This is the lounge. You can discuss anything you want, but you will do it kindly.
Status: Heavily Moderated; Previous thread
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
This is the lounge. You can discuss anything you want, but you will do it kindly.
Status: Heavily Moderated; Previous thread
Witless Ape Rides Escalator = Donald Trump
teehee
chigau, don’t insult apes, they’re liable to go all Librarian-poo* on you.
*are we still allowed Discworld references here, or is that only in the Mended Drum thread? /still being silly
Fuck.
So yesterday my boss (not unit-boss, but all-forensics-boss) got arrested on corruption charges.
And today the parliament passes a ‘morality’ clause on children’s education (basically the same as the gay propaganda law in Russia except less strict).
The fuck.
Yes, sweetness and light, that’s me, the Real Sugarplum Fairy! I’ll break your teeth, I’m that fucking sugary.
Wow that’s a big plate of suck, rq. Did you at least get some kickbacks out of Corrupt Guy?
CaitieCat
If I had, you think I’d still be living in this measly two-storey home with a mortgage and driving the aged Saab? (No. Sadly. … Uh… I mean… No. Just no.)
;)
rq
Ow fuck. Double fuck.
+++
Happy things?
A friend called and invited us over for Saturday. Coffee and cake and later Flammkuchen.
Stuck at airport for a while. Also, wrecked my right ankle so I’m hobbling pathetically.
It’s gonna be a long day.
Shit. That sucks. Please note the footage if what may be a new octopus that I linked to over on the Drum. It may cheer you up?
Can you find an ankle brace/wrap at the airport? A little support helps a lot. The Redhead has had ankle problems.
PZ
My sympathy. I have a permanent hobble due to an ankle.
Does this mean you can pre-board with the babies?
Some genderbending by a cosplayer.
Image-a man dressed as Storm of the X-Men when she was temporarily made into the goddess of thunder.
Here is Storm in that costume.
And so it begins. There is a fire near Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains in California. It grew from 10 acres to 1500 acres overnight. It is about 25 miles from my house and we are not in danger, but still, it is frightening. All of the communities are coming together and helping however they can. Communications networks are vast and efficient. Campgrounds have been evacuated. In this instance Facebook is an incredibly useful tool.
I’ve been feeling somewhat cast adrift and depressed thinking that the Lounge may deteriorate and no longer be the comforting place it was. Today is not a good day.
Morgan, for what it’s worth, I’m not leaving the Lounge, and neither is Hobbes. Stay safe, and I hope they get the fire under control quickly. This is not going to be a fun summer in Southern California (I live in Orange County).
I’ve changed the extension on my nym is support of all the wildlife that is impacted by wildfires.
Thanks Anne. Mind if I cuddle up in the pillow fort for a while? I might even bring my corgis with me, but only if Hobbes doesn’t mind doggies. I only have two.
Morgan
I hope the Lounge stays the informative, comforting place it has always been for me, and hopefully for you, too. ♥
Stay safe!
Dear rq, Giliell, Tony!, Nerd, Anne, carlie, ajb47, awakeinmo – thank you. Thank you so much for the words of sympathy, I really appreciate them! It means a lot, this weird and strange thing where you know that a handful of people scattered in several different countries, only two of whose faces I’ve ever seen (rq in rl and Tony! from his photo), have read what I wrote and thought, damn, and offered a hug or a kleenex not to mention often offering good advice too! :-s
We’ve written to the college to comment on the exam problem. The only silver lining is that AS FAR AS I KNOW first-year results don’t count towards the final mark (this seems to be fairly common practice on many courses) and that this débâcle at least should serve to highlight that he really does just need someone to check and make sure he knows what he’s supposed to be doing rather than assume that he’ll take it in OR ASK like most students would.
I’m happy for DaugherSpawn, really – just a bit churned up that she’s gone. It’s all fine.
Friend is at least looking forward to seeing us (a tiny grouplet all visiting together, to make it more of a Thing). She is apparently planning to make the hospital give her a stash of drugs and weekend pass so she can spend a day with us. It is so – I have no words, really. Ten years my junior, and a much nicer person than I am – it’s not fair. Of course.
Tony! I’m so glad you got some help in time. I will raise a large mug of tea to your non-eviction.
rq I hope the stress levels start behaving themselves soon. I personally bet that you have perfectly good reasons, actually!
Many many hugs to all of you, if and as acceptable.
For rq:
http://www.themarysue.com/alan-rickman-inhales-helium/
Morgan, of course! The pillow fort is for everybody. Hobbes says corgies are welcome, too. :)
Apparently link dumps are now supposed to go in the thread that replaces the Thunderdome. Under that assumption, I just posted one, beginning here.
I love this on so many levels. ^_^
David Marjanović#21
???
I didn’t get that memo.
Beatrice
I nearly peed my pants. (In a good way.)
We have to stock up on helium for our second date with Alan Rickman. ;)
Oh wow. Has this been posted yet? I have to run, so I can’t check.
“Doctor Who Creator Considered a Female Lead as the Doctor Back in the ’80s
So get your s*** together already, 2015.”
David:
I don’t know for sure that links dumps are *supposed* to go in the MD. I think they’re still welcome here.
****
morgan @13:
I’m glad that the networks of communication are strong and effective. I hope you and everyone out there are able to stay safe and sound.
I’m not leaving. I’ll probably still post links in both threads, as I’ve done for years (unless PZ says we’re not supposed to do it here).
Come to think of it, the people who use the Lounge on a frequent or irregular basis probably do so for a reason. Just like those that don’t use the Lounge do so for a reason. So my gut says there won’t be an exodus to that thread.
All the hugs to you my friend.
Thematically related to David M’s comment @25-
From Fusion:
‘Jurassic Park’ is 100 times more feminist than ‘Jurassic World’.
David
There’s no rule against posting links here – just so far link-posters seem to have chosen to do so there. But there’s no rule! (But thanks for the link-to-the-links, by the way!)
Lounge and Thunderdome used to be like two comfy rooms, except you were only allowed to jump on the furniture in the second room.
Now the second room got a nice new coat of paint and people are taking the “no shoes on the couch” orders seriously…. I’m still going to hang around in both, but now I’m a bit more hesitant about sharing any bonbons with people in the second room, everyone seems to be really sensitive about sugary fingers on the furniture.
It’s weird. Am I still allowed to put my coffee mug on the table without a coaster?
opposablethumbs #18
I’m late / slhugs too.
.
I’ve not pushed past the first bits of our last co-commentation, which could have initiated something longer, (extreme right mimicks of social justice pushes, and radical islamism attempts to conflate the all too blurred concept of islamophobia with the rather clearcut one of racism, as seemed to have taken place in France and/or UK). Unfortunately I haven’t been able to retrieve the texts I remembered going through. As you asked, I’ll communicate if I cross something back. Not forgotten, just waiting for some serendipity…
Shit. The fire is now 10,000 acres.
Beatrice #29
*tsk*
*gives Beatrice a rag*
Morgan
Shit. Are you going to have to leave? Stay safe!
Beatrice
The great thing about coasters is you can use them as frisbees.
Oh, they go under the glass?
That’s a nice rag you have there. What’s it for?
rq,
The fire is pretty far from us, but the beast is moving fast. It is unlikely to reach us, but everything is unpredictable. The forest is very dry.
Morgan
Stay safe.
+++
Me?
I’m not going anywhere (except to bed)
“Aaarrrrrrr-kyooooooo…” Hear that? That’s my bed calling to me, too. G’night, loverly folks, and stay safe!!!
Oh, I thought you heard me sneezing.
“Aaarrrrrrr-kyooooooo…”
I think I’d be sleeping on the couch.
Okidemia, thank you – it’s much appreciated. (No worries about those links, btw – I’m just a little curious, so basically if you happen to come across what you remembered that’s great, but no problem if you don’t).
Don’t be silly, chigau. The dolls know where the couch is.
Morgan @34, eep. Tentacles crossed that the damn thing is under control quickly. I like and appreciate your nym addition.
opposablethumbs @18, more hugs. I think, no, I know I have more friends on the internet than I’ve ever had in realspace. On the one hand, it’s a lot more people to worry about. On the other, what wonderful people I know now.
People, absolutely NOTHING is changing about the lounge! It’s still intended to be a safe space for you to use as you see fit.
Thunderdome has change to emphasize that there will be no unregulated free-for-all anymore.
In other news, I’m pretty sure my ankle is sprained — it’s a source of constant pain and walking is agonizing. And I landed in this FUCKING GIANT SPRAWLING AIRPORT IN PORTLAND — really, it’s ridiculous how big it is, and how it has all these long galleries with no gates — and of course I arrived at a D gate, on one end, and my connection is at A12, at the very end of the opposite concourse.
Send Hodor. I need to be carried.
My airport has these golf-cart things, with flashing lights and horns that transport the late and the halt to their gates.
I intend to use one next time.
My airport is small enough, you don’t need a golf cart.
I’m sorry you’re in pain, PZ. Take a nice long rest when you get home.
My airport is small enough you don’t need a golf cart, but they still have ’em, because international hub.
Get some rest, PZ!
And yes, the bed let me out again this morning.
My airport is constantly threatened by bankruptcy. For good reasons. Too many fucking small airports running on subsidies in Germany.
Get well soon, PZ
+++
Oh dear, that Whats App bickering really escalated yesterday.
One problem is that the kids were scheduled to go swimming during PE next year. Only that with so many kids who can’t all swim yet, the ministry says there need to be at least two adults present, but they’re not providing the second adult. So unless you got lots of SAHM who are not SAH because of even smaller kiddies, your kids are fucked.
Now I’m angry about that, too. But to turn it into “the school is never doing anything for our kids” is:
-wrong
-unfair
First of all, what do they think? That the school has a golden American Express they can use to rent additional teachers at the local teacher rent out? They can’t do shit about this. They cannot tell other classes that they don’t have a teacher for those 2 hours because theirs is away swimming…
Second, if you read the stuff the teachers are sending home and get your ass into the entrance hall once in a while where they’re posting all the information about the current projects, trips, etc. you’d see that a great big lot of things IS happening there. But the two people who complained loudest were two people who I never see going there. We all drop off the kids at similar times, only they stay in the parking lot.
I have no idea what those people want. I have the feeling they are having a bad conscience for not living up to their own supermummy expectations paired with entitled consumer thinking.
As a result the parents’ spokesperson left the group because she was personally attacked and the one who started the bickering. Yeah, that’s going to do our kids a fuckton of good…
My airport is so small they don’t have a restaurant. They only have little kiosk type places to buy sandwiches and stuff.
May I suggest you check out the late, lamented Stoke Newington International Airport (http://www.stkinternational.co.uk/STK/STK.html) (the joke, which I will reveal on the grounds that it is immediately apparent to locals, lies in the fact that Stoke Newington is a not-rich city-centre neighbourhood).
The smallest airport I’ve used was on the Orkney Islands. The runway was a field where they shooed the cows off, and the building was a hut. The Orkneys is one of my favourite places. In terms of ‘proper’ airport, Nimes has to be the smallest. The departure lounge and the gate are the same room, with a trolley that provides snacks.
rq It most be worrying in Latvia at the moment. The whole of eastern Europe is looking incredibly fragile at the moment and Putin is ready to pounce.
Morgan I hope the fire doesn’t go anywhere near you and that it extinguishes soon.
Giliell the problem with social media is that a lot of people use it without thinking about the content. If the German schools are anything like those in the UK, it’s a constant battle to provide a decent education with all the financial constraints that the government and local authority put on them.
PZ I hope you’re able to rest your leg soon. The more you use it the longer it’s going to take to heal.
Generally the world is not looking a very nice place at the moment.
Small scale shock and good deed for the day.
I was just ripped from my very important deep think thoughts by the blaring of a smoke detector. Walking through the hall showed me the origin was one of the neighbours, an 80ish lady* and I could smell smoke. I knocked on the door and thank goodness she opened it. “My meat got burned!” I pulled out a chair and silenced the smoke detector. The poor lady was totally flustered. She hadn’t known how to make the smoke detector stop, she wouldn’T have been able to do so anyway and she was terribly afraid that the police and the firefighters were on their way and she was in trouble. Now back to the deep thinky work.
*I adore her. You’ll usually see her dressed in skirts, blouse, colourful Russian headscarf, runners, handling two nordic walking sticks.
So I guess I’ll go out the country this weekend and have a long day at work on Monday. Then it’s a two-day holiday for midsummer.
It’s probably going to be spent (the weekend) under familial tension what with various things but I figured it’s best to get out of the house-and-work for a couple of days rather than sitting around and stewing about stuff on my own. I think it will be better to get out, we’ll see.
The midsummer holiday will be spent with some (now-family but formerly-my) Friend and his family and assorted other guests in celebration of the shortest night of the year (which is officially Sunday night, I think). That should be interesting, a different crowd than we usually hang with, but (I hope) good people on the whole. I’m a bit leery of all the unknown people because I’m not a people-person, but I’m determined to be civil to everyone, unless the confederate flag appears. Then I’m letting loose my tongue and the attitude that goes with it.
ARGH bad doctors.
My dad was just diagnosed with a Thing. Now, this Thing can have several causes; the most common is the “shit happens, we have no idea” cause, but there are some very specific known other causes as well, including a drug he took for several months (erroneously, but that’s a whole other bad doctor story). Given that his symptoms came out of nowhere and started a couple of months after beginning said drug, I’m pretty sure that this is drug-caused Thing. However, the doctor he just went to, who diagnosed it, told him no, it wasn’t the drug, because drugs don’t usually cause the Thing, it’s unknown-caused Thing. Ok, that’s probably incorrect in his case, and treatment doesn’t vary depending on the cause, so on the one hand it’s not such a big deal. Except that, when you go and research the Thing, you find out that drug-caused Thing has a mortality rate of less than 10%, and unknown-caused Thing has a 1-5 year life expectancy. And since unknown-caused is so much more common, that’s all of the internet hits you find; it takes some specific search term queries to find out about the drug-caused Thing prognosis. So that doctor has probably scared my parents half out of their wits, because I know they went internet searching yesterday after finding out, and I don’t know if I can convince them he’s likely wrong in dismissing the medicine cause so quickly. Argh.
carlie
That sounds somewhat irresponsible, at the very least. :/
Hugs and tea all ’round, just because.
carlie
Urgh, doctors can be the worst.
I remember how my sister got sent to the psychiatrist for psychosomatic illness before somebody thought to check her thyroid….
+++
rq
Have fun in the garden, take matches for all appearances of a certain flag
+++
My friends are funny. Remember they invited us over for tomorrow. Today they’re asking if I’m going to bring other friend U as well.
Hey folks, it’s your garden, I don’t invite people there. But I guess were all seen so much as family that it’s like “is your teenage kid coming along as well?”
I just got a frenulectomy, the penis kind, and i just wanted to say that people who greet their babies into the world by cutting their prepuces, are fucking empathy impaired arseholes.
Dreaming of an Atheistic Newtopia #56
I take the Wikipdia article is not quite correct about the “painless” part?
Would you like a nice cup of tea?
Just stuck a warning in the Drum about the new Furiosa comic: (link to over there)
Stupid question time: A short time ago I subscribed to the comments on various threads in order to have them emailed to me. Now, I would like to unsubscribe but I can’t seem to do so. When I click on Manage your subscriptions I get the following:
However, there is no link to follow. On my profile page there is nothing regarding email subscriptions. What am I doing wrong or not seeing?
Feeling dumb.
Nope, not painless…and this was just a frenulectomy, which involves considerably less damage than a circumcision, and i’m an adult, so they didn’t even have to tear my foreskin from my glans.
I hope the result is good once it’s healed because they aren’t fucking touching my penis again….holy fucking shit was this not fun….
Cheers for the tea, is there any chance of some painkiller cookies to go with it?
Morgan, have you tried clicking on the “Manage your subscriptions” link under the comment box in one of the threads? Any thread you’re subscribed to should work.
When I do that, it takes me to a Manage subscriptions page that lists all the threads I’m subscribed to. Then you choose the ones to delete, but be careful about what boxes you click, they’re not properly lined up with the thread names/actions.
Morgan @59:
I wish I could help, but I’ve had the same problem you describe.
Anne, that is exactly what I’ve done. When I do so it takes me to my profile. There doesn’t seem to be a Manage your subscriptions page or active link. Did that make sense?
Morgan, yes, it does make sense. I’m sorry I repeated what you’d already tried and further aggravated you! I hope you can get the problem sorted out soon.
Morgan
I had the same problem and I managed to fix it but I don’t remember how.
(wasn’t that helpful?)
Maybe the Tech Issues people could help.
Anne, no problem. Chigau, I’ll send a message to the tech folks. I’ll let y’all know when, if, or how we get it fixed.
Well, apparently the kid’s sudden illness has disappeared again.
I’m glad, it means we can proceed as planned tomorrow.
+++
Dreaming*
Ouch
I’m wishing you a speedy recovery
*Is it OK to shorten your nym like that?
Giliell
Absolutely, and thank you :)
(I took the liberty to shorten yours, although it’s not the first time and i should have asked, sorry :P)
carlie, FSM but I hope your parents are OK and not scared out of their wits because that is one hell of a difference between those two prognoses, hell’s teeth!?!?!?!? Sometimes – and I’m glad it’s only sometimes – doctors could do with remembering that people go away and look shit up so it’s kind of important to explain properly! (and even if nobody looks anything up, it’s still kind of important. Sheesh)
rq, I hope it turns out to be fun and people are nice and no matches are needed (though it’s never de trop to have a few boxes of matches about one’s person, just in case).
Dreaming, ow. Sympathies, a cup of tea and possibly an ice pack if you think it might help. (And you won’t get much argument around here about the unacceptability of cutting bits off offspring when the hapless little buggers have only just turned up, nope nope nope. Kids have enough to deal with without their parents having them tailored or redecorated on arrival)
Technical issues are now worse. Hopfully will be able to get it fixed in the next couple of days. *hugs* to all.
Thanks, opposeablethumbs and Gilliel and rq. Talked to my mom; she had seen some things I sent to them (they don’t always check email) so had already realized the worst parts didn’t apply to them. But I’ve been looking into it more, and now I’m really angry. This particular drug got pushed through the FDA with it already known that it caused the Thing, and what he was given it for was an off-label use that was heavily pushed by the company that produced it, and it’s bad enough that there’s supposed to be a huge information packet that comes with it to the consumer that the company doesn’t usually actually provide. This drug has been a huge red flag for over 15 years, ever since right after it came on the market, and yet this is still happening to people right and left. There’s a huge lawsuit that got a splash a few months ago because a somewhat high-profile public person’s family sued the pharmaceutical company over his death from that drug which caused the same Thing that my dad now has. This is unbelievable.
carlie
Sorry about your dad’s Thing. I hope it gets better/goes away soon. I’m glad you are able to help your parents with the information. It’s odd that the physician wasn’t able (willing?) to do the same.
I am a genius, sort of. I figured out how to unsubscribe from email notification on comments. You cannot click into the proper page from Pharyngula. At the bottom of each email notification in your email inbox is a link to manage subscriptions. That is the only link that will get you there. The page it takes you to is a bit funky, but there it is. It worked. Yea me!
Carlie, is there any way to know definitively whether you dad’s Thing is or is not the drug-caused version? The doctor sounds insensitive and irresponsible. I hope all turns out well.
Yay Morgan!
carlie, hugs. That doctor has no business dealing with real live people.
Husband’s got jury duty next week. At least it’s the near courthouse in Fullerton rather than the one way down in Santa Ana. Oh well, he has been complaining about being bored at work.
Morgan‽
Yay for unsubscribe!
..
carlie
Not only unbelievable; infuriating.
*hugs* for your whole family.
Thanks, awakeinmo and Morgan and Anne. It could be fairly well correlated – he has test results from right before and right after treatment, so that should show the onset pretty clearly. Problem is that there are dozens of ways for the condition to be caused, and there would be no way to “prove” it wasn’t one of the others to the satisfaction of a court case. And as for potential blame, there’s the pharmaceutical company, there’s the prescribing specialist doctor, the general practitioner, the other specialist, the pharmacist, my dad himself for not looking it up… There hasn’t been a single lawsuit that’s gotten even to actual trial stage yet, no thanks to not trying, although that one I mentioned probably has the biggest guns behind it, so I’ll keep an eye on it to see if it opens any doors in the next couple of years. I guess there’s no reason to be secretive about it – I didn’t give any details mainly because I’m not fishing for medical advice, but the end result is that his lungs are permanently damaged and he’s now, in his early 60s, being told he needs oxygen from now on any time he’s walking further than around the house. It makes me feel so helplessly mad that it’s due to basic compounded negligence. But I guess I’d rather have it due to drugs given by negligence than by it being an unknown cause, because at least this way he’s got a much better long-term prognosis. I just kind of want to smash things for awhile. :(
Thanks too, chigau – I cross-posted. ;)
carlie, rq has a really nifty sledgehammer. Smash at will.
Today at work a song came on the radio that made everyone cranky. That song was “Stayin’ Alive”.
This is a warning that the following is potentially traumatic, especially for animal lovers. It certainly has been for me.
.
.
.
.
.
.
You see, on wednesday a little boy kitten died on the recovery bed. I discovered dead kitten as he was in the process of dead-ing (purple, and turning more purple) and after about 5 minutes of CPR plus some epinephrine into the heart, we got a heart beat. Another 15 minutes had him breathing on his own. He was, however, comatose but we decided to give him a day or so. Gave him steroids, put him on fluids.
Yesterday, thursday, we did a surgery to repair a broken femur on another little boy kitten. Surgery and repair went well, but kitten coded on recovery. Some CPR and we got him back as well, with another 10-15 minutes before spontaneous respiration. Also comatose, also steroids, also fluids with dextrose as his BG was crazy low and may be part of why he kicked the bucket.
On thursday, wed-kitten was more aware, but highly distressed and constantly stuck in an arched-back position. Unable to stand. Unable to eat. Howling constantly if not asleep. We try a few more things to see if maybe he’ll get at all better and give him another 24 hours.
Today, Friday, we induced anesthesia in a male bulldog puppy (privately owned animal) and he was fine at first, but the moment we turned him on his back to shave for his neuter he turned a deep purple. Heart beat was strong, and he was breathing, but the color was badness. We turned off the anesthetic gas, got him just on oxygen, reversed the morphine, turned him back over, woke him up, called the owners to say “Sorry, not doing surgery on your dog.” So… potentially not-good but we averted. Hooray!
Thursday-kitten (Named Wesley because he was only ‘mostly dead’, yes, we’re morbid. We’ve also had DP for dead-puppy, and Carol Anne) is doing better. Clearly some brain damage, but he’s responding to touch and sound, and trying to stand up and is not distressed. He should survive, and even still be able to see. He’ll just have ‘the IQ of a walnut, but that’s okay because he just has to be a cat.’
Wednesday-kitten was even more distressed today. The foster-mom who had raised him from a week-old bottle baby came in to say goodbye, and he was euthanised in her arms.
Even though I *know*, I really really *know* that I’d be more upset if I’d found him truly-dead-no-resurrection-for-you, there is a large part of me that is horrified for the mental suffering he went through for these additional two days. For him, he would have been better off to have stayed dead. And I wish he hadn’t deaded in the first place, and we don’t know why he did that (sometimes creatures, people included, simply die like that), but I even more wish he hadn’t spent two days horrifically confused and scared.
I honestly feel guilty for finding him in time to ‘save’ him. Utterly, awfully guilty.
Rowan, all the hugs.
Oh, Rowan. I’m so amazed just that there are people like you who are able to do such thankless, emotionally hard work, and I can’t imagine how hard that must be. I have a virtual bucket of ice cream here if you want it.
Rowan
I am intensely, immensely grateful that people like you exist.
I would last about 35 seconds in your job.
Please try not to feel guilt but go ahead and dump it here, if it helps.
Hugs for Rowan. I have a lot of respect for anyone who can do that on a regular basis. I have saved a bunch of strays. But I could not do it when I tried doing work like that a long time ago.
Rowan you are an amazing person and I am so glad wonderful folks like you exist and try to help the beasties. You can only do what you can do. Please try not to punish yourself with guilt.
Husband was in a nasty auto accident this evening on his way home from work. He is uninjured. The car is probably a total loss. The accident was the fault of a drunk driver who was taken to hospital. His drunk passenger was arrested.
Cars can be easily replaced. Husbands are a bit more difficult. We are both upset, but we will be fine.
Morgan!?…. eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek! D: I am so, so, SO glad he’s okay!
Morgan
I’m glad Husband is OK.
Praise
Godmodern technology!Thanks Rowan, me too. The shock is wearing off and I am sort of falling apart right now. He is also.
Thanks chigau. I can’t believe he got out without a scratch. The entire front end of the car is destroyed. I think I am going to pour myself a drink.
*hugs* for carlie, Rowan and Morgan
*hugs* for Morgan (whoa… glad he’s okay!!!!), for Rowan (I am glad that the animals of this world have someone who cares for them as deeply as you do. Even when it causes you pain. ♥), for carlie (you can borrow my sledgehammer. I also have this box of non-matching china cups from the garage.)
+++
Out in the country, slightly tense atmosphere. :/ Meh. I suppose it’s better than being at work today…?
Shit, Morgan, I’m glad he’s ok. Sorry about the car, but very glad that life and limb are unscathed! Hope insurance is good with this and that drunk driver never drives drunk again.
Many hugs to rowan. Like many of the others, I couldn’t cope with this – I think your strength and devotion are amazing.
carlie, I’m gutted for your dad. It seems amazing that such a drug can still be legal, but I assume there’s a long and complicated history of causation being difficult/impossible to prove. I’m so sorry. I hope they – and you – are managing all right.
Morgan, I’m so glad your husband is safe and sound. [hugs]
… And I just realized that one of the reasons I didn’t want to go anywhere this weekend was EuroPride, which happened today, downtown. And I missed it. Now I’m sad and slightly mad at myself. (Some friends of mine went, apparently all went smoothly, with about 5000 people attending – not sure if that’s spectators+participants, but generally speaking, I would say a good show also considering the weather.)
rowan
You made me sad, in a good way. Keep up the good work, and Thor bless you.
Morgan!?
Holy crap I’m glad your hubby is OK. Big hugs to you and him.
___
I’ve had a somewhat strained relationship with my mom. Lately, I’ve decided to really try to be more patient and understanding. Then yesterday my dad tells me I should really try harder to not upset mom. ??? We’re talking about a woman who looks for reasons to make snide comments and get upset. (She literally went into my trash can a couple of days ago to make comments about the food I’ve been eating.) It’s her sport. Well, I gotta say that I’m a little annoyed because a) I have been trying to be nicer and b) don’t put the responsibility for mom’s happiness on me! Oy!
Anyway, just wanted to vent a bit.
I feel better now. Thanks, lounge!
Cross posted from the “I have to do it … ” thread.
Dylann Roof published a manifesto:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/20/1394948/-Racist-manifesto-and-selfie-collection-confirms-what-we-knew-Dylann-Roof-a-racist-terrorist
An excerpt from the manifesto (link in 97):
Perhaps a heads-up before the heavy racism here, Lynna?
CaitieCat @99, Sorry to have left out the trigger warning for racism in comments 97 and 98.
Thanks, Lynna. :)
This comment comes with a trigger warning for misogyny and stupidity. Republicans got together recently in Washington D.C. They bashed women and women’s rights.
We all know what those “crisis pregnancy centers” are. They are a front for religiously-based, anti-abortion activism that is not medically sound, and that is devoid of medically-trained personnel.
http://thinkprogress.org/election/2015/06/20/3672153/faith-and-freedom-women/
Wow, I just made a whole comment and then disappeared it. Fuck. Oh well, off to work:( Have a good day peoples.
I have been thinking a lot about comments that have been addressed in the media. I think that there needs to be a parser for white privilege. There is obviously white privilege, but there appears to be yankee white privilege, those who feel that white privilege doesn’t apply to them as they are not from the south. One commenter to me suggested that Indianans are southern folks, he was from Michigan. Last I checked a lot of Indianans died in service in the Union army. Thoughts? Comments?
Anti-austerity march and rally was pretty good. Biggest cheers of the day included the one welcoming Jeremy Corbyn – here’s to shifting the Overton window properly to the left, say I.
Some very good speeches, including from Caroline Lucas, Francesca Martinez – Charlotte Church came as a good surprise to me – and Corbyn. Pity Russel Brand at the end had to make a total arse of himself by including some sexist “jokes” in his spiel, ugh.
So Mom wanted to see Jurassic World for her birthday. She invited me, my boyfriend Ben, my brother, and my brother’s new girlfriend. Much anxiety over the week over seeing my brother for the first time in 4 months. We were cordial. My brother completely ignored Ben’s presence, which both Ben and I can accept (better than abject hatred). So I didn’t get to enjoy the movie quite as much as I wished, because of stress.
But I’m seeing it with Mommy again on Monday, along with the lady who has me do sub-q fluids on her dog 3 times a week. Both her and Mom are retired and very sweet and funny women so I’m hoping they can become friends.
And for the my-brain-is-weird confession… There were a couple scenes that triggered that part of my brain that views myself as a theropodian-dragon-thingy and went “Yes, yes. That is how you should move, and sound, and be.” It’s a major thrill and I love it.
Weirdness here at Casa la Pelirroja. We’ve had two pizza pie pans since our UP days. They show the wear and tear. I found one at the bottom of the box I was collecting recycle material in, prior to tossing it in the bin outside, but the one I used to heat the fish filet (salmon, later added Hollandaise sauce) for the Redhead last night has vanished into the twilight zone. A real head-scratcher. At least I don’t have to worry out digging out hair.
Nerd
Have you looked in the freezer?
I once found the dish cloth there.
Not to mention my eye-glasses in the bread-box.
So… The good news is that I found our daughter’s MP3 back.
The bad news is… I found it when I was mowing the grass.
:)
Okidemia
Before or after?
Rowan:
I echo what others have said-it’s great that there are caring people like you in the world.
****
Morgan:
I’m so glad your husband is ok. Hope you enjoy your drink.
****
awakeinmo:
Sorry you’re having family problems. Reading your comment about your mother going through your trash just left me with jaw agape. ::Hugs::
****
I chatted with cicely a little bit ago. She’s fine. Just busy. She asked me to pass on hugs and chocolate where appropriate.
****
broboxley:
Can you give some examples of things you feel would fit under yankee white privilege, but not under the broader category of white privilege?
Oooh, SyFy’s new show Killjoys has some eye candy for me. Luke MacDonald is hot! It’s nice to see that an openly gay man has been cast in a leading role too.
I got bored watching ex-tropical storm Bill blow through, so have these lemon cool whip cookies I just made. Mr. Rawnaeris and I do *not* need to eat the entire batch.
Also, you can sub any flavored cake mix for the lemon as well. I’ve had strawberry one chocolate ones. And now I want to make strawberry-chocolate ones….
Chigau #108, not in the freezer upstairs, which I rearranged to today, moving two shelves. I’ve only been in the downstairs freezer once since last nights meal, to return a two person lasagna which sneaked upstairs during the reloading of the new freezer compartment.
Ugh, gave the Redhead too much time to think about dinner. She added beyond my ability to remember all the ingredients. Ended up with a chunk of beef Kielbasa, tomato, cottage cheese, dill spear, and some canned German potato salad with dill seed, celery seed, caraway seed, and red onion. And a beer to wash it down with.
Chigau #111
I’m tempted to answer “during” rather than after, but it was late enough…
Tony@112 I was posting about an act of racism I witnessed in Ohio, a small town outside of Cincinnati. A person who usually see’s things clearly stated that it must have been some white Kentuckians as Ohioans are not racists. No, they were from that town. Found an article from that town paper showing blatant racism at a high school football game. Again, it must have been some southerners that moved there was the reaction. That’s what I was referring to as yankee white privilege.
Seriously, Americans, go outside and look westward. Venus, Jupiter and the moon are …. go look.
:( :( :(
It’s raining.
It is not raining. And in spite of the fire, the sky is beautiful.
It should be raining, but it is not. Damn Saharian dust fogs. Dry dry dry. Everything is dying dry. It should be raining every single day in June…
The temperature in my house has finally dropped below 80°F;.
****
Buenos Aires alone has more bookstores per person than any other city in the world – just enough for inquisitive Argentinians to indulge their literary cravings.
That should have been 80°F
Or 27 °C. :)
Hi Tony! !
Hi Lounge!
gobi’s:
::waves with Kermit hands::
Oh, and
I know not this “Celsius” thing you speak of.
Celsius…
One of our little European affectations Downunder.
Been trying to catch up with the thread: so relieved to read your brush with rent issues turned out ok!
I love cultural remixing.
Worst of craigslist anyone? http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/roo/5084605760.html
The moon, Venus and Jupiter were making a perfect triangle in the evening sky. I mean the base line was perfectly horizontal, and the apex was directly vertical from the middle of that, and all in a nice ratio. It looked intelligently designed. If there had been a fourth element below, to make the bottom of a cross, I would have run to a church.
Looking through my telescope didn’t help. The spot of light across from the moon was the same crescent shape as the moon, and the spot at the top had other spots lined up with it. Everything pointed off the same direction.
Fortunately, I had read about a close alignment of Venus and Jupiter for tomorrow night, and would have figured it out, but dang, it looked impressive. I mean, the cover of a fantasy novel, maybe – a tacky one.
Next week, I mean. Jupiter and Venus will appear nearest each other on June 30/July 1.
Not a triangle here, but a lovely straight line with regulus ( I think )
Signs and portents!
Got a shot of the crescent moon last night, but I think we’re too far north to see the beautiful conjunction. :( Maybe on the 30th, hope there’s no cloud cover.
A Nazi march in Bratislava yesterday. Stop Islamization of Europe . Just great
Hello rq :)
We missed the last blood moon because of clouds :(
Hi, gobi!!!
Yeah, that happens to us, too. :( But I think the trifecta of Moon-Venus-Jupiter will be lost on us due to latitude. Plus it doesn’t really get dark these days.
How have you been??
I have been busy! I have been working on contracts for about eight months straight now – nice to have work again.
Hullo
We had a really nice afternoon yesterday.
Mr. acquired a new nickname. Our friends’ son ( 2.5 yo) has a thing for Mr. First Mr. was “that there” as in “Who do you want to come with you?” That there! Then he used Mr.’s first name, but that’s the same as his dad’s, so that was not ok. He settled for “Schatzi”, a version of “darling”.
morgan
I’m glad your husband is OK.
awakeinmo
*hugs*
Take care of your self, ‘kay? If your mother is looking for a reason to be unhappy with you, she’ll find one (and if your dad is looking for you to blame, he’ll do so, too)
beatrice
Damn. Why do people always only take the bad leaves out of Germany’s book, and never stuff like green energy?
awakeinmo
*hugs*
gobi
That is indeed nice to hear!
Beatrice
Wow, we just had a mild-mannered protest against immigrants, not even the Nazis, just the anti-globalists…
And that’s a stark contrast to yesterday’s quite successful Europride parade in Riga. You know what was awesomest about that? That even the media noted that a very large proportion of participants in the march were not LGBTQA themselves, but merely people who believe in equal rights for everybody. That was encouraging to me – maybe society’s view is, indeed, changing.
And then I found out from a Friend’s FB status post that way back in 1927, when it was discovered that a trans man had married a woman (I believe there were two cases), he was to be charged (not sure with what) but the Supreme Court threw out the case, as he had already clearly proven himself capable of man’s work, and that, while biologically female, to force him to live and work as a woman would cause too much mental anguish for the court to allow it. (That’s a bad summary.)
I feel like this country has gone backwards in time, in a lot of ways. But things seem to be better.
You know what else I hate? The forced hyper-masculinity that Husband puts on in the company of other men out in the country. Yesterday, when we were watching the pair of foxes dance in the field, and when we were showing the foxes to the kids, and listening to the pups having fun out of the den in the evening, there was not a word about shooting them, just a few comments about danger to the cats. Husband’s Sister’s Boyfriend talked about shooting them, about which the boys were… well, medium-unconcerned. Anyway. So today, Husband’s Mum’s Brother arrives, and he’s a hunter by hobby (but hunting here is strictly regulated by season and quota and is also combined with care for the animals (feeding in winter) and of the forest itself – kind of a broadened form of agriculture), and he brought his gun, and one of the foxes was out in the field and he was going to shoot it… So I just said not while I’m around, and suddenly Husband’s all Yeah, but it’s got to be shot, it’ll kill the cats, and they ate the neighbour’s chickens and stole the neighbour’s little dog, there’s no question it’ll have to go, and I couldn’t help but feel that it was vehement and enthusiastic aligning with HMB’s views on foxes. Plus it was me, Husband, HMB, HSBF, and Husband’s Dad. Gotta keep up that manly attitude.
Annnyway. Thunderstorming right now. I’m hiding away upstairs because nobody else is being particularly social, either. Ha.
I have never understood killing things for fun. Conversation with cousin-in-law started out about killing pest animals and then gradually morphed into one about killing for fun – the smarter the animal the more fun. Foxes were high on the list.
I appreciate that non-native animals can be a problem and measures should be taken – but the ‘fun’ part sickens me a bit…
http://rt.com/news/268615-slovakia-islamization-protest-arrested/
Even if the idea about quotas doesn’t fall through, I am now afraid for the immigrants that all these backwards countries are going to “welcome” (I include my own in that characterization).
I hate bugs, I hate bugs, I hate bugs. I haven’t even been out today, but something has apparently come in and it flew/crawled into one of my pant legs and now I have about a dozen tiny painful bites on the upper part of my leg.
fucking stupid bugs
So.
Never wear clothing while indoors?
Dang, just realized I forgot to put maple syrup on the grocery list yesterday. Sunday is normally some type of waffles, usually pecan, for breakfast. I didn’t get a couple of items since the store I was at didn’t have them, so I can pick them up now. Looks like a quick trip while the Redhead is sleeping in.
beatrice
Looks really like an offspring of German Pegida (patriotic Europeans against the islamisation of the occident).
Fuck those bastards
rq
One of the things I really love about Mr is that he’S secure and comfortable in his identity as a non traditional guy. His masculinity is not threatened by soap, gentleness, poopy diapers, medical check-ups and such. Maybe your husband will come around one day, too. I guess you’Re right. He probably thinks that if he takes his wife’s side in a discussion with other men they’ll think that you’re wearing the pants*.
*Because, we all know, only dudes wear pants. Ask beatrice how she was quickly punished for trying that pinnacle of male clothing.
+++
Damn
The little one is sick
rq
How are you at Telling Tales with a straight face?
“Where I come from (the Wilderness of Canada), killing small vermin is Women’s Work.
No Real Man would lower himself to killing a fox. Especially with a gun.”
chigau, sounds good to me! :-) What do you reckon, rq, any chance? :-D (may only work on those who haven’t lived (for long) in Canada, and I can’t remember if you said your OH was also Canadian-Latvian like you???)
opposablethumbs
I’ve said similar things to people from [redacted]* and they believed me.
.
.
.
* large urban centre in Eastern Canada.
In that case, chigau, it sounds worth a go! :-)))
Hi, all.
Kids took me to see Jurassic World on Friday. It was better than I expected but not as good as it should have been.
Spent yesterday working overtime. Boy took Wife and I out to dinner at a pizza place that has about 300 beers in stock. I had a really good 10.5% porter and a 11% bourbon barrel aged beer. Both were good. Unfortunately, due the back injury, I had taken a diazepam. And two strong beers + muscle relaxer = stoned out of my gourd. Wife drove home.
Next three days in training. Oh! Joy and happiness unforeseen.
Hugs to Rowan. And all.
Happy fathers day.
Hatchetfish @130:
I clicked your link and yep! That was pretty awful.
****
Giliell @139:
Or free college.
****
I don’t like killing animals for fun either. I know it is necessary at times, but to take glee in the killing of another-even when that other is a non-human animal-is disconcerting to me.
****
rq @140:
Hopefully Husband will give some serious thought to why you said “…not while I’m around”.
****
Happy Father’s Day to all the papa’s!
chigau and opposablethumbs
:D … In which case they’d hand me the rifle and say, ‘Have a go!’
I mean, on the one hand I do understand getting rid of pests, and the new family of foxes is really close to the human-resided part of the property, and it makes me a little leery of letting the kids go out to play in the field.
But… Still not a fan.
(Also, Husband is a Latvian-Latvian. Unfortunately, I have done a lot to dispel the Canadian Mythos, so the line would most likely not work on him…)
Giliell
He’s not too insecure in all those other things, too – but at heart he’s a country boy, and since Forever, he’s really looked up to his mum’s brother, and this kind of obvious bravado often makes an appearance when he’s around. So I suppose an impression must be maintained. :/
I hope Little One’s illness is nothing serious, and that she gets well soon!
Tony
Maybe, maybe not. *shrug* I did comment (later, when we were alone) about how his attitude and speaking style seem to change when his uncle is around. He said he hadn’t noticed.
Happy Father’s Day, apply as applicable! Husband is in the backyard burning some of his new incense and waiting for the birds to eat some of his new mealworms. Yes, the cats (via me) gave him a bag of dried mealworms for F-Day, among other things. I am an evil person, heh heh heh.
I just fixed the broken antenna on my special portable radio – our old cassette boombox had a compatible one, so I swapped them. Now I can listen to KPCC again without it going all staticky when I move around the room. I may not be handsome, but I am handy. I think I’ll assemble the new electric fan-onna-stick next.
Hugs for all, help yourselves.
Alison de Vere
Claire Parker
Evelyn Lambart
Lotte Reiniger
Mary Blair
Each of these women had a significant impact on the art of animation and now they’re being honored by the Annecy International Festival of Animation.
http://io9.com/each-of-these-short-cartoons-celebrates-a-pioneering-wo-1712614167
The short films are available at the link.
I seemed to have pulled a muscle in my right arm, making it painful to use the mouse, and do the chores I had planned for today. Which mostly involved putting stuff back into the kitchen, but only returning that which will likely be used, not stuff that just clutters it up, like seventy-eleven used storage containers that have been collecting dust for years.
Gotta love me some casual sexism (and an opportunity to play stupid and pretend not to notice the implied (sexist) connotations so that the other person has to either shut up or spell it out and thus move from implied to outright sexism):
Dad: [talking about a neighbor] “He always puts out the laundry, I’ve never seen his wife hang out the laundry in all these years.”
Me: “How often have you hanged out the laundry?”
Dad: [laugh] “Never.”
Me: “Well then.” *shrug*
Dad: “I don’t know who washes the laundry, but he’s always hanging it. His wife never does it.”
Me: [innocent not getting it look]
Dad: [walks away]
Nope, not getting a reaction out of me, if that was the idea.
I do believe we’ll see Lounge #500 today or tomorrow. I’ve decided to commemorate the event for no good reason, and have several bottles of Champagne (and N/A sparkling wine) chilling behind the Lounge Bar. Hoping someone will fire up the grill for some delicious food. Nerd?
It looks like Sunday is my recipe day. Say something if you want me to stop.
Cherry pancakes:
220 g flour
100 g sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Mix all these.
~150 g mascarpone
1 egg
~ 100 ml milk
(sorry, I wasn’t measuring cheese and milk so I’m mostly guessing from memory)
Mix and stir in the dry ingredients.
When they mixture is smooth, add quartered cherries.
Scoop out onto a pan and bake for a couple of minutes on each side, on low to medium heat.
I’m guessing sour cherries would make for an even better combination.
I’ll be firing up the electric skillet for smothered pork chops.
http://www.soulfoodandsoutherncooking.com/smothered-pork-chops.html
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/smothered-pork-chops/
Had to find the skillet first.
The Redhead’s CNAs did much of the cleaning to remove the old fridge. So I’m now trying to consolidate the useful from the dust collectors.
Looks delicious, Beatrice. And may I say I love your handling of your dad’s attempt to rile you? Sounds like just what he deserves :-)
Happy Jurassic World and Pizza, Ogvorbis – and I hope your back injury eases soon. Sounds like a really nice couple of outings, even so :-)
Many affectionate greetings, Horde.
News out of Egypt-
Millions of dog mummies found in mass grave in Egypt.
Heeeey! There’s another Lounge out there. They owe us some money for using the name.
My public librarian certification is nearing renewal time and I needed some continuing education credits. One thing we can do is an “independent study,” where we can learn about a subject that will enhance our reference abilities. Being a music librarian, I thought, “Oh hey, I’ve always been curious about Schoenberg’s twelve-tone system, maybe I’ll study that!”
After an entire weekend of listening to nothing but Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg, I now never want to listen to music again as long as I live. ;)
I know that relationships require some pretty intense communication from time to time.
I just wish it wouldn’t leave me so emotionally drained.
On the plus side, I suppose a few things got sorted.
Good night. I’ve got the better part of a wine bottle in me and I’m in no condition to comment here or on racism. :P
Before I go, *drunkhugs* and an alcohol-induced “I LOVE Y’ALL” just to finish the evening in style.
Not that I don’t love y’all when I’m sober, of course. I’m just less likely to sing it badly while dancing on the table-tops.
And we love you too, rq. Drunk or sober. :)
That’s why the tables at the Pharyngula Saloon and Spanking Parlor will sink to floor level with a given load. Don’t need somebody falling off.
Dancing on the table-tops is the only way to go. Hugs to you too, rq.
*squints* I’m… pretty sure that’s a ringworm lesion on my kitten’s face. Stupid feral mama cat being a carrier and rejecting my 3, but giving them ringworm anyway.
Rowan, if there were atheist saints, you’d be one.
rq, table tops are some of my favorite places to dance. Big fluffy hugs to you, either drunk or sober they work just as well.
The secret for tender smothered pork chops appears to be long simmer time. At least 40 minutes, maybe longer. I let it go for 1:15, then turned off the heat as the Redhead was talking to her father for Father’s day. Raves from the Redhead. Now get ready for bed for both of us.
Hi all.
Sorry to hear of various problems and set backs. I will not recite them, but I do hope everyone gets to move on to calmer waters and better times.
I like the dad sexist exchange, Beatrice. Nicely handled. I feel it is harder to cope when it is family being a pill, so extra kudos. I tend to the meltdown myself, hence very admiring of the control displayed.
I’m just here to avoid working. I mean, I have a list to follow up on, and if all goes well, I should have ignored a good half of it inside the next hour.
I would like to post a recipe for a savoury dish. It has meat, but you can substitute dredged eggplant slices for the porkchops, if you like.
1 sweet red onion, quartered and sliced
1 clove of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon or so of finely sliced ginger
olive oil to cover bottom of pan
2 pork chops or large eggplant slices dredged in mixture of cumin, cinnamon, fennel, course salt and cracked black pepper. (No, I have no idea of the proportions. I just toss it in the bowl until I like the taste.)
Cook the onion, garlic and ginger in the olive oil until the onion is translucent.
Add the chops/eggplant and cover. Turn the chops/eggplant after two or three minutes or when browned, then finish until browned on both sides. Serve with bread or side salad, depending on what you like.
Should have said, pan on medium high so chops cook through.
I wonder if anything interesting will happen here tomorrow.
I don’t think there are any actual Jurassic World spoilers in the following, but there might be, so, let this be a spoiler warning.
.
.
.
.
My 10 year old son has been jumping between paleontologist and astronomer as his future career for a couple years now. So his request to go see Jurassic World was not out of the ordinary. I had read a couple of reviews and was not enthused, but was not overly averse either.
And that’s how I saw the movie. It was almost exactly what the trailers said it would be. There were dinosaurs and people threatened by dinosaurs. And there was a dinosaur that could only exist in comic books or soap operas — it was exactly as menacing as it needed to be. It had every advantage geneticists could give it. And they thought it would be a good thing to put into a theme park.
What could possibly go wrong?
Chris Pratt was pretty good in a role where he was an ex-Navy guy who could handle animals. And that’s about all we know about him. Bryce Dallas Howard seemed like she really wanted to do more with the role than she was allowed. There were many shots of her, especially early on, where I felt they were saying, “Emote!” and she was showing, “What the hell am I supposed to emote about?”
And that’s on top of Tony’s link in 27 about Park being 100 times more feminist than World.
And I maintain that the climactic fight is the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen in movies with the possible exception of the neon teddy bears in The Avengers. No, not that one, the other one.
rq
Right back at you. Both the dancing on tables (I’d prefer low tables) and the love.
This is one of the strangest commercials I’ve ever seen-
No fancy HTML here, just so ya’ll can see the name of the page.
http://www.homorazzi.com/article/man-on-man-suckling-nipple-play-thunderbird-software-commercial/
No, it’s not a commercial for a porno. I an advertisement for a car. I do believe it is Suitable For Work (SFW for those who don’t know).
morning
Repeat after me: Melons are heavy. Melons are heavy. Melons. Are. Heavy.
A lesson I always seem to forget when I go shopping.
Oh, and milk and juice and wine and other fresh veggies are also heavy. Ice cream isn’t.
rq
We love you, too.
Nerd
How do the tables know it’s a skinny person dancing on top and not the loads of food that contribute to many of us not being skinny people?
beatrice
Oh yeah, playing dumb so people have to spell out their shit is one of my favourite tactics, too.
As for the housework, you all know that my mother is mostly not doing shit anymore. But whenever anybody pities my dad for having to do 0% of the chores now, I ask them if they said the same during the 30 year my mother did 90% of the chores, even when she was working full time and he was out of work.
abj47
The original Jurasic Park destroyed my dream to become a Paleontologist. Soured me of dinosaurs for quite a while.
Install a heart-rate monitor.
Love you too rq I hope you had a good weekend despite all the tribulations. I trust you moved all the edibles from the table before dancing commenced
I may get to see Jurassic World…..eventually.
Rowan you have my lasting admiration for all you do.
Does anyone know what’s happened to blf ?
We had a weekend of mild sickness on the part of my daughter and my wife. Now both recovered from that, though my daughter has a cold. So we’re on a watching brief for anything more sinister developing.
Got chocolate and beer for Father’s Day…they know me so well!
Spoke to my brother about mum and her safety. He has hopefully spoken to my Aunt and we can broach the subject of personal alarms for mum. Sooner rather than later!
Does anyone know how a house alarm can go off ate 12.45am when it’s not active? Not that anything like that would happen to me…no …of course not!
bassmike
I can’t guarantee that I took off all the remaining food…
re: house alarms going off at weird times
What kind of alarm? We had a few incidents with motion sensors, where the alarm would go off when we were not home, several times in the night – I think we had the technician about three times, and the things suggested were: 1) spiderwebs on the motion sensors; 2) spiders crawling over the motion sensors; 3) faulty electronics (general wear); 4) battery change needed. So we did some cleaning and replaced the batteries and I think the sensors in the offending room, too.
Now my mum lives in that apartment, and there’s probably less spiderwebs in the corners… :D
Anyway, that was our experience with alarms going off at weird times.
Geckos and alarm sensors don’t mix.
I am convinced they do it on purpose…
In this case the alarm wasn’t switched on and we were in the house asleep. It does have a connection to a monitor station, so my guess is that the phone line went down and the alarm went off to ‘let us know’. Otherwise I’ll put it down to a software glitch.
….don’t think geckos were involved Gobi’s sockpuppet’s meatpuppet . The only geckos round here are in zoos!
bassmike
Well, in that case it was poltergeists. :)
(Actually, if the phone line was disconnected, it sounds plausible that it might have sounded a warning. The system on the apartment had something like that, for cases where the phone line was cut or electricity went down for whatever reason.)
@bassmike (#179) – A couple of years ago, a switched off alarm went off at 3am at my OH’s place when we were away for a weekend somewhere with no phone signal. Pissed off all the neighbours no end, as they didn’t reach us til 10am, at which point we dropped everything and headed home, but that still took an hour. Turned out there’d been a short power cut and the back up battery had died – we never used the alarm, so didn’t check the battery, but when it lost power from mains, it started howling. Might be worth checking it.
RE: geckos
I was just musing out loud :) – we had a similar experience about a month ago. No problem from sensors for years then a double false alert — while we were out, of course.
Police were called, house was checked, system was checked — nothing.
The only thing I could think of was something crawling over the sensor – either one of our countless house geckos or a huntsman spider. Probably a combination of both chasing each other.
gobi
Who chases who?
… But yeah, the times our alarms went off, we were 3 hrs away, so we had to call my parents and brother, who then had to take the time to call a cab and go out to the apartment to see what was up. Very displeased participants in this debacle, all ’round.
rq: “Who chases who?”
depends on the size of each of the parties involved.
I think they take turns.
At the spiders are quiet! They don’t growl and click and fight with each other like the geckos do.
At least the spiders are quiet
gobi
o.O
I’m trying to figure out if you have really tiny geckos, or really giant spiders…
Large house gecko = 10cm long
Big huntsman spider = 10 – 15 cm diameter
…
Is that including the legs or just the body?
I was tempted to say just the body >;)
But no, they have long thin brown legs. They really aren’t that scary once you get over the size.
The scary ones are the trapdoor spiders that sometimes get in at ground level. They are a big, black dense spider with nasty fangs – aggressive too. You don’t see them too often.
gobi
I don’t think I’d last long in your country.
Though who knows, I might get over my arachnophobia.
*crosses fingers against spider-mares tonight*
A page about our little friends:
WARNING! TRIGGER FOR SPIDERS
http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_spiders/BrownHuntsman.htm
rq – do not click that link if you have arachnophobia
People tend to make a big deal about Australian animals that bite and sting but it really isn’t that bad. Yes, we get the occasional giant spider on the ceiling but they keep to themselves. Turn the lights out, go to bed and they leave you alone. You have to do something fairly stupid to get bitten by a spider.
on that note… off to bed!
‘night all.
gobi’s sockpuppet’s meatpuppet #198
Ah ah! I once tried to tell my kids that big huntsman spider were actually shy and inoffensive. I offered my hand slowly to pet one behind the ears (that’s figurative! :)… and got bitten of course.
In the afterthought, I realise that every single time I had been trying to convince people that no, this or this species is sweet and absolutely not agressive, I ended up biten (that’s also for crickets, grasshopers, mantids, stick insects and even roaches). I should have learned something by the years. Or I smell very good, that’s the alternate hypothesis. :)
I’m putting fire sensors on the ceiling tonight, I’ll check if either BHSs or geckos can make it in, thanks!
Tony!, Giliell, rq
Thanks for the commiserations and hugs.
Beatrice @ 157
You rock. A great example of patience under pressure that I will keep in mind.
*walks in*
Hey everybody, how’s it…
*spiders*
RUN AWAY!
I bet Australia does not have the mutant roaches we have inthe Southern US…
I would take spiders over roaches any day…though I will pass on any home infested with thousands of brown recluses <—–arachnophobes do not click
But before I leave, I’ll drop a Misunderstood Spider
:)
Now #1 is sickly, too. What did I do to deserve this?
Also, why can’t I just say “no”? I’ve been asked to become the parents’ representative at #1’s daycare. Throw me a bone, say you trust me with the job and I’m a good puppy and wag my tail…
Giliell, hugs offered. You have done nothing to deserve the bad, and everything to deserve all that is good.
I don’t know about you, but I can’t say “no” because I’m afraid people won’t tolerate me anymore, at least partly. It’s hard.
From a recent patent decision written by Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan:
http://www.vox.com/2015/6/22/8823779/kimble-marvel-spiderman-jokes
Giliell
*non-contact hugs*
Can you take this as a opportunity to force the Parents to do your bidding?
chigau
It’s mostly “talk with us about good dates for the holidays and have our back in times of conflict.”
So, unfortunately, no unrestricted power. But not too much work either.
Anyone here like brain science pod casts?
Brain Science Podcast With Dr. Ginger Campbell. I highly recommend #90 where she interviews Antonio Damasio about his book on emotions and the self “Self Comes to Mind”.
Nature’s Neuropod podcast presented by Elie Dolgin.
On Your Mind Podcast. Graduate students Liam Crapper, Adel Farah and Kathryn Vaillancourt talk about life as graduate students and discuss a new paper every week. There is a bonus for reason and skeptic fans where they discuss if the paper deserves the title it was given with respect to the data and conclusions the paper draws.
Re: spiders.
But huntsman spiders are adorable (that’s my hand). We let the jumping spiders and wolf spiders (picture huntsman family). Although some places have spiders that should come with a health bar.
@Okidemia
Did you just grab them or slowly coax them into your hand?
@Tony
We have a minor brown recluse infestation. Forget them, I kill every one I find. We are fortunate that in Austin they are smaller and the venom is less toxin than the ones I remember from Arizona. I’ve been bit twice and it left little empty pits under my skin.
Brony, Social Justice Cenobite #210
Hum, I coaxed the big huntsman spider. We have a lot of these at home, and we like them (they eat roaches, along with cats –I mean, cats do hunt roaches too :).
All others were grabing happenstances, but I’m most gentle in handling insects. I have years of insect catch & handling practice and even a few high disturbance public demonstration experiences. I’ve only had bites when I specifically said no bite was ever expected so far. From which I deduce insects & arachnids either have a dramatic sense of humour, or they are typical contrarians, or I smell so tasty they cannot resist.
Why not both?
Never work with children or animals …. or electronics, or mechanical devices, or ….
Not in front of an audience, anyway :-\
*peeks in*
*throws a hug in Giliell’s general direction*
*slowly backs out, not blinking*
They move when you blink
(spiders and Weeping Angels, not Giliells)
Okidemia
You probably just smell really nice. I’m going to go with that.
And they’re contrarians.
Belatedly, good night, gobi!
I’m okay with spiders. Just okay. Used to be terrifyingly bad. Now it’s okay. Still not okay with big ones. 10 – 15 cm, that’s GIANT, not big. :/
Giliell
Guuuhhh, *hugs* and I hope everyone is well in as short a time as possible. Like, yesterday.
Good luck with representing the parents. I do NOT envy you one bit. But you’ll do a spiffy job and everyone will love you, until the next conflict rolls around.
*hugs*
+++
Maaaan, stuff at work just gets more and more… confusing. That’s a good word. ‘Uncertain’ works, too. (On an institutional level, not the personal. Things are just weird right now. Really weird.)
Beatrice
Did you like the new curtains? So fine and delicate and wispy!
I don’t get it :(
Beatrice
Spiderwebs!
…
Never mind.
Oh! sorry I’m slow today
re things that bite: Anything with a mouth can bite.
Hey Surfing Loungers (or is it Lounging Surfers)!
From LAist–
66 surfers ride giant surfboard to set world record (video):
From Daily Dot–
It was a labor of love and a project that was six years in the making. Computer programmer, skydiving champion, and crocheter Kjetil Nordin recently finished his dream project:
a crocheted blanket that recreates a scene from Super Mario Brothers 3:
Images of the amazingly detailed blanket are available at the link.
Just got back from the doctor. Apparently the thing that was keeping me off work for… three work days, not counting my “weekend” now… wasn’t strep.
So I wrote a thing on my FB page that I thought I’d share here:
Damn, I meant to add spaces between paragraphs. Sorry for the wall o’ text folks.
Tony! @221
That is amazing.
And @ 223
Thanks for the post. I love reading your stuff. I was particularly hit by
I’ve heard people talk like that so many times. And the inclination was to sort of brush it off as “mild” racism/sexism/homophbia/trans*phobia.** As if there is such a thing as “mild” hate.
**Please forgive me if I misused the “trans*” convention. If the terminology is incorrect, please let me know.
Dang, my nice keyboard suddenly decided it no longer recognized certain keystrokes. Since this included all vowels except A, a real problem. Have a replacement on the way, but meanwhile I’m using the Apple Keyboard that caused my Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. A nice keyboard if you have a light touch. Unfortunately, I learned on old manual typewriters, and expect a longer keystroke. So for me, it’s like banging my fingers against a concrete wall, and all that force rebounds to the wrist area.
Nerd of Redhead (226):
If you use Windows, there’s something in Settings called On-Screen Keyboard. There might be ways to get virtual keyboards for Mac or Linux. They’re a bit slower, but they don’t involve the same keystrokes as typing.
I have an iPad, so I know what a virtual keyboard is. I understand the need for it with tablets, but not a computer. I’ve been touch typing for 50+ years. I use the hard Apple keyboard, and my left hand gets numb.
My work computer has an old Dell keyboard with the longer, softer strokes needed for key recognition. Works fine. The old MacNally keyboard dealt with the longer, slower strokes. The replacement should arrive tomorrow.
‘touch typing’
I remember touch typing.
In high school I got up to a whopping 43 wpm, using all my fingers on an IBM Selectric.
Later, on computers, I reduced the finger-count and increased to maybe 60 wpm.
Now, I mostly use my iPad, held in one hand and one finger on the other hand.
No idea what my wpm is.
Progress!
The most useful thing I learned in all of high school was touch typing. I can type like the wind. Ok, maybe not the wind. I think the last time I clocked myself I was something between 70-80 wpm if I’m on a roll. But jeez, does it come in handy.
My problem typing is that my mind runs about three words ahead of my fingers. The last time they were close to being in sync, I had a case of the shingles, and was pecking out a series of historical reports. Don’t want to go there again for some reason.
One of the things that drives me a bit crazy about tablet/phone posting is not being able to touch type; on a proper keyboard, I’m in the 100-120 wpm range. Touch typing came first, then a university job transcribing interviews on tape for a sociology professor. That boosted my speed a LOT. This one-finger pecking on the phone is a pain in the ass.
A long time ago, Secretary at my work did a solid 120+ wpm.
Typing text on a subject with which she was not familiar.
We were a in tiny office situation.
So when Secretary said,
“If I have to type ‘through time and space’ one more time, I’m putting an axe into this typewriter.”,
it was time for a nice cup of tea.
or late on a Friday, off to the Pub.
CaitieCat
I didn’t refresh before your #232.
I recall 100-120 as being sorta normal for Secretaries.
Since that was so far outside my ability, I always considered it as rather superhuman.
jeez
I think I remember WPM being on job applications.
Are the meds causing this memory?
Sweden invents a term for female masturbation.
Morning
Never trust a kid who says she’s too sick for school….
re: typing
I tried a computer typing course back in the days of flopy disks. Then I noticed that my typing speed was perfectly adequate for my thinking speed and played a video game instead.
re: typing
This is one of the few skills I learned in high school that I’ve retained. I have no idea how fast I type, but I’m glad to have learned how. Funny thing though-I still have trouble with certain keys. I can do all the letters of the alphabet, but when you start getting to numbers, I slow down, especially when I need to hit a 5 or 6. And I frequently miss the key for ‘-‘ and hit the ‘0’ or the ‘=’ instead. Annoys the crap out of me.
I can sustain ~40wpm on a good day.
Back in high school, I had a keyboarding instructor insist that I would be using my pinkies to hit certain keys while typing.
Much laughter and eye-rolling was had when I related this to Mom and my PT — they know it’s never going to happen short of a miracle cure for Cerebral Palsy. I mean, let’s face it — my pinkies are as useful as a chocolate tea-kettle. Their main use is to anchor me to home-row and occasionally press “enter”.
As a result, my typing style isn’t what you’d call “standard”. It never will be. It’s adapted to accommodate my (lack of) fine motor skills, particularly the limited use of said pinkies. I’m still amused, over a decade later, that some random instructor thought he knew better than the person who lives in the affected body.
Anybody else have one of those instructors that thought they were some kind of miracle-worker?
Tony! thank you for your excellent post: on a number of occasions I’ve heard the ‘I’ve got nothing against gays as long as they’re not too gay’ comment. I’ve tried to enlighten them but I’m not sure I’ve got through. I will continue to try. The same applies to comments about POC. It’s a ludicrous and deeply uninformed attitude.
As to typing: I was never taught to touch type so I’ve kind of developed my own technique. Hey, it works for me!
NEW THREAD.