This is the lounge. You can discuss anything you want, but you will do it kindly. We read a paper about dunnarts today. Consensus: adorable.
Status: Heavily Moderated; Previous thread
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
For some reason I am getting the mobile layout for FTB, despite the fact I am on a desktop computer… weird…
Oh, those cutie little ears…
*melt*
Portcullis’ed …
cicely,
The 19 months without seeing the doctor was mostly my doing; I’m not really very keen on doctor visits. Numerous visits before that didn’t discover the cause of my ongoing fatigue and nausea, but the drawn blood for tests did get me an EMT visit which leaves me with a bit of trepidation about more followup tests. Most other ailments, well, generally they’re being managed or they’ve cleared up on their own. Until now.
Sadly I didn’t actually see the frolicking bison in person; generally whenever I drive by (and they’re out) they’re just standing around not doing much at all. Impressive nonetheless.
The Culture Industry – The Ideology of Death
ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-961596
..,,.,.
Adorable indeed!
Consensus adopted.
dontpanic,
What I meant was that it is outrageous that they treated you as a “new patient” after only a 19 month lapse. Not even 2 years? Srsly???
–
Well, I agree with PZ on a lot of things, but I’m not sure I’m behind his endorsement of Anthem/BCBS. I’ve not really had very much luck with them, personally.
Aww, what an adorable critter.
A departure from the sleepy animal hosts we’ve had for the past couple Lounges…
On top catching up from the last day and a half. Of course no one is going to post *anything* until after I catch up. This is true because I consulted my crystal ball* and saw the future.
Previous Page:
Crip Dyke @523:
aHorde.
Awesome in its simplicity.
(stores “aHorde” away for future use, along with “the week that shit built”…who is next to come up with a unique turn of phrase for the Queer Shoop to steal…twirls shoopy mustache like Snidely Whiplash)
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Dalillama @ 536:
Sorry to hear about the problems with sex drives amongst the three of you. Hopefully things can turn around in that regard sooner than later.
@572:
I hope that by the time you read this you will be in better health :)
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Speaking of sex, I just had a short chat with the bartender at Emerald City about ghey sex. He thought I said something about getting laid, to which I responded that I had just eaten a short time ago. For gay men, especially those who are on the receiving end (the bottom for those who do not know), what and when you eat can have an effect on your sex life (if you are desiring penetration sex; obviously there is all manner of non penetration sex that people love to do). I have found that I should NOT eat certain foods within a few hours prior to sex. Constipation or needing to poop are not pleasant sensation when having anal sex (anal douching is not something that should be done too often, so I don’t try that any longer). As a result, when the rare opportunity arises that I know beforehand that I’m going to have sex, I plan meals accordingly.
I normally follow up that thought with a comment about how sex between a man and a woman doesn’t have that worry.
But now I actually find myself wondering if that is true.
I have never had sex with a woman, so I have no idea if what I *think* is true, actually is.
So I put it to anyone with more knowledge than I:
When having vaginal sex is it beneficial to take into account what and when one eats?
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Esteleth @549:
Whoa!
When did we get another hat?
BTW, who has the snark hat currently? (glares over at cicely)
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Ogvorbis @558:
So all of that was from a blog post you’d written in the past and it only took you an hour to double check your memory?
Wow.
That, good sir, is nothing to scoff at.
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Portia @579:
*allowed*? Argh…
(I hope you managed to find some enjoyment while you were there).
This speaks to a growing annoyance of mine.
In conversing with people at work, or the bar or whatnot when I hear someone who mentions being allowed (or not) to do something/go somewhere it is really grating. This almost always occurs in discussions of relationships.
“My girlfriend doesn’t let me go drinking after work.”
“My boyrfriend doesn’t let me hang out with Bobby.”
Uh uh.
So one grown adult is exerting control (or granted the power) over another grown adult and telling them what they can and cannot do?
I have no problem with someone I’m dating expressing that they would prefer for me to stay in tonight rather than go drinking, provided there is a sensible reason (sensible can be debated, obviously).
“I’d rather you come home so we can watch >insert random TV show< together, since we haven't been able to watch it in a while"
or
"I really don't like that guy you spend time with. He has a girlfriend, but he frequently hits on other women. I've heard him say some things that lead me to believe he is a sexist asshole who gets a thrill out of using women however he wants. I obviously can't make you not spend time with you, but I just wanted to express my opinion of the guy."
Both of these express a preference for one's SO to do something other than what they want. What they are not are *demands* that the other person must follow.
Rant over.
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rq @595:
Suppose we could ask Yahweh…he did that genocide thing with all the water that carved out the Grand Canyon, and he had to put the water *somewhere*.
@635:
Ah, conspiracy theories. Fascinating, aren’t they? I remember falling prey to them in the past (i.e. before the eye opening about *stuff* I’ve gotten from being at FtB).
One of the other managers at work, C, told me she was an atheist a few months back, so we’ve bonded on that.
Buuuuuuuuuut, she jumps at conspiracy theories.
She loves them.
She shared with me a theory that the US government was in part behind the Boston attack (that, or she thought they just didn’t prevent it happening). I jumped in pretty quickly to ask her if she had an evidence of that, which of course she didn’t. She mentioned that “things just don’t add up” and “I just feel this way”. I tried to express that without any evidence to support her theory, she has nothing. She got noticeably irritated, and said something to the effect of “It’s my opinion, I’m entitled to it. Why do you do this every time I express my opinion of something?” Without mentioning the bias she was showing (i.e., I don’t do that every time she expresses her opinion), I told her that she was effectively making the same defense that theists do with their beliefs. “I’m entitled to my beliefs, why are you questioning them?” I told her that not all opinions are equal and when it comes to questions about reality, backing up your beliefs with evidence, is the preferred method. I can’t say she was mad at me after that, but she was quite annoyed. To the point that as I watched her, I began thinking that I was offending her and/or pissing her off. So I dropped the subject and went on my way.
Over the course of the night, I was fairly quiet (difficult when you bartend and manage, but it was slow night), not talking to many people, unless necessary. In my head, I was replaying everything I said to C, trying to figure out where I went wrong, or how better to convey my point and worrying that I pissed her off (the last one was my biggest frustration). Towards the end of the night she casually asked me if I was going to ignore her all night (which I hadn’t done; we had chatted a few times…just not in the manner we normally do). I told her that I was pretty quiet to everyone, so I wasn’t singling her out, but I was trying to give her some distance, because I thought she was mad. She told me she wasn’t mad, but she has noticed that I criticize her beliefs sometimes and that she’s not accustomed to it. She also said that she appreciates and enjoys talking to me about subjects like this, as she often doesn’t get to. I apologized to her for ignoring her, and for the intense nature of my comments. When a subject covers something I believe in strongly, I can get rather vocally passionate (not screaming or shouting or profanities raining down, but…damn, I can’t articulate what I mean here) and I really need to be more fucking careful in the future, because the feelings of others do matter to me.
That’s enough for this comment…more reading/responses to come :)
*I rubbed my head.
No, not that one.
I shave my head.
The one on my shoulders.
Sheesh.
@Tony
Regarding vaginal sex – for my part, having any of the following means no sex for at least a few hours:
A full stomach
Heartburn
Too much to drink (for me, more than two)
Other women/female-bodied persons mileage may vary.
*snortle*
…it’s not like men and women never have anal sex together. O.o
As for vaginal…um…I can’t say I’ve ever noticed particular food-sex relations (I will note that when performing oral sex on a female partner who’s been consuming lots of garlic, it’s…noticeable o.O).
@Tony-
For myself, I always made sure I went to the bathroom before any ‘fun time’ because it can be quite uncomfortable for me.
My partner’s lactose intolerant, so pointed out that dairy can be a problem because of abdominal pressure. I’ve never had heteronormative consensual sexings, so can’t really answer this as far as intercourse goes, but being able to handle any penetration at all depends on a number of factors for me. Intermittent vaginismus spasms means sometimes, there’s just nothing that can happen there at all. Stress or anxiety or some hidden trigger might mean it’s physically impossible at times.
I just learned about something funny. It is going viral. It seems that the Curiosity rover on mars has accidentally drawn out a penis with testicles. Someone should Google it.
re: vaginal sex & digestive stuff
Um… sometimes pressure on the tummy can be a very. bad. thing. during sex. I won’t go into detail, suffice to say I’ve had to throw out some sheets.
Hmm, may need to be more concise. That was a wall o’ text. Sorry folks.
Round 2:
Portia @636:
Awww. That’s so sweet :)
I think of my mom sometimes when things are rough, or I’m bummed out about something (partly in that “I want my mom to make things better” way {yeah, even as an adult, I flash back to this, all the while knowing she can’t actually fix the problem}, partly in the comforting manner my mother can be so good at).
****
The side of our house where Krystal and Sham (the dogs) play has a small storage shed whose doors fell off long ago. Last week, when cleaning up out there, I noticed a bird nest on the top shelf, but once I got too close, a bird flew out. A few days later as I was trying to get a look at the nest, the bird flew away again (well it might not have been the same one, come to think of it). It then hit me that I might be scaring the bird and that my curiosity to look at the nest could be making the bird unsettled. I decided not to attempt to get any closer again, since my curiosity really isn’t that important in comparison.
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cicely @648:
I am typically wrong only once a month, so this was my one time :)
(do I need to add a disclaimer mentioning that I don’t think of myself like that, and that I’m just kidding?)
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opposablethumbs @651:
I am sorry to hear about your friends having major health problems :(
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rowanvt @662:
That’s it.
I’m starting the petition for Parsnip to be the official Lounge mascot (if that is ok with you).
Huh…just had a thought.
Given that so many of us here love animals, if we did live in the Commune, we would have some spoiled animal companions.
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Beatrice @665:
I’m sorry things are depressing for you right now. I hope a bright spot or two (or even 5) crops up soon. You deserve it.
Oh, and the hug over there, and the one over there, and the one over there? All for you.
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Dalillama:
You have email buddy.
Tony: animals would be problematic for me. I’m not an animal person. at all. It’d be best if I stayed out of their way.
oh no,sexytimes discussion. My precious ears will be hurt. waaah. (obvious sarcasm).
Also, me being pissed off at forms is the thing with me today. There was one that said “sex: male or female?” Stared at it for a long time before yelling “why the fuck do you want to know my genital configuration? That’s TMI!”
So for my umpteenth advice post: How should I deal with forms like that, as a genderqueer person? (the example given is a Serious Business thing, and it’d be problematic probably if it conflicted with the gender marker on my chosen form of identification.)
Also, how to formalwear? I really only have a suit and tie. That’s obviously coded male. And I do understand that goes into proper clothes shopping as well, but I hate it, and don’t have the time before important presentation thingy. Is there any way to do some subtle tweaks to look tasteful enough, but not as horribly masculine?
The Culture Industry – The Ideology of Death
ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-961596
pz, you are mentioned numerous times…. Over a million visits!
Is it an online form or can you just write “no, thank you”?
I don’t know what your budget or build is like, but it seems like you might be able to do something with ruffly pseudo-bow-ties (they have a name but I forget what), slim pants, and something like a frock coat? (I’m envisioning that being more flattering with a slim rather than heavyset or muscular build, though).
I see people have posted, trying to keep me threadrupt perpetually.
It will not work.
I see through your plan.
I *will* catch up, darn you people :)
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Ron Sullivan:
Ogvorbis did a great job with that post, no doubt about it.
****
THIS, from opposablethumbs @698:
and this, from WMDKitty @699:
Are statements I completely agree with.
****
Ogvorbis:
Oh my friend, you have nothing to apologize for (in fact, I don’t think you need to apologize for most of the things you say sorry for).
Did you also notice during the last six months that you’ve posted some wonderfully insightful comments?
Did you see the times you criticized an MRA, or anti feminist?
Did you see the times you posed critical questions of the willfully delusional douchebags that often come here?
I remember seeing many comments by you of that nature.
Moreoever, even if I didn’t, even if *all* you ever posted about was personal stuff…even if it were complaints…even if it were you venting…that’s ok.
I have-to the best of my knowledge-not seen you cause thread drift because of your complaints. When I’ve read comments by you of a personal nature, relating to the shit you’ve gone through, it is always in the Lounge (or the Thunderdome).
The stuff you post outside the Lounge?
On topic. Insightful. Witty.
I’ve read comments by you in support of feminism that make me beam with joy.
It may sound like I’m part of the Ogvorbis Cheer Squad…and y’know what? I am.
You are not broken.
You are not a failure.
You are a treasure.
Never forget that.
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thunk:
We have an anti-garlic contingent here? I did not know.
Garlic is a gift from the gods.
I buy mine frequently from Isis and Osiris.
It is to be enjoyed on nearly everything (with the possible exception of cheerios).
You’re still cool though :)
@728:
Interesting.
I know that some dishes are designed so that the flavor blend well together. I also know that some dishes don’t work that way. Complementary flavors is much better than clashing, IMHO.
Do you like spices at all? Or just not in certain doses?
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Krasnaya @771:
I used to feel the exact same way. I had to work to overcome that way of thinking. I found that (for me), it was a self centered view of the world that led me to think this way. I always framed the experiences of others through the filter of my life. So when I see someone stressed or crying about something that wouldn’t affect me, I would just think (though rarely say) ” get over it”. In the last 3 or 4 years, I began comprehending that we all have unique lives and that none of us has any say over what can bring harm to others. That is for each individual to decided for themselves.
(the above was not said as a criticism of you in any way).
Another thing that I considered in relation to the above:
When someone tells you to “get over” something–how does that work exactly? Yeah, this is me thinking things through quite a bit and still struggling. What is the process of “getting over” something? How do you stop thinking about something that has consumed your thoughts, or brought you pain and anguish? How do you just stop thinking about it?
This all reminds me of one of the sayings I’ve heard at every job: Leave your shit at the door.
If you’re having a bad day, don’t bring it to work.
Sounds lovely.
BUT HOW DOES IT WORK?
That part is never explained.
It is treated as if people just know how to do that.
If someone *does* know how to do that, please let me know.
Mini rant over.
This.
Although, for me, it was in large part displacing the anger at being so often contemptuously told to “get over” so many things I’d been hurt or outright traumatized by.
……..
………………..
……………………………….allistics have this problem too? O.O
Tony: here’s the thing. What’s “complementary flavours” to allistic people are “EWW SPICE GET THAT SHIT AWAY FROM ME” *gag* for me. Garlic is pungent. It’s overpowering. And I just don’t like the taste.
And my desk smells like it.
Azkyroth:
1. In some cases, it is online. In other cases, I keep being afraid of screwing up registration information. If it is super-serious business, well then baagh. suck it up I guess.
2. I don’t really know what any of that is. And I don’t really have time for clothes shopping. that’s way annoying. But the days are booked.
Krasnaya:
You have no idea the degree to which I second this.
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HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Last page done and caught up. Just a few more here and shall be done!
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thunk @17:
Nothing at all wrong with not being an animal person.
I stick with judging people based on their character, rather than any of their personal tastes (don’t like animals? Hey, no problem there. Beat on your spouse? biiiiiiig problem there).
****
Ooooh!
Je suis fini!
(did I just ay “I am finished” en francais, correctly? If so, I’m shocked. Four years of French in high school [90-94] and usually counting to ten is all I can recall. Wait, I do recall how to say “My name is Tony”…)
****
You are all awesome people.
PS: Thunk: you might want to go over to Greta’s blog and ask her about the formalwear thing. She certainly seems to know more about female-coded and androgynous fashion than I do. O.o
Interesting. I actually enjoy garlic and onions to a level that seems to horrify most of the allistics around me. O.o
The only spice tastes I don’t really like, so far, are “grapefruit” hops and capsaicin. O.o
Azkyroth, thunk:
I have never heard the term “allistic”.
In trying to find out what it means, I came across this:
Is this an accurate definition?
“Cravat?” Is that the neck thing I’m thinking of?
Tony
This, so much.
Nope, sorry. It should be J’ai fini. You said “I am dead”.
Thunk
I’m afraid I can’t offer good advice; I’ve noticed this too, and even my cis ass gets annoyed by it.
Err, no. I’d seen it somewhere as a contrast to “autistic,” IE, someone not on the spectrum, and seized on it because I used to use “Neurotypical” to express this…but it’s been adopted by people suffering from mental illnesses per se, so (no judgment intended) it doesn’t communicate nearly the specificity I intended.
Never heard of that other definition. I suppose I can actually start using “pod,” though I intended a semi-pejorative connotation for that. :/
Tony, I am ALL for Parsnip being the Lounge Mascot for the time I have him.
Speaking of the kitten, his eyes STILL aren’t open. He’s taking his bloody time, that’s for sure. *grumbles*
In completely random news I am ovulating and it fucking hurts. When I had appendicitis I thought I was having a particularly painful ovulation. I figure that unless I’ve re-grown my appendix, this one is probably actually a nasty ovulation. *grouches*
Azkyroth
Well… a mentally ill person’s neurons aren’t exactly typical…
(Incidentally, I prefer “sensory” when describing my particular issues around sensory processing.)
Dalillama:
Thank you.
I guess I don’t recall as much as I did. It has been 16 years admittedly.
****
Azkyroth:
Thank you.
So your comment to me @23:
is referring to me not being on the autism spectrum.
Ok, that makes sense (though I have no idea if I am or not).
rowanvt:
Sorry you’re in pain. Hopefully it doesn’t last long.
–
How long do the eyes of newborn kittens remain closed?
Tony, I looked that up and found that link as well and I’m having a lovely “Holy crap, that so describes me” moment.
I used to believe in the psychic form of empathy because of the same sensations they’re describing, and it made my time being bullied extra horrible. But I also knew the emotions were from ‘outside’ and was slowly able to learn to cope with it. Then I thought maybe it was a weird form of mirror-touch synesthesia (which my mother and I both have to varying degrees, but she doesn’t have the emotional thing).
My response now to severe negative emotions from those around me is mild aggression (“Leave until you can fucking stop moping at me” and “Goddamnit stop apologizing”) and people/animals in pain gives me physical sympathy pains.
Re: Parsnip’s eyes… Normally they open between 7 and 10 days. If they aren’t open by 3 weeks I’ll be in a panic. Until then, merely grumpy at him.
Well… reading further into the belief section of that document, that is far less like me. I definitely value truth over comfort. Wouldn’t have left Christianity at 13 if I wasn’t. And further down yet, behold. Parody of being ‘not autistic’. Interesting.
I really do echo emotions to an uncomfortable degree though. I’ll stick with the synesthesia thing then.
Tony
It’s easily one of the top mistakes French learners make; I got caught out a number of times by that one.
Rowanvt
hopefully your pain subsides soon.
Azkyroth
Using that definition, yeah, definitely.
Yeah.
I don’t know either; you seem mostly socially functional and my experience of my condition has mostly been in terms of NOT GETTING IT WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU YOU PATHETIC DEFECTIVE LOSER POSSIBLY ALSO A MONSTER, so…
thunk:
The answer ‘possibly’ springs to mind, as does ‘neither of the above’.
There is no external ‘should’, there is only what you think appropriate.
(You can tell the truth, or you can lie)
rowanvt:
Though I don’t get physical sympathy pains, my mood is definitely altered because of people/animals in pain.
Sometimes when I read/see something really upsetting (usually about how someone has been horrifically treated), I briefly regret the degree of my empathy. That doesn’t last long, because while there may be drawbacks to being able to comprehend and understand (to a degree) the pain of others, the benefit to being able to do so, IMHO, is enormous. I do not want to be a no- or low- empathy person. I value this trait immensely.
****
Once again, the stuff I’ve learned here has spilled over into meatspace.
I had a conversation with a young woman I work with and she revealed that she is a feminist, to which I replied so am I. Thus began an enjoyable back and forth conversation (we were both working, so it was off and on). She had never heard of patriarchy or privilege, and I had to contain my joy at not only being able to talk with someone about those concepts, but being able to convey the definitions of both (with examples) in a manner that she understood.
Though I did not ask her, she appeared to enjoy talking to me about feminism.
John:
I like your response to thunk @42.
…damnit, there was a “black family eating fried chicken” ad on the TV a second ago :(
Good morning
MM
I’ve come to the conclusion that not only “male” and “female” exist on a spectrum, but also “gender identity” as in whether you have one or not. Some people identify strongly as one gender, or another, or both, and others not so much.
Tony
Well, the stomach shouldn’t be too full, and the bladder should be rather empty, at least for me, because I don’t get off on the sensation of “I need to peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee”.
+++
Dawkins and Nye
Dawkins looks like he’s either thinking “not that shit again. We don’t cut off their genitals, we allow them to drive cars, wtf do they want?” or like “that’s a very novel idea (because I never heard it when a young woman said it). I need to think about it. Academically. And whatever conclusion I arrive at will be 100% factually correct”.
+++
The little one just learned a very important lesson about consent: If you use it for power, denying something you actually want (i.e. snuggling with your sister) just because you can, you have to live with the other person doing just that, too.
Sorry kid, I’ll enforce your right to say “stop that”. But I’ll enforce your sister’s, too. Just like I didn’t try to talk you into it I’m not going to talk her into it.
+++
Ogvorbis
What Tony said.
Listen to Tony, not to the monkey brain.
And believe me when I tell you that I always look forward to your posts.
Azkyroth:
SIGH…
sometimes I do not miss cable tv.
Anyone else been following the news surrounding Monday’s big UFO congressional hearing at the National Press Club? I’m spending the $4 to watch the live-stream, this is gonna be better than the last episode of Newhart.
——
http://www.parapolitical.com/2013/04/ufo-circus-returns-to-national-press-club/
ruffly pseudo-bow-ties
You could also wear a lacy jabot, or a gothy black ribbon with some kind of stickpin.. That’s a very elegant but hard to pin down look.
Thank you. It’s nice to be validated. >.>
I don’t know what I am. I know the question …. feels wrong. :/
Oh no! I need to feed my snakes now that the frozen mice have thawed, but have become encatted. Talk about conflicted.
How big are those snakes?
(Kidding).
Ogvorbis
I adore you.
Don’t stop.
Tell us a fire story.
or a train story
or any story
Don’t stop.
Want more Ogvorbis stories.
Azkyroth, alas they are but corn snakes and so far too small to be a danger to my cats. However, the Mallorn has decided that I have provided enough pets and so I am free to feed the slithers.
NO GODDAMNIT
WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED OPERA USED TO BE GOOD
(Lost a comment. Buzzed. Distracted by bar TV. Hold on).
What happened to it? Bad performance?
ogvorbis
Add me to the list of those who always look forward to hearing from you.
Wow, Tony’‘s back to posting – haven’t had a catch-up that long in a long, long time!
And Dalillama beat me to correcting your French.
Everything else you say, Tony, made me realize how much of a plain pleasure to read you are.
re: Leaving shit at the door at work
I know I can do it (to some degree and mostly the other way around) but I don’t know how. It usually works backwards, though, as in Not Taking Work Home, but that too depends on what’s trying to come home (or go to work). I know my mind switches gears when I know I’m going to work, which makes a lot of things easier to handle and a lot of things easier to do (like making unpleasant phone calls or keeping the emotions in check at certain facts). But I can’t for the life of me tell you how I do it, and it only works on a day-by-day basis.
And some things just can’t be kept out. This only works when I’m not otherwise extremely stressed about [whatever].
I know that if my emotional state is interfering with my work I should probably go home, but sometimes being at work helps me keep going through the emotional stuff (even if it looks odd that I’m constantly on the verge of tears), and if I go home once, then going home again becomes easier and easier and in the end I never go anywhere at all…
[/mildly offtopic]
rowanvt
I’m sure Parsnip is just enjoying all the attention with his eyes closed (how some people listen to music). He probably opens them while you’re sleeping.
(But I hope they open soon and that all is well with them.)
Also, ever since my sister sent me this passive-aggressive uterus (repost), that’s what I picture my evil, evil womb punishing me for when I have cramps. I hope they subside soon!
I’m pretty sure I’m not all caught up, but I have to get this post out so Tony finally goes to bed. ;)
*hugs* for all as wants them, *other gesture of comfort/camaraderie/friendship* for the rest of youse!
Problems with Opera:
1. using 1200MB system RAM with enough tabs open
2. “portal.opera.com” ….I have NO FUCKING CLUE what key combination causes the current tab to go to this address because I fucking ONLY EVER trigger it by accident. That was what happened here.
3. “Opera has encountered a problem and needs to close” at the DROP OF A MOTHERFUCKING HAT THESE DAYS
4. Followed by “Opera is still closing” with options “Force Start” and “Cancel” if you try to restart, for THREE FUCKIN MINUTES
5. Default keyboard shortcuts changed around Version 6 to match those for FireFucks.
Other than that, it’s fuckin great.
Yes! More Ogvorbis stories would be great. I have always learned from them, minor mistakes or no, because they don’t matter in the larger picture of the story. Not to mention, Ogvorbis, you are a very, very competent story-teller. Don’t stop. *hugs* if you want.
Ack, and a big Hi! to Parrowing upstream, haven’t seen you around for a while! I hope all is well. *hugs* for you, too!
(PS We’re going to travel in time to see Alan Rickman and hear him speak for hours on end soon, want to come?)
Oh… bit of a misunderstanding. Sorry.
rq:
Ha ha
Yeah, I have not played catch up to that degree in a while. And that was just stuff in the last two days!
Thank you for the kind words, by the way.
Not quite off to bed yet..so gimme more to read :)
Azkyroth @59
Yeah I use Opera too, but since I replaced the hard drive on the computer, it hasn’t been acting up on me. Is it possible your computer could use a clean?
dongiovanni, I too took Opera as being… well, opera. :)
(But I’m not sorry, since the ALL-CAPS elided the difference; I guess I should have figured there’s not that much opera on the bar TV, eh?)
dongiovanni
Well, in a way, it is a bad performance…
But you know, I’ve never actually heard anyone rant about What is happening to opera? or related topics lately. The idea makes me laugh, though.
+++
Fine, morning links, from culling my Facebook feed for the sensible stuff:
To start, for all you linguists out there, the European map of cucumbers (with some Middle East attached). Now you can all buy cucumbers (amount not specified) in any market in Europe.
A critique of American media culture, and what it would look like if the world covered America the way it covers itself.
This seems strangely relevant to the crowd gathering regularly here.
And some (mildly) good science news out of Canada: provincial governments picking up the federal’s slack and keeping important scientific areas open.
Now I’m going to be a really bad woman and enjoy something without my kids or husband.
Pass people the smelling-salt.
leaving stuff at the door
It works to a certain extend. And for me it’s more like a blessing than a burden, because work (teaching means you have to be there 100% for 90% of the time) because it means that I can stop going round and round and round
For people with ties in multiple countries, this was worth a few laughs.
Sometimes, I just like sad songs. And sometimes I like cute ones. And the one song I actually wanted to post isn’t on youtube. Boo.
John Morales
Depends on the bar… A 24-hour opera bar would be interesting, to say the least. Dress code: formal?
Thanks for all the well wishes. My ovary has finished its monthly few hours of torture and all is well once again. If I ever do have children, I look forward to traumatizing them by telling them which ovary they popped out of.
rq, :)
Giliell
You can enjoy something without the children and husband… as long as your husband gives you his permission! ;) (Yay for you, actually! I’m still looking forward to that weekend in the summer Husband promised me.)
Trebuchet ammo as a mascot… The mildly deranged penguin suggests Horace, the Lancre Blue Cheese.
I’m using Opera (Linux) without problem.
I don’t bother with the keyboard “shortcuts” and mouse “waving” (or whatever it’s called), too fecking confusing. That’s not an Opera problem per se, I find both concepts obnoxious regardless of the program.
Having said that, I do have to know a few shortcuts due to crappy interfaces in some programs (Search a webpage is Opera’s current example (it’s ^F (Control-F))), and know how to — or how to figure out how to — “un-do” a shortcut or wave when I accidentally mistype / mis-mouse without having previously disabled those obnoxiousisms.
68. Dead on.
@rowanvt, You have my comiserations.However, I argue that knowing which ovary you’re from is still far less traumatising than being brought up Catholic.
Also, maybe we should have rants about the state of opera or other music these days.
Tony!!!! ::tries a pouncehug:: ::not quite sure if I pulled that off:: ::tries to look as if nothing remotely undignified was ever attempted::
Nice to see you, and thank you for the ill-friends-well-wishes.
Re sex-involving-Anything-I-V and the digestive system, I find that one would rather not have a full-ish colon (not a total deal-breaker, more an annoyance).
::tries to look as if nothing remotely undignified was ever
attemptedeven thought about::thunk, it sounds like you might have a more sensitive palate than most? Or it could be that spices have been laid on too thick in dishes you’ve encountered. I’m very pro-garlic/pro-spices-and-herbs (except fresh coriander), but I’m sure a lot of that is in the skill of the cook (who is not me). Hope you find a formal look that feels right for you – agree that Greta Christina would probably be the perfect person with whom to raise the topic!
Yes, parrowing, you should come time-travelling! We don’t know when we’re going yet, but that’s not a problem because we’ll just adjust the length of the trip accordingly.
leaving [whatever] at the door – I don’t know how to do that either. I especially don’t know how to set aside feelings of anger or hurt for a social occasion (work can sometimes be an effective distraction, but the computer screen doesn’t really care what mood I’m in.)
In fact, come to think of it, how the fuck do you consciously and deliberately “get yourself in the mood” for something?!?!? I can understand, sort of, the idea of psyching yourself up for something which is more like a specific task (exam, phonecall etc.) but not making yourself be in the right mood for something which is essentially mood-based (socialising etc.). Does Not Compute :-\
rowanvt, glad you’re feeling ok again.
rq, that’s excellent – but I don’t like cucumbers all that much! Now I want the same thing, but for all foodstuffs, animals, plants …Note To The World: When you are writing anything that includes the local names of plants, fish or other animals and there is even the remotest possibility that it may one day have to be translated, please please please include the Latin name!!!!!11111! Because you may not have noticed that local names can change every few kilometers, even, and half of them seem never to have been included in any dictionary ever anywhere … and your local name for “particular fish” can easily be the same as somebody else’s name, 10km along the coast, for a different particular fish. Just … don’t do that, mkay?
Afghanistan’s female police officers fight for women-only toilets:
Malaria vaccine development: no longer a pipe dream?:
Thank you, Portia, Dalillama, Cicely.
Malaria vaccine good. Afghanistan bad.
rq, if you like sad songs, try Anna Ternheim..
WOW! Big hailstorm just hit!
Regarding dunnarts (wikipedia) : “A male dunnart’s Y chromosome has only 4 genes, making it the smallest known mammalian Y chromosome.”
Looks like the female morphology must be the default setting of the morphology. I am told it is the same in other mammalian species although dunnarts take it to the extreme.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
The former Guatemala dictator on trial for genocide has been saved by an intervention by his fomer henchman, the current president of Guatemala. i remember well the Swedish news coverage of the atrocities in Guatemala during the 1980s. Much worse than El Salvador.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
We can save Iraq’s ‘Garden of Eden’ http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21829130.200-we-can-save-iraqs-garden-of-eden.html
.
My sister had her baby yesterday.
I should be happier about it, but I’m totally thinking it was a ridiculously stupid idea for her to have a kid when she still lives with my parents and her husband is an apprentice electrician (non-union…)
opposablethumbs
If it ever gets into anything remotely law-shaped, I’m all for passing the Latin Name Law for Translations. For lesser-known languages, the colloquial names are often not in any dictionary, and trying to find out what a particular animal/plant is purely by visual terms (especially if you only have the vaguest idea of what it could be, such as – a fish), is more time-consuming than the actual translation.
That being said, a lot of local fish don’t have colloquial names in other languages (Norwegian fish names come to mind, apparently they have names for 30485u03294852 kinds of fish that don’t have actual ‘names’ in English but do have a species label), so the Latin is helpful in the sense that you can translate into saying ‘a perch-like fish’ or using a word like ‘corvid’ to sort of generalize the animal/plant. Anyway.
Getting in the mood for something is… awesomely difficult sometimes. Socializing and sex would be the two main ones – either I’m on or I’m not. Sometimes, the socializing just takes some warming up (or meeting the right kind of person in an environment where I know few people), but usually it’s a matter of staying on the sidelines to survive. So yeah, that kind of attitude is hard to leave at the door – sorry, if I’m feeling anti-social today, I’m probably going to act anti-social at work, too (within limits, of course – small lab, no private space). The work stuff, though, that is ordinarily gross or emotionally hard, well, that gets filed under Work and dealt with accordingly. That is, fairly impersonally, with a great deal of detachment.
Katherine
Should I congratulate you/her?
It may seem like a stupid idea now, but you never know how their lives will shape up a year or two down the road. I went from being single, financially unstable and incapable of any kind of financial responsibility (never mind any other kind of responsibility) to fairly financially stable, still employed, and with a far greater range of abilities in the responsibilities-and-duties department within, oh, say a year. So, having a child in a seemingly non-independent situation isn’t necessarily a step further into the spiral of dependence. ;)
I hope they do well, and all are healthy!
Oh, and dongiovanni, the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of a 24-hour opera bar. With heated discussions about whether Maria Callas is the best soprano in the history of the world, and then where does that leave Measha Brueggergosman and Kristīne Opolais, and did Wagner really have to make the Ring Cycle so damned long?
Ah, many a bar-fight would be begun over whether tenors or baritones make better male leads (personally, I vote baritone), and feminists could prove time and again why Carmen (from Carmen) is not a Force of Nature (as I heard the character described recently).
Fun times!
(But I decided no formal wear, that’s way too elitist, best to do these discussions in your ordinary casual bar clothes. That way, everyone can learn about the amazing-ness of opera and classical music!)
Just a test, I’m afraid. Multiple machines still aren’t working quite right — probably due to maintenance cuts and the extra-long winter that was ordered last year — so until the equipment is brought back up, I suspect there will be a continuing series of “freak weather”. Tests. There might even be some sunshine. (Sorry!) Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible…
So who wants to apply to go to Mars with me?
Oh, I forgot: here are the qualifications needed.
What’s the big idea with Prospect’s World Thinkers poll?: “There are only 15 women in the list of 65 great thinkers. And the top 10 are all male. What, as women, are we to think of this?”
Not sure why only woman are allowed to whinge about this. In any case, the answer’s obvious: Cooties eat the brain.
Of men.
Re: allistic. The sites describing it as a “disorder” are largely tongue in cheek. They’re drawing parallels between someone with autism–whose ordinary way of perceiving the world, their own emotions, etc–is pathologized and how the allistic people are treated as “normal.”
The point is to make allistic people consider what their words sound like. Try imagining that this article is really meant to describe you and is the stereotype people use to dismiss your feelings, dehumanize and bully you:
That’s pretty fucked up and insulting, isn’t it? And that’s how people talk about those with autism all the time, as if their experiences are invalid and they can’t contribute and it’s better for your kid to die of measles than the imaginary risk that they could “contract” autism. That’s the only point being made, not that allistic people are actually suffering from a disorder.
@TMM:
Yesterday I was at the pet store buying cat food cause my kitties were hungry. The cashier was autistic, and he was clearly having trouble making change. The woman he was trying hard to assist was growling and angrily berating him for not knowing how to make change. She lost it over a PENNY.
@rq #83
Tangentially related to your comments on opera and formal wear, I feel the need to share Scroobius Pip’s words of wisdom on the evils of music snobbery.
Heh, yes, I would love to go time traveling with you, rq and opposablethumbs. And I have to say, I am very pleased that, even though I have never shared my feelings on Alan Rickman, you had an inkling that I would enjoy this particular trip. How very right you were.
*
Peas are not my friend but they are not my enemy. Celery I’ve met on several occasions and have remembered every time exactly why I avoid future interactions. Cucumbers, on the other hand… cucumbers stole my violin and tied my shoelaces together. I hate cucumber. It tends to be one of the first words I learn whenever I visit a new country because I need to make sure it ends up nowhere near me. Very useful word in Greece and I still remember it, because if I wasn’t careful, it could end up right in my Greek salad. Thanks for the help, rq; now I’ll never be unprepared.
(BTW, I was in Greece as part of a theatre class that was held in Greece & Turkey. My only experience with Carmen was in Istanbul after just having spent many hours on a plane. The professor insisted that immediately after checking into the hotel and eating a quick dinner, we rush off to the opera. It was in French with Turkish subtitles (yes, subtitles at a live show) and I speak neither language. That was my first (only?) non-chemically induced experience with hallucination. There was definitely a large black dog sitting right in front of me, looking at me as I was falling asleep. Whenever I looked back, it was gone, but Carmen was still….. going………. on……………..)
blf
Your World Thinkers link isn’t doing too well. You might want to look into it (I’d love to read the article).
Also, boys are the ones with cooties. Ew. (Well, the anti-girl variety.)
No wow. I wrote that as a blog post some years ago. After writing it, I spent about an hour double-checking and correcting it using a book about the geology of the Grand Canyon. All I did this time was copy and paste (thus the non-existent graphic in the middle of it). Sorry for the misunderstanding.
———
All: I appreciate your support. I disagree with your assessment of the value of my comments — they have been either bad humour or narcissism.
And yes, I know that depression can lie. Sometimes it shows me who I really am.
Also, thank you so much for your #13, The Mellow Monkey. It helped me click some important things into place.
Ogvorbis
This is your depression lying:
Also, our assessment is our assessment, and while you may disagree with it, it doesn’t make it any less true for us. So don’t go telling me I’m wrong when I say I like your comments, I like you, and I would like it (a lot) if you would keep posting all kinds of interesting and educational things.
Why are religion and violence now so closely linked? (not so sure about that spurious “now”, Kemosabe):
By “atheist terrorism” the author probably means “nutcases who didn’t cite reglious beliefs” either as reason for killing people and blowing things up, or others having such beliefs as a reason for killing people and blowing things up, or simply never mentioned (or been connected with) with any of Teh Magic Great Sky Faeries.
As you might expect, some of the comments in reply are especially nutty. For instance:
I daresay this commenting fruitcake is perhaps correct with the last bit, “Religion X teaches there is only one religion, X, and all else is false. Period.”
You’re welcome. Parrowing! Muscles are muscles and any of them can spasm. Throw in remembered discomfort and an involuntary flinch that just can’t release seems a pretty reasonable response. It’s frustrating for me, because I do enjoy penetration and would love some strap-on+vagina love, but it’s just something we have to work towards slowly.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/the-womens-blog-with-jane-martinson/2013/apr/25/prospect-world-thinkers-poll-women
I blame the cooties.
Yeah, contaminated by the those icky girl things. This is why females must be kept hidden and “oppressed” (ha-ha) — To prevent a mass outbreak of cootie-infestation.
Cooties are incredibly powerful. They are why you forced — forced!! — to drag a young girl down a dark alley and “
teachtreat her a lesson”. No right-thinking male would ever consider doing that, but the cooties jump out on you, and…“Legitimate rape” should be named “cootie-forced rape”. The those magical enzymes or whatever that protect raped females from getting pregnant? The cooties! Obviously…
blf
The List is topped by Dawkins, and low on women. Coincidence?
The those… → And those…
Cooties.
Again.
Obviously.
(Offerings to Tpyos have to better than that…)
I know from narcissists, and you haven’t shown any signs of being one. Seriously. Everybody thinks about themselves sometimes. You’re supposed to. You’re supposed to think about yourself the most, actually, and put yourself first in most things. (I had to learn that in therapy! Thanks to my evangelical fundamentalist misogynistic upbringing!) Narcissists actively don’t care what effect their actions have on other people. That is not what you have displayed here, ever, and even though this isn’t all of your life, you’ve been here long enough that if you were secretly a narcissist, it would have come out somehow by now.
Can food make you angry?.
Um, yes: Try withholding cheese or MUSHROOMS! from the mildly deranged penguin, or offering me peas, chips / french fries, or zucchini / courgette, or, worse, fecking with the bacon !
(The article is actually about possible effects of trans “fat-laden junk food and sugar”.)
carlie:
Okay, not narcissism.
Hai guise!
I know there is free alcohol in the lounge at all times, but once again I’ve decided to forego virtual drugs and take real ones instead. Only two. I’m going easy tonight.
Today is ANZAC Day in Australia. I think it means we have to acknowledge the great sacrifice those Men made in order to ensure our Freedom and defeat the Hun and create our national identity, and also support our boys in Iraq! They are fighting Terrorism! We need to defend our way of life! Fuck the Other!
Possibly the one day of the year I hate almost as much as Australia Day.
Wow. I should have Internet privileges taken away from me when inebriated. Does anyone read Sci-ence? Posted a huuge spoiler regarding Strip Search on his page the other night. Thank Jesus Christ the Saviour he is an attentive mod. Good night!
Not even going to preview this comment. Things will work out just fine.
Good morning everybody.
Hiya Tony! :)
Hiya Parrowiing!
*attempts to pouncehug both at once*
*pile of limbs and giggles results*
^___^
===
Today, I am patting myself on the back for having not contacted S in over a month. *pat pat*
—–
I concur with the “not when I have to pee” sentiments in response to Tony’s question. It’s usually nothing more than mildly uncomfortable, though.
—–
Giliell, that’s a good lesson about consent, too :)
—–
Am I the only one that wonders what else is happening in the world that I would like to know about besides the Tsarnaev brothers? I know it might be a function of a short attention span, but I am so tired of hearing about them.
The commentators I’m listening to on NPR just said that he thinks it would be terrible to put Dzhokhar (sp?) to death…I’m thinking okay great, someone’s going to talk about how bad the death penalty is. Nope. It’s a bad idea, you know, because it would make him a martyr. Not because it’s bad policy and morally repugnant. Well, I guess he’s making a policy argument. But still.
Xerxes:
And the young people ask, “What are they marching for?”
And I ask myself the same question.
Horde: This is the last day for public comment on education standards for doctors in the U.S.
Be heard at the linky. Guess who’s on the other side of this?
( Why is there such a thing as a religious medical school?!)
(I know the reason, it just…there’s religious law schools but they don’t teach that you should only defend clients who violate the Ten Commandments! Argleblargle).
So this happened.
Might want to clear that browser history, folks.
Og @ 107
One of my favorite recordings ever made.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/bu_E2f0mQmI?rel=0
Speaking of painfully cute.
UnkownEric:
There are two songs that, when I sing them, bring tears to my eyes. That is one, the other is The Green Fields of France”.
Citizens in Colorado are interested in making voting easier. Good idea, right?
Republicans say “no” it’s not a good idea. Their opposition to the proposals being offered takes several forms, including a pamphlet that makes use of a photo of voters standing in line. They have altered this photo in the following ways:
1. used photoshop to change a black woman to a white woman
2. used photoshop to erase a black man entirely
As far as I can tell, the Republicans want to make voting harder by requiring voter ID, shortening early voting days etc. The bugaboo of voter fraud is used to pimp the idea of new ID requirements. There is no voter fraud to speak of. To illustrate good voters standing in line, they can’t have any black people in the photo.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26315908/#51653841 (video 2:17 minutes, shows both the before and after photos)
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/04/23/1909661/anti-voting-mailer/
http://www.nationofchange.org/conservative-group-photoshops-out-minorities-mailer-opposing-pro-voting-legislation-1366812266
Portia, re #108. it looks like only US residents can sign up to that?
Hey, parrowing! Glad you like the idea for the trip. Looks like there will be about 4 or 5 of us going … :-D
Looks like you’re right, opposablethumbs. : | Sorry.
Ok, I thought I could hold it in, but I can’t. I woke up this morning to an email from S, that simply said “I just want you to know that I miss you all the time.” WHO DOES THAT. He hasn’t voluntarily or socially spoken to me since St. Patrick’s Day. It was sent in the middle of the night, so odds are he was sloshed. I have so many feelings right now, it’s hard to sort them out. (No, I haven’t answered and don’t plan to. Don’t even know what I’d say).
What’s worst is I miss him all the time, too. All the damn time. Which is why I try to keep myself busy with other stuff.
Obama may be getting to call off or to at least modify the war on drugs. Link.
I think this falls into the “oh, fuck” category.
Salon link.
That’s Amanda Filipacchi writing in the New York Times.
I really dislike misogyny, but sneaky hidden fucked-up misogyny from Wikipedia sets my hair on fire.
Portia – emergency hugs! Emergency distraction!
Emergency “you suck” songs coming soon!
Can I haz do over for this week, starting with last Saturday?
Saturday: My mother falls down two flights of stairs, breaking a rib. She’s otherwise ok.
Yesterday: I gave blood and was found to have an abnormal hgb. In the end, it was the test that was wrong, but I spent yesterday in a state of anxiety thinking I had P vera. (Yes, so I’m a wimp and certainly my experience was the very least of the family badness, but it contributed.)
Today: My partner has a bike accident and breaks his nose.
Lousy week. Need manatees.
Just came across the following phrase in an article I was reading.
Materials science, or porn-related sexology? You are free to take into account my known interests when guessing…
@Carlie –
Borked link, unless the distraction is trying like heck to figure out how to get the link to work. In which case, Mission Accomplished.
Every day I love you less and less
Argh, diane, I’m really sorry :-(
I hope you get a better class of week next week.
Hugs to Portia! Damn, I have no distractions here … just lemon and ginger tea, which is all I have to offer right now – sending some anyway!
Damn – my quote key is apparently stuck. I can has distraction link?
Every day I love you less and less
Of course, a little Gloria Gaynor is never amiss.
Thanks carlie and opposablethums!
I’m going to google that, carlie, because I still don’t have a link there.
Lemon and ginnger tea! That sounds great!
On the bright side, I checked his facebook (I know, bad Portia) but it worked out because now I know he’s in California and not Illinois and so I have no more anxiety about dealing with running into him at the meeting tonight. Jeez if he were here the anxiety would have sky-rocketed after that email.
This is true, but it also means that when you say “neurotypical” people who’re familiar with the word don’t necessarily realize you specifically mean “non-autistic” whereas 3-4 years ago they generally seemed to.
How did I miss that? O.o
Since you been gone, done as vocal auditions.
Dianne – this always makes me feel better, but I’m weird.
Portia, dianne *hugs*
Oops, now I have linkies! Thanks carlie :D
Who dares me to post that Keiser Chiefs song to facebook? }:) (I just walked into my inbox to see you standing there with that sad look upon your face…)
I love pointerpointer!
You’ve given me a great boost carlie :D
Plus I just got a possible referral for my first big-kid federal case. I mean it’s small potatoes for a federal case. But federal case!eleventy.
Thanks Beatrice.
Dianne: Glad your mom isn’t any worse hurt. : | sorry the week has been so crummy.
Rosemary Clooney gives some advice- Hey there you with the stars in your eyes
David Tennant and David Morrissey also have some advice.
I ♥ Rosemary Clooney. My mother played a vinyl of her children’s album all through my childhood. It’s one of my favorite memories. My grandmother looked a little like her, especially with the era clothes and hair, so there’s a sentimental attachment amplified.
I missed the happenings with S earlier, so i don’t really understand the context, but I am sorry about the message last night & its impact, Portia. Glad he’s in Cali.
@Carlie:
Like the Kaiser Chiefs link. The Gloria Gaynor link I haven’t clicked, but I assume I know exactly which song that is.
as for the Folger’s commercial – bizarre, really bizarre, and creepy and non-consensual as heck, and yet it tickles my weird-ass sense of humor as well. It was hard to tell, but the sun-people might have been all white folks, which totes heightened the creepy factor through [perceived?] enforced homogeneity. In any case, I’m not sure what makes it work for me, but it does. I guess I’m weird, too.
David Tennant + Nancy Sinatra = happy Portia
CD:
The short version (which is the most I’m willing to subject anybody to ;) ) is that I stopped putting up with his crap on St. Patrick’s Day, and told him so. He has ignored me ever since. Until last night.
Kickass break up songs are just what I needed to rouse me out of the simpering puddle I was threatening to turn into. :) Do you have a bookmarks folder just full of those, carlie? They are great.
Crip Dyke – I had never thought about it as non-consensual, since they’re supposed to be sunlight, but I can see what you mean. There was some criticism when it came out that it was all white people as the sunbeams – according to people in it, it was an open casting call and whoever showed up and fit into the yellow clothes they had on hand got it, but you never know.
Portia – hang in there! :)
I have about 9 versions of These Boots in my mp3/AAC collection. I have a playlist of just versions of These Boots. Really.
I can’t tell you how amused I am at that scene, while also totally not having any idea of what’s going on or even what that show is. Wow. Brit TV – compelling even when you have no idea what’s going on.
In fact, often compelling b/c you have no idea what’s going on.
==========
@Carlie:
Yeah, they’re supposed to be sunlight, but hey: I’ve experienced sunbeams as very, very non-consensual on occasion.
I missed the Folgers ad, that’s pretty funny/creepy. I would amend the tagline to “Tolerate Morning
sPeople“Portia – I ought to; some are from memory, some from Google, one from my “Bette Midler sings Rosemary Clooney” cd I was listening to this morning. :)
This one isn’t quite as kick-him-to-the-curb, but I love it and the video is cute and it’s easy to
dancecathartically release emotions to.carlie,
If there’s ever existed a song for drunken
singingcaterwauling, the it’s Every day I love you less and less.No, actually it’s great for caterwauling even when you’re not drunk. You people are soooo lucky most of you are a continent away (so you can’t hear me) ;)
This too shall pass (there is also a Rube Goldberg version of this song with better audio, but this one is more cheery)
Make the bus Makes more sense in context of the album, but nicely contemptuous of the subject and applicable to bad relationships (esp. the lines around “what do you give me but unwanted breakthroughs? Strange how certain details subvert everything”)
I’m not your stepping stone for a little Monkees action
And, of course, Love stinks.
Azkyroth
On the page I linked to, it’s explained in the postscript, so it’d be easy to miss if someone was skimming through and trying to figure out what allistic means. I imagine a lot of the satire trying to make that point ends up like that, so people don’t realize.
So, allistic is still an excellent word, IMHO, and hasn’t been appropriated for any other uses.
Speaking of commercials that people dislike: I can’t stand the TV ad for an audiobook company that tells me I can listen to a “steamy romance while ironing the sheets.”
don’t know if this was covered in the previous iteration of the thread, but it was confirmed that the body found in the river in Boston was that of missing student, Sunil Tripathi.
This is a story that PZ should cover on Pharyngula. It’s a clear case of a case of mob vigilanteism within social media, especially REDDIT and 4CHAN.
Whether the rampant Reddit and 4Chan speculation that he was one of the bombers was the trigger for him to commit suicide, or whether someone decided to be a vigilante, we’ll probably never know. In either case, I hope his sister and remaining family sue Reddit.
One might think it would provide food for thought for Reddit commenters, and people like Alex Jones, but you all know it won’t.
Reddit is simply filled with irresponsible, unthinking, asswipes. Time for it to go.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10018632/Boston-bombings-Sunil-Tripathi-found-dead.html
Sunil’s parents were even harrassed, sent death threats, and they had to take down the facebook page they were using to try and locate Sunil.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10008272/Family-of-missing-student-falsely-named-as-Boston-terror-suspect-bombarded-with-hate-messages.html
This shit just has to fucking stop.
This is apropos of nothing, but I’ve been a long time and very appreciative reader of Pharyngula, and I’m hoping that someone biologically knowledgeable in the crowd here can help me.
I’m homeschooling my daughter who is smart and demanding, which makes things fun, but also results in me sometimes quickly bumping into the edge of my knowledge.
So, we were talking about hearts: two chamber fish hearts, three chamber amphibian (etc.) hearts, and four chamber bird and mammal hearts. It’s easy to see that there are situations where the four chamber mammal/bird heart would be better suited than the three chamber amphibian. My daughter asked me if the four chamber mammal heart is “better” for mammals than the two chamber fish heart would be.
I don’t know. Is there an advantage to the four chamber heart for mammals, or is it just that a four chamber heart works fine, but a two chamber heart would have been okay too?
If anyone can point me to a reference for this, I’d really appreciate it. None of the school or college biology texts I have go into it (lots of stuff on 3 vs. 4 chambers, though), and my google skills have failed me.
More proof that effing bug nuts websites have an effect on what the population of the US believes:
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/bomb-suspect-influenced-mysterious-radical
This is, more or less, a follow up to my previous comment here. Note that Infowars has become a trusted source not just of would-be terrorists, but of elected officials hanging onto to the ragged edge of the right wing.
Hey justaguy.
I have no biology knowledge.
But hi!
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/us/lahontan-cutthroat-trout-make-a-comeback.html?_r=0
The topic of extinct animals being brought back from the brink, it seems the lost trout of Lake Lahontan have been revived – by finding a population that’d been relocated and not recorded. It’s good news.
The lake itself has been pretty stable of late, although the majority of the salt pans have had some serious receding of late from the weather. Makes reliable use of them less reliable, honestly.
I think I’m with the majority on the Folger’s commercial. Creepy yet somehow appealing. I kind of liked the all white sunbeams because I saw it as a reversal of the “magic Negro” meme. That is, the white people were being shown as the exotic “magic” beings who help the normal people get up on time. But maybe I’m viewing with white privilege and/or over-optimistically.
@Icthyic:
Reddit probably didn’t kill Sunny. He had been missing since March 15th. But the hell they put his family though, they should be ashamed of that. They should be completely and utterly ashamed of trying to drag an innocent name through the dirt – an innocent name who by all chance was probably already dead.
Ichthyic @147, Glenn Beck continues to say that it is the US government’s responsibility to disprove his conspiracy theories that either the government backed the Boston bombing, and/or the government is hiding the fact that a Saudi National was behind the bombing.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/glenn-beck-reveals-details-of-saudi-detained-after-boston-bombing-challenges-wh-to-come-clean/
Alex Jones is pushing similar conspiracy theories: http://www.salon.com/2013/04/25/tamerlan_tsarnaev_conspiracy_theorist/ and he has been praised for doing so by US politicians on the right.
Ichthyic,
Fuck.
Fuck reddit. Social networks and social media – connect with your friends and family, share LOLcats, harass people and drive them to suicide. Yay!
Some days I just hate everything.
So, good evening
Let me tell you about my morning
+++Wall o’text to follow+++
I arrive at the spa a bit later than I supposed it would be. But not much and it doesn’t matter. It’s our morning, stress is not allowed. The car park is very big and rather empty, which is a good sign for a quiet time there. We walk through the sun towards the entrance. The weather is just perfect. Still a bit fresh, but temperatures rise to the point of being warm enough for most things but not too hot for others. The whole complex is designed in Arab or Mudéjar style.
I remark to my sister that it’s quite typical: We love your art and are happy to use it, but actual Arabs, please stay away, but then I just let it be. I’m not here to lecture about Orientalism. I just enjoy the well-designed building and the beautiful interior.
The the main hall is covered by a glass ceiling two floors above, it’s streamed with the warm sunlight and the thermal water is warm like a bathtub. It offers no resistance, so swimming is hard, but many massage jets gently push you around. There’s a warm outdoor pool, too, but we’re not quite ready to go there yet. First we want to try the “Arab baths”, different pools with different minerals in the water. Probably woo, but relaxing. It’s rather dark in here, with only small windows, but there are lights in the water that softly change colours. You fell a bit like in a cave with a lake. There aren’t many people here, it’s so quiet apart from the sounds of water.
It’s actually my sister who notices the lack of mirrors. None at all, in none of the rooms apart from two dimly lit ones on the toilet. This is not about how you look they’re telling you. This is about you feeling good. Don’t worry.
There’s a Finnish sauna and an oriental hammam down here. There’s a lot more different saunas on the first floor, but they’re nudist and my sister doesn’t care for saunas but really for not being naked. But I want to try the hammam, so we seperate for a while.
When I first open the door the steam and heat nearly knock me over. I clean the bench and sit down. It’s cooler, of course and after the other people leave I take the liberty to lie down. Now I can take the whole thing in fully. It has a barrel vault and the only light is coming from small lights in the ceiling, giving it the impression of a night sky. Some glow brighter than the others and since the steam makes it impossible to see the actual ceiling, it seems like they are hanging there in space, some closer, some farther away. It’s like being in one of those horrible wonderful Arabian Nights movies, only in the parts they never showed and that were left to your imagination. I could stay here for a while, but my body tells me that this is not a good idea, so I leave to join my sister for a swim in the outdoor pool.
The air outside is still fresh, and the water is warm and we can see spring all around us. There aren’t only lounges around, there’s also furniture that looks like oversized kitty-baskets. Perfect for snuggling up together. I’m so planning to get Mr. here for our anniversary.
It’s not like we did much, but we’re huuuuungry now and go for a snack. Another swim in the sun after that, and it’S already time to leave again. Definetly something that screams for more….
+++
rq
Well, I let him be a gentleman about it and pay for it. Is that OK, too?
+++
Hugs for everybody with a bad day/time, specially Dianne & Portia
@Portia 108: Message sent, with extra cranky comments about malpractice risk and whether or not I’d refer patients to FP if they weren’t trained in women’s health. Never know if it’ll help or not.
Oh. I didn’t read the dates properly. You can strike “driving people to suicide” for this particular case, but it’s not far off the mark considering the bullying and harassment found on facebook, twitter, reddit,…
I have never seen that ad (maybe isn’t shown here) but I hate it already just from your description.
Who irons sheets, anyway? (mind you, I am a moderately advanced anti-ironer; household average is a grand total of perhaps two garments a year).
I’m reasonably sure that they’re looking for people with functioning knees.
:( :( :(
–
:( :( :(
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Parrowing, I am sorry to hear that you seem to have fallen afoul of a lawless bunch of degenerate cucumbers which have (obviously!) got on-board the Equine Express. Most cucumbers, the respectable, law-abiding members of their species, cannot so much as identify a violin, much less be interested in stealing it; and would also be indifferent to the condition of your shoelaces.
–
Ogvorbis, I have to take exception to your
Depression always lies. Always. Sometimes more-or-less subtly, by omission (refusing to let you see the good side of anything, including yourself), sometimes by exaggerating the Bad Stuff, and sometimes it just flat Makes Shit Up, based on what you least want to hear.
I disagree with your assessment of your worth and the value of your comments, and so does everyone here who has expressed an opinion. We out-number (and out-vote) you.
Even if we can’t make you feel it.
–
*glancing at clock*
“Morning”, Portia!
Let me give you a hand, there.
*patting*
Well done!
–
Baby elephants are surprisingly nimble.
–
About. Damned. Time.
–
More on the older Tsarnaev brother, and his addiction to conspiracy theories coming from people like Alex Jones:
http://www.salon.com/2013/04/23/tamerlan_tsarnaev_was_an_alex_jones_fan/
Ogvorbis
Same here, although I add Christmas in the Trenches to my personal list. Also, I value all your posts, even those that occur in the depths of the most foul of moods.
Portia #117
Sounds like asshole drunk behaviour alright. I’m sorry he’s being a jerk. *hugs*
Lynna #119
Bloody hell
Dianne
*hugs* and calming manatees
opposablethumbs,
*anti-ironers’ secret handshake*
Here you go, dianne. Also, *hugs*.
–
http://calmingmanatee.com/
Jadehawk! Dunnarts aren’t what they seem! They’re toothy goodness!
justaguy – The extra pump is what allows the body to have higher blood pressure, which can deliver oxygen more quickly. A two-chambered heart only gives one pump and the blood then has to go through oxygenation AND through the body on the energy received through that one push. But in a three or four-chambered heart, it gets one pump to send the blood through the oxygenation process, then an extra big pump after that to get it through the body. We tend to think of high blood pressure as a bad thing, but it is necessary for the blood to have the kinetic energy it needs to get all the way around the circuit, and the higher the blood pressure, the faster blood can reach and deliver oxygen to muscles (which is necessary when doing things like running away from a predator). That’s also why the left ventricle is so much bigger than the right – the right one only has to pump strongly enough to get through the pulmonary circuit, but the left has to pump strongly enough to go through the body. As for capillaries, normally pressure would increase as you go down in diameter (like in a hose), but since many capillaries branch off at once, the effect is to slow the blood down as it goes into a capillary bed, like how a river slows down at a delta. It doesn’t stop and pool there, however, because the energy from the ventricle push is still enough to keep it moving, as it goes back into larger veins it tends to speed up (because there are several feeders capillaries going into each larger vein), and it’s getting pushed by the energy coming from new blood coming from later pumps.
If you need a reference, try just about any edition of Campbell’s Biology (college text). The most recent goes through it pretty well, and I assume older editions do also.
Beatrice and opposablethumbs:
I used to iron my downhill skis. Does that count?
==========
I am so glad I will not be at work tomorrow. I just had a tour which included 22 cub scouts, in uniform, with leaders (many), who were wonderful, interested, excited, and triggering. Tomorrow, we have two scout groups coming (all three are from Vermont (must be school vacation this week)). Damnit! I had a panic attack this morning (9/11, not scouts) because of smells on the highway (burnt metal and burnt plastic as I drove through a construction area). I know I’m depressed right now. I know I’m weak. I have a dream of a week when nothing triggers me in any way shape or form but I guess that’s not what I deserve. As I spoke to the group during the tour, I kept thinking, where were all the extra grownups back when I was a cub scout? There were 22 scouts, four siblings, and fourteen adults. Fourteen! At least it appears to be getting harder to be a predator. I hope.
Sheets: tucked in, or left out?
This is true. When I was still doing church work, they were scrambling to make sure they complied with all the best practice guidelines on working with children. There are at least a few well-known sets of guidelines now (I don’t know by who, but they seem easily available) that specify that there should never be a single adult alone with children unless they are in a place easily visible to anyone randomly walking by but even that is discouraged, that relatives/spouses don’t count as a second adult (in other words, you can’t meet a two-adults requirement with a married couple), etc.
Sheets: fitted.
justaguy – also, blood pressure is partly regulated by how many capillary beds are in use at any one time. The reason you turn white when cold is because there are little sphincters on capillary beds, and they shut down when bloodflow needs to be redirected elsewhere (when cold, to the internal organs to keep them warm). Not all capillaries are in use at all times (the ones when you blush, for example). Some birthmarks, like some port wine stains, are the result of malformed sphincters in capillary beds that can’t shut off, so there is always high blood flow to that area and it looks red/dark as a result.
*joins in on the anti-ironers’ secret handshake*
*proffers hand for anti-clothes-folders’ secret handshake* Any takers?
*
I don’t know, cicely, every cucumber I have ever met has thoroughly misbehaved and I don’t think there were ever any horses around… Or is that part of the plan?
*
There are a few of you who I’m hoping I can send emails to. Nothing urgent, though, so please don’t feel obligated to say yes… Crip Dyke, Portia, Tony, and Walton. My email is my nym at yahoo dot com. Please shoot me an email if it’d be okay if I send you an email back at some point. Thanks :).
*
Great, now no more YouTube videos. Is it working for everyone else?
WMDKitty – I meant top sheet. :D I like mine tucked in at the bottom, but left open on the sides.
You do deserve and non-triggered week.
Unfortunately, we don’t always get what we deserve.
–
Left in a heap.
–
Sheets: left out!
Hail Tpyos!
–
Both, please and thank you!
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Parrowing, you have to remember that there don’t have to be Horses in evidence—Their minions are everywhere.
–
Parrowing: email sent.
Sheets: I get twitchy if they are tucked in. Always yank them out of hotel bed before getting in bed.
Sheets: tucked in at the bottom (at least on my side of the bed).
Fitted sheets are an evil plot to make you buy more sheets.
Top sheet: never ever tucked in. Either wrapped around me tightly on those nights when it’s a bit cold or tangled at the bottom of the bed during the summer.
Good news: one of me speakers is working properly again after I accidentally pushed it off the table. Heh. It’s been working on and off for months.
L always tucks the top sheet in, because it looks neater that way; I prefer it untucked, because it’s a pain to slide in when it’s tucked.
Not only do I not iron my fucking sheets, but I would not ruin the pleasure of erotic literature by ironing sheets while listening to a steamy audiobook. I mean, wtf?
My theory is that an old white guy, (over 70 at least), whose mother inexplicably ironed effing sheets had a hand in that ad copy.
Discussion on Twitter: https://twitter.com/EvilWylie/status/306519280504164352
I like my clothes folded, but not ironed. Especially sheets (the top one of which must be tucked in, for safe-cocoon-feelings in the feet; if theyr’e too hot, I stick them out the side). We have a secret hand-shake? Goodie. But I guess we’re not entering the World Extreme Ironing Championship, once again. Ah well!
*hugs* for everyone.
The full moon tonight is beautiful, caught it as it was rising on the way home from choir (attempted creepiness, but I deflected well by not getting the joke intentionally), and it is beautiful because it was all giant and round and gold and now it’s smaller but bright and silvery.
I had a great break-up song for Portia, but I forget where I put it (and what it’s called and who it’s by), so until I manage to google through some randomly remembered lyrics, you’ll have to do without!
And, ummm, back to work for me, I guess!
Well if I may suggest one- Close the Door Lightly When You Go is a pretty great one.
Beatrice, parrowing and cicely and now rq too, wow we’re practically quorate already! Anti-ironers are go (I think I’m probably good to go with anti-folding as well, just not quite as advanced. Some things get folded so they’ll fit on the shelf).
Bottom sheets: fitted. Top sheets: what do you mean, top sheets? There are no top sheets. Aren’t duvets/downies/”continental quilts” popular where all y’all are? If it gets really cold in winter there will actually be two duvets inside the duvet cover; one in spring and autumn and most of the summer (I like a little bit of weight; just stick limbs out to cool down) and if it gets really outrageously hot there will be zero duvets inside the duvet cover. Top sheets do not exist in this reality.
Ogvorbis, I think ironing your skis is OK. As long as you don’t iron a ski outfit to go with them. You are so, so outvoted on the assessment of your character, btw. Sorry, pal, you can’t stop us liking you. (I mean, maybe if you started voting rethuglican … )
Nicely done on the attempted creepiness, rq :-)
To be horribly honest, if I need something ironed, I pay people to do that. Relative wealth privilege, I’m afraid.
Sheets: loose and disorderly.
Damage to partner appears to be minimal. Cuts, bruises, and possibly battered sense of safety (which is the one likely to take the longest to heal.) Relieved that it wasn’t worse.
Thanks for the sympathy and manatees.
dianne
That’s what I forgot! I hope you have a much better week coming up! *hugs* and sorry, no manatees, but I still have some tea left.
Aren’t duvets/downies/”continental quilts” popular where all y’all are?
Yes, but when summers top 40C and run 35C for weeks on end, duvets aren’t practical. OTOH, the need for anything on your body at that point is negligible so top sheets could still be called redundant.
On that note…
true enough. It hardly ever gets quite that hot here – maybe never – though we have had occasional periods of maybe 33-35 iirc. At that point the duvet itself gets shelved and it’s just the empty duvet cover on the bed – I can’t get comfortable without a little weight at least! – and limbs sticking out everywhere :-)
Very glad to hear that damage to partner was not too bad. Hope you are both OK.
opposeablethumbs – but don’t you need a protective layer between you and the duvet to keep it from getting yucky from body oils and such so fast?
I have the sad affliction of needing to feel weight on me to sleep comfortably. This works great in winter. In summer, not so much.
Ironing – *secret voice* I like ironing. It’s calming and you see such nice results so immediately, and the pssswhoosh of the steam is so nice to hear, and everything feels so smooth and orderly… *
*this is because there are only a few items to iron, and it doesn’t happen often. If I ironed a wardrobe’s worth of material every day, I am sure I would feel differently.
I’m a lover of weight (blanket-wise) even in the summer. I do a wonderful splayed turtle impression in the summer. But I can’t sleep without anything on me, I guess I’m a born hibernator. Or something.
Anyway, it’s time for bed; my worlds are beginning to overlap.
Good night!
Update on Republican off-balance flea brains still tying to make Benghazi into more than it was:
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/04/25/17916810-the-gop-just-cant-stop-politicizing-benghazi
Excerpt:
carlie — thank you very much! Your explanation was really clear to my daughter (and to me!) — thanks also for the reference!
Hurray for evaded creepiness!
–
Top sheet with comforter in the warm parts of the year, comforter with two cotton blankets in the cold. I have trouble sleeping without something over me—and pajamas don’t count. Neither do cats.
–
dianne, glad to hear that partner was not seriously damaged.
–
justaguy – you’re welcome! Luckily, I just taught this stuff a couple of weeks ago so it was fresh in my head. :)
The birthmark stuff was extra, though, and I can’t quite remember where I found it. I have a port wine stain on my face so I’ve done my own looking into that, and there have been a few papers recently on genes controlling malfunction of the capillaries, but I can’t quite retrace my steps ti find them easily.
re: blankets & weight
I need a light blanket, b/c I tend to wake up soaked through otherwise. But I need weight to be comfortable. It’s a sensory thing.
I just can’t find a twin-sized weighted blanket — they’re all special-order and kid-sized! And my “making things” skills? Are utter shit.
What I want is something like the lead vest they put over you at the dentist, but big enough to cover my whole bed.
other amusing news
Bieber got busted for weed. LOL @ “squeaky clean” image going down the tubes!
WMDKitty – would a crocheted afghan work, possibly? I picked a big one up at a garage sale (estate sales are particularly good for finding handmade blankets cheap), and doubled over that thing is heavy, but still has holes all over it so it’s breathable.
carlie
yup, duvet cover. Sort of like a giant pillowcase :-)
More breakup songs I can’t believe I didn’t think of earlier:
One more minute
So what
Tainted Love (1980 version!)
And not a breakup song, but good for belting out a confident personal anthem, My way
WMDKitty wrote:
It was probably inevitable. Those with carefully maintained squeaky clean images rarely live up to it, and those who actually are squeaky clean rarely feel the need to broadcast it.
I will be playing catch up soon. Just got to the bar. I am also going to post a TL;DR in which I vent about something that has been bothering me for a year and has gotten to the breaking point today.
Grab some popcorn, a drink, and your opinion hat.
(Apologies for the OTT self indulgence above. I am quite pissed off and am trying to calm down by attemptimg to be witty. No luck so far. At calming down. I know I am witty :))
Rail away, Tony. There may be some songs upthread that will help you vent if you sing them at the top of your lungs, no matter what the situation.
Go ahead, Tony. There’s no such thing as OT in the Lounge, and most everyone here has inserted a rant or gripe about their own lives here and there. It’s part of what we’re here for.
Welp, I’ve done it now. I reacted to a Facebook post as though I was here…and have thoroughly pissed off a very dear friend.
I feel like a complete ass, I should have remembered that scathing snark isn’t appropriate everywhere.
/fail at friendship
Yeah, at that point a trivet would be more appropriate.
Long comment ahead.
I do not like being used.
Prologue:
Several years ago, I briefly dated a guy who had no job, but was in school full time. He was living rent free in a home owned by his parents. His grandmother sent him a $300 check weekly, to pay for expenditures. With very few exceptions, anywhere we went, I paid for things. I bought dinner. I bought movie tickets. I paid for drinks at the bar (and the cover charge to get in).
After about 6 weeks of dating, we went to dinner at a seafood restaurant, which I paid for too. As we left, he thanked me for buying dinner and that one day he would do the same in return. That set something off in my head. I started to realize how often I paid for things. Then I realized how rarely he paid for anything.
Then I remembered that we weren’t having sex! In his words “the little guy down there doesn’t usually get up until I get attached to someone”.
I realized that I was getting nothing out of our relationship (we barely kissed), yet he was getting A LOT.
The next time he texted me, my response was direct: “lose my number. I am losing yours. I never want to speak to you again.”
And I never have.
Last January, T came to me, frustrated and nearly in tears. She said she was being kicked out of the friends house she was staying in and had nowhere to go. She told me this on a Tuesday and that Friday was when she had to leave. She was set to take her two dogs and two cats, and live in a tent outside. She asked me to let her stay in the back yard. After speaking with E (the roomie I’ve lived with the entire time I have been in Pensacola; 10 years this fall), I told her she could stay in the room that M used to have. I told her it would be a tight fit. We rent a 3 bedroom, 1 bath house (I think it is about 1500 sq feet or so). We went from 2 dogs, 2 cats and 2 humans to 3 humans, 3 dogs, and four cats. I told her that we’d have to work out some kind of bathroom schedule, though that was not too difficult since as a personal trainer, she can shower at whatever gym she was training at.
Now my relationship with T up to that point was one that reminded me in many ways of my friendship with M. She and I shared disdain for religion. She’s a feminist (I was coming into that early last year). She’s a critical thinker, who has studied psychology and sociology, and served multiple tours of duty in the Air Force (she was ejected for being bisexual). I had come to EC (same bar I’m at right now, and pretty much the only place I go where I can stay for hours on end, have a few drinks and stay online) for some time on Sunday and Monday nights when she bartended. We hit up a quick bond. I realized that we shared much in common. We were able to have “those conversations” (hours on end with much excitement from both of us; talking about everything under the sun; an enjoyable back and forth). In time, she began to open up to me about her personal situation. She has had money problems for years. She was living off of protein shakes, so that her pets could be fed. So on Sunday evenings for several months, I began cooking dinner. I’d cook a plate for myself, one for E, a leftover one, and one for T. She was always incredibly thankful (I would find out later that few people have ever cooked her dinner, let alone brought it to work for her). When she told me she has a gluten allergy (pretty strong one according to her), I tweaked the meals I cooked to accomodate that. It got to the point that when she finished eating whatever I cooked, I would ask her what protein she wanted the following week.
All of that is to say that we had (yes…DO note the tense) a great friendship. I never expected anything from her. I never wanted/needed any thanks or pat on the back. The friendship we had was what I found important.
So when I agreed to let her move in with me, this was after having known her for over a year. This was not a quick, arbitrary decision with little thought given (though it was a quick decision; I asked myself what kind of friend would I be if didn’t offer for her to stay with us? It’s 35F in the winter, and she’s caring for four animals. I couldn’t let her stay out in the cold, even if it meant a minimal loss of space.)
After a few months, she was let go from EC (IIRC for arriving 15 minutes late), and I helped her get a job at a bar beneath the one I was working at. She was fired/quit within a few months because she was sexually harassed by her boss (she showed me many of the texts he sent her. When you read 10-15 texts *all* from him, with her responding to nothing that spoke of sex, you can easily see there’s no missing context.)
This was last June/July.
She was left with being a personal trainer at 3 different gyms across the city. A short time later, her motorcylce tires were shot. Undrivable. That was her only transportation. I told her (much as I did with M after his car accident in 2007) that she could use my car when I was at work, or asleep.
Within a month or two, her financial frustrations began building even more (she was already in a good degree of debt prior to moving in with us). They built up to such a degree that for pretty much every month since August of last year, I have paid my portion of the household bills AND hers. We are talking basics. Rent. Utilities. Water. @ $350-$375/month.
Wait, hold up. I also was paying for pretty much *all* the dog food (E did pitch in from time to time), cat food and cat litter.
Then what happens?
I got fired from my bar in August, which began the tailspin I am only just now beginning to incrementally recover from (as in, I can pay my main bills each month without help from my parents).
I told T she was going to have to do something b/c without a job I couldn’t pay for my bills, let alone hers. She said she was looking into things.
As I look back, she said that several times.
It is now the end of April, and since the summer of 2012, she has not given me $600 in total (recall, if you will that figure of @ $350/month). Last month and the month before, she gave me $125. In December she said she was getting a promotion at one of her jobs, which would result in her obviously making more money. That came through and she was able to fix the tires on her motorcyle. Yet it hasn’t enabled her to pay me much at all.
Now, don’t get me wrong, she has provided necessary goods from time to time. She has gone grocery shopping a few times. She has sometimes bought dog food or cat food/litter (usually upon my asking, rarely on her own).
I made my frustration apparent multiple times in clear terms (I can’t continue paying your bills and mine when I don’t have a job…I need you to find something else, or get a second job or something…)
Despite my irritation, and the month and month of paying her bills, with no change in sight, I said nothing about kicking her out. After all, she had nowhere to go when I told her she could stay with me. All that would do would be to shift more financial burden on E (who is going through his own money struggles), which I’m fairly certain he cannot deal with. PLUS it would put her *somewhere*. Kicking someone out…especially someone I considered (yep…) a friend just doesn’t sit well. Most especially since there was no clue where she would go (and her pets too).
So what did I do? I grinned and bared it.
I began noticing that in addition to all the bills I was paying, as well as the pet stuff, that I was also feeding her cats along with mine AND her dog.
Then I realized that she wasn’t doing much support around the house. She washed her dishes, but none else (to be fair, I *loathe* washing dishes, and there is a pile in the sink that I won’t even mention how long has been there). She vacuumed exacatly twice (both times following me *asking* her to). She *never* cleans the litter boxes, despite two of her cats using them. Four cats requires DAILY cleaning of litter boxes.
Then on top of all that, she hit her first strike.
While her motorcyle was working, I let her take my car in the mornings to class. In November or December it’s bit fucking cold riding a motorcycle. As long as she occasionally contributed to gas (which she did do), and got it back to me by 9 am, it was fine. On my days off, I would let her take the car to work, or do errands. One particular Sunday, she did just that. She likes to go to the beach on Sundays and do yoga, and then spend time with her friends for lunch or what not. I told her as long as I get the car back around 6 that it was good. I just needed to buy some groceries and get some pet food. When 6:00 pm came around, she wasn’t home and I texted her, with no response.
Rinse.
Lather.
Repeat.
Finally around 7:30, she texted back that she had been dragged with her friends to dinner and that she was almost done and would be home in an hour or so. Ok, good. Publix doesn’t close til 10. Even if she came home at 9:00, that was perfect.
She came home sometime after 11:00.
I was deliberately NOT wanting to go to Wal-Mart, which is why I wanted the car back by 6 (or 9, take your pick).
I was pissed. Didn’t speak to her for a few days.
Oh, and she didn’t apologize.
In addition, amidst all of this, not ONE FUCKING TIME has she ever said “Hey Tony, you know all those months of you paying my bills? I really appreciate that.”
Have I ever gotten a “Hey Tony, thanks for taking care of my dog and cats. I appreciate that you take Kiara outside to poop/pee and that you play fetch with her.”
Not even a “Hey Tony, thanks for buying all this cat food and dog food for my pets.”
Not.
One.
Fucking.
Time.
At this point we have
Me: Paying my bills and T’s share of the bills, groceries (which she uses at times and sometimes replenishes), cat food and dog food and cat litter (which, yes, my pets use too, so I am responsible for a good bit of that, but so is she).
Letting her use my car, so that she can accomplish things throughout the day while staying warm in the winter.
Making minimal fuss about the tremendous financial stress I was under.
Her: Occasionally paid for gas and groceries. Once in a while bought stuff for pets. Never helped clean up the house. Never cleans cat litter box. Took my car and rather than returning it before 6 like agreed upon, comes home around 1130.
Yet despite all this, I only contemplated kicking her out. It was winter. Too cold. Where would she go? Kicking her out only makes *my* life incrementally easier. Her life would be massively worse. E’s life would be negatively affected. FUCK.
Oh, have I mentioned that when the litter box is too full-as all cat owners know-cats won’t use it. They’ll go anywhere else. Like the carpeted floor. I cannot tell you how much cat shit I’ve cleaned off the carpet.
Oh, her dog Kiara? When she is crated up for too long (say from 10 am til 10 pm), she often poops and pees in her kennel (where else is she going to go?). Part of helping to take care of her dog-which, btw I continue to do for the benefit of Kiara, not T; I may be frustrated at T, but I’m not going to punish her by refusing to feed or help care for Kiara-means that my ritual when I get home from work at night:
Come home. Drop my stuff on floor. Let Kiara out of her kennel so she can go outside and poop/pee if necessary. Feed her, Sham, and Krystal. Feed the four cats. Check the litter boxes (and usually clean up shit off the carpet).
Mild Tangent. Related.
Of course in the last four months, E has found a guy and fallen in love. They pretty much live together. So E is rarely home. When he was there, he helped take care of the dogs. But he’s never there any longer (I see him once a week for maybe 10 minutes?) Oh, and his financial situation has worsened too. To the point that he’s unable to pay all his joint bills either.
Do I look like I have a money tree growing out of my ass?
(in some degree of fairness, I’ve known E’s situation for years. I know the two jobs he has. Hell, I helped get him one of them. I know how hard he works. I know all this, but it doesn’t make paying all these bills by myself any easier.)
Tangent over.
The capper to T came this morning.
I got up this morning and per my usual ritual, went to let Kiara outside to pee (she stays in T’s room at night and keeps to herself after T leaves for work around 430 am). What did I discover? My car was not there. It was 915. I had to be at work at 1030. Where was my car? I called T and asked where she was. She replied rather casually. After expressing the urgency with which I needed my car, she said she was leaving. On her way back, she sent me a text that encapsulated so many of her actions in the past year. She said (and I quote):
“I’m hauling ass. Didn’t know you had to work. It was raining this morning.”
Didn’t know I had to work?
You didn’t fucking ask me!
I’ve fucking told you whenever you’ve asked if I need the car or not. You know I’ve been working mornings for several months. You know I’m a manager with no set schedule. Instead of asking me if it was ok to keep my car longer than you normally would (she typically is done with her first class around 730 and gets home around 8 am, which is perfectly fine–I am sleeping), you just…what? Assumed that I wasn’t working? You didn’t have the consideration to even ask me if I worked? My life and my needs mean so fucking little to you that you don’t give a flying fuck about me?
AFTER EVERY GODDAMN THING I’VE DONE TO HELP YOU OUT?
None of which was done with any expectation or desire for anything in return.
I don’t feed your dog hoping that one day you’re going to do something for me.
I don’t let you use my car in the hopes that one day I’ll get something in return.
Thats. Not. Me.
No.
Me: I’m the guy who goes out of his way to help people out and sometimes gets shit on.
FFS, I haven’t even gotten one fucking THANK YOU for paying upwards of $2500 in HER bills in the past 10 months.
So here I sit, pissed off once more. But this time is different. I am not going to shrug it off. I am not going to tip toe around. I am not going to say this needs to change.
I want my car key back. She is never using my car again.
If she does not pay me all the bills for the month of June by the END of June, she needs to be gone by July 1.
I can no longer put myself out there, stretch my finances, dig my credit ditch even deeper, go out on a limb to help out someone and then have that someone not even take ME into consideration when borrowing my car!
I guess I don’t really need advice here, as I’m pretty sure which way I’m going with this. I’m not a confrontational type. I abhor it. I’m probably going to write a short letter and put it on her bedroom door. I just really don’t want to talk to her right now.
I feel betrayed.
I feel used.
Remember what I said at the onset of this teal deer?
I do not like being used.
That’s exactly how I feel right now.
FUCK.
(I am so not proofreading this. It is long and I am too mad right now. Apologies if there are typos. When I use the laptop, I try to proofread and avoid any grammatical issues, but I just…not this time)
Oh, and I should mention that in addition to all of that, she relies on me to make sure that her pets have water!
I have a huge gallon water dispenser that the cats drink out of. It has gone empty several times in the last 6 months. Why? Oh, I don’t know, perhaps it’s because I’m the only one filling it, despite her cats and dog using it too. This isn’t me trying to measure usage. This me saying “you need to chip in too”.
To make matters worse, she never refills the water for Kiara’s cage. Really? YOUR dog, who often (sadly) spends 9 hours cooped up doesn’t have fresh water? Seriously. So yeah, I took that task up, because I will not let that animal suffer.
Argh!
I need a drink.
Oh, wait. I’m at a bar.
…and…honestly I DO kind of resent it, because I feel like conditions like depression and bipolar are treated a HELL of a lot more empathetically than the issues I have. :/
*thwaps* deserve’s got nothing to do with it.
Why did I immediately have to second-guess the assumption it was me?
(…at least I’m second-guessing it >.>)
Fuck, I cannot break down in tears right now. I’m in public.
I’m feeling a unique flush of emotions. Normally extreme anger or sadness makes me cry. Right now I’m feeling both, to varying, yet significant levels. I want to cry and rage at the same time.
Is there a fucking MRA I can verbally eviscerate somewhere?
A pitter who snuck by PZ?
A creationist?
Maybe I’ll go to the Dome and see if joey is there.
Tony
*hugs* That’s pretty shitty behavior, sure enough.
There are a couple crypto-libertarians over in the Yglesias thread.
I suppose you could call my ex, who just recently admitted that on top of everything else, she made up the miscarriage she’d supposedly had in the year she moved in with me and my parents for a few months “to get attention.”
…hey, maybe she and T can move in together. >.>
Fuck, now I want to cry out of sadness.
Despite all of this, I still care about her. I still recall how strong our friendship was.
And that makes this hurt so much worse.
Gah.
I *think* this is the last post on this.
I forgot to add that T identifies as a libertarian.
A fact that I thought of as I went to work today. The phrase I’ve heard used around here–“I’ve got mine, fuck you”–really rings true right now.
Ok, it looks like Chris may have banned one of them, but I think the other one’s still around.
I don’t think I can even engage anyone in a verbal fight. I thought I could.
It’s all I can do right now to hold back the tears.
I feel so betrayed right now.
Tony
more *hugs* Also, here is a dachshund and an octopus.
*offers giant hugs from me and Parsnip*
Tony, I’ve been taken advantage of a few times, but nothing to that extent. Good for you for putting your foot down.
@rq… Currently torn. On the one hand, I love the baritone leads in Mozart’s da Ponte operas. On the other hand, I think that tenor leads are superior to baritone in oratorios, such as the tenor lead in Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus, so I’m not willing to write it off in opera just yet.
@Tony That’s just downright awful. You have my sympathies, if that helps at all.
Apologies for being such a sorry excuse for a human being.
*hugs* for Rawnaeris. I figure that it’s only a matter of time before I make that same mistake.
–
*hugs* and *all the chocolate*, Tony.
Your (entirely justified, IMO) rant flashed me right back to the events leading up to Why Sister2 And I Do Not Speak. Haven’t for…let’s see…25 years.
I didn’t appreciate being used, either. And I still feel occasional pangs of guilt at the degree of fucked up those two boys have become…even though I know it wasn’t my fault.
–
And then, if things could get complicatedly confounded even more, I feel guilty thinking that I’m going to be responsible for sending her, and her pets into who the fuck knows.
Despite everything I’ve done and despite realizing that she is not my responsibility (nor are her pets), I cannot just ignore the fact that something I am going to say/do will result in a significant life change to someone else.
I have always prided myself on my empathy. But right now, I wish I could turn it off for just a second.
I’m sorry Tony. =(
As someone currently being supported by a Roomie, he pays the rent and internet, I read through your comments and did a mental checklist. I always worry about if I’m taking advantage of him or if I’m not doing enough. (I mean if I was working, it’d be different but it’s fucking hard to get a job. It’s not like I fucked one up or anything.) I, surprisingly to me, passed that “Am I being a careless greedy fuck?” test.
What she is doing to you is wrong. There’s no need for you to put up with it. Hopefully, your talk with her will be a wake up call to bring about change. The optimist in me really hopes she doesn’t realize how horrible she’s being and will get better – if not to be a better, more considerate person, then to save her own hide. I think you’re doing the right thing and have been amazing for her for quite a long time beyond what most people would do.
Now I’m going to go hug and thank my Roomie and make sure I’m really doing everything I can to help around here.
(And I mean really, if Roomie says he’s tired of this arrangement and want to leave to his own place or wants me to leave so he has the place to himself, I wouldn’t hold it against him. I’d totally understand and just working on finding somewhere else to go. Hell, I’ve offered to do just that several times.)
You are giving her plenty of time to get things together. If she fails to do so, none of it is your fault. It reminds me of how bitter/angry I got with my ex-fiance and the situation that led to me breaking up with him, and kicking him out.
I just had a friend of mine text me, as I sit here, just checking in on me to see how/what I’m doing. My response:
“Physically: At Emerald City.
Mentally: at Bawling Your Eyes Out Bistro, table of one.
I am not good company tonight.”
He responded that he would be here within 10 minutes.
I told him that I appreciate that, but I don’t want to talk to anyone right now, and another night would be better.
Within 10 minutes, he showed up, walking around the bar looking for me. When he did find me, he sat down at the bench next to me and remained silent. I am at the point that if I speak to anyone about this I am going to just break down. Moreover, after feeling betrayed by a close friend who didn’t respect my wishes and desires, I really, really did not want my friend (S) to push any further. I sat there, hoping that he would not talk. Hoping that he would respect my desire to not want to talk right now.
You know what, he didn’t say a word. He sat there briefly and then left. He had to pay a cover charge to come in here, yet had enough respect for me to give me my space.
Such a little thing, but it really means a lot.
JAL:
Thank you.
I don’t know what’s going on in her mind. I cannot speak about her motivations. All I can see are her actions. Her actions say to me that she doesn’t care about me, my wishes, my desires, my needs. They also say that hers are paramount. Moreover, her actions say “he will do all these things so I do not have to do them”.
Just listening to you say “Am I doing enough?”…those four words speak to your character. You may be unable to offer $$, but you are thoughtful and considerate enough to want to ease the burden for your roomie in some way. As I said above, it’s not about “you do X, which is worth as much as I’m paying for UTILITIES”. It’s more about “I recognize that you’re paying for UTILITIES and while I cannot assist with that, I’d like to do what I can to make other things in your life easier.”
I think I should shut up now. I’ve talked about my shit too much.
Thanks all, for the hugs and support.
Throughout all of this, I haven’t-IMO-asked for much. Sure, I’d like her to be able to pay her portion of the bills.
But you know what?
If I could come home on a semi regular basis and have the dogs fed, the cats fed, fresh water in all the dishes, and some household chores dones, this really wouldn’t be that big an issue. Yeah, it would be frustrating to pay for 2/3 of the bills, but *at least* it would be mitigated by the fact that she would be trying to carry her weight somehow.
Tony, *hugs*
Tony #227 (and the rest)
I think this person really does not know how to behave properly.
Put a garbage bag into her hand and lead her to the cat-shit-box.
Show her how to use the scoop.
—-
[evil]stuff her in the box for 10 hours[/evil]
—-
There were times in my life that I was living on the kindness of others and they all had very clean houses and the dishes were done within milliseconds of being soiled.
*major hugs* for Tony.
There comes a point where the other person has to get it together – there’s only so much you can do to support them. And it’s not your fault that she’s not getting it together, despite multiple opportunities and a very cushy situation to take advantage of.
But what is it with libertarians??? All that ‘I’ve got mine, fuck you’… I thought that included a good dose of working hard for what you get? The point being that they’re all self-made Wunderkinds? Not… slacking and leeching off those actually working, something they apparently despise to be the lowest of the low…? Maybe you could point out that she’s not living up to her libertarian ideals. [/snark] Although it would probably difficult to identify exactly which libertarian ideals she’s (not) trying to live up to.
Anyway, good morning.
Oh. This is going to be one of those days. Lovely.
(creepy dude being sleazy… creepy whatever)
And now I’m having self-blaming thoughts -mainly, “see, you had reason to wonder this morning whether this dress is too short for work… stupid!”
rq:
Thing is, she does work. Granted, I’m assuming that when she leaves the house around 430 am, comes back around 830 am, leaves again around 100 pm, returns around 330 pm, leaves again around 530 pm, and comes back around 830 pm, that she’s off working. She trains at three separate gyms. I have found no reason to doubt that she is going to work when she does so. In fact, given that she takes three showers every day (which take around 20/25 minutes and have on more than a few occasions resulted in my taking a cold shower before work), I completely believe that she’s going to work. I also know that she enjoys being a personal trainer and it is a passion of hers.
Of course, I also realize that she cannot pay her own bills, buy her supplements as much as she’d like, take a vacation, go out to eat, or any of a host of other activities she would *like* to do. All of that has made me realize that she needs another occupation for a while, so she can get caught up on money, or she needs to get even less sleep than she already does.
Either way, you are all right. I’ve gone about three levels above reasonable in dealing with her, and I’ve made excuses long enough. FFS, back during the Xmas holidays, the email I sent to my parents that made them think I was considering suicide (and which scared the shit out of them–rightly so) was impacted by T’s situation affecting me so much (of course that wasn’t the only, or most significant reason for my email).
****
chigau:
Thank you. Your “lead her to the litter box” comment made me laugh out loud.
(Toxic) Masculinity for the political win. *sigh*
Good morning
Remember what I told about the little one and the snuggling consent? This morning she politly asked her sister “Would you like to snuggle with me, please?”
Tony
Big hugs and booooooo for friend.
I think you need to set up rules.
I know, you always hope you don’t need them with adults. You always hope that they’d see what really needs to be done and do it.
I lived like that when I was sharing a house in Ireland. I asked about whether we want to set up a plan and everybody was “oh, we just see and then do it”. Yeah. After 7 months being the only person to ever take out the rubbish or getting new bags, I stopped. People just used shopping bags and put them next to each other. When the kitchen finally stank like a landfill everybody was just too good to take out other people’s rubbish.
You always hope that adults behave like adults, and then they don’t.
So you have to treat them like children. Using your car is a fucking privilege. If I were you I’d tell her that she abused that privilege so, sorry, no more car. Having meas cooked is a privilege, especially when you have special needs.
And YAY for other friend.
dianne
So do I and I’m not ashamed.
It’s an arragnement that’s been existing since the dawn of time when Mr. was young, single, living in a dorm and earning money. My mum in law is a Houswife™ who runs out of work much quicker than she runs out of time and who kind of likes ironing. It’s also that we have to support them financially anyway* and that way she feels like she doesn’t get charity but earns her money and damn I need help with that stuff, too. Win-win all around, so why should anybody feel bad about it?**
My mum in law would iron sheets, duvet covers, pj’s and undies if she got her hands on them.
*They might not be technically poor, but they manage to end up being actually poor by having abysmal skills at handling money. Remember “too poor to paint, too proud to whitewash? That’s them. They will not negotiate the price of things because that would look like they couldn’t afford to pay the full price. So they pay the full price and the next month they will look like kids who broke the china vase asking if we could give them a loan. That’s frustrating.
**Also, with all the help we’re getting now, I have this feeling about who is going to take care of their stuff in a few years and I have the feeling that it’s not going to be my brother in law.
Portia
Seems fitting, I think
Tony
Ah, I misunderstood that part of it. Sorry about that!
+++
Dammit, it really is one of those days. I thought I could pull it off with relative ease and a certain nonchalance, but it doesn’t look like it will happen.
Guess I’m buying that damn cake instead of making it myself this year.
dongiovanni
It’s not that I want to take tenors out of the opera lead position.
I just prefer baritones, and that may be because I haven’t heard any particularly high-quality tenors in my experience. I have, however, heard several absolutely divine baritones. And being an alto myself, I like the lower register, too.
Fuck, Tony :-(
And this person self-identifies as a libertarian? A “self-made” person? That does sound contradictory! (unless she thinks libertarian means “always try to get what you want regardless of the cost to others” … oh, wait.)
Seriously, I am sorry that it has worked out this way. And I am especially sorry for what it has done to you emotionally – for the fact that she has, by her actions, undermined a friendship that was of mental-emotional-etc. value to both of you. I’m sorry she took that friendship away by being so selfish; that she effectively attacked your altruism by taking advantage of it.
I got nothing, sadly, except this package of hugs here.
Yes! (Didn’t know there was a special handshake, secret, impossible, or otherwise.)
I throughly loathe the concept of ironing. It’s a grand waste of power to accomplish bugger-all. Stupid idea was probably invented by peas.
Another yes but I didn’t know…
Exception is packing for travel, but otherwise, just hang the fecking things in the closet / wardrobe, wall, or floor. Or drape them over a chair, mildly deranged penguin, or floor.
Is there a secret handshake for clothes drier refuseniks (at least in sunny climes / times)?
blf
By ‘clothes drier refuseniks’ do you mean you wear damp clothing fresh from the washer, or is this a reference to line drying vs. machine drying?
I’m a line dryer myself, no matter the weather (I cheat: when it’s winter, I dry on the radiators or on the rack in the upstairs giant room), because clothing just smells best when it’s been outside (barring any over-flying birds and insects, of course).
not with what’s going on but
I hate with a white hot never ending passion Janis Ian’s “I learned the truth at seventeen”
but I think that Bob Marley might be a god.
Line drying, definitely, if that was the question.
I am lucky enough to have a balcony and, for when it’s cold and/or rainy, enough space in the hallway.
You know when someone asks you to update their database in access, and then they send you a godawful excel table? And then they send you an “explanation” in an “updated” godawful excel table, where some of the “explanations” are, and I cite, update? Update with what the fuck you didn’t tell me. Oh and then the lookups to another sheet with no column titles so I have no idea what the nos and yeses in the column are about.
Yeah.
Line drying. My sister once wondered why her energy costs had gone up 400 bucks in a year. Then I reminded her she got a tumble dryer. We have a rack in our bedroom and there’s a room downstairs we share with a neighbour.
I line-dry as soon as the sun gets over the garage.
With wind, it’s about 10 minutes.
and god pays
oh
this is getting even worse
*headdesk*
Obama campaign launches plan to shame climate sceptics in Congress:
As an easy and early step, I suggest abolishing electric irons. They are a completely useless fecking waste of energy. Please recycle the bloody things.
Line drying. (And I forgot about the radiator and similar methods, entirely because here in Southern France, I can line drying essentially any time of year.)
I do have some fast-drying clothing (mostly from Rohan in the UK (excellent stuff for travel)) which I have, when I had to, put on whilst damp (usually after squeezing tight by twisting in a towel (I trick I learned from Rohan’s brochures)). It dries quite quickly so isn’t much of an issue. But I meant line-drying and equivalents.
Think? Only think?!!1?!? Blasphemous heathen!
(I never got to see him live. However, I did get to see Peter Tosh live — and for free! — In fact, that concert was my introduction to reggae.)
Threadrupt at the moment.Will try to catch up but… I got a headache!
Which brings me to my whiney rant…
Earlier on my shift (here at ye olde water plant) I went on a round to collect samples to do a few lab tests. One of the sample spots is in a small stand alone building. I opened the door, took one step inside and.. “WHOA!”…I’m standing in a cloud of chemical fumes! I took one step back OUT, turned on the exhaust fan and thought “What the hell is that. [And, yes, it being just a week later and just an hour and a half away “West” did jump to mind!]
I went back into the control building/office trying to puzzle it out. Then I called a co-worker (day shift guy) and asked if he had ever experienced this in that building.
“No, and besides… there are no chemical feed lines in [or within 15-20 feet of] that building.” [“I knnnooow’, I think to myself in a Sybil Fawlty voice.]
So I called my plant superintendent and he says, ‘But there are no chemicals in that building.’ [‘I knnnooow!’]
And what else did both co-worker and supervisor say? “Oh, well. Just leave the exhaust fan going and we’ll check it out tomorrow.” TOMORROW !!?? At that point I still had 5 hours to go on my shift–solo– plus 2 to 2 1/2 hours for shift change when NO ONE will be at the plant– 20 miles from town but with nearby houses and a possible chemical leak of unknown origins! But no big deal we’ll check it out —TOMORROW!???
I was very tempted to ignore ‘the boss’ and go ahead and call the fire department! They have more Hazmat equipment (and maybe better training) to deal with the situation than we do.
But…I’ve been checking it periodically and the exhaust fan did get rid of the smell and I haven’t had any more problems and it was a false alarm but …DAMN! They were just so casual about it!
Annnnd…it’s four hours later and I’ve still got a headache from breathing the mystery shit*!
Okay, that was long and drawn out…
Thanks for participating in the latest edition of “Boy, Do I Wish I Could Be In A Union Again!”
–
*I know I’ve smelled something like that before but I can’t quite put a name to it. It wasn’t the ‘normal’ chemical smells from around the plant. Not ammonia, not chlorine (at least not by themselves). More like something I’ve smelled at home. Maybe a mixture of cleaning products ?. But, yeah, weird…don’t know what it was. It just made my clothes and hair smell, gave me a headache and now it’s gone! Poof!
/rant
The main problem with tenor leads is that they were written for Castrati, and you don’t get many of them around now. Maybe a female with a suitably low register might be able to pull it off, but they really were written for voices that don’t exist anymore…
Maybe 19th century Opera can be sung more as intended – I’ll try Offenbach and report back.
Fortunately, I don’t.
My own similar incidence was a PDF doc, clearly exported / generated by some spreadsheet tool, which was called a list of “tasks”, asking me what was missing. The lack of titles on the columns, or definitions of the terms used, was a minor annoyance.
A more major annoyance is I had no idea what was meant by most of the so-called “tasks” — despite being the local expert on the systems (plural) involved — which were things like “fix”.
Um, fix what?
However, the thing that really got my goat was largest font size used in the PDF was about 6, maybe 7, point. Essentially invisible. The fecking row and column separating lines where thicker than the average character width.
(Plus, we have a database of all the things that could, should, or must be done (or at least considered). Which has a customizable report generator. With a feedback / discussion mechanism… The bloody spreadsheet was throughly independent of all that.)
Why on earth am I so tired that I’m at risk of falling asleep at my desk?
I already went to have a coffee, I took the stairs to get the metabolism running, I stayed in the fresh air, and I have difficulties keeping my eyes open…
dongiovanni
I’ll be expecting those results.
+++
Oh, lime-ginger-chili-chocolate cheesecake!
I hope you are the bestest cake ever ever ever just for me.
Giliell,
Allergy?
No. It’s what you once needed to do to keep fabrics in the best possible condition to cut down the need for washing – by hand. An onerous and dangerous household task, even if you had a new-fangled machine like a mangle to squeeze out the water. So linens were starched and ironed to create ‘filled’ surfaces that were immaculately smooth, and thereby able to repel most dust and other dirt. To save damaging fine china and silver (plated) serving dishes the best strategy was to use cold-water starching (the same as used for those super shiny formal collars on men’s shirts for morning suits) to create an object, a doily or traycloth, that was not just smooth but so stiff that crumbs and other food scraps simply rolled off. Even drops of water will roll right off, just as they do on a waxed and polished car.
You also did the same for pillow “shams” which, during the day, covered pillowcases with their hair oil and creases from being used when sleeping. Basically, substances that could stain were kept out of the innermost fibres of fabrics by covering with a form of polish. And ironing – dampened items with a very hot iron – was the way to get that polished surface onto the fabric.
I have to say I used to lurve ironing. (I even do those tricky folds on tablecloths so all the creases are up the same way on the table. Can we say fussbudget, boys and girls?) Once my hands weakened and then started hurting with arthritis I’ve more or less given up. But I’m still fanatical about neat folding and stacking. Oh, and a little hint for those who need to use tumble dryers – put several small dry items, handkerchiefs, teatowels, facewashers and the like, into the dryer before loading with the damp items. Cuts drying time tremendously. I also do this to speed up the tumble dryer when I ‘finish off’ line dried items that feel cold and a bit damp. This also makes things look ‘ironed’ if you fold or hang them as soon as the machine stops.
beatrice
Not likely, since it’s raining, so that cuts out hayfever.
I guess it’s just the end of another week with too little time and too many things
tumble dryers
Mr.’s uncle line-dries stuff like towels and then puts them in the dryer for the last bit to get them fluffy. I admit that sun-dried towels have a certain concrete qulity, pun intended.
Giliell
Low iron? Happens to me.
Then again, just being exhausted from an exhausting week (like you’ve had!) does it, too.
Thank you, mildlymagnificent, for that short essay on reasons for ironing! I’d always been under the impression it was more for disinfecting purposes – they always tell new parents to iron newborns’ clothing for the first few months to reduce risk of germs.
I never knew starching was actually for dirt-prevention! Kind of puts a whole new perspective on ironing – not that it makes me like it all the more. ;)
Mostly caught up but distracted by Tony‘s ‘rant’.
Boy, did that bring back memories.
Friend you really like= check
Friend borrows (and borrows) money,vehicles, etc.= check
Friend seems to have really good reasons (harassment, transportation issues,etc.) for losing jobs= check
Finally realize Friend is taking advantage of your good nature= check
Hard to sever bond because you still really like this person= check
Here’s where the story takes a detour…
I still have ‘flashbacks’ to one of the scariest nights of my life because of this friend ….
I remember…
-Forcing myself to stay alert (after a full day of labor intensive work) and an evening of partying (as in drinking) becsuse I was absolutely terrified that my friend might die if I fell asleep.
– That there was a very good chance I might need to call 911.
– That she might burn her apartment down (or at the very least she might burn herself) with the cigarettes she kept lighting but couldn’t function well enough to smoke.
All these fears came from the fact that earlier in the evening a sleazy looking guy (I had never seen before) came to the door and he and my friend had gone into the bathroom together, closed the door and spent several minutes in there. Then Sleazy Guy comes out and says to me on his way out the front door: “You might want to keep and eye on her. She did A LOT!”
A lot… a lot of what…?
I had never seen (except in the movies) before (or since) anyone ‘high’ on heroin but I suspet that’s what she ‘did a lot of’.
I stayed with her all night until she seemed to be ‘back to normal’ and I left. That was the last time we hung out together. Over the course of several phone conversations I explained to her how I had felt that night and why I was done with our friendship.
Bottomline– I didn’t want to be the one to call the funeral home and she wasn’t ready (willing?) to admit she really had a problem . I had been trying for two years(?) to be understanding about her ‘addictive personality’ but she had been lying to me about rehab, about the reasons for her losing several jobs….lying about lots of things.
I’ve wondered many times since then (this was the late ’80’s) what ever happened to her or if she’s even still alive. We had some really goods times!
And the ironic twist to the story: her name was Toni!
Well, if energy conservation is the problem I’m sure I’ve still got a couple of Grandmas iron irons around here somewhere.
We used to use them for doorstops but all ya gotta do is set ’em in the coals in the fireplace for a while and…
Okay, way past my bedtime… G’night everybody…
I’ve read various reasons for ironing (most of which I’ve now forgotten), but have never been able to find anything even close to confirming or independent evidence. As far as I can now recall, most (almost all, actually, assuming my memory isn’t too far gone) have been stories — anecdotes — with vague, no, or unconfirmable references. Roughly the same level of “evidence” as for homopathetic “medicine”, astrology, geocentricism, flat Earth, et al. (This doesn’t mean there aren’t some falsifiable hypotheses and/or evidence for the benefits of / reasons for ironing, only that I don’t know of any… — with the possible exception of perceptions of how people look / dress…)
It’s electric irons, especially the modern 1Kw-ish variety, which I take vehement exception to. If you happen to have a source of suitable heat for some other reason, a suitable non-electric iron, and nothing better to do, then go ahead and iron.
But FSMsdamnit, don’t fecking cause / encourage GHGs and pollutants to be pumped into the atmosphere just to de-wrinkle / re-melt / whatever some cloth.
That doesn’t sound very old-fashioned to me. In those fabled ‘good old days’, white linen and cotton items would have been boiled. A very good way to get rid of bugs – both the many legged ones and the invisible ones.
One of the main functions of ironing before the days of steam irons was to completely dry items out. Prevents odours and mould when they are stored.
blf
Not an issue for me. We generate more power each year with our solar panels than we use. And I reckon tumble dryers use lots, lots, more power than an iron would.
Hugs for Tony, bluentx, Beatrice, and anybody else in need.
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Interesting about ironing, mildly magnificent.
I never iron, it’s kind of shameful. The things that really need to be wrinkle free get that way at the dry cleaner (like suits) and my collared shirts …well they go under suit jackets! :D
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I like to sleep under heavy blankets for the weight, too.
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I have a line strung out over my deck. : ) But now I’m going to tumble dry towels the last bit so they’re soft. : )
P.S. Thanks everyone for the songs. I’m still going through them. It’s fun :)
P.P.S. Later I might have a recap of last night’s bar association meeting, which I was nervous about.
Now I have to get ready for court.
Toodles!
Guess who finally has eyeballs! :D
Tony, if today manages to become not-a-day-from-hell-like-the-entire-last-week at work, I will grab some piccies of him in good lighting just for youuuuu….
Tony – a cautionary tale, let me tell you it.
I have a couple of friends who had a very close friend. This close friend went through a rough divorce. He got kicked out of the house, and so they took him in “for a few months until he was back on his feet”, since they lived in an area where housing was hard to come by and he was suddenly hit with childcare payments. Want to guess how long he stayed?
Ten years. Ten fucking years. First it was that he couldn’t find a place, then it was that he went back to school and had to cut back on work hours so couldn’t afford it, and then the last few years? He was making more money than they were, just didn’t move out. He even moved with them when they bought a new house and moved. They finally had to bite the bullet and kick. his. ass. out. So yeah. You’re laboring under the kind assumption that everyone starts to feel weird at some point when they’ve been taking advantage of other people, but there are those who do not ever feel weird about it, ever. They are happy to take and take at the beginning, they are happy to take and take in the middle, and they are happy to take and take long after you’d think anyone with any sense of decency would be uncomfortable with it. Those people simply will not stop until you make them because they honestly don’t see anything wrong with it. So yes, GET RID OF HER, and don’t feel bad doing it.
Holy crap! That explains everything! Especially one tiny thing that has always nagged at me – in period dramas and novels and such, they always show the valets/maids brushing clothes to spruce them up, and that never made any sense to me, thinking that would just scrub the dirt in deeper. Knowing it was a repellant surface, it makes a lot more sense that one could brush the dirt off.
rowanvt
Uh, this vegetable?
Weirdly enough, googling for ‘parsnip with eyes/eyeballs’ under images, this came up, too.
And no, there were no photoshopped images of parsnip (vegetables) with eyes and/or eyeballs. I am sad.
Portia
Good luck in court! I hope nobody notices the wrinkled shirt! And yes, because it goes under something, I also refuse to iron my shirts-with-collars.
Not that I wear them often or anything.
Conversation I just had with my workmate:
Me: “Allright mate? Coming to lunch today, or are you going to Mosque again?”
Him: “Mosque again, mate”
Me: [jokingly] “Aw, you used to be fun, man”
Him: “Mate, I have to go!”
Me: “Well, you don’t have to go, do you?
Him: “You go to church on Sundays!”
Me: “No I don’t…”
Him: “Huh?”
Me: “I’m an Atheist mate. I don’t go in a church unless I absolutely have to, and even then my limit is an hour else it starts burning.”
Him: “Burning?”
Me: “I’m joking. You know, because Atheists are suppsoedly all evil and stuff?”
Him: “Does it actually burn when you go in a church?”
*sigh*
this sentence is just exactly like ray-ee-ain on your wedding day.
Great! (And I really mean it.)
Do you (can you?) sell what you don’t use to the grid?
No idea. (See previous discussion about line-drying.)
Assuming that’s true, so what? All that seems to be saying is “because X does more harm than Y, doing Y is Ok.”
Doing Y instead of the more harmful X is perhaps better, but if both are harmful, neither is necessarily “Ok”, regardless of which (or both!) you do.
(Unrelated, I’m certainly open to the idea that ironing baby’s reusable nappies is sensible.)
blf
Probably nobody has ever done a study on ironing, though – not the old-fashioned iron-ironing, or the modern electric ironing. Not from the historical point of view, or the scientific (anti-bacterial, anti-dirt) point of view. I wonder if there’s any kind of study about ironing out there… Hello, Google!
Interestingly, all articles I have found about ‘Why People Iron Clothing’ or related are to do with the aesthetic/visual value of ironing – you know, appearing to be a person who pays attention to details, is neat, orderly, etc. There’s little information out there about the historical value of ironing, besides a few mentions of it being a way to dry clothing in locations where clothes driers are less available.
Weird.
(I also discovered that you can use an iron to make grilled cheese sandwiches, and apparently excellent ones to boot!)
Tony @208 : Hate to see things turn out like that, but I’m glad you have decided to take action. Sometimes a friend in need can turn into a friend using you for a convenience. I know. been there, done that, didn’t even get the T-shirt.
____________________________
just got a new computer after 7 years of the old one. It’s the usual settling in, transferring work files and teething problems. oh well. Windows 8 is both more bothersome and more useful than Vista. but we’ll see. It’s a bit too much like a black box for my tastes.
Portia
One more for when you get back. Let Tim lay a little reality on yah!
Tony
All the hugs to you. Ain’t no way any of that reflects badly on you.
Line drying, pffth, amateurs. Behold! The mighty Hill’s Hoist. Image found here.
Speaking of Hill’s Hoists, we have to decide where we’re going to put ours. I suspect that this decision will finally be one where Ms. Fishy and I come to loggerheads. I’ve no reason for that feeling of course, I have no strong opinion on the subject, but every house build decision so far has been pretty smooth sailing. We’ve even agreed (in principle if not in detail) on a colour for the interior walls. /magical thinking
Speaking of the house: Oh hai, Eyebrows! What you can’t see is that the interior has been insulated and awaits drywall. We also now have a 90% complete shed. Things are humming along. Very strange after so much time waiting.
FossilFishy
That looks like a lot of fun (the Hill’s Hoist), but I have to say, the line-drying method we had growing up was the best… See, the house was on a small hill, and the line began on the small stairs on the back patio, went all the way across the (down-below) back lawn to attach to a nice high maple over on the other side. We never actually tried using it as one of those swingy-line-thingies (zipline…?) because the construction was just a mite too flimsy, but I certainly thought about it, many times.
(Yeah, I know, I lost a lot of Cool points with never having tried it, but, ya know… I’m glad to be alive.)
FossilFishy – thanks for the name! I’ve seen those a lot, but didn’t know what they were called except for “merry go round clothesline things”.
rowanvt,
I won’t believe Parsnip has eyeballs until I see new pics! :P
O hai!
The double-star system PSR J0348+0432 contains a neutron star that’s twice as massive as the sun!
The “fecund universes” hypothesis is thus dead! Celebrate with me the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact!
kthxbai
Please change your name to “thumper1990, atheist mate”. :-)
*facepalm*
We had a similar line rq, and I never tried it either. Mind you, one end could be let down with a pulley system to load the line. In order to try it I’d have had to have my brother pull it up, and there was no way I was going to give him that kind of power over me.
Your welcome carlie. Although I’ll say that it can’t be a really real Hill’s Hoist unless one or more strands of the wire have been replaced with fencing wire or bailing twine. Every one I’ve used has such a repair.
heheh good song FossilFishy :)
I like that one.
Yay for house progress!
rq: Court should go fine, I’m covering for another lawyer and it’s just a status hearing for the most part. Get the next court date and report back, that’s mah job today :)
I know there was more that I wanted to respond to that happened in the last 24 hours but of course it’s escaping me. Ah well.
*scrolling up*
:-) Probably pea racism is involved! Something about smooth vs. wrinkly peas…
Clothes that are nicely spread out to dry and are then kept in such a way (or folded) strongly tend to turn out largely smooth. Consequently, I’m too lazy to ever begin ironing.
Sheets with an elastic margin that keep themselves in position around the mattress. Like this (that’s a mattress + sheet from the underside).
Or are you talking about the use of sheets as blankets, on top of the sleeper instead of underneath? I wrap myself in a blanket.
I have a new laptop as a gift from the IRS (well… my tax refund anyway.)
The best part, it only weighs about 3 pounds, so I can carry it with me on the train to do my edits.
So looking forward to getting my first round of edits finished in May.
Now here’s a query:
Someone on Pharyngula mentioned they were an editor, but try as I may, I cannot recall who.
Typological race concepts applied to peas are purely social constructs with no basis whatsoever in biology.
Oh, it just occurred to me that Chez Fishy (Ghost Train Villa ™) is slated to be a sub-compound of the Pharyngula Commune.
Work is scheduled to finish by the end of May. Major structural alterations are now out obviously, but aesthetic and other concerns from the Hoard must be addressed now or never. Just keep in mind that any and all features must be fully zombie apocalypse compliant, in line with the Mad Max protocols (1981 revision) and in keeping with passive-solar best practices. Fill out form ZQRP 37-A and submit it via USB along with a blood sample for peas/equine screening no later than May 1. Cheers.
Which incidentally happened to me. In the middle of the desert, too. Should have seen the signs there and then…
Wait, Chas, are you saying there are no such things as French peas? Sacre bleu!
rg, Yes, A couple of years ago (back in the TET(as I recall) at SciBorgs), I ranted about ironing / electric irons, and did some more-extensive-than-I-did-today searching. I also, as alluded to in a previous comment, came up with nothing terribly worthwhile, albeit I have dim memories of finding a few more opinions / anecdotes than just visual appeal (as one example, helps to stop fraying or something along those lines). As far as I can now recall, none of the commentariat reported finding anything.
I do vaguely recall finding others who took exception to electric irons due to perceived environmental impact. However, I can’t recall now if I tried to estimate, or found, any numbers.
(I also cannot recall now if I tried Generalissimo Google™ Scholar back then or not? I didn’t today…)
To stay on the ironing topic for one more link, here’s a nice anti-ironing rant. Makes sense, too! :)
And an ironing lesson from 1918, for those wishing to give lessons in ironing in the near future.
That will be all. I now have to make sure the birthday cheesecake is sitting and cooling as I told it to do this half-hour or more ago.
And FossilFishy, hooray for house progress!
Portia, you did get my email last night, right? The rather long one?
Ha, today’s moment of sexist humour, brought to you by the Latvian social network.
“Daddy, what’s a Real Man?”
“Well, a Real Man is someone who loves his family, protects it and takes care of it.”
“Super! When I grow up, I want to be a Real Man, just like mum!”
On the airer out on the terrace if fine, on the airer indoors if wet, on the radiators if on in winter.
He … he was kidding, right? Tell me he was kidding.
This Friday was such a Monday (*spits*). At least the worktime is over, yay!
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I am so happy to have found people who hate ironing just like me. I felt there was something wrong with me, that I don’t fit in. Now I know that there is nothing wrong with having anti-ironing sentiment and people who don’t iron can be just as good as those who do.
So no cheeseboard then? Otherwise you’ll get a nice penguin-shaped hole in the wall. Probably more than one, actually. Entrance and Exit…
Yay for house!progress, FossilFishy :-)
rq, I’m not getting the sexism of the joke. It looks at first glance like it’s saying “contrary to your expectations women can be just as good as men at protecting and providing for their families” ???
anti-ironing salute to Beatrice. My (male) partner doesn’t iron either. We both don’t iron, jointly and severally and occasionally in unison. Last two times in two years that the (small, travelling model) iron came out was once for me to iron my shirt for a formal evening (first one in decades; normal evenings are decidedly informal) and once for him; he measured, cut, iron-on-adhesive-strip-hemmed and hung a pair of curtains without my noticing.
Off to run errands; read you later Horde.
“Oh yeah! I sizzle so much you could first use me to fry an egg, and then enjoy a nice long pig bacon, egg, and tomato sandwich.”
opposablethumbs
Actually, I should have clarified – I would file it under sexism because it deals with separate gender roles and what it means to be a Real Man, but the little twist at the end makes it… laugh about sexism? I guess? I thought it was an amusing way of pointing out what you said: “that women can be just as good, contrary to your beliefs”. Sorry for being unclear!
From the mouths of right-wing nut bags to Fox News, to the halls of Congress. This is the way Republicans conduct business these days.
Media Matters link.
More on the debunking of the ammo for the Department of Homeland Security, in case anyone has forgotten:
At least we won’t be trying to buy bullets for training purposes at DHS during the sequester.
More from Politifact:
Meanwhile, Republicans are investigating right now … again …. and to no good purpose. Those guys take so many vacation days I don’t know how they find time to address bogus issues while dealing with real issues. Oh, that’s right, most of the time they don’t deal with real issues.
Remember back in August 2012 when Rand Paul claimed that the National Weather Service was buying 450,000 hollow point bullets? That was more fun. Armed weatherpersons!
DLC
Classic Shell is awesome for reverting the derpy interface that Windows 8 has.
(Seriously, side scrolling?)
Ironing
That’s what no-iron shirts are for. Assuming I manage to remember I have laundry in the dryer and get to it in less than twelve hours….
(Record? Nearly two weeks)
Stephen Colbert nailed it regarding flight delays, the sequester, and Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff’s 2010 debt study that inspired austerity around the world. Colbert’s guest, grad student Thomas Herndon, debunked the now widely lambasted Reinhart/Rogoff report. Nice inclusion of politicos from around the world who acted on the report without checking their source.
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/425748/april-23-2013/austerity-s-spreadsheet-error
So, what are Reinhart and Rogoff doing? Apologizing? Fuck, no. They are the foundation of all right-wing economic policies so they are “explaining” and have now issued their second gobbledegook splatter of text that does not apologize and does not address their responsibility for the errors.
I can boil the explanations from R/R down to this: politicians should not have taken us so seriously!
As Matt Yglesias noted:
More links, backing up every one of the claims of how Rogoff pimped his flawed paper, testified, etc. are available within Yglesias’s article linked to above.
Ogvorbis, I still have an old, heavy iron stored in my garage. It is my ski iron, just for applying wax to downhill skis. I don’t use it anymore, but I like looking at it. Good memories there.
Oh my, the Congressional Tea Party Caucus, once a raucous band of 60 that perfumed a disappearing act last year, is back in business.
Maddow Blog link.
Oh, no, no, no. The Tea Party caucus did not perfume their disappearing act, as I typed in comment 303, they “performed a disappearing act.”
You can’t make that shit smell good even as it wanes.
David Marjanović
I will do just that as soon as I get home; for some reason Work Internet (which is distinct and separate from Home Internet) will not let me :)
Christina Perri pulls off “Be My Baby”, live in Singapore
All: thanks again.
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Carlie: I plan on doing just that. I am giving her until the end of June.
And no, I don’t think she understands where I am coming from at all.
****
Interesting discussion on ironing.
What is the substance that accrues on the bottom of the iron and how do you get it off?
Talking about Singapore, I have been to Beijing and Bangkok, Moscow and Manila, Sydney and Stuttgart, Hongkong and Belgrade and Athens and Rome and Paris and London and you name it, but Singapore is my favourite city of all time.
If booze was cheaper, I’d move there tomorrow. But with 16 dollar Coronas, no deal.
@opposeablethumbs #293
No, I don’t think he was. He looked genuinely curious, and when I burst out laughing he had that look people get when they know they’ve said something stupid and are trying to pretend it was a joke.
Portia:
I am with you on sleeping under heavy blankets. I do that even in the summer. I also love feeling a breeze as I sleep, so I have three fans around my bed. Aaaaand, I have a hard time sleeping in silence or annoying sounds (crickets or frogs for instance), my alarm clock has six settings for nature sounds. Usually I listen to ‘rainshowers’.
Tony
You need to live near a waterfall. In a tent with both ends open. :)
And a mosquito net, of course. No malaria for you.
I wonder what references to the theory of evolution there have been in Hollywood films ? Can anyone remember characters discussing the life & works of Charles Darwin ? Which films have had the line, ” Darwin sailed this route, or Darwin was here ”
What films have pointed out the notable geological formations which point to the vast age of the Earth. Was there a cowboys & indians film where they went past the Devils Tower in Wyoming and wondered how it was formed or commented on the myths which surround it ?
If you had spent your life watching Hollywood fiction would you be mostly ignorant of the theory of evolution or would the total of little bits add up to a decent understanding ? I suppose films like Jurassic Park fire the imagination. [ I see Michael Crichton has sadly become extinct ]
Have films failed to mention reasons supporting evolution when they might have easily fitted into the film ? Was that because of ignorance or the fear of loss of sales from offending religious views ?
If you don’t like the way justices in your state rule on court cases you can dock their salary, right?
That’s the new idea proffered by right-wingers in Iowa. After trying to impeach a few judges who ruled in favor of marriage equality, after successfully campaigning to have three judges ousted during retention campaigns, Iowa Republicans are not satisfied. By god, they want to punish someone for the Iowa Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of marriage equality.
Maddow Blog link.
21 of 50 in the Iowa Senate also signed on to a fetal personhood bill. Maybe Iowa is jealous of all the press coverage South Carolina has been getting.
Steve Benen, writing for the Maddow Blog, sums up the Republican response to the sequester:
For my Political junkie friends who like a good solid dose of WTF in their politics, it is always advisable to see what is happening in South Carolina at any given time.
But this Mark Sanford campaign is taking things to a whole new level. If you don’t remember this creepy motherfucker, he’s the “Luv Gov”.
Just search on his name every day for a new entry on “How to sabotage your campaign”.
latest entries
Violated his divorce settlement in multiple ways including Trespassing at his ex-wife’s house multiple times.
He debated a cardboard cutout of Nancy Pelosi
He published an unredacted list of all the phone numbers of people who called hi phone when his cell number was published.
That’s just the last three entries, there are more.
Ah, I see what you mean rq! Yes, I like it for that too.
.
Thumper, argh and ::facepalm:: That’s kind of disturbing, really … :-\
.
Some happy happy Spawn news – we heard today that SonSpawn has passed the audition and got a place on the national jazz summer school, yay! And he got a full bursary last time, so it’s quite likely that he will again. So double yay for bursaries meaning being able to actually go!
Happy Spawn news part deux – DaughterSpawn, who has been applying and applying and interviewing and interviewing and worrying and worrying about finding a work placement for her sandwich year next year … has just been told verbally that she has got the one she wanted most of all! Official email confirmation is still to come, but her tutor was very clear that she had got it (and he’s one of the (several) people involved in the decision). So all fingers crossed and barring any kind of total catastrophe, she gets to spend 10 months next year as the ultra-ultra-junior research assistant (the chepibe, we would say :-) ) on a neuroscience project (and neuroscience is her Very Favourite Thing of all the course she is doing) and it’s in Spain and it’s in a city where we happen to have some friends and there’s even a frivolous cherry on top … the campus is (almost literally) on the beach.
And for once in a blue moon we’re all invited out for a gastropub meal tonight by visiting friends … who coincidentally happen to be those very friends from Spain.
What happened? I’m not used to getting so much nice news at one time!
It hardly looks like there was intelligent design when there are such large areas of Earth being barren desert.
How would an intelligent designer have arranged the land masses to maximize land based plant and animal life ? Would it have been better to have U.K sized islands spread out evenly over the globe surrounded by 100 km of water ? What would the % oxygen in the atmosphere increase to if 50% of the area of the planet’s surface was covered with forest ? If there had been Everest sized mountains in the middle of the Sahara would there have been rivers flowing down through it ?
People talk of terra forming Mars but there is a huge challenge on Earth to make it more productive. Would it be possible to create a forest over the Sahara which might create it’s own self sustaining micro climate ? Even several well placed oases could help migrating birds.
Right, off to the station to collect friends!
opposablethumbs,
Congratulations to both of your Spawn!
opposablethumbs
*confetti&sparkles* for both Spawn! That is great and awesome news!
zytigon
Your question about Hollywood movies was a good one, it got me thinking.
I’m still thinking about it. If anything comes to mind, I’ll let you know. (Actually, at first I thought about Creation, but that’s a movie about Charles Darwin, so they could hardly not talk about him and his theories, even if in a vague way.)
Health risk: Erionite and the “death villages” of Cappadocia.
Erionite http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erionite
A recent article in New Scientist alerted me to the health risk of being exposed to erionite, an asbestos-like mineral that has been used in houses and in roads in parts of North America and elsewhere. The risk was recognised because a number of “death villages” in Cappadocia, Turkey, have a very high incidence of the kind of cancer normally seen among patients who have been exposed to asbest during their lives. An investigation failed to reveal asbest but the villages are in an erionite-rich region.
Erionite can also be found in North America, Iceland and many other places in the world.
I have no link to the article (it is behind a paywall).
Speaking of evolution and music (yeah, yeah): the evolution of music.
@317: deserts are not barren, but otherwise I like your point.
Also, a friend of mine has started writing for The Oxonian Globalist. It’s decent writing, but I think he could use some *ahem* friendly critique!
Opposablethumbs:
Good news for Son and Daughter Spawn sounds awesome. I take it if she gets the confirmation you may be visiting her at the campus. I mean wow, nearly on a beach??!!
If you live outside town (clean air) in a region where winter air is very dry, you can line-dry outside in winter. It takes longer time, but it works.
Rev BDC @315, ahhh, more South Carolina news. The real question is, when will someone interview the South American beauty he shacked up with on the “Appalachian Trail” so that we can figure out what she sees in Mark Sanford, and why does she trust him?
More South Carolina news, for your WTF cache: 4th grade science quiz rife with anti-science.
Good evening!
Yay for Opposablethumbsspawn!
+++
That’s me (although when it’s very hit I’ll wrap myself in a sheet).
The focus is on wrapping.
Many years ago Mr. and I spent a night in a hotel in Spain where there was only one big sheet. The night didn’t go well. I wrapped myself in the sheet, he’d lack cover, move closer, I’d move away, usually by rolling over with the sheet around me once more.
Rinse and repeat….
…um, how do people who line dry deal with pollen?
Who said the line was outside?
Germany is very fond of basements and often people have a room dedicated to line drying. Even in the 13 floor house I live in the ground floor has the entrance hall, utilities and a room for each floor for drying.
Tony: Bottom line, you are not required to be a doormat in the name of friendship, especially since it appears that the ‘friendship’ only goes one way.
–
Pics!!!
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opposablethumbs: Yay! for happy Spawn news. Both barrels.
:)
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Pollen is not a problem here.
I line-dry indoors in winter and outdoors in summer.
I’ve never had a dryer.
I “line dry” a lot of my clothing by hanging it from the shower curtain pole in my bathroom. I live in a desert environment so it only takes one day for them to dry — might not work in wetter climates.
In other news, the Boston Globe is giving us a much better look at the car jacking incident that followed the Boston bombings:
Link.
Since no one in the family has pollen allergies, I’d never really thought of that (the pollen).
Our line-drying, though, will occur on the balcony, which is hopefully above most of the pollen, and anyway, the poplar pollen is the worst, and it’s around for only about (max.) a week. Worst comes to worst, I line-dry inside.
I’ve never noticed pollen to colour the clothing, though. I will make observations this spring/summer, though!
http://www.salon.com/2013/04/26/for_raped_peace_corps_volunteers_little_choice/
This is a story about women’s reproductive healthcare, and how hard it can be to access basic services.
Excerpt:
Thanks a lot socially conservative right-wing nutters.
Remember that guy that wrote the memo okaying torture for the Bush Administration? Well, John Yoo, Law Professor, (University of California Berkeley School of Law), is, apparently still suffering an intellectual deficit of some kind.
Yoo does not understand why Dzhokar Tsarnaev was read his rights.
Mother Jones link.
It’s a good thing John Yoo is not in charge of prosecuting the Tsarnaev case. Yoo would have already ignored the suspects constitutional rights and would therefore have damaged the case.
Does anyone know which Pharyngulite was the editor?
What kind of editing? Film, text?
Jules does copy editing as do some others who escape me at the moment.
@Dhorvath:
Text editor.
By the end of next month I’ll have finished my preliminary edits of my book, and I know someone here said they were available to look it over when I was finished.
How does this not produce serious mold problems? O.O
Cool, I did know that you were writing, but I haven’t been here for a while and it could have been you picked up a new hobby as well.
Azkyroth
Good ventilation, I presume.
Dhorvath!
*pouncehug*
–
Fighting peas as always.
Wherever they raise their nasty little round green heads.
–
Fighting the food fight.
:P
–
Flamethrowers ignite!
Smokin’!
–
*little happy dance*
dum de dumdum
My menfolk gifted me three new Hot Wheels for my birthday today.
My massive collection is now at a whopping 4.
And the cheesecake is awesome.
The culprit behind the West explosion: During the Bush administration, Dick Cheney’s son-in-law *twice* blocked attempts to regulate chemical plants to bring down the risk of explosions.
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/all-in-/51669040#51669040
Yeah, government regulation is always bad (spits).
I mean, really. These guys…they seem to deliberately strive for being as corrupt and fucking evil as possible, so they can buy an extra mansion while the morgues get filled up.
:mad:
Giliell – but what about the humidity?!?
Katherine
That may have been me. I’m by no means a professional editor, but I’m familiar with the basic practices.
The local Catholic church has a dozen or so sparkly yard signs outside their building that say “STOP CHILD ABUSE” …I can’t decide if that’s infuriatingly obtuse or refreshingly self-aware, but I want to scream “‘Get the beam out of your own eye’, much?!” every time I pass it.
And then the Methodist church sign right now says “You are not a ‘has been’, you are a ‘will be.'”
…I am an “am” fuckyouverymuch!
And since I’m on a roll of the stupidity around me from religiosity, here’s a new “anti-atheism” “argument” I read on facebook today:
*headdesk*
Hahaha, Rachel Maddow has a piece about the “poop cruise presidency” of George Bush
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/vp/51669588#51669588
And they are opening the George Bush Library on the tenth anniversary of the “mission accomplished” speech.
Hi rq,
Thanks for that, I’ve watched the trailer of ” Creation ” about the life of Darwin on YT and ordered the DVD from Amazon, ( ~ free + postage )
Been watching a great YT ” The evolution of human skin pigmentation ” by Nina Jablonski on UCtelevision channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4KcRMTKImQ
So all of that was from a blog post you’d written in the past and it only took you an hour to double check your memory?
Wow.
That, good sir, is nothing to scoff at.
No.
When I wrote that some years ago, I wrote it freehand from memory and then spent an hour double-checking and correcting (the dates were not off the top of my head). This edition of it was copypasta. No thinking involved.
But would you still feel that way if you actually met me?
——
Waiting on dinner: mac and cheese casserole with sweet peppers, chile peppers, onions, garlic, peas, and BACON!
Apropos of absolutely nothing else going on here – I have to wonder if PZ has – or has ever expressed – an opinion about Tako the Octopus?
Deep Fried LIVE! – with Tako the Octopus
Remarks from other cephalopod fans are, of course, welcome.
comment during dinner:
Wouldn’t you love to hear the voice of Gollum reciting ‘Pease Porridge Hot, Pease Porridge Cold, Pease Porridge in the Pot, Nine Days Old, Preciousssss”?
I imagine any dinner with Gollum would be raw and wriggling.
Were going out for sushi…
birgerjohansson @350:
Thank you for posting that. Chris Hayes did a great job in that segment. So, the Department of Homeland Security didn’t even know the fertilizer plant existed until it blew up! And they were supposedly in charge of regulating that plant, while simultaneously having their hands tied by likes of Dick Cheney’s son-in-law?! Jesus fucking christ. The segment that follows is also great.
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/all-in-/51669040#51669109
I would just like to point out that some of those chemical industries lobbying for less regulation belong to the Koch brothers.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/04/how-chemical-lobby’s-friends-congress-fought-keep-regulators-its-back
Excerpt:
I could smell the Koch brothers all over Dick Cheney’s son-in-law.
Cute.
More news from Texas, this is Representative Louie Gohmert, (R-TX) telling us all how it really works in the Whitehouse:
He has made the claim that the Obama administration has been infiltrated by “many” members of the Muslim Brotherhood before. This guy is McCarthy reincarnated, and he’s a walking, talking flea brain. He’s trying to start a war, and/or pump up the “war on terror.”
Gohmert was speaking in a radio interview aired by World Net Daily. Gohmert is the same guy that accused a Hilary Clinton aide of being a secret Muslim. Gohmert serves on the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.
From Arizona:
There is no mode of dress that won’t result in such people saying ‘you asked for it.’ Vile. VILE.
I forgot to provide a link for the story about the “you deserve rape” guy. See comment #364
If you’re walking around holding such a repellent sign, you’re asking to be set on fire by a horde of angry students with flamethrowers. Why did this not happen?
Tony
Oh man, we are sleep twins. I used to run a fan during the winter, no matter how cold I was. Both for the sound and the breeze. As to environmental noises, I am selective in what I can tolerate. Bullfrogs on a pond: NOPE. Trains whistles, and the clack-clunk as they roll down the tracks, yes please. What I hatehatehate is the sound of a ticking clock. One of my idiosyncrasies is that I have to move a ticking clock out of the room I’m sleeping in. One of my grandma’s idiosyncrasies is that she has dozens of clocks all over her house, including the guest room. It took me a loooong time to go to sleep last weekend. (We’re talking 3-foot diameter clocks, that resist moving…).
…I hope Cheney’s son-in-law can be sued. I know, I know, I should know he really can’t, but in my When I’m Dictator Fantasy…he’s in jail.
Welcome, members of the Horde… Ones who have seen the Eyes!
http://imageshack.us/a/img594/3247/parsnip15days2.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img96/7298/parsnip15days1.jpg
It seeeeees!
Cuteness! :D
Or at least pelted with clods of dirts and possibly overripe fruit.
@sleeping:
As long as the noise doesn’t involve talking, I can sleep through it, but I absolutely need some kind of covering.
portia
And about the top 4 layers of management at the plant right next to him.
Ugh. Yes. Disgusting human beings, every one of them.
Oooh! Parsnip pics! Thanks, rowanvt!
–
And what it sees…is blueness.
–
Oh. My. Ceiling Cat.
Parsnip is cute!
(And he looks a little stoned…)
Cut him some slack, WMDKitty. :P He only opened his eyes sometime between 3 am and 6 am this morning.
Part of me is all like “I kick ass, I can manage my life and my business, and I can do it as a Single Lady!”
The other part is like “I’m lonely. Fuck.”
But, I went to the first local bar association meeting since The Breakup, and I was great. I talked with lots of people I know, and really realized how many I do know. People I know by my own networking, and people who like me and believe in me because of me, and my work and my professionalism. (I got a compliment specifically on my professionalism from an attorney I respect a lot). I can do this by myself. I was under the misconception that I needed S and his moral support and his help here and there. I don’t. I got this.
(Of course I dissected every interaction for hours after the event, but you’ll have that…at least I had the interactions to dissect, right? Miss all the shots you don’t take. (Wow, where did this self-pep-talk come from? I was mopey when I started this comment)).
chigau:
Mmmm sushi. I could go for some sushi. You’re probably already in rice and wasabi heaven. Hope it was tasty. :)
Oh no… now I want sushi. ;_; Not faaaaaaaaaaaair
Damn, I’m sorry. If it helps, I gave myself an unsatisfiable craving as well. We can pine together.
Portia
Go you. Yay for socializing and having fun.
Go, Team Portia! You do, indeed, got this.
:)
–
Sushi.
*drool*
It’s been soooo looooong….
–
Thanks Dalillama, it was fun. It’s surprising the number of silly jokes we all made. : )
thanks cicely! You’re a great cheerleader, as always, for Team Portia ^___^
==
S and I used to love to get sushi together.
My backup sushi-buddy was Jerkfriend.
So it’s been a long time for me, too. I guess partly because it’s pathetically fraught now! Plus the sushi isn’t great around here. Iowa City and Chicago each have one of my favorite sushi spots. I’m literally salivating at the thought… the Chicago place has tempura Snickers® bars on the dessert menu. Uh. Mayz. Ing.
Dammit. Now I want sushi! Not sure if I want it in maki or nigiri form…
和食は美味しかった。
Japanese food was yummy.
Thank you for the vicarious culinary experience, chigau :)
You are welcome, Portia.
(sorry, the spouse of one of the attendees got the left-overs)
Dangit. Not a scrap to send through the wires? ;)
Maybe a bit of gari…
Hiyaaaaa.
I made pesto! I’m eating pesto pasta!
YUM.
I’ll take it and go to bed happy.
Hiya SallyStrange. Sounds yummy.
Night, all!
*jumping up and down waving pom poms*
Two, four, six eight,
Who can really litigate?
Portia! Portia! Portia!
*and the crowd goes wild*
–
I ♥ pesto.
I was stunned when I learned how to make it.
–
Put stuff in blender.
Blend.
–
I was also stunned to learn that a cubic foot of basil makes less than a cup of pesto.
Gracie update
We get the now-lone-remaining drain removed tomorrow. She ripped out one (along with some stitches), leaving a disgusting-but-impressive hole — I imagine the vet will stitch that one up (after cleaning it out), because we do NOT want another infection setting in. (And Gracie will NOT take well to any more time being stuck indoors.)
We should then be cleared for OUTSIDES! (And boy is she ready! She’s been back and forth between whining and demanding, and spent a good part of the day sulking.)
No, we definitely do NOT want another infection setting in. Not Fun. Uncalled For. Completely Undesirable.
–
Superhero Group Name: the Uncalled Four.
–
Cicely! *groan*
I love it.
Hey, is anybody else celebrating the Festival of Bast this year? 30 April – 2 May.
Anybody?
Bueller?
Just me?
The two Bast statuettes on the desk in front of me say, “Yes! Yes she is!” And ask for instructions on the Customary Usages of the Season.
:)
–
Fuck if I know what the “proper” rites are, but I plan to spend the days partly in meditation and partly partying. Might even get into the alcohol for this one.
If I can find some fucking Guinness, that is.
Portia:
I will see your ‘clock ticking annoyance’ and raise….my…winning hand!
Drip…sound of water drop as it hits something….repeat the process until I poke my eyes out with a spork. We have two drips I hate. The bathtub drip and the kichen sink drip. They drive me up the wall.
Good morning
Amazing how little confidence those people apparently have in their own justice system and due process.
Azkyroth and carlie
Humidity is not a problem with windows. Most basements are not 100% underground. In my parents’ house the “ground floor” is about 1 m above street level and here the rooms are ground floor anyway. It might also have something to do with washing machines. Toploaders aren’t very popular here and most machines have spinning cycles of 1200+ rounds/minute which leaves you with fairly little water in the clothing anyway.
+++
How come the Tsarnaev brothers are called terrorists but these folks merely Republican?
++++
Parsnip! Parsnip! Parsnip!
WMD Kitty
There’s a new Irish Pub in town. We haven’t managed going there even once so far….
Oh, I hate dripping water.
Occasionally, I get hyper-sensitive and can’t get to sleep because some quiet little noise, usually easily ignored, drives me nuts.
Worst comes to worst, I’ll honor Her with the catnip that I keep on hand for Gracie.
…threadrupt, but…does anyone know if risotto is recoverable if the “heat the broth before adding it” step gets missed?
I almost forgot to comment on Parship’s pics, but I pretty much second Giliell here, with an added “cuuuuuute!”
Portia:
You betcha you can do this. As if there were ever any doubt.
I
Azkyroth,
Sure it is. It will turn out fine, you’ll see.
Azkyroth
No clue, I burn water…
Only when I put it on for coffee and then forget I was making coffee… And then I come back and there’s no water.
…did Ogvorbis’ son share the fluorooxygen?
No FOOF or other chemical trickery involved — it’s a natural talent.
In short, there is a reason my only “job” at family gatherings is to keep myself and Gracie out from underfoot (and out of the kitchen).
Mmm. Yep, seems to have, though Unfortunacies Ensued regarding the cooking time.
The flavor might be missing something, though. Not sure about adding another jar of minced ginger.
Yay for O2F2! Also, minced ginger in risotto?
Does this work? I have to try it!
The original recipe called for shitake mushrooms (I added maitakes that were, amazingly, still good but seriously needed to be used up, ditto some white button mushrooms I was given as an end of the day bonus at the farmer’s market), and peas, so I added one of my favorite flavors from other things with shitakes and rice to the mushroom pan (also shallots). I used black rice; I think it’d probably overwhelm typical white. Also herbes de provence in place of just thyme, white pepper instead of black, and madeira and sherry (both needing to be used up) along with white wine in cooking the various things (madeira for the rice, sherry for the mushrooms).
Okay, I’m not sure what the hell I made, but it’s really good…and really filling. O.o Huh.
Bonus to going to bed at nine: I wake up at three.
Fair enough. I’m somewhat of a traditionalist as far as food is concerned, but if this works then it’s worth noting. Was the black rice absorbent enough?
Thank you so much, Beatrice and rq and Tony and Giliell and cicely!
And HAPPY BIRTHDAY rq!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay for awesomely delicious cheesecake (that just happens to combine many of my absolute favourite flavours :-) )
Sadly no, Tony, we won’t be visiting the campus – can’t afford the trip, really (flights are relatively cheap if you book well in advance, but I couldn’t justify the expense unless it were a real emergency. We’re extremely lucky in the roof-over-your-head and can-afford-to-eat-healthily stakes, and of course healthcare is free and secondhand clothes are cheap and my-DOG-but-wow-we-totally-lucked-out-in-local-music-support/bursaries-etc.-for-SonSpawn, but going out is rare and taking a trip abroad is not really on).
.
yay for Parsnip officially having eyes! :-) ::checks out pcs:: ::dies of cute:: Parsnip!!!! Parsnip for Lounge mascot!!!!
.
The coincidence of the Texas chemical plant explosion happening relatively close in time to the collapse of the sweatshop garment industry building in Dhaka …. yeah, Matt Yglesias, you too can live in a country with wholy inadequate (or inadequately enforced) safety regulations. How does his brain not implode from that, the miserable piece of shit. Just because he remains personally unaffected, of course. He lives in 1%-land with his Koch and Cheney friends, which is on an entirely different planet from the rest of us.
You have that fantasy too, Portia? Hey, so do I! I have rapists actually being prosecuted, and antidiscrimination laws actually being enforced and universal healthcare worldwide and zero tax evasion on the part of companies and the super-rich and no offshore tax havens and pollution controls and a real social security system … and a pony.
You so, so can. I am really in awe of you, actually! And so happy for you, too – that whole comment is so great :-D ::revels in Portia’s awesomeness::
.
Dinner with friends-from-Spain last night was lovely and extremely delicious. (talking of delicious, Azkyroth, that recipe sounds amazing btw.)
Now, of course, being me (yeah, I’m an idiot) I’m already starting to worry about All the Things involved in a temporary move to another country and whether DaughterSpawn will find somewhere to live and will she have to get a new sim card and can her phone take a new sim card and seriously I need to get a grip. This is how ridiculous I am becoming – I swear I never used to be quite this bad.
I knew I forgot something in my previous (chemical) rant…
Not only did I consider calling the local fire department but… more important… I should have sent the – Portia- Signal .
Huummm… what would that look like?
rq
Apsveicu dzimšanas dienā
And YAY for Hotwheels!
to any moderator present
I think that Crocodoc is in serious need of a banhammer over in the Creeper thread.
I missed it earlier, but Happy Birthday, rq. If I’m right about the date line, it’s the day after mine.
opposablethumbs
Yay for a good dinner with friends.
Mom stopped by unexpectedly this evening. I knew she was going to be in town, but expected her next Friday, not today. Had a good visit nevertheless.
Not only are they all about obstructionism and nullification but plagiarism too…
http://crooksandliars.com/clsphinx?keys=Stupid%20republican%20tricks
Come on Horde! Get me outta here! [Commune! Commune! Commune!]:
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/religious-racism-texas-church-argues-theres-biblical-precedent-strict-racial
Well, that explains that… sort of…
http://www.alternet.org/media/medical-examiners-confirm-death-missing-brown-student-misidentified-boston-bomber
Within the article:
shorter version: “Yeah, well… so sorry we branded this kid as a terrorist with no evidence what so ever … Oops, we goofed!
I missed it, too!!!
*Throws confetti*
Oh! Happy birthday, rq!
Portia – love the ‘nym. :)
Because of breezes, or because of low humidity outside? Where I grew up, you closed the windows to keep the humidity out. :)
Ever have that dumbass feeling where you really want to feel sorry for yourself, but you know it’s not that bad and you have it so much better than you ought to, so shut up, but it is a bad thing so it’s ok to feel bad, but you’re being melodramatic so again shut up? I hate that feeling.
https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/primarkjobs-mango-matalan-ensure-safety-for-workers-compensate-victims-of-building-collapse?alert_id=UAjmWMpwLh_MaPZVRmMDK+style%3D&utm_campaign=23339&utm_medium=email&utm_source=action_alert
Change.org petition calling for help for the Dhaka survivors.
Thank you Dalillama! I hope things are going better for you and your loved ones. I’d like to attack a hug to this message if I may – watch out for the paperclip that keeps the hug pinned onto the message until the recipient unclips it.
/paperclip\{hug}
rq’s birthday, how did I miss that?!
Happy birthday, rq!
I’m not caught up on the overnight yet but I need to immediately throw up some *confetti* for opposablethumbs and Spawns! Hooray for good news! :D
==
And I love the cheer, cicely, it made me really laugh!
opposablethumbs
hehe Thank you!
bluentx
…I’m not sure but I love the idea :D
Dalillama
Well, that’s great! Hope it was a little bit of an emotional respite.
carlie
Thanks! Me too.
Ok, I wish I could hang out more but I’ve got to go test hoses. Make sure the water still goes through them and all. : | The most odious part is really packing them all back on the trucks.
Hope everyone has a beautiful day!
Last week, I made a nice batch of ragu Bolognese for dinner. Served over cappelini. Wife and I are both trying to lose weight, so I carefully measured out 6 ounces of pasta for the three servings. After dinner, I realized there was enough sauce left for two meals, so I refilled the pasta pot, put it back on the stove on high, and went out to play CivIII and watch TV. This was the night they caught the younger terrorist up in Boston. After about an hour, Wife mentioned that the house was really warm and cozy. Not long after that, I smelled something burning. And realized the pot was still on the stove, over a high burner, but the water was now filling the house. Luckily, I got to it before the pot got too hot. The burning smell was one piece of cappelini left over from the first batch. It was nicely carbonized. And now, that pot, my oldest and favourite Calphalon pot, has a scorch mark on the bottom in the shape of a heart.
Ogvorbis, obviously ;> that wasn’t you burning water… that was you nebulizing compassion. ♥
Wife claimed I was trying to turn the entire house into a humidor.
I never burned pasta, but…
Once, neighbor called me over while I was making lunch, so I made sure that the pasta was cooked and the stove turned off. But I forgot to drain the pasta. When I returned, after a nice long chat over tea, pasta was a squishy mess (calling it overcooked would be a horrible understatement).
Cooking disasters? I can’t really play. I’m a terrible cook and I don’t enjoy it so I hardly ever do it. Mind you, I’m pretty aware of this stereotypical bit of learned helplessness in my life.
Ms. Fishy did manage to set fire to a pot of noodles once. She was cooking rice noodles in oil to make them crispy when the pot overflowed onto the hot burner and ignited. I’m in the lounge room and I hear The Small Fry yell “Dad, Dad!” in that voice that’s jacked directly into my spine. Up I jump and sprint into the kitchen.
On seeing the flaming pot I rush headlong right out again to fetch the fire extinguisher.
“Where is it? Where is IT!? FUCK!”
I run back into the kitchen where Ms. Fishy has grabbed the extinguisher but is struggling to release the safety. On seeing me she hands it off, I rip the pin out and one tap puts the flames out.
Just another demonstration of how Ms. Fishy and I sum out to being one fully functional adult.
It was also my first experience with stereotypical small town living. The next day I’m at work and Gary the butcher from the next door shop sticks his head in and says: “I hear you’ve joined the CFA.” (Country Fire Authority, the volunteer fire department). I had only been open for an hour and I hadn’t mentioned it to anyone yet. Ms. Fishy, unbeknownst to me, had come into town and had mentioned it to someone in the grocery and after that it only took a half an hour to get to someone I knew.
rq
I’ve got this ostinatto sort of pattern that I was wondering if you’d like to have crack at putting a melody over? I know you don’t feel comfortable with improvising but it’s really simple, only eight bars long and I can provide a written version. In my head there’s a simple, through composed violin line over top of it. Nothing definite, no notes or anything you understand, that’s just what it evokes in me as I play it.
I have burned artichokes. ;_;
I had the *strangest* dream last night. I dreamed that I had somehow been chosen to be the Pope’s apprentice only he really really didn’t like that a woman had been chosen but there was nothing he could do. God had spoken, and I was to be the next pope. So at one point he told me to give an off-the-cuff talk about something like women in church history except I couldn’t hear him clearly because of a whole bunch of other people talking. And so I happily turned it into a talk about sexism, and how pervasive it is, and threw a couple jabs at the pope while I was doing so. And got many positive reactions from the audience. And then my alarm went off and I woke up with a “WTF brain???”
Holy shit! I totally missed that, happy birthday rq! I hope you don’t mind that I got you the same gift as last year. :)
Portia
Your ‘single lady’ comment made my day. Go you!
Here’s some news from the conversion therapy world: once-upon-a-time “ex-gay” man John Paulk has apologized for claiming that he was cured of the gay.
Salon link.
We have set the oven on fire twice. Once with pizza, once with a casserole. Both times it was gunk on the heating element that eventually caught – i don’t think in either case it was drippage from what was in the oven at the time.
So glad to see someone not getting away scot free with forcing religion on students:
This lawsuit is going to ramp up the persecution complex on the part of christians in the USA. Expect heavy rotation of this story on Fox News.
The American Humanist Association should be lauded for bringing this issue to court. See, we do need humanist organizations.
Americans United link.
Another child has died because the parents believed in faith healing. They prayed for the child, and the child died. This couple was already on probation for the death of another child in 2009.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/2nd-child-pa-couple-dies-praying-19020607#.UXvysr9gtUP
Can we have a moment of sappiness?
Thank you all for treating me like my weird isn’t a problem, for not making me feel awkward about everything I say, and for almost convincing me (at least for the time I chat here) that my weird is fine and doesn’t make me a freak incapable of normal human communication.
Thank you all. You rock. Even when we disagree on the issue of peas.
/end sappy moment
The parents mentioned in #440 moved from Idaho to Pennsylvania. Other children from the same Idaho cult have died due to lack of medical care.
http://newsdeskinternational.wordpress.com/2011/05/22/idaho-child-deaths-in-faith-healing-church/
The latest bit of nonsense from Pat Robertson, (you knew that President Obama speaking at a Planned Parenthood event would trigger the right-wing in a big way):
That’s right, Hitler and genocide. One wonders where Robertson could go from there in his denunciations of Planned Parenthood. Right Wing Watch link.
Sounds right to me.
Oh, but wait, it was just a technical glitch and not a purposeful action by the US military. Darn.
Washington Post link.
I cannot recall when we last chatted about recipes. Or book recommendations. Or how great PROMETHEUS was :)
(I am such a stinker)
The cuteness that is Parsnip is better than morning coffee. I just saw those new pics and awwwwww…
The dedication of the George W. Bush Library was attended by all five living Presidents of the USA, and by multitudes of Bush cronies. Your definitive guide to the Bush cronies’ talking points, and why all of them are insane.
Beatrice:
You? A freak? Never. You are wonderful.
You may have idiosyncracies that make you YOU, but thats a good thing. Not anything to be shameful of.
Fiiiiiiiiissssssst buuuuuummmmmpppp!
Oh jesus, another study about atheists has prompted wildly-inaccurate headlines, such as Do atheists secretly believe in God?
Other plausible interpretations of the study are given short, ass-covering shrift at the end of the article, but you know that religious natters are going to take the study as “proof” that atheists secretly or unconsciously believe in god.
Glenn Beck is still pushing his debunked Saudi National conspiracy theory regarding the Boston bombings. His latest ploy is to ask Congress to help push this bit of trash thinking into the mainstream:
Lynna: are Beck’s facts accurate? What parts of the quote have been “debunked” and by whom?
Taken at face value, those actually sound like pretty good questions to me.
Giliell:
I do not think it is lack of confidence in the justice system. To many Americans, the two brothers were ‘others’. They were not ‘real Merkuns’. They comitted acts of violence against this peaceful nation who did no wrong. They do not deserve our justice. Nor are they entitled to it because they are not of our tribe. These people do not understand that the minute you start making exceptions to who gets the benefit of due process you open the doors to dehumanization. “Oh, that group over there. They did something we do not approve of. They do not get a fair trial. Hang them.”
-makes me sick to type out-
Tony,
*fist bump*
—
I noticed a comment about Chilean ghost towns by AJ Milne yesterday, in the “I’d watch it” thread. Went back to read it today because it reminded me of something. It was a documentary I saw a couple of years ago, which combined the topics of astronomy and observatories in the Atacama desert, and horrific murders committed during Pinochet’s time in Chile. The visuals in the movie were striking.
It made me cry in the cinema.
Conveniently, I found it on Youtube. I recommend it: Nostaliga de la luz [Nostalgia for the Light ]
Oh, the video was apparently put up by a radio station, so it starts with a couple of commercials, ignore them. The movie starts about 2 minutes and a half into the video.
Hey everybody, thanks for the birthday wishes. The reason none of you knew is that I only mentioned it at the end of (my) day. I thought about not mentioning it at all, because I discovered I’ve turned into a birthday hater, but that made me even more depressed and it needed out. And I wanted to gloat about my new Hot Wheels. (Nice, Giliell, thanks for the language effort, even the accents are correct!)
Anyway, yeah. This is me hitting my last prime before peaking at thirty.
(Dalillama, I’m officially the 26th, are you the 25th? Happy belated! *hugs*)
FossilFishy
Send it over, I’ll take a look, and see what happens. Email at taarpinsh (at) hotmail (dot) com. :) I’m excited!
+++
The best birthday present ever? I got cursed by a witch today. I think.
Today was the giant National Clean-Up Day (sixth year running!) when the entire country gets out and cleans up various areas and picks up garbage, and our (former) children’s playground was selected as one of 3 municipally sponsored playgrounds for reconstruction (here’s a look at the old neighbourhood before clean-up and reconstruction; around 5.30 you can see the bestest carousel ever, never seen one with such smooth motion, no joke).
Anyway we were (I was) cutting the shrubbery in one area, on co-operative land, and the lady who lives on the first floor came out and started yelling at us (apparently we killed her roses, haha, we didn’t even TOUCH them) and called the cops, who came, saw, checked the paperwork, shrugged and left (with the advice to not get involved with her and to avoid conflict). Later, I was clearing out the last few branches when she came back out onto the balcony yelling at me (in Russian, which I don’t understand and chose to ignore), and then she threw about 3 or 4 buckets of water on me (I consider it my anti-baptism). One of her neighbours came out later and told us that she is in some sect that has made her into a zombie and not to pay attention to her, that she was probably a witch, so I expect she cursed me, too.
The biggest joke is on her, though – it’s a rainy day, so I already had my raincoat on. Ha! Photo proof, picture 24 – I’m that slight shade of blue you can see behind the bushes.
All in all it was a good time and the yard out there looks absolutely excellent.
I’m so not caught up on anything else in this thread. Hope I’m not missing anything important!
Mitt Romney promotes “quiver full of kids”:
Quote above is excerpted from this Salt Lake Tribune article.
rq:
Happy birthday. Sounds like a memorable present!
rq – Chrome translation calls that page “Greater part in the rescue of 85000 people”. ?
I’m trying not to obsess about my own stupid first world problems, but I’m having trouble not doing that. Has anybody here had experience with laser surgery for glaucoma? I guess I’m going to be doing that, and although everything I read indicates it’s a totally minor routine thing with few side effects, I’m still a bit freaked out by the entire thing, not least because the doctor was so hurried that he didn’t even tell me whether it would be in one or both eyes, never mind what type of glaucoma it is or what stage it’s at. So I’ve just been alternating between “fuck, this sucks” and “shut up, I have insurance and it got caught super early” for the last day. Plus I’m cranky because my eyes still hurt from the last set of tests yesterday. So I’m just whining.
*all the hugs for Carlie*
*calming manatees*
*baby sloths offering hibiscus flowers*
This.
@451
On April 15th a Saudi national was hospitalized as one of those injured in the Boston bombing. TheBlaze and the New York Post wrongly described the Saudi national as a suspect. He was never a suspect. The wounded man was interviewed and cleared of any involvement. Once TheBlaze had identified him as a suspect, Beck stayed on that wrong track.
On April 17th anti-Islam activist Steve Emerson claimed on Fox News that he “just learned from my own sources that he [Alharbi] is now going to be deported on national security grounds next Tuesday, which is very unusual.” This was incorrect.
On April 18th, Glenn Beck picked up the Emerson faux facts and added them as “proof” to its own conspiracy theory as outlined in TheBlaze. Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano tried to put this false info down, saying she was “unaware of anyone who is being deported for National Security concerns at all related to Boston. I don’t know where that rumor came from.” Source and more details, including most of Napolitano’s comments, from the right: <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2013/04/18/napolitano-deportation-of-saudi-national-is-a-rumor/"Daily Caller link.
Later on April 18th, after Napolitano had answered questions from Representative Jeff Duncan (R-SC), Beck again repeated deportation claim.
On April 18th, Jake Tapper of CNN reported on the “confusion and misreporting regarding the Boston Marathon bombing and two Saudi nationals.” Source
BuzzFeed reported “The rumor that a 20-year-old Saudi Arabian national on a student visa who was questioned after the Boston bombing has been deported is false, a senior law enforcement official said on Thursday.
“The rumor is one hundred percent false,” the official said. “One hundred percent false. Just like [the report of] the suspect in custody yesterday.”
About two hours after Beck’s later April 18th pronouncement, Bret Baier of Fox News reported that the Saudi national was “neither a suspect nor is he being deported.”
On April 23, Baier took the time to explain all of the confusion and to refute again Beck’s theory. He repeated that the Saudi national was found to be a victim, and that “he had been cleared of any wrongdoing and had been taken off the No-Fly List.” Baier’s report. Note that I am giving you right-wing sources to debunk Beck. These are not “liberal” media sources looking to skewer right-wing pundits.
Other news sources, even Fox News, have corrected their reporting. TheBlaze has not.
Here is one debunking source from the left: little green footballs link.
And here is a debunking article from International Business Times. Excerpt:
More info regarding ChasCPeterson’s question @451:
Christian Science Monitor article from Peter Grier.
Excerpt:
Sorry for messing up the Daily Caller link in my post @461. Here it is again:
http://dailycaller.com/2013/04/18/napolitano-deportation-of-saudi-national-is-a-rumor
Walton – you’re the best, thank you. :) (smiles and hugs)
More info regarding ChasCPeterson’s question @451. You think Glenn Beck’s questions in the email to Congress “sound like pretty good questions,” and that his request for an investigation is reasonable? You are dead wrong. This source Dead State is appropriate here.
Excerpt:
Please note that all the usual suspects pushed Beck’s faux facts, thus making it harder to back down when the story was debunked. Breitbart.com, World Net Daily and Infowars all have a reputation, and that reputation is for getting almost everything wrong.
Double down on the misinformation, and invite one of the dunderheads to appear on your radio show to help you double down. Par for the course.
Parsnip needs well wishes. He’s constipated so much he isn’t wanting to eat and he’s a bit dehydrated. Getting some SQ fluids.
More info regarding ChasCPeterson’s question @451.
Here is journalist Steve Benen on befuddled Beck.
Oh no – but if Parsnip needs attention, he couldn’t have a more competent and dedicated attendant than you, rowanvt.
WOOT! CLEARED FOR OUTSIDES!
And of course the first thing she does is run to my door.
Completely off of all topics:
Sometimes a personal victory can be something so minor, so at-odds the reality of most people, that there is almost no way for me to describe it except here.
I presented four interpretive tours today to a total of about 200 people. On the first tour was group of 45 people — a cub scout pack from another state. Adults, parents, pack leaders, siblings, lots of cameras. And when I saw the blue and yellow uniforms I knew what was coming. I knew I could hold it off to the end of the programme, but I knew I was going to have a panic attack or some other stress reaction. I kept it buried for the first programme and knew that I just had to do my job, not let my weakness take over.
And I didn’t have a panic attack. No stress reaction. No flashbacks. Only the uncomfortable feeling that something was coming.
After my fourth tour, I grabbed a cigar and went for a walk (well, with my knee acting up, it was more of a limp) and headed out of the office to a secluded area where I could break down in private. And it never happened.
These are things that are, for me, major triggers — the uniforms, the cameras, younger siblings, adults taking photos of the scouts. And I wasn’t weak. I was lucky enough to not set myself off.
Which I consider a minor personal victory.
Were it me, I’d consider it more than minor.
This is Moment of Mormon Fundamentalist Madness. After FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs was arrested and jailed for having sex with underage girls, his compound in Hilldale/Colorado City on the Utah/Arizona border was part of a financial dispute that wound its way through the courts for several years.
Recently, Willie Jessop, a former spokesman for the cult bought the property. Jessop is now allowing the public to tour the place. Some of the construction details and other evidence raise more red flags about the cult over which Warren Jeffs still nominally presides, and about his lifestyle or “perversions.”
Excerpts from an article in the Salt Lake Tribune:
Photo gallery available at the link.
Hooray for Ogvorbis!!
And yay for WMDkitty‘s kitty!
Thanks, Chris.
I’ve been kinda depressed for the last month or two (or more (since the Paul meltdown (whenever that was))) with my brain finding ways to blame me. When I saw the scouts, I was certain that this was going to go bad (for me — I have managed to maintain my professionalism, delaying the triggering by doing what I do for a living and love). When it didn’t (well, it hasn’t yet and its been six hours), it was such a load off my shoulders.
I still look at it as a minor victory over my weakness. A major one would be to not expect to be triggered by innocent activities.
Oggie
Yay for “never happened”
That is really something.
A measles epidemic in Wales can be laid at the door of the anti-vax movement.
Slate link.
Guardian link.
*cheers for Ogvorbis*
It’s not a minor victory at all – just a matter of context. We open our eyes every day, right? So do cats. Yet Parsnip up there opening his eyes is a landmark, and a matter for small but heartfelt celebration. (And a testament to rowanvt’s dedication and care, no matter what happens next… *tangential hugs*)
So Oggie, if you can’t be proud of this victory right now, I hope you don’t mind that we’re proud of you, for you. Let this be the first of many such moments of nothing happening, which eventually blur together and become commonplace.
*hugs and solidarity for Ogvorbis* Depression and panic attacks are the worst. Sorry you’re going through this.
Rescued dog walks on four prosthetic paws (lots of pics)
Lynna, thanks for the replies. @#461:
That’s techincally correct but misleading. He was brought to the hospital under guard by police who had been alerted to his reportedly odd behavior for the purpose of continued questioning.
‘Wrongly’? Not true, depending on what you think the word “suspect” means. What it means is somebody who is suspected of invovement in a crime; that’s all it means. This guy was under enough suspicion that a federal search warrant was obtained for his apartment. I don’t think that happened to any other ‘witnesses’.
True, after the FBI searched his apartment and interviewed his roommate, and after the Saudi consulate had gotten involved.
This is misleading to the point of incorrect. See above.
[all this stuff about deportation is irrelevant to my questions]
..which means that he had in fact been placed on that list.
So the process to revoke his visa did get started (but was misreported as deportation procedings?) because he was placed on the no-fly list, which means that the visa-revocation was not because he had been designated a terrorist. OK. But the question was about why he was placed on the list in the first place. A different question, see.
This contradicts nothing Beck alleged in the relevant quote @#450.
@#462:
aha. There’s the official (or officials’) story; thanks.
If that’s true, it seems like overkill, as the guy was laid up in the hospital under police guard with apparently pretty severe leg injuries at the time…but better safe than sorry. I guess.
it sure is. Especially when officials have been so trustworthy and truthful all along.
I said “taken at face value”–meaning if the ostensible facts were true–they would be pretty good questions, and then I questioned the ostensible facts. I never said anything about any investigation. Please argue with what I type and post and not with what you think might be in my head.
Sorry, which of Beck’s facts are faux, again? The deportation thing? That’s not one of the ones I asked about. Here, let me refresh your memory of the quote YOU posted:
OK? These, see, are the ostensible facts I am explicitly interested in: Did the documents that put him on the no-fly list (just in case, I understand) designate him as a terrorist with reference to the Bostom bombing, or not? Was that designation later deleted before he was removed from the list altogether? Was he put on the list before or after the FBI search of his apartment? Unfortunately, none of your “debunking” quotes have addressed any of the questions I actually asked about.
That much, at least, is obvious official revisionist bullshit. Federal search warrant?
@#466:
? That link has absolutely nothing to do with my questions @#451. I did not question whether or not Beck or his fans are full of crap in general, nor about his conspiracy theories writ large. I asked ONLY about the specific ostensible facts you posted @#450.
Reading comprehension, people. It would have saved poor Lynna a lot of time here.
Lynna,
FLDS should act as a trigger warning for me, yet reading about them still leaves me black and shocked.
And some following, (Well preceding, but I am reading from the bottom) brightness. Hugs for Ogvorbis.
50 Great Jon Stewart Quotes
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Happy birthday, rq!
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bluentx, your link on religious racism in Texas proved very useful to me, just now. My oldest and dearest Meatspace friend is a Methodist minister’s wife, and she is distressed that the Methodist church in this area (regionally?) is likely to split into 2 groups over homosexuals and marriage and church offices. I’ve been pointing out to her that religions change over time—they have to—or drop into irrelevancy as society changes. It’s a bit of an uphill slog. At one point I mentioned the earlier use of the Bible to justify slavery and anti-miscegenation laws, and how churches split over that—and now, I can point to the (hopefully withering, but still extant) vestige of that once commonplace practice.
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*sappy hug* for Beatrice.
Each of us is weird, in our own peculiar way.
;)
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Is it Dalillama’s birthday as well, and I missed that, too? Happy birthday!
(I blame the Diminishment of the Faculties.)
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*hugs* for carlie.
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Poor Parsnip! He’s certainly having a tough time of it.
*very gentle ear rubs* for Parsnip, to go with my best wishes.
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Ogvorbis, that was a pretty damned good-sized personal victory, if you ask me, which you didn’t, but I’m gonna tell you anyway.
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ogvorbis
That’s great to hear! Congratulations on a significant victory there. Also *hugs* if desired.
Cicely
You didn’t miss it, I didn’t mention it at the time.
rq
Nope, the 24th, so you’re 2 days after.
Beatrice
*hugs* If it helps, you don’t seem any weirder than anyone else around here.
Things here are improving somewhat, thankfully.
Scritches for parsnip and Gracie.
chas
If you insist on continuing to white knight for Glenn Beck, kindly take it to the ‘Dome.
Chas, this is not the appropriate thread for JAQing off.
Ogvorbis, great news some stressors didn’t cause panic attack. As we said back in the day, “keep on
trucking[limping]”Still no appetite from the Parsnip. Taking home a large syringe of 50% dextrose to supplement with and continuing tiny kitten enemas to see if I can dislodge the clog up. He’s a little lethargic and I’m very very worried about him. :/
This is the sucky thing about bottle baby kittens. They can be doing fine, and then keel over with no warning.
Ogvorbis
So glad to hear about your Victory. Sending a big *hug* your way.
May these victories become commonplace.
Happy Birthday Dalillama!
Hope you had a very good birthday. : )
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Happy Birthday rq!
So you got doused and cursed by a zombie who is also a witch? Damn! You get all the fun! ; )
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Thank You to whoever left the link for – ‘If The Game of Thrones Used the theme from Friends’.
I sent it to a fan of GOT. It was a big hit! : )
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Beatrice, You are just plain awesome. No doubt about it. *hugs for your awesomeness*
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opposablethumbs
Hooray for both spawns awesome news!!
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Portia
How come? Doesn’t your dry cleaner deserve to have work for which he is handsomely paid?
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rowanvt
Serious squee from your parsnip pictures. Sorry he is not feeling well. : (
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thumper1990
Your ‘I’m an Atheist, mate.’ story made my eyes cross. ; )
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FossilFishy
YAY for House progress!!
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WMDKitty
YAY for Gracie’s outdoor adventures!
Thank you, cicely. :) I’m watching for your mint – it’s not quite up yet, but if I scratch around at the leaf cover I can sort of smell it.
Made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies with a buttload of ground flaxseed. The kids ate them. Ha!
(except they turned out too crunchy, so now I have to figure out a chewy remake)
*eyeroll*
That’s seriously what you think I’m doing?
Again: read-ing com-pre-hen-sion.
I recommend it.
ditto.
[Your claims are that it’s inappropriate to respond in The Lounge to a comment posted in The Lounge?
Because that’s just bizarre. Check teh rulez.
Chas, please take it to the Dome. I have spent all day non-stop on my feet at work and trying to squeeze in life-saving measures for my kitten. I get to be up every hour or two for all of tonight giving dextrose, administering enemas, and attempting to get Parsnip to eat a decent amount, which he has not in over 12 hours at this point. He is effectively trying to die. I absolutely cannot handle your nitpicky-ness and inability to ever admit that your treasured sources can sometimes get things wrong, or partly wrong, or muddled.
If I have to watch my kitten die, I do not want to have it be with your walls of text as a background to it.
CENTIPEDE ALERT
first one since the weather turned warmer
freaking out
can’t find it
winter i’m sorry about all the bad things i said about you please come back i miss you
Did I mention I’m in my bed? There’s an unaccounted-for centipede IN MY BED.
Oggie:
You are not weak, nor have you ever been.
Big cheers for your victory over the trauma.
*hugs*
Beatrice:
*hug*
I feel the same way :)
ednaz:
I don’t send my shirts to the cleaner, it feels too extravagant when the washing machine will do just fine. So the not-ironing them feels slobbish sometimes, haha.
You are aggressively, combatively nitpicking factual statements by other commenters while bending over backwards to extend charity to the unsupported claims of a habitual liar, and sneering like a Disney villain the entire time. “White knighting” is a bit charitable as a description of your behavior here, frankly.
That is not even a remotely honest reading of the bit you blockquoted. WIllfully dishonest misrepresentation of someone’s position is inconsistent with…
…the following:
as is your level of condescension, your repeated sneers about “reading for comprehension,” and your willful misrepresentation of others’ complaints.
This is also damn condescending. Inconsistent with “safe space” and politeness.
Portia
I get you. : )
I was trying to say it’s o.k. to not iron.
I get tender hearted when I think people are giving themselves a hard time.
I hope this comes across o.k.
Portia
If you want, I can locate your centipede and beam him to my house. Centipedes don’t bother me. : )
Spiders, on the other hand, completely freak me out.
rowanvt
I am sorry Parsnip is not feeling well. : (
Good morning
carlie
Hmm, I guess it’s the wind and the climate, too, but maybe it also has something to do with how houses are built over here vs. the USA (just a guess). I think our archetypical “house” is quite different.
cooking disasters
I burnt many things but I never set any food on fire (except when that was the goal). But I once burned my eyebrows off when there was a big whooosh at the camping stove. But I blame that on Mr. who ddn’t connect the gas tubes propperly.
beatrice
I consider that a feature of the person I came to like quite a lot over the years [/more sappiness]
Tony
You’re right. I was thinking about it along the line that if you really have the bestest justice system in the world (as those people usually tell us), then you should be confident that it deals with them adequatly. I guess their level of dehumanization is just not easily achieved even for the sake of understanding what’s going on by me.
rq
There are such clean-ups on state, city and community level. The one in our neighbourhood is called “subbotnik”
Happy birthday, Dalillama!
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Ogvorbis,
*hugs* and congrats on your victory.
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Oh no, Parsnip isn’t well. Fingers crossed that your efforts help him, rowanvt!
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Portia,
I started writing a comment “As long as it’s not in your bedroom…” but then I read your next one. O.O
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*hugs* to all