This is the lounge. You can discuss anything you want, but you will do it kindly. Bacon. Just bacon.
Status: Heavily Moderated; Previous thread
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
This is the lounge. You can discuss anything you want, but you will do it kindly. Bacon. Just bacon.
Status: Heavily Moderated; Previous thread
I had a thought for a tee shirt, yesterday…
RELIGION
It doesn’t have to be True–
It just has to be Convincing.
…more-or-less in response to a discussion with my best friend on Protestantism vs. Catholicism; though I don’t think she entirely got my point. Which was that, essentially, you/they shop around for a “flavor” of Christianity that is congenial to your biases (often, though not always, the natal sect that helped you form those biases), then sigh and shake your/their head/s over how the other sects are all “doing it wrong”—even as the proponents of those other sects are doing unto you/them likewise.
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But they went out of fashion long ago, in many parts of the world.
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Tony: It sounds as if you are putting your ‘silver lining’ to good use; and well done!
Also, if I have, from the safety of the [Lounge], in any way opened your eyes to the dangers of the Lurking Equine Menace, then I am content.
:D
Later: See? You are valued, not just here, but otherwhere as well.
Even Later: Yes. That is indeed a very good-looking man.
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Beatrice: Good afternoon-verging-on-evening.
:D
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I like this!
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And Kyrsten Sinema also rocks.
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Ogvorbis: Speaking as an also-wimp, I agree with Tony @ 476. No reason to go lookin’ for a stompin’, and they’re always braver with the rest of their herd around them.
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Privilege analogy attempt: You don’t notice the air, until you don’t have it. You just take it for granted, because its presence is “normal”.
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And then, after we grease up the ol’ Clonomatic—-moaostripenturducken. Even moa eating for everyone.
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(My bolding, obviously.)
Thus neatly combining the sartorial and culinary discussions.
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My sister in law just yelled at me for saying that poor people often don’t have any good choices, so their circumstances are not about their choices. Apparently poor people always have a good choice to make, including foraging for edible vegetation in their living area, (Wut?) or going to a food bank. Getting bilked by a loan shark is just a poor choice, duh, so they clearly think they could bilk someone else to pay the 500% interest or they wouldn’t have taken the loan.
I just stopped talking at a certain point and waited for her to walk away. Yeesh. Weirdest part is, she’s one of those “I’m slightly less poor than I used to be, so it’s obviously possible to bootstrap.”
/vent.
Parents coming tomorrow.
Still cleaning.
Much cleaning.
ARGH THE CLEANING
Will be away for awhile. :)
Good luck, carlie!
I just spent ten minutes at #500 refreshing and muttering wutthfuk.
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I was ten days on the tundra without incident then twisted my ankle in the terminal and also removed a chunk of skin from my knee.
We’re going somewhere expensive for supper.
John McCain agrees with President Obama about inequalities facing African-Americans.
I felt your pain. A series of visitors including the Redhead’s BFF. Which put off some normal stuff for a while. Today, four loads of laundry, some food shopping, and making a shitload of spaghetti sauce, noodles, and garlic bread for planovers. One tuckered Nerd, and I still have to remake her bed before sleep.
chigau:
owwww. Enjoy that dinner.
Nerd:
Whew. Enjoy your break when you get it.
—
I just did an unintentional triathalon. Was left behind on the excursion to the lake, so I biked over, and put the bike in the back of mom’s minivan. Swam hard to get exercise. Stepdad thought I drove (WHERE DID HE THINK I PARKED, UNDER MY INVISIBLITY CAR CLOAK?!!) so he drove home without me and mom. We walked the 2 miles home at dusk, even though he got back to the house and saw my car and decided against coming back for us. I left my phone in the van because I was being good and not taking my phone everywhere with me like an appendage. That’s what I get for being self-disciplined on all counts!
I’m tahred ooout.
Yeah, I have a rant against Moore that’s been percolating for a while.
I’ve only read one of his books, A Dirty Job, and the first bit of You Suck that was included at the end of that book as a promotion/advertisement. I was sufficiently disgusted that I don’t want to read anything else by him.
A Dirty Job had this bit about the women who work out in a gym, and an employee of the main character says something about them being “professional girlfriends”, or words to that effect, and then says that he calls them “fuck puppets”. And as the story progresses, it quickly becomes clear that it’s not just “this character calls them fuck puppets”, but “everyone in the book, including the omniscient narrator, calls them fuck puppets”. Fuck puppets: by implication, these particular women are mindless, have no real agency, and all they’re good for is fucking, or being fucked. Feh.
There’s another thing which was creepy. When the main character (Charlie) and his sister were talking about the main character’s infant daughter (Sophie), there was this sequence where the little girl mouths a frankfurter, and the adults start talking about this infant performing fellatio. Yeah, I get that humor can involve taboo violation, but there’s something really off about referring to an infant performing sexual acts, even as a joke.
There’s yet another creepy bit in a later chapter, where Charlie’s teen shop assistant suddenly decides to throw herself at him. She says something like “Do whatever you want, but not in the butt”, and the last part is overheard by Sophie, a few years older now, who starts running around chanting “not in the butt, not in the butt”.
Maybe I’m just oversensitive, but there’s just too much like that in the book.
And then there was the extra chapter from the book on vampires. There’s a conversation between the female vampire and her boyfriend, where said boyfriend turns out to have had sex with her while she’s unconscious during the daytime, without her knowledge, and therefore, without her consent. It’s not presented positively, but the discussion moves to emphasize that makes him a necrophiliac, rather than in fact being a rapist.
Oh, and one more thing that was not misogynist, but rather an example of anti-Muslim bigotry. Two hellhounds show up during the course of the narrative. The hellhounds each have collars and nametags, and one of them is named Mohammed. OK, weird, not that objectionable in itself. Yeah, let’s violate sacred taboos; I get that. The hellhounds are there to guard the little girl, who has for various narrative reasons, a tendency to inadvertently kill people and animals by pointing at them and saying “kitty!” (this doesn’t happen with the hellhounds).
Later in the story, Charlie, Sophie, and the two hellhounds, all out for a stroll, pass a Muslim character, who hears Charlie call the hellhound “Mohammed”. And this Muslim guy gets upset, and offended. And he yells at Charlie, eventually devolving to chanting “Death to the infidel!” And then Sophie, upset by all this, points at the Muslim and says “kitty!”, who, of course, falls down dead.
And so of course the whole business of having the dog named “Mohammed” was a contrivance of the author; to get to this point of having a pathetically obvious caricature of a Muslim become angry and offended, and then killed “innocently” by the little girl. It’s pretty slimy.
It was obviously inspired by the Muhammed cartoon incident, and probably also incidents where people with service dogs were refused service by Muslim taxi drivers. But rather than writing something to discuss blasphemy as free speech, or the harm of religious taboo, he just makes this cheap, cruel shot at Muslims.
Feh.
There’s probably more in A Dirty Job that could be deconstructed as problematic, but the above is what stuck in my mind.
And, possibly influenced by my disgust with the above problems, I didn’t find the story itself to be particularly funny, or particularly good otherwise.
I am flabbergasted.
I accept compliments with greater ease than in years past, but sometimes one hits me like a clue by four. Thats how morgan’s praise hit (in response to a comment I made in the ‘lazy writer’ thread). To have anyone mention they would pay to read what I write leaves me feeling at once honored and humbled.
Portia:
Oooo. Sorry to hear that. At least you got a great workout. Sleep will probably come easy tonight.
Not sure how you feel about the situation, but in your shoes, I think I would be highly pissed (though exhaustion would overcome anger…til tomorrow). It strikes me as incredibly thoughtless on his part.
Thanks for the validation, Tony, it’s just what I needed. He has made up a whole lot of post-hoc justifications, and apologized outside my presence to my mom. He just can’t seem to bring himself to apologize to me. Instead, when I give him grief or explain why it upset me, he mimes a tiny violin. The inconsiderate behavior and subsequent brush off attitude are pretty typical, though. Mom thinks it’s because his dad died when he was a kid and so he can’t be vulnerable enough to apologize. Or something. To her credit, she’s vocally on my side about the fact that he should apologize to me. Anyway, now we are planning pranks to get back at him, like going to his work and confiscating his car so he has to walk home (it’s right by where we swam) ^_^
And now I think I will definitely do some deserved relaxing :) I hope your Sunday evening was relaxing.
I’m watching a CBC (Canada) documentary about intersex people.
geewhiz
The Passionate Eye
InterSEXion
Tony:
It’s so nice to have people express their happy feelings towards you, isn’t it? : ) Soak it up and enjoy it, you deserve it.
rq: You haz email.
Beware the Shadowcamels.
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Thread ‘rupt. Late to the “raven” discussion … Wife used to teach at San Mateo Community College where she would bring very young Spawn to day care. The campus had a large population of crows that lived in the trees. When spawn was just learning to speak we were playing the game you play with kids: a cow says? response:”moo moo”; a dog says? “woof”; a cat says? “meow” … a birdie says? CAAWWW. Imagine that said at the top of one’s lungs. Yeah, we were expecting “tweet, tweet” or “chirp, chirp”… apparently he’d internalized the birdies that he actually had interactions with rather than the sweet little things of stories.
Okay. So, I admit that I have a really poor grounding in academic feminist theory., But, I was, for roundabout reasons, inspired to look up Liberal and Radical Feminism, and under the “Criticism” section for Wikipedia’s “Radical Feminism” page, noticed this:
That….IS…a strawman. ….right? O.O
I like ravens. I watched some flying along a cliff, and they seemed to be enjoying the swoops.
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Raven/id – “The intriguing Common Raven has accompanied people around the Northern Hemisphere for centuries, following their wagons, sleds, sleighs, and hunting parties in hopes of a quick meal. Ravens are among the smartest of all birds, gaining a reputation for solving ever more complicated problems invented by ever more creative scientists. These big, sooty birds thrive among humans and in the back of beyond, stretching across the sky on easy, flowing wingbeats and filling the empty spaces with an echoing croak. … Ravens are confident, inquisitive birds that strut around or occasionally bound forward with light, two-footed hops. In flight they are buoyant and graceful, interspersing soaring, gliding, and slow flaps.”
I have heard twice crows do their “secret” softer, more-musical call that I have only read about once. It’s not singing trills or anything, it’s just a contemplative “keeyough”sound, as I recall it. Do ravens also do a call like that, I wonder?
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I got to go to a 90th birthday party today. Lots of family and friends for a really good person. The organizer worked wonders. Lots of love there.
Tony
I second anything morgan may have said about paying to read what you write.
That means you really have to get a column now – but a prestigious one!
cicely
Checking mail with great anticipation.
Portia
I hope you go through with the car prank… and then play lots of tiny violins when he complains. He’s likely to get the joke, right? :/
Also, I’m glad you’re generally having a good time. *hugs*
+++
I know it’s the middle of July, but it feels like early September / imminent autumn. Not just because of the rain, but the slant of the light and the coolness in the air even when it’s sunny…
Fuck. Some petty criminals in my town with access to a gun freaked ou t and a 22-year old woman was shot to death. Umeå is normally this sleepy town in North Sweden but Saturday cops were crawling all over.
– – – –
Second anniversary of the massacre on Utöya.
— — — — — — — — — —
Marathon reading of “Solaris”:
“On August 3 in New York City, Lem’s Solaris will be read aloud by a succession of “writers and collaborators.” The reading is being presented by two organizations but is free, not a fund-raiser. Some information, for anyone interested: https://www.facebook.com/events/565424790166010/
Commenter John Branch:
” I wouldn’t have said that the book touches upon “the extraordinary expanses of human capacity,” but they didn’t ask me.”
I hope this is a new, direct-from-Polish translation. BJ
PS They got two suspects for the shooting, both with a police record.
Little to do at work, except worry about that one big responsibility I mentioned previously (the one that shouldn’t have been given to someone who technically isn’t even an employee – the only good thing is that they can’t fire me if shit hits the fan (on the other hand, I was hoping for a job here, so that would be lost)), and generally contemplating how my life is a failure.
Not good.
So, any hot topics anyone wants to discuss?
“Self-replicating alien probes could already be here” http://phys.org/news/2013-07-self-replicating-alien-probes.html
Hmm…didn’t Stephen Baxter write a novel about that?
One of the researchers involved is named after Arwen. Which reminds me, Swedish TV had a contest for Tolkien fans, the winners easily remembered the name of the hill in Lothlorien where Arwen and Aragorn were betrothed.
Hot topics… Norwegian woman was raped in Dubai, got longer prison sentence than the culprit. A private project to land a probe at the Lunar South Pole is underway. biblical archaeologistss claim they have found the palace of king David (take this one with a grain of salt).
Corvid birds: I leave pieces of bread out for the young birds that have left the nest just a few weeks ago.
Self-replicating alien probes sounds like a suitably hot topic… That, or we can discuss how much I hate it when Middle Child bleeds all over the butcher shop. :/
birgerjohansson,
I read about that woman in Dubai. Googling it again now, it looks like she was pardoned and is returning home.
Bad news is that her rapist was pardoned too.
(source)
——
rq,
That butcher of yours is very unprofessional. Is the younger or older child next to go? In any case, do take them to someone with more concerns about their customers and hygiene.
Beatrice
Unfortunately they’re the only one in town. But I’ll definitely give them a piece of my mind.
Ok, joking about getting rid of your kids aside, what happened? Is middle child ok?
Beatrice
Yes, he is. I think. (Husband is taking him to hospital to double-check because it’s a head wound that’s bleeding profusely, and I’m terrified of people in white lab coats in hospitals, but at least he offered to do it and the hospital’s nearby.) He split the skin on the back of his head on the sharpest corner of one of those low ice cream freezers – the sharpest edge is right at his head level, so, of course, and opportunity not to be missed… It’ll be a lesson on horsing around in the shops, which we’ve been trying to instill for the longest time, but when you take the Circus shopping, there’s bound to be consequences eventually.
He’s all nervous but being brave about his first ever hospital visit (his biggest fear – that they’ll cut his hair to get at the wound…). Second head wound, though – I hope it’s not a pattern!
HI there
Today is one of these days where i get things done but don’t feel like doing anything (because yeah, I skipped college in order to get other things done) which depresses me and slows me down. :(
rq
Hugs for you and middle child
+++
And here are two very interesting articles that popped up in my twitter feed:
Crack might be bad, but there are worse things for children…
Because Islamophobia is something stealth jihadists like myself make up
+++
And yes I’m cranky and even mory cynical than usually.
rq,
ouch
I’m cringing just reading about it. Hoping he’s ok and that the Circus will be sufficiently intimidated by the sight of blood to give you some peace in public for a while.
—–
Giliell,
*hugs*
Beatrice
Not likely, but we’ll see. :)
All is well, he got a stitch and an award for being the First Child With Stiches in this family.
Back to shenanigans.
Giliell
*hugs* for you, too!
And thanks for the interesting reads. Who would have thought that poverty has such an impact on the lives of children?? [/snark]
rq:
I hope your little one is ok! Yeesh, kids these days, getting themselves busted up : (
We don’t have an extra set of his car keys, so we’ll have to come up with something else. He claimed he thought we wanted to walk (when he clearly didn’t think that) so I’m thinking I’ll just do things that inconvenience him and then claim I thought it’s what he wanted }:)
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My legs are a bit sore this morning but it’s my scheduled day to go for a training run. I better get off my butt and do it anyway because a couple friends asked me to be on their marathon relay team in September, a week after I have scheduled my first 5K. Into the deep end I go!
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Now I wonder if I saw crows or ravens the other day..
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Azkyroth, I would say yes. Most feminists I know of actually heavily criticize the idea that women are speshul creatures with extra patience or morals or anything like that. We’re just people, and that’s the whole point. For me and the feminists I read, anyway.
Oops, refresh, refresh. Glad Middle Child is ok.
Yesterday the munchkins went home to their respective parents’ houses from my mom’s house. At lunch, out of the blue (like most things a three year old says) A asks me “Do you know who saves people when dey are hurt?” “Who?” “YoooooooooooooOOOOoooou.” Then B, also three, continues “Yeah and you drive dah fire trucks, and I dink dey are in dah fire garage and you drive dah big trucks”
*melt*
(Yeah, rq, I’m having a pretty good time :) )
Portia, it reminds me of when Blackadder fires his servant. Baldric complains about having no money and Blackadder replies “surely you will be allowed to starve to death in a public park?” (he got re-hired as Blackadder needed him for yet another nefarious scheme)
“Killer” princesses invade Stockholm streets
http://www.thelocal.se/49168/20130719/
Gallery of evil graffiti fairytale characters http://www.thelocal.se/gallery/lifestyle/3286/
Amanda Jenssen – Dry My Soul http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzWfNn5Y5JA
Amanda Jenssen – Volcano Swing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4LGj_TYerA&list=PLKQ2HF3KOmRm-Z5iMSa7J5St4cm15BxMv
Ha! Blackadder has a quip for every situation…
I told Stepdad that I thought he wanted the air let out of his tires so I was planning to do that for him til mom told me he didn’t actually want that. I’m gonna get some good mileage out of this one.
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So sorry to hear about the violence in your town. Take care of yourself.
I had a lovely weekend with my girlfriend. We went to the movies and saw Pacific Rim (giant-ass robots v. giant-ass monsters, awesome!) We also saw the pirate exhibit at Nat Geo.
Nat Geo has a pirate exhibit? RRRRRRRRRRR!!!
Portia
I’m sure there’s something out there that he wants done. ;) Good luck running with this joke! (And good luck running.)
Kids say the durndest things, don’t they? :)
KevinKat:
Hooray for a fun weekend! :D
—
rq:
Thank you. I’m off now. I may limp more than run this round, but at least I’ll be trying. :)
I need to email, you I feel like I’ve left a conversation thread hanging but I can’t quite recall what. Ah well. Hope you’re well aside from Children Injuring Themselves.
@RQ:
It’s the artifacts from the wreck of the Whydah.
Gruesome heritage of the Great War:
German WWI Shelter Unearthed in France http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/photo-gallery-german-wwi-shelter-unearthed-in-france-fotostrecke-74445.html
Sunken WWI U-Boats a Bonanza for Historians http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/british-archaeologists-explore-wwi-submarine-graveyard-off-uk-coast-a-911648.html
Portia
It’s ok, all is well (besides Children Injuring Themselves, of course).
I’m sure any and all email conversations can be restarted at need. ;)
I’ll be at work again tonight, salivating over that one guy who just does things right. It’ll be awesome.
KevinKat
I had to google that, but it sounds like an absolutely awesome exhibit!
So if an amateur cynic needs A happy thought, how many does a professional cynic need?
****
rq:
Hope middle child will be ok.
Tony
Thanks, he’s fine. Barely a hitch in ordinary behaviour. :)
rq
Oooh, yes, I’m glad there’s at least one person who doesn’t make your job harder :)
Oh, internet hugs to Middle Child and to all of you who had to endure the shock. (Injury to spawn scares me witless in the abstract, (though admittedly not in the moment on the few occasions it actually happened (so far) (but then, it was never too bad, thank goodness. I’m a bit of a major coward where injury to spawn is concerned …))). So post-injury Cups of Tea to you, rq!
.
Your nephew-munchkins sound adorable, Portia! And how cool is it that you are so cool to them, too :-D For kids that age, a firefighter is deservedly a superhero. And I can’t wait for you to get your stepdad back but good :-)))
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Yay for good times, KevinKat!
.
And fly-by greetings to the Horde, especially any of us who have hard times right now.
Hi opposablethumb! *hugs* just cuz.
A is a niece, actually. :) They do both say the darnedest things. (I really expected darnedest to have a wiggly line under it. Huh.)
A few months ago I somehow managed to loose my main pair of eyeglasses. That wasn’t quite as bad as it sounds — despite being blinder than a very blind thing without them — as my spares just happened to be the identical prescription, albeit the lens are a bit scratched and the prescription itself is overage. I’ve been using my spares ever since.
The risk, as any technophile should spot, is that now I had a “single point of failure”; i.e., if anything happened to the “spares” I would be sightless.
So, of course, last week the frame broke. Unrepairably. Which is rather impressive as it was a Ti frame. The “fix” was a new frame (last year’s model, so at a 50% discount), and re-grinding the lens to fit. The optician was very professional and got me stumbling along again rather quickly.
Since the prescription is old and the lens less-than-perfect and so on, I finally stopped procrastinating and scheduled an appointment with an eye-doctor (not entirely sure if she is an Ophthalmologist or an Optometrist). I was a bit worried I might have the onset of Glaucoma since one eye seemed to be showing the symptoms, but she did a pressure test (without my having to ask) and confirmed all is Ok.
Whew!
What she did diagnose, in that eye, was a “virus” (there may be a language issue here) and gave me a prescription for some medicines. I believe her, despite not (yet) researching the diagnosis / medicines on the ‘Net, since she correctly described the symptoms without me mentioning or hinting-at them. (My plan was to bring it up later if she didn’t spot anything.)
But the medicines are eye drops.
I fecking hate eye drops. Even worse than needles or peas.
Anyways, I’m gonna have to be torturing myself for the next two weeks or so. Or else gouge out that eye and be done with it. An eyepatch seems more dashing and desirable than any FSMdamned fecking horrid eye drop torture.
I also, of course, got a prescription for some new eyeglasses. Which means I might even be able to smell what I an tpinj.
Socialized medicine! Visit, 40€, prescription, 8€, with the French system (topped up by my employer’s insurance) to pay for most of that total, plus part of the cost of the new eyeglasses. (I’ll have to pay for perhaps most of the new eyeglasses as the French system does not pay very well for eye-related issues, and the insurance is a bit on the cheap side, and I don’t buy cheap when it comes to my eyesight. This is not an issue per se, just an annoyance.)
This is just one instance of Republicans trying to sabotage laws they don’t like. Constituent services are a supposed to be a given for Congress critters. They’re all supposed to help their constituents, and in the past they have done so, (if sometimes reluctantly). Now they are refusing to help. It’s just fucking bonkers.
The other obstructionist tactic we see a lot is lying and/or putting out misinformation (a softer form of lying). They manipulated statistics and cherry-picked information to tell residents of Indiana that the Affordable Health Care law would raise their insurance premiums by 72%. (Debunked here. ) Considering the good news that regarding premiums that came out of New York and California, we shouldn’t even have to debunk the lies from Indiana, but that won’t be the last Republican-controlled legislature that pumps out lies about the AFC law.
Other sabotage tactics:
– endless repeal initiatives, so many that some people think the AFC has been repealed
– encouraging ignorance of how the law works by lobbying private organizations to stay out of educational campaigns
– refusing to allow Medicaid expansion
– refusing to create the exchanges where state residents can shop for insurance
Paul Krugman’s thoughts on the matter.
Jonathan Bernstein’s thoughts on the matter.
Right on schedule: the episode of Buffy with the evil stepfather :)
—
I am really enjoying Drift so far. I can really hear Rachel Maddow’s incredulous tone throughout it. I love it.
and
Connection?
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*hugs* for rq and offspring. Maybe you need to buy or embellish an elaborate helmet for him.
:)
–
That crack study was very interesting. I’m hoping some of my FB friends and acquaintances will actually read it.
–
Yes, Portia, you are a positive role model! And if you’re not careful, you could end up being a Good Influence.
:)
Perhaps…fail to fix your step-dad dinner on the “presumption” that he wanted to fast?
:D
–
cicely,
:D:D:D Thanks.
That revenge plan would work if only he weren’t the chef of the household :)
Hope this question is not too stupid, but … is there any truth to the idea that it’s good not to wear glasses (if your only issue is age-related loss of accommodation, that is) on the grounds that if you don’t make the muscles work they’ll lost elasticity even faster?????
.
Sorry for mistakenly nephewifying your niece, Portia.
Age-related farsightedness, presbyopia, is possibly muscular. It may result from the lens losing elasticity, or from the decreasing strength of the cilliary muscles.
I’ve not seen any studies that show that eye exercises (like not wearing glasses) helps. In fact, it may be that the continuing overstrain may make them collapse faster.
The Ozlanders were hammered well and truly during the last Ashes cricket game, so hard and ruthlessly they are probably on a hyperbolic trajectory leaving the Solar System. Consequently, everyone has been piling on (cricket is a “gentlemen’s” sport in the same way genocide is a relaxing afternoon pastime) — including, rather amusingly, the German Cricket Bund, who have offered to replace Ingerland so that the Ozlanders won’t loose as badly:
Of course, this is all a cunning plan by the Ozlanders to avoid taking back the urn filled with toxic burnt British Industrial Cheddar. But they do need to make it a bit less obvious. Rather a lot less obvious, actually.
O.O
>.<
oooohhhhhh.
Hmm. I'm just getting to the point where I can no longer maintain plausible deniability wrt reading very small print in low lighting conditions.
Of course glasses and dental care are the things that are not completely free on the NHS …
Bugger :-(
Portia: Okay; I’m nothing if not adaptable.
Fail to do his laundry on the “presumption” that he wanted to sit around the house nekkid? (I appreciate the potential for an aesthetics problem; you might want to leave your mom to deal with the…ah…fallout of this one on her own.)
:)
–
Right. First session of Teh French Eye Drop Torture completed. Main problem (after being suitably frightened by all the scary warnings and possible adverse side-effects) was trying to figure out how to open the fecking bottle. No instructions, and no cryptic hieroglyphics. Finally determined there was a less-than-obvious seal to break, and the torture device was revealed. At least some went in the eye. Which isn’t complaining, and hasn’t fallen out yet. So another round is needed later…
I’m off to dinner, and more enjoyable things, like pouring a glass of vin in—…, well, er, enough said.
blf, I hear you (so to speak, ah, write) on the topic of eye drops. I hatez ’em. Just can’t do it. Once I had a bit of an eye infection and the nurse wanted to rinse it out w/ some saline solution. Took 3 people to hold me down enough to get it flushed out … and that was with me doing my best to “help”. *sympathy*
Dropping in for hugs and encouragement: I’m having a bad day. Hard as it is to admit, I really really really dislike being pregnant. Don’t get me wrong, I’m already starting to love Babygirl and can’t wait to meet her, but I can’t stand feeling this sick all the time. I have not felt this unhealthy in years. So many women I have known had some discomfort, but many of them tell me how healthy they felt, and how much energy they had. I only feel good when I’m lying down, and I’m staring down the Monday of my 6 day work week. I don’t want to complain all the time or give everyone the impression that I’m not happy with my pregnancy. I could just use a break from all the side effects. Yep, a bad day.
Hugs please, and maybe links to pictures of cute rats.
*hugs* and cute rats for Dutchgirl; also my sympathies.
I know it won’t be much comfort, but I felt completely wretched throughout most of my pregnancy—which doesn’t seem to have damaged Son in any way.
I suspect that the whole “healthy and full of energy” rah rah is of a piece with the “glow” of pregnancy; it’s what They want you to think that you must feel. This is, in my book, all the justification you need to throw up on Their feet.
Violently and with extreme prejudice.
–
And with plenty of support from the diaphragm. Volume is good, but projection is vital.
–
Dutchgirl,
*hugs*
cicely, actually that helps more than you thought. I think I’m feeling a little lonely. I work, I (try to) sleep, repeat. I feel like I have no fun at all. There are just those few hours of not feeling totally wretched to look forward to. My husband has such a hard time seeing me unhappy, and there’s nothing he can do, so he’s feeling bad too. We try to do fun stuff, but I just don’t have the energy. Knowing I’m not alone in this experience helps a lot. Thanks for the hugs, support, rats, and lol advice. Thank you also to Beatrice.
We’re here for you, at need; though a quick look at Recent Comments suggests that most of us are hanging out on the Immortality thread, at the mo. Still….
–
moaostripenturducken
Bluewhalephacowmoastripenturduckenigeonlarkummingbird.
On vacation until Friday (your Friday)
Dutchgirl:
I’ve never been pregnant, but I thoroughly second cicely’s attitude about it. And the part where we’re here for you :) Hope that the sick feeling is a phase for you : /
speaking of babies, Kate had a boy. I was really hoping for a female heir to the throne to be the first one since that rule change allowing a woman to actually be an heir. Does that make me a misandrist? ;)
Portia: I’m now well into my 2nd trimester, which is when many women start to feel better. No such luck, and I’m tired of hoping that tomorrow or next week I won’t feel like crap. Looks like pregnancy has set off an older digestive issue that lasted 3 years last time, so probably not a phase.
I hesitated stating my dissatisfaction with the situation because of course it is temporary and I did my part to choose it, and its worth it, but then again my feelings are genuine and yeah there is a lot of pressure to be happy and “glow” and “enjoy it”. Bah humbug. I still don’t have the guts to say it too much IRL because I have a sister-in-law who has been trying to get pregnant as long as me and I don’t want to hurt her feelings by complaining. Never thought it would get so complicated, or is that the hormones talking? Gah!
Dutchgirl – (hugs). I had my babies in a time when nobody around me was having babies, so I feel for you on the lonliness thing. There’s always somebody in the Lounge to talk to, though. :)
You have every right to wallow as much as you like, especially here, where there’s no chance of slighting anyone. Just because you want the babby at the end doesn’t mean you’re obligated to enjoy or pretend to enjoy the process of growing it. I mean, your body is making another person. That’s a big deal and it’s a big drain on your body and you don’t need to feel any other way but how you feel. Feeling crappy physically (and I’m sorry to hear it seems interminable) is pretty naturally causing you to feel down emotionally, and that’s ok. *hugs*
The number of people on Facebook and Twitter who are quoting/paraphrasing/making jokes about The Lion King right now is truly stunning.
Esteleth! The squid watch cap arrived, and I love it. Thank you, thank you!
Caine! Glad to hear. Does it fit?
Dutchgirl:
Amelia to the rescue – she’s a born model, that one.
Esteleth:
Yes, perfectly.
Oooooh maaaan Dutchgirl
*hugs&sympathies*
I had a hard time with all my pregnancies – nothing extraordinary, but the desire to sleep as much as possible was strong. Wake up, drag myself to work, nap on my desk during lunch, go home and go to sleep. Yeah, sounds like a lot of fun. Glad to hear it’s progressing well, though!
And no, you don’t have to enjoy it if you’re not enjoying it. Myths. *pffft* cicely’s advice (vomit on their feet with projection and alacrity) seems solid to me. ;)
Portia
I was going to suggest something about dinner, too. I guess cicely beat me to it, and him being the chef… well, *pffft* and keep thinking, I guess! :)
cicely
As for Middle Child, he’d actually love wearing a helmet all the time, but that would make him a danger to everyone around him – considering his love of the SurpriseHug, that is slightly more powerful than your average headbonk…
opposablethumbs
I hate injuries to the kids, especially the bloody ones, but at least I can hold off the panic with my cool, suave professionalism (I knew that crime scene training would come in handy!). It’s hard, though. Thanks for the tea!
:D :D :D
If I’d kept at it with the tentacles, there would be 8, evenly spaced.
But I left a few off so that they aren’t hanging in front of your face.
Now, if CripDyke would surface, she and I can decide on what I’m making her next…
Caine
I see the rats merely increase in cuteness over time. I like Amelia’s white stripe (is there an official name for the marking?).
haha I realized I forgot to respond to cicely’s second suggestion…
You’re proceeding on the assumption so far that I do housework of any kind for his benefit ^_^ I suppose I could start just to have something to go on strike from :)
Caine: ooh I love your Amelia and all her friends. I look in at your place a lot when I’m need of cute faces, never disappoints.
The pressure to “enjoy” pregnancy is rather subtle, isn’t it? I mean I’m not getting the “oh you must feel so great!” but rather the “so are you totally excited?” which I am, but also feel like crap but I don’t want to say that in the moment because that sounds so contradictory.
opposablethumbs and rq: on injuries to kids, I’ve been a nanny for years now and falls only really scare me when there’s that terrible *silence* afterwards. Screaming lets me know you’re hurt but probably ok, that *thud* and *silence* is coronary inducing.
Dutchgirl:
My sympathies.
Prior to learning about the side effects of pregnancy, I swallowed the cultural rah rah ‘go pregnancy, it is sooo wonderful’ meme.
Now that I have learned more, I have a hard time seeing *being* pregnant as a great thing. When pregnancy ends in a wanted child, that resulting bundle of joy is awesome. But having read the side effects *during* pregnancy and the stress on the body as well as the aftereffects…lets just say I do not view pregnancy through tinged glasses.
Of course me being a guy may take away from my opinion on marriage.
I also feel you on the loneliness. I do the work, home, sleep thing all the time. Now, without a vehicle I have virtually no social life. I was off yesterday and never left my house. I have a roommate, but he has effectively moved in with his BF, so I rarely see him.
I love my cats and dogs, but some people to be around outside of work would be nice.
And gusto. A half-hearted barf is as good as no barf at all. Vomit like you mean it!
–
I started to point out that this poor ‘pod only has 6 tentacles, but then I thought, “No, that would be geometrist. Or language-precisionist. Or ablist (could be crippled, coulda had his ‘pods shot off in the War). Or something.” And that that would be tactless and cruel to hexapods everywhere.
:) :) :)
–
Good evening
I’m still cranky, but temperatures might go down a little
Portia
Yay for the Munchkins
Dutchgirl
(((hugs)))
If it does any good: I hated being pregnant. Mostly because most of the time I was worried sick. With #1 I was actually really sick for 3 entire months. Then she started to strain the ligaments so sometimes every step hurt like being stabbed with a knife. And everybody fussed around me and it was just blargh. And then there were all those pretty pregnant women who just looked like they’d swallowed a ball and who rocked fabulous clothes while I simply grew fat. And I could also not believe that at the end there would be my baby, I only really believed it once she was out.
So, I totally feel with you.
And it’s OK to feel that way and it’s OK to be that way.
O hai!
Petition to investigate Rep. Darrell Issa!
Pandoravirus – life as we hardly know it!
Gold isn’t made in supernovae, it’s made in gamma ray bursts! Colliding neutron stars FTW!
Mud volcanoes.
kthxbai
I have never understood the intense interest many people take with celebrities. Case in point: the royal baby. I am not likely to meet the royal family or have any contact with them whatsoever, so I am ambivalent about the baby. If the proud parents are happy, great. But I just do not grok the enthusiasm and high degree of interest in people I dont know.
Dutchgirl,
I hope the preggers gets easier. You have my sympathy. I only had one but it was a very rough one and ended in a bruising ten pounder. It is gonna be so much fun when it is over.
This isn’t a cute rattie, but is very cute nonetheless.
http://cheezburger.com/7674376960?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ICanHasCheezburger+%28I+CAN+HAS+CHEEZBURGER%29
Dutchgirl:
You want to complain about the side effects of pregnancy?
I say go for it all you want.
It IS your body.
Caine:
Massive Pouncegug!!!!
Dutchgirl:
Safehugs.
Wife’s biggest problem was morning, noon, afternoon, evening, night and morning sickness.
In comments #482 and #483 I noted that a high mormon mucky muck from Sweden expressed his doubts about the historicity of mormon scripture, and he did so in public.
Not long after than, nervous mormons took down the website page that linked to the PDF documenting a discussion between Swedish mormons and other high mormon mucky mucks who had ridden to the rescue, flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Sweden. The mucky mucks came off looking like idiots, which I guess even mormons could discern, so they killed access to the document.
An ex-mormon rescued it and posted it here: http://www.roadkilldelight.com/NOM/SFMJRT.pdf
Thanks, Lynna, for reminding me…
The story of the high mucky-mucky in Sweden questioning the moronic crap he was abused with as a child — and more generally, use of the ‘Net to challenge the absurdities — was on the front page of today’s (Monday 22-July-2013) International Herald Tribune (essentially the International version of the NY Times).
Denizens of the Lounge:
Thank you all for your hugs, support, and validation. It’s made my Monday much easier.
:-D I take my hat off to you, rq!
.
Dutchgirl, I very much sympathise. I was lucky – no over-and-above physical issues – but I loathed being pregnant. I resented the fact that there wasn’t any practical way of getting to the desired endpoint without my body – my very own one, the only one I have – being bloody well hijacked in the interim (the only thing I liked about it was occasionally freaking people out by being normally physically active – as I say, I was lucky). I resented the fact that I couldn’t take a break, put the pregnancy down for a few hours from time to time before putting it back on again.
So hell yes, vent away here as much as you damn well please! I’m sorry it’s rough, and I hope it eases up soon. Here’s wishing you footrubs and cooling drinks, and small nourishing snacks at relatively short intervals.
A leisurely swim in the lake (drove there and back) with my mom actually helped alleviate the migraine I was getting rolling. I’m pretty happy about it.
And I didn’t do terrible at the driving range today.
Dutchgirl
I ran across this today.
http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3026#comic
I really don’t know if it will make you smile or flee in terror.
maybe someone else could look and advise
Pew! Pew! Pew!
Portia
hmmm
perhaps a bit obscure
chigau: no, that’s very funny. I read somewhere that many pregnant women dream about small furry animals, so of course that night I did. It featured a baby polar bear.
Dutchgirl
Your dreams tonight should be awesome!
Wait, what’s obscure?
Portia
Personal failing.
I read SMBC for a looooong time before I pushed the button.
and then had to go back and push all the buttons
What does cherry-fed squirrel taste like?
They’ve eaten most of my cherries, it’s only fair.
—-
I should make pesto tomorrow.
(not squirrel pesto)
Situation normal here at Casa La Pelirroja. I get home a little early, the Redhead begins making plans for a walk, and promptly falls asleep….and wakes too close to dinner to walk. I must be boring. My presence puts her to sleep after work.
chigau:
That’s pretty funny.
—
Nerd, well we’re awake. For now :)
Nerd
Timing is everything.
You are a coincidence.
(feel better now?)
Kind of ‘Rupt, but *hugs* to Dutchgirl, and anyone else who wants some
opposablethumbs
I still have a scar on my forehead from a similar childhood accident.
KevinKat
Congrats. Sounds like a fun outing
This is news? I had no idea the whole ‘crack baby’ meme was still floating around.
Tony
likewise
A largeish spider just let itself down dangerously close to my bed where I’m propped up watching Buffy. I did not hyperventilate. I just threw something. He made not be dead, but he’s not going to land on my head.
If you lived in a town on the hellmouth, why would you ever, ever, ever going parking?
So now it has a weapon?
yolo
The League of Creatures and Rocks with Many Arms, Legs, Tentacles, and Eye-Stalks has taken note.
Who needs some My Little Pony? I have it here.
Who needs a Major Dose of Cute? I have that here, too.
… And that’s all I’ve got right now.
*assorted hugs and gestures*
Sounds like an asshole to me. Where’s the humour supposed to be?
Sometimes Comrade Physioproffe has a nugget og wisdom.
Ayn Rand philosophy driving Sears into the ground
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-07-11/at-sears-eddie-lamperts-warring-divisions-model-adds-to-the-troubles#p1
Excerpt…“Plagued by the realities threatening many retail stores, Sears also faces a unique problem: [the Sears chairman] Lampert. Many of its troubles can be traced to an organizational model the chairman implemented five years ago, an idea he has said will save the company. Lampert runs Sears like a hedge fund portfolio, with dozens of autonomous businesses competing for his attention and money. An outspoken advocate of free-market economics and fan of the novelist Ayn Rand, he created the model because he expected the invisible hand of the market to drive better results. If the company’s leaders were told to act selfishly, he argued, they would run their divisions in a rational manner, boosting overall performance.
Instead, the divisions turned against each other—and Sears and Kmart, the overarching brands, suffered. Interviews with more than 40 former executives, many of whom sat at the highest levels of the company, paint a picture of a business that’s ravaged by infighting as its divisions battle over fewer resources. (Many declined to go on the record for a variety of reasons, including fear of angering Lampert.) Shaunak Dave, a former executive who left in 2012 and is now at sports marketing agency Revolution, says the model created a “warring tribes” culture. “If you were in a different business unit, we were in two competing companies,” he says. “Cooperation and collaboration aren’t there.”
Comment: …“The “invisible hand or the market” works by culling those businesses that can’t compete efficiently. So by implementing this sort of competition among many subdivisions of the same business, what Lambert is doing is guaranteeing the failure if some, if not most, of those divisions. The obvious consequence is that this process converts a giant corporation into a small one.”
Chinese communists are being better capitalists than Ayn Rand followers.
I am reminded of how Hitler let Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS be rivals instead of partners. The mess certainly contributed to the defeat. And of course the Confederacy was not allowed to merge the railway companies during the war
because of property, so they could not move around their troops efficiently.
@rq:
Daww… that’s sweet. Doggie loves kitty :3
rq,
re: dog and kitty
That was so sweet it almost made me tear up a it.
Excuse the threadrupt interruption, but I’m feeling mildly gaslighted by the world right now.
So, I’ve done a study looking at survival in a particular type of cancer and the results strongly suggest that patients without insurance do far worse than those who have insurance. I won’t say that the data are perfect and without caveat or limitation, but I’ve written papers with similar level of certainty in the past and they’ve flown past reviewers with nary a complaint. This one, everyone is all “you can’t make that conclusion–you don’t have enough evidence!” Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems to me that this paper is being held to a higher standard than the others were (and by lower tier journals).
Am I just being completely paranoid here? Maybe it really isn’t very good and I’m making excuses for myself.
Yeah. I was like that with number two. With number one I had an all-new, never to be repeated, obsession with milkshakes, yogurt and all other kinds of milky things – I have hated drinking milk all my life before and since.
So that’s encouraging for dutchgirl. Should you ever want to do it again, there’s no reason to think it’ll be the same again. It might be, but it might be completely different in totally unexpected ways.
Such a bad day that I need to say something positive.
Last night I was awoken by The Small Fry. I didn’t have any clear idea what she said, just that she had spoken. I jumped out of bed and rushed into her room. We’ve been having some late night issues relating to a disparate rate of growth between her kidneys and her bladder and I wanted to get it dealt with before she woke Ms, Fishy.
But to my surprise TSF wasn’t in any distress, far from it in fact. She was laughing fit to burst.
“Dad, I had the funniest dream! I dreamed that I couldn’t find my toothpaste and I couldn’t find my milky….and they were IN. THE. WALL!”* [More uncontrollable laughter]
Which of course got me laughing, and trying to get her to settle was perhaps not as efficient as it might have been. Of all the things that becoming a parent has taught me, a fondness for surrealist humour has got the most surprising.
It didn’t make up for the screaming tantrum she had the next morning, but it did take the edge off that little stressor.
*Milky is the warm milk she has before bed. Which has gone from a goodly amount to as little as we can get away with for obvious reasons.
Wife’s biggest problem was morning, noon, afternoon, evening, night and morning sickness.
I had much the same problem when gestating small one. For 9 months. This is woo-y as hell, but what helped me was massage. No idea if it was placebo or if there was some plausible mechanism or if it would work for anyone else even if there is, but throwing it out there for what it’s worth.
@FossilFishy:
She sounds like an adorable little spawn.
She can be KK. I reckon it’s a survival trait. There’s just enough adorable to keep you* from feeding her to the dingoes when she goes through a phase of testing boundaries. Unfortunately, this time she’s going through that phase while Ms. Fiahy and I are extremely stressed. Every one of us ended up in tears today , and only TSF has the excuse of being not yet six.
*And by ‘you’ I mean me.
FossilFishy
*hugs*
I know how you feel.
There comes a day when you realize it’s a little bit better, there’s a bit less stress, and you haven’t cried for two days straight. That’s always a
goodbetter day.*hugs*
FossilFishy
I hope tomorrow is better. Cute story about your funny little Small Fry. :)
—
Good morning, Lounge, how’s everybody doing?
blf @593
Excellent. The mormon PR machine cannot compete with the International Herald Tribune, the NY Times, the Salt Lake Tribune and the ex-mormon sites covering this story. Here’s a new one:
http://www.mormonthink.com/glossary/swedish-rescue2.htm
Peeve of the day: new medalert bracelet came in. Shiny! But, the chain is too long.
Since I lack the tools to prise open links on the chain in order to shorten it, I’ve made a new bracelet in order to secure the medallion to my wrist.
Which is to say that my medalert bracelet is made of purple yarn.
I iz CRAFTY.
Sounds more fun than a chain ^_^
*snorfle* Depends on the character, though.
I thought you were supposed to attach those things with rivets and perhaps some spot welds? The chain is just to hold the victim down whilst the rivets are pounded in.
*does not apply to members the species Felis silvestris, for whom “yolnt” is more accurate.
Ever since the Supreme Court basically gutted the Voter Rights Act, Republican-controlled state legislatures have been passing voter-suppression bills left and right.
We’ve discussed the voter-suppression efforts in North Carolina before. Well, the situation has gotten worse. Flush with victory, right-wing rabid flea-brained legislators have found they can do more, MORE, to discourage voters likely to vote for Democratic candidates.
The Nation link.
What does Yolo in Yolo County, California, have to do with cats? The mildly deranged penguin doesn’t think any have ever landed there, and it’s not Teh Map of Cheeses, Cheese, and Lots of Cheese, plus Cheese and extra Cheese.
…and it’s not in…
Does Tpyos accept tithes of missing words, or is that some other Faerie?
Now, be fair! The hellmouth doesn’t exactly advertise its presence, though the low, low price of real estate and high turn-over rate should be a tip-off that something is up.
As for the number of odd incidents and the decrease in the student body every. single. year., I think we have to assume that the hellmouth puts off some kind of selective amnesia field. “Pay no attention to the ever-increasing pile of bodies behind the curtain!”
–
But not for very long….
–
dianne: Sounds to me as if the problem is that your data aren’t saying what your critics want to hear. You know…like a creationist determined to ignore the evidence for evolution; there’ll never be enough, solid enough data to convince them.
Short version: I don’t think you’re being paranoid—just inconvenient.
–
*hugs* for alla the FishyFamily.
Funny story about the FossilFry.
:)
–
But, but, but Cordelia and Xander should know very well the cause of the pile of bodies! :)
Why is it such a fucking problem to acommodate people with different diets?! I mean seriously.
My supervisor is leaving to another office and we’re giving him a going away party. My colleagues want to have it at Hill Country Barbecue (which is a semi-crappy cafeteria-style barbecue joint.) I check the menu, and there’s nothing vegetarian on the menu except maybe salads – but seriously, fuck salads I hate them.
So I asked about this, realizing I cannot go because I’m vegetarian. I get badmouthed by pretty much everyone, told to eat sides and a salad if I want to. So my boss suggests that we come up with other options.
I pop on over to Yelp! (finding out that Hill Country has 3 stars, btw) and find two excellent restaurants – Ella’s Wood Fired Pizza (4.5 stars!) and Matchbox (4.5 stars!) and send them over to my colleague.
Her response “I don’t want pizza.” Mine “they serve more than pizza.” Her response “I don’t want pizza.”
Fuck it. They can eat their shitty cafeteria BBQ for all I care. I’ll go along and get lunch afterwards at a place where I won’t be afraid of salmonella or food poisoning.
Does anyone here have fond memories of the Syndicate series of cyberpunk games from about 15 years ago (not the recent ill advised attempted remake, but the originals)? Well, if so, I have stumbled upon a kickstarter project that may be of interest. A team that includes some of the people who created the original Syndicate games launched a kickstarter for a project called Satellite Reign that is intended to be a true spiritual successor to the Syndicate games of yesteryear.
I never played the originals myself, but I have always rather liked the cyberpunk genre. If anyone is interested, the kickstarter is drawing to a close now, with only a few days left to run, and as of now they are just short of their funding goal, though it does look hopeful that they will reach it before the time runs out.
Some news! I was on an panel about immigrants’ rights and social justice at FtBConscience.
Also, please sign this petition to stop the deportation of Josephine Komeh, who is in danger of persecution in her own country because she refused to carry out FGM. She’s currently detained at the notorious Yarl’s Wood detention camp, and her removal directions are set for tomorrow. (I believe Ophelia has also linked this petition from her blog.)
It’s hardly possible to overstate how awful things are getting for migrants in Britain. I’ve written here before about Jackie Nanyonjo, a Ugandan lesbian asylum-seeker and LGBT rights activist who was severely beaten by her security escort while being deported by force to Uganda, and later died of her injuries. Another woman asylum-seeker, Odunayo from Nigeria, suffered serious injuries while being deported and had to go to hospital when she arrived in Lagos. LGBT people keep being deported to countries where their lives are in danger, because the Home Office refuses to believe that they’re telling the truth about their sexuality or gender identity: asylum decisions are often based on stereotypes, with one immigration judge reportedly asking a lesbian asylum-seeker whether she had “read any Oscar Wilde” when hearing her appeal. And we learned recently that our Tory government, which is virulently anti-immigration, is planning to take measures to make it harder for undocumented migrants to access housing, and until recently had a secret ministerial committee called the “hostile environment working group” with an express mandate to make life miserable for people who are in the country without papers.
Gregory
I remember Syndicate! I always thought it was about monks and drugs, but that may be because we played it around the same time we played Blade Runner: Rise of the Dragon.
Now only Shadowkeep and Lode Runner have to make a comeback, and I’m all set.
Phew! Finally caught up reading the Lounge. Between by sister’s visit 2 weekends ago, and my trip this last weekend to see my parents and grandparents I’ve barely had a chance to breathe!
Central Oregon is seriously a beautiful part of the country, I’m always taken aback when I visit. We saw a great horned owl with owlets, lizards, many birds of prey, antelope, deer and much more.
–
I think my favorite part of the road trip was listening to the little dude, “I see lots of scrubby brush, and twisty trees, but where is all the fauna?”. (He is four).
–
Hugs to all that need them!
Well, yes—they had the simultaneous advantage and disadvantage of being close to The Slayer. On the other hand, is this something most teens would be comfortable with telling their parents? “Hey, Mom and Dad, mind if I go hang out for a while with the local Target for Supernatural Mayhem and Massacre-er of Same?” Seems like it would be a hard sell, at least to parents who cared about their kids (and their kids’ life expectencies) at all.
–
Fuck. I want to contribute to the thread on Britain’s internet law but the kink-shaming is really getting on my nerves. >.>
diane,
Massage can work wonders in some people because it can stimulate the release of the hormone oxytocin which as we all know is the feel-good hormone (or, one of them.)
Hello. Very long time lurker slowly trying to be more social, I suffer from severe social anxiety disorder, so heres a link I found of some disturbingly cute babies. Maybe this is what the Royal Baby looks like because of the incident at Torchwood.
It can also reduce muscle tension, which often accompanies pregnancy due to the changes in posture, etc.
Hi Arawhon Welcome.
Hell, seems like sitting still AND have something else to concentrate on might help on its own?
rq:
Um, blaze, I think.
Dutchgirl:
Glad they helped. I have to get some new pics up before Hekuni Cat gets back…
Ogvorbis:
Pouncehugs right back! ♥
Hello, Arawhon!
Hi, Arawhon; welcome in!
–
The mildly deranged penguin enthusiastically mumbled something, but since she was gulping down a wheel of cheese at the time, exactly what she exclaimed is not clear. Either “More cheese!”, “There’s a pea in my hovercraft!”, or “Hi Arawhon!”
Arawhon! ^_^ I remember you commenting here before!
Yay for statistically significant Esteleth!
Will have to take a look at the ratlets…
If the hovercraft is not now burning briskly, it can’t have been that. And I wouldn’t think that “More cheese!” would need to be stated.
–
–
One of these days, the Horde will have to have a contest for “most utterly unnecessary-yet-on-topic infodump on a Pharyngula thread.”
Because I just delivered an infodump. :D
I just popped over to check yours out- fascinating stuff! I quite enjoyed it.
Esteleth
Linky-link?
Hello, Arawhon!
If you have a kitchen carpet or bathroom carpet (ew), just use this.
Sparkles. Glitter. Music.
Also, warning: this is a Royals question.
I’ll accept the fact that Prince William is a product of his inbred family, etc., and I’ll accept the fact that Katherine is from a rather rich family herself (though the level of inbreeding is a little more doubtfil). But. Isn’t it a subtle form of acknowledging the patriarchy that she gets lumped in with his entire family as ‘those inbred royals’ (or similar phrases), when, technically speaking, she’s not related to them at all and is, in fact, a new set of genes to broaden the gene-pool? [/weird question]
(This may be phrased all wrong considering the time, apologies for that, I hope my question/point gets across.)
Also, note from Husband to me: If you have an opinion, I support you, but please express it more politely. (Yeah, thanks. Thanks a lot.)
Hi, Caine! Give some rattie scritches to Mallory for me!
Sounds like the Redhead’s attitude toward the planned-over spaghetti. Her parents are calling in a few minutes, so dinner was early tonight.
paging carlie, carlie, please report to the Lounge.
I’m a bit behind on my Switched at Birth. Is Bay living with Regina and Angelo?
—
Nerd:
Hope the in law visit in enjoyable.
rq, you should once again have email.
*volley!*
–
rq: “Sir Thomas Leighton (c.1530–1610) was an English soldier and politician. He served as the Governor of Guernsey and Jersey from 1570 to 1609. He and his wife may also be the most recent common ancestors of the current Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, being 12 great-grandparents of William, and possibly 11 of Kate, making them 12th cousins, once removed.[1]”, from the Wikipedia entry.
–
They call Tuesday night at about 7:30 CT. Talk for a couple of hours. Actually gives me an hour or more to do something without the possibility of a commode call, and then still get garbage to the curb for tomorrow’s pick-up. A sanity breather…
Esteleth: Seconding the link request?
Nerd:
Well, cheers, then. You mean they come every Tuesday? That sounds like a very good tradition indeed.
==
cicely:
O.o
On another note, who ordered the sobbing weeping dredging meltdown with one’s mother? It got delivered to my house by mistake.
I am emotionally drained.
I think I’ll watch some Buffy.
What is it about nice weather that brings out all the slow people? I mean, it’s not that they’re slow, so much as it is that they take up the whole bloody sidewalk and get somewhat miffed if they have to move aside a few inches to let me by. And the pack of mombies (with ginormous strollers!) on the trail today was just ridiculous. If you wanna sit and chat, please get off the damn trail/sidewalk! Some of us are actually trying to get somewhere!
Yes, I’m a touch cranky today — no cigarettes makes for a stabby Kitty.
Sheesh, yes! I often drive a bike throughbetween those people. They say I’m rude, ringing my bell, asking for road and braking violently just meters from their faces? THEY ARE ON MY WAY, and legally they shouldn’t be.
Let’s stabbety stab away.
Ok the ‘through’ was supposed to have been edited out, but I’m keeping it as an option.
Given that I occassionally peer out the window enthralled watching the squirrels go about their business, the thought of squirrel pesto is humorous yet creepy.
Antidote to creepiness: picturing Martha Stewart grabbing Rocky the flying squirrel by the tail just before she adds the pine nuts…
Portia
*hugs*
cicely
Oh, well, I guess they’re all inbred. *sigh* Because twelve generations and a ‘possibly’ makes a close relationship and all that.
rq @614:
AWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!
My tendency is to cry when sad or extremely angry, so I forget sometimes that deeply cute also has that affect. Doggie nursing kitten is 50 kinds of awesome!
hi hi!
I’m too busy being irked. also packing for a trip. but mostly irked about being almost shoved away from having girlclothes and therefore not being able to pack them.
Portia: me too. double mistake I guess. it hurts.
Agnes is the rat to end all rats! Apart from everyone else’s rat, of course.
–
I bought a very nice etching of a penguin today, blf. A korora, or Little Blue. The world’s smallest penguin! Also, I have on good authority, the best at treating its mates down at the pub. Sorry about the peepers old fruit. Have you tried a cheese poultice?
Arawhon:
Welcome!
Ignore Nerd in the corner. He is busy trying to come up with the next great scientific achievement.
Portia and I are watching Buffy in the study, but will soon engage in a battle for our very, very really real souls aka Pictionary aka The Game That None Can Best the Flaming Shoop at (let me just run over and grab the fire extinguisher before the resident lawyer and firefighter puts out my flame)
Cicely is out back with blf trying to find uses for peas and penguins.
Ogvorbis thinks he is slyly pouring two fingers of Dewars from my bar, but I got my eye on him. Gonna have him cook up some delicious dinner as punishment.
Lynna is in the study organizing 100+ years of Mormon Moments of Madness into a comprehensive tome. Its longer than a Stephen King novel and ain’t done yet.
That room? Oh that is the Rat Room. You will often find Caine taking the adorablest pics of her rats in there.
Don’t go downstairs…David M and PZ are doing some Weird Science down there.
Birgerjohanssen and rq are in a multi year battle of teh Links. Hence the ‘Do not disturb’ sign in Computer Room #54.
I think everyone else is out back in the
guesthouseThunderdome matching wits with joey, txpiper and annejones.Whew!
That concludes the Lounge Tour.
Any questions?
Oooh, I forgot:
Do not be alarmed at the smoke coming from Study #4. Some people are relaxing in a blaze of herbal glory…not naming names.
*cough cough*
Sorry, Tony, I’ll just turn on the fan, here…
I don’t seem to be talking about much else, come to think of it. probably because the other important trip thing would involve mebbe outing myself.
anyway, at the age of 5, I apparently thought and decided “no I don’t want to be pregnant ever”. which is easy cuz I don’t even have the proper bits. I still felt like it was necessary to state the preference for some reason.
tropically speaking, invest 98 chilling south of the Cape Verde islands looks poised to slowly develop into a TS and move generally WNW, missing landmasses for the next five days or so. after that, land looks to be anywhere along its path.
@Tony:
And KevinKat is in the middle of everything ignoring everyone cause STORY MUST BE FINISHED!
thunk:
*hugs* I hope you’re ok. It does hurt. I feel like mine was semi-productive pain, I hope yours wasn’t a total waste, at least. If you out yourself, I hope it’s on your terms and whatnot. *hugs*
Tony:
Oh, man, that was a needed smile. Thank you :D (Fire=liability. I don’t have everyone’s waivers to indemnify the Squidly Overlord of any injuries incurred while engaging in recreational Lounging by the denizens. Be careful, Shoop! (And prepare to loooooooose at Pictionary)).
KevinKat:
Yes, we wantz a story! :D
KevinKat
Yes, story must be finished. Then you can finally come and relax with the rest of us making all that background noise that’s not letting you concentrate. ;)
Who has the Snark Hat?
Oh, goodness, yes, great question, chigau. It must be in one of these corners since the Shoop forgot to mention it. I think rq had it last. *nods vigorously* mmhmm, I’m passing the buck.
Oh, and hello Arawhon!
Snark hat? What snark hat?
I’ve lost the snark since I’ve spent the last few months trying to readjust my whole schedule, doesn’t leave a lot of time for being annoying/snarky/too talkative in the Lounge, so Nooooo, I don’t haves the hat. Really! I’m pretty sure cicely has been sitting on it for a while, or else Beatrice has it.
[/passing the buck along]
chigau
You can always make a new one.
(Unless two is two* much.)
*Not a tpoy.
Nope, I don’t have it.
But if anyone is missing the Hat of Doom, I’ve got it.
Everything is going wrong. We’re doooooomed.
@rq:
No I can’t. Cause I have to start writing the sequel.
What’s really distracting me is all this work I have to do.
My cousin just had her baby girl. This is one of my favorite (non-blood-related) cousins. Well, she’s my favorite of either kind of cousin. I’m a little ashamed to say that my second thought was “I won the pool!” Yeah, we had a pool on the birth date. I told her “I’m on your side, I’m the only one who thinks she’ll arrive early.” :D I was right!
KevinKat
Well… poo for not being able to join us. (But Yay! for a sequel!)
What is this work you speak of? Delegate it to the MDP. Should take care of everything.
Well, fuck.
Stupid browser ate my comment.
Not repeating that one. :(
For those who have asked, the infodump is here.
Nutmeg, scritchies to Mallory delivered.
Amblebury:
She certainly wins the Sweetest Girl Ever award. She’s also one of The Brave Girls™ (Agnes, Amelia & Artemis), who are a team of intrepid explorers.
No, they live in South Carolina, at the opposite end of the state from Rev. BDC. They talk to her on the phone Tuesday nights.
But they will be here in a month for a visit.
Ooooh, phone calling. For some reason my brain interpreted it as “calling” like an old-fashioned suitor or an old-fashioned doctor, “come calling”. I gotcha. Well, I hope their visit is good when it happens :)
Portia
You’re so old-fashioned! ;)
Musical interlude.
ThePianoGuys cover:
Beethoven’s 5 Secrets – OneRepublic
Coldplay – Paradise (Pepino)
Star Wars
Twinkle twinkle little star
Southern Utah
@rq:
Like work work. The stuff I do for monies that I don’t get from writing (from which I get no monies either.)
You know me, buttoned-down, conservative, traditional gal ;)
Actually, I just realized that must be how I seem to a lot of people. : p
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when after ten or twenty obnoxious emails from a client they say “You must be getting tired of me!” …well, yeah. (And it’s not just one person that has done this and then said exactly that.I don’t geddit. If you know you’re being tiresome, maybe stop?)
Portia,
It’s like a “I’m sorry if anyone got offended” notpology.
Good point. Makes them feel less guilty for wasting my time, while not actually taking any steps to mitigate their rude behavior.
Portia,
I’ll send some *hugs* your way for the irritating clients, if you send some back for job problems (irritating people being part of the problem in my case too)
Also, I had to reschedule my vacation two times already. It’s getting further and further away. :/
Lots of hugs headed your way, Beatrice.
Sorry your vacation is retreating towards the horizon : (
Portia
I present as pretty traditional and conservative. I remember one time I mentioned signing a petition (to ask the Obama administration to stop using the “Wives, mothers, daughters” rhetoric) to my male boss. He looked at me for a bit, and then with suspicion and trepidation slowly said, “You are some kind of… female rights advocate, aren’t you?”. I was like…. Um… yeah.
yazikus:
The mental image of the trepidation on his face is making me giggle.
Beatrice
Are you planning to travel somewhere fun? I usually schedule my vacation for the fall, as it is less crowded (I like to go to a coast), and I enjoy blustery seas.
*hugs* and *emotional refuelment* for Portia.
–
*pouncehugs* for thunk. And you remind me—I forgot to check out the National Hurricane Center’s daily report.
*popping out and doing that thing*
–
Easy done!
Peas are best used as ammunition, serving no other use at the dinner table; and penguins are Things of Joy and Beauty Forever—particularly the ones from Florida. You might want to keep your eyes peeled, Tony; I understand that they sometimes take employment as cabbies, so as to learn the terrain and just generally blend in.
Poor Lynna! That Mormon Moments of Madness tome is bound to eventually page out to more than all of the Harry Potter books combined, only without the same subsidiary-rights potential.
–
I do not has the snark hat.
I has never hassed the snark hat.
I does not snark. Not ever.
–
Hmm.
I loved how he couldn’t get the word feminist out, it was female rights advocate. He is still suspicious of me, I’m pretty sure.
Portia,
Thanks. Sorry that I phrased it in a way that required you to send hugs before you get mine. Here’s a truckload of *hugs* for any inconvenience that may have caused.
—-
Yazikus,
Only a regular visit to some family (no sea there). But I’ll go on a weekend trip with a friend before that (we haven’t actually decided where to go- either Sarajevo or looking at Bavarian castles :) ). That’s the only thing keeping me from going mad about work troubles, and vacation time running away from me.
Your usual vacation plans sound good. If I were more inclined, I’d probably go to the seaside in fall too since I dislike crowds (one of the reasons I haven’t been to the seaside for years).
Beatrice:
No inconvenience :)
—
I don’t think Joss Whedon deserves the seeming feminist cred he has. For every five “Buffy kicks ass” plot point, there’s a “Cordelia bats her eyes and distracts a hormonal dude” plot point. And Buffy’s dialogue just equated gang rape with consensual sex. Ew.
Both of these sound lovely! I, too, dislike crowds. There is a nice oyster bay I like to go to, where there is a pristine and fairly remote campground that is likely empty at that time of year. (We like to car camp. Or camping lite). And supposedly you are only supposed to eat oysters in months that have an R in them.
Portia:
In Joss’defense, the episodes you are watching are over 10 years old. His opinions on feminism could have developed in that time.
Has anyone heard of the word librage ? A commenter used it in reference to comments in the ‘I am unsurprised’ thread.
What a silly term.
Tony,
I read it as “rage from liberals about something the commenter using the term doesn’t deem important”… But I certainly agree about it’s silliness.
Tony:
That’s true, but as Exhibit B the prosecution presents The Avengers : p
(Why did Black Widow get wedge heels with her spiffy uniform when all the others got combat-boot style kicks?)
Perhaps because playing on her sexuality and gender stereotypes is part of her modus operandi?
…that doesn’t help, does it. >.>
Yeah, not so much : p
Portia:
Now I am trying to picture the other Avengers in heels. It is not hard, except for the Hulk.
Everyone has most likely heard by now that some Republicans are threatening to shut down the government … again. This notion of refusing to pay the country’s bills, bills the Congress critters approved for payment in the past, and therefore downgrading the credit of the USA, is preposterous. The ignorance of basic economics, the ignorance of history (recent economic history), and the inability to distinguish between a yearly budget and a long-term deficit signals to me that all of these jokers should be hustled off to la-la land.
Some of the most vocal Republicans on the shut-down express are planning to run for the Presidency of the USA in 2016. [facepalm] Maddow Blog link.
I get the feeling that Republicans are afraid, deeply afraid.
Here’s a happy-making bit of news. The first same-sex couple to get a Pennsylvania marriage license was all smiles. Great photo at the link.
Maddow Blog link.
It appears WIS3 is likely.
This is documentation of a Moment of Mormon Madness from the past, from November 2008. I first saw this today and thought it complete enough, devastating enough, to warrant posting — so that other Pharyngulites could read it. Daily Kos link.
Excerpts below, emphasis in the original:
I thought Mormons didn’t drink. :P
for the geeks in the house:
Info about the Avengers sequel.
Like, 2015 is like totally far away. Like, I cannot wait that long. Like, seriously.
Positive role model for African Americans in Captain America: Winter Soldier–
” CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER
Zap2It spoke with “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” cast members Emily VanCamp, Frank Grillo and Anthony Mackie about their roles in the upcoming film.
“It wasn’t so much a burden as it was a blessing,” Mackie told Zap2It of taking on the role of the Falcon. “I feel like there’s a huge segment of our population that’s being neglected as far as having people to look up to and having role models to look up to, and I’m really looking forward to next Halloween seeing bunch of little kids running around with wings on.”
Opens April 4, 2014″
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=46874
2015 is a long time away.
*sigh*
I console myself with the thought that at least today’s CGI is up to making comic book movies that aren’t completely laughable.
–
Lynna!
I have a question.
So last week or so I went to Hill Cumorah and saw the pageant (it was ~30 minutes away). It was free, and the friend I went with brought a crapton of booze and got royally sloshed. Good times!
So, there were a few bits that … bothered me.
Granted, I may have missed some details (or otherwise been too sloshed to properly grasp what was going on).
These included:
(1) Implications that the Mesoamerican pyramids were built by the Jewish people who came to America in the 1st century BC.
(2) Them burning people at the stake?!
(3) “In 1830, there were once again Christians on Earth.” <-what.
(4) The Good Guys are massacred on Hill Cumorah (i.e. in Upstate New York) in the around 200 AD by feathered dudes who whooped. <-WHAT.
HALP?!
How did I not know that the Veronica Mars movie began as a Kickstarter campaign??
“Jesus isn’t a dick, so keep him out of my vagina.” That was the wording on a sign that 14-year-old Tuesday Cain held up outside the Texas Capitol.
So now she’s reaping a shit storm from the right wing fanatics, and, luckily, some awesome support from her dad.
http://www.salon.com/2013/07/22/awesome_dad_defends_awesome_daughters_message_to_texas_lawmakers/
Photo at the link.
Dad’s support essay.
I’m not sure why, but this is the image on the Latvian social network site today. Cute!
Esteleth @730: here are some links. An actual explanation of the Hill Cumorah pageant and the underlying dogma is pretty much impossible. It’s too fucked up.
However, ex-mormons have tried:
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,521760,522321
http://www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon265.htm
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,26128,26234
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,26128,26195#msg-26195
Hill Cumorah is basically solid rock, with a thin cover of soil and flora. You can’t dig a well there, as former farmers discovered. You can’t hide evidence of huge battles there (see link above), but the LDS Church owns the property and they do not allow any digging, especially not archaeological digs.
Lack of evidence caused some mormon “scholars” to postulate that the big battles took place in where Mesoamerican pyramid ruins can currently be found, or where as-yet-undiscovered mesoamerican ruins may exist. This line of apologetics is ridiculous, but still promoted by many mormons.
In the Book of Mormon, Joe Smith envisioned Jews sailing to American is something resembling a giant, sealed tuna can. Their descendants are said to be our Native American tribes. DNA studies thoroughly debunk this idiocy, but mormons are not deterred. http://exmormon.org/d6/drupal/Mormon-Church-Lamanite-DNA-Coffin
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,35573,35612#msg-35612
125 images up for grabs, via National Geographic.
Oh crap, I see that my rather link-infested reply to Esteleth @730 is “awaiting moderation.” PZ, can you please let my comment through? I don’t have time to recreate it. Thanks so much.
A description of the Hill Cumorah pageant. http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,250389,251588
…is it wrong that I find it intensely annoying when someone continually references privilege and social justice and moving beyond society’s messed up attitudes in their dating profile, and then the first thing I see in their Match Questions is that a potential partner being “even slightly overweight” would be a dealbreaker?
Best part of the whole business – pre-show, the actors were wandering around. I asked if I could take a photo of one of them, and he agreed. I asked who he was, and he replied that he was Mormon.
So I went back to where I was sitting and showed the photo to my friend.
I said, “This dude is Mormon!”
She replied, “They’re all Mormon, silly.”
I said, “No, I mean, the dude. There was a dude named Mormon.”
She looked at me like I was nuts.
After reading this article on vitamins and supplements, I want to rework a question I had a few days ago. Remember when i asked about handy responses to various social justice issues? I recognize that these issues are often complicated and it can be difficult to explain them (or refute their detractors) when time is of the essence, but as Azkyroth mentioned, there are some effective responses. I wonder if there is a site that deals with refuting CAM supporters or anti-vaccers or supplement users. Like a one stop shop. (Would Quackwatch fit that bill?)
Ah, I see the link-infested reply to Esteleth was released from moderation purgatory. (See 734)
Thank you so much, PZ.
Esteleth @738, you should post a photo of the guy playing the role of “Mormon.” Would love to see his costume.
In the Book of Mormon we find out that the angel Moroni is the son of Mormon. It is the angel Moroni that is featured on the spire of mormon temples.
Here’s the official LDS guide to the whole Moroni/Mormon myth:
http://www.lds.org/scriptures/gs/moroni-son-of-mormon?lang=eng
Can YOU read this and not weep?
Excerpt:
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130714/NEWS10/307140009/To-get-married-they-left-Ohio?nclick_check=1
Lynna:
Mr Mormon is here.
Tony #743, sniff, and a cask of grog sent for the reception.
Esteleth at 744: Thank you so much for posting the photo. That is hilarious. Dude Mr. Mormon looks like a stone who went astray when trying to make a Halloween costume using his mother’s curtains and upholstery covering. Sheesh!
I meant to type “stoner” not “stone” in my description of the mormon dude playing the role of “Mormon.”
Esteleth, here’s a link to a post (dated toda) that was written by ex-mormon, Steve Benson. He discusses the magical mariner mystery tour of Jews to America.
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,967565,967648#msg-967648
Lynna, I would invite you to go back to that photo and observe that Mr “Jewish dude living in Upstate NY” is wearing a hat that includes TURQUOISE and PEACOCK FEATHERS.
Hi all, I have a friend who will be visiting the US in September with his family (6-10 yrs). They’ll be passing through Joshua Tree National Park. Any age appropriate things they should absolutely see/do while they are in the area? Parts of the Park they should make an effort to visit? I’m looking in your direction Chris…
Esteleth @749: Yeah, I saw the turquoise and peacock feathers. Made me laugh. You are going to have to stop trying to make sense of the characters and costumes in the Hill Cumorah production. They do not make sense. They are not even consistent with the batshit crazy dogma of official mormonism, nor of all the splintered apologetics attached to mormonism.
Blithely adopting Central American, South American, Native American (Indian), Inca, Jewish, masonic, and What-the-fuck-ever symbols, clothing and myths is par for the course. It’s a heady stew.
Google doodle for Rosalind Franklin’s birthday: http://www.google.com/
Esteleth, best guess for the Mormon costume: someone’s idea of what a Hebrew-plus-Inca fashion statement would look like.
re. Work trouble
My mentor is on vacation, and I sent him a angry(ish) email yesterday. I know he’s my immediate boss , so I hope I wasn’t out of line, but I was polite(ish), it’s just that restrained anger was probably dripping from the words (with understatements such as “I’m not happy about being set into this mess”). It was written to someone who is a) my mentor and b) person who I begged for help with doing this assignment that is out of my league in everything from knowledge required to even being allowed to make such decisions.
Now I’m feeling bad about writing the email and about all the troubles with the assignment. But the thing is, all my bosses are on vacation and I have to deal with the fallout and apparently also some grudges between departments.
Beatrice
What kind of a mess did they leave you???
I think someone (and not you!) is failing in the responsibilities and duties of their position, by going off on vacation in the middle of a mess. :( I’m sorry I can’t help you out somehow. There’s no one even higher up you could go to, I suppose?
*hugs*
rq,
Without going veeeeeery high up, no.
I begged for help with this and I was told to “Just write something” and “Why are you getting upset, silly”.
Thanks for the *hugs*
mess is giving me to do something I have no authority to do without anyone with authority giving me information I needed
I knew this could turn into a shitstorm, but I was supposedly just getting upset needlessly over something irrelevant (no, it’s not irrelevant, wtf?)
I did all I had to do quickly this morning and am now waiting for a call to continue solving the mess.
Can’t stop Death, but you can slow it down.
As usual (especially this season) threadrupt :
Have missed keeping up with the Lounge Lizards…
Whad I miss…?
Haven’t missed …that I had to buy a new fridge (realizing I would have to.. the day after one of my window unit A/C’s died !)… limping along in 100 + degree (F) heat with one unit.. And (my aching back) I also could use a new mattress…
But other than that things are great… how’s everyone else?
(How do you emote a ‘Baby, Hang In There!’ cat hanging from a tree ?)
77 dead in Spanish train crash (article in Latvian). :(
Beatrice
Ugh. That’s a shitty situation. Wish you all the best.
Hi again Bluentx
I had job interviews yesterday and the day before, but nothing terribly promising.
(Canadian source says 56)
Hi, bluentx!!! :)
Good to see you! I hope the back finds a better mattress soon.
*hugs* if you want ’em!
-77 dead in Spanish train crash
-Zimmerman acquittal
-Chinese earthquake
-Clelveland II horrors….
…..
I know…. Who Am I To Complain….
Just got accused of being “pro-rape” for pointing out that, in some places, rapists have parental rights. I’ll admit, my wording wasn’t entirely clear, but still… it’s rather uncharitable to assume that someone who has, herself, been subject to rape and abuse is making a pro-rape argument.
Dalillama, Schmott Guy:
Good luck with the interviews! As much as I hate ’em (interviews) and as much as I (sometimes) hate my (current) job… Having one (a current job) is better than interviewing for another! : )
rq :
Thanks for the hugs. Right now I have to settle for the ‘pseudo-chiropractor’ remedy of using the 30″ pipe (at the plant) to ‘crack/realign’ my back. That seems to work ‘like’ an exercise ball. : )
Dalillama
Best of luck in the job hunt/interviews!! I hope something turns up soon!
*hugs* too, if you want.
bluentx
Plumbing: good for not just plumbing.
WMDKitty :
To think that anyone is ‘pro-rape’ is inconceivable to me.
(Yes, I DID watch The Princess Bride (again) after the Lounge screening!) Have we done this again since I last attended a meeting?
bluentx
We haven’t, but we should!
*scrittches* for WMDKitty :(
Thank you, rq.
I’m still horribly confused. I mean… in what world is “pointing out that rapists have parental rights in 31 states” equivalent to “hurr durr I support raep”? I cited my sources! It’s not my fault those laws are on the books! I’d rather see rapists stripped of ALL rights and locked away for life!
No, actually… I’d like to see them all castrated and thrown to the crocodiles while still bleeding, but that probably falls into “cruel and unusual” territory.
Been wondering since last week what The Loungers might think of my experiences last week…
Attended a training class (Water Utility Safety). Needed the training hours to renew my (state) Water/Wastewater Treatment License plus get updated on new regulations since I last had this class (2001?).
Class was informative (though over long), good to meet other people I would other wise not know (100 mile radius) buuuut…..
I have had this same class before (plus several others by instructors from the same entity[TWUA}. NEVER have I been soooo annoyed by one of their instructors! Though he was personable…
1) First day:
Instructor declares how ‘Climate Change Is The Biggest Hoax EVER!’
2) Second day:
After showing a video mentioning John Muir (of Yosemite fame) the instructor IMMEDIATLY jumped up to say how he wanted to correct the ‘misinformation’ in the video about Muir being an ‘envionmentalist’. According to the instructor ‘he was not an environmentalist…. he was a devout Christian…. proclaiming the the beauty of nature because of… THE GLORY OF GOD! (After that assertion my mouth was hanging open and I was too dumbfounded to respond before the subject was changed…)
3)
Third day:
I (and two others) come into the class room. ‘Handouts for extra study’ are on a table for anyone to take (besides the training manual provided). Among the ‘handouts’ are half a dozen…. Gideon Bible(s) (NT)!
Again my mouth drops open!
As I’ve said…. I’ve been attending these classes for a long time (since 1989). I HAVE NEVER seen such blatant prosletizing!
As I said to one of my fellow ‘students’: ‘This (Bibles) is technically illegal you know…this being a municipal building.’
I’m still debating (myself) about writing a letter to TWUA to complain about their ‘sub-contracted instructor’ and/or writing to Americans United For The Separation of Church and State (AU).
Free online classes at Yale
NEW THREAD.