This is the lounge. You can discuss anything you want, but you will do it kindly. It’s beginning to look vaguely spring-like, even in Minnesota.
Status: Heavily Moderated; Previous thread
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
No.
But you can have an email, and administrative privileges, and a hearty “Hell yes!” to your contribution to Da Lounge Music ™.
FossilFishy
I wanted the Rum.
But I’ll take that package, too! :)
(Replied.)
Oh alright.
[hands over rum]
[makes a note to add rum to rq’s rider]
A quick response here ’cause I closed my gmail window: Melody? Oh yes please! If this thing isn’t going to have vocals, it bloody well better have a prominent melodic line. Hmmm, hmmm, if only we knew someone who played a melodic instrument, hmmm…..oh wait! That’d be you! :)
*ahem* FossilFishy1
You have my first attempt at a theme suitable for a melodic line. Later efforts can only be improvements. I’m counting on your foundation to help me along! :) (In other words, Fine, I’ll take responsibility for the hummability of this project!)
Oh, I’m happy to help with melody if I can. But come the world premie at the Latvian National Opera House* you’re the one that’s going to have to play it, so it better speak to you.
*Well, stranger things have happened, right? :)
Er, that’d be world premier. I’m not sure what a world premie would be exactly, but it doesn’t sound good.
The followers of Prem Pal Singh Rawat (“Guru Maharaj Ji”) used to call themselves “premies” in the 1970s, when some friends of mine got caught up in his cult (or rather, his family’s – he was in his mid-teens at the time), the “Divine Light Mission”. They did become rather tiresome, and we eventually lost touch.
FossilFishy World premiere? Did I miss something here? (As long as there’s no deadline…)
Well, for what it’s worth, I have played musical theatre (the dancing bits more than the singing bits – guess which one I am) on the stage of the Latvian National Theatre (totally random weird experience one summer, I’ll tell you about it one time!), so nothing is impossible. But I’m only playing there if you come with me.
(Coincidentally, my choir conductor’s Real Job is at the National Opera…)
I’m working, I am , I am, I promise. But I just have to say one thing:
Tony, you are an EXCEPTIONALLY good (and smart) and compassionate person. Jim may not know it but he’s so lucky to have met you.
WMDKitty, “the meaning of life is *”.
PS I get
About 179,000,000 results (2.69 seconds)Ha! I got that number too – but in 0.14 seconds. I win!
As for the fire? It’s taken out one house so far. 450 hectares burned altogether (about 1100 acres).
And another issue about “out of season” fires – the planes and helicopters are grounded when visibility dictates – so no water bombing as night closes in a couple of hours earlier (remember daylight saving), adding to the smoke, than it would have in March rather than May.
It’s nowhere near here. It’s at the “other end” of the Mt Lofty Ranges.
Why is the rum gone?
Song for the day
carlie
Thanks for linking to that! It has made me laugh many many times previously.
It’s almost as good as the hobbit kidnap song.
Oy. About 46% of Latvians do not believe humans have evolved. 37% believe god has guided evolution. 27% believe that humans lived alongside dinosaurs.
*sigh* I thought we were better than that.
HI folks
Pretty ‘Rupt but otherwise OK
Appropriate hugs to all who need and/or want them.
I think I have to come to terms with the fact that I love my parents, but I don’t actually like them.
+++
Tony
Skimming through your post (sorry, no time to read it full although it’s actually worth it) I think yu’Re the best that could have happened to Jim, although I think he might not understand that at the moment.
+++
So, you’ve come to the Ohio-kidnapping case.
I just heard it on the radio that the prosecutor wants to charge Castro with murder for the abortions and my stomach went into hiding. This will be ugly for women. Because nobody will want to be seen as “soft” on that piece of shit.
So, hey, ladies, you went through years of torture and rape and captivity, but you know who really, really matters in this? Fetuses!
Shit, Giliell, really??
I don’t even…
Can they do that by law? Then what happens to abortion in general?
And… It wasn’t enough that he kept three women sexually enslaved for ten years??? What?
rq
Apparently Ohio law allows that.
BUt yeah, that.
Just read something at Shakesville that’s making me wonder what’s really going on with college degrees and employment. It’s becoming common knowledge that tuition’s inflated, colleges are turning into diploma mills, and student loans are basically a scam, which the Shakesville post addresses. However I’m reading accounts like this in the comments (bolds mine):
and that hadn’t occurred to me… that emphasizing college degrees for unrelated employment is just shorthand for classism, and probably also racism; and thus conflating higher education with competence or intelligence is another case of bigotry masquerading as meritocracy. From my privileged point of view (having a degree matching a career in lab research) I’ve been assuming that a degree’s at best neutral and at worst marks you for dismissal as overqualified. Most folks from academic backgrounds probably feel the same way. How the heck can anonymized resumes solve this bullshit? Or even unions, if anyone had any?
If anyone out there’s already having this conversation, I haven’t seen it… and it badly needs to be had.
Last night I woke trembling, shaking and crying. The real nightmares I’ve lived through collied with supernatural horrors to create a monstrosity that left me pawing to turn on a light, any light and quickly, yet symbolized by the fear of my ex watching me through a window.
It was so fucking awful, which just sounds pathetic as an attempt to describe what I went through. So huddled in blankets to the glare of the computer til I could work the nerve to turn on a light.
Then, I read. I finished Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb and it was glorious. In the same way I can’t describe my night terrors properly, I can’t do justice to the work of literature I just finished. The words. All the words flee me and I hope they find their way to Robin Hobb so she can make better use of them.
Holy. Fucking. Ship.
JAL, I know the fluffy anklehugs are inadequate to the task, but maybe if you have enough of them you can pile them up to block the windows. >_>
and the Liveship series kicks so much ass. IMHO they might be the best of the set, certainly better than the brand new Dragon series which deals with entirely too many characters and gets unwieldy as a result. (Though I admit a personal soft spot for Fitz…)
I’ve felt that, with the disdain and disregard for those of us who go to community colleges. Of course, this latest development in class warfare really has roots far deeper. The conversation definitely needs to be had but for how to fix it? Having the conversation alone would go far, but of course those effected most by it and realize it are often discouraged as it is, which is why humanism needs to be pushed forward. We need to work on helping the poor not only survive and thrive, but speak up for themselves and finally be able to make their own choices – instead of being used as tokens or a means to make converts for the cause. We need to be armed in the best tools of our time – actual, useful transportation system, a better starting public education system (no one trust us with a H.S. since everyone knows how much it sucks), internet connections that are cheaper so we can get information and bloom online in the ways other groups have (using the library or the shelter’s computers just for work and being monitored is so degrading), better housing system, unemployment foodstamps, health care, and dental care….
Of course, even suggesting those things is reviled as “that evil socialism nonsense” and doesn’t get to the heart of the degree problem. With few jobs, there’s more competition. I have two year degrees but that matters not, especially not when going up against those with Master’s degrees and years more experience. Even if it’s not in customer service or financial aid (my fields), they are regarded as the safer choice. They, after all, made it through earning an actual degree for those who don’t have any experience. But of course, this sentiment rests with the “you earn a degree, you don’t buy”, which clearly that isn’t true anymore. So, spreading the word on this issue is of great importance. I fear that we won’t actually be able to deal with degree mills, without treating the poor as people first and more opportunity for employment. At least then, we can make those effected better off. Even if we can’t completely level the playing fields.
522 Pteryxx
I will gladly take the fluffy anklehugs and they indeed my feet all the way up to my heart. =)
It’s been hours since I first awoke, with a hundred pages to finish and I’m much better now.
Oh… =(
Well, I’m still lingering in the glory of what I just finished so it’ll probably be a day or so before I delve into Blood of Dragons. I have high hopes still. I do have such a soft spot for Fitz as well. Oh, but my favorite will always be The Fool. Forever and ever and ever.
And reading the back of Blood of Dragons, I realize Robin Hobb as written under another name. She has more books! YAY! I had no idea she used the pen name of Megan Lindholm.
it’s under-recognized and under-stated, especially through Fitz’s POV, just how important the Fool’s ambiguous gender identity really is… yet it’s portrayed as an integral part of his creativity and beauty. (Another topic I can’t find any conversations about!) When I read the Farseer series I didn’t even have the experience or vocabulary to describe what was so right about that.
re the Dragon series… honestly if you haven’t gotten annoyed with the proliferation of characters and storylines by book 3, you probably won’t mind book 4. I have a terrible time keeping track of that many individuals… one reason I don’t participate much in the Lounge. <_<
Good morning.
Thank you all.
Here’s the rum.
Now to catch up.
Tony – You are a very good friend, and Jim is very lucky to have you to talk to him during this very difficult time in his life. *hugs*
JAL – *hugs and chocolate and kittehs*
Wait, what? Re-education and counselling for having an opinion? Or am I missing something here?
cicely
Not even a can subdue its equine overlord. Why resist any longer?
There’s a missing goat in my comment @529.
Yet another quote from Pharyngula that, taken out of context . . . .
JAL, also QFT’ing everything you said in 523.
Still, competition shouldn’t be an excuse for piling on even more bigotry… and speaking as someone WITH one of those high-end academic degrees, I want to figure out if there’s some way to use my privilege for better here. Many in PZ’s readership are degreed, and many are teachers or professors. At the very least we should be calling out non-technical degree requirements for employment as just as much BS as inflated grades, IQ tests, and good ol’ boy networks.
On further searching (since that’s my response to everything <_< ) (emphasis mine):
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/business/college-degree-required-by-increasing-number-of-companies.html?_r=0
*fumes for ten minutes before reading the next ones*
http://www.ere.net/2011/12/08/requiring-a-diploma-may-be-discriminatory/
So this potentially could be a class-action lawsuit issue.
http://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/mcafee/2013/02/stop-requiring-college-degrees.html
I found some articles on degrees and racism, too, but nothing on classism specifically. Everything I’ve found so far is about the graduating students burdened with crushing debt, or about increasing opportunities for poor people to get a degree in the first place – nothing about opportunities for people smart enough not to go into the college debt trap.
further OH FFS (from the first NYT article I cited):
Dammit, THE HELL WITH ‘CAMARADERIE’ as an excuse for slamming the door on the wrong sort of people! That paragraph just proves that classism’s the driving factor and meritocracy’s got jack SHIT to do with it. And throwing SPORTS into it (meaning flat out tribalism, no mistake) just makes me sick.
On the way to work this morning, there was a car with the infuriating bumper sticker “YES, YOU DID… ELECT A SOCIALIST.” I wanted so badly to pull alongside the, of course, old white guy driving the car and say, “Sir, I’m a socialist. If Obama is trying to be one, he’s doing one shitty job of it.”
I doubt they feel the ‘camaraderie’ because they went to college or university. The camaraderie is probably there because they’re so much better than everyone else, and anyone who has not been to college/university would be made to realize that and feel it, day after day (he even realizes it himself!). Yeah, trash-talking each others’ college football teams makes you so cool, doesn’t it? It certainly pushes away those who don’t have a college football team to trash-talk. Setting that as some sort of… prerequisite? of participation in that particular place of employment just reeks of classism: oh, your daddy goes to that club? Pfft. Ours has three swimming pools.
rq,
sorry I couldn’t contribute to the “let’s get rum” efforts, but that last comment was the last time today I did anything online that wasn’t work-related.
Apparently, I can do work for about two other people. Not including things my job mentor screwed up before he went to vacation. I like him, but I am currently pissed off at him. Good thing it’s weekend and we’ll only see each other on Wednesday (I’m going to a workshop Mon-Tue instead of a colleague who is in hospital).
—–
Giliell,
I’m guessing “They” want to sentence those three guys for as many things as possible, out of righteous anger. Ok, it’s not a really good idea to invent shit, when there are already fucking serious charges the men pretty much can’t escape from.
You’re right, by making murder charges for killing fetuses, the prosecution is giving a really shitty deal to the three women. Against them, you “only” have kidnapping, holding them as prisoners, rape and violence (unless I’m missing something), but then you have murders. Many murders (or rather “murders”). That will pretty much make the case revolve around the “murders” instead of harmed women. You know, actual people who lost a huge part of their lives, who suffered and will have to live with memories of that suffering.
But fuck them, when you can throw “worse” shit at the guys and hope it sticks.
I don’t know whether someone really cares about “murdered” fetuses or they just want to stick every possible charge against the men, but the result is bad for the actual victims of the crime, as well as making a contribution to the overall anti-choice ideas and ideas about how much a fetus vs. woman is worth.
———
JAL, *hugs*
—–
chigau,
Rum!
Thanks!
*takes all the rum*
ha!
525
Pteryxx
10 May 2013 at 8:34 am (UTC -5)
VERY true. And don’t read reviews for it, it’s just utterly depressing how people have cling ed to gendering the Fool. It’s either her and Fitz should have lived together happily ever after or… wait, does anyone even refer to the Fool as a man?
*searching, searching, searching*
Not in reviews, but in forums the only thing people want to know is if the Fool is male or female or if he’s gay…
*sigh*
If I’m going back to reviewing books I see no reason why I can’t at least bring it up. Well, the lack of being able to write is a problem….
Ahhhhhhhhhh. That makes sense. It’s only the good epic fantasy that I have such a tolerance for large casts and threads. Other books like books about royalty are not only large with the court and all, but speaking of but with the talk of lineage. When the book The Boleyn Sisters was big, I tried reading it and found it just so fucking boring. The Song of Fire and Ice books seem to strain my limits but I persist there with online aides because I’m loving the story.
532
Pteryxx
Funny how deeply ingrained this classism shit is that even I parrot the defenses against change while advocating for change. This capitalistic dog eat dog ‘only the strong survive, the others are fodder to keep the winners going’ hunger games style competition is terrible.
Oy.
A very fundamental problem with America is the stupid ‘American Dream’ we’ve been conned into believin in hopes that we too can rise up. Conquering that bootstrapping mentality will be a hard battle fought but we’d be the better for ripping it out and coming terms with reality. It would also cause us to sake those those that use it for both cover and way to bludgeon the oppressed.
O hai!
Tell John Boehner: Remove Michele Bachmann from the House Intelligence Committee!
See also: when Bush the Lesser got his tax cuts for the richest 1 % through, somebody did a poll. Turns out 19 % of estadounidenses believed they belonged to the richest 1 %.
kthxbai
JAL re 537: I admit I said ‘he’ because that’s how the Fool persona mostly allowed himself to be gendered, though in a homophobic society that wasn’t exactly a freely made choice. I’m assuming he’s like some genderqueer people who have boy-identities and girl-identities and switch between them at will (distinct from trans* people who may use the terms ‘boy-name’ or ‘girl-name’ to refer to their assigned-at-birth gender).
I guess Robin Hobb’s mostly stayed out of it, but she definitely crafted the character (and others) from an informed and considerate place.
random links for you:
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/nonfiction/interview-robin-hobb/
and this Pinterest image board dedicated to the Fool.
—
re 538: I only know one suggested example of meritocracy in (white-collar, non-technical) job candidate selection that isn’t based on competition (seriously, what’s up with that? nobody makes all the *current* employees re-apply every year, why does that prove anything?) and it’s from this old article on finding the best teachers.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/12/15/081215fa_fact_gladwell
…
…
and the kicker of a conclusion (emphasis mine):
That’s not necessarily going to apply to every job, but at least an apprenticeship model gives us a concept of what a selection process based on training and achievement, instead of competition to get in the door, could look like. As I understand it, apprenticeships and trial periods basically were what old-style entry-level jobs were intended to be. (Some blue-collar professions still have them.)
Now I’ve read Tony’s comment…
I don’t know what useful thing to say, so just*hugs*
also to JAL: at least this fan gender discussion is less disgusting than the one you found… though the whole topic still gives me a sad. Even the accepting people can’t just leave well enough alone. Which just proves the point that took three whole trilogies to make, I guess.
540
Pteryxx
That’s a very good point. I’ve known the Fool as a man for 6 books, but as girl for 3 and those last ones are more fresh in my mind. I’ve deliberately stayed to gender neutral isn’t I’m not genderqueer and have learned to proceed with caution so as not to have my privileged whipping about causing damage.
Of course, there is the theory that like Sa, the White (Fool’s people) are of both genders like Sa. When reading the Liveships, I comfortably used female pronouns when speaking in my head. Afterall, it’s their gender, their presentation and I follow the Fool’s lead. It’s not my course to determine. But this is after all a character and when speaking in general, without present presentation to guide me, I’m at a loss. Do I keep referring to the last presentation I’ve known/read? Does that single out one side instead of acknowledging both? Does the Fool have a greater preference to one? The Farseer and Tawny Man trilogies are more foggier in my memory. I can’t actually recall specifically but I do remember how torn the Fool was with Fitz not accepting Fool’s duel, true nature. The reemergence of the Fool as a man and with Fitz back in the story it makes me wonder if it’s just to make Fitz’s comfortable. The fact that I wonder makes me uncomfortable because I’m in essence questioning the Fool’s gender choice, which I find appalling.
The fact I’m going on at lengths about a single aspect to the Fool and the world he inhabits makes me both sad and mad people haven’t plumbed the depth of what is in these books, instead to focus on pushing them into the narrow gender roles we have today.
Agreed. As much as I’d like Hobb to stand up for the Fool, whatever she says would be cannon and most likely drive people away. Books have such a way of shaping one and showing things, which is why I’m so for progressive books. I had no idea what was in store for me when I started reading The Fool’s Apprentice and am so glad more people are exposed to such a character because most similar characters are kept separate in the GLBT section. (And no to mention the horrors mainstream has produced of token, stereotypical GLBT people.)
o.O
*remembers Labyrinth *
How did I not think of that before?!? Holy fuck, I think I just swooned.
But there’s no young David Bowie to play the Fool now and I can’t even think of anyone that’s remotely similar. That’s probably why I never thought of it before.
The Pinterest Board link is broken. =(
This counts as two Moments of Mormon Madness. First we have Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett (R), known as a “birther” who questioned whether President Obama would be on the state ballot in 2012. Now we learn that Bennett receives $2,000 a month from the Tea Party group Freedomworks. This is not appropriate for a Secretary of State, but it is par for the course for elected officials who are also mormons. They’re not all corrupt doofuses, but far too many of them have a network of other mormons who are also ultra conservative with whom they play patty-cake.
Next we have Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, also a mormon, who left the scene of an accident without leaving a note, and was fined. Sounds minor until the news that it was Horne’s FBI tail that turned him for the accident, and that worthy, married Tom Horne had his mistress with him the car.
It turns out that the feds think Horne may breaking federal campaign finance laws by coordinating with an outside political group.
Horne, who is arguably Arizona’s top law-enforcement official, first lied about hitting the other car and declined to cooperate with the police. He got a clue later, but you see his first impulse, which is to lie.
His other impulses including putting his mistress on the payroll as an attorney even though she doesn’t have a law license. Arizona taxpayers pay that payroll.
TPM Livewire link.
Salon link for Ken Bennett story. Excerpt below:
bah, let me try that Pinterest again:
http://pinterest.com/wanderingsylph/my-beloved-fool-robin-hobb/
—
JAL, for what it’s worth, it means a lot to me that you’re giving this so much thought. Because I’m one of those genderqueer people who is determinedly neither, consistently, and as such the Fool being so comfortable and even pleased and proud to be a changeably gendered being… is almost as incomprehensible to me as straight cis men or women are. By my reading, the character can’t be called male, female, OR neither; and while I’m happy with neutral pronouns, I get the feeling the Fool would not be. That little speech he (as the Fool) made to Fitz shook me to my core.
But that was still the same person, somewhat older and wiser, who five books previously leaped for joy and proclaimed to the world (okay, the meadow) that “I love him, and he loves me!” Even with that barrier preserved… in fact, because of it. (Not to mention the whole plumbing argument!) I’m glad not to know, and to stay the heck away from all those detailed fan-arguments (and polls? srsly, how disgusting is that) arguing for their own interpretations. It would be a transgression to ‘know’.
(So you see my personal solution to the problem… I’m shaping my sentences so I don’t apply a pronoun at all, unless it’s directly attached to the corresponding persona. It’s all I could think to do.)
In some follow-up stories concerning the fertilizer plant that blew up in Texas, some remarkable facts have surfaced:
“Business friendly” = deadly.
<a href="http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/05/10/18172306-that-is-the-texas-way Maddow Blog coverage. You can also find coverage from the NYT.
Yes, indeed.
Clara more than anything reminds me of a comic book character introduced by one writer, for use in their story arc—who is replaced in mid-stream by another writer, who isn’t interested in that character, and has their own story arcs to populate. The character may wander forlornly and purposelessly through the book for a while, or be dropped like a hot rock, or get repurposed and developed by some later writer. Meantime, the reader is left hanging. Not good in the funny papers, and not good on the toob.
–
rq, a longer cape would just get sucked into the jet intake easier. I’m against being food-processed! It seems like that would hurt, and I am not completely impervious to pain.
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*hugs* and moral support for Tony. You are beyond awesome!
I feel so sorry for ‘Jim’. So much inner turmoil…and all so unnecessary.
:(
–
Don’t see how it could be, even granting that ivy is one of the few plants I’m able to successfully keep alive. You may be experiencing a Speciation Event. In any case, run.
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mildlymagnificent, I’m glad to hear that the fire isn’t close to you. Not that I’m pleased that it’s happening to anybody, mind you….
–
“Them as has, gets.”
–
*hugs* for JAL.
–
rq: That “goat” is clearly Satan in his well-known secondary form of a black goat. I know—the “goat” looks sorta purpley-brownish, but that’s obviously a trick of the light, a defect in the recording, or Deliberate Subterfuge. And as everyone knows, Satan and Horses go hoof-in-hoof.
–
David!
*pouncehug*
–
545
Pteryxx
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! That’s a good quote! I really need to at least go through the previous books and mark out quotes and refresh my memory. It makes a lot sense. I thought of gender neutral as neither/both/other, but if someone is both and is presenting as a female denying their right to use her/she, would seem like an affront; like I didn’t accept them as a ‘real’ woman. They are still both genders, just presenting as one and acting like they want to regardless of gender norms. Acknowledging one and switching it becomes she instead of he isn’t neglecting either.
Huh. I think I just heard a clicking sound…
And it makes me shudder to think what a person would be subjected to do or die doing if this is tried in our world. It makes me so sad. It has it’s consequences in their world as well, with Fitz’s confrontation of Amber, but with our sex determined at birth to be splattered on every document and assumed for all, I can’t imagine someone actually being able to live as such. Switching or refusing to be either is hard enough.
I’m with you on all of this. I hadn’t even thought to puzzle out or look for discussion on the topic before my previous comment. I just love the Fool in every way and presentation. Puzzling the mystery as always irked me when other characters do it and it flat out enrages me seeing real people do it. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to travel further south where the serpents talked of deserts and couldn’t figure out why they went there as dragons. The Fool has talked about coming far, far from the south but honestly, I’d keep the Fool and shuck that mystery to the curb; out of my mind completely if going there upsets the balance and forces the Fool into a corner.
I don’t think Hobb would do that, necessarily, just how much people focus on this makes me worry. Why not let be? Why not accept? The Fool is a greater character than I could ever hope for yet they debate to decide which cage to bind him in.
That actually makes a lot of sense and I’m sorry I didn’t see it that way. Perhaps because in this world demanding to be more than just male or female comes with the price of people assuming you’re lying/scamming/pretending if you move between them. It’s one or the other, expanding the options to neither, both or other is a daunting, haunting, terrible task. Still people cling to classifications like with orientation bi people are just seen as animals who’d fuck anything. There’s no room for inbetween or maybes or differences or changes. =(
I must thank you for the wonderful conversation and opening my eyes. Phayngula has made me a better person, before that it was just books and thankfully, I’ve gotten my hands on greatly helpful ones.
JAL: it’s a lot like time travel and verb tenses, isn’t it? After posting I read someone using the singular “they” and now I’m changing my mind (oh noes!) and thinking the Fool character as an adult (and as a whole) might best be a them. It just seems to click better in my grammar-brain that way.
Also, some folks on that Pinterest have suggested other possible actors, with photos. (Or someone just needs to clone David Bowie. <_< )
549 Pteryxx
It is! At least, I know that I wouldn’t be an asshole if I met the Fool personally and would be totally accepting. Those other people? Come off like they would pester for a yes or no and not accept anything given.
This picture of Tilda Swinton looks like she’d fit the physical part of the role anyways. Actually acting the part though? I haven’t a clue. Of course, I haven’t read Blood of Dragons and Amber is still freshest in my mind. There’s a possible bias there. I must admit the sharp lines and angles are appealing to me and definitely put me in the mind of the Fool.
However, I’d go with cloning David Bowie. There are plenty of wonderful reasons to clone him, play the Fool would just be awesome. Provided Hollywood doesn’t butcher the film but I have little faith in that endeavor. With the sheer scope of it and depth of emotions, I don’t think a movie could do it justice.
Of course, I haven’t watch The Hunger Games, The Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones so I have no recent knowledge of how well they did. I’ve always preferred books to their movie counter parts, ever since I saw The Shinning with Jack Nicholson and then read the book, I stick to what I know and love.
My wife can think of some reasons why she’d like to clone David Bowie.
Bingo. Brilliantly said. The American Dream is a trap.
rq, re Bunnicula. Ah, didn’t read it in my ‘younger years’ (published in 1979, I’d have been graduating high school). But my son loved that series… to the point I practically had the first two books memorized. This was/is a boy who doesn’t like … mmm, drama/suspense or new things … so we tended to re-read the same things again and again at bedtime.
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Tony, wow, great letter; what a great person you are. I agree w/ opposablethumbs @ 509.
—
Re: employers requiring college degrees. That nags at me too. I’ve got an advanced degree, which overall didn’t come too costly (partly because my parents helped subsidize my 4 yr degree, partly because it was cheap then, and partly because I got lucky in getting support from research assistantships/scholarshipsfor the graduate degree). But I worry for my son, who has issues (ADHD, anxiety, physical health problems, etc) that are going to impair/hinder his efforts for a 4yr degree. He’s smart and (sometimes) capable, but I have a hard time picturing him working thorough the system. And I find this trend of upping the bar… disheartening.
Well, based on my wife’s experience in taking some graduate ‘Ed School’ classes … that’s because they seemed to be junk. And grad school (in non-Ed programs) generally doesn’t really prepare one to be a teacher. I do like the idea of the apprenticeship approach. It would also help to allow weeding out those that aren’t right for the job before they get so invested in a program of study that they can’t afford to quit and move on to something else.
And now I’ve borked my HTML tags. Sorry.
dontpanic,
Having been there, when they say that the nodule is “small,” they generally mean that it is less than 25% of the size of that side of the gland.
One bit of caution: needle biopsies to the thyroid hurt like a fucker. There’s a major nerve cluster nearby. When I had mine, I felt it in my feet.
Context: I had a biopsy on a nodule that was ruled “small” by the examining physician. It was later excised, and found to be 30% of the total mass of the gland.
Esteleth Oh, great. My needle issues, coupled with “don’t like my neck being touched” issues (most likely a result of schoolyard bullying), and now you say it is fucking going to hurt. Can they put you out/under for such procedures? Actually, if there is something wrong with the thyroid and it could explain the fatigue and nausea of the last two years, that would be a positive. But really not looking forward to the biopsy. Well, thanks for the heads up.
dontpanic,
My mum has a small node nodule on the left (right? – forgot) side and went for the biopsy. Which she waited a couple of months for. Then she waited a couple of months to see the doctor about the results. Doctor said that the sample taken was too small and she’ll take another one… in September.
I’m going to get really angry if it turns out in September that they should have operated sooner. Like, now.
But she wasn’t particularly upset by the biopsy itself. Got it done, went to work afterwards.
*fingers crossed* that your biopsy passes quickly and with as little discomfort as possible. And with good results too, of course.
*hugs* and *calming manatees* for dontpanic. When do they want to do the biopsy? In any case, hopefully it’ll come back clean.
–
I don’t see why they couldn’t sedate you for the procedure. You’d have to ask.
You’re having unexplained fatigue and nausea and have a nodule on your thyroid? Could possibly be connected. Take a peek at this page and this page. See how many symptoms you have. However, the nausea is more hyperthyroidism and the fatigue is more hypothyroidism, so it is possible one is connected and one isn’t, or alternatively, you’re having cycling. That can also happen.
Sorry to have added to your distress. :(
Thanks to all for *calming manatees*, etc.
Esteleth, yeah, sort’a skimmed those before the ultrasound. That’s why I’m spinning it in my mind as having an up-side.
Biopsy should happen soon, just because I can’t stand the uncertainty not that they particularly emphasized any rush. I have decent insurance and the nearby hospitals probably have capacity, so there shouldn’t be any reason to delay.
‘rupting.
Ryan Gosling won’t eat his cereal.
Warning for lots of gifs.
I’ve got no relevant experience or expertise, dontpanic, but a fuck of a lot of sympathy. I hope it goes smoothly (with all the sedation you want) and comes back with good news (and possibly useful information that makes it possible to eliminate the fatigue and nausea).
As an aside, dontpanic, post-biopsy, you’ve got a great excuse to eat as much ice cream as you want. It’ll soothe your throat. :D :D
Hugs to Tony and dontpanic.
I actually got two things done today (in addition to running up and down to the visitor center every time someone wanted to pay to enter or pay for a train raid).
Dontpanic, if you want specific information, please feel free to ask here, or if it is something you hesitate to bring up here email me. I can be reached at my nym at the googles.
tony
Jim is lucky to have found you indeed.
Pteryxx #520
That is an excellent point, and one that I never saw before (because I’m blinded by the privilege that comes with a middle class upbringing; there was never any question that I was going to college.)
#533
This, so much.
Although I haven’t read the books, I have a character that I’ve been playing in an online RPG for quite some time who is a genderless, bodiless entity that exists primarily by possessing the bodies of people/other animals/plants/inanimate objects, all of which they can shapeshift at will, and is capable of being in multiple places at once; I typically use the gender (and name) of the current host to refer to a particular instantiation, or ‘it’ if it’s an inanimate object, and “it” when I’m referring to the whole entity as a way of emphasizing how alien it is. (The character perceives itself as a singular entity, and, while it is aware that there is such a thing as gender, it really, really doesn’t understand it.) I’ve noticed, though, that the rest of the players usually use “he”, unless the host is specifically female.
JAL
*Hugs* Night terrors suck.
Never got into the Liveships books; I can’t recall exactly why.
and subsidized higher ed too; student loans are bullshit.
There’s no Earthly reason we couldn’t have serious high-speed Internet to every building in the country, and public wifi to boot.
Single Payer, for medical and Dental, convert UI and foodstamps both into a guaranteed minimum income, and completely overhaul housing; just for starters, rent control.
Yes and no. I think we could deal with the degree mills by having enforced standards for education, but that would only solve the proximate problem of the degree mills. I think that the larger solution involves worker-owned co-ops becoming the standard form of business.
dontpanic
*hugs*. Best of luck with the medical procedures.
Oh, yeah. See, it costs money to train people, and MBA classes teach that anything that costs money is bad and should be offloaded onto someone else, in this case the jobseeker. They expect you to pay for the training that they then take advantage of.
Ogvorbis […] pay for a train raid Hmmm, should I ask? Sounds interesting.
Thanks, Esteleth. I’m a doctor damn-it, but not that kind of doctor. But I probably won’t ask for too much more information. And for a good reason … if people remember back to an earlier discussion about needles and blood here in the Lounge.
‘Raid’ should have been ‘ride’. All hail Tpyos, Ydada, yadda, dyada.
I’m sure “train raid” is a tpyo but I picture a role-playing cowboys and dynamite thing that would be awesome!
chigau Exactly; I had high hopes, only to have Ogvorbis dash them and grind them to dirt under guise of “typo”. [Grump] This is why we can’t have anything nice.
Mp. mp[ a tu[p. a
Wait. Moves left hand.
No, not a typo. Tpyos. A typo is a just an error. Tpyos is the god of typographical errors. And the pantheon includes Borkquotia, Grammaticus, and Henway.
og
Wait. What’s a Henway?
WMDKitty:
About 3 to 5 pounds. Much bigger and the meat gets tough.
Oh, WMDKitty.
*shaking head*
A Henway is the place where the chicken crosses the road.
–
Well, crap. I just walked right into that one.
It’s Two, Two, Two Straight-lines in One!
–
rq, Did I miss you again?
If you have any roses left that need naming, I would be thrilled if you could name one after me and my great grandmother – Zoe.
♥
(You were the dancer in brown. : ) )
–
I wanted in on the train raid, too! You use blanks, right? : D
–
Tony, You are a very good person. Jim is so lucky you take the time and care to address his feelings.
I paused before I wrote ‘feelings’. It’s more than that, isn’t it? His whole life.
WMDKitty:
If’n it makes y’all feel any better, Henway really is part of the Tpyos pantheon: Henway is the god of old and/or bad jokes.
I’ve been shooting blanks for (lemme see, Girl is a little over 20 . . .) over 20 years.
ednaz
Yes, I have you down for the roses! Sorry, I forgot to confirm.
Brown? There’s a dancer in brown? Or did you mean the deep red (as opposed to black and magenta)? :) (I think you have it, but I think youtube’s colour translation is crappiness incarnated.)
dontpanic
You can have all of my *hugs* for tonight, I am scared of any kind of medical establishment and/or procedure, to the point of having a panic attack when my ob/gyn unexpectedly had two students sit in on a check-up and they had to leave the room for me to be capable of speaking.
I hope your procedure is as painless as possible, and the results encouraging!
+++
Personally, I believe trains are magic. Because. End of debate.
Ogvorbis
If we’re all getting in on the train raid, I sure hope you shoot blanks!
Crap. You’re talking about guns, aren’t you? Not, well, y’know? Damn. Sorry. Nevermind.
Best wishes and hugs, dontpanic.
I caught your innuendo, Og. :)
I’m still snickering at Henway.
I discovered a voice today. And because it’s my sister’s name day.
+++
Ogvorbis
It’s ok. Not your fault I didn’t quite pull it off right. My fault.
You’re awesome. *hugs* You cannot make me change my mind.
Impeach Obama! … again. Since Republicans have grown increasingly hot under to collar about Benghazi, calls for impeachment have resurfaced.
Salon recently put together a list of calls for impeachment issued by Republicans. Excerpts below:
And now we have Benghazi.
rq – Hooray!! Rum for Everyone!
–
Ogvorbis – Hee hee : D
–
WMDKitty – Your Henway is alright. : )
Yes, rq, deep red. Hee. Suits you. *big thumbsup*
ednaz
:) Thanks. That was years ago. I don’t look like that anymore! (As for the colour, yes. One day I will wear it again.)
+++
Sometimes I wonder why I do it at all.
I have everything; why do I catch myself thinking, I wanted more for myself? Time for bed, is what that means.
dontpanic – I hope the biopsy results are negative and that the test itself doesn’t hurt very much. *hugs*
David M and cicely – *pouncehug*
rq, You can have everything + one more thing.
I say so. : )
Jeopardy version:
A: A Henway.
Q: What brand of piano do chickens prefer?
Wow, I didn’t think that was bad enough to clear the room for over an hour!
Impending Unemployment and Job Discrimination Update-
With everything else going down in my life, it would have been nice to just let what has already happened and been happening wind down the final month with little new excitement.
But no! No, I don’t get to have that.
So today while teaching Chemistry, one of our shoddy lowest-bidder piece of shit plastic bags came pre-packaged with a hole in it and one of the students spilled a mildly dangerous reaction (the reaction is water soluble but can include Calcium Chloride and Carbonic Acid) on their bare upper leg. Since all the stages are water soluble to aid cleaning, the usual response to spills is to get the affected area under a stream of water until there is absolutely no sign of itching and it is pretty unlikely to still be on it. Since I couldn’t get the student’s thigh under the sink, I used the emergency shower instead because, yanno, that’s kinda why it’s there.
Had the kid hold their leg under the stream, cleaned up any other spill from the shit bag and then checked on the kid, made sure they were okay, turned off the shower, sent them back to continue, called janitorial for the spill. Kid seemed fine, though disappointed with the wetness of their shoe.
So this is at the tail end of the class. And at the end of the class, my new shiny new tormentor, I mean direct boss, comes in and asks about the spill being mopped up. I inform her of the incident. She responds by basically trying to chide me for using the shower at all and suggesting instead that I use a wet paper towel to wipe off the chemical from the student (yeah, rubbing wet paper towels on a young child’s upper thigh, that sounds like a great solution).
Basically, she was yelling at me for causing a mess and making too big a deal of things (this is important).
And that pissed me off because it was all about how messy the emergency shower is and how it requires clean-up and can’t we do something cheaper that puts the student at more risk for spreading contamination. So we discuss that, I inform her that I made the best decision I could have and needed to wash the affected area as quickly as possible and the shower was the most convenient and fastest way to do so.
So while I’m stewing about that bullshit, she goes off somewhere and then comes back with Evil HR Director and the Floor Manager. I guess Evil HR Director was just gleefully waiting for something, anything to burn me on, because she comes swinging with the deep concern voice about how I hadn’t taken the issue seriously enough and that what I should have done was call Security and my direct boss (not for the child’s safety mind you, but rather to protect the institution if the child’s parent decided to sue them, cause fuck viewing children’s safety as more important than king profit) immediately to inform them of the terrible toxic spill. And yes, the meeting is complete with my new direct boss trying to playact being disappointed with me for my failure to take things seriously.
I informed them of what went down, the way I defaulted to how I was trained to handle students getting that material on themselves and, since I’m a little bit of a snarky lady, how the direct boss when she found out about the incident actually advised that I take it less seriously and involve even less people.
I also informed them that we were trained to handle spills in wet lab a specific way and they went off with “you might be in serious trouble” face as they noted that they were going to research this training and there’ll be a follow-up meeting (be very scared, disappointed, “we talked early about you informing your direct boss when things pop up” thus the most important fact isn’t the Keystone Cops way we rushed to try and burn you on something the person who summoned us doesn’t even take seriously, but rather some esoteric point about not communicating with your boss, and of course all the attempts to dodge from real issues when they didn’t hold the upper hand and try and erase circumstances in order to get me to plead forgiveness and give them an excuse to burn me).
The whole thing was a fucking joke in how incompetently desperate it was, which pissed me off to no end because there’s no fucking need. There’s only about a month left this season. They are already scheduling me as low as they can go. For the next two weeks, I am scheduled 1 half-day and then 2 half-days (OMG! Amazing!) while everyone else is working an average of 3 full days including people with much longer commutes and as I’ve noted in earlier comments, that’s not unusual. I was perfectly resigned to just riding out the rest of the year being kicked in the goolies and taking it with a half-hearted shrug.
But apparently, they have been so fucking desperate for something they can cling to as an excuse for why they totally aren’t a pack of bigoted assholes that they trip over the first thing they vaguely see without any consideration over whether they even have anything or whether they even needed to bother.
Overall, I just fucking wish they were less subtle or more subtle about their trans-discrimination so I could either have something obvious to burn them with in a lawsuit or I could continue to ignore their bullshit and focus on short-term survival and all the other bullshit in my life.
Oh, and I talked to the other teachers and asked them what they would have done in the situation. All of them responded with just washing the affected area, calling janitorial if they had to use the shower and continuing the lab. Not a one of them thought that informing Security or Direct Boss was part of procedure and when we were all in a mini-meeting with Direct Boss at the end of the day and I brought this up to her, she admitted herself to being confused on procedure and remembering being taught that it was all about rinsing off the area and continuing the lab (but hey, if she could fetch the big guns to burn me over bullshit she didn’t believe in, she wouldn’t let that stop her. Fucker.)
It’s sort of one of those things that infuriates me on every possible level. The complete dehumanizing lack of real concern for the child in question, but the cold willingness to exploit their “safety” (but not in a way that gives a damn about safety, but only about protecting their nickel-and-dime business practices) if it seems like it’ll give an excuse, any excuse. The complete lack of necessity of this bullshit considering they already had a fine system for dancing on the very edge of the letter of the law and it doesn’t really put them out to throw me a paltry handful of hours here and there and just ride out the month. The pathetic attempt at Catch 22 where they literally try to yell at me one direction and then flip around and try and burn me the other direction (Oh, forgot to mention, at the end of the meeting, they said they’d be back immediately to take the details of what happened, because they were just so concerned and that was such an important step in the process and why oh why didn’t you inform security fast enough. Yeah, turns out they never showed up, attempts to find them were absolutely fruitless and when I talked to security about it, he said it sounded like a waste of his fucking time and he appreciates not being called out on that bullshit, but said I could send him an email if the floor manager was demanding something, so I did). Or just the utter lack of respect on every level. They couldn’t even disguise their glee that finally, oh finally, they knew they got me and they were going to enjoy finally pinning me to the ground and seeing me gone. The flying fuck?!? They could at least continue to pretend that they aren’t gleefully complicit in the attempt to ruin my life because trans* people give them the icky.
Also, since I was pissed off at this bullshit, I ended up chatting with several other coworkers about it. An acquaintance in another department who asked about why I haven’t been around and I reported some of the bullshit and she was horrified. The receptionist who is always very nice to me who definitely looked a bit haunted in general on the subject (since she has previously tried to deny that her direct boss, the Evil HR Director, could be involved and no such denials were in place today, I think she’s realized exactly the scum she works for). And another nice lady who I occasionally talk to while filling up my morning tea. I ended up dumping a whole bunch of stuff that’s been going on to her, but she was pretty much already in “oh dear, that’s not right” mode after the whole “I’m working a single half day shift, while everyone else is working 3 full days on average”. She apologized for not having a plan to fix things as from what she’s overheard as I’ve prepared kids, she thinks I’m a fantastic teacher and I thanked her for just listening and apologized for dumping on her.
Overall, I’m just pissed, pissed, and more pissed. I get that they hate me being the way I be. I get that they are willfully ignoring the spirit of the law while dancing in the “won’t get caught” zone of the letter of the law and that that fills them with confidence, but hateful fucking baptists, they didn’t have to go the full tacky and spike the ball in the end zone over it.
Ugh! I have two interviews in the upcoming week which will hopefully get me employment for the summer at least and this Sunday when I call my mom for Mother’s Day, I get to find out if I’m still disowned by her and if we’re still going to Comic-Con or not this year (which may or may not have a direct effect on whether I can be hired by at least one of the companies interviewing me next week.
Fuck the transphobic world very fucking much. I think I’ve had my fill of fucking grues for the next long while.
dontpanic-
Oh no! Here’s hoping it’s nothing too bad. Good luck and hugs if you need them.
Parsnip threadrupt!
He is officially 4 weeks old now (well, 4 weeks and a day). He is beginning to look like an actual feline! Don’t do it Parsnip! Don’t perk those ears up!
http://imageshack.us/a/img593/2503/parsnip29days2.jpg
Parsnip is a polite kitten at feeding time.
http://imageshack.us/a/img818/2339/parsnip29days1.jpg
Rosemary is… well. Rosemary.
http://imageshack.us/a/img138/8859/rosemary4wks1.jpg
The back of my hand and my wrist covered in a tracery of red lines that burn. Plus, now that she has canine teeth, there is a great deal of yelling when she bites my hand or toes in her never ending quest for food. But of course, she will not attempt to eat the canned food I have offered. -_-
Parsnip continues rather dumb. I love him to bits, and will forever regret not being able to keep him, but damn. He’s really not got much going on in the brain department. He’s doubtless going to end up lazy and fat; perfect pillow cat to snuggle with.
I want to punch those people. I’m bad at being reassuring, sorry. I wonder if there’s some way to discretely let the child’s parents know that your boss apparently doesn’t think you should have done your best to prevent them from being injured, because it’s too much hassle and expense?
Also, if your mom won’t help you get to ComicCon, maybe the horde can?
Uh, hi, I’ve got a delivery of HUGS for Cerberus…
Cerberus…. D: D:< I bites them for you? I have sharp pointy teeth and can do much damages. Or I can throw Rosemary at them and she can slowly slice them to death with her tiny razor claws.
Big *hugs * for Cerberus. What a bunch of unmitigated shitheads.
Because I’m a giant nerd who has been tutoring way too many stats students lately, I did a quick and dirty t-distribution for the hours I’m getting in the next two weeks compared to the rest of the instructors. Just for the two weeks (not factoring in all the other weeks for months were I have been getting substantially less hours than everyone else), it was pretty impressively substantial within a 95% confidence interval with a t of -4.774.
But hey, it’s just coincidence that that keeps happening week after week, no discrimination going on here. It’s just a freak occurrence that would be nearly impossible to replicate by raw chance.
Finally got the iPad for the Redhead. Took a bit of work, but it is now talking through WiFi with my iMac, with shared internet connection. Web access! But not password protected or encrypted. Need to work on that.
Now I’m working on making it more usable for her condition. Checking the built in voice activation program (Siri), and maybe buying a voice recognition app for e-mail and the like, reducing the need to type anything. Also getting a book app installed as the main selling point. I already bought a couple of stands (one heavy duty deigned for use in the kitchen, with a stylus, and a lighter movable stand) so she could have the iPad steady as she scrolls through the book. I may need to get a bluetooth headset/microphone for best voice commands.
Using iTunes, it can easily synch pictures and video. Chris’s bunny videos for her amusement and enjoyment. After she kills me first.
Cerebrus, as a professional chemist, your handling of the situation was spot on. The first concern is always those contaminated, and getting them cleaned up/decontaminated by any reasonable means. Using the shower was indicated unless you could effectively hose the contaminated area. But in this case, no need for paramedics or other emergency personnel except as CYA–providing those higher up are willing to pay for the call.
Once the immediate danger is over, then the chain of command, like responsible faculty member, department head, and the safety/EHS department should usually be informed of the incident. You should have received training on the SOP for that. HR has no business anywhere near the site, or having anything to do with incident. Utterly unprofessional behavior on their part.
Management always hates it when the root cause is their cheapness.
Hang in there.
Which appears to be the case a depressing percentage of the time.
Heh. In my last job, I remember the look on the management’s faces when it was pointed out that their unwillingness to spend a few hundred dollars for an electronic GC vial crimper was why they had to spend thousands of dollars to treat a lab worker’s repetitive motion injury.
Hekuni Cat: *pouncehug*
–
That is the only form of applause appropriate to a really stinky pun.
:D
–
Cerberus: *hugs* and *calming manatees in chocolate sauce*. I am so very sorry about your situation. That is one hell of a shit-burger they’ve prepared for your consumption.
“Safety Theater”, sibling to “Security Theater”.
*spit*
Best wishes on the interviews.
–
Parsnip continues to be Made of Kyoot. Not that Rosemary isn’t cute, but Parsnip is special.
:)
–
Cerberus, I am so sorry. I hope your interviews go well. That would at least give you a little breathing room?
Is it O.K. if I vote for Death By Rosemary for your evil bosses?
rowanvt
Thanks so much for the Parsnip update. He is just too cute.
It seems Rosemary hides her dangerous side by looking sweet.
Cute kitties *squee*
I always think of you as rowant – the v is silent. Is that weird?
My poolish is extremely active.
In case you were wondering.
I don’t know how he does it, but Parsnip just keeps getting cuter!
Rosemary’s pretty damn cute, too, but… Parsnip!
Uh, does anyone here have, like, super research skills?
I need information on the legality of going barefoot in WA state.
From my own searches (RCW) I haven’t found anything stating that a passenger on public transit must wear shoes. (Also, even if it’s a WTA-specific rule, in all the years I’ve been riding the bus — barefoot! — I have not once, until now, been told to put shoes on.)
Ednaz, whatever works for you. :P I chose my username for two reasons. First is that my girl cat is named Rowan, and I’m a vet tech hence the VT. But if you shorten it down to just ‘initials’, it becomes RVT which the letters behind my named. Registered Veterinary Technician. I’ve finally been using this username enough that I’m starting to identify with it a lot. The name I use the most is my WoW character, which is Theraphee and I answer to Thera better than I do my birth name at this point in time.
*isadork*
Glad the Parsnip piccies are making people happy. Tomorrow… tomorrow he gets a *bath* (again) and I will be taking photos of bedraggled baby.
Wow… I gave quite the offering to tpyos in that post. So tired and yet must stay up for another 2 hours to feed and clean all the snakes, and double check the eggs.
The Bad Plus
Cerberus sounds like your day was far worse than mine. *Hugs*.
WMDKitty,
Why not ask the WA state police?
(Workplace safety aside, why would there be such a law?)
Honestly, I don’t expect the police to actually know the nitty-gritty details of the law. (And I don’t trust them.)
Cerberus
I have nothing but *hugs* and all the moral support. What assholes!
+++
A woman and her balancing act. And to think it all starts with a feather!
Thank you for that link, rq. That was amazing.
Remember Christian the Lion? Here’s his full story.
I’m angry. I’m pretty sure they destroyed the Canadarm, along with the entire space station. Way to scare people. (Also, George Clooney needs to start making less movies. I want to see different faces and hear different voices in these things.)
Parrowing
You’ve got an email in which the phrase “I’m sorry.” features prominently.
Thanksfor the reminder, FossilFishy…that’s exactly the kind of email I was going to send Parrowing today.
Cerberus:
I can’t express how mad that all makes me. I hope you find something better, is the best I can do in words. *hugs* and commiserations.
Is everything alright with Parrowing? Did I miss something?
Damn, Cerberus. That is ridiculous. Hugs and some cognac to you.
rq:
My reason for apology is that I have let her email go unanswered for an embarrassingly long time. I don’t know to what FossilFishy refers.
Cerebrus, if you have the energy and time for this sort of thing, might I suggest that you document every incident of harassment, discrimination, and poor judgement by your immediate and higher superiors at work. This may be useful to you should you need to sue them at some point. Especially if they try to interfere with your getting another job (i.e. bad letters of recommendation or similar.)
Portia
Ah, ok. :) I was worried there was a reason to worry.
(By the way, Parrowing, hi! if you’re reading, and *hugs* if you want them, just for the sake of having them!)
O hai! There’s a particularly simple-minded creationist over at the Sb version of Pharyngula! Starts here.
Having read this article and its comments (search the page for “leftish”) and this one (frankly, if Cohn-Bendit is against you, you’re doing something wrong, not right), I signed this petition.
All seconded. *restocks hug truck* *pours mushroom soup into USB port*
Well, all except for the misinterpretation of Cerberus. :-)
That, my friends, is Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) speaking at a congressional prayer event in Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol.
The event is organized by Joseph Farah, a nackle-ass who publishes the World Net Daily.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/bachmann-911-and-benghazi-were-gods-judgment
Bachmann’s special flavor of uselessness combined with christian arrogance is on display in the video available at the link.
To add to the discussion up-thread about David Bowie, the Catholic League is hating on him:
International Business Times link.
Cleveland Plain Dealer link.
Texas cheerleaders have received court approval to proselytize for their Texas god, (a god who is very into sports, especially football), with banners. CBS News link.
Cause my life needed another punch, my partner came home last night with her own tale of how she’s being driven out of her workplace by a determined bully poisoning the well with her direct boss. So yesterday she got one of those internally inconsistent and overly long lists about all her supposed flaws which are mostly all projected crap from the bully and boss in dumping their shit that is being sent to HR and she’s “got a month” to turn it around before the mandatory follow-up meeting.
And the whole thing mixed with everything else has her so depressed she’s in the hollow shell phase of depression. She’s got really strong experience and qualifications so I think she’ll be able to bounce to another bills-paying job hopefully but it’s so not something we need right now, either financially or emotionally.
Here’s the David Bowie video that has the Catholic League so upset.
http://www.vevo.com/watch/david-bowie/the-next-day-explicit/USRV31300003
Thanks Lynna.
*watches*
meh
chigau @636, “meh.” Yeah, just proves that it takes very little to set the Catholic League careening off into the land of the Offended.
The Maddow Blog posted an excellent summary of all the questions Republicans have been asking about Benghazi. And the answers are there as well … again.
I doubt this will make any difference to the Faux News crews that thinks none of their questions have been answered, therefore COVERUP! But it should make a difference. Really, it should.
Sad Cat Diary
–
Cerberus: “When it rains, it pours.” “Them as has, gets.” “Why stop now, just when you’re having so damned much fun.”
And something about “A turd in the hand…”
*hugs* and *choice of beverage* and piles of sympathy.
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*Moar hugs* for Cerberus
Sending hugs for Cerberus and Partner.
It sickens me the way your bosses treat you. I am so sorry.
rowanvt
Very cool username story. *thumbsup*
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rq
Thank You for the link to Christian The Lion. It makes me a little scared, but it ends up o.k. : )
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Lynna OM
Thanks for the links to Bowie and Rachel. So very interesting.
Oh. shit!
The Last Time Atmospheric CO2 was at 400 parts per million Humans Didn’t Exist http://scienceblogs.com/significantfigures/index.php/2013/05/10/the-last-time-atmospheric-co2-was-at-400-parts-per-million-humans-didnt-exist/
*waves to everyone*
*pile of hugs for Cerberus and Partner*
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I found this catching up on a webcomic, Science The World, a program for helping with STEM eduction in K-12 grades. I don’t have any information beyond what’s listed but I figured someone might be interested in contacting them.
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Fucking A, I hope these nightmares don’t last much longer. (Oh, even I know I’m kidding myself.) Woke up again after a couple hours of sleep at 1 a.m. This time the nightmare included my Roomie turning on me and letting the Ex in the house and not stepping in to stop him as….things happened. *shudder*
*sigh*
Well, at least I have the four books of the Rain Wilds to read still.
*restocks the hug truck again*
*chocolate of all kinds*
Hugs for Azuma Hazuki, too. If you read this, please spill the evidence; I’m all virtual ears. :-) :-) :-)
We’re living in interesting times. And we’ve made them ourselves.
A Pacific-Northwest-style temperate rainforest in the Atlantic Northwest would be fucking awesome, but it’s too bad that the palaeobatrachids and the albanerpetontids stay dead. :-(
Cerberus & partner, and JAL:
http://emergencykitten.com/ (refresh the page)
http://calmingmanatee.com/
Oh, and, “Humans Didn’t Exist” depends on the definition of “human”. Homo (as usually used) didn’t exist, though. We’re stupidly going where no man in that sense has gone before.
Ok, Doctor Who can just fuck right off now. “Tight skirt”?? Really, Gaiman??
Cerberus – I can’t believe how much is happening to you at once. I’m so sorry.
Right now, I am ripping Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison concert and, next, I wil rip Bob Dylan’s John Wesley Harding. Not only that, but our library also has the complete Rolling Stone rock and roll collection and I am ripping those, too. I has good music!
Cerberus, sounds like HR is stepping on Compliance Officers toes. hugs offered and hope those asinine bigots get what they deserve. Good luck on the interviews, you clearly know your stuff.
It’s a cat day today.
cats that looks like male models
And the sad cat’s diary, fitting my mood… I was promised good weather and needed it, instead we have rain!
And Henri’s ennui always bears repeating on such days. (He’s got 4 episodes now!)
Also, Best Friend wants to eat her sunscreen. I just… Fluoride, GMOs, UV denial now. *sigh*
Happy Mother’s Day!
rq,
So your friend is going to give money to food supplement manufacturers instead of those sleazy sunscreen manufacturers.
What a rebel! Does she also believe in homeopathy?
There was maybe too much snark in that comment. Sorry.
Couldn’t resist it. I read the comments – until I couldn’t stand it.
For those unfamiliar with the knowledge base and reasoning skills of such people, the author happily endorsed one commenter’s proposal that drinking raw milk would be “good” for sunburn prevention.
There are no words.
Human skin is natural , sun is natural, raw milk is natural…. how could anything possibly go wrong when everything is natural?
Fleet of pantechnicons full of hugs for Cerberus and partner. Fuck, make that several fleets :-((((
If SC is around, she might find these two references interesting:-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/may/12/psychiatrists-under-fire-mental-health
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/may/12/medicine-dsm5-row-does-mental-illness-exist
carlie:
It’s possible, if I’m in the mood to give them the benefit of the doubt, that that was supposed to be a remnant of the other guy, who was an asshole.
I’m still a bit pissed off at the series for the last episode’s treatment of Jenny, so this is not helping.
*extrahugs* for Cerberus and Partner. That’s such crappy behavior with almost-as-crappy timing. : (
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How’s everybody’s (or rather, anybody, it’s a ghost town in here) weekend?
Dunno yet. My weekend starts in 55 minutes you calendarist oppressor!
Did … something odd happen to FtB today? I couldn’t get onto the site for quite a while, and now all of a sudden it looks like I can again.
… anyone else?
Ogvorbis, re. Johnny Cash, I read today that it is precisely ten years since he died.
Also I read a lot of praise for his final music video, “Hurt”. His wife passed away weeks after it was made and JC himself did not linger many months after that.
“Hurt” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur8j4xWe_44
*shakes fist*
You calendar rebel! I will not waiver. It is Sunday. Evidenced by the fact that the church bells across the street annoyed me as usual this morning.
HI folks
Still ‘Rupt
But Mr. and I celebrated our 6th aniversary yesterday!
And I’ve been crafting a lot. After all I needed Something new to wear*
Hugs for all of you, ‘specially JAL and Cerberus
JAL
Would you mind gicing me your post adress (mail: nymÄTyahooDOTde)?
I have a little something for your Little One
Rowanvt
Can I ask you a favour?
Or actually two…
I remember that you draw the most gorgeous dragons, but I forgot to bookmark your Deviantart page. Would you link to it again and give me permission to use a painting for a totally non-comercial-I-just-want-to-try-this embroidery project?
*Yes, that’s my tits.
Yes, that’s my actual clevage
No, I’m not propperly ashamed for all the guys who still have to behave themselves
Pretty necklace and happy anniversary, Giliell! :)
In the Ogvorbisverse, this is Friday.
Not to worry. All you need to do is request a waiver form (DI-W-45(j) amended (2003)) using a DI-1-MG-42 (7.92mm). Just cross out machine gun and write in “Waiver form”. Delivery is guaranteed before the sun becomes a blackened cold cinder.
Only to calendarist oppressors.
‘Round these parts, the church bells chime every day of the week.
And happy mothers day (US) to you and all of the other mothers.
opposablethumbs
I didn’t notice anything today but I’ve been meatspacing for a few hours.
When it does happen, I usually blame my POS netbook.
Happy Anniversary to Giliell and spouse. Free grog and swill at the saloon for the couple tonight.
Project iPad for the Redhead continues at a slow pace. Finally able to invoke reasonable WiFi security, Chris’s bunny videos installed and synced via iTunes. Kindle and iBooks installed, with a book on evolution PZ posted as freebie for Kindle a year or so ago, and the iPad user guide in iBook. Have the iBook store pointed at knitting selections. Set up a shortcut for a TV guide with preset usual channels for late night background noise. Still several days away from springing it on her.
Portia
Hay fever and quiet, mostly.
Opposablethumbs
Me too. Not just here, all of FTB.
JAL
*Hugs* Nightmares suck by all accounts. I hope yours end soon.
Giliell
That’s a lovely necklace.
birgerjohansen
That’s a depressing thought. The music video is also wonderful.
NEW THREAD.