poof* you’re gone. Humans…we’re troublesome apes, I wish nukes had never been developed in the first place.
Giliell:
Thank you! Gotta live up to my profession in life. :D
They teach all kinds of shit, and then they deny they ever taught such shit. So, it’s hard to tell.
Here are some links to info that paints the picture of mormon sexuality as clearly s it can be painted:
http://www.i4m.com/think/sexuality/mormon_oral_sex.htm “No Oral Sex for Faithful Married Mormons”
http://www.i4m.com/think/sexuality/mormon-depression.htm “Sexual Repression and Depression in Mormon Marriages”
http://www.i4m.com/think/sexuality/mormon_sex_war.htm Mormons are sexually repressed due to their religion
http://www.i4m.com/think/sexuality/mormon_sex.htm Great moments in mormon sexual history, Sex and Marriage in LDS Church History
Excerpt:
Happy Birthday, Joe
cicely – *pouncehug*
Caine, I love the turtle in your signature tag! (I am very fond of turtles.)
I dont think this 419er is taking me seriously he hast replied to my last message
JAL: What’s your steam name? I still have some game gifts to give away on Steam I think, when I bought a bunch of xmas bundles a few years back. :)
And do you like anime?
bleh, he hasn’t replied yet
Bill Marriott, chairman of the international hotel conglomerate, and a fellow mormon, has added his voice to those trying to humanize Mitt Romney. At a fundraiser, Marriott told a story that involved both he and Mitt’s summer houses on Lake Winnipesaukee, and both of them having big boats they can use to haul their many grandchildren around. This is taking-the-kids-into-town-for-ice-cream story:
Warms my heart.
Hekuni Cat:
So am I! I have a turtle ring and a turtle tattoo. There’s a turtle on the quilt because the turtle is very important in Lakota culture, particularly for women. There’s a tradition, when a woman finds out she is going to have a daughter, to make a beaded amulet pouch in the shape of a turtle. The dried umbilical cord is stored in it. Keya (turtle) protects, oversees health and long life.
I would have made one, but I seriously suck at beading.
#205 Lynna, OM
I wonder what kind of tip he gave him
Keep those stories coming, they are extremely amusing
(Lawls…)
You put that into the thread right after JAL’s ‘first world problems’ post totally on purpose, didn’t you?
(/… also, can I get some sympathy, here? My Dom Pérignon is improperly chilled.)
Oh good, another gem from Todd “legitimate rape” Akin, this time on the issue of fair pay for women. There’s a lot of blather in Akin’s response to a question from an audience member at a town hall meeting, but it basically boils down to him thinking that employers should be free to pay less to women.
Lynna:
Thank you! I’ll check the links when I get home. :)
JAL:
*hugs* Rant all you need to– it sucks to be gameless.
My heart aches for you. My keyboard is awash in tears.
Uh… whut? Akin is actually paying a consultant to help him out in the Missouri Senate Race, and this is what the consultant comes up with?
… oh, but re JAL’s rant:
I’m sorry. But wait… You’re actually reading them?
I dunno. It’s not just that this is a first world problem…
It’s that I feel like giving you sympathy would be enabling you or somethin’. This does not sound healthy.
Of course. A fang from a Red Dragon can sell for a couple of hundred gold pieces in the right milieu. And weighs far less.
Sympathy. I started getting shivers and aches about four hours ago.
Agreed. Agreed to the nth power.
I, too, have read that book. Enjoyed it as a teenager. Read it again a few years ago and it was good, but not as good as I remembered.
Yes. If I remember it, it is recent.
That struck me, too, when I reread as an adult.
Tobyhanna Army Depot would definately be a target. Major electronics depot. And Scranton has an ammunition plant (in an old railroad locomotive shop) so it would definately be a tertiary target (those are the targets they hit when there is nothing else useful to hit).
Cold brie and warm champagne. What could be betterererer?
Alas, Babylon and Morrissey’s “Everyday is Like Sunday” are linked in my brain for some reason. I can’t hear the song without thinking of the book.
Well, if I say they suck without having read them all people say is “But you didn’t read it!”. Same shit happened with Twilight. How else can point out how terrible the book is?
Also, I won them and felt obligated to read it. I wouldn’t have entered to win the book, if it had been correctly labeled. Seriously, label and categorize your books properly, otherwise you get uppity atheists like me give you one star. =)
Well, that was weird. My comment got posted prematurely and I was logged out at the same time.
Anyways, trinioler email me at jals(dot)snark(dot)tentacles(at)google’s mail and I’ll let you know my Steam name. I just don’t want to connect the dots between all my accounts by posting it publicly.
Also, next time can I write trin for short? I put so many extra letters in all the wrong places when I try to type your name for some reason. If not, I can learn it, it’s just going to take me awhile.
First world problems.
216/JAL:
Fair enough. Guess that’s a problem.
I think I’d actually feel slightly icky if I got partway through a book and then realized it were Jesus-y pablum, delivered via such deception.
Like, ick, people…
It’s kinda like that inviting the vampire in problem, come to think of it, oddly enough, tho’, I guess. They obviously figure, they mention it, it’s gonna be forget it…
So, rules to live by:
1) Before inviting anyone in, check to see if their body is room temperature.
2) Before accepting a paperback from anyone, check to see if there’s a fish on their car (or profile page).
Taking a little stroll through the minds of Romney supporters:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/romney-supporters-47-percent
SGBM: sorry for the delay, I’ve got Firefox 15.0.1 and just upgraded to Greasemonkey 1.3.
Exaclty, AJ. I didn’t properly vet the author or book before jumping on it because it could have been good. It could have been a worth while young adult fiction, instead it was Twilight minus any thin veil. I mean really can Christian think beyond angels and demons? Apparently not, since it’s all their books to sway and persuade young readers are all the same shit. Of course, all their beliefs are stolen anyways so it fits a pattern.
Twilight might have ruined vampires and oh my god the Mythical Native American shape shifter and well, everything. But can’t deny that at least it pretended to be different.
Wait. No. We want it obvious so kids don’t get roped into it. So it’s good that it’s bad, but not in the enjoying “so bad it’s good kind of way”.
I think.
I just confused myself.
Chronicling Mitt’s Mendacity, Vol. XXXVI
Video, lots of text, and additional links available at the link given above. The video is awesome.
Excerpt:
Bull-fucking shit!
Sales tax, gasoline tax, taxes on telephones, cable, electricity, gas, heating oil, property tax (indirectly through the rents). They may not pay federal income tax, but they sure as hell pay taxes.
And how many of those listed as not paying federal income tax are children? These assholes have been lying for so long they think their lies define reality.
JAL:
Slow mail!! On the 8th, I ordered three used books via Amazon sellers, standard shipping which usually means media mail, which is usually never slower than two weeks. Fine, I thought, because they’re used paperbacks and I’m not paying near full-price just to get used books.
The two from one place in Maine arrived in six days but I’m still waiting on the third! Which is coming from….Iowa! Apparently it’s being walked to Minnesota? I have to wait until the 1st before I can start complaining and harassing the seller. *sigh*
What’s even worse is that these are part of a series, so I can’t read the two that are here because the missing one comes before them. So they sit on the bookshelf….taunting me.
—
Ogvorbis:
The Russians would have looked at Scranton in the ’80s and said, “There’s no point wasting good ammunition. Dropping a bomb there can only improve it.” :-D
Sorry. Didn’t mean to go off like that but I just had the same conversation with my resident right-winger in my office (though, to be fair, he is far more liberal than most of the current GOP).
Parts of it (much of it) is still like that.
About 66% of the 47% who do not pay federal income taxes are employed. They are the working poor. As such, they pay more that 15% of their income in payroll taxes. That’s a higher rate of tax payment than Romney pays.
Forbes.
Another link to support to support Ogvorbis @224, and my comment @228:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57515033-503544/fact-checking-romneys-47-percent-comment/
Yup. And there are no loopholes to allow one to wriggle out of these incredibly regressive taxes. Yet another example of it costing more to be poor than to be rich.
(Don’t have it with me, but Pratchett, vice Commander Vimes, has an excellent description of this as it pertains to boots (not taxes, but rather the high cost of being poor)).
Okay, one Halloween sleep pillow is done! Two more to go. (One for the Darkhearts and one for Mister – he wanted one to have when he’s away from home.)
Omfg Caine, that is so fucking cute!
Oh and lavender. I love that smell for sleeping and relaxing.
Ogvorbis,
http://wiki.lspace.org/wiki/Sam_Vimes_Theory_of_Economic_Injustice
Ogvorbis:
Sadly true…but at least they have Dunder-Mifflin.
—
Caine:
So much cuteness!!
Oh, for the love of pete. Not content to question Obama’s birthplace, not happy with claiming he has the anti-colonial world view of a Luo tribesman, the right wing sludge-for-brains set has decided to go after Obama’s mother. Bondage and fetish porn, yeah that’s the way Stanley Ann Dunham made the money she used to raise little Barry.
Daily Beast link.
Too outraged to comment.
JAL, yeah sure you can use a dimunitive if you want.
I’ll be sending you an email after work. :)
And do you like Anime because I have some(a lot!) of guest passes to a legal anime streaming site?
Regarding the Obama’s-mother-is-a-whore and Obama’s-real-father-was-not-a-Kenyan movie, well it is all factual.
Alabama GOP Chairman Bill Armistead recently recommended it during a speech, saying, “I’ve seen it. I verified that it is factual, all of it. People can determine.”
JAL:
I’ll most likely have fabric left over and I have a fucktonne of lavender and hops, so I’ll make one for you too.
Socio-gen, thank you!
Evidence? None. We don’t need no stinkin’ evidence.
This “yo mama” tactic against the President should backfire. Please let it backfire.
Oh! See what happens why my comment gets cut off? I forget things!
I do like Anime. Well, what I’ve seen anyways. This comes off really noobish but it’s only been FLCL, Full Metal Alchemist, Bleach, Cowboy Bebop and Dragonball Z.
I think it’s more fun to drink and crack jokes, especially dirty ones while watching. My Roomie is hardcore into it though and puts up with me. I’d like to explore more and if I don’t like it, he’ll fucking love it for sure.
Ohhhhhh! Thank you so much! That would be so awesome. I think I’m going to cry.
Explication of John Donne’s “Song”: BITCHES BE CRAZY.
Caine: A question — what does hops smell like?
I have a lavender neck pillow for traveling and I’ve had other scents over the years (the favorite was a citrus-ish one), but nothing with hops. (I suppose it might have been there and I just didn’t know it.)
Explication of John Donne’s “The Flea”: BITCHES BE CRAZY.
It’s a little early to say, but I think there might be a pattern here.
JAL then you’ll also get a couple of guest passes after work then as well. :)
On reflection, I feel that my explication of “The Flea” was hasty and not reflective enough. My revised explication:
Don’t worry, I will totally double space and one inch margin that shit before I turn it in.
Socio-gen:
It kind of depends on what kind of hops (I’m using Brewer’s Choice and Cascade, both of which are strongly scented), but for the most part, they smell quite lime-y, with an undertone of malt. They smell good, but it’s hard to describe the smell.
JAL, don’t be crying. Either you get the excess fabric or the rats do, and believe me, the rats wouldn’t appreciate it near as much! ;D
Vaguely citrus-y, in a way that is utterly unlike any actual citrus fruit.
kristinc:
*gigglesnort* I’d give you an A.
—
Caine:
Okay, thanks! My brain was trying to convince me it would smell like sour beer and I knew that couldn’t be right. :) Then I wondered if perhaps it didn’t really have a smell — kind of like the rice used in one of my pillows.
Thanks Trin and Caine! Don’t worry it was happy tears. Though the thought of rats playing with the fabric does make me smile too.
Socio-gen: so, it’s not ironic? Because after I wrote that I worried that maybe it was and I was missing something, but no, dude was completely serious wasn’t he.
I have to find one of these poems that I can stand to explicate for class without needing to take fifty showers afterward.
William Wordsworth isn’t a lot better! It’s a beautiful evening, the sunset is so pretty, awww, and we’re by the sea, how nice, can you hear it? And then out of nowhere:
JAL:
In that case, here ya go. :D
I have hops.
I can’t get rid of them.
kristinc:
Well, you have to take into consideration the fact that I know nothing about poetry, nothing about explicating poetry, and graded solely on how much tea I snorted into my nose. :)
Hmmmm, better come up with something else for class then, just in case. :P
D’awwwwww the ratties!
I read “offender” wrong in that stupid article and completely blundered in the MRA thread. *mutters* figures.
Also, kristnc you are just on fire today with the funny! Laughing so much Roomie woke up and asked me what the hell was wrong with me.
The wheelbarrow comment still makes me chuckle when I read it.
Also, my brain just finished the math regarding trin’s age. I was like wait, you’re working already? You’re 15 right? My first thought was 10, because I still like the 90’s were 10 years ago. I was born in 1990 so why I think this way, I have no fucking clue but there it is.
I feel so old for 22 with a 5 year old and all my issues. Hanging out here with people older than me doesn’t make me feel younger, just makes me realize how ignorant I am – though that as the upside of learning a lot.
I am so weird. And talkative today. I think the isolation is getting to me finally.
Hah, I’m 25. thunk is the teen around here. I graduated a year and a half ago with a BS in Comp Sci ;P
Oh and to clarify Audley,
I do have some games on Steams. Games I love and enjoy. I was actually just given Torchlight and Torchlight 2 when Roomie’s friend pre-ordered and bought to gift to his gf but they broke up. So I got them for free. But I can’t play my ps3 games. They are just sitting there on the shelf taunting me. NAH NAH YOU CAN’T PLAY YOUR 100 HOURS CHARACTER IN SKYRIM! OH LOOK THE DLC IS FINALLY OUT! NAH NAH YOU NEVER GOT TO PLAY OBLIVION AFTER YOU BOUGHT IT. NAH NAH YOU CAN’T EVEN PLAY THE FIRST BORDERLANDS ANYMORE!
That just sucks and those games are so expensive! That’s what my whining was about for games anyways.
trinioler see #103
2012-1997=15
just sayin’
chigau: I said I was born in 1987…
:P
Ass.
Gah. I retract that. I was born in 1987, not 1997… gah. Sorry Chigau. Should have checked first before firing back.
I was born in 1989. I can remember when I was the youngest person on Pharyngula… those days are long gone.
And John Donne, oddly enough, went to my old college. (Though apparently he did not graduate, because he was then a Roman Catholic and thus prohibited by law, at the time, from taking a degree.) Alas, I’m not at all familiar with his poetry.
Wait, you said 1997 though, right? In your comment 103? Or did you mean to put 1987?
Oh please tell me you wrote the year wrong, otherwise I think I broke math! Or my brain. Or both.
(Wow. I sound like a pretentious ass. That wasn’t entirely intentional.)
Oh thank god, it was resolved while I was writing that comment.
trinioler
I just hope you aren’t an accountant or some other numbery job.
;)
Walton, I cannot name-drop John Donne as a fellow-alumna of my alma mater, but I can name-drop Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Margaret Mitchell, Julia Child, and *sigh* Nancy Reagan.
Technically, also Barbara Bush, but she failed to graduate.
Agnes has superior shoulder riding skills and she’s remarkably patient for a rat.
!!! How could I forget? !!!
The original Grand Lady of the Mollies is a fellow-alumna.
Lynna:
Indeed… just when I thought the political discourse couldn’t sink any lower, it did. That’s an impressively bizarre mess of misogyny, racism and implausible conspiracy theories.
Yeah, you win. (Except for the Nancy Reagan part.)
Whoa Caine, that pillow is beautiful! I can’t imagine how long that took.
Holy shit you guys.
My kid just went out with his friend.
To the mall.
To hang out.
MY KID IS HANGING OUT AT THE MALL.
And so it begins.
Carlie:
Thank you! Takes about 30 to 40 minutes from start to finish, depending on the amount of interruptions due to rattiness. :)
JAL: Being 22 with a 5yo is 35 in parent years.
It’s like dog years, but your age increases more quickly as they proceed through the teenage years. So when LittleOne is 18, you’ll be 110 in parent years.
However! you’ll start getting younger after they reach 18 and beginning hitting some adult milestones like jobs, college graduation, paying the car insurance on time for a year, not overdrawing their checking account every single month, etc.
Thus, by the time you’re 60 chronologically, you’ll also be 60 in parent years.
—
Walton, Esteleth:
Hmmm…well, my school has a very short list of notable alumni on the Pfft! page, but the only names I recognize are Ed Schultz and Kevin Sorbo.
—
carlie:
Oh boy!
Happy birthday Joe.
Here’s hoping you get a good meal with that money.
Caine – I don’t have any pictures of the socks I sent to Darkkiddy, but the orange cloth your using is going to make a very cute set.
Patricia:
Oh, cool! I just could not resist sneaking something Halloween into The Darkheart Duckie Project. I *love* Halloween fabrics.
Audley! Can you post a pic of the socks Patricia made? Pleeeaase.
@Caine
Looked at your ratty blog. Vasco’s a beauty! Never seen a rat like him before.
Mythbri:
Thanks! Yes, he is a cutie. Takes after his daddy, Havelock. Vasco is the only solid black one, though. Rubin had a solid black in her litter, but he was the victim of over-zealous nesting behaviour on Rubin’s part.
Vasco is also a sweetheart, he’s very affectionate.
help with fancy rattie doctoring
one of my 3 is feeling sick, heavy breathing listless not coming for a treat, eyes look like she is suffering a cold. Got the top goody ginger snap sopped in milk, no interest. So suggestions? 1cc tea and cognac?
other two are fine
I think I’m caught up. Hello again everybody.
Happy Birthday Joe! Hope you get some more buffet food with your birthday money. Or something equally happy-making : )
Caine – late to the party, but that quilt is stunning. I am getting more crafty all the time and I’m inspired by your lovely work.
Esteleth 170
No kidding! I hate DOMA more than I can say. I hate that I have one more major thing to be ashamed of about my country. (Yeah, country music fans, I said it).
Socio-gen 172
If I showed up to that call, the sight of you comfy and sipping tea would be much preferred to what we expected to find.
I used to have those wrenching dreams more as a kid. Once I was about 8, and Mom had run an errand and left me home with 12 and 16 year old siblings. I had dreamed she died horribly, and wouldn’t stop sobbing til she came home because I was convinced it was true. Those sorts still happen nowadays but they are usually less vivid.
—
I made pumpkin oatmeal and pumpkin cinnamon rolls and pumpkin roll out cookies. My kitchen smells of pumpkin.
—
I get a new washer tomorrow, happy dance!
—
My mom is coming to visit me this weekend! I miss her so much, we’ve never lived this far apart and I’m so haaaaaaaaaaappyyyyyyyyyyy
—
I got a “new” frame at goodwill that I think will fit my newest law license : )
—
I’m in moderation at Crommunist too…I think I’ve commented there once or twice before. Is that his default?
—
If anyone is still reading, I need a little Hordevice. I have an offer to start subcontracting for an older attorney. Which is great for building my business up. It’s just…he can’t remember my name for more than one consecutive conversation and insists on orienting me in the world via my SO, who is also an area attorney. He has literally introduced to other attorneys as “[SO’s dad’s] son’s girlfriend” …after acknowledging that that is terrible and rude. Then he does it anyway. I feel very …disrespected by him but I could really use the stepping-stone to bigger things. Do you all have experience holding your own against people like this? I feel like I need to find a way be polite and firm and to deflect his ways of being demeaning without seeming defensive or touchy. (I suppose this whole thing is trying to justify to myself that it’s ok to work for someone I dislike so thoroughly…sigh…stoopid crushing student loans).
Broboxley:
FFS, take her to the vet. She most likely has mycoplasma, which requires heavy antibiotics and regular medical intervention. It’s also fucking contagious (to other rats) and with those symptoms, the infection is advanced considerably – get her to a doctor.
Portia:
Aaaaw, thank you so much!
#285 separated, will do and thanks
Speaking of ratties…I haven’t asked for an Angua update in quite a while. How’s the sweet girl?
Portia:
They were quite relieved. One thing about living in a small town is that you know almost everyone in the police dept and the fire company, so they were worried on many levels.
Luckily for me, they managed to fix my door enough to close and pitched in the next day to put in a new one because they damaged it and the frame smashing it open.
–
YAY for a new washer!
–
No advice, unfortunately. If it were me, I’d probably put my hand out and offer my name in a passive-aggressive, “I can’t believe he forgot my name” way.
Yes a thousand times. When I hear a familiar address, my stomach drops like a stone. Just this week, I had a call where a lady passed away and it turns out she was a dear friend of many of my family members. And it explained why the local accountant couldn’t get to my stuff this week. It’s such a small little world in small towns.
—
Did I mention free new washer? I offered to make the friend his baked good of choice so tomorrow morning I’m baking up more cinnamon rolls.
—
Your idea made me guffaw pretty loudly. And, I think this guy might take the jab good-naturedly, so I might actually do it. Our second conversation started out “So is your first or last name Tracy?” “Uh…neither…” I’m positively giddy now to reintroduce myself to him next time I go to his office.
Portia:
Oh, she’s fine, getting into trouble on a regular basis and indulging in many a girl fight*. I see her when she ventures on to my desk in pursuit of Nutella.
*A regular feature every day. The girls fight more than the boys.
Oh! I’m glad they’re fixing your door, too. That’s another thing about small towns, sometimes people are pretty chummy. Nice that they were so fervent about getting to you, as well, I suppose : )
Girl after my own heart. Any risk is worth Nutella. (At least one of us gets to indulge in sweets). Thanks for the update!
chigau: you know who I am, check PET. :P
They are — as long as you’re one of the life-long residents or have the right family connections. I went to school with most of them or their siblings or their cousins.
That’s also the downside to a small town — everyone knows you. The night of the nightmare/door-busting, my firefighter friend-with-benefits outed us both because I mentioned getting a hammer and he said, “I’ll grab it” then went to my spare room’s closet and got my toolbag.
That was the end of keeping that quiet. By 8am even my mother knew that he knew where I kept my tools, which could only mean one thing. Within a week, people were asking if we were going to set a date soon.
It’s one of the reasons I’m glad to be in Minnesota now, although I miss my family (most of them) and my friends. It’s a lot easier to have a life of your own when people aren’t calling your mother, cousins, and aunts up to gossip about whose truck they saw parked out front all night.
Ah yes. Can I ever relate to that. Even though I don’t like my grandpa very much, lots of other people around here do so when I’m making a new business contact I heartily confirm when they inevitably (and pretty quickly) ask if I’m his granddaughter.
I bartend now and then at the corner bar and several times have had people ask “Do you know So and So? I went to high school with her and you are her spitting image” I say “Yep, that’s my mom.”
Otherwise I would be an interloper, One Who Does Not Belong. It’s bad enough that I went away to law school in Chicago! I have to bale some hay now and then to remind folks I’m just a downhome gal after all.
What bad fortune to have circumstances conspire so to out your well-kept secret! I’m impressed you had kept it quiet that long. Too bad he spoke without thinking. Though, could have been worse…they could have shown up to find him already there. : p When I told SO that we were going to start a rumor mill the first time his car parked at my new house overnight, he was incredulous. City boys, they’re so naive.
The busybodies do get old, I feel you on that. Seems other people knew that my roommate was breaking the lease before I even knew.
Caine:
Oh, the socks! Let me get a pic of everything Patricia sent me in a couple of minutes, okay?
broboxley:
Why do I think Lynna has no shortage of those stories…?
Supposedly (!) my nephew is coming down Monday & Tuesday to help us rubberize our flat roofed house. The roof decided that since my husband died it doesn’t have to behave it’s self anymore. We’ll see what happens when a young hillbilly fixes it. That’ll show it! :D
Caine:
Look at what Patricia made for DarkFetus!
http://audleyzdarkheart.blogspot.com/2012/09/more-behbeh-things.html?m=0
*blush*
Audley:
Eeeee, so cute! They are all *adorable*. Thank you.
Ah, the pumpkin socks. It seems pumpkin flavors may be expanding. McD has a pumpkin shake, which the Redhead sampled last night, and a bread at the grocery store was pumpkin swirl. I blame Harry Potter.
Ooh, one for the linguists and general language nerd: some people have created a wiki of “Anglish” – English as imagined without the Norman influences. Whole wiki here: http://anglish.wikia.com/wiki/Headside – it includes lots of general history, geography, science etc under lovely headings like “Earthfrod”, “Heavenlore”, and “Speechlore”.
Highlights include:
Australia is New Holland, a folkdom lying between the Indish and Frithful Great Seas.
The US is the Banded Folkdoms of Americksland.
Among the underfields of Earthfrod are:
Oldenlifelore (E. Paleontology) is the lore of olden breeds and forms of life that lived in the forthwist, learned from the reading of duglife (E. fossils) and the siltborn rocks that witnessed olden life.
(etc…)
And someone has translated a big chunk of Origin of the Species – titled “On the Fromth of Lifekin”. (Sadly, formatting is hideous, lacks paragraphs.)
Nerd:
Nah, just doing up Halloween right! I loves me pumpkin anything.
The Redhead’s pumpkin policy up to this year, has been to buy a pumpkin, have grandiose plans for its use, which is only followed through on once every five years or so, and then have me throw it out in the spring when it starts to mold.
Ah Veronica Mars, I’d forgotten you. So why not start with Season 1, episode 1. Sure, why not?
Ooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh.
I’d forgotten her too. I swear I need to keep lists of everything. I forget even the stuff I liked.
Veronica Mars – now written down.
Nobody on the selling-of-tee-shirts inquiry?
–
Hekuni Cat: *pouncehugback*
–
Good lookin’ sleep pillow, Caine; and I’ll bet it smells great, too.
–
Walton: You are 4 years younger than Son.
:)
–
Portia! *hug*
After the intro, smile politely and shake hands, while saying, “But that’s just my Secret Identity. Actually, I’m really (Name), Attorney At Law” and strike a heroic pose?
–
Cuteness!
–
JAL! I have two sleep pillows for you – one for you and one for Little One. Drop me a line at fleuretduamour AT geemail to let me know where to send them.
Regulars here will remember that this summer, I managed to survive the marriage of my Mennonite friend to her Catholic fiance-now-husband. I came out to them a few weeks after the wedding, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how supportive my friend has been.
Her husband is another story. He’s not blatantly homophobic, but he seems to think that because he accepts his gay uncle, nothing he says or does could be homophobic. The last two times I’ve seen him, he has said that same-sex partners will naturally take on “male” and “female” roles, because Modern Family. Yes, that is his argument.
I’m working on a subtle campaign to educate him, and hopefully I’ll see improvement over time. If not, my methods will get less subtle. (Thank you, Horde, for teaching me these methods, subtle and un-subtle.) In the meantime, though, I decided to download a few episodes of Modern Family so I could see the full extent of his brilliant argument for myself.
Umm, maybe I’m not the most skilled at interpreting things, so I could be wrong here. But it seems pretty blatantly obvious to me that the gay couple in the show is so stereotyped that they are making fun of the stereotypes. Unless a great deal more nuance is introduced as the show progresses, I don’t see how anyone can fail to perceive that this is not meant as a realistic portrayal.
We had a creationist a while back who made some kind of argument from Star Trek, right? I listen to my friend’s husband’s argument from Modern Family, and I can’t help but think of that. I am bemused.
Nutmeg:
Friend’s husband deserves a big, fat, sarcastic DUH. It’s a television show, ffs. Such shows always pander to the lowest denominator. So, there he is, proud of his inability to think.
Grimm is on… it’s my regional duty to watch. *Rolls eyes* Later all!
NEW THREAD.