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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.
Status: Heavily Moderated; Previous thread
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re: portcullis
Timing is everything.
and
Second!
Naughty chigau! :D
Knitting Nerdery To Follow
I’ve got a major knitting project happening: a jacket in Noro Silk Garden #309. Despite the name, the yarn’s mostly mohair and SCRATCHY AS HELL so I’m using a method I saw my local yarn supplier and guru use – making a yoke in softer wool by carrying the back up over the shoulders, so the seam is at about collarbone level. I really like the way patterns can morph; I got the idea for the jacket from a tunic I’d done, which was an adaption of a book pattern. Meanwhile my knitting guru is adapting it for a skirt, and the carried-forward-seam idea is one she adapted from a customer’s jumper.
I’ve done about sixty rows of the back so far. This is how it looked on Thursday night; I’ve done more since then. The photo colours don’t quite do it justice, photoshopped though they are. I’m thinking of calling it the Mick Aston Memorial Jacket.
kittehserf #3
Very nice!
I haven’t knit since the TV snuffed. (2+ years)
I cannot just knit, I need something else visual.
weird, me
Chigau:
I’m that way with embroidery. I just put a DVD in now, usually one of my Sherlock Holmes movies (the ones with Basil Rathbone, natch.)
I think I may have alienated a large part of my family on facebook. My sisters and others have a habit of posting those feel good quotes that run rampant on facebook, the most recent one…
“You are not given a good life or a bad life it is what you make of it” or close to it.
Now I understand the intent behind it, but between this and all the “Karma” posts I lost my head. I had just finished reading the story about the poor 8 year old raped to death by her “husband” Previous to that I was reading a story about a 6 year old raped by a neighbor, and then raped again by the same guy as the “council” was debating whether to make her marry the rapists son.
Usually I try to just ignore the stupid “karma” posts and the “life is what you make of it, so be happy” posts. But this time I just could not let it go. Now, I think I have been blocked by most of them. Was I wrong?
Meh, already bitched about it to my wife, thought I would share.
Caine #5
Basil. Pretty close to the definitive Sherlock.
I note from wikipedia that he died “suddenly” at the age of 75.
If I live to 75, I will awaken every morning with
“huh. not yet, then.”
Chigau:
Yes. Basil the rat is named after Basil Rathbone.
A good approach, I think. Here’s to reaching 75, *clink*
This amuses me.
I wonder if anyone thought to bring a black cat in a pet carrier? ^.^
On a related note, I got a sweepstakes-raffley-thing with the “lucky number” 66631 in the mail a couple days ago. :3
chigau, Caine – Thank you! I like having a DVD on too, when I’m knitting. It works out well: Mum hardly remembers shows a few weeks after we’ve watched them (she doesn’t have dementia or anything, just a dodgy memory for shows) whereas I do, so she can watch the show and I can listen to it and look up now and then while knitting. Luckily I can also “just knit”, since I have a five hour daily commute by train and tram, and when I’m not asleep, I’m knitting. :)
My definitive Sherlock is Jeremy Brett, and David Burke in that series was THE Watson for me.
I knit, I’m not very good at it though. but I love audio books and I feel stupid just sitting around listening to a book with nothing to occupy my hands.
Heh. I knit a lot while studying; I find that it helps to have something to occupy my hands.
Currently working on the mate to this sock and a baby blanket for friends of mine that are expecting.
Caine
*clink*
to 75
—
kitteh serf
I could probably knit on a commute.
5 hours???
—
notsont
Yeah.
I don’t do audio books very much but I must be doing something else.
otherwise it just feels weird
Kittehserf, Jeremy Brett was the only other Holmes I whole-heartedly accepted. He was magnificent. Still, my heart belongs to Basil. I have 9 of the 14 Rathbone movies, slowly working my way to the whole set.
I wish I could knit, but it remains stubbornly outside of my skill set. I have tried and tried, the closest I got was being able to crochet somewhat when I was a kid. I have been trying to talk Mister into taking up knitting.
Speaking of knitting, if I decide to ambush Mister, say around giftmas time, what would be a good beginning knitter set up? Needles, yarn, books, instructions, whatever else…
notsont:
I don’t think you were wrong. A lot of people don’t like reality, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be smacked with it now and then.
Caine @15 – that’d pretty much cover it, I think. Mum bought me a cool book on knitting that’s given me a lot of help (available on Amazon) though I warn you, it’s pretty big, so if you’re short of shelf space … There’s also a Knitting for Dummies out; I haven’t seen it yet, though.
A nice thing to have is a good knitting bag for keeping stuff in, and if you can find one, a yarn holder (though a jar with a hole punched through the lid does just as well). A crochet hook for picking up dropped stitches, big darning needles for sewing up and a cable needle are good additions, too.
Or two knitting bags, maybe, if your ratties decide one is really for them to sleep on (see: Maddie the cat who pinched my bag before I ever got to use it).
NightShadeQueen @12 – whoa, those patterns are wonderful! Especially the sock with the trellis. I’m looking and thinking “HOW do you do that?” :)
chigau @13 – yup, 2.5 hours to get to work and generally the same back. Absolute shortest I can get is 1 hour 45 minutes. The morning commute’s longer because of the route I take; it includes a coffee shop and a stroll through a park to the tram stop, and that can add a half hour. I don’t mind it at all, that’s my favourite part of the trip (well, except when I’m juggling walking stick AND bag AND umbrella).
It is the inherent blame that’s placed on anyone who is not happy or who did not have a happy life that really gets to me. It’s one thing to live as an American and have a good life and know that the life is bought and paid for on the backs of others, but to completely erase or blame anyone who was born in a dire situation just irks me.
I think i said that wrong, goodnight. going to bed.
Re-hi, you Lounging Horde of Ilktopodes, you.
notsont – I don’t know what you meant to say @18, obviously, but what you did say read fine to me. Blaming people for circumstances beyond their control, or worse, for things done to them, is so not on.
Good morning
Dalillama
Happy aniversary and hugs about sewing machine. Singer machines are crap. They’re basically an old name that is supposed to gloss over the bad quality. One day I’ll get myself a Pfaff. Right after we win the lottery. My Brother machine wasn’t too bad, given the heavy usage and a few major fuck-ups caused by me.
Caine
Hmmm, you got married when I was born…
kittehserf
Nice stuff. I can’t knit to save my life. I’m also way too impatient for it, it just takes tooo long getting something.
Giliell @22 – thank you!
I never wanted to knit for years, either, ‘cos it seemed way too slow, as well. If I’d ever learned to do full-size sewing (as in, learned to use a machine) I don’t know if I’d be knitting now. My sewing in days of yore was all miniature, so it didn’t take long to do, and … I’m not even sure where this sentence is going. Anyways I got hooked on knitting last winter after seeing lots of lovely knitwear on the Net while looking for digital artwork material and starting to think it would be fun to be able to make it. I’m now one of those sad people who peers at people’s knitwear trying to figure out the patterns.
I’m wondering if there’s a protocol for switching what account one posts from. I just discovered that my piegasm account is attached to an email I no longer use and the email I want to use is attached to this one which…I dunno when I made this account or why I made more than one. So is it cool if I just start using this (I put ‘formerly piegasm’ in the display nym) or should I message someone?
Seven of Mine, you’re fine. Changing a nym is okay, it’s morphing to avoid a ban that’s bad.
Coolio, thanks Caine.
*toddles off to find a proper icon*
I swear, if Mr. is sick for much longer I might have to put him out of his misery.
I’m really sorry for him. He has a nasty cold, probably actually the flu and isn’t getting much better. I know that’s fuck annoying. But he’s been sick at the level where he has enough power and energy to constantly moan and complain and suuuuuuuuuuuuffer.
Giliell:
:snortle: My sympathies. Can you at least give him something that will knock him out for a good long while?
Ah yes, Man Flu, the type that makes the vocal chords hyperactive. It’s an evolutionary development to save RealDudes the humiliation of being pitied, by making them incredibly irritating instead. Unfortunately it’s done one of those evolutionary bungles and appears in NotRealDudes as well at times.
/totally true evopsych stuff
kittehserf @29, yep ‘totally true’ for my hanai (informal family) brother. That describes him perfectly.
When I came home there was a package for me from my sister. She sent me a blown glass octopus I had seem in a shop months ago when I visited her. She sent it for my birthday. We don’t talk a lot, and maybe don’t even have a lot in common, but we think about each other often and love each other.
Dutchgirl – a blown glass octopus? That sounds so beautiful!
It is beautiful. I almost bought it for myself when I first saw it, but now I’m glad I can look at it and think of my sister. Its palm sized and various shades of bluish purple.
Hey.
Gratuitous attempt to enrich myself here – anyone in the UK who knows of me and thinks they trust me willing to bid on an eBay item for me?
The seller won’t ship to the US.
It’s a whistle, will sell for probably 10-20 pounds. I’d throw in an extra ten bucks for your trouble. Small package. :)
I would paypal you the cost & original postage plus your postage to me and the extra ten bucks. :)
I’ve been playing tin whistle lately, I kinda am totally in love with them.
Piano was always my instrument, but it’s a thrill to be getting to be reasonably OK at playing another instrument.
Thanks for listening to my self-servingtudiness. :D
Caine
I’ll just remove ourselves from the locations and visit friends in the afternoon.
Actually I think that the guys have it right in some aspects: When they’re sick they are sick and the rest of the world can just fuck off. Unfortunately for many women there rest of the world comes in form of children and household duties.
And honestly, 50% of his current suffering comes from German doctors handing out antibiotics like they’re candy and him just taking them without anybody ever establishing whether his problem is caused by bacteria. Which it apparently isn’t. And I’m really having a hard time not saying “I told you so!”
Also, the pink crystal pirate trousers have been accepted
Yes, very important that. Sometimes they don’t go down very well (they do then tend to come back up rather “well” and at high velocity) and give her a tummy ache. Taste-testing yer RangerSnack™ first is important for the stomach to consent.
How about codes for hysterically screaming “Where’s my cheese?”, “Gimme back my MUSHROOMS!!”, and “The peas! The horrible peas!”, either repeatedly, sequentially, or at all the same time? Being chased-by, stuck-onto, chasing, or having-been-treed-by a horse would increase the number of the codes.
If it’s cold enough, it gives the stripper extra motivation to pop out on cue and rather vigorously do his / hers / its / theirs dance act…
Less messy than a hollow cake, and far more useful after the party’s over. With wheels attached, it can even be used as a wheelbarrow to carry the over-“tired” guests back home / to the slave dealer / Mama Grizzy bear / river…
Just be sure to clean it out first before you put the cheese and MUSHROOMS! inside. Also, make sure the door handle is located sensibly and easy-to-operate so the mildly deranged penguin can open it (in a hurry), rather than just rip the door off. (Admittedly, she’ll probably still rip it off anyways, just because doing so is LOUD.)
Ig Nobel prize for discovery that opera is good for a mouse’s heart:
I dunno where a comment like this belongs so I’ll put it here. Just read this post from last month:
http://www.shakesville.com/2013/08/the-backdrop-of-my-womanhood.html
Melissa McEwan ‘s short list of fears women live with. I wish this could be made into a book, containing an exhaustive, and I do mean exhaustive, list for men to read. We just don’t know most of this. I think MRAs know almost none of it and could use some perspective.
Maybe it could be crowd sourced. Has anyone done this? Are there lists out there?
ludicrous – I think you’re giving MRAs too much credit. Perspective? They would dismiss the piece as lies, and at the same time say McEwan deserves it. These guys don’t just bleat about imaginary oppressions visited upon white dudes; too many of them want women to be returned to chattel status, and are all too happy for us to live in fear of men.
While I would be the first to admit my Singer sewing machine isn’t as versatile as many that you can get, and I have a limited number of stitches, I think the quality of the machine is actually rather good considering that it is still in working order and belonged originally to my great-grandmother.
kittehserf @40
Yeah I should not have referred to rma’s, I was thinking of just guys in general who really don’t know and haven’t inquired about female life experience. Thinking of myself until a few years ago.
Your idea has merit, ludicrous.
My own experience indicates that men can learn when what women live with is made explicit and clear (or when they are read the riot act!) and, in my case, can educate other guys.
It’s a slow process but any progress is good progress.
I take advantage when opportunities arise to speak bluntly to other men (boys o_0) and encourage them to spread the word when they get the chance. You can help educate guys too. Eventually real men will outnumber the MRA’s. It’s about time, in fact, long past time.
Just remember, every little bit helps. Cumulative effect.
Petition to Obama telling him not to appoint Larry Fucking Summers chairman of the Fed, and to find a qualified woman instead. Apart from his misogyny, Summers has:
“advocated for the repeal of Glass-Steagall, which paved the way for banks that are too big to fail”;
“blocked efforts to regulate derivatives, which Warren Buffett presciently called ‘financial instruments of mass destruction'”;
“When the financial system collapsed in 2008, he insisted banks be bailed out but not restructured and that executives keep their bonuses.”
Doesn’t sound like a good candidate.
(Quotes from the e-mail that told me about the petition.)
“Real men” is a concept best gotten rid of.
Notsont @6
II agree with you about those damn feel good quotes. They do not make me feel better. Sometimed I want to pelt someone with peas until they think about what it means to say Karmically Stupid Shit.
OK, David. I hereby substitute “gentlemen”. Was on first cup of coffee. Thanks for extra wake-up power.
My father was always telling me to be a gentleman so that is the term I should have used.
(I remember, Pap.)
Far right efforts to gut biology lessons in Texas:
https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/texas-textbook-trouble-lone-star-state-faces-yet-another-creationist-push
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/texas-textbook-reviewer-sheds-light-creationist-efforts-undercut-science-education
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/09/14/20492527-this-week-in-god
Negotiations in Geneva have born fruit:
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/09/14/20492997-us-russia-reach-agreement-on-syrian-chemical-weapons
Documentary covering fundamentalist mormon polygamists in the USA:
Youtube link. This documentary covers the practice of assigning child brides to older men.
Child bride in Yemen dies.
Crudely @43,
I am thinking of something like the format of Greta’s ‘100 reasons atheists are angry’. Perhaps “100 reasons women must be more careful than men.” or reason’s it’s more costly for women to live, or 100 reasons life is less convenient, more risky etc. for women. Well there could be chapters of categories. Just to start a list of categories could be useful, an encyclopedia as it were.
Just taking one category for example.
It’s more costly for women to live.
1 They make less money or have to work longer hours for the same take home. Overtime is difficult if it involves night hours or working week ends in an empty office building.
2 Medical expernses are higher, birth control can be more complicated, maternity expenses.
3 Transportation. Need to take taxi or drive where men safely could walk, bike or take public transport. Need more reliable or newer car to avoid risk of breakdown. Need safe parking.
4 Clothing. More expensive, more outfits required for work. More concern for presenting a proper appearance that will not be misunderstood. More expensive toiletry, hair, makeup, menstrual supplies.
5 Housing. Require a safer neighborhood and/or more secure premises.
That’s just one category. I think a hundred reasons would not be hard to find.
Okay, moving from rant-type contributions to narcissistic-type contributions:
After all my work last week – the assignments from the first week of law school to be done before the end of 2nd week of law school included, I kid not, though I may be off +/- 3 pages, 740 pages of required reading. I didn’t number the pages of “optional reading” that was nevertheless specified by the professors.
I didn’t touch the listed optional readings, but I read 672 pages of the required readings AND a bunch of unlisted stuff that bore on the required readings that helped me understand it AND prepared a presentation/discussion of a 40 page law review article that attempted to put it against its then-historical backdrop as well as call out what in the article foreshadowed current practice and what portions of the article could be considered no longer a good statement of law.
As part of the exercise, I put together a flow chart outlining the jurisprudential process in certain cases (according to the article). When I lectured I had my fellow students fill in the flow chart (I had the symbols up, they had to determine which symbol contained which question/action).
All of the students are going to have to do this once during the term, and its graded, and we don’t know our teachers or the expectations, really, yet. So I was taking a big risk, with the payoff that I wouldn’t be trying to prepare a presentation and write a paper in the same week later in the term.
When I got done, the prof’s first words were: “to the rest of you, I just want you to know that you won’t be held to [CD’s] standard. She does have prior teaching experience.”
Second words? “I like that flow chart. It’s really helpful and I’m going to incorporate it into my lecture for next year.”
I got 100% of the available points on the exercise, which is 1/7th of my grade in the class.
I smoked that thing, in the middle of an absolute mountain of work, and oh boy am I happy about that.
I love blown glass, & love cephalopods, so I have nearly bought myself one on more than one occasion. When one employs teh guugle using blown, glass, and octopus, one comes across some really lovely stuff, including some things I’d like to have in my home:
Ones both large and small.
….does anyone else use Opera?
Currently listening to some Verdi arias. Does that count?
My best friend uses Opera.
What do you need?
I think the point is that much like the piece of shit Chrome/Firefox clone Opera just replaced their formerly wonderful-going-to-seed browser with a few weeks ago, and like AutoCAD for the entire time I’ve been alive, the Singer company built a brand name that people trusted and then coasted on it while cutting corner after corner like a hot knife through butter.
What you’re attempting to express is basically “Male-Identified Actual Adults,” right?
Why not just abbreviate it?
Assistance locking the development team in a room full of flavored light sockets. >.>
@Azkyroth
You’ve got me feeling like Loony:
kittehserf
Trellises are naturally biased – they’ll pull the stitches around them as well.
[For a more obvious example: the garter rectangles in this cowl are knitted straight across, and the trellises’ tendency to bias pulls them off]
Ariaflame 43
Azkyroth is correct; L’s grandmother’s Singer is still working wonderfully to, AFAIK. Those made later than that are increasingly bad; my mother got one for her high school graduation, because her mother had a very good one, but it was junk and she replaced it with a necchi that she still uses.
Azkyroth @57 has taught me something:
That’s a real thing? I mean, a widely used term? If so, I can use MIAA and be widely understood? If not, shall we make it so?
Thank you. I don’t really have my ear to the ground wrt the way the language goes so my ignorance can be . . . ponderous.
I appreciate you helping me to be succinct in my writing. It is not infrequent that a word or term seems awkward but I may not have a good substitute at the ready.
Ludicrous @51: Your idea gains traction. Maybe something like it exists somewhere on FTB?
Crip Dyke, that’s a nice cap you’re wearing. The new feather looks fabulous!!! Way. To. Go.
________________
Furthering “narcissistic-type contributions”: I just took a walk with my camera into the jungle/woods out back. Along the way I spied a pair of robber flies mating. Snapped a few pix of them at very close range and then, unable to resist, I slowly brought my off hand into the frame.
Gingerly, and taking more exposures along the way, I tucked my index finger right up under the “chin” of the closer of the pair. It climbed aboard and I have some nice shots of it perched happily on my digit while its mate, oblivious, clings contentedly to the branch.
You oughtta see the grin on my face!!!
*I really need to get a Flicker account. Really. I am the bug whisperer! OK, I’ll do it within the next few days. Be warned: there will be spiders. =)*
I don’t think it is. We could, but I suppose it looks a bit like the various MAFIAA industry cartel acronyms. Hmm.
Petition to McDonald’s to pay their workers a living wage.
Meh. That word comes with implications of… performing pointless rituals of politeness in order to keep one’s high status in society.
:-) :-) :-)
:-) :-) :-)
:-) :-) :-)
No. Abbreviating it to “adults” instead might work. :-)
Crip Dyke,
Yay! Great news.
===
Crudely Wrott,
That sounds amazing! I am jealous. I lack those skills, though I did recently get some good pictures of bumblebees feeding on a lavender plant, and also the spiders who live on my pet pine tree Winston. I’ve been trying for a while to get a good picture of a dragonfly or damselfly, of which there are plenty round here, but they are so hard to photograph.
@crudely wrott:
I would love to see those pictures! Nicely done!
@crudely wrott:
Wife has been known to pet bumblebees. The big black and yellow fuzzy ones.
It’s quite easy, getting along with insects, I do it all the time. Rescue them, get macro shots (ambush bugs are my fave for that, they look like something from another planet!), and of course, the obligatory bug love shots. What’s that bug? has published a few of my shots, and they have a dedicated bug love section.
[psa]
Those of you with home blood pressure devices may want to try a battery change if the numbers appear to be going up. I dropped my bp measurement by 10 pts when I changed to fresh batteries. Confirmed with the Redhead’s bp dropping by a similar number (from this new medicine regime not working to working).
[/psa]
I’ve been griping a lot lately, so I’m going to be happy for a minute to make up for it.
HOLY SHIT NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON IS SPEAKING AT A LOCATION NEAR ME and I’m so excited. I have no idea what the tickets cost, but damn it, I’m going to make sure I take my kids and make them listen. He is so freakin’ engaging and mesmerizing and interesting.
Also, I finally got my sorry ass to buy firewood, and it’s getting delivered tomorrow and assuming it truly is aged as stated and isn’t all punky, we’ll be in good shape for the winter. I always say I’m going to buy it early, and I always wait too long until almost no one is still selling any, and it’s always a scary proposition that I won’t get any or will have to pay too much. I don’t know why I do this, but it has happened every year since we started buying wood.
Carlie:
Yay! We have about 3 cords which have been aging nicely all summer long.
For those Dancing with the Stars fans, Bill Nye is one of this season’s contestants. Don’t know whether to say lets give him the nerd vote, or hope for a quick and merciful departure. Que sera, sera.
So one of the ways I
am a sell-outmanage to make enough money to no longer be homeless is by writing erotica and romance novels under various pen names. One of my titles has become a bestseller through a particular outlet.I have this strange mix of glee (ogodsyesthankyoumoney) and horror (ofuckpeoplearereadingmycrap).
I’m trying to come down on the side of glee. Fortune by praised for pseudonyms.
MM, you should be gleeful! Dancing in the street gleeful! Way back in my usenet days, there was a person who made a good living writing erotica.
Caine, my older brother (66 years old) who lives in Alaska cuts and splits his own firewood. Tough son of a gun.
I think that tomorrow there will be a dead squirrel near where I work.
I just saw a squirrel eating an 18-inch Slim Jim
meatsalt stick.Mellow Monkey:
Wonderful.
Caine & Lynna:
When I was in high school, I was able to supply about four cords of wood for our house (wood stove) just from trees on my parents property and debris from the flood plain of Antietam Creek.
Also where I was bitten by a copperhead the second time. Fuckers are hard to see.
Azkyroth and David M: Azkyroth says, “Hmmm” and David says “adults”. So, hmmm. While I like MIAA it does have a resemblance to MIA and, while there may be an ironic sense there, acronyms are best left until popular usage makes a term well enough known to be identifiable by its initial letters.
Adult comes with some baggage too as well as the fact that simply being an adult does not guarantee mature behavior. I used “gentlemen” because it is part of my upbringing and stands well for the example my father set for me back in my formative days. David’s observation of pointless ritual is a Victorian corruption that we’re stuck with. So the search for a useful term continues . . .
Walton, dragonflies often choose a perch that they will use as a base from which to hunt and will return to it repeatedly. If you observe such behavior, slowly approach the perch in a crouch. You often will have time to compose the shot and set exposure et cetera and get some good shots. I’ve gotten quite close on occasion.
Thanks, CD. I’m promising myself that I’ll get some pictures on line very soon. I have to gather and organize and do a little post processing first which is why I don’t already have pix on line. Today, though, I am motivated.
Oggie, tell your wife she’s not the only one to pet the bumble bee. Ask her if she knows where they sleep. I have photos of them nodding off at dusk. (Answer: at least in some cases, they simply crawl underneath the very flowers they have fed on during the day and snuggle in for a nice night’s doze.)
Lynna, so do we. Haven’t bought firewood for…um, I’m not sure we ever did buy it, now that I think on it. Back when we lived in Idyllwild, there were designated areas in the national park you could go an gather wood, which we did, along with doing stuff like pulling apricot tree stumps (got them for free, just had to do the work, and that was crazy hard work, but great burning wood). Here, it’s easier than breathing to come by free wood, just have to go get it, cut it, and haul it. We had several tree limbs come down in storms last year, 30 to 45 feet long, which cut up nicely for the firewood stack.
About 1000 people showed up for the first ever Gay Pride Parade in Idaho Falls, Idaho. For such a conservative/mormon town, this is a real breakthrough.
Amateur video here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151862636659598&set=vb.767894597&type=2&theater
Two of my brothers, (one in Idaho, one in Alaska), fell dead trees and cut them up for firewood.
Like Caine mentioned, firewood can often be gathered from public lands. In Idaho, wood-getting on public land is approved in several areas, if one obtains a permit. The “wood getting” permits are usually quite cheap. The labor involved is pretty intense.
Pretty sweet to have downed trees right in your yard — as long as they don’t damage any structures.
Hey Caine, from one CA homey to another, we are hoping to move up the mountain to Crestline soon. There is a nice little godless community developing up there (among about a dozen churches). There are good godless artists, writers, gardeners and landscapers, crafters of all sorts and an old community theatre for sale. Wish me luck.
Have I mentioned that I really, really, really need a big change in my life? Slugging it out down here in the Los Angeles smog has gotten so old.
Remember when Pat Robertson said on the air that gay men wear special rings that they use to cut people with whom they shake hands, the better to spread HIV/AIDS?
Well, that turned out to be such an offensive and stupid comment that Robertson’s cronies at Christian Broadcasting Network hired a bunch of lawyers to try to get all copies of the video off the internet. Fail.
Right Wing Watch filed a counterclaim, and they won. Way to go RWR.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/pat-robertson-loses-fight-keep-gay-aids-ring-video-internet
Lynna:
Aye, there’s the rub. Sometimes I have nightmares about one of the two gigantic, towering pines right outside the front deck coming down. If the one did, it would wipe out a good portion of the house. I take very good care of that tree.
Morgan:
Rats below, Crestline! Whoa, memories. My great grandparents had a house in Crestline, way up in the mountains, backed by mass amounts of forest. I *loved* that house. Loved Crestline. haven’t been there in ages. I hope you like it!
Yikes, I wrote ” … hat they use to cut people with whom they shake hands …”. Jesus Christ, worst fucking syntax ever. I apologize.
More bugnuts anti-gay rhetoric from the far right religious flea brains, this time from Bryan Fischer:
Right Wing Watch link.
Eldest daughter** and I are about to head to town for the local Art Council’s shindig. I love going places with her. (proud papa mode–She’s so much like me!–/proud papa mode) I’ll be looking for some connections with the Council since I’ve sort of backed in to a different kind of wood working.
I’ve been taking old, old, insect modified, partially decayed wood from the jungle/woods and staring at it for a long time. At some point I come to an agreement with the piece and turn it into something. Right now it’s mostly accent lights. LEDs hidden within the warrens left by beetle larvae and such create a very nice effect.
Soon will be some carving tools and other bladed implements. I have a piece of old pine that has two dragons lurking in it. They need only a little help to manifest.
So if there are any Hordelings that have worked with driftwood or old reclaimed wood and have experience with such, any tips that you would like to share would be enthusiastically received. I need to find ways to preserve and strengthen the pieces without substantially changing the character they have attained while slowly returning to the soil.
I have just a few pieces in process, mostly experimental, and have discovered some interesting and surprising things just under the outer, weathered layers. I’ve used Minwax wood hardener but the glossy finish isn’t the look I want. Also linseed oil which penetrates and does nice things to the grain. All suggestions are welcome.
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MM, I’m very happy to hear that you’ve taken advantage of your talents and are turning a profit. Huzzah!
Carlie, I’m sooooooo jealous. Tyson! He’s a great speaker and very kid-accessible. Do go then tell us all about it, please.
I suppose you know to watch out for the things that sometimes crawl out of firewood brought into a toasty warm room! *recalls stepping on large grubs with bare feet in the dark on way to pee*
**Jesi is doing well. Really much better and I guess I have to (reluctantly) give a nod to the methadone. A lot of healing going on in the family. Son in law is acting like he’s gotten a message or three. Much reason for hope and rejoicing.
Caine,
Yeah, I do love it up there. I’ve been spending a fair amount of time there with friends, even got snowed in for several days last winter. I didn’t think I’d ever want to live very far from the ocean, but things change. I’ma headin’ fer them mountains!
Bugnuts news from the right wing, abortion category, plus very old data category:
More on David Barton, THE source for all things “historical” if you are a right wing fundamentalist:
Politicians who love [insert pink hearts all in a row] David Barton include: Ted Cruz, Michelle Bachmann, GOP leaders in Iowa, and Rick Santorum. Of course, Glenn Beck and Lush Dimbulb also love Barton.
I would just like to note that Barton is immune to debunking. You can disprove his statements a hundred times and he will not be concerned in the least.
Religious right fulminations, sodomy category:
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/how-make-whole-homosexual-marriage-debate-go-away
Caine # 5 = My wife and I go to sleep every night with the Sherlock Holmes audio series playing in th CD player..
You definitely have taste!
[TW: sexual abuse]
New information has come to light about the sexual abuse of women detainees by guards at the Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre, a hellhole detention camp which I’ve written about before. This is terrible.
Lynna OM #91. It always amazes me how somebody tries to judge and control people by their standards.
Sojourner:
I have a Sherlock Holmes audio series, love it! I found it in Goodwill, of all places, for 2 dollars, brand new, never opened. I go to sleep every night with The House of Fear playing on my little portable dvd player. I don’t know why, but that one just melds right into background for me, and it’s oddly comforting. Of course, it doesn’t have anything to do with the actual story they lifted the orange pips from, but it works anyway.
Morgan:
Well, the nice thing is that you’re never that far from the ocean. Even when we lived in Idyllwild, we would head down to Pirate’s Cove, Corona del mar, fairly often. Visit the seals.
True they did. We have been listening to our two sets w/8 cds in each one at Costco about ten years ago. We know them all by heart, but they are good to fall asleep to!!
Nevermind my greedy plea above. One of my fellow antique woodwind nuts in the UK has offered to help me out. :)
Musical instruments. Important! :)
I miss Beatrice.
Nobody is saying Barton has evidence based beliefs. They are all presuppositional. Which makes everything he says lies and bullshit.Until Barton can show academic evidence to back up his fuckwitted presuppositions,he can’t say anything cogent.
Caine,
I must have missed something. What happened to Beatrice?
Me too. :(
Quick drive-by link dumping:
The making of the Bible, but in modern-day terms.
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Anyone play Dues Ex human Revolution?
Played through first mission then rage quit and trying to decide whether I should continue with it.
No bumblebee-petting for this cowpoke, because I only have one allergy, and it’s to
yellow/black wingèd death machinesbees/wasps/hornets/ilk like this. After 40-odd years of knowing about it, I have developed a very healthy phobia about them (phobia because my reactions go to a seriously irrational place about this, not because it’s illogical of me to fear things which are potentially fatal to me).You folks can pet the bumblebee. I’ll be over here running flailing in circles screaming.
Belated yay! and conga rats!! to CD for the awesome presentation.
Beatrice is taking a break.
CaitieCat, I’ve had an anaphylactic allergy to bees and wasps all my life. To go along with that, bees and wasps are unaccountably attracted to me – they follow me, try to land on me,* and it makes me fair crazed with fear, or at least it used to do so. I’m way better now, and what did the trick is taking up photography. Getting the shot was more important than anything. I can almost die anytime, getting the shot? One chance.
*No bright colours, no scented shampoos, not wearing scent, doesn’t matter. They love me.
Bug slideshow, for those who like such things.
Stephen Colbert mocks Rand Paul’s positions on Syria. All of them.
A senior research analyst who was cited as an expert on Syria by both Kerry and McCain lied about having a doctorate.
A school in Jacksonville, FL, is still named after N. B. Forrest, unusually cruel Southern general in the Civil War and subsequent founder of the Ku Klux Klan.
Thank you so much for the bug slideshow! I needed that before going to bed. ♥
David:
Sweet bug dreams, David.
Christ, some transhumanists give me a headache. Bleargh.
Pretty, pretty bugs. ♥ Who needs aliens when we have such gloriously different creatures right here with us?
Has everyone seen Greta’s post?
MM:
I know! I love ’em all. Especially leaf hoppers and ambush bugs. And dragonflies. And damsels. And, well, you know.
@Caine
Transhumanists are starting to see a lot like Calvinists to me
@Caine
I hadn’t till now but I was talking to Jafa on Twitter about it and his stance is in line with mine, though mine is also meaner and critiques the idea of people letting Dawkins off the hook..,.again. For a doubling down he phrased as a notpology.
On one hand I guess I should be glad most people don’t have the sort of experiences I did to learn about abusive shit heads and ‘apologies’ but on the other hand I question whether skeptics and atheists just guzzle amnesia pills because no matter how many times this hits them in the face they never learn to duck.
Beautiful bug pictures, Caine! I have one glorious picture of a dragonfly on a horsetail that is just perfect; I was so surprised to be able to get the shot, that it was holding steady… and then realized it was dead, which was the only reason it was still long enough for me to get the picture. Um.
That is one good thing about our setup – the wood is in the garage, and the wood stove is just inside the door from there, so nothing comes in until it’s ready to be burned. It’s close enough and sheltered enough that we don’t need to carry it in in large bulk at a time. The wood thing nearly killed me this year – the town took out a bunch of trees just next to our backyard, and I might have been able to ask for the wood, but we don’t have chainsaws and the like to cut it up with (nor space to hold wood that needs to age).
Crudely – I’m also very glad your family is doing better. :)
Also if I may pimp a friends blog, they’ve been doing a look at geeky stuff from a disabled POV and have their thoughts up on The Killing Joke
http://geekygimp.com/comic-review-1-the-killing-joke/#more-129
I got to see Dana Hunter today! And hurl some pumpkins! And Dana saw some horsies! She wasn’t there when I about got run down by one, however. That sucker was BIG! I expect we’ll see a blog post about it in a day or two.
Carlie:
Thank you! I’ve found talking with dragonflies works well, reassure them you won’t hurt them, you just want a picture, and tell them how beautiful they are. They’ll sit quiet for a long time if you’re going on about how pretty they are.
Ing:
Yeah. I tried to be nice, suggested they don’t let their defensiveness do the talking, but noooo. This instance reminded me too much of people in the atheoskeptisphere – “what problems? nuh uh, we don’t have people like that!” yada, yada, yada. Ugh.
Yeah, I’m with you two.
Fuck yes. I so agree.
Trebuchet, excitement!
I’ve avoided the transhumanist label and now say that I am open to the ideas of Bodyhacking. While I think the idea of trying to improve the human condition through medicine or preventive or augmented medicine is a good idea, stuff like singularity and immorality seem to be horrible awful ideas that should not be seen as an end goal
Listening to radio, remembering a friend last year. Can I just say how much I dislike Haunted Houses™, and people who think they are just so much fun, and c’mon, please, please say you’ll go?
Don’t ask people who are intensely hypervigilant to accompany you to a Haunted House thing. In my case, that would be asking for me to seriously hurt people.
ludicrous @42 – yes, that makes sense indeed. Guys in general could certainly do with learning this.
NightShadeQueen @60 – thanks!
… I’m being stared at by Maddie. I’m not sure why.
Rally in Leith, ND on Sept. 22nd!
Some old friends of mine are organizing a welcoming committee for Jeff Schoep when he visits the town on a “fact-finding tour”.
If you are in the area, please consider joining us in sending a clear message to these folks. You can find details about the protest at UnityND. If you are unable to attend, there is a link down-page whereby you may participate vicariously by kicking down some $$ in support. (Gas money (Leith is in the middle of ever-fucking-loving-nowhere. (Apologies to Caine.)), signage, attorney’s fees, etc.)
I’d love to meet any other Hordelings that can attend. I’ll be the guy in the peace sign tie-dye wearing a straw hat. Probably carrying a sign reading FUCK YOU, YOU FUCKING FUCKS (or something to that effect).
ELROY! *hugs you before you can run away*
Fuck, I can’t do Sundays, else I’d be there, with bells and temper on. I’ll kick money in, though. Pffft, even Almont isn’t as outinthefuckingsticks as Leith.
CD and MM
Conratulations and yay!.
Caine: I stopped going to ‘fun’ haunted houses when I throat punched some stupid asshole in a Dracula costume when I was 17. I didn’t mean to, he scared me badly and that was my instinct. I apologized to him, but they asked me to leave.
Haunted houses: a bad idea for some us.
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So, I’ve been ruminating on my recent diagnosis of Aspergers and on the contents of the forum at Wrong Planet. The thing I am definitively noticing is that there appears to be very, VERY poor support for adults with Autism, especially if they are diagnosed later in life. This appears to be true across at least six countries, if the people on the forums are to be believed. It is thought by people from the outside that adult persons with Autism either need the services of a case worker (maybe, but many do not have case workers), or they are essentially able to take care of themselves through informal support systems they might have access to.
Another other common complaint is that such concessions as companies are willing to make to Aspies and Auties are not able to help Aspies and Auties remain employed and/or remain in the workforce.
I have a dissertation coming up that I hadn’t quite finished.
I may opt to analyze the need of adult persons with autism and/or what an autism friendly workplace would look like. I may be able to use this to help ameliorate the panic I feel now that it’s clear I really, REALLY am not neurotypical. I mean, I wasn’t really passing any way, but now I know it’s never going to happen. It’s not uncommon for people who get the diagnosis to burnout badly and be unable to maintain employment–maybe I can be helpful (I need, badly, to be helpful in some lasting way.)
Awww, I was especially hoping that you could be there, Caine. Muchas gracias for the lucre.
I’ll wear an extra bell for you, but I tend to leave my temper at home for these events. Saves on bail and suture silk expenses.
Outinthefuckingsticks is a relative term, best applied from the point of origin. It’s an 800 mile round trip for me (most of it carpool), but I’ll get to hang with some old friends, do some catching up, and poke some assholes with a stick.
Elroy:
Good Times. Give an extra hard poke for me, and another three for Mister.
mouthyb
I’m good friends with someone who’s far enough along the aspergers/autism scale that he receives permanent disability payments from the Australian government. If it’s of any use to you I’d be glad to discuss how it is to be a neurotypical in such a relationship. I’ll also say that your comments about how it is for adults gibes with everything I’ve heard from my friend.
And I’d be very grateful indeed if you do write something about what a supportive workplace for those on the spectrum would be. I’ve made some good progress understanding how he sees the world over the last few years but more information and other perspectives is always welcome.
Hugs if you want them.
FossilFishy: Honestly, if it weren’t for the ability to read the posts on Wrong Planet, I’d be really freaking the fuck out right now. Between finally, definitively understanding how different the every day processes of most of the population are from me and realizing that the things I’m trying to compensate for aren’t going to be compensated for, I’ve been seconds from panic for the last few weeks any time I think about it. I was already weird because of orientation (twice over), because of PTSD, because of my childhood and because of my adult experiences. Now it’s clear that the boat (of fitting in), as it were, left the dock at birth. I kept hoping I could somehow learn to compensate more efficiently, but there is NO chance I’ll belong in the easy or natural sense.
I have a vested interest in a better workplace, and it looks to me from my search that there’s almost no information on how adults with Aspergers or Autism cope and how to make them a part of the workforce. Lots of advice on how to appear more NT, zippola on what NTs should be doing–seems a little unbalanced to me.
My department has been pressuring me to do more work that is closer in line with the department focus, so this may turn out to be a win-win, especially since medical sociology is one of our focuses. If nothing else, it may be valuable to have literature actually written by someone with Autism.
me @ #128:
Prolly not a great choice of words, as I’ll be heading to a protest attended by a former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
Mouthyb:
That’s because most NT people are absolutely ignorant about non-NT people. That said, learning social cues and all that crap is helpful, but there needs to be much more education about the problems faced by non-NT peoples, and how to make interacting easier all the way around.
I’m not NT, but I’m not on the autism spectrum, either. At least I don’t think I am. Social cues were exceedingly difficult for me when I was young,* but I’ve long been good at passing for human.
*I’ve generally put that down to processing things very differently from most people, thanks to the environment I was raised in. I can fake very well, however, work environments have always stressed me to the limit, it’s best I work alone.
P.S. I think it’s best to refer to NT people as people, as I don’t think it’s okay to refer to autistic people as autistics, so I also don’t think it’s cool to say neurotypicals.
Elroy:
No fucking way. Metzger is going to be there? Oy.
So many (tentatively offered) hugs.
My friend’s name is Michael. Our relationship has had its rocky moments because of the fundamentally different ways we perceive the world. I would love, love, LOVE, to have some info on how to hold up my end of our friendship better. Everything I’ve learned has been through trial and sometimes painful error.
The biggest help that I came up with was to express how I was feeling verbally, explicitly, and often. I had to get over the NT notion that this kind of reassurance is somehow a burden. My idea was to relieve him of having to constantly monitor my behaviour against the memorised script he uses to judge how others are feeling. I can only imagine how tiring that must be. It seems to be working though I can’t say how universally applicable such a strategy would be. N=1 and all that.
Caine:
On closer reading, it appears that Cobb ‘gave’ two of the properties to Alex Linder and Tom Metzger.
No indication that either of them will be in attendance.
Caine: Point taken. People who are NT.
FossilFishy: There is some advice, generally, on relationships between people with autism and people who are neurotypical. What little I’ve read so far (my first urge, of course, was to go soak up as much information as possible on the condition, relationships, work life and/or anything else I could find) suggests that frequent verbal reinforcements are an excellent idea.
I’ve been enjoying reading this blog. Maybe it will be helpful: http://www.aspiestrategy.com/
From my N=1, not that I’m an expert, I’d personally like it if the other person talked to me before they were ready to blow. Sometimes, I don’t catch things until someone is yelling at me for it. Advance warning helps me stem off the urge to overreact.
I forgot to say it, but thanks for hugs, FossilFishy.
Elroy:
Oh that’s just fucking great. FFS, it took half of forever to shut Metzger down in the first place. I do not want him here. And Vanguard Linder, ugh, I’d say he can go fuck a goose, but I wouldn’t be that cruel to the goose. Why in the hell can’t they stay in their own states? Not that I really want them there, either. I just seriously don’t want them here. We have enough raging assholes already.
Any time MB, anytime at all.
I will point out with regards to saying neurotypicals rather than ‘neurotypical people’ is that when someone on the spectrum says the former it can be an indication of the level of othering they feel. Michael often talks about “you humans” and the like. He uses such phrases to indicate how difficult he finds it to navigate a society which is so blind to his needs. In his bad moments he seems to really feel that he’s not human as our society defines it. I watch for those phrases because it can be an indication that he’s struggling.
*cough* When I’m feeling upset, I tend to refer to other people as aliens (as in, I’m surrounded by…..). I have also gotten angry and talked about those humans.
My therapist tells me it makes me sound narcissistic, so I try not to do it.
*high five* for Crip Dyke, re the smoking of the presentation.
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Crudely, I’m glad that your Eldest Daughter is doing well.
:)
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Yes!
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Me, too. And rq, as well.
:(
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Caine, that bee-on-hollyhock pic is astonishing.
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mouthyb, *hugs* are offered, if acceptable.
*calming manatees* and *kittens with big round eyes* are also available.
:)
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This, so much.
FFS, I’m studying to become a teacher and we hardly learn about the psychological and emotional needs of neurotypical children. We learn a lot about how to get as much knowledge into their heads. Hell, even such small and useful advice as what fonts to use so kids with dyslexia or legastenia can read texts more easily are not taught, so teachers go on to use whatever fancy font they like best.
If I were 10 years younger I’d change my college career and specialize on the integration of non NT students in highschool education. Right now I can at least try to be better than the rest and maybe work the system from within once I make it into a paid job.
(This is cross-posted from Ed’s blog. It happens to be currently stuck in moderation (presumably either because of the crazy or the number of hyperlinks), but I was planning on cross-posting anyways simply due to the sheer hilarity / melted brain syndrome.)
Huh. I’d never heard of that nonsense before (which is nicely debunked at Ye Pffft! of All Knowledge), and whilst quickly researching it via Teh Univeristy of Generalisimo Google™, found the following “gem”, 666 Panes of Glass Myth proven true at Louvre Museum Pyramid. The formatting was so atrocious in the original I’ve cleaned it up (and also elucidated the numerous hyperlinks), except for one part where the crazy was so strong I couldn’t figure out how to edit it:
Eeek!
I had to make a Walmart trip for dog and cat food (note: I do not like supporting this company, but allowing my feline and canine companions to go without food is not an option), and what did appear before my eyes?
Pumpkins!
Of course now I wonder how many people see them and think ‘NOM NOM NOM, pumpkin seeds!’…
Oooh, so giddy. Must remember to buy some from a store the day after Halloween.
****
Ingdigo:
Thanks for that link.
Fascinating read.
Caine has referred to taking the red pill before and it is such an apt metaphor.
I love comic books. Lifelong fan. Bigger than life superheroes. Characters exploring the vast reaches of space, delving into other dimensions, swimming through the depths of the mind. I love the epic battles to save the city/planet/reality from destruction. I love the medium as a unique method of telling a story. “Comics are just for kids”, “pick up a real book”, “thats not literature”–comments like these make me cringe whilst simultaneously howl with rage. I have been moved by comic books. I have cried. I have been angered. I have felt sadness palpable enough to consume. Seeing comics evolve over the decades has been interesting. There have been so many changes. On the whole, the writing has become crisper, sharper. Artistically, the styles I see today in comics are often breathtaking. A fantastic writer/artist combo can wrap me into the world they are developing and propel me into a world of super science, sorcery, or time travel. I appreciate the journeys into mystery, the strange adventures, and those tales of suspense. Being able to dive headfirst into another world so unlike our own is awesome.
I will miss that.
No, I am not giving up comics.
But a bit of my love for medium has died.
Reading that review of The Killing Joke made me realize that my cherished lifeling hobby more closely reflects reality than I ever imagined. Strip away the spandex, invisible planes, sentient weather creatures, and alien shapechangers, and you have a world swimming in toxic masculinity, sexism, ableism, and more.
I regret that I never saw this before, but I am aware now.
These stories are written by people. Human beings with the same biases, bigotries and -isms held by others. Of course their writing is going to reflect that. It is part of the world they live in. This is something that must change.
In all the ways that matter, comic books are not escapist fantasies. They reflect reality much closrr than I once thought. Just as I cannot shut my eyes to the problems of the world that I once overlooked, so too am I unable…no, I am unwilling to do the same for my favored medium.
A little piece of my childhood has slipped away. But if losing a piece of youthful innocence is the small price to pay for opening my eyes ever deeper to the troubles facing other human beings as reflected in imaginary tales…well, here is my paycheck.
The mildly deranged penguin, who was not involved in the making of this GIF, nonetheless approves. (Found at Chris Rodda’s blog.)
Cicely:
Thank you! That little bee is the one who defined the “getting the shot is more important than your fear” moment.
Giliell:
I imagine you’ll never even know the impact you’ll have. It can make a world of difference to a kid, having a teacher who gets it, and is able to help. Maybe you’ll be able to help institute major change in classroom approaches, too. It matters. It all matters.
Oh man…
I can’t even fathom the thought process here.
Someone on Twitter calling themselves “Atheism Plus Dogma” @atheismpluscrap put me on thier list at kevel 1 as “homophobic.”
Why? Because in a chat with @ImprobableJoe and @SpokesGay, Joe says “*grins* I’ve got two chickens in the freezer that only exist to be turned into stock.” and I jokingly reply “you monster.”
And they attach a link to that as their example of my homophobia. For everyone to see.
I mean….
huh? The thinking is what exactly? Well, whatever. :) It’s a headscratcher, but as long as they make themselves that visibly ridiculous I think it’s self-correcting.
I see.
Now they are tweeting that they falsely called me a ihomophobe in order to prove that blockbot (which I don’t use) is bad.
All part of their efforts to show how Atheism+ (which I don’t identify myself as or use the site or whatever) is dogma.
Some anti-vaxxer should accuse me of racism in order to prove that big pharma is poisoning kids.
Or something.
mouthyb
Yes. And this is reflected in how people discuss Autism in general: you’ll note that almost all concern is focused on children. That horrifying Ashley Treatment (TW for ableism and nonconsensual surgery) is designed to literaly keep someone in a child-like physical state and has been touted as a solution for the parents of children labeled as “low-functioning”.
In discussions between the Allistic parents of children on the spectrum and Autistic adults, I’ve seen the Autistic adults silenced or ignored time and again. Allistic parents of Autistic children are given the soapboxes and treated like heroes while the voices of those children ten, twenty, forty years down the line are ignored.
I’m in no way minimizing the difficulties of raising a child who differs from the accepted norm: it’s scary when you fear for your child and there’s rarely enough support. But they don’t remain children forever and everybody needs to get that. Whether your child is going to be capable of living on xir own or not, you are raising a future adult. Listen when people try to tell you what your kid can expect and how that future could be improved.
/end rant
Sorry. This is one of those things that really upsets me. Good luck, mouthyb.
Fossilfishy
I’m looking into replacing my bike in the near future, and I thought I might ask you for a bit of advice. According to a site I found on bike sizing, someone my height (5’9″, ~31′ legs) wants a 21″ bike, but the ones that I’m finding for sale are all 20″ or 22″. How big of an issue is this likely to be?
This is a follow up to my comment @50 concerning fundamentalist mormons. The complete Dateline documentary is now available on YouTube. Start here. The show was broken into multiple parts for presentation on YouTube.
cicely: Thank you.
Gilliel: You know, I was really fortunate because I was so good at taking standardized tests (and IQ tests) that I was tracked out of special education, where it seems like all children who do not fit the standard model for learning get sent, no matter what their particular needs. That divide (either “normal” or “not normal”) looks to me like it’s part of the act of not teaching teachers to compensate for even things like the font choice you pointed out. I agree with you–it would be of benefit to teachers who are in regular education to know the effect of their choices on students who may not be best served by the “normal” model. Talking to other people with autism, I realize that I was incredibly lucky in the school system, even though I often aggravated my teachers.
But unlike many people with autism, I was never tracked away from college in the school system. My life would have been profoundly different if I had been, so I’m glad you are approaching teaching the way you are. Some of the stories I’ve heard from people are horrifying.
MM: Oh god, that case! *shivers* What person would be willing to do that to someone?
There’s a surprising amount of hostility toward adults with autism from people online–some of the things I found while I was searching about is a series of sites about the failings of autistic parents with NT children, a whole lot of relationship frustration and blaming, and support groups for parents of autistic children. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, but I was a little bit shocked to notice that where autism is brought up as a subject, one is quite likely to find people who are NT complaining about having to deal with persons with autism, let alone the blaming of people with autism for being cold/unapproachable/difficult/weird/etc.
I’m amazed by attitudes toward autism. Shortly after FTBCon I got into an argument on G+ with a woman who objected to the term “neurodivergent” on the grounds that she doesn’t like labeling for her own personal reasons. At one point she went so far as to say that, because the autie/aspie people she knows are so different from each other in terms of abilities and interests that using a term which is broad enough to reflect that diversity would make it difficult to deal with them as a group. She actually, completely unabashedly, said she preferred “autistic” as a label because it enabled her to rationalize not dealing with the autie/aspie people she knows as individuals. Then she registered her complete astonishment that I found that appalling.
Seven of Mine: *blink* What? *blink* *blink*
Of course people who are on the autism spectrum are different. The label is used to discuss people with an amazingly different number of information/stimulation processing disorders, which are often comorbid with a number of other mental health or learning issues. I mean, mine are relatively mild (my most obvious dysfunctions are social–I can suppress the others for periods of time with concentration), but the range goes from some persistent social difficulties to persons with profound processing problems that effect their daily lives.
That’s so weird, and not a bit infuriating.
mouthyb:
That was about my reaction; I really couldn’t believe anyone could state so baldly that they didn’t want to have to treat autistic people like people and still be unable to see a problem. I asked her how she would feel if I refused to use her name and instead insisted on simply referring to her as “woman” because that made it easier for me to ignore her individuality. It made no impression. She just hand-waved away every objection to her awful views as name-calling.
In comment #153 I accidentally linked to part 2 instead of part 1 of the 12 part series on mormon fundamentalists.
Here is the correct link to part 1.
Cain, your bug photos are wonderful! I loves ’em! Thank you for sharing them.
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“Captain, there be horses here!”
Dana has a short video from The Faire posted that, though I looked closely, does not seem to have any peas in it. That’s all right because there are bound to be MUSHROOMS! growing all over the place.
Yay, we have firewood! Definitely got the entire amount we paid for and maybe a little extra, it looks pretty dry, there’s a good mix of wood types (although sadly I still am crap at identifying cut wood), and a variety of sizes, only a few comically large pieces. And best of all, it’s all stacked now, and the only injury was to my left index finger, where I dropped a piece right on the knuckle and now it hurts. I was smart enough to take some ibuprofen before we got started, so I’m not feeling too bad overall. :)
I have no-knead bread in the oven. This is my fourth try at it – the first time I didn’t use the right container and it didn’t turn out, the second time there was too much water and it didn’t turn out, and the third time it was too cold and didn’t rise. This one had better work.
mouthyb – I follow Lynne Soraya on twitter; she has written about being an adult on the spectrum and has a web page where she does regular roundups of other information/articles on the same.
More bullshit from mormons, homophobic category, plus orwellian propaganda category:
Yeah, except that gay sex is still wrong, wrong, wrong. It’s a mormon fight for acceptance of a twisted love that actually equals “ewww” and “don’t do that” and worse.
Well, bully for her. But she is still preaching the mormon line that homosexuality is a challenge from God, and that homosexuals will be made straight in mormon heaven … if they manage to die without ever having acted on homosexual impulses. Fucking confusing as hell for gay mormons.
Yeah, right. I really have no patience for calls to be patient. Reminds me too much of the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
carlie: Thank you for that link.
*threadrupt*
I did my first 5K yesterday. I ran the whole way. My previous longest run was about 2 miles. I was determined not to walk. As a result, my body was like “WTF, here’s a migraine” but I’m better today and enjoying the rainy day to get cleaning done.
I just took down my shingle that said “Portia’s Law Office” … : (
Taking down the sign was tough emotionally (sad face no more my law office) physically (balancing it on my knee while taking out the last screw so it wouldn’t fall) and psychologically (SPIDERS CAN MAKE SO MANY NESTS IN 360 DAYS HOLY SHIT)
—
hugs where desired.
Christian conservative movements, their feeder colleges, and their underground “Fellowships” of men sworn to work in the political arena are the topic of a new article by Jeff Sharlet. Sharlett has written about the Fellowship or “Family” before. Rachel Maddow interviewed him. He revealed a lot of dirty political laundry associated with K-Street and men who made Jesus-centered pacts with each other, and with thugs in Africa (Uganda being one example). This latest article takes a closer look at some of the feeder schools.
Excerpt:
Caine
*blushes*
Thanks.
mouthyb
I’m afraid that should I make it into the actual “college prep highschool” (the German schoolsystem is notoriously difficult to understand for anybody who isn’t German. There’s a school just for those deemed college material, i.e. kids of middle class parents) most non-NT kids will have been shuffled into other schools already. Given the lack of general education on those matters and the lack of special training among non-specialized teachers it’s not surprising.
More from the Salon article referenced in #164:
I think I may have borked the link in the previous comment:
http://www.salon.com/2013/09/15/jesus_plus_nothing_equals_spiritual_abuse_partner/
Another quote from the Salon article, link in #166:
This treatment of women comes from a group of assholes whose stated goal is to effect politics on a worldwide basis … all in the name of Jesus.
http://www.salon.com/2013/09/13/notorious_abusing_pastor_wont_serve_time_pastor_partner/
This is a good, detailed look at the war that is being waged against public education:
http://www.salon.com/2013/09/15/diane_ravitch_school_privatization_is_a_hoax_reformers_aim_to_destroy_public_schools/
I just got surprised
During a staff meeting, my boss’s boss pulled out an envelope, glared at me, and announced that she had received a letter about me. She let me hang like that for about 10 seconds and then read a letter of commendation from the Logistics Section Chief who was in charge of the spike camp that became a full camp at the fire I was at in California. He described what I did at the camp (just about everything) and referred to my ‘calm and effective skill set,’ and described me as ‘flexible, effective and positive.’
Made me feel pretty damn good. And it is going in my permanent file.
Ogvorbis:
You are excellent at what you do. *highfive* :D I’m glad you work with people who recognize your amazingness and aren’t afraid to say so.
Yay for smart Bosses!
High five, Oggie.
Great news, Oggie! ‘S got me grinnin’. You too, I hope.
I’d bet you more than earned* that commendation. Keep on keepin’ on, brother.
*the old fashion way
Gee, a glare followed by reading of a letter of commendation. Methinks somebody thinks you are gunning for her job.
Congrats, Oggie! Well done. But why the glare? Was that just a “ha, ha, fooled you” thing?
Alright, Ogvorbis! You should feel good, and proud, too. I’m happy someone took a few moments out to let you know how appreciated you are.
GO Oggie! You kickassness is being more widely recognized.
A Bizarro Comic
–
(Minor capitalization error corrected.)
Unfortunately, atheism does not allow for purifacatory rites to remove the lingering taint.
Which is why we have napalm.
And high-orbital nuclear weapons systems.
–
See, Ogvorbis? You are highly valued, and not just by us here.
:)
–
I’m looking for an atheist/skeptical message board on the correct side of the Deep Rifts (like, I stopped reading the JREF boards when someone said something like “there’s an elevator there, don’t tell Watson”). Other than the A+ forum itself, anyone have any suggestions?
Yeah.
Hershele, well, there’s TalkRat, and the Former IIDB, rational something or other these days.
Just so you know, when IIDB imploded, the RnR forum was created to deal with all of us who walked, then RnR imploded, and thus begat TalkRat, yada, yada, yada, so there’s a lot of history and a good deal of insularity in all the boards. Also, as a friendly warning, Gurdur can be found to pop up at all of ’em.
Thanks, all.
I felt damn good about the letter.
He sent it to my boss who forwarded it to boss’s boss and then it eventually came down to me.
The nice thing is, I’ve been a security manager enough times that I have developed my own style. Very laid back, nice and slow, and lots and lots and lots of planning for, okay, what resources do I need if the fire reaches this road or that road, what do I do if te fire crosses the river and we need to evacuate the camp, all that stuff. And some of the shit going down was stuff I hadn’t dealt with before and my conscious decision as to how to handle my job worked wonderfully.
We did have some problems (not much) with physical resources disappearing (pumps, sprinklers, hoses) and I talked with a couple of the locals to get a better feel for the local culture. Some of the people up in these small towns choose to live there because, for example, thee is no cell phone service (that way the government can’t track where they go). My boss (the one who wrote the letter) wanted to bring a couple of SEC1 (federal law enforcement officers (USFS, NPS, BLM) to investigate. I recommended tossing it over to the local sheriff’s department since they were used to dealing with the locals and would, most likely, encounter less hostile silence.
On another occasion, two of the California Conservation Corps people (ages 18 to 23), both Hispanic, had a contractor (a water tender driver) sit down next to them and start complaining about mud people, about oreos, about America being a white man’s country, etc. I got called in by the crew boss and sat down an bullshitted with the crew members for about 1/2 hour and teased out as much information as I could. The problem was by this time we had about 50 contractors (not overhead, not hand or engine crews) and the CCCs had no idea who it was. I asked if they thought they could recognize him if they saw him again. They said they could. So we assigned the two of them to count the people going through the mess hall line (the caterer gets paid per person, so two people count everyone in the line) the next morning at breakfast. They spotted him and I, along with the Logs chief, informed him that he had 30 minutes to be out of camp. He raged against the ni**ers ruining the country for real Americans. He was gone in about 45 minutes (close enough).
Nice that it was noticed and appreciated.
Ogvorbis: Excellent!
Caine: Thanks, I’ll check those out. I think I looked at one of them and there was something about feminism having no place in skepticism, but I could be misremembering. I know there was one like that, which is why I’m asking in the first place, but my memory’s not what it once … no, actually, it’s always been shitty. Ahem. I may be thinking of a different space anyway.
Is this the right place for leaving something that I think might catch interest from the higher ups?
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/sep/26/jellyfish-theyre-taking-over/
Ogvorbis:
Kudos on being recognized for your skills and strong work ethic. You deserve all the praise buddy!
so hello.
I was diagnosed aspie as a youngling, but I think I’m getting really good at passing for NT with age. so it’s not as bad, but it still seems as if I have a few minor access issues (namely the way I meltdown when losing competitive activities, or just not being able to listen to most lectures without unimaginable boredom–and thus distracting myself and missing homework assignments that teachers say once and expect everybody to remember.)
Still, NT people need to do more. I find this especially troubling with my family–it feels as if they always wanted a “normal” straight cis white male NT child, and I fail at being cis and NT. They cope with that by ignoring those bits of me, and often end up yelling at me to not do something because it makes me look “weird”, or assuming that a certain aspect of autism (dyspraxia for instance) is just from me not practicing that skill enough.
so…ouch.
Portia:
Congrats on running the 5K!
****
Phrases people use with no thought to the meaning of the words.
A few nights ago at work, I overheard a conversation between two employees over their respective ages. It never hit me before, but I frequently hear ‘guess my age’ or ‘how old do you think I am. All too often, I hear ‘you do not look like you are age ____’. But what exactly does a 39 yar ild
Yikes. Submit too soon.
What does a 39 year old look like?
People sometimes say I look around 28-30. But I am now curious, what qualities, if any, people use to determine someones age.
thunk: I think that having one’s family want one to be more “normal” is probably pretty common. It certainly appears to be from the discussions I’ve read on message boards about being on the spectrum.
Of course, that doesn’t mean it isn’t exquisitely painful to feel that one is, for lack of a better way of putting it, some sort of fundamental disappointment. That’s their failing, however.
*fist bumps* if wanted.
Good morning
*gnah, I tore a muscle in my lower back. Not good*
Oh dear, I’m so sorry for the school kids. This week they’re doing a circus project. With a real circus tent. Which they have to put up themselves (the heavy lifting was done by adults, but still). And this morning it’s raining with a heavy wind.
Ogvorbis
Yay!
thunk
It constantly bothers me that parents don’t want a healthy child, but want a child who is like X (story of my life). That’s the fundamentally wrong way to approach parenting.
Things I want for and from my kids: happieness. If that means being an astrophysicist, cool. If that means being a hairdresser, also cool. If that means being with a man, a woman, both, neither, 2 kids, 4 cats, poisonous spiders, what do I care? I might not approve of every choice they make, but that’s something different from disapproving of who they fundamentally are.
Okay, so I don’t want to spoil anyone, but Walter White is the absolute worst. THE WORST.
“Beaver butt secretion good for baking: agency” http://www.thelocal.se/50250/20130915/
I think rodents are cute, but I am not enthusiastic about this…
— — — —
Memory of a bee: http://xkcd.com/1259/
— — — —
Sodium-ion battery cathode has highest energy density to date http://phys.org/news/2013-09-sodium-ion-battery-cathode-highest-energy.html
Conga rats to Portia, and a huge yay!!! to Ogvorbis :-D Good to see your skills and abilities being appreciated!
We have the great good fortune to have very nice neighbours living underneath us (it’s an old house originally built for one household and later divided into flats, a pretty common situation here). Yesterday basement neighbour S had a birthday party (or rather, basement neighbour C set up a birthday party for S) and about a dozen-and-a-half assorted friends and neighbours were there carousing and eating three wonderful curries and two wonderful cakes and carousing (and I am so glad I stopped drinking alcohol after a bit and went on to soft drinks and coffee or I would not be well this morning and did I mention the carousing?). SonSpawn was there for the curry, but then had to go across town to a performance of Rigoletto – his school had got tickets for all the sixth form music students, it’s on the syllabus or something (sixth form = the last two years of school – is that like high school seniors, maybe, in certain Furrin Parts?). So anyway, SonSpawn went off to the concert all by himself (in a hall he’s been to loads of times before, so he knows the route really well) and met the teacher with the tickets, and the other students, and travelled back afterwards with a couple of other students who live in this direction, and then walked home from the station by himself, and joined us at the party again. By the time he got back, which was later in the evening, there was loud music and dancing, and he just fit right in. It was really nice.
This was an unbelievably huge achievement. He does something like this – which all the kids in his year at school could have coped with doing at least three or four years younger – and I am just blown away by how amazing and wonderful this achievement is for him. Thrilled to bits, me :-).
thunk – there are a lot of people here who are either Aspie or have a close relative who is, so people have some idea what you mean.
If you have a specific person in mind, as an NT I found this essay really helped my understanding of certain behaviors (it’s a reaction piece to an episode of a show that is known for getting everything wrong about, well, every topic it touches).
Congrats, Ogvorbis!
Ogvorbis rocks.
— — — — — — —
If you want the hardcover anthology “Vampire Art Now” you can check out Bookcloseouts.com or Discountedbooks.com . Myself, I prefer H.R Giger.
— — — — — — —
“Captain, there be Horses here!”
-Was that Garrett? At least horses smell better than Lurking Felshke.*
*Obscure literary reference only hybrid mystery/fantasy fans will get.
— — — — — — —
WND has a piece about the freemason conspiracy at the heart of the founding of USA. So much crazy, so little time.
*panda flails* I want to write, I can’t do it cause I’m at work and they won’t let me write my story when I’m at work!
“12 months before money problems lead to violence” http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-09-months-money-problems-violence.html Women experiencing multiple instances of money stress are three times more likely to become a victim of violence in the following 12 months, Australian research has found.
Carlie:
Interesting. Back when I was in Catholic school, the nuns were quite hot on the “sit on your hands!” business. I used to play with pencils, so I heard that a great deal. It strikes me that a lot of adults set great store in having children be as quiet as a stone. Most adults can’t manage that.
Caine – yeah, one only has to look at the variety of fidget toys for sale in general stores, not just specialty outlets, to see that stimming of many kinds is an activity that many, many people do.
Better or worse than this?
(*wonders wtf happened to the original*)
Disclaimer: I may happen to have two bowls full of fidget toys on my desk. But, now that I’m thinking about it, what I really want is the one I made that is a hackey sack design of stretchy rayon and filled with rice that squeaks a little when you squeeze it and I don’t know where I put it and will now be thinking about that all day.
OH WAIT I FOUND IT
*contented kneading*
Hi! Have you had your minds blown today yet? :-)
Here goes: The Luopingian ( = Late Permian) lasted seven million seven hundred ninety three thousand years. And then it ended, 252.1 or ~ 252.228 million years ago, in a mass extinction that lasted 0.38 million years. Cyclostratigraphy is teh pwnz0r.
A moderator comment from ‘Like Cattle’
I get understand that we have new commenting rules here, moderators and that’s quite well, but is every thread going to be strictly moderated into the kind of conversation that moderators want to have and want to be had?
Pharyngula is a safe place for a lot of people to comment and these is a community. I’m part of it. I’m not entirely sure that I like the, well, invasive and explicit way that threads are being moderated.
I especially don’t like that way moderators are speaking for themselves about the conduct of commenters or the content of comments.
I know that there has been talk about new rules (in place now) and about the type of threads that people want to have, and that some moderation of the heretofore free-for-all was sorely needed …but is the personal taste of the moderators, to the exception of someone violating the rules, a good reason to ask someone to move a conversation to, for instance, the Thunderdome? I’m pretty sure it isn’t.
I’m posting this here because this is a conversation I want to have with the community members.
I have a specific question beside: What kind of moderation should we reasonably expect from a moderator?
Is a moderation like below appropriate? To what degree will moderators be restricting the kind and direction of conversation that people will be having? I appreciate the apparent want and need for noise on threads to be diminished (while I don’t agree entirely with the idea that it does at all), but where is the line, especially when no one is breaking the rules?
Moments of Mormon Madness, tithing and repetition categories:
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865586381/Iffy-blessings-and-paying-tithing.html?pg=all
Yes, this whole quiet hands business is just a bit more stuff on the steaming shit pile that is infantalisation of autism. It might also have something to do with the idea that children should be Seen and Not Heard. when I was in elementary school, the admin installed a stoplight thingy that forced everyone to be silent when things got too loud–and invariably, too loud was a perfectly normal conversation volume. And these were NT kids– Autistic people have it worse, given the sounds/movements they make are invariably seen as more jarring (I can’t help thinking that either). So it’s this ageist and ableist double standard that won’t go away without a radical rethink of people’s conceptions of us.
Thankfully, although I did get a small taste of what passes for autistic therapy (mine was mostly tolerant–others have had MUCH worse experiences), I was never exposed to this quiet hands nonsense.
Nina Davuluri has become the first woman of Indian descent to win the title of Miss America.
What comes next? A whole mess of racist comments of course.
About those quiet hands – [rant mode]
Elder Daughter was okay in kindergarten, even though she was reading her way through grown-up books about dinosaurs. The kindergarten teacher was calm, supportive and encouraged her.
First grade, however, was another story – the first week, I was called in because she was “not normal”.
ED wasn’t writing at first-grade level. That was because she was severely far-sighted, we’d only found that out late in the summer, and she got glasses a week before first grade started. The first-grade teacher’s response was “she got glasses, she should already be performing at grade level”. The teacher was also upset because ED was reading way above her age level, which was just bad and wrong when she couldn’t draw pretty pictures or write neatly.
She wouldn’t stand still in line, she danced. This, according to the teacher, indicated that my daughter was ADHD and needed meds, IMMEDIATELY. ED wasn’t disruptive, she didn’t fight with other kids or bite or go wandering off the school grounds (like her best friend, who was a nice normal girl), she just danced in place.
I asked for the kindergarten teacher to be called in. First grade teacher slammed down my daughter’s page of writing and demanded to know what kindergarten teacher thought of THAT. Kindergarten teacher remarked on how much my daughter had improved. I also consulted with our pediatrician, who confirmed that there was nothing wrong, and no need for medication.
We finally settled on some speech therapy for ED’s lisp, just to give her some individual attention, the principal talked to the first grade teacher, and things eventually settled down. Yes, she’s probably on the spectrum. For that matter, it seems to run in my family. But she is who she is, and teachers who try to force a smart kid who doesn’t fit their mold into a space labelled “standard expectations” are not being good teachers. [end rant mode]
What’s that expression? Oh, yes, tl:dr, twenty years ago there were bad teachers who couldn’t deal with kids who didn’t fit into their little boxes. I’m sorry to see that things haven’t improved much.
Also, hugs for anyone who’s dealing with this kind of… nonsense today, and that especially means thunk and Giliell and her little one.
*hugs* for Thunk
Cyranothe2nd
I honestly lost pretty much all my respect for the character when I heard the premise of the show. Come on, man, you’re a chemist! You have the expertise to make the good drugs. Meth is easy, and meth cooks don’t need much more than a reckless disregard for their own safety. If you’ve actually got lab skills, access to good lab equipment, and a knowledge of chemistry you can make LSD, which has a profit margin that blows meth out of the water, inasmuch as it sells for more per dose than meth to the end user, and a given amount of starting material can make a lot more doses too (LSD is effective in microgram quantities, not something true of most drugs). One batch can give you tens of thousands of doses. He could also make high grade Ecstasy, of any of a whole family of similar drugs. He’s got loads of options, and most of them involve dealing with people who are a lot less likely to be violent assholes.
Anne D
Oh, I could tell stories about my interactions with teachers when I was kid.
Completely threadrupt here. Is anyone watching the raising of the Concordia off the island of Giglio? It is about 9:00pm Italy time. They have been at it for about 12 hours. For any of our engineers out there, at what point might the ship cross its center of gravity and come upright?
Here is the live video link via The Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/10311659/Costa-Concordia-salvage-operation-live.html
Fascinating stuff.
I was thinking that maybe people with interests in trans issues in society might like to check out this post and the included links
Hip-hop, trans people, and a glimpse of a hopeful future
Thunk:
I think it has a great deal to do with that. Also, as Giliell mentioned, teachers aren’t being educated about non-NT kids, so I imagine many of them just fall back on old standards.
Dalillama:
Making L25 blotter is sooooooooooooo easy. Why no, I didn’t do anything at all in the chem lab when I was in high school. No one did. Nope.
That said, I have no idea at all of what show/character you all be talking about.
Caine
The main character of the show Breaking Bad, who is a chemistry teacher who developed cancer and decided that the best way to ensure his family was provided for after his death was to cook meth. That’s about all I know about it, because my SOD broke right about there and I stopped paying attention.
Dalillama:
Oh, I’ve never seen it. Yeah, going the meth route is stupid. Lot’s of less dangerous things can be cooked, and they have less focus on them in regard to being busted.
Um…me not type well today.
Well yeah, but he was a normal dude who had an “in” with someone and wanted quick money. The first season is pretty much he/his partner realizing that they are in way to deep and don’t have the skills to do illegal stuff like AT ALL.
It’s a great show. The best show on TV, as far as I’m concerned. Really wonderful writing and a compelling narrative about the nature of evil and self-delusion.
Cyranothe2nd:
I’m afraid it will have to go on without me, we recently decided to stop our satTV. We just do movies now.
Just been on DVICE and saw the “land air bus” article. So luv the idea. Biased tho’ cuz I think we need ALOT more public transportation.
morgan, My understanding is the wreck is not expected to — or will not be allowed to — right itself. Whilst it will be turned upright before being refloated, it’s all fully controlled. Letting it do it itself would place too much stress on the hull, and the extent of the damage on the starboard side is not well-known enough to risk it. This interactive at The Grauniad explains the process.
Thanks blf. I will check out the Grauniad interactive. I hope the entire operation goes according to plan. What a phenomenal engineering feat! So sad that so many people died.
Anne D:
*sigh*
Back in 1993, I was a third grader. In kindergarten, first, and second, grades I had teachers who were just fine with my quirks, let me move at my own pace and march to the beat of my own drum.
But my third grade teacher was not down with that.
She had views about how children – girls especially – were supposed to behave. To wit, children are to sit quietly (no fidgeting!), raise their hands respectfully (which means no one child should raise their hand more than any other), speak in turn without shouting, and generally speaking be nice. Good posture was a must.
Girls should come to school is skirts (or girly leggings and floral tops) with their hair in cute bobs with barrettes, braided, or at the very least in a neat ponytail. Girls should be quiet, not run, not dangle from their knees from the jungle gym or monkey bars, and certainly not be better at anything other than sewing or perhaps poetry than boys.
I did not fit that mold.
In all honesty, I was a handful. Third grade is one – in that district – of cognitive leaps being expected of students. The times tables must be memorized, as must the state capitals, the names of all the US presidents (in order), and the lyrics to The Star Spangled Banner. In those days, third grade was a State Mandated Testing year.
I was bouncy, I was fidgety. I had no volume control. I needed glasses badly, but couldn’t be trusted with them, as I’d break them (and that fancy shatter-resistant plastic stuff and the bendy frames were outside my parents’ price range). To compensate for this, I was always in the front row, and my posture at my desk was to lean over the desk, with my chest almost flat against the surface, so I could squint at the board. I was also smart. I was reading at a fifth-grade level and was prone to acting scornfully at the babyish books my peers were reading. I was almost always the first person in class to finish tests, and I rarely got less than a perfect score. Because I couldn’t be trusted not to destroy my clothes, I wore jeans and t-shirts.
In short, I was a teacher’s nightmare. I was the smart snot who couldn’t be trusted not to talk down to the other children, and – worse – I was front and center at all times.
At some point, the teacher decided that I had ADD/ADHD. In fairness to her, I had a fair number of symptoms. However, many of my “symptoms” were crap like “plays like a boy.” The teacher had heard the story about how I broke my collarbone in first grade after picking a fight with a boy who was in third grade (but had been held back, so he was the age of a fourth grader) and was nearly twice my size.
We had reached a careful detente. I kept my mouth shut, and she ignored me. I learned at my own pace, but got effectively no teaching.
And then, one clear spring day, I looked out the window. It was a beautiful day, high sixties, not a cloud in the sky, light breeze. We were being drilled on something I’d taught myself previously. I was bored.
Another class was on the playground. I could see them, playing.
So, I left the classroom and joined them.
To say that shit hit the fan is putting it mildly.
morgan, Indeed. The dedicated liveblog at The Grauniad points out this is the largest ever ship to be “parbuckled“. The previous record-holder was the USS Oklahoma in Pearl Harbor in 1943 (which sank with a much much greater loss of life). However, the battleship had to be rotated a full 180°!
I do not recall being a handful during my early school years (that came later…). What I now can recall are two things especially:
(1) I entered Kindergarden (this was in USAlienstan) reading at above-grade level. In first grade my teacher had me leading a group of above(?)-average readers whilst she taught the rest of the class. We sat in a small alcove away from the main class and, as I now recall, mostly furiously read.
(2) Several years later, around fourth or so grade, my teacher and I shared the same surname. And we both liked to check out books from the school’s library. Problem was you signed out a book by giving your surname, your teacher’s surname, and room number. Except for the handwriting, that meant my teacher and I signed out books with exactly the same information, which confused the librarian(s?) to no end. Eventually both of us (my teacher and I) agreed to include our first initials in the “signed out to…” blank.
opposablethumbs: Hurrah! for SonSpawn’s social achievement!
*party poppers & Silly String™*
–
Esteleth
Oh, yeah, that was me too. Illustrating societal sexism, I don’t think anyone suggested I had ADD/ADHD at the time at all, even though I’m pretty sure I actually have.
I haven’t scrolled up to see if anyone’s mind is blown!
Here comes the next blow!
Osmium isotope evidence for a large Late Triassic impact event – notably not at the end of the Triassic some 201 Ma ago, but 215 Ma ago, which is about when something big hit Manicouagan in Canada, while the new evidence is from deep-sea sediments in Japan.
Oh, and, Esteleth? Have you been told lately you’re awesome?
Esteleth: I used to just take off, as well. If I was done with whatever homework was assigned, I couldn’t understand why I had to stay sitting there, staring at the walls.
I’ve meant to bring this up for a few days now. I guess this is a good time…
First, they aren’t moderators, they’re monitors – they can’t do anything other than inform PZ, it’s just that PZ is particularly likely to read their e-mails.
Second, talking about fellow commenters in the 3rd person is now against the rules, so I’ll try the 2nd:
Caine, you are on what looks at first like a power trip.
I don’t think that’s what it is. I think it’s a responsibility trip: PZ has saddled you with the burden of being supposed to see all violations of the new rules, and you’re anxious to fulfill this task. (Please correct me if I’m wrong.)
Personally, I think you’re overdoing it.
Topic drift, for instance, isn’t automatically bad. Yes, on some topics it goes in predictable directions and does actual damage; the stereotypical example (which we haven’t had for years) is any thread about female genital mutilation turning to “what about teh menz?” after 10 comments and then being all penis all the time for the next 500. But there are many topics where it doesn’t do any damage when the topic broadens or even drifts, and where this can lead to highly interesting places.
I wonder if you’re scaring people away, or driving them away in frustration. (Unfortunately the one data point I have is probably an outlier.)
http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/mis/4067717678.html
Excerpt below:
Mormon Moments of Madness in public schools — yes, mormons have a dictatorial effect on dress codes and other rules at public schools in Utah and in Idaho.
Link: http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1023711
re: “quiet hands”
I’m not (to my knowledge) on The Spectrum, but I’m extremely… sensory. And yeah, I recognise now that some behaviors were pretty much “stimming” or fidgeting.
I have to keep my hands busy in order to focus.
So, in school, some people doodle in the margins of their notes, yeah?
I took notes in the margins of my doodles.
And that allowed me to actually focus on and pay attention to the classroom instructor.
You knew it was inevitable. Right wind dunderheads stirred their synaptic sludge today to come up the conspiracy theory that the shooting in the Washington Navy Yard was a false flag event.
http://www.salon.com/2013/09/16/navy_yard_shooting_as_false_flag_alex_jones_is_on_it/
DDMFM:
Eh? What did I do?
—
!!! I left out the ending of my story.
So, I left the classroom. I followed all the rules:
(1) I pushed my chair in.
(2) I took my jacket from my cubby, and put it on.
(3) I took a hall pass from the teacher’s desk.
(4) I walked down the hallway, on the right, my hall pass clearly visible in my left hand.
I got to the playground and started playing. Shortly thereafter, the playground monitor noticed me. And objected to my being on the playground. Which is to say she delivered me to the principal’s office. It was at this point that my teacher realized I’d disappeared from the classroom.
My parents were summoned. I got a talking-to. I protested – I had followed all of the “this is how you leave the classroom” rules.
The teacher issued an ultimatum: I would go see a child psychiatrist. I would be evaluated. I would receive the diagnosis of ADD/ADHD I so clearly needed, and I would be prescribed – and I would take – the Ritalin I needed.
And all this would happen before I stepped foot in her classroom again.
Well, I went to see a shrink. I remember that I drew figures from sketches and put pegs in holes.
The shrink issued a ruling: I did not have ADD/ADHD. That was very clear. The reason for my inattention in class and my hyperactivity was that I was bored and was not being challenged.
The shrink then said the following:
Fun fact: I was diagnosed with Asperger’s in 2005.
opposablethumbs: Yay for your SonSpawn’s success! Your story made me smile this morning.
Oh, and Giliell, good luck to you and your #1 kid. I hope that you get some useful information and help out of this process.
*hugs* to the rest of you. I’m reading about half of the time these days and not finding much time to comment, but it’s good to be here anyway.
Petition to the Texas State Board of Education to keep creationism out of textbooks.
Deadline early tomorrow.
You’ve answered your question.
I think it was in 2002 when I was seeing my last shrink. I found an article about Asperger’s in New Scientist (in the university’s biology library), photocopied it and sent the copy to her (by snail-mail). I still don’t know if she knew before then that Asperger’s even existed. But, in any case, next time I went to see her, she refused to diagnose me with Asperger’s because she feared I’d hide behind the diagnosis.
That’s not some kind of inference I’m making. That’s what she casually told me, to my face.
Guess where Dr. Asperger worked.
Oh – what’s a hall pass? …It’s pretty clear from context, but I didn’t know such a thing existed.
Still trying to wrap my head around the concept of a public school with a dress code.
The fossilized biology teacher* at my school briefly tried to pretend that girls had to cover their navels. She was summarily ignored. That was the closest to a dress code I’ve experienced.
* The one who must have learned everything she taught by heart in the 1950s and just regurgitated it every year. In the late 90s, she tried to teach my brother that fishing for sponges was then an important branch of the economy in Mediterranean countries. And she never forgave me for pointing out that fungi aren’t plants, something that became the consensus among experts in the… 1950s.
:-o I’d never have guessed that that’s a thing.
Hall passes are used in schools where students are not generally permitted to be unsupervised and class/activity attendance is mandatory. The basic point is that it indicates that the student in question has permission to be outside of the expected location and is thus not truant.
David – but how would anyone know that you’re out of class legally without a hall pass? Can’t just have kids wandering around without being sure that they’re officially going from one point to another.
Fun fact: at many schools, there are separate bathroom passes that look different than a regular hall pass, so it’s clear that you’re GOING TO THE BATHROOM NOW.
David M., it is not unusual for public schools in the USA to have dress codes, but those codes are usually reasonable. It is unusual for public school dress codes to include a specification that girls cannot expose their shoulders and upper arms. Mormon-influenced school boards write regulations that follow mormon modesty standards: sleeves are required, no sleeveless blouses or dresses for females.
Even mormon pre-school girls are taught to cover those sexually provocative shoulders, hence the fashion still popular in the morridor of girls wearing T-shirts under their sundre
As a result, mormons psychologically abuse all students, including non-mormons.
Some have now gone to uniforms – the school I went to started it a few years ago. It has its benefits; although there can still be class distinctions in the quality of the outfit, it takes away from the whole clothing-related status symbols problem.
Well, I’ve always like to announce to everyone in the vicinity that, “I’m going to take a bathroom break.” sheesh.
Until 1976, my high school had a dress code. No dungarees. Slacks and button-down shirts for boys, dresses or skirts with button-down shirts for girls. It disappeared before I, or my sisters, went there. The only dress code when I was there was no alcohol or drug shirts, no shorts. That’s it.
The senior class also voted for a class hymn until 1977. Then it became a class song. I think Tuesday’s Gone was the class song for three straight years. My senior year, I managed to get The Homecoming Queens Got A Gun nominated as one of the finalists. Our homecoming queen was not amused.
When my kids were in school, there was no dress code other than you had to be dressed. Girl’s last year there was a dress code: no dungarees, slacks for boys, slacks or dresses or skirts for girls, no t-shirts, no striped shirts (gang colours), no plaid shirts (gang colours), etc. Still going strong, but they eliminated the ban on striped and plaid shirts.
Long before the uniforms hit my school, back when I was in high school in the mid-Pleistocene, no one was allowed to wear shorts that came more than an inch or so above the knee, and we were only allowed to wear shorts when a heat warning was called (usually the first few and last few weeks of the school year). Skirts had to be at least the length to the tips of your fingers when your arms were hanging down, which was also the rule when my mom was in school (but which they appeared to flout as much as they could get away with, judging by yearbook pics).
From Lynna’s link @231:
“Let me make this abundantly clear, to you and to the other men reading this: when you comment on a woman’s appearance, you are not doing it for her. You are doing it for you”
And that’s it, in a nutshell.
–
*flyingpouncehug* for Nutmeg.
–
School dress codes are generally based on “community standards”, which is how the religiously-based codes get in there.
–
Fungi were still being taught as plants in my high school, in Oklahoma, in the mid ’70s.
Obviously the word was slow in spreading; or, alternatively, was rejected for contravening the “animal, vegetable, or mineral” tricotomy.
–
Carlie:
This is still true, at least in my area.
I wasn’t challenged nearly enough, in retrospect. even in the gifted classes from 3rd to 6th grade. I probably would have been more uppity about it had I not had all the uppitiness bred out of me in the name of behavior modification for autistic people. Admittedly, the “not hitting people” part was appreciated. the docility I’ve gotten myself into now isn’t.
(sigh). and while trying to figure out whether my depression is of the cis or trans kind, my grades are slipping badly. most of my assignments have gotten better now, but now that they’re being graded, it’s a sharp drop–especially when there’s only 3 or so total entered.
I need to see a psych for this, I just don’t know where to begin.
If there was a dress code at my school in the 80’s in Canada I was unaware of it.
Now my daughter is in an Australian school where there’s not just uniforms, but standards for that uniform that are being strictly enforced. The new principal is quite avid about that and he’s receiving a lot of praise for it.
It seems to me that this emphasis on dress is, forgive the term, window dressing. He’s trying to sweep up the image of the school, which is in need of it in a PR sense rather than a quality of education sense. Having the students appear very neat and tidy in public says nothing about the nature of their schooling which gives me pause with regards to how much emphasis is being placed on it.
It is true that uniforms reduce status displays trough clothing, but it also increases tribalism. There’s two schools here, one Catholic, one public and you never see groups of kids from both schools mixing. At least not when they’re in uniform.
This early life fixation on uniforms also seems to pervade thinking in the adults here. Australia might not be as class conscious as some countries but you are expected to dress as your vocation dictates. This is to the point where small business like mine, with only one employee, will still have a uniform. Usually a collared shirt with the shop name and the logos of brands they sell. I still find that strange.
I’ve often joked that with their devotion to uniforms Aussies are one bad leader away from fascism.
Dalillama
Shit, I’m sorry I missed your question.
The short answer is: maybe.
Bike fitting is a bit complicated to get right and much depends on the type of riding you’re going to do and whether or not your body is within the average proportions.
I’ll write a more detailed response later. Must get back to work now.
We had a dress code at my high school (Canada, the 2000s). Well, the girls had a dress code. Skirts or shorts had to be to the tip of the fingers, shirts had to cover the midriff, and tank tops had to be “lasagna-strap” *cringe* not spaghetti-strap. I think the boys maybe had to pull up their pants so their underwear wasn’t showing? That was about it.
The dress code at the Bible camp that I went to as a teenager was much more interesting. Same rules, but much more enforcement. Every morning before activities started, all of the girls would gather in the fire ring. We’d have to lift our arms to our shoulders, and anyone whose midriff was showing would be sent back to the cabin to change. Anyone going to the climbing wall had to put their arms over their head without exposed midriff.
Oh, and heaven forbid anyone, male or female, got caught wearing a bathing suit anywhere but the beach or pool. We had to put shorts and t-shirts over our bathing suits in order to walk across the field.
Wellllll young ‘uns…. When I was in high school in the ’60’s (I know, I’m a dinosaur) we had to kneel down on the floor and if the hem of the skirt did not touch the floor, we were sent home to change. And this was just your generic public school, not Xian. Fortunately this test only took place twice a year. Otherwise, everybody just rolled the waistband of the damned skirts. I don’t recall any restrictions on the boys attire.
Personal update:
I am attempting to slow down my life. I’m taking a year to TA/take a course/work as a lab tech/publish some papers. I’ve started to realize that this isn’t really as much slowing down as I’d hoped for, but it is an improvement.
Still working on getting the mental health back to an acceptable level. A less stressful job and regular gym visits are helping, but it’s going to be a while before I really recover from the combination of grad school and coming out. I’m still pretty wound-up and anxious, but slowly improving. I have now been 16 consecutive nights without a night terror, which is the longest I’ve gone since the beginning of July.
PSA: Grad school will fuck you up. Use with caution.
@Nutmeg
Seems appropriate.
Word. I was lucky I guess because my breakdown happened while I was writing my dissertation, so it didn’t raise any red flags with my adviser when I disappeared from the lab for weeks at a time. Every couple of weeks, I would go on a writing spree and crank through 10-20 pages in a day, but otherwise I would lie in bed and bounce between apathy and panic. I ate only when people reminded me; I dropped to less than 80 pounds at the end of the whole ordeal. I’m still amazed that I made it out of grad school alive.
I’m glad that I stuck with it, and my degree has given me opportunities that would have otherwise been closed to me, but geez was it brutal.
I worked for awhile in the office of a private elementary school. Tuition was high, which meant that most of the parents of the students were rich.
An unintended consequence of requiring uniforms was that the parents, though having plenty of money, would buy one two uniforms and then fail to wash them often enough. On a hot spring day the assembly hall full of kids would slowly build up a stink, until after about an hour it smelled like a sewer liberally strewn with old gym shoes and spiced with the peculiar yeasty smell that rises off the unwashed skin and clothes of the very young.
Yikes, Jessa! I’m glad you made it out okay. I’ve had lots of conversations with fellow grad students lately, and mental (and physical) health problems in the last year of the program seem to be the rule rather than the exception. And this was “only” an M.Sc. (although a challenging one). I’m a little scared to do a Ph.D. in a couple of years.
I haven’t been doing that badly – I was holding my sanity together with willpower and tea for a few months, and if I missed a day’s exercise I’d end up in the fetal position in that same state of apathy-panic. My relationships and general enjoyment of life suffered. But I did eventually figure out a method of daily walks and extremely strong chamomile tea that enabled me to at least get the damn thesis written.
I think the night terrors were in some ways a good thing. Adult-onset night terrors are often associated with mental illness and extreme stress. It made me realize that things had actually gotten pretty shitty, I was extremely burned out, and I needed to prioritize my mental health. Rebuilding a life after grad school is a challenge.
Nutmeg, thanks. A lot of my problems came from not realizing how bad a shape I was in until too late. I really don’t want to turn people off of grad school. It was overall a valuable experience. I just wish that I had realized earlier that the school had fantastic and free resources for students who are experiencing mental health issues, and that what I was going through was not unusual.
Nutmeg, Jessa, eep! Also hugs are offered.
I’m very glad, after reading your comments, that Elder Daughter is still living at home while she works on her MA. We get along pretty well, and this way I can keep an eye on her health, physical and mental, and offer support if she wants/needs it.
Yeah, I loved most of the first 2 years or so of grad school. It was just the last 8 months that were pretty awful. But I think that if I hadn’t combined grad school and coming out, I would have been a lot more okay. I have only one grad school friend who didn’t have major life issues outside of school during his M.Sc.. He seems pretty okay, and he’s definitely the least crazy of all of us right now. :)
I know that “right wind” was a typo, Lynna #234
but I like it so much, I intend to use it.
[using ‘wind’ as a politer way of saying ‘fart’]
Dalillama
Bike sizing 101.
Forgive me if you know any of this stuff already. It’s just easier to outline it all in one go rather than assuming things and having to backtrack.
Basic terminology
A standard bike frame is make up of two triangles. The front triangle is important to bike sizing. It’s made up of four parts:
1 The top tube. This runs from the seat to the handlebars
2 The seat tube. This is that part that holds the seat pole at the top and the bottom bracket (the axle and bearings that hold the crank arms and pedals.) at the bottom.
3 The head tube. This is a short tube that holds the steering bearings.
4 The down tube. This runs from the head tube to the bottom bracket.
The import ones are the top tube and the seat tube.
The sizing number is derived by measuring from the center of the bottom bracket axle to the top of the seat tube. And right away we have a problem with determining sizing. This measurement came into existence when all bikes had a top tube that were parallel to the ground. Think of your standard 70’s ten speed.
Modern bikes often have a sloped top tube, one that runs down towards the seat tube rather than going straight across. If you take a bike that has a sloped top tube and move that tube up so it’s horizontal you now have a bike that’s exactly the same size but has a different sizing number. That seat tube measurement is only useful when comparing bikes with the same frame design. If the size recommendation you got was from the manufacture of the bike you’re considering then it’s probably accurate. If not, be wary.
There’s another consideration to take into account: bikes frames are designed around a hypothetical average rider. If the proportions of your arms or torso are outside that average then a bike that’s been sized based on your leg length won’t fit properly. When I size a bike I measure inseam, torso, and arm length and then do a bit of basic math to calculate the correct top tube length.
Okay, all that aside, to answer your question:It might not matter if you’re not intending to ride for long durations or with extreme exertion. If your rides are less than a half an hour and don’t feature getting sweaty and out of breath you’re unlikely to notice much difference between one frame and the next so long as they’re close.
I usually suggest going with the bigger of the two sizes when in doubt. The relationship between saddle height and handlebar height affects how far forward you’re leaning. The more upright you sit the more comfy, but at the cost of efficiency. On a too small frame the handle bars are lower relative to the saddle because of the seat has to be pulled up farther than intended to allow for proper leg extension.
All that blithering aside, I can’t really say for sure which way you should compromise on frame size. But at 5’9″, barring any proportional issues, you’d be too small for any of the 22″ bikes I sell. They are the biggest ones the brands I carry make.
I hope that helps and doesn’t just confuse the issue.
If you could measure from your sternal notch (the gap between your collar bones) to the ground and your arm length I could tell you better. The sternal notch measurement is taken by placing a level in the notch and measuring from the bottom edge of it to the ground in bare feet shoulder width apart. Arm measurement is taken from the acromion (have someone walk their fingers along your scapula when your arms are by your sides. The bump at the end by your shoulder is the acromion) to the bulge of the wrist bone on the pinky side.
Morning.
Seems like now #1 and I have a belly bug *sigh*
Carlie
O.o
I have a long back and short legs and arms. Following this rule, skirts would leave half of my ass uncovered.
David
Oh, it’s a topic that comes up frequently, usually in form of complaining about the slutty girls distracting the poor boys from learning.
+++
Primary school was nice once my teacher realized that I was only a disciplin problem when bored. I would sit under the table, put on scarf and gloves, be somewhere else in my textbook…
It became much better when she gave me other material.
With #1, being bored is part of it. As I mentioned before, I kept her from schoolwork for the last year by engaging her mind with other things. Now that she’s “allowed” to learn reading and writing she advances much faster than the rest. At the moment she still benefits from the motor-skill training and learning where to put the letters, but that will change soon.
And she definetly has problems focusing on one thing. She always takes in everything which means that she has then troubles noticing which thing she’s now exactly supposed to reproduce. I remember that from very early on she had a facial expression that looked like she was about to cry, but that actually meant “I’m really occupied right now. I have no resources left to smile at the vast amount of wonderful things I’m seeing and hearing at the moment”
Thank you! :-D cicely and nutmeg!
It’s funny when something absolutely ordinary and straightforward and standard is actually a WOW!! milestone, but that doesn’t stop it from feeling great! :-)
Many hugs, with extra for nutmeg. I hope the “slow-down” (which still sounds pretty busy to me) works out and that stress-levels fall. Glad to read that it’s improving, but oy that’s tough. Here’s wishing you no more night terrors; even if they might have proved to be a useful marker, in a way, here’s hoping no more of them because no more cause for them!
*flailing some more*
Stupid work why are you keeping me from writing!!!
I knew clowns were evil!
“Has Mystery Of The Northampton Clown Been Solved?” http://www.buzzfeed.com/tomphillips/has-mystery-of-the-northampton-clown-been-solved
Cute things of the day:
A fan shows Wil Wheaton one of his old costumes, Wil immediately poses in it
Jack Osbourne on Dancing with the stars
Bill Nye’s performance was… not that good.
Same problem, opposite symptoms – I gained 60 pounds in grad school. I made almost a whole you! ;)
oppposablethumbs – congrats on the child independence! What a great step.
Yay! I can see the blog again! Anyone know what was up?
yazikus
I believed it was turned into a newt.
@271 chigau: Well, at least it got better.
But who kissed it?
Not sure, but I think it has something to do with bananas being world-shaped, or something.
CatieCat,
I don’t recommend reading your comment whilst drinking a carbonated beverage. Lesson learned.
I live for nose-sprayed beverages.
Goal achieved. :D
Anyone seeing this everywhere:
Or am I just the lucky one?
@carlie
No, you’re not the only one. I previously got an error message about some bit of code not working with a certain version, so I’m guessing there’s been an update and something went haywire.
Thank you carlie! :-)
Thank you carlie! :-)
(I’m getting error messages too)
+++Divide By Cucumber Error. Please Reinstall Universe And Reboot +++
+++Oneoneoneoneoneoneone+++
Error messages aplenty. Facebook sez the monitors, PZ and Ed Brayton have been all over it all day.
Anyway: photo of the entrance to Neverland. Neverland is 11 km² in size, enough to hold an amusement park, a zoo, a cinema, several museums, and of course the king’s palace; it’s said to be worth 17 megabucks.
During a discussion with Boy about his martini glass:
“Stemware. What every clade should be wearing.”
Hi, all.
+++ MELON MELON MELON +++
–
*pouncehugging* the wild davidmarjanović, then releasing him back into his Native Habitat.
–
Howdy, Ogvorbis.
How’s the second Monday of the week (by Common Reckoning) treating you?
–
Well, today is my Sunday you calendarist oppressor.
And I took tomorrow off (Wife has a half-day working her street corner so we are heading down to the Hometown flea and farm market in the afternoon).
Nice day, though.
Wife just got home.
Heading off to bed.
So what in the name of all Techno Deities happened with Ftb today. That was some glitchy stuff! Maybe the dunderheads got so askeered of all us gawdless folks that they launched a DOS attack? Nawww. Couldn’t be.
This was just tweeted by SciCurious, and should be read by everyone: No, why you don’t ‘fucking love science’
Oh, so sweet. One of my all time favourite bands, the Italian Ufomammut is coming to my city next month on their Magickal Mastery Tour. Looks like they’ve found their audience for psychedelic doom metal, as they have four gigs in Finland. :)
Ugh, one of those days. Started out seeing I had an OS upgrade available. Upgraded, but was unable to get to the login screen. Had to resurrect from TimeMachine. Day didn’t really improve much past that.
Nerd, you have my sympathy. Two Mondays so far this week, and no let-up in sight.
Damned ragweed….
–
I’m sure I really wanted to spend tonight reviewing basic statistical distributions. Two down, three to go.
I haven’t done stats without a computer guiding me in seven years. Considering that, a prof who gives comprehensible notes or lectures might have been nice. But no such luck.
And this is just the review before we get into the real subject matter of the course. Gods, I hope it doesn’t get worse. At least it looks like the prof plans to follow the textbook very closely from here on out.
I like math. Numbers are my friends. Equations are great. Spreadsheets make the world go round! Why does it all get so terrible when it turns into stats?
/whine
Morgan:
Some people wake up and drink coffee or watch news, or have sex.
Me?
I log onto FtB and online news sites.
So this morning? Threw me off with the glitches.
I thought it was related to the oft-mentioned and overdue update to the front page. Either that or PZs Rogues Gallery is responsible.
…
Now I wonder who PZs Rogues *are*. The Sinister Six? The Dirty Dozen Douches?
If y’all have not watched the video
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2013/09/17/its-all-quite-lovely/
you really should
Good morning
So, everybody’s out and about again, let’s hope that our strech of bad luck healthwise is over now.
Just wanted to update y’all (such a useful word!) that, thanks to your generosity and that of some of my friends, I’ll be paying the rent tomorrow, have all my meds sorted, and am well on the way to making rent for next month too.
I think I sent a thank-you to each of you individually (frak, I hope I did!), but I wanted to express my appreciation of the community as a whole, and to PZ for being okay with people asking for help when it’s needed (not all blogs make that available, for various reasons, some good, some less), and to Portia for graciously taking up the job of helping me ask.
Just…thanks, you Lounging Horde of Lounge-opodes. Now I’m going to have a night’s sleep. That will help a lot.
Oh, and also if any of you are Supernatural fans, I’ve just started doing a re-watch on my blog at fullmetalfeminist (as linked in my nym, I think). It’ll run Tuesdays and Fridays, and is specifically and explicitly from an intersectional feminist POV.
Bloody hell.
It looks like the navy shooter ticked all the boxes for blaming it on stereotypical causes, making a sane debate harder:
Black, did play shoot-them-up games on the computer, auditive hallucinations. “just one of those people”.
When including “black” in “causes”, I referred to the world-view of Joe Arapio et al.
Pharyngulation needed.
This news item has been downrated by global warming deniers. Can you give a hand in raising the rating of the article?
“Researchers claim satellite data proves global warming caused by humans” http://phys.org/news/2013-09-satellite-global-humans.html
— — — — — — — — — — — —
Good news:
“Migraines no headache for much longer”[for 20%] http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-09-migraines-headache-longer.html
…a treatment that could drastically reduce symptoms in around 20 per cent of sufferers.
More good medical news:
“Scientists create extremely potent and improved derivatives of successful anticancer drug” http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-09-scientists-extremely-potent-derivatives-successful.html
-Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found a way to make dramatic improvements to the cancer cell-killing power of vinblastine, one of the most successful chemotherapy drugs of the past few decades. The TSRI researchers expect that similar modifications will boost the effectiveness of vincristine, a closely related drug.
I think I seriously dropped the ball. Something needs to be undone.
Yesterday the man cub’s grandmother, my dear ex-wife, took eldest cub down to Game Stop and bought a game for he and his younger brother (ages 14 and 12). Bless her naive heart, she bought them the latest incarnation of that notorious foulness, Grand Theft Auto.
Now, I was fully aware that v5 of this evil fucking misbegotten miasma of mayhem and misogyny was hitting the shelves yesterday and that my grandsons are avid gamers. I even knew that ex-wife was going to buy a game for the boys but somehow I just didn’t put the pieces together.
While preparing supper last night, Jesi and I got an earful of some of the dialog and attitude of the game. A great brouhaha broke out when we both reacted non-positively. Only then did it hit me. *oh, shit–sinking feeling*
The game needs to go out of this house. I feel it’s incumbent on me to see that it goes. The fallout is going to be . . . well, much pouting and protesting, to say the least. Ex arrives in a few minutes to take Jesi for a morning of mother-daughter stuff. I’m forced to cast a pall on their day. I feel lousy that I didn’t give them a heads up before hand. This could have been avoided if I had simply used my head.
The boys are going to really pissed be at grampa. Shit!! Just, shit!
@Crudely Wrott:
Ugh, good luck.
I’m heading out of town today to visit some family. I should be back on Monday evening and might be able to pop in a bit over the weekend. Try not to burn the place down without me, eh?
Thanks, Kevin. The mountain gets steeper, though, when trying to talk to the ex-wife minutes ago.
Even though the concern of the moment is what is appropriate for the boys, even though I carefully prepared a very short speech prefaced with assurance that she did not bear the blame for buying a game she knew nothing about, and even though I asked that she just listen to less than a minute’s worth of explanation, she immediately interrupted and focused the whole episode on her own feelings and ability/inability to cope in a threatening and worrisome world. Seems that her dear god isn’t paying attention to her this morning — the peace that passes understanding conspicuously absent. Again, yet, still.
It went downhill from there. History repeating itself ad nauseum. I tried so hard to be harmless but she’d have none of that, nosiree. Somehow it was her being attacked by me by making carefully tailored points about the welfare of our grandsons. Oh, dog! spare me this impossible task, this impossible person!
The good news is that the game is going back to the vendor and money refunded.
Damage control will take longer than first expected . . .
Crudely – well, you can’t control how other people react to things. You were entirely reasonable, and it sounds like she would be of the mindset to attack you even if you were just talking about the weather.
CaitieCat:
I have been out of the loop here bc of work, but it is wonderful to hear that once again people here have rallied to offer their assistance. I hope you get some good sleep.
It’s a tough one, Crudely :-( I wish you good luck with it – and I hope that all parties emerge unscathed, or at least as unscathed as possible!
Maybe the boys might end up with a different game? (I’m not a gamer, so I have no idea what’s out there – but if any bunch of people might be expected to know something about non-misogynistic and/or less violent games it’s surely the Horde) plus a chance to chat (at some point, maybe not right in the middle of the contretemps) about what these kinds of mainstream games say and reinforce about our attitudes and assumptions? Compared with other games …
Neither of my spawn have been very much into games, really, so I don’t have much in the way of reference points I’m afraid. Hope it works out.
Thomathy @204
I too share your concerns about monitors (not them specifically).
. . . and then a miracle happens . . .
Daughter and ex-wife, halfway to their first destination, turn around and return. Ex-wife wraps her arms around me and apologizes, I start apologizing, my mind is blown, my heart grows and we cling to each other weeping and saying we’re sorry for the anger and impatience and pre-judging and suddenly it’s a brand new day.
Wow. Blow me down with a whisper.
Then reasserting that it is the unity of the whole family, each and every one, that is of paramount importance and value for the two young men who are coping with the hardest task of their young lives which is growing up. Our personal differences and histories are secondary at best. Really only historical context, an appendix to the story we are now writing.
How I do love these wonderful people! Son in law included (despite his boorish ways that he now admits and is trying to change, halleluiah).
Really, we just got better. Lots better. Now we can’t wait to show the boys how it’s done.
Wow. I didn’t expect it. Wow.
Crudely Wrott, I send you a virtual champagne bottle.
— — — — — —
Good news, Sweden has developed a poison-proof rat. http://www.thelocal.se/50274/20130917/
@Crudely:
Excellent news.
NB!
How to Watch Today’s Antares Rocket Launch Scheduled for 10:50 EDT http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/09/18/antares_launch_second_commerical_company_to_go_to_iss.html?wpisrc=flyouts
Crudely Wrott
*big hugs* for you and yours
Carlie:
Well, yeah. More out of habit than intent. Plus, I’m guilty of expecting just that. That probably telegraphs to her and maybe even eases the path for her. In light of what just happened, though, I think she’ll be disposed to check herself in future. I’d really appreciate that, don’cha know.
_________
Opposblethumbs:
After their disappointment and poutfest dissipates some we’ll ask them what they’d like to have instead of GTA. Rest assured that I will check out the game thoroughly first! The other adults have essentially drafted me to do so. I will make it so.
_________
Folks, I want you all to know how valuable it is to me to have this place that allows me to have a separate and highly useful venue for venting and gleaning useful, thoughtful, even loving, advice. I’m very thankful for such a boon.
To the Horde, Huzzah! and Hooray!
Deepest gratitude to the Grand Poopyhead for making it possible.
__________
Now I’ve got to go do some money stuff (SSA check deposits today) and buy a tall beer for reward and relaxation. I’m emotionally red-lining right now. Later I’ll be installing boxes and wiring for lights and outlets in the loft above the barn that SIL and I are building for eldest man cub. Busy, busy day. I’ll be smiling and humming through it all!
– ‘rupted *waves* to everyone –
Just dropping in to drop this here for some crowdsourcing, if anyone’s interested: Kids Career Discovery, as envisioned by two young people intent on opening doors for all children.
If anyone has advice for them on how to present gender-neutrally, they’re also accepting that kind of support, too.
Thanks in advance!
Expect a Government shutdown soon, thanks to the right wing doofuses in Congress.
Washington Post link.
BTW, glad to hear my typos in this thread have been found useful for some. Spelling “right wing” as “right wind” is funny, but spelling “sundresses” as “sundre” is just fucking troubling. I don’t even …
rq! I offer you this bag full of hugs, to be dispensed and used at your leisure.
Jews are cheap, and they killed Jesus. Republican bobble heads managed to combine both of those offensive stereotypes in one joke yesterday.
It’s okay, Jews were feeling left out as Republican leaders in Virginia routinely insulted women, blacks, immigrants, gays, and poor people. Here’s coverage of the belated inclusion of Jews:
Washington Post link.
For your “I’ve never been not so shocked in my life” moment of the day
Insane Clown Posse being sued for sexual harrasment
Thank you, carlie! Here are some for you!
They’ve been piling up lately.
Speaking of clowns…
RQ
*pouncehugs* Boris the Clown Catcher is determined to unmask the villain, though.
Dalillama
*hugseseses*
I think Boris is the Clown…
[TW: sexual abuse, violence, medical neglect]
So I have a post up at The Feminist Hivemind about the recent sexual abuse case at Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre, and how it fits into the pattern of institutionalized racism, sexism and violence in the immigration enforcement system.
I also went to a protest today in London calling for the closure of Yarl’s Wood and for a full public inquiry into the abuse of immigration detainees. We’re talking about a detention camp in which women detainees have been sexually assaulted and harassed; in which detention centre guards enter women’s rooms unannounced and deny them privacy and dignity; in which women, including pregnant women and women with young children, are expected to live in degrading and inhuman conditions; in which detainees are expected to do menial labour for far below minimum wage; and in which detainees with serious illnesses are often given paracetamol instead of adequate medical care. This is all happening on our doorstep. The Home Office tries to cover these things up; we need to speak out.
Many of these women are asylum-seekers who came here to seek protection; many of them are rape survivors, torture survivors and FGM survivors. They face hyperskepticism from the authorities, and are routinely accused of lying about what happened to them, the burden of proof being placed on them to prove that they are “genuine” asylum-seekers. This is wrong. It is not how our society should be.
Crudely, glad to hear it. And changing patterns can be the hardest thing, so yay :-D!
rq!!!!! ::immediate pouncehug implementation::
The high school I attended — best known around these parts for a particularly obnoxious troll, but we’re not all like that — apparently went to uniforms a few years ago, but judging from students I’ve seen on the subway, no longer enforces that, if it ever did.
From the Rev.’s link @318:
Why don’t we just send Lindsey Graham to fight all our wars? http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/09/18/20560488-lindsey-graham-already-queuing-up-the-next-conflict
Graham is really itching to send troops into Iran. He should just go over there himself and get that war mongering thing out of his system.
http://www.salon.com/2013/09/18/brain_eating_amoeba_in_louisianas_tap_water_could_be_linked_to_katrina/
Louisiana health officials traced a rare but fatal brain infection that killed a 4-year-old boy in August to the tap water in St. Bernard Parish, southeast of New Orleans. It’s the first time the amoeba, called Naegleria fowleri, has ever been found in a treated water supply.
Same old, same old story. Depressing.
…
http://www.salon.com/2013/09/17/census_bureau_women_earn_11500_less_than_men_annually_newscred/
Fossilfishy #263
blockquote>Okay, all that aside, to answer your question:It might not matter if you’re not intending to ride for long durations or with extreme exertion. If your rides are less than a half an hour and don’t feature getting sweaty and out of breath you’re unlikely to notice much difference between one frame and the next so long as they’re close.
It’s my primary means of transportation, and Portland has some bastard hills. Long rides and heavy exertion are likely.
Per your measuring directions, my inseam is 31,” it’s 56″ from my collarbone to the ground, and my arm is 23″.
@Crudely Wrott
I’m glad things turned out well and that you were able to get a refund on the game. It would suck to end up financially supporting something as sexist as GTA5 by accident after all that.
Oh, wow. I really borked my formatting there.
Mormon Moments of Madness, gay marriage, plus Hawaii categories:
http://www.bilerico.com/2013/09/mormon_church_entering_hawaii_marriage_fight.php
Giliell:
Hurray! and, may it be so.
:)
–
Island family recounts journey of a transgender child growing up in small-town Comox
–
Crudely, you have my sympathy, moral support, and a coupla *hugs* to go with. I do not envy you your task.
(Later)
And then, a happy ending to the tale!
*sniffle, wipe away tear*
Keep the *hugs*, though—they are Non-Refundable (though they are exchangable for *hugs* of equal-or-greater value).
–
Have a good trip, Mellow Monkey!
*casually hiding matches and blowtorch behind back*
–
And yet,
As long as they don’t start incorporating the poison into their bodies as a defense against cats, birds, etc….
–
rq!!!
*flyingtacklingpouncehugging*
*ahem*
So very pleased to ‘see’ you again; I hope this day finds you well? And your family? I trust that you are finding the weather to be satisfactory?
–
opposablethumbs
I tried to duck, but your implementation was just too accurate. ;) *hugs*
cicely
Thank you, the weather is finding us very well and with the chimney under reconstruction during this season’s first bout of wet-and-cold-enough-to-light-the-furnace weather. *sniffles&snot*
I return your hugs.
And if that’s too evil, here are some *real hugs*
Among other things, I also come bearing walnuts (the tree is bearing abundant fruit).
How are the Shadowcamels?
Hi rq!
chigau!
rq, fortunately I am not in a Small British Town to be terrorized.
:)
Walnuts are yummy.
The Shadowcamels continue to lurk just beyond the firelight.
Always and forever…they watch.
–
rq
:) :) :)
Moments of Mormon Madness exposed, polygamy category. Rebecca Musser, who escaped from a Utah polygamist colony, was interviewed by NPR.
http://www.npr.org/2013/09/14/221790096/the-witness-wore-red-a-polygamists-wife-finds-a-new-life
vertical gardens
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2013/09/18/patrick_blanc_s_newest_vertical_garden_greening_urban_walls_around_the_world.html
Today’s Google Doodle is fun.
So, yeah, some Texans have been fighting to excise the Theory of Evolution from biology texts for some time. They want to insert creationism.
These pea brains have made some inroads, but they are not done yet. They recently announced that they are planning to deal “a final blow” to evolution.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/09/18/20563804-texas-activists-seek-a-final-blow-against-evolution
http://www.texastribune.org/2013/09/17/evolution-textbook-review-focus-sboe-hearing/
From the Texas Tribune link in my comment #341:
Ducking-taping the screw-off cap of the soya sauce bottle to the bottle has passed its first test. I managed to sprinkle, not drown, my steak and onions with the stuff. Snarrrrrffffffffff!!!1!!… YUM!
Cheese and moar vin for afters, possibly with a port digestif.
My new knowledge for the day: I had always though daurade, which is an incredibly common (and tasty!) fish where I live on France’s south coast, was one of the many fishes known as “sea bass”. But an article in today’s Grauniad, Sea bass joins list of threatened fish, made me wonder (partly out of worry I was eating a fish to extinction).
Apparently not. Daurade is “sea bream” (which, again, is more than one fishy). I do not know the status of (locally-caught) sea bream…
Portrait of a man sawing the branch he sits on.
Ladies and gentlemen, Scott Deadly.
___________
Cicely:
*hugs* joyfully received. I’m gonna keep one in abeyance for possible future redemption or to pass on to one who needs it more than I. You are a joy to know. =)
___________
On break right now. Gotta get back to work. More later.
*restocks hug truck*
Qapla’! Important review of important manuscript finally done, way after deadline! I hope I’m entering a productivity phase now. The paralysis phase really lasted long enough, and I have lots to do urgently.
*waving to The Lounge*
Threadrupt-a-mundo! but had to share:
Some here may remember that I sent Skeptic magazine a “Not no, but HELL NO!” response to a “Don’t you want to renew…?” letter.
Got a reply today…
Highlights to follow…
Really? The first — but am I the only ?
“Wasting time”… Talking about harassment, coercion and possible assault is “wasting time”?
…blah…blah…blah
Oh, please….
I’m not sure if this was a personal or a form letter but it was signed by autopen/stamp and badly printed.
Well, at least they replied… but then so did Kay Bailey Hutchison when she was senator and I emailed her to (usually) disagree with her positions.
Hmmmm….. I understand that the Grand Poopyhead has been advised not to speak of the lawsuit filed by Mr. Shermer, but that aside, does anyone have any inkling (that isn’t just hearsay or gossip) about the status of said lawsuit? Inquiring minds want to know.
Hey, morgan !
Hope I didn’t overstep any.. uh… Red Line .. ahem.
Haven’t been able to read (much less keep up with) FtB, The Lounge or much o’ nuthin’ lately. I don’t know a thing about the ‘current status’ of [Dun-Da- Dunnn…!!!]… The Controversy(s) .
I would also appreciate an update…
Hey bluentx!
Good to see you. No Red Line overstepping that I am aware of. The Controversy(s) have been off the front page, so to speak, which is probably a good thing. But it would be nice to know if there is a new status available. If not, or if updating is problematic, we’ll just have to keep guessing for a while.
Oof. I am exhausted. It’s a twelve hour drive and we got stuck in the Kansas City area for an extra hour due to a wrong turn and construction. And I’ve gone from my delightfully chilly northwoods to a toasty 81 degrees at ten at night.
I don’t think I want to drive anywhere tomorrow at all.
That’s normal temp at 4 am here, this time of year. It’s considered a ‘cool front’. ;)
Laying in pre-op waitng for them to reattach my patela tendon. I’m really not having a good month. No monitoring for me for the next couple of days.
Hoping for a speedy recovery for you, FossilFishy.
Best wishes for a quick recovery, FossilFishy. That sounds deeply unpleasant.
FossilFishy:
“… next couple of days” ?
…You’re getting sleepy…sleepy… Count back from a hundred…
What was that ATM PIN number again, FF ?…. Just tryin’ to help!
*Thumbs up from the Northern Hemi!* :)
Hi! bluentx.
FossilFishy
Lots of *hugs* and sympathetic cringing.
Thanks Dutchgirl and Dalillama.
Here’s the rest of ths formula: subtract your leg length for you eternal notch measurement. This is your torso lenght. Add your torso to your arm lenght and multiply by 0.5 and then 0.47. This gives the acceptable range of effective top tube lengths. The effective, or horizontal ttl is like it sounds, the distance from the center of the head tube to the center of the seat tube when measured parallel to the ground. On sloped top tube frames this is a virtual measurement. You can find this measurement buried in catalogues and websites under angles or dimensions, or you can measure yourself with a long spirit level. In the real world a little outside those numbers should be fine. And again if there’s a choice the larger one is likely to be better.
WE HAVE A FROST WARNING!
sorry for shouting
but
fuck
So I’m not a phone/skype type person, and rarely have phone conversations ‘for fun’, but being able to skype my mom, show off the belly, and talk about this ‘n that while we are almost literally on opposite sides of the planet is amazing.
We don’t. Which is kind of weird, when all the leafy trees are turning brown but the weather is still all summery.
Ugh, sounds pretty horrible – good luck and good recovery, FossilFishy!
Good luck, Fossilfishy.
Tee-hee, Denmark gets offended!
“Scandinavia And the World” http://satwcomic.com/sacrilege
— — — — — — —
Toxoplasma-infected mice remain unafraid of cats even after parasite clearance http://phys.org/news/2013-09-toxoplasma-infected-mice-unafraid-cats-parasite.html
-Permanent effects? Spray the Tea Party congressmen, then invite them to tiger safaris in Asia.
— — — — — — —
Researchers’ smartphone ‘microscope’ can detect a single virus, nanoparticles http://phys.org/news/2013-09-smartphone-microscope-virus-nanoparticles.html
-Detection of sub-wavelength objects, a fluorescent microscope device fabricated by a 3-D printer. A commenter notes “apparently the method is applicable only to some special samples, sensitive to fluorescent microscopy”. OK, so it was too good to be universally applicable, but still cool.
Crossposted from the Thunderdome:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatches/2013/09/17/science-proves-same-sex-marriage-wrong/
There is a fun fundie crank quoted at Ed Brayton’s blog, he says the “vagina” doesn’t emit feces, only urine.
In listing the other things that come from the vagina, he says that vaginas: “eject the occasional baby”.
BTW, among marsupials the fetus would actually leave through the same orifice as urine. Women are kangaroos?
Dawkins is just trolling for haters now. Hey, fat jokes are funny! Of a very fat uncle: “Tailors measure him just for the sake of the exercise.” Nobody could do it like PG Wodehouse.
God, what an asshole.
So kind of a ranty post coming ahead:
Yesterday my temp boss calls me into her office, “Hey Kevin, has anyone in your unit worked [topic]?”
I think for a moment, “No one’s worked it in my unit, but I know a good deal about [topic], why?”
“Oh, no one’s worked it.”
I kind of explain what I know about the topic, and she nods.
“Okay, I’ll see if anyone in my unit’s worked it.”
“No problem, if someone has questions about [topic] I can answer them.” And I walk out of her office.
I go back to my desk and an e-mail pops up a few minutes later, “Is anyone familiar with [topic]?”
SERIOUSLY?! What the fuck, I told you I knew a good deal about it and you still refuse to listen to me about it? I didn’t answer the e-mail very quickly, and lo and behold, the most self-serving person in my entire company answered the e-mail and she’s now going to – surprise surprise – answer questions about the topic.
I know this topic, I may not be 100% familiar with the topic, but I know maybe 85% and can fill in gaps as needed. I hate this supervisor. She denied my vacation because I don’t have 5 days of sick leave. She plays favorites with her unit over my unit. She doesn’t listen.
I want to get out from under her, but it’s not going to happen because our unit is being folded into her own (quote from the boss over her: “We’re finally getting rid of [former super-boss]’s think tank.”)
I hate this fucking division.
And it doesn’t help that I want to WRITE!!!
New prime minister is an idiot: New Australian PM abolishes climate watchdog http://phys.org/news/2013-09-australian-pm-abolishes-climate-watchdog.html
Is he interviewing Nixon again?
/rim shot
Information dump:
New research sheds light on teen introversion http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-09-teen-introversion.html Introversion, not to be confused with shyness.
— — — — — — — — — — — —
Robots and stuff:
“Bioengineers researching smart cameras and sensors that mimic, exceed human capability” http://phys.org/news/2013-09-bioengineers-smart-cameras-sensors-mimic.html
The Visual Cortex on Silicon project; computer vision system that will approach or exceed the capabilities and efficiencies of human vision
– – – – – – – – – –
Robot inspects pipes in petrochemical platforms http://phys.org/news/2013-09-robot-pipes-petrochemical-platforms.html
What makes the purrfect pet? (New Scientist Editorial) http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21929341.800-what-makes-the-purrfect-pet.html
More than a feline: the true nature of cats (alas, a paywall) http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21929341.000-more-than-a-feline-the-true-nature-of-cats.html
— — — — —
Goodbye Big Bang, hello black hole? A new theory of the universe’s creation http://phys.org/news/2013-09-goodbye-big-black-hole-theory.html
Drivers of financial boom and bust may be all in the mind, study finds http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-09-drivers-financial-boom-mind.html
Kevin:
Sounds like your supervisor is a real tool. Sorry you have to put up with that.
My symphaties, Kevin
— — — — —
In the Autumn; a poem http://www.gocomics.com/richards-poor-almanac/2013/09/16
Fairground memories http://www.gocomics.com/richards-poor-almanac/2013/09/19
Two good hatreds getting into each other’s way. http://rall.com/2013/09/13/hating-hatred-of-hate
How does bombing Syria affect 2016? http://rall.com/2013/09/16/three-years-from-now
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/09/18/2642591/college-activists-playboy-rape-culture/
Hi, hope no-one minds me posting this here. I pretty much just lurk around these parts but do read the Lounge thread on occasion and thought this link might be appreciated.
My Son Wears Dresses; Get Over It
Flashback!
–
bluentx!
*pouncehug*
–
*hugs* and best wishes for a speedy recovery for FossilFishy.
Was this a previously-scheduled reattachment, or did you have an accident, or what? Have I missed briefings?
–
*hugs* and commiserations for Kevin.
–
We all know that religious groups scam money (and sometimes “volunteer” services and goods) from their sheeple. This is in addition to their more fundamental scam of the tax system — being exempted from paying taxes. Well, there are even more ways in which religious groups scam us all. Look at the ways in which religious groups take public money.
Salon link. Excerpts below. More details at the link.
1. Fund your religion classes with school vouchers, tuition tax credits or capital grants. In New Jersey, an Orthodox Jewish yeshiva is slated for $10.6 million in higher education grants to improve its male-only training in “Talmudic scholarship.”
2. Get free facilities for after-school clubs in public facilities. Last year CEF [Child Evangelism Fellowship] operated over 4,000 Good News Clubs in public school facilities.
3. Nudge your doctrines into public school textbooks and discussions. (See discussion of Texas in comments up-thread)
4. Support military missionaries on government salaries.
5. Use federal disaster relief to rebuild after “acts of God.” Should the bill pass, you might get to make a claim on a public insurance pool that lets religious entities skip out on the premiums.6\
6. Leverage historic preservation grants to rehab your real estate.
7. The public underwrites religious infrastructure. … allow a savvy investor to sit on undeveloped or underdeveloped land without incurring the annual costs faced by other speculators. Tax exempt real estate can offer a way to invest those tithes as membership grows. [Mormon Church does this.]
8. International aid dollars. Administrators and lawyers succeeded in persuading governmental granting agencies that World Vision is a non-proselytizing aid organization, while simultaneously persuading the courts they can’t fulfill their mission with heretics among warehouse staff. In 2007, three employees sued because they were fired over their interpretation of Christianity, which was at odds with the required employee statement of faith. World Vision fought all the way to the Supreme court and won. If Harvard Business School should need a case study on how an enterprise can solicit government contracts while circumventing the Civil Rights Act and other cumbersome employment laws, this is it.
9. Administering public health facilities.
10. Provide safety net services to potential converts. Prisoners, addicts, single moms, pregnant teens, the elderly, foster kids…
Banning books in North Carolina:
http://www.salon.com/2013/09/19/ralph_ellisons_race_classic_invisible_man_banned_in_north_carolina/
I was away yesterday because I was at a work conference. Was interesting. The last speaker talked about parabiosis a lot, which is:
(1) kinda cool
(2) utterly disgusting
(3) of very limited clinical relevance.
The conference featured me doing the following:
9 am – noon: sitting in an uncomfortable chair, listening to talks
noon – 2 pm: standing in heels
2 – 5 pm: sitting in an uncomfortable chair, listening to talks
6 – 10 pm: eating the catered dinner
Said dinner had several courses!
(1) Wine
(2) Hors d’devors: cheese, crackers.
(3) Wine
(4) Salad
(5) Wine
(6) Entree: roast beef, potatoes, rice pilaf, stir-fried mixed vegetables.
(7) Wine
(8) Coffee
(9) Wine
(10) Fruit plate
(11) Wine
(12) Cheesecake
(13) Wine
(14) Beer
Today, my everything hurts. >_<
Esteleth
You shouldn’t have had that beer.
;)
Well, I’d tried all the wine. The dinner was held at a winery.
Open bar. And I’m a scientist dammit, I needed to run a proper experiment with enough variables.
Re: the speaker about parabiosis:
At the end of his talk, he made an analogy between parabiosis and mammalian pregnancy. Which I’m skeptical off, because in pregnancy there’s a bit of a filter between the two joined organisms. There’s nothing comparable in parabiosis.
(Translation from Dutch: ” Wine after beer is fine, beer after wine gives [huge, immeasurable fuckup]”)
(For the purists: “Wine after beer gives pleasure, beer after wine gives venom.” … Which, of course , does not rhyme as well.)
I think the biggest problem, actually, was the cheesecake. It was very rich.
The shoes probably didn’t help.
The LDS Church (mormon) launders money in several ways. Sometimes the money laundering is large scale, as in what took place in building the over-priced “Jesus Mall” called City Creek in downtown Salt Lake City. Experts point out that the per-square-foot cost was way out of line.
Sometimes the money laundering efforts are small:
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1025984
Excerpt:
Good evening
*hugs* to rq
Get well soon, Fossil Fishy
Yay, Crudely Wott. I was just about to resign from humantity when your story made me smile.
+++
Today I hate people.
#1 has a circus project week and since she’s in the dogs group she took her plush doggie today. It was stolen from her coat rack during the afternoon.
Some other mother who’d noticed that we were missing the dog went on to some victim blaming by telling #1 that “she mustn’t bring such a toy to school”. I might not have been perfectly civil when I told her that it’s not #1’s bloody fault when somebody steals her stuff.
But I wrote a perfectly nice “lost” note, telling people that if they’ve “found” the doggie, please return it to the coat rack, totally not implicating what I actually think of lousy primary school thiefs and their even lousier parents.
+++
Wein auf Bier, das rat’ ich dir
Bier auf Wein, das lass sein
That wasn’t a cheesecake. It was the cheeses from trolley. All of the cheeses. And trolleys. (It was a train of reinforced cheese trolleys, like you typically find at Unseen University or any fromagerie or restaurant which has a high penguin-shaped-holes-in-wall rating.) And the head cheese waiter plus assistants.
The mildly deranged penguin sends her congratulations. With more practice you should eventually qualify for a Novice Cheese Eater’s brownie point.
She also offers a hint: One gulp. A flying start is sometimes helpful. Would you like a launch from the trebuchet?
Good afternoon, all.
Just had a discussion with a volunteer right-winger. He is very upset that Obama is dictating to congress, that Obama is blackmailing congress, that Obama is strong-arming congress. Why? Well, congress (the GOP in the House, to be specific) is threatening to shut down the government and derail the debt extension unless Obama agrees to defund Obamacare and Obama has said no. So, in his bizarre RWA-world, congress trying to strong-arm the President is fine, but the President saying no is illegal.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
============
Went to a farmer’s market and flea market yesterday. Weird shit in the flea market section.
I picked up some nice ripe jalapenos and some beautiful cayenne peppers, some peaches, some ham, some chocolate covered bacon, some goat-milk soap (even met one of the goats (we took a photo of Wife holding one of the goats (name of Daisy))), and some smoked cheddar, smoked Gouda, and smoked jaloka-pepper cheese. Haven’t tasted the cheese yet. Smells out of this world.
No, the MDP doesn’t get any.
Cheese-hoarding anti-penguin unmildly beard-burning loony Mama Grizzly snack! PpfffFFFFFFFTTTTTuuzzzzzZZZZZZZ!!!
So there.
Er, no.
Cheese-eating pro-avian-theropod bearded mildly depressed Wife snack describes me much better.
Giliell, I’m sorry to hear about #1’s doggie.
:( :( :(
–
Ogvorbis,
Your farmer’s market sounds amazing! This year, because I’ve been getting all my veggies via my CSA box, I only went once or twice to mine. I’ll have to make the effort to go a few times before the end. I’ve also got a bunch of jalapenos that I need to use asap, any suggestions on what I should do with them?
I use them in just about anything — Chinese stir fry, Mexican food, Italian sauce, hamburgers, you name it.
Try roasting and peeling them and putting them in olive oil — you can use the oil or the roasted peppers.
Try chopping and freezing them in a plastic bag and using them through the winter.
Make salsa. Make guacamole. Make pico de gallo. Just don’t make love until after you have thoroughly washed your hands.
The Koch brothers are creepy. That’s not news. But now they have decided to be extra creepy in public.
http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/09/19/creepy-uncle-sam/
Two creepy old guys are creeping out young people on college campuses by assuming that young people are stupid.
Maddow Blog coverage of the same issue.
From other sources:
Last year I got a mystery pepper (it was supposed to be sweet) in my box, and after dicing it up all tiny for a salad, developed a
strong burningfucking intolerable pain in my hands. I googled up tips for curing it, ended up soaking my hands in a mixture of sour cream, rubbing alcohol & vegetable oil. It kept me awake to the middle of the night. I can’t even imagine having it somewhere more sensitive than my hands!Ouch. :-(
In better news, a Democratic candidate in Massachusetts has an interesting video ad on YouTube. Because it’s – for, presumably, some reason – legal in the US, you can also use that page to tell his campaign you’ll phone random strangers and tell them to vote for him. Alternatively, you can donate to keep the ad on TV if you’re a citizen or permanent resident of the USA.
Hello, David M.
I want to be the first (I think) to say, “Yes, my mind was, if not exactly blown, certainly stretched and roughly pummeled into an interesting new shape by your two geologic posts yesterday.
Imagine! Measuring the length of long passed days by looking at sedimentary deposits. Genius! I say. Sheer genius. (What will those crazy geologists come up with next?)
All Hail Rock Hounds and their progeny, Pebble Puppies! Huzzah! Huzza! Huzzah!
Thanks, David. I’ve always got an eye out looking for good stuff from you. o_0<—this eye
Oh, I have a small piece of wood, actually a knot sawn from a fallen tree, that looks very much like a fossilized pterodactyl skull. Will have a picture of same when my photo site comes on line soon, er, pretty soon, I hope.
*pouncehug for Crudely Wrott* ^_^
Two concealed carry permit holders shoot and kill each other in Michigan!
It was road rage.
Whining to follow. Sorry in advance.
__________________________________________________________
Good news: The good news is that my adviser accepted accessibility related topics for my thesis, although he wanted to shift the focus a little to a discussion of the burden of accommodation in interpersonal interactions for persons with an invisible disability versus persons without the disability.
Sorta good news: I have EPIC test anxiety (I didn’t until that lawsuit I participated in and now I both don’t trust and am afraid of my institution, and it’s generalized to nearly fainting during exams.) My therapist wrote me a note and I have an interview next week for accommodations.
Bad news: I was raised to never, ever, EVER ask for any sort of help for any problem ever (including for injuries requiring hospitalization). Seeking accommodation is tweaking my anxiety and depression.
Other bad news: Another set of test results came in and I’ll take major depression, PTSD and autism for $900, Alex. It’s one thing to know you have problems, and another thing to have it all laid out on paper–I feel defective.
I know it’s stupid of me to feel this way, to be so anxious about seeking accommodations to make the non-book learning part of college easier. I know it’s stupid not to ask for help when you need it. I know that it’s horribly snobby of me to feel defective.
I…… being independent has been a survival thing for me. I’ve been on my own since I was 15. I’ve worked a full, manual labor day through serious bodily injury, including impalement wounds to the hands that I taped shut and fractures in/severe tearing to ligaments in my feet. I’ve survived a ridiculously shitty life in which it was not safe to ask anyone for help.
Now, it’s very clear that I should have asked for help. I should have been trying to get help all along. It’s playing merry hell with my self-concept. I’m remembering shit I DO NOT WANT TO REMEMBER.
*crawls under the bed and hides*
*pushes a few fluffy hugs under the bed for mouthyb, just in case some might be helpful*
mouthyb
*hugs*
Thank you.
*pushes a tankard of grog and a bacon sammich under the bed*
Mouthyb, I know what you mean about being raised with an uber-independent ethic. My father spent most of his teen years and his twenties as a saddle tramp (most of a hundred years ago). He owned a horse, a saddle, a bedroll and two changes of clothes. He had to make it on his own and all he ever asked for was a job.
He passed his personal ethic on to me and to this day it is hard, very hard, to ask for HELP!
When I had little or no choice I found that there is help to be had. It can, but does not always, come freely without strings attached.
What I then came to realize were two things:
1) The help that you receive does not exhaust the total supply of help generally available.
2) Outside of a little guilt and a light touches of embarrassment, I was not diminished; I was in fact increased.
It is obvious that you have soldiered through some seriously hard times. You’ve sacrificed your body, your health and your comfort. Perhaps some help is recognition of, perhaps even reward for being so brave (so stubborn?(flashes cautious grin your way)).
And this: receiving charity has made me more charitable. It has even made me feel more connected. Helped me to come down a ways from my remote aerie of self sufficiency and rub shoulders with my fellow humans. These things I rather like. My children and my sibs have mentioned that they find it becoming and that I wear a modicum of humility well and that I look good in it.
Eh, go figure. I don’t really know how that works. YMMV, but this much is true for me — that to accept charity, a hand up, is as honorable as to give the same to others. Something about ennobling . . . it seems to work both coming and going.
*hugs and chocolate and warm thoughts to you*
Oh, and . . . (salivates) are you gonna, you know, like, eat Nerd’s bacon sammich?
*blushes . . . hides face . . . drools a little*
Crudely,
*drops bacon sammich and tankard of grog, walks away whistling tunelessly*
OT (ot? in the Lounge?) but germane:
As if you needed to be reminded.
Now, as balance, this. Hey, Minnesota . . . innat where wassname teaches?
Nerd,
When I talkin’ about charity, that’s what I’m talkin’ about! ;^>
*munch . . . slurp . . . mumbles “fanx brough”*
mouthyb, *hugs*
Also for anyone else who needs/wants/would like one.
I was going to say something wise about help and asking for it and all that, but Crudely Wrott already said everything I wanted to say, and better.
Sent chit to Rethuglican congress. Already covered by the Pullet Patrol™, who understand “we’re all in this life together”.
I do love bacon sammiches and grog. (Coincidentally, dinner is cake and beer, mostly beer–almost as good.)
Thank you.
Crudely Wrott: I keep trying to be graceful about accepting things. Mostly, I’m just red and soggy (blushing and tears/snot/sweat). I’ll get the hang of it eventually, I think.
uh… hi?
I am kinda getting myself back together again. it’s still touch and go though.
It’s always infuriating having completely different expectations than what everyone bargains for (being able to be engaged through lectures and uncomfortable seating, unpicky eating, liking loud and boisterous fun, being cis and having rapport with those of your assigned gender, undepressed and interested enough in extracurriculars)
I never could be Leader of Fifteen Bajillion Clubs like everyone seems to want from me. I have extremely niche interests, often am too depressed to apply by late spring, and I’m quite possibly bad at Leading capital-L. why should that make me looked down upon for scientific work though? Is everyone that in the mindset that the free-time of our society needs to be spent on the bullshit busywork that is management? *headshake*.
and yet I have to grow up in this society that doesn’t seem too happy to accept me.
Anne D., Thank you. That’s very sweet of you. *hugs* Still, you can say what you have to say in “own” words. Little things add up, you know.
Nerd, chit submitted but I’m not holding my breath for reimbursement. Rs are notoriously uncharitable and mostly chicken shits. (No offense to the Pullet Patrol but they prolly already know that . . .)
Mouthyb:
There’s no doubt in my mind that you will. Face piles of trials with smiles, even soggy ones. =)
Just never forget that you do not struggle alone. Neither is your need lesser or without merit.
*here . . . I only ate half the bacon sammich that Nerd invisibly, and so smoothly, dropped for me . . . take it. I did drink all the grog, though.*
I’ve never been a fan of opera . . . but . . . an English language opera is playing on my non-commercial, 24/7 classical music station here in east NC. It’s “The Crucible”.
Yeah, that one; by Arthur Miller. My high school drama club presented the play back in nineteen sixty mumble. I played the Reverend Parris and on opening night committed an hilarious gaffe. See, I didn’t pick up my que despite numerous attempts to do so. My line was simple enough: “I swear that I never saw any of them naked” and the audience had the pleasure of hearing it three times!
So, I am actually enjoying what I’m hearing just now. Nice orchestration. Nostalgic grin on my face. Cold beer at hand.
In a similar vein of self expression, the book I am currently reading is “The Last Three Minutes” by Paul Davies, Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Adelaide. It’s about the last, that is, the really, really, really last three minutes. Of Life, the Universe and Everything.
I’m not worried about that, though. There are an awful lot of minutes left to worry through before the last three arrive. That is, an “awe full” lot. But, ooohhh! those last three . . .
Oh, thunk, I’m so sorry you’re having a tough time.
Elder Daughter took years to convince that it’s okay to say “No, I can’t help with that” and not worry too much that people will hate her if she says no. It’s taken me even more years; my parents trained me well. At least I’ve been able to help my daughter deal with the self-guilt better than I do.
Anyway, *hugs* are offered, and remember, you are who you are, you like what you like, and from what I know of you, you are an awesome person.
*Puts Mom-hat back into hatbox and sits down*
Atheist. Super. Heroes
Are you bleeping kidding me
thunk
I hear several of those points, and can only imagine the additional stress from those I haven’t experienced. *hugs* and best wishes.
Bury them at a crossroads at the dark of the moon with a stake through their hearts, and stuffed with garlic.
I know, I know—it seems like a criminal waste of good garlic; but it’s the only way to be sure.
(Napalm won’t stop ’em.)
–
*additional targeted pouncehug* for the ever-elusive Marjanović.
–
*hugs* and encouragement for mouthyb.
Emergency Kitten.
–
*hugs* and encouragement also for thunk. Society is clearly defective. Not your fault; it was like that when you got there.
–
Where?
–
https://twitter.com/TheA_S_H/atheist-super-heroes/members
Saw them yelling at people on twitter. Enjoy
Cicely, I am soooo stealing that. Reminds me of (a book title, maybe?) “But It Was Already On Fire When I Put It Down” or something close.
_______________
I, too, want to know WWWWW* re: these purported Atheist. Super. Heroes. Methinks they could use a comeuppance or summat.
*Who, What, Where, When and Why. I mean, WHYYYYyyyyyy?? Don’t we got troubles enough, already?
Mouthyb:
I wish I could offer more than hugs and my sympathies. I have both by the truckload.
Crudely, I think there was a book with a title something like, But It Was Already On Fire When I Lay Down On It.
*googling*
Ah, here we go. It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It.
We were both close, yet so cigar-less.
–
On the jalapenos: Slit open. Remove seeds. Stuff with good cheese, garlic and buttered breadcrumbs. Batter and fry. Om-nom-nom.
Alternately, roast over an open flame and apply burger.
Or even slit them in half, stuff with buttered bread crumbs, minced figs and sharp cheddar (or blue cheese), moisten filling with booze. Wrap in bacon. Bake until crispy. Om-nom-nom.
cicely: Thank you for emergency kitteh. Blu eyes!
Thank you, Tony.
Follows Indigo Jump‘s link, peruses perfunctorily.
Hoo, boy. Reducto ad Comicbookum.
I think I have a not-so-good feeling about this. But. I could be wrong . . . what with “youth appeal” and such. Time will tell. Long before the last three minutes, I reckon.
*returns to practicing post processing pictures of bugs, many of them needing desperately needing same*
Waves at Tony wave wave wave. Hiya, buddy. Hawahya?
Thanks for the google-foo, Cicely. Ah, yes! Fulgum and the Kindergarten Book. I’ve been meaning to read them both for so very long. Hope I actually do before, well, before I can’t anymore.
Mouthyb, that third recipe sounds stupendous. Imma gonna try it. Just as soon as I find something on fire to lay down on.
@cicely 420: any suggestions on what I should do with (jalapenos)?
Bury them at a crossroads at the dark of the moon with a stake through their hearts, and stuffed with garlic.
Other than the waste of good garlic, I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
Alternately, one could nuke ’em from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
(capsaicin tastes like a landfill smells, to me)
CaitieCat: BLASPHEMY! BLASPHEMY! *evil monkey point*
If you’re going to neglect your capsaicin, send it over here. I’ll love it.
On a slightly larger pepper theme (the ubiquitous green chilie, or anything not a bell pepper), fire grilling them, sweating and peeling them, stuffing them with cheddar, battering and frying them is also a fine way to treat the humble pepper. Serve with sauce on top. Round here, it’s the mature version of the chilie (red) for sauce. Capsaicin on capsaicin, with a little breading and cheese caught in the middle.
So much for my day off today. Our computers were screwed up yesterday, so we had to hand write tickets and run credit cards on the old school swipey thingees (no clue what they are called). I volunteered to come in today to enter credit cards into the system if it was back working. Little did I know that I would be spending 6 hours doing that. Sheesh!
::mini whine-I want a day off!::end mini whine
I have been working every day since Sept 1.
Manager hours.
The recent transfer to another location came with a salary. Effectively the same I was making before, but when salaried, you can work any number of hours over 40. I still get to tend and manage the bar, but I have the added responsibility of dealing with nightly deposits. So more responsibility, more hours and not so much with commensurate pay. Of course I knew this going in, so its not a surprise. Plus we just opened, so I anticipated a heavy workload initially. Within the first 6 weeks though, I will be pushing for the agreed upon 50-55 hours a week.
One of the many reasons I finally chose to become a manager was to prove (to whom, I am not certain) that it is possible to be an effective manager who *also* cares about the staff. I have worked with several hardcases and my share of utterly uncaring asswipes. I have sat back and watched a situation unfold–badly–bc a manager was douchetastic. Given that I tend to treat people respectably and with compassion, I thought such traits would be handy for a manager to possess.
A few days ago, I found myself consoling a young woman who hosts at my store. She was on the phone distraught and crying. Turns out the home she moved into recently has an interior and exterior flea problem of massive proportions. She has a dog and bc of the fleas, she has to give her dog up. She wont keep him indoors all day and if he goes outside, he is flea infested. Apparently multiple homes in the neighbordood are saturated with the little fuckers. She felt deceived by the homeowner who never mentioned a flea problm.
What made my heart break was hearing her blaming herself.
Throughout our chat, I sat across from her, but when she began blaming herself for ‘giving up too soon’, I knelt in front of the table.
This time I opted to crouch low to the floor, looked her in the eyes and told her it is not her fauly. I told her she did everything she could, and it was not her fault. I also reminded her that it is not pleasant for dogs to be infested with fleas and moving him to a flea free place is an act of kindness and compassion. I think that helped her a little bit. I also shared my struggles with fleas and how frustrating it can be to eliminate that problem.
I made note of how she refused to call out of work and never asked me if she could go home. In fact, her phone call was on her way to work. I told her not to come in, but she was close enough and chose to try. After talking with her, I told her I thought it best if she took the night off as she was understandably distressed and I felt she might have difficulty maintaining the bright, cheerful persona a host must put forward. She agreed partly bc that was true and also that she was going to meet the landlord if she got off work, so I made a call and got someone to work for her.
Update:
When I spoke to J today, she told me the landlord came by the house and sprayed the interior and exterior and promised to come back weekly until the problem was gone. As a result J’s ex-husband agreed to care for the dog until the house is de-flea-d. She was visibly relieved, which made me happy to see.
Mouthyb, to be honest, I am a real wimp when it comes to capsaicin. It hurts. Really, the pain is not worth the bragging rights.
I always choose the “mild” sauce if such choice is available (think Buffalo Wild Wings). Does roasting or baking reduce the mouth searing results? I’m asking because I really like the flavor. I’m just not a fan of pain.
Except when my enemies are afflicted. ;^> bwwaaahaaahaaaaaahaaaaaaa! Here, have some more, Scott Lively. And hand these to Ken Ham and ol’ Pat, too!
Can someone FedEx me some mental energy? I seem to have run out. I feel like there’s nothing but white noise going on in my head.
I’ve decided to arch them with my alias Lex Lutheran
Here comes a large boxful of mental energy for you, Dutchgirl. It’s the last I have today so I guess that means its bed time for me. That’s OK. It’s been a good day and I really don’t know what I’d do with this remaining balance except lie awake staring at darkness impatient to use it up.
It should be arriving pretty soon. Keep your eyes peeled for it. =) And *hugs*, too.
Hey, Tony. You done good, friend. Good by J., that is.
Man, you got quite a style. You always bring a smile. Check you in a while.
Tip over time for me, friends and neighbors. Love you all. G’nite and powerful and tremulous dreams to all who like ’em.
Indigo Jump:
‘At oughta larn ’em, podner. Why, it’ll bend ’em right over. Give ’em what’s for. ‘Swats I say. Avast and giddyup or giddyoff. Yeeeeehaaa and aaarrrgh!
*there, that should cover it. now, really, to bed wiff me. mornins come quick round these parts*
Tomorrow and beyond!
Thanks Crudely, I’ll be using it to a bunch of things I should have done last week, such as sorting out my finances and getting in touch with my graduate school to see if I can still turn in some work in exchange for a shiny piece of paper, all of which takes some mental fortification. I’d send some sleepies your way, but those have been elusive for me too.
I missed alot.
*hugs* and *virtual rum* all around
(the beauty of *virtual rum* is that it arrives as whatever the recipient most needs, *virtually*)
—
thunk
I took me almost 50 years to learn how to say NO to people wanting a piece of my time.
For your own sake, try to learn it sooner.
—
Crudely Wrott and Tony!
If We™ still had Mollys, you’d get my vote.
Indeed. Burying chilies with garlic is a waste not only of garlic, and chilies, but energy and time. And the shovel and pickaxe have better things to do as well.
Actually, it’s my — possibly mistaken — understanding that capsaicin per se doesn’t taste of much of anything (rather like peas), but acts more like a flavour enhancer, neatly packaged in a quite tasty and flavorful chilies. Various chilies have an amazing array of flavors, and it’s a bit of a shame some people become a bit too focused on the “heat”.
garlic, chilies, tomato paste, cider vinegar… thats how Husband begins his magical secret BBQ sauce recipe. With what he strains out when bottling, I make a yummy veggie chili.
So I’ve been a long time lurker, and very rarely post, usually only to make an ass of myself, but in an effort to avoid real work, I’ve read through pretty much this entire thread, and a link that Carlie posted waaay back in the thread really resonated.
Those are *my* hands. I don’t have any learning disabilities (well, I did end up in the “special” class for a while due to being slow to learn to read, but a new school and a new environment did wonders for that). I didn’t have to suffer the any abuse. But christ, those are my hands. I don’t think I could have survived if I’d been “trained” to keep still like that.
Good morning
mouthyb
Big hugs. I was raised on “help is what you give to other people”. Still screws up my mind by feeling very guilty for asking for help, but that’s progress from fucking everything up because I don’t ask for help. It’s funny how I see children being brought to school, kindergarten, ballet and being picked up again by their grandparents and don’t think anything about it, but I’m feeling horribly guilty for having to ask my mum in law.
thunk
*hugs* to you, too.
dutchgirl
*magic anergy sent*
I’m sorry, but I’m afraid it’s the heavy parasite infestation you’re suffering at the moment. Did they check on your iron?
jste #441
Although I am a big fan of stillness
welcome
wavehands as much as you want
mouthyb, I wish I had more than this package of internet hugs. I put them in these handy boxes, so you can have some now and some for later if you like (I’ll just leave the package near the bed, within easy reach).
.
thunk, I’d like to send you a fiercesquishhug if I may.
Tony, you are that rare gem: a manager who actually wants to manage and support people rather than screw them over. I hope you are appreciated! I wish I worked for someone like you.
I’m sorry about #1’s plush dog, Giliell, and I hope it might turn up again. Something similar happened to my #1 once, a long time ago – just remembered how unpleasant that year’s teacher was about it (he was a nasty specimen; fortunately most of the others were better). Hope she’s not too upset :-(
Gilliel: Hi! Thanks for the energies! Yep, the parasite is making my brain mushy. Had my iron checked a few weeks ago, and just went in for the horrible 1 hour glucose test today, and I think they’ll run a panel on that as well. So far all my numbers have been good.
It’s finally cooling down for the night. And I get to sleep in tomorrow. *stacks energy offerings on side table* I’ll get to you tomorrow.
G’nite all.
Backs up the hug truck for unloading for mouthyb, thunk and others.
Giliell@388,
I feel your sorrow about the lost dog toy. Spawn had one that he took everywhere for several (5+ ?) years. And then one day it went to the pool with us, and disappeared from under the towels on the lounge chair. Major sadness ensued. We put up a poster w/ pics at the pool (which also disappeared for unknown reason). And then a week later, we got a call from the Salvation Army church around the corner. They had seen a cat race away from their drop-off site and found the collar on the floor — the tag on the collar had our phone # (just like a real dog). Still don’t know if the cat and the collar were actually connected, but toy dog was never recovered. We bought a replacement which eventually saw enough action to match the original grime. But I still can’t believe that an adult wasn’t partially complicit in what went on — if a young child stole the toy wouldn’t you as the child’s parent notice that? And what’s with the charity donation? I feel the sadz just thinking about it all, and your story as well. Hope yours turns up.
Tony@431, your stories often seem to coincide with a cloud of dust passing through. I like that you care so much and try so hard for the people around you. Thank you for your contributions to making the world a better place.
Work’s been stressful. A few people I interact with have made me want to rage a bit — I’ve had a couple of quiet(er) rants to sympathetic ears. And I’ve sort’a been avoiding my boss to avoid too many detailed questions about what I’ve been doing; important work, work that needs doing and that I’m the right person to do, just not work I’m actually assigned to do. I’ve been shuffled around a bit because supervisors and/or their bosses, who often don’t have a real clue what I do, keep trying to shove me in a niche … which well, is sort of what bosses do, I guess … but then they turn around and tell me that I’ll be happier there, not having consulted me on what I would be happy with. Fine I understand that you feel the need to push in certain directions, and fine you don’t have to consult me on them, but please don’t tell me that you’re doing it for my happiness. Happened a few years ago, and then last week there were more hints of some new efforts.
Crudely Wrott: I don’t think cooking makes chilies less hot. It’s not really a goal for me–I eats it inferno to nuclear most days, as is the local custom.
blf: Indeed. I’m rather fond of red chili sauce here locally because it’s smoky, slightly bitter and warm, in addition to spicy. And I’m not sure how to describe the flavor of green chilie except for to say that it tastes wonderfully of grill char, with a certain sharp umph on the back end. The flavor of green chilies, in particular, seem to make the beef in burgers taste more savory, if that’s possible, and the cheese seem more creamy (it seems to hike up the contrast, in addition to making your mouth all warm). Plus, the local chilies are a fairly superior source of vitamin C and we use them as sinus clearers when sick with something drippy.
I’ll take all the hugs, thank you everyone. *pulls hugs under the bed and yoinks the virtual rum*
Book:
“Reducing Gun Violence in America: Informing Policy with Evidence and Analysis” http://www.amazon.com/Reducing-Gun-Violence-America-Informing/dp/1421411105/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1379676361&sr=1-1&keywords=vernick%2C+webster
A little something I found mentioned in “Science”. It includes experience from Britain, Australia and other countries alongside essays on the situation in USA.
— — — — — — — — — —
Even the prehistoric Englishmen were into blood sports.
“Giant prehistoric elephant slaughtered by early humans” http://phys.org/news/2013-09-giant-prehistoric-elephant-slaughtered-early.html Ook! Grunt!*
*”Look, a big endangered animal! Let’s kill it!”
— — — — — — — —
Brain-eating amoeba rattles nerves in Louisiana http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-09-brain-eating-amoeba-rattles-nerves-louisiana.html -A Ctulhu amoeba?
A voicemail that was left for me yesterday:
!!!!!!!!!!
Well, look at you all matriculatin’ and stuff. Yay Esteleth!
*offers hugs if wanted*
-=-=-
My own morning: partner went home yesterday, weekend with her husband planned, but I managed to get my disability paperwork all done (except for the doctor’s bit, but she needs mine to do the job right). It is hard to get that kind of bureaucratic stuff done while depressed. It feels so much easier to take the “If I don’t open the mail, then the bad problems can’t get me!” route, though long experience has shown that this very rarely works the way I’d like it to. Since it’s effectively prayer to a deity of chance, which, y’know, doesn’t exist, this should be unsurprising.
Rainy grey day here again, weather’s doing me no favours either. On the up side, Legend of Korra is back, SQUEEEEEEEEKORRAKORRAKORRASQUEEEEEE. Not that I’m in love with the show or anything, but SQUEEKORRA! I mean, what’s to love about a show whose protagonistic centre is a buff, ass-kicking, teenage woman of colour, right? Only, y’know, everything. SQUEEKORRA!
Conga rats, Esteleth! Coincidentally, I was kind of teetering right on the edge of asking about the research-scientist-to-nursing-school thing when I read your comment just this minute over in the Scholars Lean Diet thread. Now I get it.
My DaughterSpawn is a biochemistry undergrad right now, particularly interested in neuroscience. I know the situation is not exactly the same in Europe, but it makes me sad to think that her chances are so low of being able to get into lab work (which she loves) in an academic context and staying there :-(
Keep the poor hungry. Why? Well, just because, that’s why. Republicans are still on their hate-and-distrust-the-poor bandwagon.
The most objective sources, nonpartisan sources, have condemned the latest House bill that proposes to cut $40 billion from food stamps (SNAP), but this has not slowed the crazies one bit.
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=4021
Meanwhile, the congress critters passed an ag bill that will ensure that subsidies flow to some of them that own or have a stake in corporate farms.
Oh coworker who talks loudly to make sure everyone hears about how he masturbates with Icey/hots, how are you still single?
Rand Paul has come up with a new way to clone himself. He has designed a home schooling curriculum that will turn your child into a mini Rand Paul. The Atlantic Wire link.
Matt Taibbi on Wisconsin Public Radio, a podcast that covers a lot of ground when it comes to economic issues, both past and present.
http://www.wpr.org/listen/330776
Okay. Here we go. Yes, the Ted Cruz types in the House of Representatives basically voted to shut down the government if Obama does not agree to defund Affordable Health Care (Obamacare). Holy mother of all stupidity.
CaitieCat, in my experience capsaicin tastes not so much of landfill, as it does of pain. Intense, searing, kiss-your-tastebuds-goodbye-for-days pain. I have no idea whether the damned things has a flavor, or not.
Do Not Want!!!
(The only reason that I cannot recommend nuking them from orbit, is the fear that they might mutate.)
(I’m pretty sure that there was Equine involvement in the development and “domestication” of the entire family of peppers.)
(Later)
I know this feeling all too well!
*hugs* and sympathy.
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*hugs* for Tony.
So, you want a day off from your day off?
:D
Also, it isn’t healthy for a dog to be massively infested with fleas.
Some dogs are outright allergic to the little bloodsucking mofos.
You are an awesome boss. Your employees (associates?) are very fortunate.
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Welcome in, jste.
:)
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:) :) :) :) :)
Congrats, Esteleth!
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*scrolls up*
*restocks hug truck*
Yay! But can’t they type???
=======================
Anyway.
It’s that time of the year again, when it’s been overdue for months that I start planning my America trip for this year.
Fixed points in space and time:
73rd Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Oct. 29 – Nov. 2, in LA.
I’ve registered and paid for that; that’s all I’ve yet done for the entire trip.
Skepticon, Nov. 15 – 17, in Springfield, Missouri.
Fixed points in space, but not yet in time:
The museum visits (at least their dates) are subject to approval. I haven’t applied for any yet.
5 days in collection of American Museum of Natural History, NYC.
Probably 5 days in collection of Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard.
2 days in collection of National Museum of Natural History, DC.
Visiting uncle in Toronto.
Visiting other uncle in Atlanta.
Pharyngulites I’d love to meet:
Just off the top of my head. Feel free to add yourselves to the list! It’s not a requirement that we’ve interacted much, or that we’ve met in meatspace before, or that you have a high opinion of your own awesomeness. :-)
…let’s try to make this from northeast to southwest… chronologically it might turn out the other way around…
HappiestSadist & meatspace friends
Esteleth, Sally Strange, Dark Infant, Al
Ms. Daisy Cutter
[oh crap, I forgot her Pharyngunym – the one with the cats in NYC, you know who you are :-) ]
Ogvorbis
Reality Enforcer, Mattir
Liriodendrons
onion girl
People who might show up at Skepticon: Jadehawk, cicely, many more! *practices pouncehugging*
Classical Cipher, Richard Austin
Question:
Rhinebeck. SOMEBODY PUT UP US THE BOMB – WHAT HAPPEN ? I mean, what happens now? Is anything planned?
I’ll crosspost this to the [Thunderdome] and Facebook.
Video: David Corn of Mother Jones compares the latest Republican Bill to Game of Thrones.
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/09/video-david-corn-obamacare-shutdown
Dana Milbank is also featured in this video.
Actually… it turns out my list excludes everyone whose meatspace location I happen not to know. Yet more incentive for you to add yourselves! :-) It also excludes a few people, like Caine or the people on the west coast north of LA, that I have little hope of meeting. :-(
Although it is a tiny fine compared to their ill-gotten gains, at least Elizabeth Warren forced JPMorgan to pay something. $329 million, in fact.
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/09/elizabeth-warren-cfpb-jpmorgan-customer-refund
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/09/map-worst-air-pollution
This map shows where you are most likely to die from air pollution.
Yeah, it’s unlikely that you and I will meet, though I would love to meet you in meatspace. I live far from almost everything related to human civilization, in southeastern Idaho. Lots of mountains nearby, though.
Re Rhinebeck: I asked about that awhile back on FB, but that was around the time of the implosion, and nothing really came of it.
More gag-inducing news related to the dysfunctional private prison industry in the USA:
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/09/private-prisons-occupancy-quota-cca-crime
Say what!? An occupancy requirement for prisons? WTF.
Yay!
*dancedancedance*
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http://www.tyrrellmuseum.com
just sayin’
DM: …an uncle in Toronto…
*perks up*
Hey! Toronto’s not far from here at all! And I grew up there, so I know my way around, too. Hmm.
*considers plotty plottingness*
Thanks everyone for the suggestions on the jalapenos! Instead of feeling overwhelmed, I can’t wait to get home and try out some of these excellent suggestions. Quick question- what does everyone use for batter? I like the butter and bread crumbs idea, but several batter suggestions were made & I’m curious.
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In other cheesy news- I found a cheese maker in Wisconsin who is going to ship me some jjuustoleipä! Tonight I’m smoking a pork should that has been sitting overnight in a delicious spicy rub. I think I might make some potato salad to go with it. With not spoiled mayonnaise. Or maybe I’ll use that recipe Caine posted a bit back. Yum. Also I’m hungry right now, so I’m distracted by all the foods.
yazikus: For a wet batter, I usually use a modified tempura recipe. However, starch (flour and a little corn starch), egg yolk, baking powder and milk (plus garlic salt or whatever you please) does alright as well. If you’re really going for a light batter, add something sparking (like, say, beer or seltzer water.)
I’ve also used a multistage batter, with yellow mustard, then seasoned flour (Old Bay does not suck in this) and cornmeal before, but that’s usually for fish or chicken.
Zee butter and breadcrumbs are for stuffing (make sure the stuffing is stiff, or it’ll fall out all over the place.) I fry pepper side down first, as well, to give the batter time to solidify before it has to contain the stuffing.
The local sushi restaurants do a jalapeno half stuffed with raw (sushi grade) tuna paste, rooster sauce and cream cheese, before frying it. Also excellent. It’s called the Heart Attack, and they put spicy Japanese mayo on top before serving.
Because I get it so rarely, I forget how good fresh corn tastes.
OMFG!!!
Another day at BigDumbieCo, complete with pointy-haired boss and an entire posse of System Admins trained at Hades Cheap and Sadistic Back Alley shop (all the diplomas you want for $25.95)…
Pointy-hair forwards me a forwarded reply to an e-mail containing several software fixes sent to an important customer. That’s all it contains, nothing like what he wants me to do with them (test? trash? laugh at (review)? add to the product? …?).
And I’ve never even heard there was a problem.
Right. So I put them into the review system, from which all options are possible, until there is some clarity. This way we won’t loose them, can track what happens (as long as people use the tools), and doesn’t commit anyone to anything.
Also send some e-mail asking “WTF?”, not to pointy-haired (for obvious reasons) but to the engineer who did the work.
Said engineer promptly replies “It is for problem X, which isn’t solved yet. These fixes help, and may assist the diagnosis, but are experimental at the present time.”
Ok. But “X” is in a database I had essentially never heard of before. A quick check of the internal portal to, supposedly, all the BigDumbieCo systems doesn’t seem to list it. So search BigDumbieCo’s intranet and mostly find dead links, plus one recent-ish memo that happened to contain a URL.
Try the URL. Nothing. But following-up on an aside in another memo, try a slightly modified URL. Bingo! Life. But requires authentication (i.e., need to login), and clearly is not using BigDumbieCo’s corporate authentication scheme.
Bugger.
More e-mail to the engineer. “Is this the correct URL? How do I get access?”
Prompt reply. “Database with X is useless.”
Possibly true, but still…
Aim some tangential e-mail with similar questions.
Another engineer, “URL is correct.”
A third engineer, “Ask So-and-so for access.”
So-and-so chimes in, “Enter a request in BigDumbieCo blah blah…”.
Well, Ok, at least I’ve heard of BigDumbieCo blah blah, and so login to it. Don’t see anything specifically about the database in question, so enter a miscellaneous request.
Surprise! Got a reply almost immediately, “Copy file Y and run command Z.” (Doesn’t say where to copy Y from, and let’s not even talk about Z which is so obviously not-relevant it might as well be a Dr Who monster inside the TMO.)
But what the feck does that have to do with authenticating myself at an internal website? Reply “Please re-read my request. I need an account, instructions on how to do the first login, and confirmation that I have the correct URL.”
Nothing happens…
Although pointy-hair sends some e-mail which manages to confuse two clearly separate aspects of the problem. Ignore it for now, and if / when the problem is properly fixed, the aspects pointy hair is confusing will vanish. They are temporary artifacts.
Just as I am leaving for the day, a reply! “Sorry. I will ask around.”
Oh for feck’s sake…
Someone new replies “All set up. Do this…”.
Ok, a few minutes until the bus. Try it. Seems to want to work, but now I keep getting a page not found error.
Shite! Shoot back a barely-temperate reply and leave for the weekend.
Baseball bats, cricket bats, ax handles, or for the slightly enraged, crowbars. Peas if you are wearing protective armor and battering by remote control from another Universe.
I do not know what to do…
Natehevens
You indicated that you haven’t got a Paypal account yet. Is it feasible for you to set one up? If not, someone else may be able to curate that. I’m pretty sure that I can spare at least some to throw in the kitty; I’ll need to go over the budget first. (For those who’ve not followed the link, Nate is short on tuition, which means housing as well, and a future).
Nate, if you get that GFM set up, I’m sure the Horde will do what we can.
I officially have a GoFundMe set up…
It’s all about the money. Do you ever wonder why Republicans on the far right spent their August recess and much of September frothing at the mouth over defunding Obamacare? I mean, they’re promising something they cannot deliver. They can’t defund Obamacare. It’s all about the Benjamins, baby.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/09/20/20602578-a-lucrative-scam
This was really good: http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-sexist-video-game-problems-even-bigger-than-breasts/
Many good observations, and this, “Cosplayers are blamed for the sexual harassment they receive at gaming conventions. It’s like conventions looked at the rape culture of victim-blaming and decided to create a tutorial level.”
Lynna 466
And it’s even more evil than even profit grubbing could justify; if all they wanted was money, they could demand a contractual payment for 90% occupancy, regardless of actual occupancy. But no, these sadistic fucks demand that we actually lock that many people up (probably because they’ve got associations of some kind with companies that use prison labor, and need to keep the enslaved workforce at appropriate levels.)
Nate, would you like the Horde fund banner to be raised on FB and other places the Horde congregates?
Consider paying private prisons on the number of released prisoners who do not reoffend or violate parole. Something like contract to achieve a, say, 70% non-reoffending rate over a, say, 5 year rolling interval. If they don’t achieve the contracted rate, no payments. If they do, they receive the amount contracted.
Numerous problems with, and ways to scam, the idea — and it doesn’t even touch on the issues with having for-profit prisons in the first place — but the basic idea of paying for socially and individually useful results may have some merit.
Esteleth @ #482:
Yes please. That would be incredible.
carlie! I forgot carlie!
And Markita Lynda!
I ♥ the humid air in the US southeast. :-)
The SVP meeting has been in Bozeman, Montana, though. So who knows… :-)
Next year it’ll be in Berlin. Every 5 years it’s outside North America.
I know! I’ll have to go there at some point!
Yay yay yay! ^_^ ^_^ ^_^
Iä! Iä!
(Jjuust kidding. Blessed are the cheesemakers.)
I’ll see what I can do!
FTW.
Oh yes. Make sure you read the 2nd page!
Yep.
So.
Y’know how when you brush crumbs off a tablecloth you hold down the tablecloth with one hand and brush with the other hand?
I find myself trying to do that with a touchscreen.
I’m so old.
I can smell when the next-doors are using their dryer.
They use those dryer-sheet thingies.
Chigau (#487)
My bedroom window is right near the dryer exhaust for five floors worth of dryers and too many of my neighbors use dryer sheets with extra fragrance. Like, the manufacturers brag on the box about all the extra fragrance. Guess where most of that fragrance ends up? Sure as fuck ain’t on the clothes.
So it seems like the Introductions thread isn’t really used anymore so I figured here would be a good spot.
Hi.
I have been reading the blog for a while but only recently discovered the comments and the amazing community here. I just finished reading all of the comments in the “grenade” post and decided to get involved. At the very least to add one more voice in support of PZ and the good work you are all doing here.
As for actual introductions I don’t know if I want to get into all of the embarrassing things I used to believe, yet. But the short version is that I am a rehabilitated hyper-skeptic, due in large part to you folks. So, thanks for that.
Welcome Calmer, as a welcome present, you get a free bacon sammich, and a grog or swill of your choice, and 10 e-ducat credit to the Pharyngula Saloon and Spanking Parlor, Patricia, Princess of Pullets, Proprietor.
Welcome in, Calmer (my I call you Calmer?)
I have rum.
You may wait to embarrass yourself.
We’ve all done it.
Tonight’s dinner: red pepper and tomato bisque. Is there anything tastier than roasted tomatoes and red bell peppers, garlic, chicken stock and cream rendered to softness and blended down to a creamy, thick mass? (I mean, if we’d had nice fancy cheese, like Guyere, I would have had to pass out from the yums, but this was very good.)
The neat thing is, it was el cheapo as hell due to shit what I had in the fridge already because of grocery coop-y thingy, which we don’t have often (because cost) but that comes with an assload of stuff out of the local farms. Peppers grow well in the desert and it’s harvest season for ’em.
I volunteer my services as a chef at the Pharyngula moon colony. I’ll even leave the peas out of things on occasion for you barbarians.
* rubs belleh *
Perhaps we can fill our quota…globally. Insource for other countries…you know, instead of outsourcing all the jobs. And (how fortuitous!) when that happy day arrives, we will have no shortage of bring-your-own-guns, violence-inured potential guards!
</horrified sarcasm>
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Napalm.
Lots and lots of napalm.
Not that it helps….
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NateHevens, I wish I could help. Sorry.
:( :(
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Welcome in, Calmer Than You Are.
You say you read all the comments at “grenade”?
*offering a large something-involving-alcohol*
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You do realize leaving peas out of split pea soup is grounds for being strung up by your thumbnails, and tickled by the wings of the Pullet Patrol™ until you beg forgiveness…..
So, yeah, I should probably mention how refreshing it was to see neurotypical privilege and the ignorant demands and impositions allistics make of autistics finally being taken seriously and discussed sympathetically, a few days ago, once someone other than me brought it up.
On that note, I could use a little backup here.
Somewhere the Redhead has a recipe for a split pea soup with rice where, when cold, you have to carve out chunks to nuke. Might have to try that this winter, after the ham is cooked.
Pops in just long enough to drop this.
[sound of a certain Wookie wailing]
Pops back out.
Nerd: I dare the Pullet Patrol to find a ticklish spot on my body. Mostly, tickling makes my skin itch.
I wouldn’t dream of leaving the peas out of a good split pea soup. That’s half the point (the rest of the point is ham or bacon.)
Calmer:
Gad, have a drink or three on me. Welcome to Pharyngula, and thanks for your voice.
This fb status from a friend made me think of Ogvorbis:
*pops backs out*