This is the lounge. You can discuss anything you want, but you will do it kindly. Turtle, because I’m still reeling at the idea that people run over them on purpose.
Status: Heavily Moderated; Previous thread
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Ooh, my first time being portcullis-ed! How exciting!
From the previous thread:
Dalillama: Well, if they are migraines, they’re less typical ones (bilateral with no aura is not the usual presentation, from what I know). I don’t know if they meet some kind of threshold number of characteristics or not. Now that I’m managing triggers, I get less than five of those headaches a year, and Excedrin is somewhat helpful. Not a big deal anymore, and I don’t care too much about labels – I’d rather reduce the number of standard tension headaches that I get. Unfortunately massage probably wouldn’t work for me, since I don’t like being touched and it would only make me more tense. :( I’m sure my high-strung personality isn’t helping either. :/
But I’m glad to hear that you learned about distinguishing migraines from tension headaches in massage school. It’s encouraging when professionals know when they can and can’t be helpful – too many people don’t know or won’t admit when they can’t help.
Honestly, the thing that pisses me off the most about these headaches is that I have no family history of headaches of any kind. I mean, really, didn’t I get enough crappy recessive genes without this? Grr.
I would have a smile as large as that turtle’s smile if I were about to bite into a strawberry as large as I am.
Sometimes it’s a shame not to believe in the supernatural. The idea of some spectre of Harriet coming back from beyond the grave to mess with people who deliberately run over turtles and tortoises would be quite a pleasant thing to think possible.
Unlikely – my understanding is that fruit and vegetable cultivars bred for size generally aren’t bred for taste.
@Azkyroth
I make no claims about the size of my smile after biting into the strawberry. :-)
Long time lurker.
Is there any way to get the mobile version of Pharyngula to work consistently?
I look at some jpg of water over and over again while the page resizes over and over again. It takes a good 10 seconds to calm down and become readable.
Azkyroth:
That can vary, though. From what I can tell, you can basically get any 2 of flavor, size, and long shelf-life. Most cultivars grown by large commercial fruit operations aim at 2 and 3, because the fruit is expected to be shipped long distances and sit on shelves for an indeterminate period. One reason I like our local farmers markets is that a lot of them have focused on 1 and 2, because they expect to sell the product within a day or two of when it was picked. Also there’s appearance; if you’re less picky about each fruit having a perfectly regular shape and roughly uniform size, you can often keep more of your flavor, AFAICT.
Wait, there are people who purposefully run over turtles? Why the hell would anyone do that? Turtles are so awesome. Sometimes I hate people.
But yeah, that strawberry looks awesome.
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Ing: Nice to see you back. As for the Dr. Who Xmas Special, I agree with you that the new companion “feels like so much of what we’ve already gotten before.” It’s like, wow, yet another perky, mildly flippant, sarcastic, skinny, traditionally pretty young woman. What a surprise. That said, I liked the rest of the episode, especially the awesome lizard detective and her wife.
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jornin: I have no idea how to get the mobile version working, but I just wanted to say hello anyway. Hi.
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Today I am living up to my nym and actually working on a paper, which is due by the 31st. I’m writing about unvoiced or omitted desire in T.S. Eliot’s poems, focusing on Prufrock, The Waste Land, and Sweeney Agonistes. You know, there’s something really awkward about talking about sex in an academic paper. I’m not really sure why.
*notices previous post about turtles*
Wow, people are the worst sometimes.
Jesus FUCK I hate people who smugly brandish Scumbag Protection Program laws whenever you suggest trying to do something to improve the world.
Which species of scumbag are you dealing with?
Oh, the “reckless endangerment” idiot on the Turtle thread. Same fucking mindset as
Err, as the police in the anecdote, I mean. Scumbags should NEVER have any costs for being scumbags.
Thanks to a passing mention from a fb friend, I have a new aspect of an Abrahamic religion to horrify me: the sheitel.
I don’t get some people. I see a turtle in the road, my first thought is save the critter. I have spent a good bit of time trying to save frogs or lizards that get in my house. 4 cats. Nuff said. Only creatures that don’t get a free pass are mosquitoes and roaches.
Mosquitoes, ants, and houseflies. I usually ignore spiders.
Fuck spiders. Anything else* is fine unless it’s crawling on me or things I’m using. But no way am I going to be surveilled by those alien spies.
Oh, and fuck house centipedes too. Nothing should have that many long legs. Even my cat is scared of them.
*Never lived in a place with roaches, so I dunno how I’d feel about them.
I would so love to have a tortoise, but definitely don’t have the space for it. The only critters that don’t get a pass from me are wolf spiders, mosquitos, flies, fleas and ticks. Helping pull 20 deer ticks off an aggressive dog by bear-hugging it into submission was not a fun way to spend an hour. :P
On the completely random threadrupt front, who wants to laugh at doggy DNA tests with me? I did one on my mutt because a- I get a huge discount on the test price due to working at a vet hospital and b- I figured I’d get hilarious results. And there certainly was hilarious results. Alyssum looks like a cockapoo. Her siblings looked like cockapoos. Her parents looked like cockapoos (and were themselves likely to have been siblings). But my wisdom panel results have mixed breed (super mutt) most of the way through, with 4 ‘purebreds’ at the great-grandparent level. Those 4 purebred dogs were a cocker spaniel, a maltese, a chihuahua…. and a shar-pei. Which means that if her parents were not siblings, one of them was supposedly 1/4 shar-pei. I don’t buy it, so I’ve challenged the result. Should be fun sending them a picture of my dog. I’m also rather shocked they found no evidence of poodle.
But for now, I can say that I have the world’s fluffiest shar-pei mix.
Alyssum with only 2 1/2 months of hair growth from a complete body shave:
http://imageshack.us/a/img812/3508/alyssumbath.jpg
And 2 1/2 months ago, right after the shave:
http://imageshack.us/a/img96/5377/alyssum1.jpg
Yup. Totally shar-pei. I haven’t stopped laughing.
Something I learned today.
This is an attack.
Ooh, I’ll mock doggy DNA tests. I’ve never yet heard of one that gave believable results. I should see if I can find any publications, but it’s 1:20am and I should also be sleeping.
Okay, apparently I’m researching instead of sleeping. Here is the most relevant study I could find in a short search. I’m not awake enough for an in-depth analysis. Looks like some breeds may be reliably identified. But that’s one ugly starburst diagram in Figure 1, and there are hardly any bootstrap values worth mentioning in Figure 2. Reminds me of a mostly panmictic population I did my Honours thesis on.
The paper that identified the gene for exercise-induced collapse in Labrador Retrievers was interesting, though.
cicely
Once there lived two weevils. One was a fine, upstanding, rather wealthy weevil, who had made his business as a silk merchant, and by middle age, had gotten himself a reputation as a fair trader, a generous philanthropist, and avid defender of all weevil rights. The other, while being intelligent and with many privileges to his name, decided to go into a life of crime, joined an MRA club, and proceeded to rob poor weevils at gun-point on the way home from work on pay-day. He was always known as the lesser of two weevils. (Old family story.)
+++
I laugh at dog DNA tests, especially since a friend of mine posted the results of his on Facebook – basically, all his dogs are mixes, with one possibly originating in the UK and one possibly originating in the US, but with no clear way to tell. I forget what the third one was, but I read the words and thought to myself, ‘Well, that one’s a pure mutt!’
+++
Oh yes, and good morning! The snow is back.
Dianne:
No, I don’t mind at all! Sorry I missed this earlier.
Chez Caine is an arachnid friendly place.
Arachnids, go to Caine’s!!
This made my morning. Watch it all.
Dalillama
Also, they expect you to come back and buy more.
In soring and summer there’s a local farmer standing outside the factory gates where Mr. works selling aspargus and strawberries. He leaves some money there. Not something you do if the produce tastes like cardboard (unless you were buying eggplant anyway).
Sheitel
Funny, in German a Scheitel is a perfectly harmless word and means where your hair parts.
Here in West Wales a lot of people will leave home-grown produce outside their house with an honesty box. It is an excellent way to pick up some delicious fruit, veg and eggs at very low prices (always cheaper than the supermarket, and much better quality!
“The idea of some spectre of Harriet coming back from beyond the grave to mess with people who deliberately run over turtles and tortoises would be quite a pleasant thing to think possible”
We need a turtle vigilante. Or find a way to make those who are cruel to animals attract the attention of the Old Ones.
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“World’s smelliest and largest flower (“corpse flower”) blooms in Brazil” http://phys.org/news/2012-12-world-smelliest-largest-blooms-brazil.html
(Looks up from “Dexter” novelisation) …so maybe I should plant some in my garden to have a plausible explanation for the smell.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Not a day too soon!
“Scientists home in on cause of osteoarthritis pain” http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-scientists-home-osteoarthritis-pain.html
The pain makes elderly move less. This in turn speeds up both the physical and mental senescence of elderly OA sufferers.
birgerjohansson
I think you should just create those lungfish-piranha hybrids to deal with those who overturn turtles and run them over. For every turtle, lunganha companion!
I have become obsessed with a game for old ladies, ohcrap!
I have two mahjong sets now. One is the Chinese mahjong (with flowers and seasons) and the other is the Japanese mahjong (with seasons and red dora tiles.) The Chinese set is absolutely beautiful – it’s in a silk case, the pieces are beautifully crafted, heavy possibly bone, with lovely art on them. The Japanese set is not as pretty, better to play with – with plastic pieces, smaller, lighter, and the art seems stamped.
I love this game though, I’m trying to learn how to play it and trying to learn strategies to figuring out what to try to build at the beginning of the hands. It’s hard, difficult, and fun.
We need a turtle vigilante.
Never a teenage mutant ninja turtle around when you really need one. Cross correlating with the “violence doesn’t solve anything” debate, though, a less emotionally satisfying but more effective solution might be to just take driving out of the hands of people. Robot cars or public transit with professional and/or robot drivers should mean fewer road hazards for small animals. Not to mention bicyclists, pedestrians, etc.
You’ll have to read the mouse over to get the really giggle inducing part.
Thanks, Caine!
Putting ‘turtle vigilante’ in the Commune stack.
Which, by the way… Remember how I said I’d put it all together in one convenient (hard-copy) spreadsheet? Well, after copy-pasting and getting rid of the most obvious extras (list of blogs on the side for every lounge page with commune comments, for example), it’s 600+ pages of text. More than half of that, I should think, will disappear with further proper formatting, and deletion of irrelevant comments, but still. It looks so daunting!
testing
Daunting!
@Dianne:
I don’t get it…
rq
Feel free to email me some of the mess and I’ll try to help sort through : )
bravo + portia at the goggle service. (No plus sign).
(It seems a bit self-congratulatory, I know, but it’s a long story…)
Nepenthe
I am so on board with your list of creatures that don’t merit mercy. Fuck house centipedes indeed. I have yet to try a solution my cousin told me about, which involved a pool supply called Diatomaceous Earth. Apparently, if you spread it at the doors it somehow prevents them entering.
Something for the New Year holiday?
“NASA offers free space telescope e-books” (scroll down a bit) http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/wires?id=180524548&c=y
http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
@Portia:
Ahh. A math joke.
Zeno is approaching the bench the way some Democrats approach making shit better (incrementalism).
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“The Longest Full Moon of the Year” http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2012/12/27/the-longest-full-moon-of-the-year/
Nice shot of Stonehenge. And if you look at the last photo in the post, you will see something interesting about the relative brightnesses of the two objects.
Portia
Diatomaceous earth was supposed to take care of our flea problem, too (yeah, don’t sleep next to me in the commune, haha). Basically it’s like a very fine-grained sand consisting of diatomic particles (plants, really, tiny tiny tiny plants), whose sharp edges cut through the insect’s chitin and dehydrate it over a period of time. That’s sort of a basic explanation.
I don’t know how well it would work on centipedes, but I’m pretty sure they’d get in – just not for long!
Also, I’ll see how things go tonight with sifting through Commune stuff, but if I need help, I will certainly call on you! :)
Katherine Lorraine,
seeing that you are around….humble pie only….pertaining to our recent encounter at Ed’s….:-)
Katherine Lorraine
Yes, I only got half the joke before reading EXKCD :) That site has given me many lightbulb moments, ha.
rq
Ah, thanks for the explanation. My cousin said it cuts their feet, and I was a little confused how something could significantly cut such tiny feet. But maybe he was oversimplifying for me. Anyhow, good to know. Maybe I will try it. I haven’t seen a centipede in my house in a while, though. (Probably just means they’re hiding better).
rq,
If you are bitten by a lunghana, you become one when you die.
Lunghanas are repelled by fishing hooks and garlic.
They cannot fly, but I am working on including flying fish DNA.
@rorshach:
I suppose we can talk about humble pie too. You’re invited to my new pie-related blog. But no cheesecake-lovers, unless you also love pie.
@birgerjohansson:
“You are bitten by a lunghana, you lose 3 days. And your ox dies fording the river. And your son dies of dysentary. Also it’s dark and you’re likely to be eaten by a grue.”
Oregon Trail meets Zork meets Mad Science
I have a “show no mercy” list, but it only applies to creatures that are trying to bite me or are inside my house. I reserve the right to defend myself and my den. Stay outside, don’t try to suck my delicious blood, and I won’t try to squish you.
On the subject of DNA testing of dogs to determine their breed, here’s an FAQ from an English Shepherd website that cuts to the chase:
http://www.englishshepherds.net/faq.html#breed
My wife and I have three English Shepherds, and they’re all terrific dogs. Here’s a pic of them:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JrYlo5-HibI/UNhwnMliGWI/AAAAAAAAA_4/xpYqECV3dO8/s1600/IMG_0694%5B1%5D.JPG
Seeing as Birger is busy with lunganha, I suppose I could look into cross-breeding turtles with landmines* (not good for the individual turtles, but sure as hell would stop roadkill of the species) as soon as I add the finishing touches to the goatrich.
*Turmines, maybe?
I don’t mind small cockroaches. Only the ones that can be mistaken for rodents really bother me. Mosquitoes on the other hand…I’m up for the mosquito genocide any time someone can figure out how to make it happen.
Giliell:
Thanks for the idea for the nym tweak…
Minnie
*thumbs up*
They might have a wee problem mating.
Of course, that’s easily solved by only the males being explosive.
(Brace yourselves for the horrible hordes shouting “misandry” though).
In today’s XKCD, the humor is infinitesimal.
HEY SOMEONE HAD TO SAY IT
Tips for arguing with “gundamentalists”. Thoughts?
Speaking of terrible punes, there was a the Oglaf sequence where the loopy vampire was insisting that she was a doctor.
It took me a while, but it finally occurred to me that a vampire might say she was a doctor because leech.
Gnumann: or teach the explosive ones to be on top, regardless of sex. See, no misandry, only sweet equality =)
Except that would cause a problem when two equally explosive ones wanted to mate with each other. I suppose we need to twiddle with turtle pheromones to minimize the risk.
Just calibrate them so that a turtle’s weight isn’t enough to trigger them; set the threshold at about 20 lbs of pressure. Then a car will set them off, but they won’t trigger each other.
owlmirror
So that’s what that joke is!
I once wanted to make Badgerigars, small black and white birds with huge claws and vocal adaptability. Then someone pointed out that we already have those, they’re called magpies. Now I’d aim for badgerscorpions, but no one else wants them around.
Why is it that cats like to hide in grocery bags, while octopuses like to hide in clay pots?
My no mercy list: earwigs, ants, potato beetles or other critters in flour etc., cockroaches (also parasites I’ve never had to deal with such as lice, fleas, bedbugs)–but only when they’re in the house. As long as they’re outside, I not only leave ’em alone, but I go out of my way to refrain from hurting them unnecessarily.
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I’m trying a new recipe for sandwich bread today (they’re rising in the loaf pans right now). Wish me luck.
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I guess I’ll have to go back a thread to check out what the reaction to the Doctor Who special was, but that’ll have to wait till later.
If I may indulge in speculation for a couple of minutes…
I think A+ was born as Jen’s personal toy and never grew up. She wanted to reform atheism but didn’t have a roadmap, just a general idea that people should quit being obnoxious. But that’s only material for one talk, like Phil Plait’s “Don’t be a dick” talk, not a whole wave, movement or whatever. So they made a forum and little else. And now we’re seeing it’s kind of not going anywhere.
The thing is people don’t proclaim the beginning of a movement. We give movements names retrospectively, from a historical perspective (The Tea Party movement is the exception, which is indicative that it was created from above, not a result of grassroots efforts). The French revolution wasn’t officially inaugurated anywhere, it just happened and then historians began calling it that. Same for the Enlightenment. The labor movement, same thing. The waves of feminism, nobody said “I hereby establish the second wave”. It wasn’t an organization, it was people doing the work in a multitude of different organizations, and it was named thus after-the-fact, like the rest of the movements. Even OWS was not OWS at the beginning.
Furthermore, Jen is now learning a lot of super awesome science stuff at college and would prefer to focus her blogger and conference efforts to that. Most natural thing in the world, people evolve personally and professionally, especially at college. She would like to get A+ off her back, but she doesn’t know how to get rid of it. It’s a bit of a pickle tbh.
Just idle thoughts, nothing more.
So I was talking with some idiots in the game I play, LOTRO, and some ass had the gall to suggest that ‘backyard pools kill more children than guns’
Seriously. WTF is wrong with these gun apologists?
And yesterday I saw an NRA twit on CNN talking about how guns must NOT and NEVER be registered, and how its better if the government has no knowledge of whether or not you own a gun, cuz you know, the big evil mean gov’t can TAKE THAT GUN AWAY AT ANY TIME.
And, I was thinking about that ‘liberal lesbian I love semi-automatic weapons’ fuck from two weeks ago on the Newtown thread, and her ridiculous assertion that Adam Lanza could have killed 26 peaople easy peasy with swords. Uhm, swords. Or knives. Ok, first off, isn’t a fair amount of training required to properly wield a sword? Can’t people run away from your sword when they see you coming? Doesn’t it take a tremendous amount of exertion to wield a sword effectively? Let alone DUAL WIELDING which is what the dumbfuck was suggesting? And how can a small man like Lanza possibly chase down 26 people with two swords and properly kill em all?
I watch this show called ‘I survived’ on the bio channel, and numerous guests on the show seem to survive *multiple* stab wounds. It seems to me that ifyhou want to kill someone properly with a bladed implement, that you have to know what you are dong.
Anyways, just wanted to share these thoughts, and my utter disgust at the lack of critical thinkng on the part of the gun nuts.
RFW
Cats have bones, even if some of them pretend not to.
Yes they do.
The historians give it another name after the fact.
Can anyone remember off-hand who the sad geologist is who consciously and deliberately decided after qualifying to throw out everything he had learned because it didn’t fit with YEC? PZ did a post on this, ages ago, and I can’t think what search terms would work to search for it …
Any pointers much appreciated!
My good laptop is functional again! I feel like stroking the keyboard every few minutes and whispering, “My precious.”
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jornin:
Hi and welcome! No idea how to make the mobile site work, sorry.
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blogofmyself:
That sounds interesting. I can see the potential for awkwardness though.
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Portia:
Well, that’s something I never knew before. I knew a lot of Orthodox women covered their hair, but didn’t realize they used wigs as well. Although I’m kind of freaked at the idea of spending $1300-3000 on one — and that there’s a loan program to help women buy them!
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Tony:
In the past, I’ve been known to stop in the middle of the road with the flashers on to move turtles. (Easier to do in places with little traffic.) I can’t imagine what kind of mind gets a thrill out of running over one.
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Nepenthe:
I can handle most insects and even spiders as long as they don’t touch my skin. Even if they do, I can just swat them or brush them off. House centipedes though… *shudder* They creep me out like nothing else.
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rq:
Love the weevils story!
re: commune — I’ve got free time between now and the 14th. If you want to email some of it, I can help out too. socio_gen at the yahoo.
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jose:
The thing is, even if A+ never goes anywhere itself, it created something. It gave a name to something many people (including myself) had been feeling and thinking; it gave them a place to connect, to figure out what they wanted and how they wanted to work to achieve it.
No new movement starts out with a roadmap. They figure it out along the way. The civil rights movement didn’t begin with Rosa Parks — there had been years (decades) of meetings and discussions that started when one person (and then others) said, “something’s gotta change” and then more and more people joined in, which led to the creation of the organizations and groups that would lay the foundation for the moment when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat.
So, while A+ may not be doing anything “major” yet (however this is defined), it may be that in five, ten, fifty years, we’ll see that Jen’s idea was the beginning of the meetings and discussions that led organizations that create the framework for whatever thing will be defined as the “start” of the [whatever historians name it] movement. Or maybe it’ll die and something new will take its place.
But it’s way too early to start saying, “Well, we’ve done nothing so pack it in folks.”
opposablethumbs
Not off-hand, but try this. I think that’s what you mean… (Archives, woo hoo.)
opposablethumbs:
Is it this: Eulogy for a Lost Mind from November? It’s not “ages ago” but it was the first thing I thought of.
Good evening
Tony
You’re welcome:)
+++
well, some days ago there was a murder in my state. Yes, that’s such a rare occurence it gets news for days, I guess there are worse places. The victim was murdered with his own gun (a hunter). Now I’m wondering how more guns solve that kind of problem…
Well, if you got a sufficient amount of guns, there’s no place to put that last gun except under your pillow.
Then, sooner or later you’ll shoot yourself going to bed. You won’t get murdered then. Definitively not.
hehe, Socio-gen, that’s the same article I linked to! :) I don’t know how quickly you found it, but it took me a while, rooting through the archive in chronological order (All the way back in November? I could have sworn it was earlier!).
Anyway, re: commune sorting. As I mentioned to Portia, I’ll see how it goes tonight and tomorrow (it’s a lot of comment deletion, mostly), but if I need help, I’ll outsource to the two of you (I’m pretty sure there’s work enough for 3, should it come down to that!). Thanks for the offer!
@opposablethumbs
Maybe you’re thinking of this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Wise
There was also this post: http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/12/07/jesus-geology/
rq;
Jinx!
Erm. I hate to admit it but it took about a minute with Google. I tried a couple different terms, but what worked best was “YEC geologist Pharyngula” (without quotes). I can never find anything by doing a search here on the site, but adding the blog name to whatever term I’m looking for seems to make Google spit it out quickly.
That sounds good to me. I don’t know what kind of spreadsheet you’re doing, but if it’s Excel, I can help with that as well, if needed.
The bread turned out! Yay! I’m always wary about new recipes but this one is perfect for what I wanted: a substitute for store-bought white bread, which, it turns out, is not only high in sodium, but also contains soy flour. My mum has discovered that her eyes complain when she has too much soy or salt, and for the past year or so, I’ve been making a no-salt bread which is excessively bland, for her to have when she’s using up her daily salt ration on other things.But she’s only started cutting out soy for a couple of months, and neither of us thought to check the store-bought for soy. Not only her fave brand, but every single white bread in the store contained soy flour (if not both soy flour and oil).
White Sandwich Bread (here’s the original)
1 packet active dry yeast dissolved in 1 tablespoon warm water OR 2 teaspoons instant yeast
8 tablespoons (1 stick) melted butter or vegetable oil
Mixed 1 cup milk with
1 cup hot water
6 cups All-Purpose Flour
4 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
up to 1/3 cup more water, enough to make a soft, smooth dough
Mixing: In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients and stir till the dough starts to leave the sides of the bowl. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased surface, oil your hands, and knead it for 6 to 8 minutes, or until it begins to become smooth and supple. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover the bowl, and allow the dough to rise till puffy though not necessarily doubled in bulk, about 1 to 2 hours, depending on the warmth of your kitchen.
Shaping: Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled work surface, split the dough in half and pat down into rectangle, then fold in thirds on the short side like a letter, tuck ends underneath. Place each log, seam on the bottom, in a lightly greased 8 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ loaf pan, cover the pans loosely with lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow the bread to rise for about 60 minutes, until it’s domed about 1″ above the edge of the pan. A finger pressed into the dough should leave a mark that rebounds slowly.
Baking: Bake the bread in a preheated 350°F oven for 30 to 35 minutes, until it’s light golden brown. Test it for doneness by removing it from the pan and thumping it on the bottom (it should sound hollow), or by measuring its interior temperature with an instant-read thermometer (it should register 190°F at the center of the loaf). Remove the bread from the oven, and cool it on a wire rack before slicing. Store the bread in a plastic bag at room temperature. Yield: 2 loaves.
hey everyone.
So, um, I’ve been hiding.
I had a bad go of it recently. First, I lost 3/4 of one of my front teeth. It’s now a gnarly, disgusting stump. Then I accidently stepped on the kitty when he was hiding under the blanket. He’s never under the blanket but the one time he is I step on him full force and face plant. He made an awful sound and ran away. I curled into a ball and just cried and cried. I kept thinking I ruin everything around me and that I suck and that I hurt the poor kitty and all that destructive, depressive stuff. I stayed that way for days. The kitty was fine though and my mom had Little One when it happened. She had a sleep over until I started moving again. It was just bad. I felt like shit and hid. Then I lost half, one whole side of a back tooth. It hurts all the time. My teeth are slowly, painfully breaking apart.
Step-dad was a drunken asshat and Roomie got bad news from Sallie Mae about his student loans. I just…gave up.
I got it together a bit to set up and give Little One a good holiday. I started lurking and reading here again because I love you guys and think of this as my safe place. My self-destructive low self-esteem depressing voice keeps telling me how no one here cares what I say and that everyone is mad at me for failing to move when you guys sacrificed for me to be able to do it. I commented when I just couldn’t hold back but was scared to talk about my personal stuff.
Little One had a good Christmas though and I’m here to face up. I need to get my shit together further though and I honestly have no idea how to do it. I don’t know how to make myself do the things I need to do. I sleep all the time and just feel groggy and shitty and it’s an effort even to type this.
I suck and I’m sorry. I’m not a good mom or a responsible person. I tried at first, I really did. Just after all the research and the calls, there was so much to do and it just got. so. hard. Nothing was working out and I felt the mounting pressure with failure looming. Then I gave up and actually failed.
I’m posting this and running away again because I just can’t stop crying.
JAL:
a thousand hugs.
You are not a bad mother. Please don’t think that.
And please do not think anyone is mad at you. No one is mad. You are deeply cared for here.
I CARE.
YOU ARE A GOOD PERSON.
JAL,
Many many *hugs*
You have nothing to apologize for. Please don’t be afraid to comment, you are not going to be judged and people do care about what you have to say.
I’m sorry things are still not going well. Are you at least safe from your ex, did he try to contact you again?
Joe:
The fedora arrived today. Thank you my friend. Off to find an outfit to wear with it.
Hey folks…
I’m going to blame everything on the altitude, OK? I’m right at a mile up, I haven’t exercised in over a year, and for some reason I decided that on top of all the unloading and unpacking I’m doing, I should also go for 30-45 minute walks with my dog every day. Why did I decide that? So I could look good in a bikini this summer? I don’t even like the beach!
So yeah, my physical and emotional exhaustion with everyone and everything? Must be the altitude. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m setting up surround sound, and hanging pictures later. :(
Yeah…my late ex-BiL was one of those turtle-killing assholes. Yet another feature of his unique…”charm”.
–
Mosquitoes, ticks, ants, roaches, and spiders that look as if they might be reclusive.
And squirrels.
–
rq
[joke]
*applause*
–
Ants, incidentally, don’t like to walk through corn starch. We put a complete stop to their mooching kibble that way.
–
I’d like to repeat my request from the “In Defense of the Commentariat” thread, and suggest splicing in some electric eel. The flying fish thing looks good, also.
–
Not good for the gay male turtles, either.
The solution is right in front of our faces. The answer is moar guns!!!
Arm all the turtles—after all, are they not entitled to defend their homes from unwanted intrusion?
–
Grocery bags under the ocean wave? Paper or plastic? And cats will very happily hide in clay pots as well.
–
Nonononono; cats are sculpted bags of foam beads on a chassis of rubber tubing. It’s how they deform to adapt to the surface they’re laying on, and why they can tie themselves up in knots without pain.
Adamantium teeth and claws are just the cherry on top.
–
Yay!
–
JAL:
Big hugs for you for what it’s worth.
I get no bad-mother-wibes from what you write here. A mother in dire need of some help and support maybe, but in no way bad.
And I for one care even though I don’t know you too well.
Squirrels?
Uh uh.
Thou hast gone too far.
To the tickling parlor for you!
JAL *hugs*. I know what it feels like to feel so terrible and helpless and alone. You are not alone. There are people here from all over the world who care about you. Please, remember: being incapable is not the same thing as being irresponsible. You are not a bad mother, even if you have difficulties. A bad mother is someone who doesn’t care about their children, not someone who is doing their best to cope with shitty circumstances.
Is there anything we can do to help you? Maybe raise some funds so you can see a dentist?
JAL
I second Tony and Beatrice. All the way.
Improbable Joe
You wear a bikini?
Ibis3
The bread sounds delicious. Now all I need are some bread pans.
JAL, take some deep breaths and know that we’re all here for you. I suffer from pretty severe depression myself, so I know about being in that particular pit. You can start blaming yourself for everything, but that’s both counterproductive and also not even true.
Tony, enjoy the snazzy hat and wear it in good health.
JAL:
many *hugs* I’m so sorry that you’re going through such hell. I’ve been weeping myself since reading your post; I wish so much that I could help with more than reassuring words. You’re not a bad person nor a bad parent, you’re trapped in an untenable and unconscionable situation through no fault of your own. You have not failed, you have been failed by society at large, and specifically by the woefully inadequate social support for people in situations like yours. And also by the massive presence of various forms of prosperity gospel infecting our culture at all levels, making it virtually impossible not to blame yourself for your misfortunes no matter how far beyond your actual control the situation may be. Just try to keep in mind that the problems you’re having now are not your fault
We do care for you here, and we value your contributions when you feel up to commenting. I definitely understand how life can sap the energy needed to actually write anything, and yours is much more sapping than my own, but you’re always welcome whenever you do post. No one here would be upset at you because it turned out that we couldn’t help enough (I say we, it’s not like I kicked in anything, but I promise I would have if I weren’t so broke myself)
JAL:
Lots and lots of *hugs*
You are a good mother and a good person who is going through a hard time. And we miss you terribly!
And tagfail…
JAL!
*pouncehugs*
*reading*
*moar hugs*
Sometimes life is like a box of dog turds.
That voice doesn’t know what it’s talking about! Bad voice!
I can’t speak for everyone…but, no. And it’s not too late to move.
1) You don’t. That’s the depression; that’s what sucks. And it lies. It lies like a Republican candidate.
2) You try your hardest to be a good mom; nothing more can be expected of you.
3) If you weren’t a responsible person, it wouldn’t bother you, self-centered asshole that you’d be.
As long as you come back, when you feel up to it. We miss you.
*even moar hugs*
–
Then come get the ones eating my house outa the attic!
–
This, JAL.
–
JAL – you did not fail by not leaving. You did the right thing at that moment, because you knew you weren’t in a position to lose the support of your parents in helping you and your child. You are a good mom.
So much support for JAL from me, because I don’t know what else to say, except double up on what everyone has said above, esp. cicely re: parenting. You cannot be a bad parent because you care too much to be one. And you’re trying.
I don’t know you but I know people here value you, and I would like to get to know you. If you like. But you are valued here, believe it.
We should cross-breed elephants and rhinos with those Japanese fish that are so bloody poisonous.
When idiots consume “medicine” made from their horns, they go “ghaaarghck” and die.
— — — — — —
Could we design ants that self-assemble into bigger and deadlier organisms? Just asking. I have tried to shove wolverines trough those tiny cracks in buildings ants navigate without problems, but the wolverines object.
birgerjohansson
You are now the Commune’s official genetic manipulator, together with Minnie. Somebody has to do it.
(In other words, yes. To everything.)
Oh, JAL, all the hugs! You have not failed, you are still persevering. I know the Horde donated some cash – can that be used for the dentist?
JAL – You are a good person. You are a good mom. You are doing the best you can.
You have not failed.
Please know there are many here who care for you and look forward to hearing fom you. Including me. ( I don’t post often, but I read every day.)
WARNING: Bad news. Skip this if you are already sad.
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The New Delhi rape victim has died.
Bloody hell.
@bobo
This is possibly true and yet incredibly misleading claim.
In 2009 in the US, 346 children under age 15 died of gun wounds while 704 drowned. But it gets murky, partly because the CDC reports don’t specify whether victims drowned in man-made or naturally occurring bodies of water, and partly because the same reports lump older teenagers together with young adults. Gun deaths take a huge leap between the 4-14 and 15-24 age brackets, going from 264 deaths to 6185. One can’t tell from CDC reporting how many of those people were minors. And then the comparison completely falls apart when you don’t limit it to children. Total drowning deaths for all age groups: 3,517. Total gun deaths for all age groups: 30,782.
Plus I can’t imagine many gun control supporters being opposed to “pool control” laws like fencing/cover requirements. So basically, you can tell the person who said that to blow it out his ass.
:( :( :(
–
Also a non-sequitor as the danger of one thing has no impact on whether gun control is actually useful.
Also you should point out that how many children are exposed to pools per year versus guns being used as intended?
JAL, as the others have said, you a not a bad parent. You care. That makes all the difference. You try, you fight. You even seek help when you need it. That can take more bravery than we like to admit. Know that we value you here.
I know, like you, I started out (and unlike you, I remain, mostly) Just A Lurker, but this community is amazing, and when they care about someone, and can do something to help, it’ll get done.
Thanks for checking in, sorry for the horrendous comma splices, and raise the squd signal if we can help. The have been other offers of hugs, but i’m not much of a hug person, so *chocolate*!
Re the pools v guns thing, there are also ordinances in some locations that require that the pool (I think only new ones, or upon transfer of property) be properly fenced and locked to prevent kiddies from getting to it. If we can have pool control…
Thank you rq and Socio-gen for the links to “eulogy for a lost mind”. It might have been that … but I don’t think so; I’m thinking of a geologist PZ mentioned longer ago than that, who wrote about how he’d come to realise his religion and his geology clashed and he was choosing religion. It could be my memory playing tricks on me of course, but I have a notion this one I’m thinking of actually became a YEC, in a way even worse than the “lost mind” guy who took his work down in order to support YECs.
.
.
Oh, JAL! Hugs and more hugs, I’m so glad to see you back again and so sorry you’ve been having such a shit time of it. You’re not a bad parent or irresponsible, you’re carrying a heavier load than anyone should, dammit, and you’re not superwoman – like anybody could be after dealing with so much for so long. I hope it works out for you to move in the end, and I’m glad that at least maybe it gives you a little something when you hang out here – hell, nobody is going to judge you harshly, only a fool and a shithead would. I wish I could help some, I really do. I can only say we miss you when you’re not around, and I am one of many who hope for better for you and Little One {{hugs you}}. Seconding the hope that maybe some money the Horde gathered could pay for dentistry; I had cause to be Extremely Grateful for dentistry recently – I wish you could get what you need!
My idea was to “discover” ancient wisdom that eating the liver of a poacher is a panacea.
Was the geology guy this dude? I think there was something about him on the old sciblogs site. I haven’t searched there, though.
Here we go, found a post about Marcus Ross.
Being dyslexic means you are never ever ever free of shit heads who will understand your point completely, but ‘refute’ you by going “people like you often show bad spelling or grammar” when they don’t like what you have to say.
H8 evry 1
I hope no one is seriously running over turtles on purpose >.> Sick.
@Ing: I despise people who choose to show their ‘intellectual superiroity’ by picking on their opponents grammar and spelling.
My fingers are frozen most of the time, and I am too lazy for proper punctuation and spelling. Doesn’t mean I’m stupid, and it doesn’t mean I don’t know how to spell/punctuate. It means I don’t give a shit!
Hey, did everyone know that vegan macrobiotic diets will cure your cancer, control your weight, and give you great skin and hair?
It’s true! Someone on Facebook told me so.
*facepalm*
Esteleth, don’t knock it ’till you try it. Have you seen my hair? Also no cancer that I know of, though that may be because of the piece of serpentenite I keep in my pocket. Keeps tigers away, too.
the vegan macrobiotic diet also provides mind blowing oral sex. And that’s not even possible!
Also, everyone should be vegan, and just never buy processed food (because you don’t really know what’s in them). And it is simple and easy to do so, because you can buy lentils and tempeh at every store everywhere.
I can see it reducing weight, though. Who the hell can afford that shit?
rq
I have a challa recipe that requires no bread pan, just a couple of cookie sheets. Or… a bagel recipe that’s pretty straight forward, also on baking sheets (you also need a pot to boil the water in for that one). Interested?
bobo #108
I hope that was ironic.
Because this is the wrong thread to say stuff like that.
Humour never works when you have to explain the punchline, Kat!
It is a good math joke if you are a nerd…
chigau: you mean no swearing?
Tigger_the_Wing
*hugs*
*hugs*
*hugs*
Possibly interesting sidenote. I recently finished a fantasy novel where, reducing details for spoilerage, a major plot point involves the characters meeting one of the god like beings that made their world. The conversation was interesting to me because it was between the creations and the creator that wasn’t even fully aware of the implications of it’s work and was surprised at the motivations and actions of the beings it made. it was quite interesting as the God basically explained how from their POV all mortals are like toys that the gods just kept making more and more lifelike and complex for the sake of craftsmanship until it got to the point where the gods were shocked they couldn’t tell the difference between the ‘toy’ and real people. Something about this view of god/gods struck me as far more plausible than the all powerful all knowing gods. These gods were mostly all powerful, mostly benevolent but not aware of the full implication of their creation or the motivations of said creation.
Sounds fascinating, Ing. Title/author?
bobo
I mean don’t say that you ‘don’t give a shit’ about the people who are trying to read your comments.
@Esteleth
Mogworld
I’m simplifying some of it to avoid spoilers but oddly really liked that bit
It also has, despite what I just said, an unexpected atheist slant.
Lard help me, the “everyone should be vegan” person has trotted out the “I was vegan while a poor college student, so everyone can!” argument.
I just cannot.
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
chigau: so what you are saying is, that if I “don’t give a shit” about the fact that I did not use an apostrophe in ‘dont’ that I am doing something against the rules?
@bobo
She’s saying you should care that you are legible
And I think bobo is saying that they don’t care too much about formality as long as they’re legible
I used to have pretty good writing skills, but then I discovered IRC and the MMORPG!!
Years of playing MMO’s and trying to type while fighting dragons and running across wintery landscapes while cold drafts wafted across my hands just made me give up about the whole ‘type every sentence perfectly’ thing! Mostly now I just care that I do make sense, spelling errors and typos be damned:P
And I find it funny, esp in video games, when arrogant grammar police get on people’s cases for sounding unintelligent:P
I was backing ING up, in that, typos, poor spelling, missing aprostrophes and various grammatical errors do not render a person’s point to be invalid, or mean that said person is stupid:P
I actually had a bit of a scare earlier on Twitter where someone was SO mad I suggested that it would be good for Dr. Who to consider more diversity for companions (as in not Moffet Pixie Dream Girl) that they actually made a new Twitter to continue yelling at me after I blocked them. Thankfully they seem to have stopped on that. I don’t know how OB and RB and Jen do it really. They started going on the “your grammar is bad so you’re dumb” insults. On Twitter, which is it’s own barrel of stupid.
@Esteleth
I see what you did there. If it weren’t so late at night, I’d go and have some steak in your honour.
Ing
Oh, I liked that book a lot. Another one you might take a look at is Walter Jon Williams’ Implied Spaces. Another very interesting take on the concept of creators.
bobo
What Ing said.
Admitting to difficulty is one thing, saying you’re not even going to try is another.
and sometimes I do not bother to start my sentences off with a capital letter.
does it really matter? (certainly for some things, but in all circumstances?)
@bobo
Well getting general casual caps and punctuation does help me read easier. Just saying
@48, David Willford-
ENGLISH SHEPHERDS! :D I had an English Shepherd/ACD mix from an ‘oopsie!’ litter at a breeder’s. They really are wonderful dogs.
I give up.
@bobo
Yes. It matters. Not only for grammar nuts, but also for people who find it hard to read, whether due to eyesight issues or learning disabilities. If you can, please make the effort.
What I am saying is, if someone accuses me, or anyone, of being *stupid* b/c we fail to capitalize, or miss an apostrophe – that it does NOT matter. I do not care if someone thinks I am a dummy b/c I typed ‘dont’ instead of ‘don’t’. As long as I make sense, that’s all that matters. As long as the writer makes sense, and it doesn’t hurt to read their text, I do not see a problem.
Now what is so wrong with that??
To be more clear, I do not ‘give a shit’ if someone tries to refute my points in a debate by pulling out the typo/grammar card! And I will not go to the extra effort to proofread everything all the time. Now, in a formal debate, sure. On forums, yeah, I will make some effort. But in certain circumstances – say arguing with someone in an MMO, or IRC, or even any of the messengers. I really could care less.
As long as what I have to write is readable. No run-ons. Paragraph breaks. etc. As long as its legible and makes sense, I don’t see the fucking crime in leaving an apostrophe out of ‘dont’ :P
@ibis
I am saying that it does not matter in the context of peoople saying “youre a dummy all your points dont matter b/c you were lazy and didn’t capitalize a word”
Is my above point invalid b/c I missed the apostrophe in don’t? How about in ‘you’re’ ? Does that make me a dumbass?
Do you want what you write to be read clearly? I think not, if you aren’t worried about conventions that put capitals and punctuation marks in certain places. You are claiming you are above convention. An extremely egotistical position.
@bobo
It makes you an asshole. I told you that proper punctuation actually does matter to people, and you’re so caught up in whether poor grammar is a good indicator for determining whether or not you’re lazy–because you know, your feelings might be hurt if someone calls you lazy or dismisses your comments out of hand–that you don’t give a fuck that you are causing problems for other people. Dumbass is the least of your worries. Show some respect for others, or take yourself over to the Thunderdome.
I charitably took this
to refer to this
@Ibis
How have I shown disrespect here? My original statment was a *general* statement, and I was backing up something ING said. Let me repaste it:
It was a response to this:
Please tell me what is so offensive about that. I think someone read that, and took it that I meant to troll all of FTB with poor grammar and spelling???
Every time I miss an apostrophe am I guilty of trolling? I have been posting here for a while now, and often I do miss out those apostrophes, and sometimes I do fail to capitalize – have I been trolling all the time now b/c of this past behaviour?
This is all truly baffling to me and it is one giant misunderstanding!
#141 thank you, that is what I meant
@141:
I took it the same way.
You know, I came here to chill out…
bobo, you’re being disrespectful. Could you please knock it off here, and take it to the Thunderdome if you must brag about how you don’t give a shit about other people? It has been explained to you why you’re wrong to brag about your laziness in typing. Besides vision issues and learning disabilities, English is a second or even third language for some people here, and being proudly and aggressively lazy with your grammar and punctuation is making their already difficult task even harder.
chigau
Thank you!
*Feels all nice and warm inside*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now to try to catch up…
#145 Joe, I was not bragging, and did not intend to. I was merely backing up Ing’s statement. The *only* reason I have gone on about this at any length at all is because some people assumed that I was going out of my way to troll people with bad grammar. Waay waaay too much is being made of something that should *not* have been an issue *at all*.
bobo #147
Good.
Drop it.
This is The Lounge.
Got any recipes for cookies?
Spouse made 100 year Maple Walnut cake this Xmas. Yay!
Threadrupt.
I just discovered that dried cow poo is not soluble in methyl alcohol.
Don’t you wish you had my life?
FossilFishy
What kind of cow?
Ing
You intrigue me
recipe?
will ask. they recreated a recipe that’s been in their family for 100 years (give or take)
I clarified over in the thunderdome for anyone who is interested!
Chigau, I hope by ‘Good’ you mean that it all makes sense now:P
chigau: Unknown breed, although I do know that they’re dairy cows.
Aaah! Accomodationists. “Let’s not cause trouble. We need to work with people without causing any ruffles. We just want to live in peace and with dignity.”
You know what, so do I. The reality is that queers have been dehumanized for a lomg time. We have been treated like the scum of the earth. We’ve been beaten, bullied, abused, imprisoned, tortured and killed simply because we don’t love “right”. So the Gay Rights Movement kicks in and does so loudly. Not with a whimper. Not content with scraps. With a bombastic bang. Why? These are our civil, our human rights at stake here. When that is the case…when you have been hidden for so long…when you’ve been forced to hide who you are…the answer is not to meekly say “leave us be, we just want to sit over here all quiet like”. The answer is:
We are here.
We are queer.
We are loud.
We are proud.
Screw that soft spoken crap.
Hey Tony… “Letter from Birmingham Jail” sound about right?
I’m all for peace… but only the real kind, where people are free and can go about their day to day without fear or even bother. Not the sort of peace where freedom is for the few, and the rest keep the peace by keeping their mouths shut and their heads down.
The later is the more important to them
I feel sort of terrible right now.
I just moved to New Mexico less than a month ago. My wife came home the other day with “authentic homemade tamales” which are apparently a regional Xmas meal, made by the family of someone she works with. Now I have the unfortunate task of correcting them, and teaching a whole culture how to make their own fucking food. Yay? :)
… actually, I think the issue might be that here they use tamales as a platform for various and sundry green chile sauces. You can buy a dozen varieties of frozen chile purees, plus a dozen more types of locally grown fresh and dried chiles in most grocery stores, from which I’m sure countless recipes have been spawned. So the tamales themselves were an unseasoned corn paste wrapped around uninspired shredded pork. Good vehicle for sauces, but nothing special on their own.
I make the best shredded pork on Earth, Yucatan-style. Just adding a flavor to the corn blegh fixes that problem. Combine them with a mild-but-complex chile sauce and I own the whole state. :)
Joe:
Yup. I agree.
___
Somehow, I find it even worse, when you have people and organizations like the Log Cabin Republicans who criticize outspoken activists for being outspoken. Just like the Atheist movement, with people criticizing PZ or Dawkins or Hitch for being so vocal. If they feel a softer approach works-go for it. But don’t tell lound n proud activists that they’re doing it wrong and need to stop.
I wonder if the Log Cabin Republicans come from a background of great privilege. If you don’t face much overt bigotry and discrimination in your life, I can see how you might think things aren’t that bad.
I’m just tryimg to wrap my head around gay people actively supporting a political party that wants to continue denying them their full rights. Are LCR’s extra special snowflakes? Do they think they are or will be treated well by their “masters”?
Joe:
Don’t move. I am heading your way for this wonderful food you speak of. I wil be nice and let you cook AND clean.
opposablethumbs –
Are you thinking of Andrew Snelling?
<a href="http://www.noanswersingenesis.org.au/realsnelling.htm"Will the Real Dr Snelling Please Stand Up?
His name has come up at pharyngula a few times before.
Tony, you forget the GOP motto. It’s five words that explain everything.
Former England captain and cricket commentator Tony Greig, who had been battling lung cancer, has died in Sydney after a heart attack.
Tony
Really? But you’ve never even tasted my puerco pibil …have you?
Oh. You meant the other post. :)
Yeah, the Log Cabin Republicans come from a background of great privilege, it is right there in the word “Republican”. They are also representative of the dark side of intersectionality, where craven folks calculate their relative privilege and say “fuck it” while throwing in with people who would destroy them on one axis of privilege in the hope that their privilege on other axes will more than make up for it. If you’re a rich white guy, being gay doesn’t matter because you can pay your way through most of the disadvantages. You don’t need your job to cover your partner, you have lawyers on retainer to contractually give your partner whatever rights and benefits normally come with marriage, and you can buy your way into a level of society where as long as you have enough money, moral “depravities” become mere eccentricities.
Ing:
Is it “fuck you, I got mine”?
@Joe
I had it as “I got mine, fuck you” but yup
Well, of course I messed up the link trying to make it pretty,
Try again:
http://www.noanswersingenesis.org.au/realsnelling.htm
So no one misses it, we have spectacular new coinage, thanks to Nepenthe:
I should totally share that recipe, right? I don’t make it like the recipe, but here’s the basis of it(from IMDB):
I do it a bit differently now. I have done it in a crock pot and it turns out the same, although you have to make a much smaller batch or cook it in shifts. I vary the amounts and kinds of peppers, used bitter orange rather than the orange/lemon combination, added cilantro, and sometimes I’ll throw a cinnamon stick into the pan/crockpot just for variety.
BTW, I made that recipe for my wife’s job on “international day”, and they ate every bite. I doubled it and they ate all of it. I quadrupled it and went in to see where it was going… and people were skipping all the other dishes people had cooked and were getting seconds and thirds of the fucking pork!
Like Math? Thank Your Motivation, Not IQ
Interesting article.
My scores were rock-bottom in 9th grade, I was headed for a sure fail that year, but then I drew motivation from wanting to be as good as the class tyrant, and I got better.
First rq, now Joe.
Don’t you people have easy peasy recipes without 5 gajillion ingredients and dizzying directions?
How about some good foods with short prep n cook time & limited ingredients (like the Food Network show, 5 Ingredient Fix)
Jeez Tony, what do you want? A Hot Pocket?
Oh, and the irony is that the recipe I posted comes from a DVD extra feature called… wait for it… “10 Minute Cooking School”
Yeah, the cook time is long, but the prep time really isn’t. And here’s a hint for spices that works for you because you live in Florida: find the Spanish/Latin aisle of your local grocery store. You’ll find spices for 30-80% cheaper than over in the white people section of the store. Badia is a pretty good brand if you can find it, they sell giant-sized containers of chili powder and red-pepper flakes, and Italian seasonings for way cheaper than the “regular” brands.
You can get a coffee/spice grinder for like $10 at the grocery store or Target. You can sub in vinegar and a bit of sugar for the citrus if you need to. The nice part is that this sort of recipe almost can’t be overcooked and can use some marinating, so you can start the marinade one day, chop the meat and add it to the marinade on another day, throw it in the crock pot one morning, and come home that night to a delicious meal.
fuck
chigau,
Everything OK?
Prawns, spinach, potato gnocchi, sweet chili sauce, garlic, soy sauce. Mix and enjoy.
Mmmm tasty!
I came up with the Tabascarita.
It’s just a margarita on the rocks with silver tequila and a few dashes of tabasco. Ummm yuuuum!
I don’t recall trying prawns before. Does that recipe call for the spinach cooked? I prefer it raw or wilted at most…
Joe:
Yes. Home made.
You’ll get to work on that soon, no? I should be there before the new year.
Spoiler/Trigger Alert!
You know… I hate to be the one who always harps on class inequality around here… but I have a seriously hard time watching TV and movies because of it. Whatever the story, I just find myself thinking things like “you live in a 2 million dollar home, you don’t get to have problems that I’m going to give a shit about, so go fuck yourself.”
Just as a for example: American Horror Story. “Oh, I poured all of our money into this 5 million dollar mansion*, couldn’t spend a single penny less. Now things are getting weird, but if I sell the house at a loss there’s no way we can survive on only 2-3 million dollars! We should just stay here and get raped and tortured and murdered(and not always in that order), rather than the three of us live in a house with only 2-3000 square feet per person, and a kitchen that isn’t the size of a studio apartment!”
*Just teasing. The real life house was actually put on sale for $17 million. 20,000 square feet. Fuck you, Murder House family!
Homemade Hot Pocket? You’re a fucking perverse deviant Tony. I hope you’re at least wearing your snazzy hat when cracking wise at me.
Although… the Publix where I lived in Florida sold fresh chilled pizza dough in plastic bags, that would rise when you let it warm up and get some air. I’ll bet you could roll that out, slice it up, stuff it and fold it and crimp the edges and have a pretty tasty “hot pocket” made at home.
Partner raves about and loves American Horror Story
Come on Joe! Like Tim Gunn says “make it work”!
Ing,
Not to get all movie-geek on you… but I’m going to get all movie geek on you. Hope you don’t mind. Later I’ll commit class warfare on the world! :)
The first season of AHS is a self-contained tale, and has zero relation to the current season. It is also at its heart a haunted house story. As such, it is inevitably going to be compared to The Amityville Horror. This is the one place where AHS falls down, because Amityville is among other things a tale of economic horror. It is the story of a family that bought a slightly too big house in good times, falls on hard times, and finds out that their mortgage is underwater and the walls drip blood and there is no way they’re not taking a loss on this deal. In AHS they express the same concerns out loud(AHS is a lot of things, but subtle is not in the top hundred), but the facts on the ground tell a different story.
If they bulldozed the house, the plot of land it sits on is probably worth $2 million… and if you can sell your house for $2 million, that gives you plenty of breathing room to rent a big-enough house while you figure things out. You don’t have to sit in the haunted house and be afraid if you can take out a second mortgage a buy a normal-sized home and a couple of cars and have a million dollars to spare, and then whatever with the old house.
I can’t help but see racism and sexism in movies… and I also can’t help but see when they mismatch the implied wealth/poorness of the characters with the sets and props they give those characters. Or when they have a cell phone commercial talking about saving $30, set in a gated community and talking with a guy about to get into his $95,000 luxury German sedan. Or the Walmart commercials where the families they show are unpacking their groceries in kitchens with $10,000 worth of appliances and marble countertops.
Tony, you make it work. I’m going to bed. I’ve got to hang up a few dozen pictures and mirrors tomorrow.
Have a good night Joe.
Chigau whatever’s the matter?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
JAL sorry to be late to this; you aren’t a bad mother, you are quite the opposite. You’re awesome. Don’t listen to the Depression Gnome – it lies. I know. It used to try to drag me down, too, when my children were little.
If you need help with dental bills, please ask the Horde. I just had some emergency dental work done three-four weeks ago, before I went into hospital, which gives me extra empathy for your plight. Not as bad as yours, though; one small filling in a molar, one re-build of a molar that suddenly caved in with no prior warning that anything was wrong, and a filling in the front of an eye-tooth. No dental insurance. :( That was a few hundred dollars we could have done without having to spend just before Christmas and with my husband worried that visa issues (since sorted, fortunately) would lead to him being unemployed in the New Year. But we are in the lucky group. Although I’ve been unemployed for over five years now, my husband has remained in work; my 7½ days in hospital were covered by a mixture of insurance and the government and, although I don’t have a firm diagnosis, it is a very high probability that there is nothing sinister causing the chest pain; I’ve got no-one threatening me or mine with violence; and we will almost certainly manage to send Number 4 Son back to college to complete his final year without going bankrupt.
I would like nothing more than to be able to help out; if those of us who are able all chip in a little no-one gets hurt and you gain a lot. And you are worth it. Even in the depth of your misery you made the effort to give Little One a great holiday. That’s not just ‘not being a bad mother’, that’s being amazing! Great big granny-hug, and hang in there; we love you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ing, American Horror Story – that’s aka the news, isn’t it?
Maybe some of you have seen this. Actually, I’m posting this for Cain, Flower of Joy and Blossom of Awesome. I do hope she enjoys it.
http://www.neatorama.com/2012/12/28/Smart-Mice-Performing-Amazing-Tricks/
I don’t know that she trains her rats and perhaps she would not like to. Still I find these couple of vids very engaging and endearing. Perhaps one day I’ll give it a try. Happy Holidays, Cain. It’s nice to know you. And the same Happy to all the Horde, however you might celebrate and even if you don’t.
Tony –
Too easy for the food network …
Pasta with greens
In a large pot of boiling (salted) water, cook about one pound of “whole grain” spaghetti. Ronzoni and Barilla both have good ones, I recommend Barilla Plus in particular. They come in 13 ounce boxes, which is plenty. No need to open a second box to make exactly one pound.
When the pasta is cooked to taste, use a cup to scoop out about half cup of cooking liquid. Drain the pasta in a colander. Into the now-empty cooking pan put 5 to 10 ounces of spring-mix (the salad blend with different lettuces, radicchio, endive, spinach, etc) or a 5-ounce package of baby spinach, or baby arugula. Transfer the still-hot spaghetti from the colander onto the top of the greens.
Drizzle with 2 T olive oil. Sprinkle on a little pepper and salt. Toss with forks or tongs, mixing the greens into the spaghetti to partially wilt the greens. Some of the leaves probably won’t get wilted, that’s okay. That’s why you use salad greens (baby greens) that won’t be nasty if they’re not cooked through. Add a few splashes of the cooking liquid, as much as necessary to lightly moisten the noodles. But they’re not supposed to be soggy.
If you’ve prepared in advance, you might have some roasted or sauteed garlic to stir in. Or you might use a garlic press and squeeze a clove of garlic directly onto the cooked spaghetti (but only if you like the bitey taste of raw garlic). Or skip it altogether.
This makes four servings. When you’ve portioned out a serving into a large pasta bowl/plate, top it with one ounce of cheese. The best cheese for this is cotija (grating cheese available at Mexican markets). I prefer my cotija crumbled by hand rather than grated because the small chunks I get that way seem more flavorful and add a nice texture, too. If not cotija, then feta would probably work. Or shredded Parmesan (but not that powdered stuff in the green cans).
Serve with red wine to drink and ice cream for desert.
Refrigerate leftover pasta.
That’s dinner for me four nights a week. The second and successive nights, when I reheat the noodles, the greens get more soft than I prefer, so I add some broth/soy sauce to make it like ramen. Not quite soup, but a little “soupier” than the plain noodles were. Then top with tofu instead of cheese,
‘
Or add a little tomato juice and thyme, plus crumbled bacon leftover from Sunday breakfast.
It’s not really a recipe – it’s more a procedure for eating without fussing about it.
Then there’s the other three nights a week …
Good morning!
Joe
One day you will cook for me, too.
Ibis3
That’s a YES on those recipes (challa and bagels)!
Tony
Anyone can do simple recipes. It takes a real master to even read the ingredients of my recipes, never mind the directions (and then follow them!). It’s how I separate the wheat from the chaff; only those worthy may eat of my stolen recipes!
+++
re: movies
Had another Bad Movie Moment yesterday. Husband turned on TV, TV was showing Shoot ‘Em Up, and I could not watch. To the point where it made me emotionally horrible-feeling. Pregnant women being shot at/killed? Small baby left alone to be cared for by Ubermensch Clive Owen, while crying pitifully all the while? Yeah. It has a lot to do with my first pregnancy (no, not nearly that dramatic) but I just can’t watch those movies. They hurt too much.
Crudely Wrott, those were fab videos, thank you! In this house, it’s pretty much the rats training me. They had an absolute fit over me trying to take their Ratmas tree down, so it’s now back on my desk, sans decorations and is the Tree of Treats™. :D
Thank you so much and thank you for thinking of me. All my love. ♥
Crudely Wrott
I know it’s just mice, but when I was reading and watching Coraline, the mouse circus was my favourite part.
Sorry, that should have been directed at Caine. :P
Yeah. Critters is like that.
I’m so glad you liked the vids.
I’ve had some wonderful friends among the ranks of cats and dogs and horses. I even was very close to a sweet Jersey milk cow when I was young. She was even younger (blush). Haven’t gotten to know rodents very well, but I can see possibilities, mostly thanks to you.
Be well and scratch your lovelies behind their ears for me. ;^>
Funny thing. I just scratched myself behind my ear and my leg started to jiggle.
Geez, I hadn’t listened to this song for a million years:
Jeannie C. Riley – Harper Valley P.T.A.
Just awesome.
Mice are sweeties, smart ones. They’re just impossibly small. :D Rats are small enough. Everyone shall receive scritchies.
@Tony, “prawns” is just Australian for US “shrimp”. I don’t actually fancy Rorschach’s suggestion much, I am SO OVER sweet chilli sauce. For a while it was on everybloodything everybloodywhere. I’d suggest the gnocchi, prawns, spinach (baby, just wilted), plus perhaps lemon juice and pesto. Or lemon juice and plain crushed chilli – sambal oelek is my go to.
@Joe, I has a sad because I will probably not be able to find the ingredients for your pork dish. Though I will try one day.
But I have this to offer:
Easy slow cooked coconut pork.
—————————————
Take a chunk of about 1.5kg boneless pork – rolled shoulder or scotch, or whatever you like.
Rub with a bit of salt, pepper and coriander (the ground seed spice).
Pop into slow cooker.
Add half a dozen peeled, halved garlic cloves. (More if you like)
Add a goodly amount of peeled, sliced, fresh ginger root. (At least 50g, I like more.)
Add an onion, cut in rough chunks.
Pour over a can of coconut milk (about 350ml).
Cover and slow cook for 6-8 hours on low, until meat is super tender and pulls apart with a fork.
Serve the pulled apart shredded pork with some of the sauce that it generates while cooking, on a bed of steamed rice. Accompany with steamed asian leafy greens – gai lan, by preference – drizzled with a touch of sweet soy or oyster sauce to taste. And maybe with some sauteed oyster mushrooms or black fungus too. Some fresh coriander chopped on top and/or a squeeze of lime are options.
Alethea
That sounds delicious!
Yes, some of Joe’s ingredients are hard to come by here, as well, but I’m hoping that either one day I’ll have the spare cash to visit a specialty food store, or I’ll be living somewhere where such things are more readily available (this country’s not too big on spicy food).
Seconded on the deliciousness of Alethea’s cocopork*. Copied and saved on my ‘must try’ recipe stash.
*Another genetic engineering effort? Hmmmm…
Minnie
Remember, when designing these new species, we’ll need to house them, and what with global warming, we have no idea what weather/environmental conditions will be like. They need to be as diverse and durable as possible. (birgerjohansson also needs to keep this in mind.)
With that in mind, cocopork might work well – the all-round adaptability of pork on a stick, with light coconut flavouring (not a big fan of coconut in sweets, but it works in meat and exotic sauces, for me). It’s like auto-marination, and no need to build an extra barn for all those cocoporks. At this rate, we’ll be working only from hybrids. Best make them hypoallergenic, too.
By the way, *hugs* for Tigger_the_Wing. I somehow missed your re-entry into the Lounge yesterday. Apologies, and loverly to see you again!! Glad to know all is well!
Hi there.
If everything goes well this was the last grocery shopping of 2012
JAL
*adds to big pile of hugs*
THIS!!
Esteleth
Oh yes. And everything is easily prepaired in 20 minutes and much cheaper than anything else!
Hehe, and I typed the above before reading that.
Do I win a fortune-telling cookie?
Joe
Tamales are a wide variety, from savoury to sweet. I got to know them as plain with lots of “picante” to go with and I’d give a lot to have one of them…
Saying that: Because you’re rooted in a culture doesn’t make you a good cook.
+++
Between Oliver Crangle and Mr.’s colleague* I’m always astounded at the amount of unfair injustoce and opression privileged asses can feel.
*Can you imagine they asked him to move from his favourite worktime which is 6-12 to a different time on one day because there was an urgent sample dure in the afternoon when that’s part and parcel of the flexi-time model they have and that in a job for which he is handsomely paid? Unfair prosecution!
#1 just hunched over her sister’s new book and read the title…
I’m so proud of her.
Giliell
Love that. Eldest has also started spelling out titles and names of shops and things written on packages and stuff. It’s very exciting!
Also, your Mr’s colleague must be so disadvantaged. The poor, poor man. I dedicate this to him.
I have also noticed the influx of Latvians on FtB lately – first as twitterers for PZ’s amusement, and also as commenters whose names cannot be spelled (Latvian names are notorious for having odd letters in easy-to-miss, strange places – my real name is deceptively simple-looking).
Rare species, indeed. :P
Yes! Thank you so much, MikeG (back at #104-5) – that was indeed the one I half-remembered! I had no idea how to go about searching for him – very impressed that you found this after my vague description.
I wanted to mention this in a little chat I am having elsewhere about how you can’t be a good/honest scientist and a believer unless you compartmentalise like crazy, and I (half-)remembered this guy as an extreme example. Thank you!!!!
hotshoe #162 and 168, thank you very much for the link to Andrew Snelling too. I think it was the post on Marcus Ross that I actually had in mind, but Snelling will be excellent to mention in my little chat also.
.
Did I mention that this place is the greatest?
Oh, Tigger_the_Wing I just read about your hospital telling-off of the unwelcome priest over on the commentariat thread – Best Holiday Story Ever, I love it! Absolutely brilliant.
Alethea and rq:
Which ingredients would be hard to find? Because substitutions can obviously be made… that’s part of the fun of cooking! :)
@improbable joe
I did not attack anyone or treat anyone like shit (through the use of bad grammar) or advocate treating anyone like shit(through the use of bad grammar) on the FTB boards. In fact, I have been reviewing most of my posts tonight, and my grammar has been pretty good overall other than the occasional typo. You, and others, rudely accused me of mistreating FTB users through the use of bad grammar when *all I was doing was trying desperately to explain myself*.
BTW, are typos bad? I mean, every post has a ‘preview’ function, so if someone cannot take the time to ‘preview’ their post for proper sentence structure and typos, does that mean they automaticaly ‘do not care’ and simply want to ‘offended people’ by letting the typos slip by? Serious question.
Improbable Joe
The chilis. :)
Ok, fine:
Achiota Paste
Annatto Seeds
Cumin (in any way, shape or form – I had mine (powder) imported from Canada via siblings)
Banana Leaves
Although to be honest, chilis might be an issue, as rather generic ones are easy and within budget, but anything slightly more specialized is more $$. Also, they’re rarely labelled appropriately. I doubt the labellers know the difference between habaneros and jalapenos.
I can probably wrangle up some whole all-spice (unless it’s easier to sub something else), and the rest of the stuff (incl. tequila) is easy.
[Aside re: tequila] Heck, there’s a whole place called Tequila Boom, now with two locations, in town. You can buy a metre of tequila (12 shots), white or gold, for a reasonable price. Used to be a favourite hang-out (ah, youth and childlessness…!!).
Well you did say you sometimes could not be bothered to capitalise correctly. Which is an admission you really don’t give a fuck about the people reading what your have written. That lack of capitals makes reading harder is well documented, so either you know not using correctly impedes reading, or you should know. Either way, you have no excuse since ignorance is a piss-poor defence.
Quite frankly, you comes across as an arrogant arsehole.
I think that reactions to bobo’s comments in this instance have been a wee bit too hostile.
Maybe, but I do not look kindly on people who think that they can waste my time trying to read stuff they cannot be bothered to properly punctuate. It speaks of a certain arrogance on their part, that they think their time is more important than other people’s.
#214
Yeah, I apologise for that. Honestly, I was in utter shock over chigau’s original attack on me. I had no clue what I had done wrong. Completely and utterly confused. What I said about lack of punctuation and capitalization is true, but only in certain circumstances. I had asked earlier if it is ok, sometimes. In informal circumstances (certain blogs) or in talking to friends (who know about my typos, I have severe problems a lot of the time due to frozen fingers) or in a gaming setting, where it is hard to type correctly.
However, I try really hard to be as clear as possible on FTB as I can. So, other than my friends, or informal settings, where it really does not matter, how does that *prove* that I am nothing more than an arrogant arsehole? And again, I did not *attack* anyone! I simply stated something innocent, got shit for it, tried to explain myself (poorly, I admit) and then got MORE shit for that.
I am being treated as if I am some sort of evil MRA for crying out loud.
#216
The thing is though, I have not *forced* anyone on FTB to read poorly capitalized and punctuated sentences! I do not go around “trolling” through the use of bad grammar. You and others are just making assumptions based on what I said. But I was talking about something in general, in defense of Ing, who was also making a general point about people who pick on grammar!
Thank you for that. I am sorry that I came across a bit heavy.
rqHmmmm…
The achiota paste is the first couple of ingredients ground up. “Achiote” is another name for annatto. That’s one down!
Substitute turmeric/paprika for the annatto seeds. Cumin is a little tougher to skip on. The banana leaves aren’t necessary, you can wrap it in foil if you need to. Whatever peppers you have/like is fine, I’ve used 5-6 different kinds depending on whatever was most fresh at the store. If you have a spicy pepper sauce you like, you can sub that for fresh peppers.
Is it just my PC, or have all the sidebars and stuff shunted over from the right to the left ?
So…
I had to call into work today. I have an acute case of “the Estelethmobile is stuck in a snowbank.”
Fortunately, they were understanding.
Oh, and for added irony: after work I was going to go to the mechanic’s shop and have snow tires put on my car.
The sidebars still appear on the right for me.
Curious. I just tried Firefox and IE, and they both have the sidebars on the left as well. So not going to be a cache issue.
Matt, I am having the same issue. About a half hour ago, everything switched to the left…/boggle
Thanks.
Seems like someone is playing with the CSS. Having the stuff on the left is not a problem in itself, it is just taking some getting used to.
On the left for me, also on the rest of FtB.
Just switched to the left for me too.
It feels weird with it on the left. I just refreshed, and at first I thought something was wrong with the computer (it does things like that to me, sometimes)…
Improbabl
ye JoeYeah, cumin’s a bit of an issue here. They believe that cumin = caraway seeds, apparently a common misconception, and I can’t find cumin anywhere. But, I shall persist, and I have your recipe filed away for future reference. If all else fails, I can make a request of a sibling next time they decide to visit (probably next summer).
Portia, Socio-gen
I have deployed the rq-symbol via your emails; please let me know if everything arrives as sent! :)
Switched for me too. That will take some getting used to. It looks wrong right now.
It looks very wrong. :/ It’s messing with my usual left-to-right reading method, where more important information (blog post) is on the left and less important but accessible information (list of blogs) is on the right. But I’m pretty sure it’s just a matter of convention and habit. Heh. Weird things going on in my brain right now. :)
Now the page looks all lopsided!
*whine*
OH NO EVERYTHING IS ON THE LEFT WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME
(fetal position in corner)
*skids her car in front of Carlie’s house, spins wheels*
Its a left-wing media conspiracy!
You know when you are just falling asleep and you get those weird hallucinations? Last night I saw william lane craig. There he was, right in front of my face.
Then I thought this:
The mother of jesus was a virgin.
William lane craig is a virgin.
Therefore, william lane craig is the mother of jesus.
Here, everything is pushed over to the left.
Bobo:
I have a feeling much of the issue was a misunderstanding, however, please continue any and all further discussion in The Thunderdome. This area is specifically set up not not be the place to air, explain, mediate, or work out disagreements. Even mild ones. We have had incidents in the past where disagreements or arguments flared up and made things unpleasant here, and this space is specifically set up to be warm, inviting, friendly and non contentious. Many commenters here also read the ‘Dome, so chances are you can continue your chat there.
:)
Carlie, I think you will be OK.
Mass hallucination? (FtB rots the brain?)
Anyone involved in the discussion about grammar- this has passed the point of mere discussion. Please move it to the Thunderdome.
#238 Yeah Tony, that’s cool, and that is what I have been doing. I just wanted to point out, in here, that I was not the one who started attacking people :P I was told, rudely, to go to the dome, as if the entire thing was my fault from the very start…
For everyone who doesn’t like the sidebar on the left…would you prefer it on the far right?
JAL, I’m late to the party on this, but just wanted to add: You’re not a bad mother or an irresponsible person. You’re doing your best and no one, with the possible exception of yourself, expects you to do more.
One practical question: Do you have a dental school near you? They might give you free or sliding scale dental care and are usually very good.
Tony
I’m not sure. Right now, I would say yes, but ask again in a day or so. Needs some getting used to and some trying out, in case it’s just a case of sudden-change.
bobo
Being told to take it to the ‘dome doesn’t mean it’s your fault; it just means that it’s a situation that can possibly escalate into something unpleasant for everyone here. Sort of a pre-emptive measure, but definitely not an accusation or a condemnation. :)
Tony: If we can assume that most people have their mouse on the right side of their keyboard, would it not be easier for them to navigate the forums by moving the cursor around the right side of the screen vs. the left?
Moving the cursor to the left side of the screen feels unnatural, imo.
and btw, are you a mod?
*is once again threadrupt*
We found a place in GA, my interview went “meh”, and we move in 4 weeks.
–
I know when FTB started, everything was on the left, but I don’t like it. It screws with how the page renders on my iPad such that resizing to have just the OP and comments take the whole screen doesn’t work right.
The menu on the right worked much better for how I read the site.
@rq I will respond to you in the ‘dome.
Wow. Did no one catch that…? I set it up perfectly.
****
Bobo:
No and to be honest, I wrestled with saying anything. It’s just that I and so many others see this as a safe space and a relaxing social environment and given the flare ups in the past, which have driven people away, I wanted to say something. I tried to be as polite as possible. I apologize if I angered you.
@Tony
We got it…the change just actually is annoying.
Wes gotz snow
bobo@246:
This shift is annoying to me. I am on my phone, rather than a computer, and nothing is centered the way I like it. I liked the comments flush on the left. Scrolling was easier that way.
The degree to which people defend laziness or mediocrity in art always baffles me.
Ing: have you read the Buffy story with the male Slayer yet? I haven’t so I’m curious how it was handled.
Tony: did not anger me at all. I think you’re great!@
The shift also annoys me a lot. I sincerely hope that it goes back soon. I have to scroll sideways now to prevent the comments being cut off on the right.
@Tony
I haven’t. I wasn’t impressed by S8 so it’s not something I regularly read. The opening details on it though made me roll my eyes. Yes technically that is what I was saying about breaking the box…but it’s gone from “This is something only X minority (women) can do by the laws of the story” to “Hey why CANT a white male do this too! TOTES EQUALITY!!!!”. So I’m reading it less as being creative and equal and more of appropriation-ho. I’m less than enthused and optimistic. IMO the obvious story to do would be a closeted trans Slayer, that had far more opportunities to be clever.
BTW have you read Spidey 700? It’s something that I feel should work for me, it’s trying to hit notes I like but just isn’t clicking for a variety of reasons. A number of those reasons are due to larger tropes of the medium so that might not be fair for it (due to how it’s handled in comics I am inclined to be more harsh on death stories and threats of rape stories and all). Normally I like a good darkness in my stories but this just wasn’t hitting it for me. I picked it up after giving up Spiderman because IMO the series seemed creatively dead, because of the buzz.
There are some elements of it I *should* like but for some reason aren’t. A big part of it I think has to do with the moral event horizon. The character in question has a chance for redemption that comes from a series of acts of obscene depravity. While it’s a complex issue and I normally like that I’m not sure I can readily accept sympathizing with someone who has *just* made themselves a complete monster like that. And yeah, that’s what they’re going for; I get it. I just don’t know if I like it.
To be honest big two cape comics sort of feel like a big tower of wet blankets. I would like to enjoy it but there seems to be a military precision effort to smother any enthusiasm I might have. Part of it is my tastes, I enjoy a story that progresses, where we see an illusion of change. The meta knowledge that big comics are the land of perma status quo and rarely will anything big ‘matter’ kills that. It’s an issue of art meets business: business wants the stories to go on forever but it is in the nature of stories to end (even if they are then retold). DKRises and the Ultimate Spiderman passing the torch was the last time I felt excitement and tension over a story because HOLY SHIT they were actually willing and able to end a story. To me living in the world of comics now looks less like escapism and some sort of hell Dante left out. A world where nothing ends, there’s no closure, and your troubles neither climax nor go away. Maybe it’s being more of an adult but such a situation is just not appealing to me and knowledge that that’s how that universe runs keeps me from enjoying it.
I am enjoying Atomic Robo though. A nice rape-free, progressing series of science HO! adventures
For rq
Bagel Recipe
Ingredients:
2 teaspoons of active dry yeast
1 ½ tablespoons of granulated sugar
1 ¼ cups of warm water (you may need ± ¼ cup more)
3 ½ cups (500g) of bread flour or high gluten flour (will need extra for kneading)
1 ½ teaspoons of salt
Optional Toppings:
Caraway seeds, coarse salt, minced fresh garlic, minced fresh onion, poppy seeds, or sesame seeds. See note at the bottom for cinnamon raisin bagels.
Preparation:
1. In ½ cup of the warm water, pour in the sugar and yeast. Do not stir. Let it sit for five minutes, and then stir the yeast and sugar mixture, until it all dissolves in the water.
2. Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. [If you’re making cinnamon/raisin bagels add cinnamon and raisins here.] Make a well in the middle and pour in the yeast and sugar mixture.
3. Pour half of the remaining warm water into the well. Mix and stir in the rest of the water as needed. Depending on where you live, you may need to add anywhere from a couple tablespoons to about ¼ cup of water.
4. On a floured countertop, knead the dough for about 10 minutes until it is smooth and elastic. Try working in as much flour as possible to form a firm and stiff dough.
5. Lightly brush a large bowl with oil and turn the dough to coat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, or until the dough has doubled in size. Punch the dough down, and let it rest for another 10 minutes.
6. Divide the dough into 8 pieces. Shape each piece into a round ball. Take a dough ball, and press it gently against the countertop (or whatever work surface you’re using) moving your hand and the ball in a circular motion pulling the dough into itself while reducing the pressure on top of the dough slightly until a perfect dough ball forms. Or just roll it around in your hands until you have a nice ball.
7. Coat fingers in flour, and gently press your index finger and thumb into the center of each dough ball to form a ring. Stretch the ring to about ⅓ to ½ the diameter of the bagel (as they rest, the hole will close up) and place on a lightly oiled cookie sheet or cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Repeat the same step with the remaining dough.
8. After shaping the dough rounds and placing them on the cookie sheet, cover loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 10 minutes.
9. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Reduce the heat. Use a slotted spoon or skimmer to lower the bagels into the water. Boil as many as you are comfortable with boiling (I usually do two at once—any more than that it becomes harder to time). Once the bagels are in, it shouldn’t take too long for them to float to the top (a couple seconds). Let them sit there for 1 minute, and them flip them over to boil for another minute. When you have boiled about 2/3 of them, preheat your oven to 400°F.
10. If you want to top your bagels with stuff, do so as you take them out of the water. You will need to use an egg wash to get the toppings to stick before putting the bagels into the oven.
11. Once all the bagels have boiled (and have been topped with your choice of toppings), transfer them to a lightly oiled baking sheet.
12. Bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown. [For cinnamon-raisin bagels, drop the temp to 375°F for the last 10 mins.]
13. Cool on a wire rack.
14. Slice and freeze any you don’t want to eat the day you bake them.
Makes 8 medium-sized bagels. If you want to double the yield, I suggest mixing two batches of dough, starting the second while the first is rising.
For cinnamon raisin bagels:
* Before proofing yeast, put 1 cup of raisins in a small bowl and add enough boiling water to cover; let stand for 5 minutes. Drain & blot dry with paper towel.
* Stir raisins into flour along with 1/6 cup of brown sugar and 4 tsp. of cinnamon.
* The dough will be very sticky. Don’t be fooled by this into adding too much flour (if you make it so that it’s as non-tacky as the plain bagel dough, they’ll be as dry as rocks). Focus on the consistency rather than stickiness to determine the right ratio of moisture to flour.
* Add 2 tbs of brown sugar to the water you’re going to boil the bagels in
Correction: make that 1 tsp of salt
Ibis3
Thanks!! I’ll let you know how it turns out!
The Walking Dead Christmas special
As a southpaw, I congratulate the FtB on putting important links in THE RIGHT PLACE =)
We interrupt this Lounge time for a venting announcement:
FSMdammit. I am tired of MRAs claiming tribalism when called on their crap (Ed’s thread at Dispatches).
/end rant
Ing:
I haven’t read ASM 700, but know the spoilers. It is an interesting idea diluted by forcing Peter’s emotional history onto Otto. How will we know if he succeeds or fails [at redemption] if everything he does is tainted by Peter’s influence?
I think the body swap/redemptive angle was handled much better when Faith lived in Buffy’s skin for a day. Her personality wasn’t affected by the swap, but getting to see and feel how Buffy lived was integral to Faith’s arc of redemption.
I love Faith Lehane.
And Eliza Dushku is a talented actress.
____
On another note, I am appalled at the people sending death threats to Dan Slott over this. First off, it is fucked up to send them. Period. Secondly, it’s comics. Specifically a comic featuring Marvel’s flagship character. Why anyone thinks this is permanent is beond me.
Ing:
I agree with you on the big two. I have already expressed my disdain for the direction DC took, and Marvel isn’t much better. I do think the integration of mutants into the Avengers is a good thing, and I am massively excited to have Bendis off Avengers and Hickman writing. He is a much better plotter and his long form storytelling appeals to me.
Oh, and YES, Atomic Robo rocks. Before he died, M was reading far more indie titles than I was. After he passed away, I began reading some of the stuff he had. Some stuff like Locke and Key, I couldn’t get in to. Atomic Robo just blew me away from the jump. I think it would make a fun movie.
Elroy’s back! [boygenius].
@Tony
If you like Atomic Robo I think you’ll like Moore’s Tom Strong
I’ve read that too. Quite fond of it. I adored Top Ten as well. Promethea was out of my league though.
@Joe: in Australia, finding good central/south American food is hard. Not impossible, there are some importers for the ingredients. For example. tamales would require a special trip to the fancy gourmet shop, or perhaps ordering online, to get the right flour. I have no problem with habaneros if in season (or can you use dried?), but the annatto is likely to be hard to source. Banana leaves also require a special trip to a grocery store 15km away from my usual.
Hi, all.
Back from visiting family in Florida.
Ten inches of snow and ice on the ground. Yesterday morning, I was in Florida. Palm trees, poinsettias growing outside, no jacket, no scarf. I did, however, come back with a head cold.
Currently making a pot of black bean soup (with fresh and smokes sausage, roasted peppers, roasted garlic, and roasted onion).
Did I miss anything interesting or unusual?
I had a dream last night that all the people in my
killhushfile were in an actual place and they had only one-another to talk to.Hi Oggie!
*waves at Ogvorbis*
—
Chigau,
I can’t decide whether that would be a nightmare or one of those dreams that makes you start randomly laughing during the day.
Beatrice
It wasn’t a very thorough dream but I’m definitely giggling occasionally.
I don’t know if I should be happy or sad. I’ve come to an agreement with Mr Rawnaeris that any books I sell back to Half-Price, I have carte blanche to rebuy on Kindle (if it exists, if it doesn’t, paper book stays).
But I’m about to give up 6 bankers boxes of books…and about 15 years of collecting.
I’m doing it for a good, logical reason (reduce weight for move = less money spent on move).
I still haz a sad for all the old friends going away.
Going through all my books did lead to one discovery, I have a copy of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier that the only notation on the copyright page is the date, 1938, and the ISBN.
The couple on the safety video look a lot like Ted and Elaine from Airplane.
Rawnaeris
I cannot imagine how I would handle that.
I’m a bit Gollum about my books.
Back from getting snow tires.
My car is no longer sliding all over the place, and can actually get into my driveway.
My wallet hurts.
Chigau:
I’m serious Gollum about my books. My preciousessssessssess.
Not original. Got it from Boy. And modified it.
In what way?
–
Hotpocket = pasty. The Husband makes killer Lombard Chicken Pasties and Mushroom Pasties. Very popular in SCA venues.
–
Game Time!!!
–
Dang, this is not a day to get things done at Casa la Redhead. After I got the Redhead up and settled after she slept in, ran to a grocery store to get fresh lettuce for her BLT. While she was eating said BLT, I started dozing. When I finally woke up, she was dozing. Now its almost dinner time.
I do not like these links on the left. The scrolly up and down bar is on the right, so that is where my mouse is most of the time. Moving all the way to the other side of the page to click links is inefficient at best.
Esteleth – I realized today that my car really needs snow tires. But I think my solution will be to not drive much in the snow.
Speaking of which, we’ve had zero snow all season, and then I agree to watch two other people’s houses while they’re gone, and then we get the first snowmageddon, followed immediately by mini-migeddon. Three driveways, each of the other two of which are much bigger than mine, and I don’t own a snowblower. Sigh. It wouldn’t be quite so bad except that when using a shovel, the only good way to cope with lots of fast snowfall is to do multiple shovel events during the storm so there’s never too much to do at once. And one can’t drive to other houses during said snowstorm, so those have to wait until it’s all over and accumulated. Blech.
Improbable Joe, where do you get banana leaves???
JAL, drop in at the Facebook group; we want to help.
Is there someone close enough to collect JAL and get her to a better place to stay and some dental work?
I knew violence in the US is glorified. I never realized how desensitized I have become to it. This article on the injuries sustained by the burglars in Home Alone gave me pause.
” The doctor’s diagnosis: “If this doorknob is glowing visibly red in the dark, it has been heated to about 751 degrees Fahrenheit, and Harry gives it a nice, strong, one- to two-second grip. By comparison, one second of contact with 155 degree water is enough to cause third degree burns. The temperature of that doorknob is not quite hot enough to cause Harry’s hand to burst into flames, but it is not that far off… Assuming Harry doesn’t lose the hand completely, he will almost certainly have other serious complications, including a high risk for infection and ‘contracture’ in which resulting scar tissue seriously limits the flexibility and movement of the hand, rendering it less than 100 percent useful. Kevin has moved from ‘defending his house’ into sheer malice, in my opinion.”
Insufferable self congratulation warning.
I haz a warm fuzzy glow. :)
I was in the mega market a short while ago trying to navigate the veggie section which was clogged with many laggards leaning on huge carts, displaying obvious obliviousness. After bumper car-ing my way around most of them I got log jammed between a doddering old gent on a cell phone and a young fool on a cell phone. I sighed. Then the old gent looked at me with rheumy eyes and a thick Eastern European accent and said “Cel-er-ry?” “Excuse me, says I?” He repeats “Cel-er-ry?”
I realized he was more overwhelmed than me. I reached into my basket and handed him the fresh head of celery I’d just bagged. I asked, “Do you need more?”
He smiled at me with such gratitude. “No, no, no, fine, fine! Thank you! Thank you!”
I wished him a Happy New Year. I thought he was going to cry. I then cleared a path through the log jam so that he could move on.
He said something into the cell phone I couldn’t understand. And he kept saying “Thank you, thank you to me.”
I scored another head of celery for myself and went to find my hubby who was inspecting bulbs of garlic. I told him the story and he just grinned. Says he, “Happy Anniversary m’dear!”
We’ve been married 22 years today.
Don’t worry, there is ongoing tweaking of the FtB code going on. The sidebar has been intentionally flipped to the left.
Morgan:
Aaaaw. Happy anniversary! It was 33 for me and Mister this March. Won’t be long before we hit 34. Time just flies, doesn’t it?
Lets see, that’s free grog or swill or your choice and two bacon sammiches, followed by the Pullet Patrol™ rendition of the “Happy Anniversary” song. I recommend the grog/swill is consumed before their a capella rendition.
morgan
Happy Anniversary to you and hubby!
and a hug for the good deed
Ogvorbis:
I hope you and your family had a good holiday.
—-
That soup sounds quite NOM NOM.
—-
As for missing anything, Ed Brayton chose to take a side in the anti FtB battles, thanks to Al Stefanelli’s stupid video. So now Ed’s thread has been seeing an influx of……..drumroll: MRAs.
****
cicely:
When I think of pasties, I imagine the little pieces of tape used to cover up women’s nipples in strip bars in Florida (no, I have never been to a straight strip bar; I’ve been to Swinging Richards-a fully nude gay strip bar in Atlanta; and I’ve been a stripper before)
Why?
Markita Lynda, I get banana leaves from the banana tree plant. :) Actually, I have no clue where to get them now. I was in Florida when I started cooking that dish, and you can get banana anywhere. Here in the southwest, it is all corn husk… just not the same! The banana leaf gives it a weird boggy swampy flavor, I don’t know how else to describe it.
Morgan, happy anniversary!
Happy anniversary Morgan.
Ing @292:
It discombobulates the MRAs?
Good to know it wasn’t accidental. That would have been weird.
Well, weirder than normal around here.
Whatever normal is.
Happy anniversary, Morgan. Wife and I celebrated our 22d anniversary with a new hot water heater. Also our 14th.
Ogvorbis:
Sounds like us and cars. The night we married, car blew a rod, in a totally industrial area late at night, naturally. Engine totaled. First anniversary, went out to eat, drove to Santa Monica, on the way home, engine goes boom. 2nd anniversary, lather, rinse, repeat happenings of first one. 3rd anniversary, again.
We stopped celebrating our anniversary. Haven’t lost a car since.
Friends and fellow Hordlings… My apologies for not responding to comments in a way that respects accepted etiquette. I’m so new to posting here and I haven’t a clue how to navigate blockquotes and such and, well, phooey! I’ll get the hang of it. Have faith! or something or other. :)
I guess I’ll use aluminum foil. I’m not sure I’d like banana leaves, given how banana peels smell. Although the banana flowers are like a giant, black & white bird-of-paradise flower, which makes me think that the bird-of-paradise is a small, wild banana species.
All the holiday driving and visiting has been done. Now back to hiring plumbers and the like.
Caine:
I’ve lost four engines in cars. Two were VW air-cooled. Both threw rod from the #3 cylinder. I also killed an engine in a Mistubishi a few years ago and Boy threw a rod in the first car he ever bought — an Oldsmobile. Blowing an engine is annoying, bad, and expensive. Doing it on one’s anniversary? Coincidence is not causation?
Morgan:
No worries. You’ve done nothing wrong.
Markita:
You should have told me you needed banananana leaves. I walked past lots of banananana (I hate that word — I can never remember when to end it!) when I was down in Florida.
Threadrupt although no longer hungover. Oy, but I’m too old for partying, even if it is the milder, middle-aged version. Also, Kir Royales are dangerous; they only seem light and fruity and harmless, even if they improved my dancing — or just rendered me incapable of recognizing how bad I was.
==
Things that make me wish for an asteroid strike:
The adorable 5yo moppet next door got a baby drum set or something for Christmas from his grandparents. I do not know why they hate me, but clearly they do. If he does not stop banging that damn thing I will have to fight back with classical music.
The sidebar being on the left, which is just annoying. I have to scroll down to find something then cross over to click it. And for some reason, it makes things seem lopsided.
==
Things that make me not wish for the end of humanity:
Today, my brother went with about 8 local firefighters/EMS to the calling hours for the firefighters in Webster. At a truck stop/convenience store where they stopped to fuel up before leaving town, several truckers sheltering from the weather came up and asked if they were going to the funerals. When they heard the affirmative, they paid for the fuel for the engine and ambulance, then came back as the crews were picking up snacks and drinks in the store and gave them nearly $1000 for the families. As they drove (sometimes very slowly through the winter storm), lots of honks and thumbs-ups from other motorists. When they stopped for lunch, the restaurant manager told them it was on the house.
==
Things that make me not want to move to Siberia:
The Plan is working and my mother is ahead of schedule! She called today to tell me she cannot stay with me and allow her precious, precious soul to be tainted by my evil, atheist, living-in-sin self. (She used different words, but that was the gist.)
—
Okay…off to read the thread and catch up.
.
Ogvorbis:
All I know is that it stopped when we stopped going out on our anniversary. I just checked the calendar for March. Our anniversary will be on a Monday, which is nice, because Mister will be home and we don’t go anywhere on Mondays, except to check mail. We’ll walk. Or check Tuesday.
Actually, after all these decades, we generally forget all about our anniversary. I’m terrible at remembering it. The usual conversation goes “Hey, we had an anniversary last week!” “Oh, you’re right.” Chorus: “Happy anniversary!”
Socio-gen:
YAY!
I just gave the rats their first can of tuna. Sam & Neville acted like I was trying to poison them, but everyone else is excitedly munching.
I don’t know how to share a screen shot here, but you can look up Al Stefanelli’s Twitter handle (@stefanelli) here:
http://fakers.statuspeople.com/
43% of his twitter followers are fakes; 51% inactive. (He’s been bragging about his many followers.)
Evidently you can buy twitter followers.
http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2012/12/15/fake-followers-an-easy-game-but-not-worth-the-risk/
Socio-gen:
That was such a wonderful thing those truckers did. ::sniff::
Stacy:
Wow. He just continues that downward spiral. What’s next?
JAL –
Late to the game today, but I am also happy to have you around. And EVERYONE feels like bad mommy sometimes – for most of us, including you, it is not true.
.
Also, no pressure, but when you are ready to head north, I gots cold weather stuff for you and the family. It is non-perishable, and will keep as long as it needs to (no moths to worry about when the temps are 10 degrees F).
The adorable 5yo moppet next door got a baby drum set or something for Christmas from his grandparents. I do not know why they hate me, but clearly they do.
It’s not you that they hate, it’s the little one’s parents! Probably something to do with being kept up all night for years in a row when they (the parents) were 0-2. You, I’m afraid, are almost certainly collateral damage.
Chigau and Caine, Fleur du mal, I didn’t really realize how gollum I am about them. I shan’t lie, I cried a bit after they were sold.
That said, I did keep all the ones that had either sentimental value, or are out of print, so that’s ok.
PZ, I hope ya’ll get the layout fixed soon. I really don’t like the spacing for comments with the menu bar on the right.
Goddammit, that’s what I get for posting after drinking! And I even previewed twice!!
That should read “on the left.”
I’m going to bed now.
Sam & Neville acted like I was trying to poison them
That’s my little virtual ratlet! (I never liked tuna and this troubled people absurdly much when I was a child. Apparently a 7 year old Texan who doesn’t eat tuna is a shocking thing.)
Happy Anniversary, Morgan! =^_^=
It was our 33rd on Boxing Day. Caine, I’m useless with dates, which is why we chose one that (a) is easy to remember and (b) is always a Bank Holiday, so we always get to stay home if we wish. And yay for this year’s extra-special Doctor Who Christmas Special as a very good reason indeed to stay home!
Woohoo! Ogvorbis is back! \ O /
Socio-gen, I’ve tears in my eyes from the generosity of those people. And I bet it made them feel good, too. It isn’t often that people get a chance to repay the debt we all owe to firefighters and emergency staff.
I got to use ‘smegmarmalade’ on an MRA!.
So excited!
Started a new scifi series and suddenly HOLY CRAP ITS TIM CURRY OUT OF NOWHERE!!!!!
Jesus fuck. Anyone else feel like fighting “jealousy is biological, evolved in men as a way to control women’s sexuality” shit in the Piero Corsi thread? Imma take a break from it.
@Caine
We need Nerd to be more blatant than me in pointing out that “hunches” and “seems like” isn’t fucking scientific or worth a damn.
Dianne:
Hee. Neville ran away to hide after one sniff. He hasn’t reappeared yet.
Tigger:
Oh, it’s not the date. I have no trouble there, we just don’t make any sort of deal out it. As we don’t celebrate, there’s no particular reason to remember when it’s coming up. I didn’t want to marry in the first place, did it to get a quilt. I would have been just fine livin’ in sin all these years. :D
I have Tim Curry as Not-Doctor Smith on Netflix….with Clancy Brown. ^-^
Also I know it’s probably too obvious but seriously Doctor Who, we need a Tim Curry The Master
Ing:
We need something. Like the Horde descending mercilessly. Gad, I’m tired of these *jazz hands* Biology! *jazz hands* types. Yeah, jealousy evolved, only in men. Right.
Holy crap Tim Curry is being incredibly creepy!
He is playing the ‘men are victims too don’t blame the victims’ MRA card.
Bobo:
Yeah. It’s a distasteful blend of “Biology!1!! & Poor Menz!!1!”. Bleargh.
Caine:
That’s how I felt the first time I found out where my tuna sandwiches came from when I was 5. I haven’t been able to eat them since.
—
Tony:
I skipped the sniffing and went straight into the runny-nosed, snuffling sobs.
Woot on using smegmarmalade!
—
dianne:
Well, apparently the father was a horrible, horrible child. Moppet is adorable but I’m really glad he’s only with his dad Wednesday to Saturday. Maybe I’ll get lucky and he’ll take his drum set to his mom’s place?
—
Helping rq compile the Commune info, I’ve realized I actually have something important I can contribute: I have books 1-6 of the Foxfire series that I picked up at a yardsale a few years ago. Some of it’s not useful in building the Commune (faith healing, anecdotes of life in the mountains of Appalachia) but some of it will be — like directions for log-cabin building, curing/cutting various types of wood, edible wild plant ID and harvesting, making moonshine.
@Tony the Queer Shoop, (owner of the pink cotton ball of death) “smegmarmalade” is excellent.
I weighed in there.
P.S. The pink cotton ball of death is Terrible and Awesome.
Stacy:
That’s thanks to Nepenthe, who offered it in place of the gendered “dickcheese”.
Ing @317:
Huh?
****
Aw geez. Just when I thought Ed’s post about the atiFtB crowd was winding down, look who shows up –> Reap Paden.
(Btw, is anyone else bothered by ‘rape’ being an anagram of Reap, especially coming from him?)
Socio-gen, you had me at moonshine.
Viva la pharyngulación! (all apologies if that accent is wrong. I knew it needed one, but my training is French, and poor at that.)
Via and cross posting here from :
http://freethoughtblogs.com/aronra/2012/12/30/kill-em-all-let-god-sort-em-out/#comment-13889
A New Years Resolution of mine :
I choose to learn.
To see and challenge my privilege.
Fear and hatred are the mind killers. (Alcohol and drugs don’t help much either!)
I choose to face them and reject them and let them wash past and disappear.
Choose to listen and discover and face fear-hatred-ignorance, the little death and overcome it.
When it has passed, I will remain and will continue,
Doing this.
Always.
– With apologies to Frank Herbert’s ‘Dune’ fear litany.
Also another new year resolution of mine is to not post drunk and without thinking more about what I’m saying as well which is one I’m already putting into practice a bit or trying to anyhow.
Socio-gen:
I have the Foxfire books, started buying them brand new in the ’70s.
@212. bobo :
I don’t know about “bad” but they’re hard to avoid and I guess it depends on how much they hinder understandability / readablilty of your comments?
One method to prevent them is writing your comment in word first and spellchecking which I’ve been doing a bit lately but this can be a bit of a pain.
The occasional typo that isn’t too bad isn’t an issue for me as long as the meaning can be clearly understood. A comment that’s full of typos, OTOH, can get pretty grating and hard to follow fast so, I guess its a matter of degrees? Less typos obviously being better than more but one or two per comment not too bad and generally expected.
Stacy:
I was inspired by Giliell to add “owner of the pink cotton ball of death” to my nym. Also, Shoop is a really cool singular tense of sheep created by Nepenthe.
Ing:
You had me in stitches with “seemslikeology”!
Opposablethumbs, glad I could find the severely compartmentalizing dude you were thinking of. My searching ability ain’t that great. From what I remembered he went to Liberty U, so a search for Lib. U. Geology got me the dude. Then a search of his name and pharyngula got me the page. Now I feel a bit like Sherlock, revealing how pedestrian the search was if you had that one bit of information that nearly no one else had.
All i’m saying is that I had to go to my cousin’s wedding (she went to liberty) and was seated next to a professor from liberty and it was a dry wedding. I’m still a bit scarred. The tuna salad wasn’t very good, either.
Wow, that was ugly. I’ll work on the line breaks. Sorry.
Caine:
Oooh, I haz an envy! One of my aunts collected them. When I was in my early teens, I loved reading them when I visited and often dreamed of becoming a self-sufficient hermit in a hand-built cabin in the woods with chickens and a wood stove for heating and cooking. And then life happened and I didn’t get to be a hermit lady in the woods after all.
From the On any Sunday classic movie :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5up9sv8Nyk
Heartwarming footage showing not all folks are mean to turtles at the 4 minutes five seconds mark.
Reminds me of a Right Stuff novel reference too! Those who’ve read it will know what I mean.
(Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath too.)
The city of Canberra is a ghost town. It’s the capital of Australia, but it has no people in it. The streets are empty. There are very few pubs. Alcohol is hidden in SupaBarn supermarkets, and there are seemingly no bottleshops. I haven’t observed any public transport. My hotel has its restaurant and bar closed “because its the holidays”.
Good times.
Socio-gen:
Ah, the hermit dream. Yeah, the only problem with the whole hermit dream is it’s a lifestyle that’s non-stop work. I’m much too lazy for all that. When I was little, we’d get sent up to stay with my great-grandparents in Crestline (mountains in SoCal). They had a lovely house there, but there were few conveniences. There was a hot water heater. There was a *monstrously huge* woodburning cook stove in the kitchen (6 ‘burners’, a griddle and two ovens). Getting sent out at 4:30 am in the fucking snow and cold (and dark) with a lantern to chop and gather wood to get the stove going kind of screwed those fantasies over for me.
Tony
(Btw, is anyone else bothered by ‘rape’ being an anagram of Reap, especially coming from him?)
I honestly hadn’t noticed that until you pointed it out, so… yeah, it’s bothering me now.
Teh Horde as a whole
I fucking love you guys. You’ve put up with my stoopids and my temper and, I know I’m sometimes just a pain in the ass, and I’m nowhere near as smart as the rest of you. Thank you for… well, for just being.
Do you all remember Jim, the guy I had a religious conversation with following sex? I think I was right to give him my number so he could have someone to talk to. He just emailed saying that he is not doing well and needs to talk to someone he can be open with. Initially, I was going to tell him to call me tomorrow (I was heading to sleep), but then I considered that he could be in real need of someone. He said he is too tired to chat tonight, so I told him he can call tomorrow He gave no details about what he is stressed about. Damn, I hope it is nothing health or life threatening.
Good morning!
——
Happy anniversary, Morgan!
——
You’re a good person, Tony.
WMD Kitty:
Right back atcha. ♥
A bit late for seasonal migrations. O.o
Science succedes where religion fails: Sesame synchrotron is a flash of unity in Middle East
Tony:
This sounds more like it relates back to your previous talk and how he’s living his life right now, rather than health. Well, physical health anyway. He wouldn’t have contacted you unless he feels as though he could trust you, Tony. That’s a pretty big deal. Best of luck tomorrow.
Theophontes:
That was uplifting. Thank you.
That latest case of a man being pushed in front of a subway train in New York:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/30/nyregion/woman-is-held-in-death-of-man-pushed-onto-subway-tracks-in-queens.html?_r=2&
Good morning!
Azkyroth
Latvians have no fixed migration schedule. :P
Tony
You are amazing. I hope you are the ear he needs to settle his mind.
+++
Besides that, WILL THE CHILDREN NEVER LEARN TO SLEEP? I know they will. Eventually. But I wish they’d know now. Or last night, at any rate… *sigh*
Scotch style ale tentatively goes on my list of “good beer varieties.” O.o
@rorschach – this is why I offered! You MUST have a local guide or Canberra will suck. There is excellent beer, but it is in hiding. I’ve just got back from town after seeing the Hobbit, and going for a post-movie beer. It was quite busy. And we picked up Thai food from Dickson on the way home; and the place was pretty full. Where are you staying? Somewhere near Canberra Hospital? (That would indeed suck.)
Beatrice:
And just to balance out the uplift from Theophontes’s post, this one is depressing as all hells. Godsdamn stupid, stupid people.
Good morning
Wow, the Mayans were totally wrong. The world ends today, at least according to the weather.
Fortunately we used the good weather yesterday to get a bit outside.
Which brings me directly to people and their smartphones.
So, we went to the Zoo and while waiting for the falconery show to begin got into a chat with the family next to us about Zoos and the one in France that’s not totally too far away to go there. And the nice man took out his smartphone to search for photos…
Happy Anniversary, Morgan
Alethea
Mr. and I decided to go for “Saturday night of the local christmas market”. Which actually is when we first kissed under the mistletoe. Our wedding anniversary is fortunately written on the inside of the rings…
rq
They will. The little one used to literally fall asleep. She would stand in her bed and complain until she fell over. Now she just get’s herself into her PJs and then I have like 60 seconds to brush her teeth or she’ll go to sleep without.
+++
The rule at Chez Giliell is that if you give them something that makes a noise it stays with you and the kids will be encouraged to play with it whenever they visit.
Caine & Tony:
Thanks for the info. Nepenthe, good coinage!
“Shoop” could give a nice rock n roll rhythm to counting sheep. Assuming anybody really does such a thing.
Alethea,
Im at Lighthouse Bar in Belconnen, and my mood has improved
significantly. But boy is this place dead!
Caine,
Sorry.
—–
Giliell,
I like your parenting style.
Giliell
That’s the rule for us, too. My parents only ever gave them the one noisy toy, and it’s still at their place. They don’t dare take the batteries out, else the kids know something is wrong.
Also, I know they’ll learn to sleep. It just seems to take so long! Eldest is no longer an issue, but middle child still comes into our bed in the middle of the night, and youngest is all about partying till the wee hours…
Happy anniversaries!!! to all those celebrating anniversaries within the past week! Some impressive numbers up there.
Hello All!
Socio-gen – Hooray for The Plan! Success! You are a genius.
Tony – Your patience and kindness is amazing. Best of luck tomorrow.
Hello All (again) !
I have been reading everyone’s Holiday stories. It is amazing what we go through for our families and loved ones.
I am going to ask my siblings about drawing names next year. 2 presents (1 for a sibling and 1 for my folks) I could handle. 14 presents, not so much.
It has been a good year.
I hope you all don’t think I’m too corny when I say next year (this year?) will be better. Things have improved. A tiny bit. (And I’ll take it! : ) )
Thank You All for letting me hang out here. It means so much to me. You are all so appreciated.
Here’s to more learning, more laughs and more love in the coming year.
*raises glass*
@ Giliell | rq
Have no fear, they will grow up (and only too fast) and then its payback time: Spawn is now cooking supper for us, so I can relax and catch up on the interwebs. :D
Rorschach, I’m glad you found somewhere. Drop me an email at cajela at the gee-mail if you like, and I’ll send you my mobile number. How long are you here? Are you working at Calvary?
morgan and celery story – I recently saw an interview with a Bhutanese immigrant in which he discussed his first trip to the grocery store. I had no idea of how many cultural differences could make such a trip so overwhelming. For him, the biggest thing was seeing all the produce all around and literally not knowing how to get any of it; in his marketplaces, you do not touch the produce. The stall owner will hand it to you, but you are not allowed to touch it yourself or they will refuse to sell to you. So there he was, surrounded by all the foods, but couldn’t find anyone who seemed to be in charge of it and he didn’t know what to do. If I’d had to make a list of all the possible difficulties grocery shopping in the US for the first time, that would have never, ever occurred to me.
They just need a little extra subtlety, and some dead batteries of the appropriate size. Instead of just taking the batteries out, replace them with dead ones. Then tell the child that the batteries are dead, that sadly you don’t have any replacement ones, but that you’ll get some more next time you go to the shops. Keep “forgetting” to buy more until you think you can stand the sound of that toy again.
In my house, you were just told that NO, your toy will not get new batteries now that the old ones are dead and end of story.
Yay for The Plan, Socio-gen! Successssss!!!!!!
And yay for good deeds in grocery aisles, and for happy (now-or-later) anniversaries Morgan, Caine, Ogvorbis.
lol MikeG :-D (aha, but only Sherlock remembered it was Liberty “University”!)
Seconding you’re a good person, Tony. Hope the Jim situation is manageable – and it’s really something, that you are able and willing to try and help.
carlie
Indeed, living in one place gets you a firm idea of what is normal there. The mistake we all make is to assume that it’s normal everywhere.
I lived in Ireland for a bit more than 9 months and I swear that I learned most about what it means to be German. Because I always took many things as normal and for granted which are just the way we do things. And sure, I’d been to other countries before, but then the differences were always the exotic thrill of being on holiday. In Ireland I was away for long enough to get used to a new kind of normal so I first realized how things are back home. When the proto-Mr. picked me up at the airport for christmas and drove me home I was literally like “Look! The houses! Look, they’re all different, isn’t that strange?”
He thought I’d emptied the whiskey from the duty free on the flight…
Tiny rant.
So, my mum in law has become convinced that carbohydrates are teh eebil. Because, you know, she often skips supper and has a protein shake instead and doesn’t at that many chocolates anymore and has lost weight. Yes, I mean having a 200 calories supper instead of a regular one and cutting back on chocolates might actually make a difference.
And it is really becoming unhealthy with her obsessing about the sugar in that one chocolate she has and that the whole cake has only 150g flour while whipping cream…
In the meantime, my dad in law who just had an almost heart attack is happily munching two pieces of cake with a large helping of cream because, you know, it was the high blood pressure and you can take an additional pill…
carlie @364:
That is fascinating. I never would have thought of that either. I wondr if the guy ever got his groceries.
Just came back to the computer after a couple of hours away and realised that what I wrote could look a bit weird – what I meant was, it’s really great that you are able and willing to help (not “I hope … it’s actually something you are able to …”). Fucking grammar, how does it work.
@Tony
Wanted sci-fi series while I worked on notes for some space opera thing. Picked earth 2 randomly and was surprised to find Tim Curry in it
For anyone who might be interested in geeky pursuits such as tabletop wargaming, I have found an interesting kickstarter for the game Beyond the Gates of Antares. The project has a nice futurist/high technology hard SF space opera feel with lots of influence form franchises like Blade Runner, Mass Effect and the Ian M. Banks Culture novels.
It is also being headed by no less a person than Rick “40K” Priestley himself (if you know who that is, you will also know why it is a big deal for us wargame geeks).
Gregory Greenwood
There’s also a Kickstarter up for a World Of Synnabar rerelease.
Tony
It’s enough later there than here that it might have already happened, but good on you for being there to help Jim, in the future or past as the case may be.
Happy anniversary as needed.
er, Wife and I were married in May.
Checks with Wife.
Ducks.
Yup. May 22.
Good afternoon, all.
My cold is heavily medicated and I am almost keeping it out of my chest. I do not want to get pneumonia again. Or even ARLD. Either one would be bad.
The bean soup with sausage was really good. I roll-sliced and browned one Weisswurst and one krainerwurst. I know that is not how they are supposed to be cooked, but it was good anyway.
Tonight, we eat nachos. With corn, black beans, onions, sweet peppers, jalepenos, seasoned ground beef, and cheese on blue corn chips. Should be good.
A quick brag: my grades finally posted: two A’s, an A-, and a B+! 3.75 GPA for the semester, 3.65 cumulative!
===
Morgan:
Happy anniversary!
—
Caine:
Well, as a 13-14yo, I was already used to that. My days started at 4:30am with barn chores, unless it had snowed and then the day started with shoveling. I loved school (despite the bullies) simply because, for 7 hours every day, I didn’t have to work. The rest of the time, it was non-stop until sundown.
Being all alone, however, was the real draw because I was living in a 3-bedroom house with my parents, 3 sisters, and 3 brothers.
—
rq:
They will, eventually. Of course, then come the teenage years when getting them to wake up seems impossible.
—
Giliell:
Since the rule in our house was you didn’t have to sleep, but you did have to stay in your bed.* So, the boys would color or read until they were sleepy — which was usually about 10-15 minutes. My daughter, however, talked herself to sleep. She would recount her day, think up new, odd, and amazing ideas, and drop off in the middle of a sentence. It lasted until her late teens.
* Saying “you must go to sleep now” had the opposite effect, so I started trying this. They loved bragging to their friends that they could stay up as late as they wanted, and I would secretly snicker because none of them was ever up past 8:30 pm.
I like this! Wish I’d thought of it when my kids were young.
—
ednaz:
I don’t know about genius. Desperate and determined, yes.
++
I’m really glad my family stopped exchanging gifts. There are just too many of us now, what with in-laws and children, etc. We (they, since I’m far away) have a family party and do an ornament exchange game instead, which is tons of fun.
—
carlie:
No, me either. It gives me a new appreciation of how difficult it must be for a new immigrant just to get through the day, even if there isn’t a language barrier.
A meteorologist friend of mine teaches a one-day class for new immigrants to help them adjust to/survive the weather here in MN — dangers of frostbite, understanding of windchill warnings, etc. (We have a large Somali immigrant population and the differences in climate are rather large.) He said one of the things he never thought about, until a few weeks after the first class when he saw one of his pupils slipping and sliding down a sidewalk, was the difference in how one walks on snowy/icy surfaces. So, now his class includes a field trip to a hockey rink to practice.
Tony, was it you who was asking about Warehouse 13? Whoever it was, the current season is pretty cool… a little darker and more story-arc than some of the earlier seasons. Lots of Artie, which is good because Artie=awesome.
I’m going to try to get really seriously drunk over the next two days. New Year’s Party starts NOW!
Or, scary thought… we might finish getting the house set up and all the boxes unpacked before the end of the year. If so, I’m totally posting pictures!
Socio-gen:
Woo hoo!!
Good grades indeed.
Conga rats.
Giliell:
I’ve heard that culture shock is always strongest when you come back to your own culture. I haven’t done very much international travel, but that agrees with my own experience in closer-to-home travel. When I worked at camp for a couple of summers, it would be a huge shock to come into the city for a weekend. Tall buildings, traffic, so many people! Food that was still hot by the time it got to the table! Privacy! Water that didn’t come from the artesian well! Air conditioning! No dress code! The culture shock when returning to the real world is still one of my more vivid memories of camp.
Parental behaviour anecdote:
Since I came out to my parents, my dad is showing his support in an amusing way. He seems to have decided that, since there will probably never be a male partner in my life, I need to know all the things! about home repair, car maintenance, etc. He used to just do those things for me, often as a surprise. Now he will painstakingly walk me through the tasks, even the ones I’m not particularly interested in. Today the lesson was replacing a socket. I think it’s a sweet, funny way for an old-fashioned dad to show his support.
(Also, I finally came out to my brother over Christmas, and he was completely unsurprised. We didn’t have a big bonding experience or anything, but at least that’s done.)
Socio-gen:
Fandamntastical!
Test post for formatting issues.
Test
Test Test
Test
Test
Socio-gen
Congrats on the grades!!!
re: kids and rules
We’re still working a lot of our proto-rules into practice, but the one about staying in bed until asleep seems to be a good one for us, too. I’m pretty sure mine will take to reading until they fall asleep, they already show great interest. It works for daytime naps, currently, so I can guarantee myself about an hour of quiet time (if they’re seriously determined not to sleep) and they fall asleep eventually, anyway, which gives me another, if I’m lucky (if they all fall asleep ~simultaneously). It’s sleeping through the night that’s a bit of an issue right now, but youngest = teething and trying new foods (that is, solids), so sometimes it’s a bit of a miss in the easily-digestible department (turns out potatoes don’t sit well with this one).
theophontes
Believe me, I’m looking forward to those years of sitting back and letting them all do the work. Eldest is already telling stories about how, when he’s all grown-up and Superman, he’ll invite us over, and I’ll be allowed to laze around while he fixes dinner with his brothers. *thumbs up*
jefrir
Trust me, my parents have experience with all kinds of young kids (five of their own, now my three…), and this sort of subtlety (oops, forgot again!) is verrrryyy commonplace. It still leads to upsets every now and then, but either way, the noisy toy stays at their place. Becase eventually one of the kids will remind us about the batteries, while we’re in a store, and then there’s no more excuse… ;)
grocery shopping and cultural shifts
I can second the strangeness of grocery shopping – except for me it was the other way around. I was used to Canada, where you pick up your own produce, and then I came here, and go so many dirty looks from the market ladies for wanting to select my own vegetables and fruits!! They won’t refuse to sell because money, but they were definitely cold-shouldering me for a while. Now the local ones more-or-less know me, and there’s been a bit of a general shift, where even the locals have taken to touching their own produce.
Nice work Socio-gen!
Damn, but Sundays are boring.
Thanks for the congrats, everyone!
==
Ohmyhannah! Has anyone else seen the pic of PZ at the SkepTech site? It is teh awesome! Definitely Overlordish.
===
Joe:
Definitely a good season — darker, but in all the right ways. I’m very impatiently waiting to see what happens next.
—
Nutmeg:
That is so sweet of your dad!
—
rq:
It’s so hard in the early years. I was sleep-deprived until the youngest was in kindergarten and it all just sort of blurs together at this point. I know a lot of our rules/habits came out of my desperate need for uninterrupted sleep and just five damn minutes alone in the bathroom.
Jafafa Hots
If you’re bored, you live longer.
It just feels longer.
Yeah Joe, that was me.
Good to know you (and Socio-gen) are enjoying this season. Hopefully when spring gets here and we get busier, I will have the money to afford cable and netflix and internet again.
****
Dalillama:
So far Jim hasn’t contacted me. And I’ve been up since 9 ish (which is early for a guy who normally sleeps til 11/12).
Nutmeg:
I am quite happy your father is supportive.
That said, he appears to have an underlying assumption that certain tasks are ‘guy things’. But at least he is willing to teach you usefil skills.
Good evening
Socio-gen
Yay for grades
Well, I figured out that since you cannot even force yourself to fall asleep, that’s absolutely impossible for somebody else. But at a certain point it’s Bedtime. I will often hear #1 talk to her plushies (tonight she’s been out like 5 times already because she’s soooo excited about tomorrow) and the rule is that she has to remain halfway quiet so she doesn’t wake her sister.
Nutmeg
That’s kind of sweet of your dad.
This whole ‘hands off the produce’ thing–is it for sanitary reasons?
__
Speaking of sanitary, I am amazed that so many men continue to not wash their hands after peeing. Or the ones that run water over their hands. Disgusting.
Also Nutmeg, that seems extremely sweet of your dad – practical, too, and all rooted in his gender-role thinking, but like you say, an awesome and, again, practical way to show support! :) (Just too bad he couldn’t teach you those things anyway.)
Thanks Beatrice
What’s the difference?
Tony,
I think it’s less about sanitary reasons and more about people damaging the produce while choosing.
I like how I can choose the produce myself in stores, but I always try not to sift through whatever too much so as not to damage it. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t take care. Imagine a crate of tomatoes after enough uncaring customers have touched and turned and poked at them while choosing.
Tony
hands off the produce is more of a proprietary thing. I wouldn’t call it sanitary, not in this country – never watch the market butcher handle your meat and then your money without washing hands in between. It’s a matter of who owns what at which point – until you buy the fruit/vegetable, it’s property of the seller. And you can’t touch it. Once you exchange money for it, it’s yours.
Also, it’s easier for them to scam you (rotting fruit, ugly fruit, bad weighing) if they pick out your vegetables and fruit for you. I have a more-or-less reasonable idea of how much a kilo of what feels like in a bag, so I can more-or-less approximate what I should be paying. Granted, they might still be scamming me a bit, but it’s pennies, not tens of pennies, at least. But mostly I pick my own for the assurance that I’m not just buying the pretty side of an apple or half-rotted potatoes.
One of the things I love about this place is the way that a random phrase can spark memories (that is also one of the scary things about this place but that’s my fault). When I first began to go steady with my girlfriend in high school (not the woman I married), her father took me aside and told me, in no uncertain terms (ex-Marine, ex-New Hampshire State Trooper), that “You will keep your hands of the produce. Those melons ain’t yours until you and she are married. Understood?”
Which also, sadly, would fit right in with some of the active threads right now.
chigau,
Practically, none whatsoever?
What? I completed the pun. I ain’t no good at deepities.
—
re: choosing produce
What rq said too. Especially the scamming bit.
I was thinking more about vegetable&fruit parts of big stores.
Yay for Nutmeg’s dad!
I wish my dad had some sort of skill to teach me, besides working myself through injuries and to exhaustion. :)
Also, Socio-gen, The Hermit lifestyle?
Yeah, my dad’s 62 and a lifelong conservative, and he and my mom are a pretty traditional couple, so I don’t expect him to completely abandon his ideas of gender roles. He’s just trying to make sure I can take care of myself. I do find it perplexing that he’s been teaching me outdoor skills all my life, but has only started on home repair since I came out. I guess somehow that makes sense in his mind. People are funny.
People are funny.
Beatrice
Replicates a conversation from the book Catch-22.
We did it very well.
Yay, Socio-gen’s psychological experimental success!
Nutmeg, your father sounds great.
chigau
You remind me. I still have to read that book, for reading’s sake.
rq
Do. It’s very funny. And sad. I listened to it as an unabridged audiobook & loved it.
*runs through*
Hi everyone! I hope you’re all having a fabulous day. Hugs and sugar cookies to all who want them.
*runs back to paper writing*
A vicious cycle.
Reminds me of the classic joke formula: “Situation X is just like heaven… because every moment feels like a fucking eternity!”
“A fucking eternity” sounds like it’d chafe pretty badly, sooner or later. O.O
“If an erection lasts longer than four hours, seek medical attention immediately to prevent permanent damage.”
Who wants to see some pictures of the new Casa Improbable?
Crap…
So my living room is mostly decorated, and I linked to pictures… and now I’m lost in Moderationville.
Nutmeg, I really love it that your dad is being supportive like that. Yes of course he could have taught you all those useful things anyway … but it’s really touching that he’s being so positive, and – teaching you all the things? I think it’s the sweetest thing I’ve heard in ages!
I needed some pure pop goodness.
Letter From An Occupant
The New Face Of Zero And One
Sing Me Spanish Techno
Mutiny, I Promise You
Silver Jenny Dollar
*facepalm*
In local news: Ban on drink specials aimed at women.
@JM
Good to end a creepy predatory practice I suppose.
Guardian is reporting that FBI and police worked closely with business interests to crush OWS movement, including considering possibility of assassinating targets. I kind of really hope this turns out to be false because that’s scary
Improbable Joe
Very nice!
chigau:
Thank you!
Laggin’ behind the pack. Must catch up.
Not, however, gonna read the latest India Rape-Murder thread. Nope. Already queasy.
–
Come The Day, he can cook for all of us…and so can the other obviously talented cooks who hang out here. I can be the un-skilled kitchen help.
–
rq: If you design the cocopork as a plant rather than an animal, we won’t have to worry about housing them at all—just plant an orchard of ’em. We can just harvest the cocoporknuts as they come ripe, and as a bonus feature, vegetarian types can freely indulge. Perhaps we can also spring for a usefully-fibrous husk.
–
They just don’t make fortune cookies the way they used to.
*rocking in chair, sucking on dentures, and shaking cane at Those Kids On My Lawn*
Once upon a time, fortune cookies made predictions, however misspelled and wildly far off the mark, about what the future held for you, the diner. These inferior “fortune” cookies of these latter days, however, would be better called “statement cookies”, of the “A bird in the hand…” variety. It would be something if the cookie predicted that there would be a bird in your hand at some time in your future—you could then speculate as to whether it was foretelling a chicken dinner, or a hand full of bird crap. Foo shit, perhaps.
*rocking and muttering darkly*
–
Huzzah!
–
The sidebars are on my left. Do Not Want.
–
Tomorrow I’m making a meal that could totally feed all of you. Because I love you all and want you all to be happy… and also because I learned to cook from my mother who was the oldest of 12 kids and there’s always to much leftovers. :)
I once got a fortune cookie with an unusual message. It was in a Chinese restaurant in Denver, Colorado, back in 1978. We were moving from Arizona to Maryland and were taking I-70 across. The fortune cookie read:
We thought it quite amusing. Now I kinda wonder.
This was also my first experience with real Chinese mustard. Wow.
Congratulations on your grades, Socio-gen!
Lovely house, Joe! I like the colour, very sunny! Is that a hole in the wall by the door?
I wish I could be on my way to take part in that meal in reality; instead I suppose I’ll just have to make do with a virtual portion.
Tigger_the_Wing:
A HOLE?!?! What? Where? Which picture?
I’m making to big pot of potato soup. Probably 6 quarts or more. Enough to give everyone here a decent-sized bowl.
Improbable Joe
Recipe?
Quick question. Since the change to the site format I haven’t been able to get a decent line break between paragraphs.
How do I do that in html?
Which picture?
This one.
It looks as if there used to be a doorway there that has been bricked up halfway, leaving the top as a large square opening.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I’m not going to that thread either, cicely. I’ve been having nightmares about what she went through anyway; I couldn’t cope if I read anyone trolling about it.
Rob, I’ve been finding that the line breaks don’t show for me in preview, but do when I submit.
Ibis3, Blighter and Trampler since 1971
Sure, I like recipes! :)
…oh, for the soup? Not so much. I just sort of keep adding things to a pot until I’m happy, which is part of why it turns out to be so much soup.
At a rough guess? 4 poblanos, 4Jalapenos, 4 large potatoes, 4 cups of chicken broth, a large onion diced up, a whole mess of minced garlic, salt and pepper, a roux made from a half-stick of butter plus whatever amount of flour gets you to the right consistency with a little ground mustard for flavor, milk and heavy cream, a little parsley for garnish? Roast the peppers, get the skins off, chop them up and add them to the onion and garlic, saute until the onion caramelizes. Add the chicken stock, cover and simmer forever. Peel and cut up the potatoes, add to the stock. While the potatoes cook, melt butter in a saucepan, add flour and stir constantly for about 10 minutes on medium-low heat. Then SLOWLY add milk until it is a very thick paste, then add a little bit of cream until it is a thick gravy. Slowly add that to the stock, simmer 5 minutes and add cream as necessary to keep the consistency where you want it. WARNING! Once you add the cream, do not let the pot get anywhere remotely near a boil, or you’ll ruin it. At this point, depending on the consistency, you may want to scoop out some of the potatoes and puree them in a blender. I tend to do this no matter what. Simmer a bit longer, and then serve. I like to add a pat of butter to each bowl, but that’s personal preference.
Tigger_the_Wing:
Oh, you mean the window into the kitchen! Whew, I thought I’d punched a hole in a wall and missed it! There’s a hole cut out there over the sink in the kitchen, next to a window that has a little “bar” on the outside of the house. It looks like a way to pass stuff from the kitchen to other parts of the house I guess.
Welcome home, Ogvorbis!
–
Happy anniversary, morgan! Warm-fuzzies also good.
:)
–
Tony: the pasties/pasties thing has weirded out many a non-Scadian. Sometimes even with malice aforethought.
:) :)
–
Excellent!
–
The Gate between my sinuses and the Quasi-Para-Elemental Plane of Snot has opened.
Blargh.
–
It does sound like you did the right thing. I’ll add my hope to yours.
–
*high fve* for Socio-gen on the grades.
–
*waving hand*
Me! Me!
<singing>Wastin’ away again in Moderationville….</singing>
–
& n b s p ;
only without the spaces.
–
Due to … circumstances …
today we cooked just over 10kg (about 25lbs) of boneless chicken thighs:
ground and spiced for sausages (now frozen)
cubed and simmered for stews (ditto)
whole and simmered for curry (tomorrow)
whole and left in the oven too long (jerky)
I’m satisfied.
cicely
So what did you think of the pics?
Joe
I only saw the one, with the hole in the wall. There are others??
–
Joe confused me, too, cicely – eventually I discovered that every blue word is a link to a different picture!
Ah, thanks, Tigger!
*goes to check it out*
–
*whew*
I’m not alone in having clicked just one link the first time.
*returning*
Joe, it all looks very warm and friendly.
–
So, apparently scumbag ex has now belatedly started giving 8 year old daughter time-outs for potty talk and sass, rather than chuckling and half-heartedly telling her she shouldn’t do that.
She has also stopped consulting us about when a good time to see daughter would be, or asking if things that occur to her on the spur of the moment fit with our plans, and announcing that she is GOING TO pick her up at this time. Throwing her weight around has suddenly become very important to her. I’m not sure why.
Also, she apparently thinks that the risk of an 8 year old child choking to death in the back seat of a car on a freakin’ peppermint is Serious Business, meanwhile continuing to introduce her to all her vaguely unsavory friends and fiance, to whom she may or may not still be maintaining she is Facebook-engaged solely to discourage a guy hitting on her at meetings.
Azkyroth @ 438,
I’m sorry to hear that this is happening to you. My son is 5, and I’m not looking forward to the shit that will be pulled on him by ex just to get back to me in the years to come. It’s the gift from hell that keeps on giving. What I find the most difficult to deal with is the fact that I realise I will have only a marginal, occasional and faint influence on what he will become as an adult.
Hello all. I’m doing a quick run-through again while I’m taking a break from the paper.
—
Joe: Casa Improbable looks lovely, and the soup sounds great.
chigau: That’s a lot of chicken.
Azkyroth: Sorry about the scumbag ex. :/
JAL: We love you, and I think you’re a damn good mom. Hugs if you want them.
cicely: I’m not reading the India thread either. Can’t handle it right now.
—
My paper is nearly done (which is good, since it’s due tomorrow by midnight EST) and I think it’s going to be pretty good. Of course it could use another round or two of editing, but it is a holiday. Also, it’s gotten even more awkward than I originally planned. I’ve changed one of my focus poems, which means that no I get to talk about oral sex. Good times.
—
Hugs and Mexican wedding cookies to anyone who wants them. In case I don’t come back tomorrow, happy New Years Eve.
PS: The cookies are gluten free and very tasty. If there are any gluten-intolerant people here I’d love to get the recipe from my mom and post it here for you. We also have great recipes for both brownies and chocolate cake.
(Ok, now I’m really going back to work.)
Ok so Jim emailed me while I was working, so I was not able to immediately respond. He made it clear he wanted to be intimate again. Before I left work, he sent another text indicating he is really torn, that I will not hear from him again, and that he was appreciative of my concern for him. It wasn’t until about an hour ago that I was able to respond to his email. I had a lengthy, supportive response typed out.
I sent it.
It got returned.
Apparently, he deleted his email account. Dammit. I know it is his life and his choice, but I really fucking hoped I could aid him in reconciling his beliefs and his sexuality.
Fuck. Religion poisons everything.
I am open and available to assist in the consumption of chicken thighs.
blogofmyself:
Oral sex? What is the subject of your paper?
Blogofmyself, GF cookie recipe? Ooh! Me! Me! *Jumps up and down excitedly*
I’d love a tasty gluten-free cookie recipe, thank you! =^_^=
Oh, Tony, that’s so sad. I wish there were a way to make it all better. :(
You are such a good person, trying so hard to help him. But if he is determined to hang on to his religion for now, rather than be true to himself, it is probably best that he’s withdrawing for the present. That way he’s not trying to influence you, too.
He may change his mind one day. At least he’s thinking about it, thanks to you.
Good morning!
*hugs* to Tony! You done good. I hope if he changes his mind in the future he’ll come to you.
+++
I will eat anything prepared by Improbable Joe, and chicken thighs.
I just watched “The man with the iron fists”, weird, but still kinda ballpark weird, Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu in it. Now I’m watching Killing Them Softly”, with Brad Pitt and Ray Liotta, and that is one weird movie indeed! Needs more pasta salad.
Totally threadrupt after a few days off the intertubes, so I’ll dish out congratulations/commiserations to all requiring/needing/wanting them.
I have built up a fine collection of minor ailments at present:
1) Odd tinglings, burnings and cramped feelings in my feet, tentatively diagnosed as “restless legs syndrome” by my medical adviser, but awaiting the results of various blood and circulation tests. I have to go in this morning to have one of the tests repeated, due to an unspecified “problem” with it.
2) I had a molar out 2 1/2 weeks ago, and still have tenderness and inflammation around the site, despite a course of metronidazole (which is fairly standard for mouth infections but comes with ferocious warnings about possible side-effects).
3) A sore left elbow, I think due to carrying trays at my part-time job, aggravated by playing badminton. Being treated with an extract of the green-lipped mussel – which the pharmacist assured me contains “no chemicals”* – and an elasticated support bandage.
4) A cold.
* I restrained myself from asking how she could justify charging me for a tube of nothingness, but did say I didn’t care what it was made of it it worked and wouldn’t poison me.
Last night, watched Four Lions with my wife and son. A tragi-comedy about British jihadi terrorism, and extremely well-done. It’s directed by Chris Morris, well known in Britain for spoof documentaries in which he gets gullible celebrities to read out ridiculous nonsense which they evidently take seriously – the one about a new drug called “cake” was particularly good.
@ Tony
Sorry to hear this Tony. But on the other hand it does sound that he is really torn by all of the things he is going through. My guess (I trust this is not just my wishfull thinking on your behalf) is that he will get back in contact with you. You have that which the other side does not, intelligence and care.
Tony, I’m so sorry. He must be very torn – hopefully if he reached out to you this time he may reconsider and reach out to you again … Is there any other way you can contact each other?
Joe, the house looks wonderful – much too neat and tidy, of course, but that can be remedied ;-). I really love the artwork you have on the wall in two of the pictures, I would be only too happy to live with either of those!
Aren’t kitchen serving hatches fairly common architecture, um, wherever people are?
Good nearly mostly morning, Horde. I finished my work in time for the end of the year, but am way too stupidly depressed to feel like there’s anything to celebrate tonight. I’m going to go to the gym before they close early for the day, maybe that will make me feel better.
Good morning
Soo, my sis sent me a message that our mum is (even more than usually) really ill and really, really yellow but refuses to see a doctor. Sent a message back that she should just call emergency service and let her be angry later (you know, a prerequisite to being angry is being alive…) She said she’d do it, and she informed dad who was all flabbergasted because him being colourblind he never noticed that she’s really yellow in the face and she never told him (she did her own bloodwork: Billirubin was 8. Normal is up to 1.2).
So I’m waiting for news.
Tony
Hugs.
You did what you could. Jim knows how to contact you.
Nick Gotts
Hmm, had my molar out about 4 weeks ago. Took everything quite a while to calm down.
Happy New Year everyone! (105 minutes to go here)
To Wesley Elsberry, MAJeff, Scott Hatfield, truth machine, blueelm and all the others(even Wilkins!) who have left us in the last 5 years, I miss you.
To friends, present and absent: Happy New Year! (It is, I believe, already 2013 in New Zealand, even though it’s only 2244 here).
chigau,
Ooooh, I’ve read Catch-22, but don’t remember any bits of dialogue.
—-
Improbable Joe,
Casa Improbable looks great!
—-
Tony,
I’m sorry that you lost contact, but as others have said, maybe he will reach out to you again when he’s ready. You did what you could and you made it clear to him that you will be there if he needs support.
(and now I see Giliell wrote nearly the same sentence, but I’ll leave it in anyway)
—–
Giliell, *hugs*
Rorschach, I saw Wes in the flesh a week or so ago. He’s doing well, but is starting a new career. I gather he’ll be rather busy for a while.
Giliell
*hugs* for the situation, I hope it resolves itself as best as possible! :/
For the record, I’m not dead, I’m on vacation without internet access starting now.
rorschach – it is weird sometimes looking at old Pharyngula posts when people link to them, seeing right there how many people we’ve lost. I hope it’s just because they’ve found other things to do than comment on the internet rather than feeling chased off for one reason or another, or for more dire life happenings.
Nepenthe,
Happy New Year when it comes to your side of the world and have a nice vacation!
the mote
i am not
a raindrop on the windshield,
nor am i
the sun setting in the distance.
i am
the flash of light caught by the camera,
refracting through the glass into your mind’s eye.
i am not
a ray of truth.
i am
an array of truth,
the clash between molecules and dreams,
splitting the second,
lighting the year,
once more.
(c) rq December 30, 2012
… because I have nothing better to say and it turns out I won’t be here for the ringing in of 2013. Happy New Year to all who have seen it arrive and who still wait for it to come!
Gravatar test. Please ignore.
Test take 2.
*sigh* Kat is in whiney depressive mood and also anxious scared mood.
This stupid fiscal cliff thing in America has the potential of making federal employees have to undergo a furlough – which means I will lose a lot of pay, which means I can’t pay off my credit card, which means I’ll have to spend a few more hungry days pondering whether I can just eat more rice for dinner again instead of having actual decent food.
And I hate asking for any kind of help, so if I do get furloughed, I know I’ll just be sitting in my apartment refusing to ask for the assistance of people around me who I know would, in a heartbeat, do so. (Seriously, you people rock. I’m just so much of a fuckup that I can’t appreciate any of that help you would gladly give.)
I dunno if it just got drilled into my head as a kid or teenager that I’m supposed to be the one to fix all my problems or not, but seriously I don’t understand this personality flaw. It’s one of the major ones I have and I don’t know why I have them:
I won’t ask for help when I know I need it until I’m absolutely positively on my last legs – which is why I have to struggle to see sometimes and why I won’t call a therapist for my gender identity.
I am curious about people, and want to be a good friend, but I seriously can’t think of a single thing about most of my friends that I can really say I know – I won’t ask people about themselves or anything like that.
I am totally arrogant and turn every conversation into a ‘let’s listen to Kat talk about herself’ thing, even if the topic at hand has nothing to do with me.
I think people are really interested in what I have to say and in the end I know I’m probably just either confusing them, boring them, or annoying them and I probably should just shut up. That’s, in fact, one of the things that’s making me pause typing this and pondering deleting the entire thing.
So basically, I’m an arrogant, egotistical fuckup who cares nothing and everything about herself, who makes a terrible friend, and probably creates most of her own anxiety by refusing to ask for help in the matter.
Kat – for what it’s worth, I think you’re a pretty awesome person. Here’s what I know about you:
You’re kind, and always have supportive things to write to people here when they write that they’re hurting.
You have been through so much in the last few years, realizing who you are and what you need, and have come through it with flying colors.
You have been strong enough to stand up for yourself.
You have the discipline needed to train the creative part of yourself to be productive and thereby accomplish a lot of writing, which is a lot more than many people can do.
You’re a lot of fun to hang out with.
You’re one of the reasons I have come to love Pharyngula so much.
Damn, Kat. That’s a rough way to spend a morning. Cafe mocha, with or without khaluha? If you end up furloughed, likely I will be too. You’d be welcome to join me on the couch. We could watch old Doctor Who or something. Ignore the voice that tells you you’re a fuckup, it’s an asshole.
Oh, Kat, that isn’t true.
I’m glad you didn’t delete it, though, because I wouldn’t have known you were thinking like this and wouldn’t have known to say that, actually, you’re awesome.
Love and hugs from another stupidly independently-minded, gender-confused, socially-inept person who has grown very, very fond of you because of all the things you have posted online that have helped me figure out my own mind.
And I realise I have never thanked you properly.
So, sending a great big thank you for being you. =^_^=
And hopes that the douches in charge get their acts together so you can be paid.
So basically, I’m an arrogant, egotistical fuckup who cares nothing and everything about herself, who makes a terrible friend, and probably creates most of her own anxiety by refusing to ask for help in the matter.
So… you’re like most of the rest of us then? :)
I swear, on the whole we’re the nicest, most supportive and generous, most insecure people on Earth. Well, except me. I’m a giant asshole.
@MikeG:
I have lots of board games. Do you like Mahjong?
@Carlie/Tigger:
*hugs* Thanks, but for all the niceties you lower on me I can’t help but think I don’t really deserve it cause of how shitty I am towards my friends.
rq,
Have fun!
—-
Katherine,
I’m totally like that too!!
And then I feel ashamed, but I don’t want to ask because that might be intrusive and I don’t want to be a busybody.
*looks above*
Um… I guess I’m reading something familiar here too. Khm.
(Although, I haven’t got the impression that you‘re arrogant.)
You’re definitely included in “awesome people” that I like here. In fact, I admire you.
*hugs* and ♥
Kat – it’s the good people who don’t think they deserve nice things being said about them. Same as impostor syndrome.
I am also a terrible friend. My college roommate, who I love more than most other people in the world, emailed me before Thanksgiving with a nice update, and I wrote quickly back and said I was busy but would write back over thanksgiving and I promised, and I still haven’t done it yet. Most of us are kind of crap about keeping up with people well. We all do things like that.
Happy new year all!
Just here to grumble a little.
My cousin Sergio wants two dolls for Christmas. He goes to a predominantly girl school (our schools used to be sex-segregated; they aren’t any longer, but tradition fades away slowly), so most of his friends are girls. (His preferences are influenced by his cultural context, who would have thought, amirite?)
Well, we give Christmas gifts on January 6 over here, and he’s not getting any dolls. None of the adults in the family is willing to buy him dolls. After all, he’s a boy. Instead, what he’s getting is a RC motorbike, a tabletop game, and some kind of IronMan robo-glove thing.
All this makes me doubly grumpy: one, for the other parents who give their girls so many freakin’ dolls; two, for my cousin, despite all his clearly genetically determined male adaptations to like IronMan, wants the “wrong” kind of toys, and he’s going to be disappointed. Damn gender roles.
Kat,
At the gathering in Fredneck, you were the one above all others who reached out to my wife (not a Pharyngula regular) and made her feel welcome. Methinks perhaps your self image might not be as wonderful as the reality that is you.
Mahjong, eh? Never tried, but if i’m as good at it as I am with other board games, I can guarantee i’ll have fun and still provide you with a good ego boost. ;)
Beatrice
I’m not looking forward to it.
Katherine
More hugs from here. I always look forward to your authorly posts because I love your character descriptions. You are, in fact, fantastic, and if you need help, I would like to know if there’s anything I could ever do to assist.
@ARIDS:
See, this is why I suck as a friend.
I can’t remember the events of said gathering.
@Mike G:
It’s not too hard… well okay it is, but I’m a newbie at it.
Katherine, if it helps any, I have a semi-optimistic theory about the fiscal cliff: I think that we will go over the cliff, but only for a day or two. I think that the reason that there is no deal is that everyone knows that there have to be tax increases-but no one wants to be the one caught saying so in public, much less proposing or voting for laws that increase taxes. So Congress and the Pres will each blame the other for there being no deal until the deadline is reached and the automatic cuts end the Bush tax cuts to the rich. At which point, there will suddenly be a deal. So I don’t expect a furlough to last more than a day or two.
I may be giving them too much credit, but FWIW, when I was growing up, the family’s only income came from my father who worked for the government and I remember this sort of thing happening on a regular basis. So I’ve started looking at it as a cynical game rather than a real insoluble problem. But if it doesn’t happen that way or you need some money to help while Congress holds its collective breath until it turns blue, we’re here.
re: mahjong
I only ever played the Windows’ Mahjong Titans. I’m guessing that’s a lot easier than playing the real thing.
Largely ‘rupt, but rorschach@ 456, I agree completely.
Tony
That sucks big time. Hopefully he’ll contact you again, or at least find help elsewhere. Katherine
Big *hugs*.
I so hear this. I can’t offer any help with it, but you’re not alone feeling that way.
I hear this too. On top of that, I’m absolutely terrible about corresponding/staying in touch, so I tend to just lose track of people, and then when I realize how long it’s been, I can’t bring myself to try to reopen the relationship because I don’t know where to start or what to say.
And this too. I think you’re among kindred spirits here, my friend.
I’m pretty sure it’s the other way ’round; the anxiety adds to the difficulty of asking for help, because you’re so anxious about what might happen when you do.
&nsbp;
You’re a good person, and you’ve made a lot of contributions to the Pharyngula community just in the time I’ve been hanging around here. Your presence is both valued and appreciated here.
carlie
This, so much.
dianne
I share your semi optimism. Basically the whole thing is Republicans playing stupid games to maintain the appearance of ideological purity and pretend like they have leverage. More and more of them are realizing that they don’t, though (I keep hearing about R politicians saying that the party needs to make concessions), and after the cliff actually happens, their reputation and their leverage are going to be in tatters. If the Dems can grow even a little bit of spine, they should be able to get things going again in short order.
<blockquote
Kat, I think you’re pretty awesome. I always love reading your posts, here or elsewhere in the blogosphere.
If you talk about yourself a lot to your friends and they’re still your friends, then likely they are sticking around *because* you’re talking about yourself. They must find what you have to say interesting. Still, if you feel you’re not paying your friends enough attention, that’s not something you need to beat yourself up over, just resolve to do a little better (e.g. commit to asking one question about each friend you meet and make a note later of what they said to be sure you’re paying attention). The fact that you’re worrying about it at all is a sign that you are *not* a totally self-centred jerk.
And don’t waste the time you have putting off help that’s available to you. Take advantage of it. That’s what families and communities are for. Perhaps if you think about going to see a therapist as hiring an employee, it will make it easier. You’re not a supplicant asking for alms, you’re a client who needs a particular job done–it’s like hiring an electrician or a graphic designer or a lawyer.
—
rq
Dough:
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1/3 cup white sugar
2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45degrees C)
3 cups all-purpose flour
5 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon salt
1 cup white sugar
6 cups all-purpose flour, or as needed
Glaze:
1 egg
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
2 teaspoons white sugar
1 teaspoon water
Directions:
1. Mix the yeast, 1/3 cup of sugar, and warm water together in a large bowl, stir to dissolve the sugar, and let the mixture stand until a creamy layer forms on top, about 5 minutes. Stir in 3 cups of flour to make a loose sponge.
2. In a separate bowl, beat 5 eggs, 1/2 cup of vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon of salt, and 1 cup of sugar together, and stir the egg mixture into the yeast-flour mixture until well combined. Continue mixing in flour, 1 cup at a time, up to 9 total cups (I rarely get past about 6 or 7). Dough should be slightly sticky, but not so wet that it leaves dough stuck to your hands.
3. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and knead for 5 minutes to develop gluten. Form the dough into a compact round shape, and place in an oiled bowl. Turn the dough over several times in the bowl to oil the surface of the dough, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm area until doubled in size, about 1 hour. Punch down the dough and knead for another 5 minutes, until smooth and elastic.
4. Grease baking sheets, or line with parchment paper. To make egg glaze, whisk together 1 egg, 1 teaspoon oil, 2 teaspoons sugar, and 1 teaspoon of water in a small bowl, and refrigerate until needed.
5. Cut the dough into 4 pieces, and cut each piece into 3 smaller pieces for a 3-strand braided loaf. Working on a floured surface, roll the small dough pieces into ropes about the thickness of your thumb and about 12 inches long. Ropes should be fatter in the middle and thinner at the ends. Pinch 3 ropes together at the top and braid them. Starting with the strand to the right, move it to the left over the middle strand (that strand becomes the new middle strand.) Take the strand farthest to the left, and move it over the new middle strand. Continue braiding, alternating sides each time, until the loaf is braided, and pinch the ends together and fold them underneath for a neat look. Place the loaves onto the prepared baking sheets, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 30 to 45 minutes. Brush a coating of egg glaze onto the tops of the bread, and reserve the remaining glaze.
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
7. Bake the bread in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, remove from the oven, and brush another coating of glaze onto the bread. Return to the oven, and bake until the tops are shiny and golden brown, 5 to 10 more minutes. If you find the tops getting too dark before the baking time is over, rest a sheet of aluminum foil on top of the bread. Let cool before cutting.
—
jose
Is there any way you can buy Sergio a doll?
rq,
Sorry, I forgot to answer you. I’m guessing that is a family event you are not looking forward too. Even if you don’t have fun, I hope it at least goes well as in not too much family drama or alcohol making people horrible.
I suspect that is because much of our knowledge of people cannot be expressed adequately in language, and to a degree if we lack language for it it is difficult to give if conscious substance in head space. Body language, quirks and idioms, patterns of behavior, indicators of mood and interest, subtle preferences: these are huge areas of information we learn and process about people we are close to…but can’t often express or even known explicitly.
@rq:
Well I have fixed one thing about my story, and have one more thing to fix before it’ll be perfect. I realized that my male characters weren’t so strong, so I decided I’m just gonna play to their strengths:
(Character description type spoilers below)
Karthus is a “punch first, ask questions while punching” kind of guy. He’s big, tough, intimidating and can hold his own in a fight. He usually forgoes a calm, reasoned approach and skips right to the “breaking heads” stage. He’s a bit of a loose cannon at times, but is bright enough to realize when he should ratchet in the angry, strong guy.
Valkir plays his interpersonal skills like a piano. He’s got contacts inside and outside of the city, people who he can call on to answer questions he has in relation to pretty much anything. He’s polite, he’s smart, and he knows how to defuse tough situations. He also recalls details of every case he’s ever worked on, so he knows how to link criminal aspects together.
Owin is a very detail-oriented guy, which means he can see small aspects of cases that others fail to notice. He sometimes gets bogged down in mundane things and perhaps too many red herrings have fallen into his net, but his strict notion of finding out what tiny pieces of evidence mean have helped solve the toughest of crimes.
Jase is a family man, providing the humanity to the unit, to remind them of what’s important. He has a habit of getting into trouble, but also managing to wriggle his way out of it. He’s very friendly, very personable, and can be seen as the ‘good cop’ to Karthus’s ‘punching-things cop.’
I think that solves my major problem with their characterizations. Now I just need to edit and play to those flaws and strengths.
The only thing left is that I have to really make this thing fantastic. Aside from its setting and some of the characters, there’s really no aspect to the story that demands it be taking place in a fantasy story. Change the setting to New York City and make all the characters human and there’s little that would need to be changed. I need to make it a fantasy story, not sword-and-sorcery high fantasy, but at least enough that one can read the book without thinking “why was this a fantasy novel.”
Thanks for thinking about everyone :)
Katherine, if you’re willing to discuss this sort of thing…how do you think of character names? I’m writing a story set in a future where there’s been a major social and technological setback all over the world…a very long time ago. The story is set in the period after the recovery. Anyway, trying to come up with names that don’t suggest any current social, genetic, or political grouping (i.e. people won’t read and think that that name is from country or population group X). It’s turning out to be one of the harder things to write. I’m considering using a password generator.
@dianne:
There are two ways I generate names. My main way – for humans and elves – is just thinking of a modern name and ‘fantasizing’ it. I think about what sounds and letters my world uses (they’re a mora-timed language much like Japanese) and use that – one important thing is that there are no proper nouns with the letters ‘C’ or ‘X.’
Karthus Kol, for example would be named Curtis Cole if he were in the modern world. Mara Kirrowe is Moira Curoe.
For the other races, it’s all dependent on the race.
Tallis males are usually built around hard sounds – S, Sh, Th, and K – while tallis females are usually built around soft sounds – L, N, R, and the vowels. They also have a unique surname system, with two last names – the first being part of their mother’s name and the last syllable of the city of her birth, and the second being part of their father’s name and the last syllable of the city of his birth – Lieta Teinka Ranka for example is the daughter of Tein and Ran, both of whom were born in Sedurka.
Orc names are built of a Firstname’Familyname structure, and often drop the family name. They tend to be a bit more ‘tribal’ sounding, but no distinction between male or female names – Kortha’Serfaras reduces to Kortha, and she was a famous tribal chieftain.
Sem names usually sound like last names – Valkir, Juani, Liral – because their names come from the last names of the humans who owned them way back in history. They were a servant race, and despite not being forced into servitude by their nature, they still bear the history of that servitude in their names.
Gnollen names are always two syllables long, with male names ending with O or I and female names ending with A or U. Tala is a female and Iego (Yay-go) is a male.
Basically, come up with a system and try not to break it. Figure out what sounds best for your own stories, and use that.
Katherine, I’m only a distant stranger-on-the-internet but count me among those who think you are interesting, challenging, fun, smart, strong, compassionate and also generally awesome in addition to dealing with aspects of gender in your life that most of us, with the best will in the world, probably can’t fully imagine let alone really grasp. You don’t have to be superhuman to be good people; you get to have failings and anyway I bet you mine are bigger than yours and my failings can beat up your failings so there.
Transatlantic {{{hugs}}}
С Новым годом, to everyone on Pharyngula (and especially to you Professor Myers). I have learned so much from you all this year, and last year, and the year before, and the year before, etc. Thank you!
So, how’s everyone doing?
I’m getting rid of my gun! Fuck yeah!
Katherine:
I like the character bios.
Now you have me wondering what are the essential elements that distinguish a fantasy story from other stories.
Setting?
Otherworldly creatures?
Pre Industrialization?
Powers and abilities no human possesses?
****
I had a delightful conversation with a couple last night at work. A black woman and a white man (relevant later). We joked around about food and when they asked me my name, I jokingly said ‘Big Daddy’. Not only did they both call me that the rest of the time, they called themselves ‘Big Momma’ and ‘Big Poppa’. It was fun!
She told me about her past as a model and models are so often thin as rails. That was a chance for me to bemoan the unhealthy aspects of modelling, as well as complain about the fashion industry seeming to care for women more than men (dammit, I want more color and patterns in everday wear; I also want more innovative designs for clothing).
She talked about her support for marriage equality, which the rest of her family voted against.
Her husband was a quiet guy, but he mentioned he was a scientist. Something to do with physics.
The real fun came when Big Momma started talking about…religion. She said she reads her bible daily, but doesn’t adhere to everything in it. I told her that it isn’t a great book on morality, given its support of rape and slavery. I couldn’t remember that chapter/verse, but I told her about the rules on beating your slave. She was shocked, having never heard of that she vowed to go home and look it up. I told her that part of the problem is that preachers select the passages they go over in church and that many people do nkt know their bible as well as they think. I recommended she read it cover to cover, rather than picking recommended chapters. Her husband intejected a few times, backing me up, and demonstrating that he has read it.
At one point in this deep, yet paradoxically light hearted conversation, she asked me what I believe.
I told her I am an atheist.
This woman reacted like she had met someone from Atlantis. Completely fascinated, she was giddy with questions. She had never met an atheist before and even remarked that I didn’t look like one, to which I said (and her husband nodded in approval) “what does an atheist look like if you haven’t met one?”
Her biggest source of confusion was what I believe. “You have to believe in something.”. I was able to exain how faith used in religion is one thing and faith used in relation to your friends is another. Also got to explain belief based on empiricism.
I told her about the Flood from the genocidal perspective, rather than the watered down for kiddies “Noah and the animals rode out a storm” dumbass angle.
Big Poppa interjected to add that the bible was written long ago before we knew much about the world.
I added that science explains so much now and has consistently explained our world where religion has failed.
Of course she also asked why I don’t believe-several times in fact. Each time I told her I need evidence. I also had to remind her that it is not just her god I do not believe in, but all the gods humanity has created. I quickly covered the cosmological argument snd the argument from ignornace. When I told her that I have no problem saying ‘I do not know’ in answer to questions, she was perplexed. Like so many others she is used to fitting god in the gaps.
In the end, she was so utterly excited and intrigued that she vowed to go home and research atheism. She made several remarks about how good a person I am (I’d previously mention feminism and my belief in humanist values), and that she was delighted to meet me.
I left work happy. I came out to guests (doubly so, since I also told them I am gay) and received no backlash. I was able to discuss my views better than in the past. I was able to explain in detail, some of the reasons I don’t believe…and much of that was bc of my experiences here at FtB.
Crap I forgot:
The reason their races were relevant was bc I compared marriage equality to interracial marriage.
@Tony:
That’s the thing about fantasy, it doesn’t really need to match any or all of those:
Setting, sure, that’s important – but some fantasy (Dresden Files, Harry Potter) exist in a modern world.
Pre-Industrial technology is not as important either, since a lot of fantasy takes place in steampunk-like worlds or use Magitek as a thing.
Otherworldly creatures isn’t necessary either, but it helps. I can think of a few fantasy stories with just humans.
Magical powers, tends to be needed, but again, not necessary.
My problem isn’t that I’m missing any or all of these aspects. In fact, if you consider half-human, half-animal hybrids and walking, talking dragon-people otherworldly creatures, I’ve got all of them. It takes place in a fantasy world, with – at most – steampunk technology (although it’s realistic steampunk technology, as in it breaks down, overheats, or explodes), the aforementioned sem and tallis, and magical abilities.
It just doesn’t feel fantasy to me. The story could very easily be transplanted to a modern one with minor shifts in story (medieval weaponry = guns, the little magic used = modern technology, usw.) I love the dichotomy of mundane and fantasy – my story is a mundane situation in a fantasy world – but I feel like I’m maybe 85% mundane and 15% fantasy, I want to be closer to 50-50.
Well, yesterday was productive in an unplanned way. My internet went out and stayed out until noon-ish today. (And, of course, there’s no one in the office answering phones.) I edited and proofed the paper I’m submitting to MSS’s undergrad paper competition, read through 2 of the less boring textbooks for next semester, and gave my apartment a thorough cleaning. I even cleaned out the bedroom closet and alphabetized my bookshelves.
Meanwhile, the little drummer boy’s dad and I have come to an agreement. He can play between 4 and 7pm on weekdays and between noon and 6 on Saturdays. And he will never, ever again wake me up with his 9am Phil Collins impression on New Year’s Eve or any other day.
—
Dalillama:
That’s a bit too rustic for me. My hermit cabin would’ve had hot and cold running water and a real bathroom. (I’ve camped and hiked enough to know I can only tolerate outhouses (or less) for about two weeks.)
Of course, this was a teenage fantasy, so I didn’t have to worry about winter or carbon footprints, and there was a piranha-infested moat with a drawbridge.
—
Improbable Joe:
Ooh, Casa Improbable is lovely!
I learned to cook for a family of 9, and it took years of leftovers before I learned to match portion sizes to the number of eaters.
—
blogofmyself:
Mmm…cookies.
Oral sex in an academic paper? That is just…awesome. Also, awkward. I really hope you’ll share a tidbit of it with us, because I can’t even figure out where one would start.
—
Tony:
*hugs* Hopefully he’ll continue thinking about what you’ve told him and reach out to you in the future.
—
Giliell:
More *hugs*. Glad your sister is getting her taken to the hospital.
—
Katherine:
Even more *hugs*. I’m the same way. Asking for help is the absolute last resort for me, even though I know there are plenty of people who would be happy to help out.
You’re a wonderful person with an amazing imagination and even better the desire to share that through your stories (I can’t be the only one waiting for the day I can buy a copy of your book(s).) I always look forward to reading your comments, especially the ones where you share little bits of what you’re working on.
—
carlie:
I have a note on my corkboard in big red letters reminding me to call my kids once a week, because I forget to stay in touch with people, even family, if I don’t see them regularly. I get busy and think I’ll call them tomorrow, only then I forget for a couple weeks…and so on.
On Christmas, when I did the Great Round of Calls, I realized I hadn’t talked to one of my brothers since September.
One friend idea I shamelessly stole from somewhere else: instead of holiday cards, send thank-you cards and mention one or two reasons you’re particularly glad to have that friend. It could be for a specific thing they’ve done, or just for how they make you feel better when you’re having a bad day, or more generically how they always make you laugh, etc. I’ve only done that a couple of times (see? bad friend!) but it seemed to have been well-received.
Duuuudes, I had a submission make Yo, is this racist? I’m so proud. Well, proud in that absolutely appalled at the blatant racism kind of way. It was in a cookbook we got as a Christmas gift.
Katherine:
Have you tried to analyze and deconstruct stories by your favorite fantasy writers? Perhaps doing so would help you find that missing oomph you neef.
Thank you all for the kind words about the house. One of the things about our time in Hell was that the house never felt like a home. This feels like a home, and it is so soothing to be in a positive environment. So positive that I’m trading my gun for a guitar amp. I don’t need either thing, but at least I’ll use the amp once in awhile. :)
Carlie, good job with the racism?