This is the lounge. You can discuss anything you want, but you will do it kindly. That dog is so unnaturally and frighteningly adorable, I should have used it on the new Thunderdome thread.
Status: Heavily Moderated; Previous thread
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
esteleth
Hopefully it’s one of the options that involves being paid more, then. Good luck.
Crudely, others in need
*hugs* and best wishes
Hi again rq
kind of ‘rupt, hugs, scriches, &c to all who need them.
OT, but since I guess you are looking at this, looks like the CSS is screwed.
Type size on most pages is very small.
Thank Dog! I thought my eyes were going…
# 2
Thank goodness. I was wondering what was wrong with my computer this time.
Holdover from the last thread:
Holy shit, Portia. You are also a fire-fighter? Are you a superhero?
I’m sorry, but that dog does belong on the Thunderdome. It looks like it is ready to suck your soul out with it’s cute fluffy little eyes.
I’m still rather new at being active as a poster here… so I never appreciated how exhausting some threads can be. A post about a nice story which is in response to causal sexism in a game 30 years old but mostly unremarkable? See trolls derail with just stupidity.
I used to wonder why some people would get snippy early. Now I find that I get snippy because I see how annoying it is to answer the same questions, address the same points, ad nausem.
You’re seeing the font changes here? Or elsewhere?
I set up a custom CSS file for Pharyngula early on, so sometimes glitches in the central styles get overridden here.
Gah! “Its”. All hail tpyos!
I’m seeing changed on the front page and the recent posts isn’t working and there’s a stalker chat in the bottom right….
PZ, for me it comes and goes and it is all of FTBs.
PZ, I am not seeing a font change here. I just saw it change at Dispatches, and on the main page of the Network.
No changes at Brute Reason, Blag Hag, Butterflies and Wheels, Ashley F. Miller, or Alethian Worldview.
And there’s a chat window showing up in the bottom right hand corner of the main page of the network.
My sister says so, but she might be biased. : )
S has gotten me Wonder Woman paraphernalia as a go-to gift, which is fun.
I enjoy making ambulance-chaser jokes because the fire trucks almost invariably follow the ambulance to the scene.
Om nom nom :) My pleasure.
I think this line of thinking. Sometimes, the fact that it’s doable by girls needs to be affirmative and out there, not just present. Thanks for that thought. Makes me feel better about being so loud and obnoxious about insisting on the right title. :)
opposable thumbs:
I feel you on the freelance-style work. I’m a little swamped myself but here I still am, haha.
Thanks, and the secret is partly that I don’t work quite 40 hours most of the time. :) Also helps that the fire station is right on my block.
mildlymagnificent:
Really nice he came to check in, and awwww for your daughter wanting the photo. :)
Hehehehe.
Also, eeeeeeek mice!
Giliell:
Thanks. And good for you getting emails sent and getting stuff done.
Nick:
:( for your son. Sounds like he got right back on task, though.
ednaz:
It came across right :) Hugs back atcha. You’ll be glad to know I actually had several opportunities last week to deliver his laundry, but forgot or decided against it. “It’s his damn laundry, he can get it his-damn-self!” I haven’t even folded it, muahahahah. I stuffed it in a corner to wait for him.
———–
I didn’t realize I had such a long comment to write. Sorry if I missed anything.
Hugs all around. It’s sunny out today, which makes me feel happy.
I am debating driving to Michigan this weekend. I miss my mom so much it hurts. Sometimes literally, when I get the anxiety-related chest pains. It feels wrong to live so far from her.*
*moar resentment towards S: he gave me grief when I mentioned any hint of not moving back here after law school. He wasn’t the only reason, but I don’t think he realizes what I did for this relationship. But meh, when it was too hard, that didn’t matter.
No, wait, it’s sunny out, I’m happy. Happy day, new clients, lots to be thankful for :)
*sanitary hugs* for Crudely. I know some kind of intestinal ick was going around, hereabouts; The Husband and I both caught it. It failed to be my idea of a Good Time.
I await, with some trepidation, your follow-up later.
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Yes, it is.
Well, I think so! And one of my large gripes about religion is that it allows people to feel all smug about not being decent to people outside of their own in-group.
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Yes, Portia, you are an inspiration.
:)
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Awesome news, PSG!
:) :)
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So many things haven’t changed, the bitterness is understandable.
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Well done, you! Congrats!
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Whatever for?!?
Please tell me it’s for your novel.
Later
Whew! Thanks!
I suppose, if enslaveable populations are large enough to be considered “throwaways” on an individual basis, the costs of maintenance (meaning, inhumanely little) could be offset by the sweat-house production levels. Alternatively, if slaves are considered a form of Conspicuous Consumption, these costs would be offset by the increase in the owner’s status. Or you could argue that it in the aftermath of a war, it is more humane to carry off the losing side’s survivors and dependents, than to put them all the the sword (and pointless to conquer an area if you don’t plan to disposses the inhabitants and recolonise with your own nationals/co-ethnics), and consider it a cultural duty/responsibility/imperative.
Or some combination.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be rational, so long as it is rationalizable, if you follow me.
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*huge pile of hugs/chocolate/bacon/kittens* for opposablethumbs. Enough to last through the hectic time ahead.
–
–
New Thread!
Mr. Deity, Brian Keith Dalton produced a new ex-mormon video. (March 12, 2013)
Nicely done. Dalton provides an excellent summary of the batsh*t crazy tenets of the mormon religion that he dropped.
The Way of the Mister: And I’m a Formon.” “Forman” = Former Mormon
I did forget something:
Crudely,
You are very sweet :)
One of the main reasons I am able to give out moral support and the like is that I always get it back tenfold here. The emotional energy I expend telling you or someone else those kinds of things is dwarfed by the support and kindness I get from all the great, supportive people here. And I think that’s one of the beauties of this place. We all, including you, contribute to the goodness, and the whole is definitely greater than the sum of the parts. I love that.
=====
Thanks, cicely dearest :) *hugs*
I love this crowd, have I mentioned that lately?
Last night, inspired in part by the idiocy in the Donkey Kong thread, I downloaded Okami to play with my daughter. Screw playing as Pauline, we are playing as Amaterasu, a goddess in the form of a wolf. It kicks too much ass.
And then I get a ten dollar credit. I might get Beyond Good and Evil to play with her.
Uggggh. Can I rant about “progressive” Christian spaces here? Because seriously, they are fucking worthless and just as exhausting, if not more, than having discussions with conservative Christians. And progressive Christian discussions about feminism?
There is just so much wrong with this post (forgive me if I mess up the formatting-it’s been ages since I’ve done HTML and am prone to typos) that I hardly know where to begin.
Seriously, the blogger and moderator of the site/community is someone that has defended the use of gendered slurs in the past, and just recently was entirely baffled when Twitter users objected to her use of a transphobic slur. Which she maturely responded to by simply retweeting the word over and over. And globdamnit, this is a 38 year old woman with two children.
And then this shit. Fuck you, Internet Gay Man, for demanding a certain tone and for lacking the intellectual honesty to sit down and lurk before asking ignorant ass questions. Fuck everyone in that thread saying “some anger is ok, but some feminists take it too far” [citation fucking needed]. Fuck everyone who sullies my “safe spaces” to the extent that I feel I am never safe from sexism and bigotry. Fuck Christian “allies” who say “I’m a feminist, but…these online feminists are MEANIES and I refuse to listen to them”. Fuck every mainsplainer in that thread talking about how “hard” it is for men to engage in feminist discussions and feel welcome. Fuck privileged people that demand to be educated by marginalized groups and then cry about the tone of the conversation.
Fuck everyone whose precious fee-fees getting wounded by an anonymous person online is more important than meatspace suffering that REAL people face.
(Also, Horde, y’all should join the SCCL Facebook page. I need some Horde warriors on my side, and there are some legitimately interesting discussions and hilarious criticisms of the church. Or, don’t, because it adds stress from dealing with more entitled assholes, and that I understand.)
Yes. Yes, she is.
:)
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Lynna
Great video. He did a great job of laying it all out there.
cicely
She certainly is.
And there’s probably more people like her out there. Here’s to all you people making a difference, and making the world better by taking the time to make the effort.
feministdalek:
I have two responses to that facebook post:
1. Fuck all that shit; couldn’t agree more.
2. When did facebook roll out nested comments?!?!
Lynna:
Great video. There were some Mormon beliefs I hadn’t even heard of. Of course, the more outrageous stuff in there is adamantly denied by my most vocal Mormon friend. He says he resents being “told what he believes” and that it’s “news to him” that the Church purports X, Y, and Z. But to my mind, in such a strictly hierarchical organization (e.g. RCC and LDS), people can’t really escape the more horrible tenets and still be credible. I mean, you’re supporting that with your pocketbook, and you’re calling yourself a member. If you don’t like what they’re saying/doing, you can’t just say they’re not saying it or doing it, and you can’t just say you’re not supporting that part. Sigh. I’ve long since avoided talking about it with him.
I feel pretty lucky to have found it.
Hello!
‘rupt
This work thing is screwing with my Pharyngula attendance.
We’ve got a new pope. For whoeverthefuck cares.
Do you mean secular moral arguments? (I know such a thing doesn’t exist, but I mean twisted moral arguments like “Living conditions in the slave huts were still better than in Africa!). Because that’s tricky, but if you just mean any non-religious arguments, “cheap labour” is an argument. You could bring in the good slavery did for the America/European economies. You could bring in the fact they genuinely believed them to be sub-human, which from their point of view was effective apologetics.
Damn, you’re right… this is depressing.
The denial of reality, ignorance of mormon history, and the claim that all ex-mormons are lying … those tactics are all too common. One good result of having True Believing Mormons so steeped in denial and ignorance is that ex-mormons have had to really be on the top of their game to prove their points. Ex-mormons are some of the best amateur historians (and professional historians) I’ve met.
Here’s one example. This note is from an ex-mormon:
Here’s a repeat of the video link
New pope has been chosen, according to the BBC. Hurray, another ridiculously dressed fellow without a clue.
I wonder if my Pope app will require an update now that there are two to keep track of.
White Smoke! We have a new Pope everybody… I’m gonna guess a conservative white guy who is verra olde.
@Portia #23
Thank you. Sometimes I feel like the uphill battles are just too tiring or just too pointless when you’re being inundated with a storm of poop, and that particular space privileges “healing” and “personal histories” over the harm that both of those activities can potentially do.
I just can’t believe that the blogger asks for reasons as to why Hugo Schwyzer is a problematic figure, then immediately comes to his defense when someone gave explanations. (Word for word, “you are welcome here, Hugo”.)
Progressive Christianity is a shithole of hypocrisy and unexamined privilege. The end.
Also: Nested comments, wtf indeed. Makes it ridiculous to read. Better still, it all just reads as one long thread on mobile, which makes it even more difficult to follow conversations. I love
feministdalek
God, that was painful to read. It felt…. I don’t know how to describe it. Condescending. I read it like I was getting lectured by a person who feels they know what is best for all feminists. That equality comes from their god, and that intense desire to link it all by to their religion, almost like they need to justify the existence of their religion.
And progressive Christians like this make me sick to my stomach. Because I was one. It was a degree of arrogance, of hubris, to look at people and say “my love for them is so great because Jesus that I should grant them equality.” That is a method of thinking, and it is just as fucked up as it sounds.
Man, I was a terrible person.
Beatrice
Likely appropriate.
Smoke and mirrors.
Sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Much ado about nothing.
Popedumb.
Lynna:
Wow, I didn’t even catch that bit in the video. The denial people have to be in is unbelievable. Just…unbelievable. It makes me a little heartsick when they mention something about their wonderful, smart, boisterous 2 year old son going on his mission.
feministdalek:
I can’t emphasize this enough: Fuck Hugo Schwyzer.
Someone who defends him is an example of someone who Doesn’t Get It. Even if he hadn’t admitted to being a murderous douchecanoe, the attention he revels in for saying things over women makes him a shit. We can speak for ourselves, amirite?
On a somewhat related matter, a decision last week involved a Salt Lake City Mormon who thought the Government ought to oblige him in his request he be allowed to pay his tithes instead of taxes.
See:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreilly/2013/03/08/render-unto-caesar-mormon-tithe-not-a-necessary-expense-in-irs-collection-case/
@glodson #33
Absolutely. There is not a thought given to the justice of the situation from an objective standpoint; it’s really the same ‘ol WWJD nonsense that I tried to live up to when I was in their shoes. It’s really pretty pathetic that someone’s first instinct will be to justify love or empathy through a supernatural being rather than just trying to empathize with the humans telling their stories. If you need a supernatural being to justify kindness and compassion…I just…td;cj
This also illustrates why we need out anti-theists – and people who are HELLA ANGRY – fighting back in whatever capacity possible. Even the “good” Christians can be shitty assholes that just draw on the same arbitrary, personally-defined “God” to qualify their beliefs and actions.
O.O
My evening appointment just canceled.
Well, postponed.
That means, if S gets here at a decent hour with my keys, I could leave for Michigan today.
Of course, he won’t, even though his office is closed on Wednesday afternoons.
Still.
I get to see my mom and my nieces and my nephews.
Soon.
I should work my dad in there too.
I’m so excited. It’s been since Christmas. I don’t know when I’ve gone so long without seeing my mom.
Portia, I envy you your excitement to see your mom.
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Habemus papam.
How do you say “Hide the altar boys,” in Latin?
Portia
I hope that, for once, he gets his shit togthrr. Alternatively, it’s a good way not to engage – sorry, have to leave, no time to chat/eat/have coffee, don’t want to be out late on the roads, ya know! Yay for the excitement, I hope it’s an awesome weekend (ignore S the whole time…?).
Kind of like how I’m starting to feel about going to Canada next year and seeing my siblings (since my parents followed me here and all). :)
Moderate amusement and “yup” saying.
So the cartoonist Jeph Jacques (him of “Questionable Content”) just posted a string of tweets (@jephjacques), to wit:
These are in rapid succession. There is a brief pause, then:
In other tweeting-re-popery news, someone (@JamesUrbaniak) just said this:
I am now going to return to my resting state of “not giving a crap about the Pope.”
Mum watching the tv and waiting for the pope. Jesus, just let him out already, I’m sick of listening to this shit.
LOL
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Jorge Mario Bergoglio has been popefied as Francis I
[Immediately contradicts previous post]
Can someone more educated in such matters explain to me why it is a BIG DEAL that the new Pope is a Jesuit? I mean, okay, he’s the first, and firsts are notable and all that.
But why is this OMG A JESUIT?!
In completely unrelated news, a blizzard just started here.
Oh yawn, what was that Beatrice? Uhhh… Oh. There’s a pope. *back to evening schedule*
Esteleth
The blizzard- lots of snow? Or a light blizzard? Or is that the white smoke from the Vatican?
He shoots! He scores!!!
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And now we’re listening to the guy’s speech. I don’t care. I don’t care. I don’t care. Make him shut up, I’m too tired to move to the kitchen so that I won’t have to listen.
@Esteleth:
He may be a reformer – he took the name ‘Francesco’ after Francis of Assisi – who is the patron saint of poverty. He’s not wearing the mitre or the stole or anything like that.
Maybe he’ll give all the money of the church to people who need it, rather than sitting on its vast wealth and *snort* sorry, I couldn’t handle it.
You were doing so well, cracking me up.
Courtesy of Wikipedia: his views on various hot topics.
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Jesuits have historically been the most intellectually, educationally, and socially progressive of the Catholic religious orders (the menz ones, anyway). So the significance is: could have been a lot worse.
rq, the blizzard was a sudden explosion of snow that turned the view from my window to a swirling white cloud.
It has now thinned somewhat – still snowing (and the wind making it go sideways) but I can see across the street.
For the record, it is currently 38 F (i.e. 3.3 C). So I’m skeptical of *any* of it sticking. Especially since it has been warm for the past week – the ground will be warm and damp.
cicely,
Yeah, I went to the wiki immediately after learning his name. A very conservative dude, like everyone was predicting. No surprise there.
Asshole. No surprise there either.
@cicely:
Ah, so an anti-choice, pro-people-suffering, homophobe.
Sounds like a winner!
rq;
Good idea! He says he’s going “leave in just a minute” …I’ll see him in two hours, haha. He is 30 minutes away, so we’ll see.
I will probably end up ignoring him all weekend.
Although my nephew loves him and I might be weak and relay some hellos if it comes up. It’s just…too cute the way they’re buds.
When do you get to go to Canada? I didn’t realize your parents had moved along with you, that’s pretty neat.
Esteleth:
I llol’d at those tweets, whether I should have or not.
Good news, rq, he still has the kids til this evening so he can’t stay long anyway, has to pick them up from Grandma Daycare. Wunderbar. No temptation for me to ask him to hang around and talk. I don’t want to talk about his jerkiness at the moment, I want to be happy and get on the road.
cicely,
I see your linky isn’t working.
Here’s cached version I read a couple of minutes ago:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:wg4Gn6LNLbkJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorge_Bergoglio+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&client=firefox-a
And here’s the new one about the pope. Note the parts that are missing. I guess more will disappear.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorge_Bergoglio
So, habemus Pappnase
Much more important, I made the grave mistake of clicking on one of Surly Ami’s links on twitter. Shouldn’t have done. But I think I’m going to treat myself to a belated birthday present and already order a birthday present for #1. Did you see the bunnies?
Damn, I never thought I’d admit that there exists a cuter dog than my yorkie.
So… we haz a new Pope.
Someone remind me again why I’m supposed to care…?
@18 Good, start her early on her naturalism and Nietzsche. Lol Jk.
Um, wouldn’t Portia be, actually, a Super Heroin?
Hello.
Sick with stomach ick. Bleah.
Habemus Papam, indeed we do or they do; whatever. Pageantry, pomp and circumstance. We all know PZ tries to provide, but he just doesn’t have the money in the coffers that the RCC has.
Now my burning question: what kind of puppy is that? Clicked but no credits or links.My wife and I have had three Maltese, and even as puppies they aren’t that small. Not with their eyes open.
To paraphrase a relatively recent commercial “that can’t be a real puppy, it’s too small”.
Ave! Bossa nova, similis bossa seneca!
*chuckle*
Of course, grammatically, that is completely…
*handing Ogvorbis the barf bucket*
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Luckily no barf. Just loose. Glass shards in the belly stuff. Fun.
The beautiful thing about the barf bucket is that, in a dire emergency, it works equally well as a chamberpot.
Why does spell check not recognize “chamberpot”?
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What. That’s a dog?!?
Anyway. Have you all watched these 7 seconds of video yet? Paul “For Teh Evulz” Ryan has commented on his budget plan.
There’s a petition there.
Before this came out, there was already a petition against that “budget” “plan”.
Now I’m going to read up on Francis I. His name is promising (assuming it’s after St Francis and not after the French king… but I’m sure it is), the Jesuits have a usually deserved reputation for being very intellectual – not just in theology, but all the way deep into science –, so he might get something moving. Or not. For the moment I’m betting on “not”.
Portia
i’m not actually all that thrilled they did move here, even though it was a life-long dream of my dad’s to return to a Free Latvia. I mostly moved here to be further away (but not unreachable) and they followed about two years later because my dad got an offer from one of the universities to get back into a lab. And my mum’s ok, but my dad’s hard to shake off subconsciously. Even the most innocuous questions seem loaded, and the more physical distance, the more Iknow he won’t be able to step in to supervise. That being said they’ve been a great help but age has brought a refaffirmation of religious values for both, enough to make Chritmas a solemn affair rather than fun&presents. Meh. :)
Ooooh, well that’s less than fun then. I can’t conceive of how far away Latvia is, and I think it’s pretty brave to have moved there for the independence :)
(Update: S should be here any minute. And with DST, I shouldn’t be driving in the dark for very long at all this evening).
…Huh. I can’t remember having sent it. Makes some sense, though; since Sunday I’ve been ill and very tired, apparently too tired to socialize (but not to embark on mid-sized Wikipedia projects, apparently). Someone who’s on Fb, please send HappiestSadist a whole bunch of sterile Internet hugs – they know why.
Job offer:
Hm, maybe answering friend’s message “so, what do you think about the new pope?” with “Dunno, same shit, different name?” wasn’t the best idea.
She’s not a believer, but she’s a wannabe believer, which annoys me much much more.
beatrice
They’re kind of the most annoying, aren’t they? They might not even catholic, or christian, but they totally think that you have to respect the fucking Pope…
Oh, she is annoying because she wants to believe, because it would be so nice to have the comfort of believing in some beautiful loving force looking at you from above. My atheism obviously stems just from my anger at the Catholic institutions, I couldn’t have really stopped believing in a god!
And she’s the person who tried to convince me to see a priest when I was trying to get encouragement to see someone for my depression. I’m still kinda angry about that one. A lot, to be honest.
Oh, dear. *hugs* for David, and *hugs* and commiserations for Beatrice (and everyone else whose friends/loved ones are being pope-struck.
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Beatrice
So… Why doesn’t she just… Believe? /confused
If she wants to so much.
Portia
Have a safe drive, and remember, do not engage! Weather- or pope-talk only! ;)
David
I hate job offers like that. They make me remember how much I’d love to apply and do something like that.
Teh googels informs me that the new Pope has taken the name “Francis” for Francis Xavier, the co-founder (with Ignatius Loyola) of the Jesuits.
rq,
Because she realizes it’s obviously bullshit (…but such lovely bullshit)?
Weather today: snow and sun! ^_^
The Jesuits were actually officially banned for some time, on suspicion of
heresyhaving become too powerful.*headdesk*
I want to go on some kind of rampage.
Yep. And indeed, says Wikipedia, he believes that being pro-choice belongs to a “culture of death”, and that homosexuality is demonic and “a machination of the Father of Lies”, but! “He supports the use of contraception to prevent the spread of disease”!!! *snark* He’s against various excesses of capitalism (Catholic social teaching, remember), but nonetheless had suspiciously good relations with the military dictatorship of Argentina (1976 – 1983), allegedly in particular this nice little institution.
I’m sick, but not from my illness.
You know, that might actually be better.
(“Cardboard nose”.)
*hugs all around*
*calming manatees, too*
Because, like any other atheist, she can’t decide to believe. She needs evidence. She just refuses to admit that, because (remember what Sastra always says) she believes it’s better not to need any.
Sorry :-(
…Oh.
David
Get well soon
*brews Happieness Tea*
beatrice
If I believed for one moment that the catholic god was real I’d have to wage a war against the cruel monster
+++
Surly Amy is wonderful.
It’s so great when you’re not getting something that is almost perfect and would be if it only had a different colour, but something that will be perfect because you can just ask for the right colour. #1 will be getting her first Surly at her 6th birthday…
65
grumpypathdoc
I’m guessing a pomeranian. Google at your own risk :) (The cute is strong in those little balls of fur.)
Beatrice
Still don’t really get it. Oh well, no big loss, I presume.
David
it’s ok, I like reading them to compile a list for myself for when I can feasibly do things for myself again, just so I keep all kinds of things in mind and don’t fall into a rut. If that makes any sense.
Still mildly painful sometimes, in the same way that I’m hprrendously jealous of the friend currently out at the Canadian PEARL lab.
+++
Husband left his wine glass unattended and returned to find Middle Child adding some of his grape juice to it. “Try it, delicious, isn’t it?” *tee hee* That one is making huge strides in imagination, creative thinking and speaking, and the culinary arts.
Beatrice
Those people are indeed annoying as fuck. I agree with Gilliell; if I thought for a second that a being like the christian god existed, I’d devote my life to finding a way to make it stop doing so.
Sympathies for the sick, *hugs* for those in need as well.
Just told my mom, who always hopes for change, that she’s still going to hell.
Oh yes.
Amusing realization: despite water’s reputation as healthy, consuming saturated water is actually much more dangerous than consuming saturated fat O.O
Hello All!
(So close to catching up.)
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Giliell @644, I am proud of you, too. : ) It is no small thing. *thumbsup*
Sorry the UMP is still messing with you. (Like their name, though.)
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midlymagnificent @646, So glad to hear about mr.’s improvement.
It’s only right you should be in the Hero picture. : )
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opposablethumbs, Yay for work! Oh No! Too much at once! *sending big bunches of energy – NOW*
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Katherine Lorraine, J’aime votre nouveau nom. : D
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rq, Rage! Rage against the aggravation of the touch screen!
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Nick Gotts, You have my sympathies.
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Hallo ever’body.
Boy Richard Dawkins is an ass, isn’t he.
I’m working late because we have three interns in an office with four desks and three regular employees, and I prefer to avoid the office when they’re all here at once. Bleh.
hello from Costa Rica
my article at Secular Woman is out, go read it: http://secularwoman.org/lucyparsons
bye again, gotta go drink fresh Costa Rican coffee.
Peter Banks died.
Clive Burr died.
WTF? Someone please tell me that Fish is O.K.
Anyway, in remembrance:
Flash
\m/ 666 \m/
On firing my non-mousing cats:
blf said:
Any help appreciated. Stocking up on cheese now.
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Does not compute…
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QFFT
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Uh, Ogvorbis … Could you pass the barf bucket? [*hugs*, BTW]
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So, we have a new pope, eh? Gotta add another folder to my Religious Creeps file ASAP.
A contrarians’ work is never done.
Then again The Blessed USian Founding Fathers (TM) [Jefferson and Adams at least] had mighty derogatory things to say about Jesuits. Uh oh…..DEEEEP RIIIFFFTS!
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Oh, and ‘cus I just discovered this and it gave me the giggles- I’ll leave it here.
Okay, I thought I had that tag figured out: http://youtu.be/Hq-URl9F17Y
because why? (this time, I mean)
Oh, Dawkins? Just casually tweeting about how fetal pain might trump maternal bodily autonomy.
Also, fuck the Pope. <–blogwhoring
Jadehawk, that’s fantastic!
That is fantastic, Jadehawk!
But I’m wondering–is it supposed to be the “fourth” article in the Women’s History series, rather than the “forth” article? /copy editing nitpicks
Read his recent tweets. Is he drunk or something?
And…it’s begin/began/begun.
We nitpick because we love. (And the compulsiveness thing.)
Did I mention the post is fantastic? :)
Dawktweet:
When did Dawkins become such a simpleton? Why the hell does he think this is consequentialist ethics? Oh, right – the consequences for a pregnant woman aren’t morally important. The saddest part is that he seems to think he’s making a bold animal rights argument, evidently unaware of the history of feminist animal rights writing. Shithead.
That sounds like a command. I meant: “I read his recent tweets.” Sorry for the confusion.
*dons helmet of woo deflection* What is “saturated water”?
It was just your saltyness coming through. We understood. :)
–
Yes, in this context, what does “saturated water” mean?
Water that’s at its saturation temperature., Colloquially, “boiling point.”
OK, I’ll take your word for it. The point where the vapor pressure of water hits 760 torr. Although 100% humidity is air saturated with water at any temperature. Sounds like there is some vaguery going on.
Ogvorbis can tell us the dangers of “super saturated” water…
*waves* Hi Horde. Survived day one back to work, though I can’t say I got a whole hella lot accomplished. I guess Rome wasn’t built in a day either though, right?
–
Leaving some *hugs* here for ednaz, opposablethumbs, rq, cicely. There are extras if anyone else needs some, feel free to take your fill.
–
New pope? That was quick. Thanks for the song bluentx, that helped.
–
I’ll second rq (I think), the Horde is wonderful and I feel very fortunate to have you. <3
–
Safe travels Portia!!!
I’m guessing I just didn’t have my Chuckle Meter (TM) turned up high enough.
Scalding the crap out of yourself (with saturated water) trumps the dangers of cellulite?
Amirite?
What do I win?
any horde folks in fargo nd or moorhead mn(know jadehawk is in CA)
started work today and a young co-worker drove here from NC with her dog, finds out that no one rents to people with a dog. She is renting a room from some guy whose girlfriend doesnt like the fact and she is pressuring the boyfriend to kick her out. She cant really afford a motel. Craigslist has nothing. Any locals that know anyone who has room for an employed IT specialist and her dog please let me know asap. williamoxley at netscape dot net I have just met her and she seems like good folk. Gainfully employed thru the rest of the year but houses are about the same price as hotel rooms and they want a year lease. She is alone so a little bit leery of parts of fargo/moorehead so if you know where the cheaper rundown but safe areas are let me know that as well. Appreciate any help you can give
Love me some Iron Maiden, man!
So… tonight’s group discussion centred around rape, specifically marital or partner rape.
Reaffirmed my belief that a lot of the “sex” (with my abuser) was, in fact, rape.
Touched on how society promotes low-level sexual violence as “normal”, and continues to propagate several myths about rape that harm the victims and let the rapists get away with it.
I’m feeling like I need a fucking Silkwood shower.
Hey. Not sure if this is too punchy for the lounge.
I’m GMing a zombie apocalypse game and we’re making a bunch of zombie avatars. Anyhow, we’re tracing them from pictures of people that suck, such as Rush Limbaugh, Ray Comfort, Michelle Malkin, Reap Paden, Vox Day, Victoria Jackson, Kirk Cameron, Fred Phelps, Charlie Sheen, Michelle Bachmann, Jenny McCarthy, Ken Hutcherson, Terrorist Fist Jab Lady, Brown Haired guy who isn’t Steve Doocy, Gretchen Carlson, Glen Beck, Tucker Carlson, Mark Driscoll, Paul Allen, RooshV, and Chunderfoot.
Amusingly, if you just trace someone in Photoshop with a slightly wavering line and make them wall-eyed, you have a zombie. Any other suggestions?
Someone was asking how to morally explain slavery without religion. There is a book called Spares http://www.amazon.com/Spares-Michael-Marshall-Smith/dp/0553579010 that kinda side sweeps religion when courts determine that a cloned human has no rights, the original owns them and can trade and sell them.
Glad the Mom Dancing helped, PSG.
I should have given a h/t to algonquin on the bayou for that, as I saw it at her place first.
*waves to Sharon in case she’s reading*
Tho scritches might not be appropriate after a Silkwood shower (owww!) take whatever mode of comfort you prefer from The Lounge Buffet of Soothyness, WMDKitty. Sounds like those sessions can be rough– but in a good way. If that makes sense.
*hugs* and *scritches* and tea to all who engaged in the gaming hellthread… The troll was strong in that one.
*pokes her head in*
I am so excited about the atheist convention, woo-ooh. You know, this will be the first convention I’ve ever attended! I’ve worked quite a few (for pay and as a volunteer), but I’ve never actually attended one. Neat.
Also, never been to Austin. So excited.
I didn’t want to bombard my facebook with more excited squees, so I thought I’d do it here. SQUEE!
Also it will hit a high of 93 (or more?!) next week. I think Tuesday. This has happened every year since the day I was born and yet every year I am surprised.
I just browsed that gaming thread … that was a really great example of JAQ’ing off. Yikes.
A I promised last night, a venting post. ‘Cause I’m angry. (read, “really pissed off!)
Eldest daughter J. (38) called last night sounding like she’d gotten laryngitis. Wrong diagnosis. She’d been in her car screaming in rage and outrage. Her target? Her mother, my darling ex-wife.
J. is divorcing her abusive husband, a poster child for male privilege. In NC the process takes a year. She moved herself and the two boys (tweeners) into mother’s home at mother’s invite and insistence a couple months ago. Soon after that, she totaled her Jeep but fortunately avoided injury. (Belts and airbags, thanks!)
Her mother, and husband number five, live quite comfortably and agreed to help J. finance a new, replacement car. So far, so good right? Out of an abusive environment, kids got nice, rural environment, J. survives frightening night time wreak and has a brand new Honda Civic. Lovely, everyone happy. Well, almost.
My darling ex-wife is a “deeply spiritual Christian” and loves her some Jesus. She also thinks everyone else should too. J. is really not certain of her beliefs, just that she has some, she thinks. Her mother harbors a grudge for this and fear for J.’s soul troubles her. Did I mention that she has a nasty side? That she is unstable and vindictive. Well, it is so as I’ve discovered on several occasions.
J. was visiting a friend Monday night and stayed quite late. She decided not to return to mother’s house at three in the morning so as to avoid waking anyone up. So she caught a couple hours of sleep and got back around sunrise. Mother, assuming something evil had taken place during the night, began her slow warm up. Where were you? What were you doing? You thought you could just leave the boys for me to be responsible for? Don’t you respect what I’m doing for you? et cetera ad nauseum. Along with telling J. she’d better get right with god and pray to the savior. Also, that J. had brought an evil spirit into the house. An evil, rebellious spirit.
The culmination, to cut to the chase was, in retrospect, typical and unsurprising. J. and the boys had to leave! And poor J. having very little money at present, had no real choice except to return to home and the husband with the fists. In addition, they pulled a sneaky repo on her new car! (mother and husband five have signed the loan papers)
This I learned while J. rasped and sobbed over the phone. All I could do was listen, I couldn’t hold her, I couldn’t let her soak my shoulder with her tears. What I can do is share her anger and resentment that her mother, Her Mother!! would pull such a cheap act of summary judgement and callous disregard.
Similar treatment has been meted out to other family members and seems to becoming more frequent as time passes. I was only a little surprised at the news. But I’m no less outraged and bitter. I’m also sad and frustrated that I don’t have the means to offer any financial assistance since my liquid assets have quite thoroughly evaporated.
Well, there’s another shining example of a Christian showing the love, the tolerance, the long suffering care of their one true god. Another example of why I skedaddled out of that racket decades ago after a short, but very informative time of trying to get the hang of the worship thing. Another example of the uselessness of professed faith in the face of human need in trying times and situations. I really pissed off!
Thanks for the ears, folks. Sorry for a long rant; I just had to get it out and I feel comfortable doing it here. Do I feel any better? I don’t think I can measure such tiny changes in mood. There is this, though — now others know and that’s something right there.
Good morning to the Horde.
Here, this is the first thing Isaw today: perfectly good eggs!
(I hope the link works, attempting mobilely for first time.)
Also ‘saturated water’ makes me think of all those times my dad explained to us that 100% water, perfectly distilled etc., is actually poisonous because it’s too pure. Sounds pretty saturated to me!
*roundofhugs&handshakes&freshkittens* and honourable mentions and get-well card for mildlymagnificent (yes, you are a hero!) and mrmagnificent. Glad to hear of positive progress and friendly staff!
Crudely Wrott,
I’m so sorry. I hope your daughter manages to leave her husband for good, as soon as possible, and that no harm comes to her or her kids before that.
*hugs* for the family (I am obviously not counting your ex wife here, she can go fuck herself)
rq,
HA! :)
Ooh Crudely missexd you on the refresh – *lotsofhug* and I wish for the best for your daughter and a speedy-as-possible exit from the relationship. As for your ex, may she go straight to her hell, which doesn’t exist, which is really too bad… Christians.
*ahem* That would be missed.
*hugs* received and will be passed on to daughter and grandsons very soon. =)
rq, I grinned and lolled at your “perfectly good egg” toon. Thanks!
My spine is insisting on being horizontal. I’d better lay it down now or it will insist more insistently.
I’ll be back tomorrow. G’night all.
Crudely Wrott:
I know I’m not saying anything different than what you’ve said or thought but…
How the hell can a mother send her daughter and grandkids back into an abusive situation!!?? With no escape route (transportation)? Because of an imaginary evil spirit??!!
But I suppose that’s why they call it irrationality, right?
Sincerely hoping for the best results in their situation and soon!
Oh, and what Beatrice said!
–
Good morning rq:
The link worked *snortle* fine!
bluentx
Part of the rationale, I think, is… that Bad Things only happen to people who Deserve It. So if daughter is experiencing Bad Things, it must be because she “invited” an “evil spirit” in and Asked For It.
Please note that I do not, in any way, support or believe that reasoning, nor would I accept it as an excuse.
Crudely
Good night and may the morning bring some better news… I suppose your daughter has looked into shelters and such? *moarhugs*
Kitten in a cardboard box
Yes, I can sort of see how it works (if I turn my head just right and squint really hard) but in the end it still comes down to:
??????!!!!!!WHAT FREAKING CENTURY ARE YOU LIVING IN PEOPLE?????!!!!!
DEMONS??? EVIL SPIRITS??? SERIOUSLY???!!!
Crudely, what would be the best help to your daughter and her children right now?
1) I didn’t know Elaine Chao is married to Mitch McConnell? (Yuck!)
2) Economic fact = “racist/ethnic attack”? Huh?
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/mcconnell-wife-elaine-chao-pushes-back-ethnic-attacks-163836126–politics.html
Am I missing something?
I mean, am I missing something besides that they’re worried about a challenge from Ashley Judd- and she hasn’t even formally announced an intention to run.
This could be fun!
The LaRouchities(? LaRouchers? nutters!) will have fun with this, Queen’s official supplied horsemeat to Sodexo: “A business owned by [the master of horse] sold contaminated minced beef to catering firm which provides food for public services”.
Bluddy hell! Where’s all that unconditional love, parental patience, christian charity, concern for a woman in danger, every other cliche/platitude/conventional concept one might have used, maybe even combined, to come up with a more appropriate response to a daughter’s apparent, one and only, failure to live up to some standard or other.
Even if I was angry, I could have shouted or fumed or sulked or been insufferable in some obvious way without kicking her out. I might even threaten to kick her out – no I wouldn’t, but anyway we can go with the thought – if she didn’t lift her game.
But I’d never, ever in a million years send my. child. and. my. grandchildren. into a house containing a dangerous man.
I feel for you. (And for daughter and grandkids.) Hope she works out something safer and better.
Ummm…if you’re on sick leave-for stress- wouldn’t if be a good idea to go on holiday?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/9924601/Shark-wrestler-sacked-because-he-was-on-sick-leave.html
@mildymagnificent:
But see, you’re a rational, logical human being who doesn’t kowtow to an imaginary vindictive deity.
@Crudely:
All I can offer are *hugs*
@blue:
No. Sick leave means at home. In bed. With soup. And pajamas.
Don’t you even think about turning on your TV or computer. You’re sick.
And let’s see if I can make this a triple post!
—
I’m pondering a next series of novels after my current one (I’ve already fleshed this first trilogy out – I know exactly what’s going to happen throughout.)
The next series is going to have a gang of four kind of situation in it – the Brute, the Acrobat, the Fencer, and the Fixer. The Brute’s the one who basically beats the crap out of people, does the heavy lifting, and takes care of things like locked doors by bashing them open. The Acrobat is the one that does the tricky maneuvers, sneaks through small passageways, and does awesome stunts. The Fencer is the one who takes care of the swordsmanship, fighting off multiple targets while being dashing and debonair. The Fixer is the one who makes sure that everything is in place to get the other three out of danger, makes the interesting toys, and basically runs the whole operation.
I had a thought though:
Why can’t the Brute be a woman?
Katherine
Do it! :)
Named Portia, perchance?
Just a suggestion. :)
@rq:
I’m gonna, I think. She’s gotta be either a sem (human-animal hybrids) or a mesan (a desert-dwelling race of pseudo-humanoids with brown skin, gold eyes, and white hair.) I’m thinking the latter cause it’d be more impressive.
@bluentx:
After our Portia or another?
Door kicker name: Portala
Yes, our Portia .
Wasn’t sure if you caught that part of the thread. Guess not. Portia: firefighter, inspire-er of teenage girls…
Dang! I can’t find the appropiate comments at the moment….
Still searching.
Okay, a quick and dirty recap for Katherine Lorraine. I gotta go to bed.
See previous thread: Comments #614, 617, & 620/ #13 this thread for an example of the reasons for my suggestion.
Good night all…
No idea about saturated water. Reciprocating steam engines, at low pressure, use saturated steam but it must be superheated for higher pressure (200psi +) engines. Sorry.
@blue:
Ah, I did miss them.
That is truly awesome Portia – didn’t know you were a firefighter.
Want a kickass butt-kicker and door smasher to be named after you in the next trilogy?
Hello, all.
Happy Friday!
I was sick for the last day-and-a-half but, on the plus side, I got a lot out of my system. Literally.
No weird dreams. One 9/11 nightmare (although the 9/11 shit is so predictable, so normal, so non-scary that is scares me while I am in the dream but, when I wake up, see where I am, I can just drop a goat on my face, snuggle up to Wife, and be right back to sleep, so I don’t know if I would even classify them as nightmares anymore (compared to the scout dreams, the 9/11 dreams are almost a relief (does that even make sense?))), no scout dreams.
Today is pi day.
Remember to celebrate at 3:59pm for the greatest impact.
And, being pi day, all bible thumping godbots will feel free to use circular reasoning.
Sorry. That should be, er, lemme thing (er 3.14159) okay. 1:59pm for maximum impact. Sorry.
Hi there
I think I managed to move 2 squares forward in the University of Monty Python boardgame. Let’s see if I make another on this afternoon.
Crudely
Wow, I don’t even have word’s for your ex’s behaviour
Can your daughter go to a shelter if things go really bad?
+++
Ahhh, German courts regularly deal with employers who think they are doctors and can therefore decide what sick employees are allowed to do. And socialist commie German courts regularly decide that as long as it doesn’t hinder your recovery, you’re damn well allowed to do it.
Giliell:
Thank you. University of Monty Python made me laugh. Which meant I had to explain the laughter to my fellow cubicle denizen. He liked the moniker, too.
With a bit of style — e.g., bashing open locked doors by nuking them, or using a trebuchet to do the heavy lifting — and some cheese, this could almost be the mildly deranged penguin. On a quiet day. On some other planet at the far side of distant Universe.
More seriously, this “Brute” sounds sortof like Winger in the Garrett series.
I was flashing on Monho (Alex Karas) from Blazing Saddles.
Er. Yeah.
Mongo from Blazing Sadleds.
All hail Tpyos!
Fuck.
Saddles.
I’m kidy hpomh yp hobr i[ smf mpy rbrm ;ppl sy ejsuy zo yu[r smup,r/ zoy vpi;fm
y hry Eptdyr. vpi;fr oy?
Crudely Wrott
I am so sorry to hear this. And I am on thewrong continent to help.
Are there any Pharyngulates in your daughter’s city?
— — — — — —
Meet the new Pope, worse than the old Pope.
Unconfirmed finding from SEER data: If you’re age 15-24 and have acute myeloblastic leukemia you’re almost three times more likely to die if you’re from a low income region than if you’re from a high income region. May I have a “Holy fucking shit what’s wrong with the US?”
Um…with some caution, because it is an unconfirmed result based on small numbers.
Katherine
I really like your ideas and the way you seem to effortlessly create cuaracters outside of the norm yet intriguing, interesring, and identifiable-with. I may have said this before, but I’d read your books gor the characters (of course good story helps too ;) and your ideas in general seem amazing).
(I second naming the Brute Portia: lawyer, fire-fighter and breaker of doors. In pink steel-toe boots with a white fur ruff and large metal studs.)
All Hail Tpyos for Mobile!
Crudely Wrott:
If it would help and you wanted to set up a PayPal account, I could offer a small donation. If enough people do, maybe she could have enough to pay rent for a while.
@rq:
I admittedly take some ideas from other media (Vi from League of Legends sort of fits the female bruiser idea.) I think above everything though, I’m good at funneling my ideas through the lens that is my story world.
I’m pretty good at making stuff happen to the characters, although I do sometimes veer on boring stuff too often (political machinations are extremely intriguing and exciting for me… but I doubt anyone wants to read a four page chapter about a political meeting stressing importance of trade imports with the city of Sedurka.)
Katherine
except as an xercise in political science. ;) They should have a university course for that – Political Science in Science Fiction: An Exercise in Unusual Case Studies.
Crudely has a paypal account, IIRC; didn’t Esteleth organize help last time? I could chip in a little if someone’s willing to set up snail mail with me.
—-
Go go Texas Freedom Network!
http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2013/03/13/progressive-religious-leaders-shift-the-conversation-on-contraception-in-texas/
Press release on the poll report: http://www.tfn.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=7253
Brother Jake explains life after death, mormon style. This video is a good antidote to the claim from True Believing Mormons that, really, they don’t believe and weird stuff. Really.
Sooo it’s today that’s going to be 93 degrees (33.8889 Celsius according to Google).
You’d think after over 31 years (my whole life) in Arizona, I’d be ready for this. But nope. Haha.
‘nother piece of news, which is not good…
http://boingboing.net/2013/03/14/a-health-update-from-arijit.html
Details on Arijit’s blog here: http://stageivhope.wordpress.com/2013/03/12/a-health-update/
Home, sweet home
Since the kids patently misbehaved all the time I saw them today so far (about 4 hrs) they lost their TV privileges. I’m not sure who’ll suffer more…
Ogvorbis
I’m glad I could help ;)
marilove
Just send some 10°C this way. It’s snowing in the middle of March….
Crudely, please accept this *vastness of hugs*. I am always gobsmacked at this kind of gratuitous, vindictive assholishness—especially when it sounds as if the asshole is using Religion to “justify” it, which sounds as if it may be the case here. God is loooooove…and that’s why I’m treating you so callously…it’s for your own good…wake-up call…return to Jaysus’ loooooving embrace….
To send them all right back to the abusive husband/father….
*long and wracking barf*
Am I alone in sensing a certain “well, you made your bed, now you’ll just have to lie in it!” ambience, here? Possibly with a side of smug self-satisfaction?
You, and J, and those boys, have my sympathy.
–
Really big kitten….
–
No reason. At all.
–
Holy fucking shit what’s wrong with the US?
Holy fucking shit what’s wrong with the US?
Holy fucking shit what’s wrong with the US?
‘cept it’s played on with a Möbius strip for a board, with M. C. Escher-like tiled critters for “squares”.
You’ve actually been moved backwards, upside-down, and to the wrong position.
I suppose instead of ‘brute’ I’ll use the term ‘bruiser’ since it has a slightly better connotation and still meanst the same exact thing.
Could also refer to her as “the muscle.”
Katherine
Makes me think of Woetjans from David Drake’s RCN series; it’s an age of sail IN SPACE! , and she’s the bosun. Six feet tall, llks like she was hammered out of granite, and her fists feel like the implements that did the hammering.
Dianne
Holy fucking shit what is wrong with the U.S.
Crudely
*hugs* you and your daughter have my sympathies.
So apparently, since I was a janitor last, I’m legally required to keep trying to be a janitor or I won’t get unemployment. Not that I’m getting it now, because there’s an unspecified ‘problem’ with my application (which didn’t stop them from sending me a letter saying I was approved, of course. Assholes).
rq
When he showed up at my house with my keys he started looking for the original set, unprompted. Spent 45 minutes nosing around the mess and dust and clothes scattered about, and finally found my keys. But then we both left! And now I’m at my mom’s with one niece. She told me she has been thinking of me in her dreams. Which is appropriate, since I dream about her all the time when I miss her :)
Crudely
That’s a really really shitty thing for your ex to do. It would be even if your daughter wasn’t trying to escape an abusive partner, but for her mother to send her back to that…I can’t even grasp the rationale. Basically she’s saying “It’s better for you to be vulnerable to physical violence than be out of my control for a few hours.”
Christian love, indeed.
Hehehe. I did do better than the guys in the class where we learned how bash open a door : D Just arm the
brutebruiser with a halligan and there won’t be any problems.*reading more*
…
Yes, yes , YES! That would be so cool! (and thanks, you guys make me feel speshul). I am officially tickled pink at the idea and am looking even more forward to reading your stuff than I already was. I really do enjoy kicking ass.
I know three people who have died because of various cancers and had no, or, in one case, wholly inadequate, health insurance. All of them working poor. Extrapolating from that to a regional trend would make sense. If you have no money, your health care sucks. If you live in an area where there is no money, the chances of state-of-the-art care being available also sucks. Sounds like typical free market inequities to me. All hail the free market. All hail the death of those who are seen by the free market as poor profit risks.
Giliell,
It’s been snowing here too, since early this morning.
heh in a story idea I’m working on with foolish ambitions of writing the “brute” is named Daisy
@Portia:
Then, by your blessing, the brute will be a Mesan named Portia.
It’s quite funny to see Dawkins trying to steer clear of the bullshit he wrote yesterday without saying “sorry, I wrote bullshit”.
But the poor man is longing for the good old days when he didn’t have to listen to anybody who wasn’t an upper-class college educated white dude
Giliell,
Was this the offending tweet, or was there something even worse?
Seriously? He finds the position “woman has absolute right over own body” absolutist as in wrong!? Damn.
Ah, I read the earlier tweets. Blah
Twitter might make it possible for anonymous nobodies to reach masses with their stupidity, and think themselves important, but it’s much more dangerous for the “elite”. This elite used to have editors and PR people taking care to minimize bullshit spoken in public, now the elite just goes to Twitter with the peasants and lets it aaaaaaall out.
Katherine:
Excellent! I’m honored. Mesans sound cool-looking, too.
@Portia:
They look like humans, but they’re actually not, they’re one of the three races not actually created by Creation and Destruction – they were created by the planet itself. The other two races are the gnolls who are all now extinct (but their children via the sem are still around) and the ogres, who are basically the nicest guys you’ll ever meet as long as you don’t go messing with their sheep or their gardens.
Mesan also have a natural ability to find the closest source of water (useful in the desert-like land they live in) and also the natural ability to locate their homes of Canyon and Mesa.
oof.
Just got done with a tour. One my tour: one professor of physics who specializes in high pressure steam and hydrodynamics; one engineer specializing in maritime propulsion systems, specifically vibration damping; one materials engineer specializing in metal fatigue in high pressure boilers; one good ol’ boy auto mechanic who spoke fluent illegible, and his wife, a high school science teacher. I was so totally outclassed but was able to interpret what we do, why we do it, how we do it, and didn’t get anything egregiously wrong. The physics professor asked about my schooling — Hagerstown Junior College and Franklin Pierce College, BA in European History. Then he asked about my graduate degrees — none. He was surprised. Made me feel good but, oof, what a tour.
Sounds like you handled yourself admirably, Og :)
Re: The Dawks.
When will he stop?
Giliell & Beatrice, I think what Dawkins is mostly complaining about is that Twitter and other social media sites don’t automatically privilege the ideas that he and his peers hold. He and those like him seem to want to be the gatekeepers of conversation itself, where they get to set the participants, the audience, the accepted range of ideas, the language and style used, all of it. And “all of it” being geared for and driven by whatever works best for upper-class white men.
It is ironic that Dawkins is whining about “minimal standards” as a ticket to the conversation, since he doesn’t meet the minimal standards to discuss fuck-all outside of his specific branch of biology. Being a rich guy with a degree doesn’t make you an expert on anything, it hardly guarantees you’re going to be an expert in your own field for very long. But, in the way of the privileged asshat, Dawkins is so used to being listened to and taken seriously, he is incapable of knowing when he’s way out of his depth.
That’s really fascinating, Katherine. Count me among the impressed with your ability to create characters.
(Note to self, plural of Mesan is not Mesans : ))
@Portia:
Heh, thank you. It’s easy when you spend half your life doing it.
Thanks. I’ve spent almost half my life doing this job and sometimes I forget how good I really am at what I do.
Now, can someone help me? I just dislocated my shoulder while patting myself on the back . . . .
Go Suns!
/baseball dork
Pffft, that wasn’t nearly enough for a shoulder injury. I think you could stand to give yourself far more credit.
Ogvorbis: I agree with Portia.
:)
–
Damn Dawkins. A good example of a “reasonable restriction” on abortion is “don’t perform one on my kitchen table.” >.>
FIFY ;)
I prefer a ruined kitchen to a dead woman in case of emergency although I’m hard put to imagine the emergency when my kitchen table is the last resort (but I do have very sharp knives)
Joe
Yeah, in the days of the internet, everybody can talk right back at Dawkins without ever having a PhD or a penis.
The thing that bothers me about Dawkins and so many of these other “skeptics” is how they don’t really address the substance of criticism as much as they object to having to address criticism AT ALL. Who the fuck do they think they are, anyways? Priests? Because as much as they’ll complain about priests and popes and rabbis and imams and whatever… they certainly seem to desire a similar level of deference and immunity from criticism from the “flock.”
If you have no money, your health care sucks. If you live in an area where there is no money, the chances of state-of-the-art care being available also sucks.
Chances of surviving 5 years after diagnosis with AML (excluding APL) for 18-24 year olds living in poorer parts of the US: 14.4%*. Chances of patients with same age and diagnosis in Germany surviving 5 years: 59.3%.
*Based on small number of cases. Seeking to confirm with larger population.
I have a request for anyone with expertise in biology.
A paper called “The “Wow! signal” of the terrestrial genetic code” was just accepted for publication by the planetary science journal Icarus. It asserts that the RNA codon table was artificially engineered, and bases that conclusion on abuses of prior probabilities. I have emailed the Icarus editors asking why something so outrageous was accepted for publication.
To make sure that I am correct in thinking that the paper is outrageously wrong, and so that I understand the full extent of its wrongness, is anyone willing to take it apart? Thanks in advance!
The text of the paper may be behind a paywall depending on where you are, but the abstract and figures will at least be available here: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103513000791
You can crash on my couch.
+++
I think I’m very sick. I have this rule that says “only fun stuff after 10 pm”. I just spent an hour reading an article and working on my term-paper…
Goodnight
Night Giliell :)
============================================
It’s so quiet in here that I checked to make sure I wasn’t doing that “stuck on page 1” thing again.
I know I’ve not been as active today.
We spent some time playing with the neighbors, the little one and myself. She loved it, and got invited to a party next weekend.
That, and my time was spent online in the Tipping thread. Ex-server rage is a scary thing.
Does anyone have a 9V battery I can borrow? Or an entire set of fancy woodworking tools and a 3D printer, so that I can route out a slot and create a correctly-shaped holder for AA batteries? Just checking…
Ramen! dianne and cicely
–
What was that Portia ? I couldn’t hear you for the crickets…
Portia, maybe you can answer a question I’ve wondered about for a long time.
In law school, how much (if at all) do they talk about the ethics of witness impeachment , of winning by any means, of twisting the testimony. I guess what I mean, is victim-blaming or ‘unfair’ critiques of the witnesses discussed?
I’ve been reading some accounts of the Steubenville rape trial and it just seems (as usual) that a lot of blame the victim and badgering of witnesses is going on.
Just wondered how much time is spent in law school on ethical behavior on the part of the lawyers vs. win the case!
Ah, the old twenty one years of experience versus twenty one-years experience. And graduate school is nothing but a few years of experience. Have a seven day old grog…
The Doc noticed what was probably a side-effect from one of my meds. Turns out that class of meds was what was really keeping my BP under control, but the side effects were typical. The replacement drug isn’t lowering the BP and is causing its own side effects. The side effect appears to be electrolyte dependent from one data point. The next few days are going to be interesting….
Fine… I’ll find my own 9V batteries.
Sorry, IJoe, you seem to have picked a very slow night in The Lounge to ask your question.
So did I :)
(And– no 3-D printer here.)
Crudely Wrott
*hugs and sympathy*
What a horrible, horrible thing to do to anyone, much less your own child and grandchildren. I’m so outraged as to be speechless.
*more hugs*
–
Dalillama
Hurr… whaaa?
There’s a penalty for applying for higher level jobs? Seriously?
Like that it’s a request for government money? (/snark)
*hugs*
–
Feeling better, my mind is clearer, but damn I need a lot more sleep than usual. The body is not 100% yet, that’s for sure. It seems to be getting there though, slowly but surely getting there…
Incoming, iJoe! Watch out, they might leave your ports at a high velocity : )
bluentx
Interesting question. In my experience (and I took every trial-related class there was) the ethics emphasis was on the rules of conduct and what happens if you break them. (i.e. your ass gets served up on a platter). As far as impeachment, we were mostly just taught the mechanics of it and the ways to use it advantageously in a proceeding. There was never really any discussion that I can remember of ways that it could be used skeezily or anything like that. I always got the impression that it was to be used against a lying witness, to show they weren’t credible. You have to keep in mind that a lot of law students are still starry-eyed about their role in the judicial system. I don’t think many of us ever pictured representing someone we would need to distort the truth for.
All that said, I have since seen cross-examination used in horrible, unethical, terrible ways in rape trials. The worst one, though, was done by a man universally regarded in our legal community as a total and utter slimy hack. In retrospect, it might have gone without saying that we weren’t supposed to examine a witness that way, because we were lectured not to practice law that way. There were lots of lectures about civility in the profession and basically observing the Golden Rule. This includes not trying to get things over on other lawyers.
On the third hand, most of the trial stuff was about how it would play to a jury* within the rules of evidence. So, if you could get away with it…
The other factor to keep in mind is that the judge is in control of what is admissible, evidence-wise and behavior-wise. Lastly, criminal judges can be wary of reining in defense attorneys too much because of all the constitutional protections. They err on the side of allowing the defense attorney to ask a possibly improper question because they don’t want to err on the side of denying a fair trial. It sucks, but it’s one of the limitations of the system.
This whole discussion plays nicely into what I just saw on facebook but refrained from responding to. Actually, getting all intellectual about it has really helped me stop being unpleasantly ragey over it. The friend-of-a-friend commented on friend’s post and said that the “Damn Fool Rule” applies, and that “you don’t leave a wallet full of cash out in the open” …I almost answered “The only person responsible for rape is the rapist.” but decided it wasn’t worth the emotional energy it would expend. I know from experience that I’m very unlikely to get any backup from that group of friends
*Honest to FSM, one example of this was often citing My Cousin Vinny, specifically when he impeaches the old woman not by being aggressive but by gently asking her how many fingers he’s holding up.
For some reason, my view of comments is spotty and I keep missing stuff. So here’s a pile of hugs in case I missed anyone in need.
====================================
Sorry for the stream of consciousness answer to your question, bluentx, hope it makes some sense!
No apologies necessary Portia . That helped explain a lot. Thanks.
Actually cited My Cousin Vinny– too funny!
Hi Lounge! I got lost again, did I miss anything fun? Or terrible that I should know about?
I guess I’m going to lose an eye by 9V via USB port… *grins*
There was going to be a long ramble about mission creep in there, but the point is that I want to do ALL THE THINGS, and I’m limited by skill, physical ability, and cash. I’ve learned to get over the first two, but the last is still frustrating. Oh well, privileged problems, nobody cry for poor Joe. :)
Oddly, I realized tonight that I’m actually Sherlock Holmes. Go figure, right?
Ah, some potassium via OJ made a huge difference. That’s what I get for some fish fires during lent….
My glasses came in today.
I HAZ A EYESIGHT!
(Clicky for picture.)
Gack, time for bed, fish fries, not fish fires….
WMDKitty,
Two things:
1) Snazzy frames!
2) Is your room actually pumpkin-colored? Because if so, YEAH!!
David Marjanović, cicely, Portia – *pouncehug*
Crudely Wrott – That’s horrible! I’m so sorry. *hugs and lots of chocolate* – for you, your daughter, and your grandsons.
Jadehawk – Excellent article!
Hi Deborah – Welcome back.
No, iJoe, I just have craptastic lighting
I’ll try for a picture in daylight tomorrow.
WMDKitty
… awww…
So you’re saying it was just me. Because I once painted a room in pumpkin with copper trim: like so! Bad lighting too, but it was actually that very actual color…
… what the fuck was I thinking?!?!
hi
threadrupt
pharyngularupt
hugs
rum
g’night
Hi and bye chigau!
IJoe
Orange is a perfectly good colour. For pumpkins, oranges and certain kinds of crudtaceans (i.e. cooled lobster). ;)
My previous kitchen was orange, a rather bright one, too. I find it an overwhelming colour when too intense, but at least it never felt cold. (The shade of green in the new one is too much in a whole different way – cool colour in coldest room of house? Yeah…)
Umm, cooked lobster. Right up there with fish fires(never too many!!!!).
IJoe, I like the wall color! (I want to do our living room in something similar; wife isn’t convinced). Not quite sure about the trim.
I’m gonna steal Jafafa Hots line of reasoning- and also share it with The Lounge:
:)
Thanks to the folks who like the room color… that was like 4 houses ago. *cries just a little*
In the plus column, my wife found us this house to rent, and the main area of the house is painted like this. It is a much more subtle version of the pumpkin color, and it was already painted that way when we moved in.
Also, if you look to the left of the TV, you can see Lily, Formerly Office Kitty, in her bed. She now sleeps all over the house, although she spends a lot of her awake time very close to me. I’m apparently very very lovey-cuddly to cats, even though I’ve always been a dog person.
Our living room and dining room (open plan) are orange-red. I love it. It’s not a pale-ish terra cotta – it’s definite red and orange blend; depending on the light, it goes from pure warm red to pure dark orange. It’s awesome. Adjacent walls are a soft yellow, and the trim is all white. Accessories (like furniture and tablecloths) tend to be greens and tans.
SillyJoe, don’t you realize the cats are just getting close to give you the evil eye. Dogs! Pffft!
bluentx,
Evil eye NOTHING! They get close so they can rub up on me and purr like chainsaws, and sleep real close to me, and have my attention rather than not. I wish there were more evil involved, I could wrap my brain around that!
So, they’re even more clever than I thought!
Hi IJoe,
You might like my folks new paint job. Bagel (dark beige) and the accent wall is Copper Mountain (a beautiful orangey brown).
It’s warm. Calming.
Good morning
WMDKitty
Do I detect some sparkle there?
+++
A) myself. Quite often car accidents don’t happen because I’m a good driver and I take other people being idiots into account.
B) the other driver since they paid attention when I made a mistake.
C) engineers who invented the nice things that just prevented the accidens
D) I curse heavily at whatever idiot just didn’t pay attention.
carlie, Your rooms sound beautiful.
–
IJoe, I like the colors in your pictures.
Is that Office Kitty in the basket? Too cute!
–
bluentx, Love the Glenn Close line!
How do you keep your cool talking to people like that?
–
WMD Kitty, Yay! for new specs!
–
Nerd of Redhead, I am sorry your medicines are not working well. I hope you and your Doctor work it out soon.
–
Ogvorbis, Just pat the other side of your back and you’ll even out. : )
–
Unknown Eric, I like your nym. *thumbsup*
–
Giliell, You are just plain alright!
Crudely Wrott,
I am so sorry for the way your ex is treating your daughter and your grandsons.
It is so awful. I just don’t understand.
Giliell
Yeah, my glasses haz shinies. More importantly, they offer more than enough room for the bifocal prescription, so I don’t have to squint to read.
I generally don’t keep my cool.* Last SO was a Christian (that’s the last time I do that). Whenever we got onto the subject of religion it was generally a short conversation. Either he would just stop talking about it (silent treatment) or give me the “Well, that’s just what I believe. I’m unwilling to even think abut questioning it!” brush off. Always great to be limited by taboo topics in a relationship…
Once we talked about a truck accident he had had.
“And I came out of it without a scratch. We rolled over six times! I felt the Lord was with me that day! You wouldn’t call that a coincidence!” he trumphantly declared.
“Ummm…actually I would call it a coincidence. What about your passenger? His shoulder was broken. Was he not worthy enough for the Lord to look out for?”
He didn’t have an answer for that and that was the end of that miracle testimony. He walked away.
*sigh*
–
*Want to make it clear- I borrowed that Glenn Close story from Jafafa Hots over on the Goo…thread.
Holy shit, you guys.
I have my browser set to normal magnification (instead of cranked waydafuckup), My head is a good two feet from the screen…
and I can actually. read. the text.
*happy dance*
The Happy Dance is as follows:
step, step, step, twirl
step, step, step, twirl
tail swish left
tail swish right
twirl
repeat
I was going to make a joke about you being blurry from here WMDKitty but then thought about that skeevy webcam hacker story. Yech!
So, I’ll just say–
Congrats on the new specs. Nice to be able to see ain’t it?
*shudder*
Yeah… that was sick and wrong on so many levels, I don’t even know where to start.
Shit, I need a new backpack.
The dead banana just doesn’t wash out, not with lots of scrubbing, different cleaners and the washing machine…
Holy shit, he just doesn’t know when to shut up. Latest Dawkins:
link
Science experiments in your backpack Giliell?
*tsk tsk*
Oh, wait… did I bring all the groceries in from the car after that trip to HEB the other day? Hummmm…
A respones to above tweet:
And who gave YOU or LEGISLATORS the right to tell me when and how many babies I must have?
Or how many pregnancies I have to complete- to YOUR satisfaction?
GAAAAH!!!
carlie
Because we all know that bitches ain’t shit and if you go on he’ll pull a “dear Chilena”
bluentx
Not really. More like completely forgetting about the wretched thing when the semester ended…
+++
Dum-dum-di-dumm
Guess who got a place for a practical in the next semester and who has one more certificate I didn’t know I needed?
USians note this great news in these great economic times:
http://news.yahoo.com/irs-tax-glitch-affects-660k-returns-210910912–finance.html
At Monty Python U?
Uh, John Cleese?
Michael Palin?
Brian?
@WMDKitty:
Those glasses are hot! If I had to wear glasses… I’d probably not get ones like that cause I have a more angular face and frames like those don’t look good on my face *shrug*
(On a side note, I probably should be wearing glasses since my left eye is about 20/40. My right is 20/10 tho… Maybe I should get a monocle… or glasses like Bayonetta – those are hot glasses.)
Thank you, Katherine!
*googles “Bayonetta”*
Yeup, those are some hot glasses.
Slightly amusing:
http://news.yahoo.com/italian-bishops-thank-god-wrong-pope-122444174.html
Could be interesting:
http://news.yahoo.com/reuters-journalist-charged-hacking-conspiracy-221313651.html
An international incident between India and Italy? :
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/terrorism-security/2013/0314/India-bars-Italian-envoy-from-leaving-escalating-tensions-over-marines-shooting-incident?nav=topic-tag_topic_page-storyList
Oh, crap:
http://news.yahoo.com/texas-execute-man-being-black-175524694.html
From this article comes this gem/ :
Lynna @ 165:
Brother Jake Explains– Looking forward to Part 2!
Just got the chance to watch it all!
Two *snorfles* up!
Looking for Black Death DNA.
(OT) Scientists test skeletons for Black Death bacteria http://phys.org/news/2013-03-scientists-skeletons-black-death-bacteria.html
Possible trigger warning on this threadrupt rambling for eating disorders and self-harm:
So…I had a couple of traumatic years, followed by crippling depression. Those years were so cartoonishly bad, I feel stupid telling people about them (raped and almost killed, raped again in my own bed, serious illness, house burning down while I was bedridden with serious illness, almost dying from smoke inhalation, sister ripping me off for the insurance money, homelessness, friends abandoning me because my partner began transitioning…). Since I’m not a character in a soap opera, I just don’t expect people to believe me.
But the result of that lengthy depression was that I spent so much time laying in bed and feeling hopeless that I went from a very athletic person to lacking the core strength to sit upright without any support for five straight minutes. And thinking about just how much damage I was doing to my body only made it worse. So I’d “punish” myself for this by starving. I lacked the strength to abuse myself through exercise, so I could hurt myself this way. I even started to take this sort of sadistic pleasure in my stomach hurting and feeling lightheaded, as something I was able to inflict upon this stupid, hateful body.
I’m still prone to periods of depression where I’m virtually incapable of functioning (I haven’t finished a manuscript in over two months, which is…really bad, compared to the level of output I need to make ends meet), but facing exactly how I’ve been hurting myself has helped a bit. This last week I’ve begun working out, which is closer to physical therapy after how I’ve weakened my body. I can’t do anything too strenuous, because then I’ll just hurt myself and go right back to being bedridden. But at the same time, it is so frustrating to only be able to peddle on the exercise bike for a few minutes at a time, or manage five squats before I have to worry my legs will cramp up to the point that I can’t do anything, or use two pound weights on my arms and still hurt afterwards.
And the whole time, I know, I did this to myself. And I can’t blame myself, because that only makes it worse. I have to accept it and take care of me, so I don’t find myself slipping back into the same self-abusive patterns again.
There is nothing impressive in riding a stationary bike for fifteen minutes, except to me. I just wish somebody around me would understand the progress I’ve made in functioning, instead of “encouraging” me by talking about athletic feats I should be able to do that I know I can’t. No, I’m not going to “run a marathon any day now.” Please don’t use hyperbole when picking up a ten pound weight felt like a herculean effort.
Made tea.
Promptly upended it on my desk.
Yeah, today is off to a great start.
Also, my work email got hacked, so I changed the password.
And now I can’t remember the new password. I know how many characters it has (because I updated the password on my mobile), but that doesn’t exactly narrow it down.
*facepalm*
*hugs* to Mellow Monkey
*thumbsup* to WMDKitty for the cool specs!
Esteleth: That’s my big problem with changing it…I should write it down or something
Related: someone pointed out that this webcam hacking thing means that they can hack any part of your computer. Including speakers, mic, and most troubling to me, client files. : p
Yikes.
A band-aid over the camera might not be enough. Guess I’ll stop being lazy about updating my malware.
iJoe and carlie:
I love the warm colors! I have always loved reds, oranges, and yellows on walls but as has been mentioned, they’re not universally loved. I painted a six-foot tall giant sun on my yellow walls when I was sixteen and my mom let me paint my room however I wanted :)
===========
I am at the library by my mom’s house doing a little work while Mom and Niece are downstairs for story time and craft time. My little homeschooler almost-3 year old niece demonstrated her lack of exposure to group activities during the song portion. She took the singing and playing by the librarian as the signal that it was time for the rest of the children to watch her dance performance. I enjoyed it, but before Mom or I could waylay the little one another woman hissed at me, “Your daughter is in the way.” Ah, well.
So I went down to IT and persuaded them to unlock my account (it locked after so many times of bad password entry).
They told me to fill out a form that would enable my account to be unlocked if I correctly answered some security questions.
In the time it took me to walk back to my desk, fucking Mail – attempting to download my mail – had already entered bad passwords enough times to relock my account.
Fuckital.
ednaz, that’s Lily the FORMERLY Office Kitty. She now actually uses the rest of the house a little bit, for the first time ever.
Had a weird, scary moment Wednesday night over the cats. I couldn’t find Lily! Turns out she was under the bed, but it was 10 minutes of making sure the other cats hadn’t chased her into something that she couldn’t get out of, or Satan forbid her accidentally getting outside! That’s sort of a constant background paranoia thing I have with counting my cats, making sure they’re all safe inside.
There is a nationwide shortage of IV calcium. Calcium? Calcium!? CALCIUM!?? How can we be out of calcium? Yet, somehow, we are and I have a patient whose treatment is being delayed until he can be moved to a hospital that has a little. It will probably be ok-we actually did manage to get to it early-but this is just ridiculous. How can a wealthy country be lacking in basic medical supplies this way?
Esteleth & Portia,
I have a nearly foolproof system for generating unhackable passwords. I use items around the house, or books near my desk, and grab the name of the thing plus any identifying numbers off of it. So for instance, one of my calculators provides me with the password “TexasInstrumentsTI-34#CR20323V225mAh”… the stuff after the # is the battery that goes in it. According to the Internet, it would take a desktop PC approximately 649 quindecillion years to crack that password. I don’t have to memorize it, and it isn’t obvious like a post-it note under the blotter.
dianne: You just don’t have any? Geez. I know manufacturing delays and sudden upswings in demand are usually blamed for things like that, but it’s such a basic thing for that to happen to. That’s awful.
Mellow Monkey
*hugs*
blueintx
That last link is utterly appalling. I seriously don’t have words.
birgerjohansen
I has no idea that they hadn’t got that DNA already.
Esteleth
One of those days. Hope it gets better from here.
 
Good news on the homefront, the mice are gone. There seems to have only been a couple of them in the first place, and the last one managed to trap itself. I’m still going to plug the holes that maintenance left behind our sink with steel wool, though, just in case.
@Mellow Monkey: Going from not being able to hold yourself upright to being able to exercise for 15 minutes on a stationary bike is impressive. Hugs, if you want them and don’t forget to give yourself credit for the incredible job you’ve done in improving your strength.
Dalillama:
Hooray for good mouse-news!
iJoe: That’s a good idea. I’m sure I’d still screw it up, ha.
Mellow Monkey,
*hugs*
For awhile, I used as a password the result of squinting and looking at a Chinese scroll I had in my room as a kid until you “saw” Latin letters and Arabic numbers. It was – predictably – a random string of letters and numbers. Served me well for awhile.
Nowadays, my go-to system is [nonsense phrase] [name of account]. For example, “caffeinated R’yleh squiggles FTB login.” Relatively easy to remember. And a hacker would have trouble due to the number of characters.
You just don’t have any?
None. We’re screwed. Fortunately, there is another hospital in the city that has some so patient is moving there. I’ve pointed out that we’re losing patients and looking bad to the administrators and am hoping that will move things along. What a cynical jerk I’m becoming.
Mmmmm Ramen noodles with peas…
…working at my mom’s house is always great. She makes me lunch.
Nope, I’m not above letting my mom make me lunch.
*waves* at Deborah.
It’s been pretty much the usual mix.
–
WMDKitty: Yay! for eyesight.
:)
–
Hekuni Cat: *pouncehugback*
(It’s like ‘poking’ on Farcebork; ‘poke’ volleys without end! )
(Only, more pleasant.)
:)
–
My mother once painted my bedroom a virulent, bright yellow. I’ve never been sure whether she had an Ulterior Motive—she’s always been big on Ulterior Motives—or whether she just liked the color.
–
Hi, *pouncehug* and bye, chigau.
–
Quick reflexes? Fortunate quirks of timing? The actions of the Laws of Physics (all genuflect!) on the nearly-impacting bodies? Frankly, for me it tends instead to be more a case of cussing the poor judgement (available in various flavors, and with possible chemical or mechanical involvement) of the other driver, or the happenstance of the road conditions, or the co-incidence of vehicular malfunction with proximity to other objects/creatures.
–
Nah; it’s just that they want to steal your body heat, and they need you to scratch/rub that spot they can’t reach.
Forever.
–
:) :)
–
Giliell…why were you transporting a dead bananananana??? Do we want to know? Will the knowledge make us all Accessories After The Fact?
and was the banana already dead when you found it?
–
Because Corelation Equals Causation, that’s why.
</sarcasm>
–
dianne
Thanks for this, and the supportive comments from everyone else here. Walking, washing the dishes, etc, was all possible, but required leaning on things or slouching into discomfort because of how weak my core had become from remaining in bed for so long. I know that letting myself eat normally is also having a great impact on the return of my strength.
It feels good.
I got a poster of the new pope with the newspapers today. I’m going to be generous and offer it to you wonderful people. Who wants it, for just $0.99 + mailing?
*hugs* for Mellow Monkey. I’m sorry you had all of that to go through. May such times never come again.
Depression-induced inertia…I know it well, especially from back in my own very-nearly-suicidal episodes. That circling-the-drain feeling.
*glurg*
Feel perfectly free to hit me up for moral support, any day. And remember that progress, however seemingly-small, is progress, whether others around you recognize it as such, or not.
–
Esteleth: *hugs* and a reminder that at least it’s Friday (except, of course, in the Ogvorbiverse and other places operating on a variant calendar). I hate passwords, even while I have to acknowledge their necessity. Stoopid braaiiinz’ gratuitous data-dumping!
Not being allowed/encouraged to write ’em down doesn’t help, of course.
–
Cynicism suggests that in a scarcity situation, the price of the scarce goods skyrockets. Short answer: profit!
–
Dalillama (initially mistyped as Dailyllama): Hurrah! for the absence of unwanted rodents!
–
*gulps in nauseated disbelief*
*runs away screaming*
–
Save it! You’ll be bound to want a dart board/archery target, sometime in the future when still more Church-related criminal behavior and conservative social policy comes up.
In fact, you may want to get it laminated—for better durability, Come The Day.
–
Oooh, good idea, cicely!
I always wanted to learn to play darts.
Be sure to have a backboard of some sort behind it, especially when you’re learning—unless you want to have a number of small (but possibly deep) holes in your wall/door.
–
cicely,
Considering how uncoordinated I am, practicing at home probably wouldn’t be a good idea unless I covered half the wall. Sadly, not many bars/pubs have dartboards here.
And I don’t advocate learning to shoot archery indoors at all.
–
And carrying the picture of a pope to a bar to use as a target might prove bad for my health anyway. :)
Beatrice, what you do is get quite a lot of cardboard, in big pieces—think refrigerator boxes—and use it to line the end and sides of a hallway (being sure to leave breaks if you are upholstering a door), hang your target on the end wall, and let ’em fly.
–
Thanks for the advice, cicely. I’ll probably leave this idea in the back of my mind for when I’m out in an apartment of my own. Shooting darts at the pope might get a pass, but my mother will not tolerate pieces of cardboard on the walls. :)
>Antivaxxers Using Billboards to Promote Their Dangerous Message
Seems antivaxxers have paid to put up misleading billboards in four states: Arizona, Illinois, Texas, and Oregon. Clear Channel owns the billboards, which are now decorated with, among other elements, the website URL NVIC.org.
NVIC stands for National Vaccination Information Center, which, in the Orwellian tradition of misinformation, provides this off-the-wall summary:
I wonder if the CDC could point to the website and the billboards as being harmful to the health of U.S. citizens.
Beatrice, if you’re really ambitious, you can throw together frameworks to attach your cardboard sheets to, and have movable panels, suitable for deployment or storage as the circumstances dictate.
:)
–
Yeah, I’m not that ambitious.
—
I haven’t seen Caine around in a while, so if anyone chats with her outside Pharyngula say hi for me.
Beatrice, I passed on your ‘hi’ to Caine on Rattitude.
–
Oh, um, I should have remembered the possibility of posting on Rattitude myself. *facepalm*
Thanks!
Cliff Pervocracy gets it amazingly right once again:
This seems like an explanation that might just work on the thick skulls of my male cousins. (I had a debate with them about whether it was inappropriate for that judge to talk about my “lovely face.” It ended when I said, “You’d say it was weird if the male judge said it to a male attorney.)
@Lynna @284:
I hope they do. Anti-vaxxers advocate killing people, and need to be held accountable for that.
Hello!!! Lurker-Newb here. I just came out of Lurkdom over on the Donkey Kong thread and thought I’d wander my way over here to the lounge. You can call me MJ or Mayo if the name’s too long.
This business with the Anti-Vaxers getting billboards… it sounds pretty messed up. I mean, I know we have freedom of speech and all that but there has to be something regarding the illegality of delibaratly encouraging people to do dangerous stuff… would we allow a billboard that said “You don’t really need a seatbelt!!!”
8^/
Hi, Mayonnaise Jane!
And fuck the anti-vaxxers.
Wish I had more to add on that, but really, that pretty much sums up my feelings on those ignorant assholes.
Hi Mayoz
…
..
.
Obligatory rant about virulently racist uncle. Seems like every white person I know ha one. Btw I’m a racist for telling him hess a racist.
Rq is right, posting w a mobile device is hard.
Portia
I’ve never understood how that works. And I usually get the whole “I’m telling it like it is” response form racist family members.
At least, I got. I’m not allowed to talk about social issues as much during family gatherings.
Odd… the biggest racist in my family is on my Hispanic side, and not any of that “reverse racist” crap that isn’t really racisim. He likes white people… it’s Asians and African American’s he can’t stand.
8^/
Then again, on the White side of my family, I used to have an older relative who was completely convinced that internet trolls were all in fact angry foreigners, on the logic that their spelling and grammar were atrocious. I never could convince him that it was bored teenagers in Hoboken that can’t be fussed to spell or punctuate.
8^P
ARGH…trigger warning for bigoted bs. and me whining
My MIL just left. She told my daughter that in the good old days, “Gays were in the closet where they belonged.” Dd’s jaw dropped. I said as calmly as possible, “No, they don’t belong there” and changed the subject before Jesus arose and the conversation ended in MIL crying, again. (It breaks her heart that we’re all going to hell.) She still got flustered and left. My head hurts.
I want to drink all the beers. ALL THE BEERS!
But instead, I’m going to finish prepping dinner and daydream about the day I can get my family hell and gone from the Bible Belt. There is honestly not one thing here I’d miss.
Glodson, me too. My grandpap thinks i’m just brainwashed by the liberal media into thinking that Oprah’s out to get us and Obama is a secret Muslim.
He’d still never vote Republican though. He’s a union man and an ex-farmer. You don;t even want to know some of the stuff that comes out of his mouth. But, he’s just telling it like it is. He’s got a black friend….somewhere. He wouldn’t invite him to the house or anything, so I just have to take dear old Grandpap’s word for it.
Seriously…..all the beers.
Oops “Isn’t a secret Muslim”
the biggest racist in my family is on my Hispanic side,
The biggest racist in my family was on the Hispanic side too. She was racist against…Hispanics. It’s complicated.
Also known as “advertising” and “hiring,” for the most part. >.>
I’m having a beer.
Successful day going into town via train with two younger children and assorted bags. The fucking travelling circus, is what we are, complete with sideshow, clowns and acrobats. The kids alternate between the menagerie and high-flying trapeze artists. Moo? I am the reluctant lion tamer. Still, it was a success.
Went to Sleeping Beauty ballet with Husband (sponsored by his work; Eddie Izzard on Tuesday, right Beatrice ;)?). Two leading role debuts tonight. The girl was good, loved her lines and style but she was mssing that final something, just short on the extensions to be fully emotive. The Prince, on the other hand, was brilliant. Very clean, very smooth, light and strong, excellent presentation and stance and conviction. And a delicious bum in formfitting tights. *swoon* /objectification
Hopefully computer issues solved tomorrow, holding thumbs!
*assorted hugs* for those with success stories, solved problemsand just general goodwill.
*unfuzzy scritches* for WMDKitty!
Hello Mayo!
I have a cousin like that, too.
I also have an uncle (other side of the family) who’s incredibly racist against Blacks. He was quite upset when a census was found showing a Wampanoag ancestor had a Black father. It’s so distant genetically and culturally as to be meaningless to all but the most fervent “one drop” types, but it angers him to this day.
I’m having a fit of jealously.
glodson
i’m willing to share! A bit.
Sharing is nice.
But mostly, I need booze.
Ha! I’m having a classic martini, up, with a twist.
One of these days I have to properly introduce myself, rather than just dropping a bon mot here and there. I will, I promise. But the story is a bit long and a bit pathetic and takes some energy to write and tonight I don’t want to pollute my perfect martini with my tears. That is supposed to be funny. I don’t think it worked.
In the news: Bizarre extinct frog brought back to life
Seeking advice? D is shut up in her room having a severe attack of depression triggered by feelings of jealousy regarding my and L’s relationship (Already this month she’s had her child taken out of her life and her late father’s last surviving brother is on his deathbed from a stroke, plus having a wisdom tooth pulled; it’s been a bad couple weeks for her). She’s angry at herself for being too needy as well as her jealousy, and she keeps making borderline suicidal statments. She’s also talking about no longer looking to us for comfort, because she feels she’s being a burden, and finding a job (not a good plan at this point since she can’t hold one for more than a few months without a breakdown). She’s chatting on FB at least, but I’m seriously worried about her.
*checks iPad on the bar at the Pharyngula Saloon and Spanking Parlor, Patricia, Princess of Pullets, Proprietor* Looks like you haven’t used any of your 10-educat credit yet. Name your swill/grog…
While Tony clucks- rq moos.
Nothing else right now.
The 8 year old in me just had to get that out.
Heeeey!
I’m not caught up but I have the “weekend” “off”!
I shoveled the sidewalks, put in a load of laundry, trying to revive the sourdough and having a drink.
Who needs a *hug*?
Cicely, I put Nutella out today and Dexter did indeed show up for it. He’s become much more visible since Sam died.
ooooh
so many hugs and clenched tentacles
*stacks ’em up*
take what you need.
—-
If I have a near miss in a car accident, I wonder why God is trying to kill me.
I’m not that big a Sinner™!
*waves at Caine*
Hi ya, Blue!
I got my stitches out today! :D
I am now aware that the short spiky things weren’t the ends of the sutures, but my own close-cropped hair.
:(
—
Went to the library to check out Bad Pharma. Couldn’t find it. Librarian said, “Looks like someone swiped it. Give me your name. When it resurfaces, I’ll let you know.”
Also? The elevators in the library are the old-fashioned “pair of grate doors you have to manually open” style. Somewhat creepifying.
So, is there any exciting Thread that I should catch-up on?
—laundry calls—
Don’t know if it will be any help,Esteleth, but saw this and thought of you.
http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/publications/animals.htm
Hubby took the kids to the gym with him. (They have an awesome kids’ area. Seriously, it has Dance Dance Revolution, a Jacob’s Ladder and playhouses shaped like trees.)
I’m having a beer and listening to The Moth.
If I gotta bide my time here, this is how to do it.
Hi all! Special hello to you Mayonnaise Jane!
–
cicely, that was hilarious.
I’m one of those that didn’t know that copiers (since 2002) contain hard drives that retain all copies/faxes.
http://youtu.be/TCKr5WgVVN8
If insurance companies, etc. don’t know it either it’s concerning to think how much private information is floating around out there.
Hello Mayonnaise Jane!
Hello Morgan!
Welcome to The Lounge. : )
I have plenty, so I will gladly share.
*puts beer and wine in fridge, leaves rum and sangria on the counter*
And a freshman US senator from Texas lectures Dianne Feinstein on the constitution… then rolls his eyes at her “emotional response” and insists she respond to his completely ridiculous question… during the committee debate on new gun control legislation, covered by Rachel Maddow. Trigger Warning for school shooting, specifically the Newtown, CT (US)/Sandy Hook shooting – skip to 8:00 for the senate portion.
You can be 79 and a US senator and some dude from Texas is still going to call you hysterical and think he wins with his idiotic “factual” argument – because you’re a woman. *sigh*
Now ednaz is that sangria wine, or sangria the festive cocktail drink?
PSG:
Link doesn’t work.
I can never get my rename links to work.
*pouts*
Was that tonight’s RM show?
Damn. It’s the show from 3/14, the first segment. My first borked link too. Grumbles… Here?
Thanks, PSG that was a powerful and informative seventeen and a half minutes!
Hello folks. Threadrupt, again, still, and for a good time to come.
As it’s quiet here I’ll just drop these for your momentary distraction:
The house as it stands today. The scaffold plague has subsided as you can see, but the thing seems to be developing rudimentary internal organs.The big pipes going up lead to where the roof-top solar hot water heating tubes will be. As a Canadian boy I still find it odd that plumbing here often runs into the attic space and hot water heaters are kept outside for all to see.
As a distraction from her separation anxiety over Mummy having to leave for a meeting I lent The Small Fry my phone and told her to take pictures of the house.
This and this are my favorites. I shouldn’t have been surprised that a five year old’s attentional focus is a little closer to the ground than mine. :)
My pleasure bluentx. She’s got a lot of good stuff, but that was just too perfect to pass up. Thanks for pointing out the borked link too, so I could get the real one up there.
PSG @ 326, The festive cocktail drink. : )
–
FossilFishy, Enjoying the House update. That first picture – ‘aaahhh’, then ‘That sky is amazing!’
So happy for you and Mrs. Fishy and Small Fry. : )
Ah, booze obtained!
Now to drink too much and be woken up by a little girl way to early!
glodson:
Have one (or more) for me. My work week doesn’t end until 4 am Monday :(
–
PSG:
Yes, lots of good stuff from RM. I should get back into the habit of watching her and Amy Goodman more often.
FossilFishy
The Small Fry has a good eye.
Nice pictures.
Are the fires out?
bluentx
A few years ago, I would just be starting the busy part of my work week today. So I know the feeling.
Oooooh! I must have some virtual sangria then, since I can’t have the real thing yet. Stupid surgery… I’m a bit of a sangria lover, do you have a favorite recipe ednaz?
–
bluentx: Well, if you haven’t been watching RM lately (I catch all my shows online, because I work the crazy hours), you might want to check out the show from March 13th. The Ed Show had the exclusive with the guy who filmed the 47% comment by Mitt Romney from the 2012 US presidential election campaign and RM followed with the writer who broke the story talking about the same. It was pretty fascinating stuff.
glodson @ 333 Sounds like a good deal to me. : )
–
*makes note to have a pitcher ready for Blue at 4 a.m. Monday*
check!
ednaz
It sounds like a great deal to me, until the morning.
But I’ll burn that bridge when I get there.
Howdy do, Mayonnaise Jane! Welcome in!
Now, the most important questions:
1) To pea, or not to pea?
2) Horses—humble, harmless, hay burning quadrupeds, or Fiends from Hell?
(You may want to adopt a defensive position, at this point. Just a bit of friendly advice….)
–
*many beers* for Jackie.
–
Dalillama, I wish I knew how to help.
:(
*hugs*
With all the immediately-preceding shit going on, I would say that D is not being “too needy”—but how to convince someone in deep depression of this? I don’t know. As for her sense of being a burden, maybe point out that friends give each other support, and that while this may be her time to receive it, the time is bound to come when someone else will need her support; that it’s a mutual thing.
–
Caine, maybe Sam had Dexter intimidated? Cats aren’t rats (or bats!), but my Midnight-cat spent a lot of time in hiding after D’Artagnan started bullying him. When D’Artagnan was gone, Midnight came back out.
Or maybe it was just the Magic of Nutella?
:)
–
PSG
;)
Flattery; you’re Doing It Right.
Hmmm….
*pops out to alter ‘nym*
–
PSG, Should we try a Brazilian?
–
Brazilian Sangria
Ingredients
• Orange slices
• Strawberry slices
• Lime slices
• Kiwi slices
• Passion fruit slices
• ¼ oz. Absinthe (We used Lucid)
• 1 ¼ oz. Cachaca
• ½ oz. Spanish brandy
• ½ oz. Orange liquor
• 1 oz. Red Wine
Preparation
In a cocktail shaker, muddle the fruits thoroughly with absinthe, cachaca, brandy and orange liquor. Pour drink in wine glass. Float red wine on top of cocktail. Stir and enjoy.
cicely
Is it bad that one of my favourite beers has a(picture of) a Horse on the bottle? :/
No Peas anywhere. In sight.
…
I think.
Dalillama
*hugs* for you and extra for D. :( I’m really not sure how else to help.
rq
Endorsed by Horses? What do you think I think?
The peas are probably inside the Horses.
–
Cicely:
Sam had everyone intimidated. Dexter may have been a particular target, though.
Okay, first thought was “A Brazilian”… those are either painful… or just a hilarious pain in the ass (I have this friend…) I do have to insist that nothing with that much fruit could be anything but amazingly yummy, and anything with Lucid Absinthe is definitely on the top of my “go-to” list! You are an excellent mixologist dear ednaz, thank you so much for the lovely, classy beverage!
–
cicely (Susceptible to Flattery )
As my friends and I used to say, “Try hard. Succeed often.” ;)
So glad you enjoyed, PSG. I did, too. And the very fine company as well.
Oh hi, Caine!
Missed you!
Good morning,
distribute *hugs* as needed
Hello, Mayonnaise Jane!
rq,
We’re on for Izzard on
TuesdaySunday, of course! ;)I would like to recommend(I may have done so before, if yes then my apologies) a book called Destiny Disrupted, I found it extremely helpful in better understanding the history of Islam.
Otherwise, ‘rupt and cooking a Thai red Curry for dinner…
I am always happy to see that I’ve made the right choice. Tonight, I figured I could try to engage someone mouthing off in the wrong thread while getting drunk, or I could fuck off and play video games while getting drunk.
I chose the latter, and reading up on the thread, I feel this was the right course of action.
Thanks folks.
The big fire is now deemed controlled, meaning they think it’s very unlikely to spread beyond its current boundaries. We were warned a couple of days ago to remain vigilant because the usual autumn rains haven’t started yet and all it’ll take is a thunder storm to kick off new fires. That said, things are looking a lot better and the weather is finally cooling.
HI!
So, today we’Re going to visit friends with a baby and the girls are EXITED!
They’re talking all the time about what they’re giving him, how they want to snuggle him, what of their stuff he can have…
cicely
The bananana was alive and well when I put it into the backpack. I think it lived a long and happy life to the more than ripe age of 3 weeks. The decomposing was what was messy…
Waves at Caine, Fossil Fishy and all of you
big hug to those who need them.
Humanity (in the USA) is doomed!
Citation needed you say:
http://youtu.be/1NVw7xnIMY4
Um…I may need to borrow a couch (somewhere else in the world) VERY soon.
Awww…Ma!
Do I gotta gotta take a nap?
All the cool kids are just about to come out to play!
*scuffs toe of shoe in the dirt*
Some days I think the kids are trying to get themselves put up for adoption…
Also, (quite popular) German politician and priest Wolfgang Thierse said, when confronted with the new pope’s homophobia that “you cannot judge somebody by their views on homosexuals”.
Or on women, I guess…
Good Morning, All! Just wanted to check in so that my recent return would not be a fly by.
But it’s going to be just like a fly by because work! And spring break road trip with ma boys. And all the other stuff.
Last night I had to bail after more than 36 straight hours awake (not Pharyngula’s fault, lol, just trying to get some work done and failing spectacularly) – but I just wanted to say thanks for the chuckles to everyone who managed to wring a few out of the We should be shamed thread last night. Salty Current, your last post there rocks. So many people posted such great stuff on that thread. Thanks to all for (again!) restoring my faith (heh) in humanity!
Back to work! Have a great day, everyone!
I love everybody.
That is all.
Oh no you militant cage-fighting feind! You won’t fool anyone here with this peacenik spiel….
and that’s a GOOD thing!
You just watch yourself there, chigau. :p
socially-constructed gender roles ftw
It’s a heartache!
Nite…
I love everybody even more. Looks like my data will be saved, even the important stuff. In other words, impromptu vacation is over.
FossilFishy
I am extremely glad to hear things have been xontained. And I meant to say eqrlier, Small Fry has a good eye for framing!
Speaking of genius kids up for adoption, mine managed to leave me and Husband with a food impression at the house-building expo, so we just might keep them.
Also Baby Boy Genius Wonder has learned to pick his own nose at the ripe old of 9 monyhs (gets right up there) and Middle Child created a beautoful Lego sculpfure called running for home that I will share once files have transferred.
All Hail Tpyos for Mobile!
Total Eclipse of the Heart
Err, yeah, nite…:-)
Good, dammit, good impression!! I will not eat my children, they’re far too old. Stringy, no doubt.
Actually, this one is to torture Gilliel.
In this, Bonnie Tyler for some reason gets to sing with German comedian Hape Kerkeling:
Link
God I’m glad I dont have to watch German TV anymore.
Bonnie is still hot.
Hot, and Lost in France
That woman is 62 now. Got to live harder I think.
Republicans at CPAC seem to be on a meme bandwagon, the one where they identify Obama as godless. Obama is an atheist according to Republicans.
Santorum accused the president of wanting to “close the deal” on a transformation of America 100 years in the making. He said Obama “wants to replace the ‘why’ of American Revolution for ‘why’ of French revolution — a society that is Godless without faith,” that is “anti-clerical, anti-God, where the government is the center, and they are the ones who care for us. This is President Obama’s New Deal.”
Maddow Blog link.
When 1958 was beamed into 2012:
THE EDSELS LIVE – RAMA LAMA DING DONG 2012
And when 1961 was retrofitted into 2013:
DICK BRAVE & THE BACKBEATS® – Take Good Care Of My Baby
Yeah ok Im going now….(Bobby Vee is still doing concerts, would you believe)
Kentucky legislators have passed what they are calling a “Religious Liberty” law. You already suspect, (I know you do), that this bill is intended to protect the freedom of fundamentalist christians to discriminate against LGBT people, against contraception, against single mothers, etc. You are right.
https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/false-freedom-ky-governor-should-veto-reckless-religious-liberty-law
rorschach @366
I read an article in The New Yorker recently about a surgeon that repairs damage to vocal cords. The details about the kinds of damage that singers do their vocal cords was fascinating, especially the biology behind the kind of raspy voice that Bonnie Tyler exhibits so well. The article focuses on the surgeon who repaired Adele’s vocal cords, Dr. Steven Zeitels. I think he also worked on Mick Jagger and other famous singers.
Still, knowing that it is damaged, I love Bonnie Tyler’s singing style and voice.
The first couple of pages or so of The New Yorker article are here:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/03/04/130304fa_fact_colapinto
You have to sign in as a subscriber to read the whole thing.
Bonnie Tyler is going to represent the UK at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. She will probably score Nil Point, since the UK always seems to score Nil Point.
Bonnie Tyler is going raucously into that good night.
On another subject: Rachel Maddow made an appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher last night.
Video of episode can be viewed here:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/15/rachel-maddow-and-bill-maher-proposed-ryan-budget-is-laughable/
A nicely detailed article about describing how the South still lies about the Civil War.
Lies have to be nurtured, lobbied for, and preserved. Children have to grow up in a cocoon.
From Matt Taibbi, writing for Rolling Stone, :
Link.
Good morning, barely.
‘rupted for a note about tonight. This is the “invaders are eating our provisions in Casa Improbable” evening. So I’m cleaning the house, my wife is out buying said provisions, joy of joys.
Improbable Joe
What?
No!
Man the bastions! Secure the gate! Sound the trumpets, down the portcullis! Flood the moat and let the crocodiles loose!
Oil is for defense, none of this cooking and frying I hear so much about!
I’ll have a beer for you, and I hope the evening turns out better than you’re currently feeling. *hug*
(Well, really, you could just not let them in and eat everything yourself… At the expense of Mariral Blisz, though, I suppose. :/)
rq,
But if he makes Boss Nurse’s favorite dish, she might be swayed?
Sorry, Joe, just joking. I hope your evening goes well and that your wife decides to help you out by washing the dishes afterwards (washing the dishes is the worst).
Whew! Caught up (but having not refreshed in 20 minutes, I am bound to be out of step).
1. Portia as a brute? I really don’t want to battle her at Checkers or Connect Four then.
2. I love the name PORTALA.
3. Crudely Wrott, that your ec-wife would send her daughter and grandchildren back to an abusive home-for any reason (let alone ‘you didn’t do what I want’) is beyond fucked up
4. Feministdalek- I agree: fuck Christianity. And I have no great love for the so called ‘moderate christians’ who do not speak up against the extremists.
5. Ramen noodles with peas should not be consumed by horses, let alone people.
6. I am gobsmacked that this den of [largely] non-believers is discussing the election of a new pope.
7. I will take ‘Dawkins is a douchebag’ for $500 Alex. Yes, the bodily autonomy argument is the strongest in the pro-choice arsenal. No, fetal pain does not trump a mothers autonomy. A child of 5 has no right to the use of hir mothers body without permission. Why would a fetus? Why do fetuses get special rights that supercede all other humans?
8. Jadehawk, I hope you have a great time in Costa Rica.
9. rq-it has been months using my cellphone and I still dislike it. All hail TPYOS!
10. Why do you have to thank anyone for surviving a car crash?
11. Portia, I hope you get to see your mother soon.
12. Dalillama, may the stresses on those in your relationship be alleviated soon.
13. Welcome to The Lounge Mayo J!
You two are funny…
It is going to be alright… just sort of a little annoying to have my Saturday hijacked like this.
14. Yes, washing dishes is the worst. I will cook anytime if someone else cleans.
I just ate this. And I relished every bite, knowing how wrong it was.
Tomorrow is St. Patty’s day. The Redhead is expecting corned beef and cabbage. She’s busy copying her recipe adapted for crock pots. A lot of slicing and dicing of vegetables is on my slate.
Hi again Caine and Fossilfishy, Welcome back!
Welcome also to Mayo Jane
Thanks for the support all, things are a bit calmer here this morning. Hopefully this state continues.
Dalillama
*extrahugs*
Improbable Joe
I have a song-and-dance number to go with that. ;) If the Invaders aren’t entertaining enough, I suggest two coursez of action, not necessarily mutually exclusive: 1) explain, exhaistively, the process of refurbishing a guitar amp to look like an original green Jaguar; 2) demo strate really awesom guitar riffs during dinner, insist on setting up as soon as someone mentios stringed instruments (mention them yourself, if no one else does). An extra drink or 6 helps, and if all else fails, repair tothe Lounge! ;)
Good evening
Well, the little guy is very cute. And he smells nice. And I’m very, very glad that I don’t have a baby anymore so I could just hand him to his mum and go home. :)
rorschach
I do remember Kerkeling from back when he was fun. Or from back when I was a kid and thought him to be fun. The only TV running here is KiKa and occasionally one of the ARD/ZDF spinoffs with Scandinavian/British crime stories.
+++
Pfff, I consider rumaging through your stuff and digging up some baby toys to pass them on to be basic human decency. Also, in my experience, boys that age are about as mad about babies as girls: either totally or not at all.
The Republican Circus (officially known as CPAC) has yielded a few gems of shining Crazy, but for the most part it has proven to be just boring and depressing.
The Islamophobia forces have, however, not disappointed.
That’s right, the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated CPAC and therefore the ragged edge of fringe right-wing Republicanism has to bite and tear at the more well-known edge of right-wing Republicanism. It’s an incestuous cat fight. They are eating and fucking-over their own.
They are ankle-biting Grover Norquist in an effort to bring him down. Norquist is married to a Muslim woman, and he did not make a point of inviting Pam Geller to air her poisonous attitudes, so that makes him an enemy.
The ragged edge of the fringe right is taking a rhetorical baseball bat to ex-Bush staffer and CPAC board member Suhail Khan, who is Muslim. Pam Geller said, “Suhail Khan is worse than Anwar al Awaki” [because] “look what’s he’s done to this conference.” She’s referring, I think, to not inviting her and other Islamophobes to speak. Breitbart.com had to make up for this obvious error by holding an “Uninvited” panel. The place was packed, audience overflowing.
Okay, that is just as depressing, if not more so than Romney recycling one of his stump speeches, but at least it is not as boring.
Holy effing toad-spotted, yeasty pribbling dunderheads!
rq
Maybe I should just tell the invaders that Formerly Office Kitty just LOVES to get scritched behind the ears… no, I want them to leave early, not get carted off by ambulance. :)
I wrote a little homage to the Horde near the end of the “we get suggestions” thread. Seriously, for awhile now I’ve been feeling like I’m the worst person in the world, so it really helped to have some defenders. Thanks. :)
A free marketer on the It’s the right thing to do thread.
carlie
I have some spare *hugs* if you would like some!
Improbable Joe
She sounds like a fun cat. ;)
I refently discovered that my ScaredOfEverythingCat is actually a pretty BadAssCat. Caught him standing off (and winning) against one of the local stray cats. I ruined his groove by calling him back to the warm radiators, but he was getting some Serious Respect! :)
I’m out for the night – the bed is calling me. Have fun, Joe, at least a little bit! ;)
I will gladly take one, rq. Usually I have the reserves to deal with my own crap myself, but it’s just been relentless lately. Nothing earth-shattering, just all the usual crap that’s at a 1 to 3 has been dialed up to about 8 and has stayed there awhile.
Serves the piece of shit right. “These monsters eat their wounded!”
carlie, I am sending many *hugs* and hot tea and my ear (if you like)(I am a good listener).
I hope things get better for you very soon.
rq @ 387,
I had no idea the depths of your deviousness!
I Love It!!!
–
That is all.
Carry on.
hee
Good Luck, IJoe! We’re rootin’ for ya! : )
Thanks, ednaz. :)
Thoroughly Threadrupt.
Megahugs to Mellow Monkey.
I smoked a Brazilian today. A nice fat one — 5″ by 62 ring. Excellent taste but the burn ring was really sloppy and the wrapper kept opening. Taste was about 8/10. Construction, though, was about 3/10. It was a house blend cigar so I won’t complain about it. Not too much, anyway.
Be safe. Cooler weather is good — higher humidity slows down the rate of spread.
Ogvorbis, I’m sorry your Brazilian wasn’t so great. : (
–
carlie, I just read your @88 on the ‘We get some suggestions!’ thread.
That was beautiful. *thumbsup*
ednaz:
The cigar was delicious, far better flavour than a bargain stick should have. The burn was annoying but the taste was worth the trouble. I had a Cameroonian stick the other day (same deal — a house blend) that was the same — great taste, mediocre construction.
re my 402:
I really didn’t mean to sound like I was complaining. Obviously, my privilege is showing. Sorry.
Heading for bed.
Ogvorbis
I’m guessing a little duct tape would spoil the flavor?
You didn’t sound like you were complaining, Ogvorbis. Just describing. : )
Glad the flavor was worth it.
Hi Lounge Lizards,
I’ve been light on posting but not on reading the last few days. I’m at my mom’s, making it about a seven day weekend. :)
Carlie, I am gonna head over and read your above-mentioned comment, but I wanted to tell you from way back that I am mildly obsessed with Switched at Birth. Even though I hate it sometimes, I can’t quit. My mom and I started watching it on Netflix then I discovered it on Hulu.
And hugs for you for life frustrations.
FossilFishy:
Thanks for the house pictures! Glad the fires have gone down.
==============
Mom and I are watching The Client tonight. I find myself amazed at how well John Grisham captured every infuriating interaction a woman lawyer is bound to have with a male chauvinist lawyer. “She can’t be a lawyer, she’s too pretty!” I am glad my mom is okay with me shouting obscenities at Tommy Lee Jones. I think this might be the one JG book I never read as a teenager, but then again they all seem the same after a while.
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All the love for Rachel Maddow. She is brilliant and I loved/hated that bit about how you can be a Senator and an expert and you’re still condescended to. Did love Senator Feinstein’s retort, “I am not a sixth grader, thanks.”
It’s all the more ridiculous because his stupid analogy about “What if Congress said the First Amendment protected only some books?” is such bullshit and so easily refuted. Of course, that led the conservaturds to shriek about how she said that having an assault weapon is like having child pornography. Which she did, but only insofar as the two should not be protected by the Bill of Rights.
hee hee Yes, chigau, doesn’t duct tape fix everything?
I have been subjecting myself to the writings of Ayn Rand lately. I am scarcely through We The Living and can already tell this is going to be a painful experience.
Hope everyone else’s weekend is going swimmingly, of course. :)
Portia – since binge watching all of Switched at Birth over the weekend, I noticed this week that I’ve been gesticulating much more broadly while talking. Apparently my annoying habit of easily picking up accents also extends to ASL, with the same characteristic that I do it unconsciously, badly, and with no idea what I’m doing. :D
Hi Portia! Glad you are having a good visit. : )
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Tony! The Queer Shoop (now with clucking lights) @ 383
I will do the dishes anytime if someone else cooks.
Good Grief, carlie, who knows what you might be saying?? : p
Re: Duct tape. I asked my cousin for duct tape while his dad was talking last night . I said it with such a straight face he actually went and got some. :D
Carlie: that’s funny! I pick up accents too, I wonder if I unconsciously gesticulate more after I was SAB. I used to be almost fluent in ASL; it’s the only second language I’ve ever been able to claim.
Dishes vs. cooking: I will cook any day.
Thanks, ednaz :) (And if you want to come clean up, I’ll cook up a storm!)
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I have a pizza craving but I’m going to try to treat it with spanikopita, which is way better anyway.
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Belated afterthought to the racist uncle thing: I said that most white people I know have one in an effort not to speak to demographics I’m not as versed in, rather than to suggest that no one else has the experience. That is, I didn’t want to say “everyone I know” when really I meant white dudes. Anyway, that was my perhaps over-self-conscious line of reasoning.
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And now Mom and I are watching Tootsie, which I’ve never seen. Oh, my….
Last night we shipped the Small Fry off to Nanna’s and went to a show! I know, how strange, how novel, how seemingly impossible in a small rural town of 3000 or so. There’s a new performance space in town that’s a pretty damn good venue, properly raked seating, good sound, great site lines, and someone brought in a show called “Don’t Mention the Wall”.
It was a two handed, music and variety show by a couple of members of the group The Beez. They’re based out of Berlin and they were living there when the wall fell. It was the story of what it was like to have lived in walled West Berlin and what it was like when that wall came down.
It was beautiful.
Yes it was funny, they’re pretty good performers, and yes it was musically interesting, how could it not be with guitar and accordion? But it was damn moving as well.
You see, I’d forgotten what it was like to grow up under the shadow of the Bomb, with the ever present fear of the Cold War suddenly going hot. I was born in 1966 and I was convinced in a way that was beyond conscious thought that I was going to be reduced to radioactive cinders long before I reached the age I am now. My nihilism at that time expressed itself in a lot of black clothing, pointy hair, and a near complete disregard for the future, my future, society’s future, any future at all.
And then the wall fell.
Suddenly I was in a world where possibilities existed. I wish I could explain just how that felt, how bewildering it was to have my world view pulled out from under me. I won’t call it euphoria because part of me didn’t really believe it was happening. But those pictures of ecstatic Berliners, East and West, standing atop the wall, arm in arm, faces alight with a joy beyond my reckoning was a bump that shifted the arc of my personality, my beliefs about myself and humanity, in ways that I couldn’t have foreseen.
Never tell me that things don’t get better.
Sure, in some ways our world is worse now that it was in the past. But not in every way.
Never tell me things can’t get better.
The rubble of the Berlin wall says that they can.
Your middle name is ‘Glutton For Punishment’, too?
I recently finished The Virtues of Selfishness. For such a skinny little paperback, that was jam-packed with … Well, as I told a waitress who asked, “How’s the book?”, “Oh, it’s about 90% crap!”
I’m generally a fast reader. A book that size would usually take me a couple of days (taking notes, mulling it over included) at most.V of S took about 3 months to read! Mostly because I couldn’t stand the bullshit in anything but small doses.
Thanks for taking us to see the show, FossilFishy. : )
O.K., Portia! If I ever get the chance I will show up on your doorstep and proclaim – ‘Feed Me! Entertain Me!’ *
–
–
*No worries. I always ask permission first. : )
thanks for the pick-me-up, FossilFishy. I’m glad you and Mrs. Fishy got out and about!
ednaz: Please do! If it’s in the summer, we can have margaritas on my deck overlooking the Mississippi :) (They call it muddy, and it is, but it’s pretty when you’re not right up close :)
bluentx:
as a small reward for your impressive persistence getting through that crap:
Shala
Better you than me.
Thanks, Portia, that helps!
Don’t know if I can stomach both fiction and (so called) non-fiction from AR. Too much exposure and my eyes might look like that snakes!
I meant to say to Katherine that I also think Portala is a very cool name. I won’t be offended if the bruise has a variation of Portia or even something totally different.
Your welcome ednaz and Portia.
One of the ways I’m a different person now is that I not only have positive things to share, not only that I want to share them, but that it makes me happy to share them.
“You’re”…. sigh.
Dinner is done, was a success, I AM BEAT!!
Also, the house is spotless, except that the dog peed in my music room while we were entertaining guests. Ugh.
A new baby picture? Oh word?
Good job iJoe, glad to hear it went well. One of the things I hate about social obligations is that they never seem to fall when I have the time and resources to feel happy about them. It’s almost always a matter of sucking it up and getting it done for me rather than some kind of fun.
Audley! The DarkInfant’s cuuutz might just gotten this middle-aged curmudgeon to squee in public. Maybe….
Mayonnaise Jane – Welcome to our Lounge.
Audley – Squee. I hope DarkInfant feels better soon. *hugs* to you both.
Hey Fishy, good to see you! I was lucky because I got this particular obligation pushed back a whole week, and I was in a much better place emotionally and physically this week versus last.
Audley! BABBY!!! Aren’t you glad you only joked about eating her now?
Mayonnaise Jane, forgive my manners, and welcome to the Lounge!
Still very larval.
Thanks guys!
Joe: I don’t know… I’ve been feeling a little noshy tonight… :p
Cheese and crackers Audley, or I can email you some pie.
Note to self: tell dinner guests that there is pie BEFORE they eat two helpings of food.
Joe:
More pie for you!
… like I need more pie. Although, “eat more pie” WAS a New Year’s resolution. :)
All Hail Tpyos for Mobile! Indeed. The bearer of great giggles. Thanks, rq!
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Lynna, OM:
Rachel Maddow didn’t interject a whole lot in that segment, but damn she had some great talking points when she did. And was it just me, or did the dude in the middle slouch like a grouch and look so unpleased to be there?
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*big hugs* for Improbable Joe
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QFT
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*moar hugs* for carlie
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Ogvorbis I think I’ll stick to my kind of Brazilian over yours… :)
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Carlie & Portia, you mean I’m not the only one?!?! (though I’ve never seen enough ASL to know if it extends to that)
Audley
She’s looking more human!
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IJoe
Yay for departed guests!
Scrubbed the whole house, we never left the kitchen….
chigau:
I know, right? ;)
PSG
I do the accent thing too.
Note to self: Never tell dinner guests that there’s pie….
Ms. Fishy makes a Blackberry cobbler once in a while. She got the recipe from my mother. Now, I know that this is fulfilling the wife-as-mother trope, but damn, am I glad that she did. It is to other comfort foods as nuclear weapons are to firecrackers.
No way! That’s three people in one day Dalillama – what are the odds of that? I don’t know that I’ve ever heard another person mention it IRL… O.o
Thanks PSG!
Fishy, you sound like a terrible host, and right up my alley!
chigau, I almost wish they would stay a few days. After all the work I did… :)
… what is the “accent thing”? *hits Ctrl-F and types “accent”*
Actually, I think many people do it. I also think most of us here are more aware of how we’re presenting, so we notice it more. I spent three hours with company in my house, and didn’t use a single “dirty word” since the last time we had dinner with our guests one of them said “heck” where it would have been more natural for most people to say “hell.” I do lots of accents*, I change my vocabulary in a lot of ways, my body language is different, I automatically try to fit myself into whatever social setting I’m in.
*I get away with a lot of accents, because I’ve lived all over and I’ve earned them. Except the shitty Pythonesque accents. Someone should really stop me. :)
PSG:
You mean not everyone speaks (or at least thinks) with a British accent for a couple of days after watching a Merchant/Ivory film? Bollocks!
Audley! So good to hear from You!
DarkInfant! SQUEE!!
Sorry for the teething troubles.
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IJoe! You survived! So glad. : )
May I have some pie?
*holds up plate with best sweet look*
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FossilFishy @ 440
You are a lucky FossilFishy! : )
bluentx I laughed out loud. Bloody ‘ell!
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I think you’ve got a good point Improbable Joe. I can’t “do” an accent on purpose really, but I pick them up on accident all the time. I’m a bit of a parrot that way. I was traveling with someone who couldn’t hear accents well at all and it drove her nuts when I would start speaking with the local accent because she was afraid folks would think I was mocking them. Then again, my usual accent is a mish-mash of all sorts of oddities, so it’s a wonder I can be understood at all I suppose…
*waves at ednaz!*
PSG
Four; L does it too. Like you, my natural accent is kind of a mishmash, but I will automatically imitate any accent that people use near me except an American West Coast accent, which I can’t do at all. I can deliberately impersonate a fair number of regional accents, but I can’t at all fake an non-native speaker’s accent. I can speak French with only a trace of an American accent, but I can’t for the life of me speak English with a convincing French accent.
ednaz *Slides over a one-third wedge of apple pie with a huge scoop of completely inappropriate Cherry Garcia ice cream on top*
PSG, I think HEARING might be part of it too. I have weird hearing though, so I can’t say for sure. I’ve had more hearing tests than the average Lounge Lizard, I think. Between working in factories and spending time out on various weapons ranges, I’ve had my hearing tested A LOT. I have an oddly flat EQ curve, because there are certain frequencies that are supposed to fade with age and I’m a little behind the curve on those. I should be
Also, I’d guess that some people are just better listeners, and since the Lounge is filled with awesome people… *grins*
Oh indeedy, don’t I know it ednaz. And more to the point, I make sure that Ms. Fishy knows that I know it, er, if that makes any sense.
And with that, I’m off to teach a bunch of Vietnam vets the ins and outs of proper bicycle fitting. My life, it’s nothing if not diverse. :)
And then there were four… Dalillama. Well shoot, I should have asked about my Korean accent at my last job… talk about a missed opportunity!
I could definitely imitate non-native speakers. I had to pick up their syntax and grammar to communicate when they first arrived, which was confusing as hell since I worked predominately with non-native speakers, but would have times during the day when I would interact with native speakers and have to switch back. It required actual thought to change languages in my head, even though I was speaking english the entire time. Mind. Blown.
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Hearing may well have a good deal to do with it Improbable Joe. My travel companion got out of college language requirements due to an inability to hear accents, which they called a sort of learning disability. That was before the brain surgery that severed the eighth crainial nerve, which controls hearing, and accents have gotten harder since then. I personally have to hear the accent to replicate it, so I know hearing is the crux of my accent ability.
Though I will definitely second the awesome people in the Lounge sentiment, regardless.
*faints with happiness*
: D
Accent thingee? I still have not figured out ctrl-f!
ednaz, don’t hurt yourself. At least aim yourself towards a bed before you fall down. :)
I quote @435 to start the recent chatter Tony!…
Tony,
I’m… glad to see you? I mean, I am. I wish you were in a better place. I wish you weren’t trying to post comments on your phone. We should totally work on that. There’s free/cheap wi-fi all over the place, do you have a reasonable laptop?
Damn, I feel stupid.
You know what we need? We need all of you to send me your money. Not ALL of your money. Just a little bit, maybe $10 each from all of the Lounge regulars, every month. Just so we can keep Tony here, and keep other folks connected. Because it is expensive for Tony to get online and have a phone, but it is cheap to add Tony to someone’s plan. Or it is really cheap to send Tony a good wifi receiver and a password.
In any case, we need to think about some options. Tony represents the best of what this place can be. He should be able to be here any time he wants to be.
Away from work I use Tether for my internet access. It’s a one time fee- $50 last I checked. You can’t be online and use the phone but… You just install it on your phone and on your computer.
I WANT PIE TOO!!! * banging fork against table*
sorry, woke up a bit cranky. No, that’s a lie. I just lurve pie. When I make it myself, I swear I could eat it all mtself. That, and crisps and cobblers. Anything that’s fruit+sugaryspicycrust.
That, and cheesecake. But we’ve been here before.
FossilFishy
Thank you for the review of the show. You know what else? I still remember your long post right when I started posting, the one about new glasses and stars, mostly because every nigt when I step outside, I see far more stars than I rver did in the big city. Amazing every time. (See? Write a book of vignettes – you’re memorable.)
Hi Tony, I mis you. I wish I could help you stat connected.
.
*waves to PSG, ednaz, bluentx, others* I love waking up to you all and your chatter.
.
Re: We the Living
It’s the only Ayn Rand book I liked and re-read, because I know people who lived nearly that experience and the whole book was heart-breaking. The shortages, the struggles, the lack of space and never having anything. Heck, Husband is old enough to have experienced the tail-end of yhat regime. They’re all doomd from the beginning and it’s like watching actrain crash. Especially Andrei. Caveat: since I lost my copy years ago, I haven’t read it. I’d probably read it different now.
Semi-rupt, I’ve been reading the “ashamed” thread. Welcome to Mayonnaise Jane!
Mellow Monkey, *I* am impressed at your 15 minutes. I’ve been having my own struggles to regain physical ability. I actually cried when I had my first consult with the exercise physiologist. What, me, the stoic, crying? No!!! Anyway, I started with 2 minute sessions on the treadmill. Slow & sorta steadyish is my motto.
And sometimes I prioritise other things over exercise, like some cooking, and now choir practice. I’m so thrilled to be back in choir, and capable of a full rehearsal. Though the all-day one yesterday knackered me; I had to go home at afternoon tea time. The high tessitura in the Handel Dettinger Te Deum didn’t help, and my top As are still quite weird, but at least they exist now. Now there’s some hard abs work for you.
Your middle name is ‘Glutton For Punishment’, too?
Yuuuup. I’ve subjected myself to all sorts of “great” books/games/movies in the name of tearing them apart or laughs. :)
*Emails rq the rest of the pie and a pint of ice cream*
Get in there. No one else gets none. Until next week. :)
It’s the only Ayn Rand book I liked and re-read
When I was in high school our class had to read Anthem before. I’ll probably re-read that one since I didn’t recall it being too bad or anything.
I get the feeling nothing will adequately prepare me for the doorstopper book though…
I do the accent thing, too, but I’ve been told it’s either due to knowing several languages as a child or the musical training. Basically, a developed ear for listening and catching nuances. One of my mum’s brothers is deaf, and when I speak to him qnd his wife (they lip-read, too), it’sa conscious effort to keep my hands still. (I learned this and that of ASL but I’ve forgotten much of it now, except the useul stuff like how to say you’re weird.)
It’s o.k. Joe, I have a couch. : D
Thanks for the pie, Joe! It’s delicious!!!!! *gobblegobblegobble*
That’s it.
Tomorrow, I WILL go out and get PIE!
Or some other decadent and far-too-rich dessert item.
Whatevs.
As long as I get my sugar fix, it’s cool.
Hello rq,
I too, step outside, look up and gasp. The night sky is so beautiful.
So glad you can enjoy it at your house. : )
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And with that happy thought I will say goodnight.
Good night, ednaz!
.
shala
The good thing about Anthem was its lenfth. I was ashamed of myself in high school because the Dagny Doorstop was the first book ever that I couldn’t finish. I only read it because a friend swore upand down that it was the best book in the world. I don’t think I ever confessed that I hated it. And this was after I’d struggled through Crime and Punishment.
Mmmmm, pie…
I’m very pleased with my dessert, though. Baked pineapple with golden syrup & zenzerino. nom nom nom. I feel it could have done with some toasted coconut flakes and vanilla icecream, but just plain was delish.
Good morning
So, I just had a big fight with Mr. The reason was trivial. He put an open tin of a thick cream into one of the baskets on the washing machine so half a dozen other things got covered in it.
And I complained and instead of just saying “oh, I’m sorry, my mistake” he went “Where should I have put it?* I didn’t know where, should I have thrown it away instead?” You know, like his mistake had been unavoidable™ at the point when it happened. And I was like “Woah, what are, you, three? Just find a space where it won’t cause utter chaos.”
And then he tried to do “I’m sorry you’re so short tempered”.
And. I. caught. him.
I told him. I tld him that I’ve had enough of “the problem isn’t whatever I did that upset you, the problem is that you’re upset” for more than a lifetime by my mother.
I should mention that he actually was very sorry when he realized what he’d done and sincerely apologized. But YES!!! I noticed it! I refused to be silenced and shamed and “the problem.”
I’m still shaking, but it feels good, too.
*Yes, there’s a constant lack of empty spaces in this flat. And while clearly 4 people litter those spaces it’s only one who clears them, so a lack thereoff is automatically my fault
Audley
Squeeeeeee!
Have you already started feeding other stuff or is she still exclusively on milk?
*waves to everyone* Hey! I hope everyone is doing well and there’s a pile of hugs to disperse to you all.
I’m actually doing okay! Teeth aren’t nearly as painful but eating/drink is still a chore. (Don’t eat on that side too much, using more tongue, switching from front to back.) I’ve also noticed a distinct whistling while talking, specifically for “s” sounds. Looks like I’m going to have to wait for it all to go to shit and just get dentures or something.
Little One is coming off her spring break and will be back in school on Monday. I love her but thank goodness! LOL.
Of course, right after we couldn’t get a ride to get our pets fixed, the female cat Salem, went out for 2 days and is now probably pregnant. Fuck. Little One is desperately hoping she is so she can guilt/beg to get a kitten, which she’s already started because Tiger (the kitty we took in) doesn’t like kids. He’s warmed up to her a bit and will come to Little One if she’s laying down all calm but she’s a bundle of energy mostly. And loud. Of course, she’s 5! But Tiger clearly just wants a big lap (Little One’s can hold all that big cat comfortably) to sit in and be petted for hours on end. Whenever she tries to call Tiger or come near him, he goes sprinting to a hiding place or jumping into my lap. This leads to her being upset every time because Tiger is rejecting her, scared of her and some fucking dolt told her that animals are “tuned in and can tell a good person from a bad one”. Tiger just doesn’t like loud or sudden noises and often runs away from me if I drop something because he’s startled. *sigh*
Roomie got a good tax refund which he used to buy a scooter, a much quicker and cheaper way to get back and forth to work. Of course, the day he got the scooter it rained. And the next day too. Terrible timing. Now it’s smoking because he keeps going over 30 trying to get to work on time. (Smart move. Ugh.) Then he was all moody for 2 days because the lady in the parking spot next to him saw him with the scooter and remarked “Oh! I thought it was a girl’s scooter!”. It’s red, that’s all. Jeez. I told him when he recounted this to me, “That’s just sexist bullshit. “, which seemed to make it worse to him. He’s the standard everyday sexist blinkered male gamer toeing the status quo and it’s annoying that his so insecure, sexist and homophobic. Bleh. He’s a dense wall when it comes to anything like this. Nods, grunts, agrees and forgets it.
Still no job unfortunately but I’ve been networking. I’ve only ever been poor but man the networking is impressive. Somehow I’ve become the go-to tech girl and am receiving RAM for my computer out of someone else’s dead one as compensation for helping them with their current computer. (The RAM wouldn’t work for their working computer anyways.) This is going to help SO much for my computer. The little $200 one from Wal-mart 2 years ago is sloooooooooooooooooooow. It’s got all of 2 RAM. *sigh*
I’ve also got a bit of funds going to pay for my phone every month and help out with the little household stuff. (No, not drugs or anything. Just more networking, trades and help. Everything gets recycled, reused, or fixed. There’s no other option for us.) I desperately want to take my saved amount and splurge on a big fancy re-design for my book blog. I’ve been really working on that a lot lately. Lots of blog tours, giveaways, 4 reviews waiting to be finished and posted. It’s really helped to grow my book nerd side. I feel…more complete, like I finally fit a puzzle piece. It’s also helped having something to do but I feel terribly guilty since Roomie is the only one working. It sucks. He hasn’t said or done anything but the silence when I try to talk about the stuff I’m doing hurts. He only reads his technical computer books so it’s not an interest of his but it feels like a reproach for daring to do something instead of doing nothing but job stuff.
I’ve got my resume, my job search accounts, submitting them everyday, but I’m in the running for most jobs I’m qualified for already and there’s hardly any new jobs. I still feel like I’m failing and I’m probably reading too much into my Roomie’s disinterest. *shrug*
Umm…That’s a big tl;dr update from me, sorry. My food just got done so I’ll be catching up while I eat plus weekends are slower so maybe I can finally get back into commenting again. =)
I couple of days ago, I listened to a speech by a man who used to be a physicist and worked at CERN*. Then he got an MBA degree, and now he works for OECD (wiki link).
He was a physicist at CERN. Then he went for an MBA degree.
does not compute
does not compute
* Maureen Brian mentioned CERN on another thread, and made me think of this
Well, after my comment here I caught up on the It’s The Right Thing thread. *snort*
I’ll be in the gluten for punishment camp as well apparently. I’ve actually thought of trying read some terrible books, like Rand’s because thankfully I was never forced to read any in school, just so I can review them and be on record as hating that shit. That makes me all contrarian and mean and “doing it wrong”. Somehow. Hmm…I can just imagine the shit storm over a posting a review of that book. Seems like I’ve always got to fight the
—
Giliell, professional cynic
YAY!
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Alethea H. “Crocoduck” Kuiper-Belt
Ditto. Little wins and little steps are so important. Congrats to you, Mellow Monkey. =)
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Re: Accents
I can’t do accents but I definitely mold my vocab and speaking style none the less. After watching British…something I can’t remember what, I kept saying things like “bloody hell”. XD Tripped my Roomie out so I snapped out of it quick and stay quiet. But still, I do it in my head. I do follow the lead most of the time, trying to fit in.
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Re: pie
[Homer] Hmm…pie. [/Homer]. Apple pie is my favorite, with pumpkin second. My grandma used to make them from scratch for the holidays or a single pie every now and then. So. fucking. good.
Ah Beatrice, much as I might understand your confusion that kind of career switch isn’t all that unusual.
That’s taken from an old friend of mines faq page for his consulting business. Prior to this he worked here.
Gilelle! Fantastic!
I’ll just leave this “i” here, with an apology. The fact that I was waiting for an acetone based primer to dry and was feeling a little light-headed is no excuse for getting your nym wrong. Besides, a subsequent successful heli-coil insertion proves that I really can’t blame the fumes. It’s too bad I probably won’t live to see the implementation of a meat-ware spellcheck.
Yay baby pictures!!!!
Giliell – good for you! I hope he remembers it next time.
Hugs for tony – thanks for checking in.
FossilFishy – I’m glad the fires missed you. good luck with the rest of the season.
JAL – sounds like you’re doing well. I’m so glad things are more stable now.
Portia and PSG and Dalillama and rq- oh, it’s so embarrassing. It can happen during the course of a single conversation, where I start unconsciously mimicking however someone is talking, and then of course I don’t do it well, and then sometime I realize it’s happening and I’m mortified thinking that they
think I’m making fun of how they talk. I have to put a lot of mental effort into trying not to do it.
IJoe – some of the vocab thing falls under the category of “code switching”, where you adjust all your patterns of speech to fit in a particular environment (that’s about the third down definition of it, but it’s there). It can be unconscious, too.
I’m not really wondering how a person would be capable going from physicist (especially a successful one) to business management, but why the hell they would want to. I’m sure that shows some of my personal biases.
Beatrice
Same. I mean, it’s physics, which is totally cool. But thenI think of the earning power of science vs banking, and I can kind of see the point. Then again, some people just have weird inerests. ;)
Eeeee! re: babby picture. I hope she doesn’t suffer too much from her teething.
Alethea H. “Crocoduck” Kuiper-Belt – Slow and sorta steadyish works. A step forward is a step forward, after all! Awesome about you being back in choir. :)
Thanks for the encouragement. And to you, too, JAL. It’s slow, but I know every day I get myself out of bed and take care of myself is an accomplishment right now.
Good for you, Giliell. I hope he remembers that.
I was going to try to catch up with the rest of the thread, but I’ve had my baby niece plopped upon me. Childcare while a family meal is prepared has been required of me! I’ll try to catch up later.
For my friend it was earning power and the chance to be in greater control of his work life. As he pointed out, the skills he uses are very similar, but now he runs his own business rather than working for others. Sometimes the desire to go from being a cog in a vast endeavour to the monarch of a tiny one is enough.
Mind you, “weird interests” pretty much sums up my friend. He was the smartest of the lot of us, humourous and friendly to boot, the bastard. And yet he’s also the only one of us who’s head imprint has graced a car door courtesy of a bouncer, whom I believe was justified, if a trifle over-zelous, in the execution of his job.
There are very few things I actually hate (hate takes a lot of energy). But on thing, or, rather, group of people, that I have come to hate is victim blaming asshats.
Ogvorbis,
You’re doing great in the The difference between us and them thread, just take care of yourself first. If it gets too much, close the tab for a while and chat here about whatever.
/unsolicited advice
Beatrice:
I can feel the beginnings of a trigger. Backing out now. Being a coward might work.
I’ll call it strategic retreat. If you want to do good, you have to take care the efforts don’t break you.
Looking forward to meet my mate the patient attentive generally awesome waiter at the Alexander Hotel again in June! Yes, looks like I might be able to go…Got to talk to that Nugent fellow about fenceposts, too.
Oh those sex-crazed and voyeuristic pastors! Oh those repressed, power-mad and ethically-challenged shepherds of religious flocks! What will they do next?
In Indiana, they will film their female sheeple in the church bathrooms … also, they will exploit children.
Takeaway? Church bathrooms are not safe places. Linky.
PSG @435
Yes, I noticed that Rachel didn’t speak much in that segment. Sometimes I think she is too reticent when in a group situation like that. I think she is polite by nature, reluctant to interrupt. Still, she had the best soundbite for sure.
Dude in the middle was probably hating being on a panel with Rachel Maddow?
Original post regarding Maddow’s appearance on the Bill Maher show referred to this link:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/15/rachel-maddow-and-bill-maher-proposed-ryan-budget-is-laughable/
Giliell
Sorry to hear the Mr’s being a jerk. Congrats on taking your stand, though.
JAL
Nice to see you again. Glad you’re doing reasonably well, hers’ hoping a job turns up soon.
Ogvorbis
*hugs* Take a break; there are others standing by.
Oh, yuck. This article in Salon really does NOT make me want to buy prepared chicken, or frozen chicken, or, well, most chicken: Modern chicken has no flavor — let’s make it in a lab.
More CPAC news. For those who can’t stand to watch it, I will torture you anyway:
All of the above quotes are from Ann Coulter’s presentation at CPAC.
Wow, that thread is still going?
*hugs* for Ogvorbis
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yayGiliell, I hope Mr is more thoughtful in the future!
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FossilFishy
Re: your friend – some people have all the luck, eh?
I am still bothered by the little dog photo that graces the start of this edition of the [Lounge]. I don’t think that’s a dog. It’s a toy, right? It’s an über doggy created in China to render helpless the rest of earth’s humans.
Joe:
I appreciate the concern, really, but that is not necessary. I am mildly inconvenienced at best. The weather is warming up so business is getting better. My internet is not a necessity. I will use my phone until such time as I get it restored at home (at present, a more pressing issue is getting my auto insurance restored…lapsed payment left it cancelled and I have to pay the first six months of the policy in full to get it reinstated…and this is Florida…sigh)
That’s cool Tony, and if you need some help for the insurance… you know you only have to ask us and we’ll scrape something together.
Ogvorbis:
There is nothing cowardly about withdrawing from a discussion that triggers you. It is self preservation.
I have to wonder if the perception that “retreating” is something shameful is bound up in toxic masculinity. The notion that men are supposed to be steadfast and strong, never buckling under pressure and always willing and able to fight is wrongheaded and confines men (and, by extension, women) to rigid gender roles of acceptible and unacceptible actions.
I’ll dump a few links now (part 1 of 2), finally, so I won’t go crazy. Apart from that I’m getting better, but it’s taking a long time.
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So, first, I’ll link to the comment I just wrote on the numerology thread; not for its own sake – there’s nothing new in it –, but because I wanted to link to that thread anyway (see below), and because it contains a link to the Sb version of the thread where Maxim Makukov, the 2nd author of the paper, has shown up and doesn’t seem to get it.
I wanted to link to that thread anyway because Eva Sabbert is just such a trainwreck. It seems she actually believed she was on a forum, a bulletin board, instead of a blog, and even that Rev. BigDumbChimp was a moderator who could just take comments (“posts”) and move them to another thread! What kinds of glasses was she wearing! And comment 23 where she loves PZ so much triggers many of my alarms for bullying. I even checked the Dungeon before I sent my comment – she’s not in there yet.
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Next link: embryos of the extinct gastric-brooding frog have been remade from frozen nuclear DNA and eggs of a related species. Keeping all tentacles crossed here and looking up at least two versions of lyrics for Freude, schöner Götterfunken. Via Darren Naish on Twitter.
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Now, for teh lulz. And there are plenty, and they, too, come from Darren Naish’s Twitter feed.
Ketchum update: Might as well be Lemurians at this point. Savor it.
That post cites another on the April Fools fiasco:
…are you sitting comfortably?
You’re not having osteoporosis in your ribs, no lung damage, or such like?
No?…
The Sasquatch DNA paper cites an April Fools joke, a paper that declares right on its first page that it is an April Fools joke. (See part 2.) And then Ketchum responded to this discovery and blamed the reviewers for having made completely and utterly unrealistic demands – I really want to see this reviewer in particular:
:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D
Cargo cult!
The Lemuria post also cites Chewbacca is a Bigfoot and His Daughter is a Lemur. And that shows a Fb comment according to which Ketchum et al. are planning a documentary with “testimony” from plenty of authority figures from science. They’re doing it wrong.
I’ve laughed a lot today.