Monday, 13 May 2024
Life, the universe, pies, hot-pink bunnies, world domination, and everything
The Islamic New Year falls on the first day of the month of Muharram. This year it’s November 27 of the Gregorian calendar.
Continued from Part One.
Date: November 20, 2011
Categories: At the Top of the Blog, Random craziness
Preeeetty.
So today I’m going to spend a few hours curled up in front of a fireplace at the library, and then come back and paint a TARDIS on the inside of my door (the outside being already occupied by the door to Moria.
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Ooh, shiny new picture!
I’m not looking forward to the nine-and-a-half hour motor home ride I have to take on Wednesday. >.<
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Is it normal to feel like you don’t have a gender?
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Yup! Though I don’t think it is particularly average to do so, you sure aren’t the only one. I don’t feel particularly gendered either. There are other people who feel that they don’t have a gender, but there are few of them compared to others.
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Says the AVEN wiki: “Agender (also referred to as “gender-neutral”) is a term used to describe persons with neither a female or male gender. This person can be any physical sex, but their body does not necessarily correspond with their lack of gender identity.”
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Repost:
I accidentally a revolution.
Don’t start singing For What It’s Worth around Occupyers.
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I love the sparkly new picture! Blue… shiny… *drools*
Anyhow, I was recently reminded of a humorous post I made a while ago about the whole voices in my head jokes. Somehow, I can’t seem to find it anymore. Does anyone remember which thread it was on? I think it might still have been MB1 but I’m not sure.
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bookgirl,
It might have been either
https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=4546#comment-341339
or
https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1635#comment-344706 .
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It was the former. Yet again, the GAPAs work wonders 
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It’s one of the advantages of being disembodied aggregations of electrons.
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Next story I write featuring sentient holograms, AIs or ecto-electrical ghosts (Like Technus from Danny Phantom), I want to use that line.
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It’s very pretty, I agree!
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I’d shout ‘Third Post’ like I was going to but that was this morning and I still haven’t posted this comment…
I’m teaching my sister alto sax, but her hands aren’t big enough. Her palms keep hitting the palm keys on the side whenever she reaches for the top three pearl keys. How do I fix this? My best idea so far is stuffing the fingertips of some gloves so that they’ll be extensions for her fingers to reach the keys.
The other idea was making key extenders out of duct tape, but I had to use painter’s tape to put them on and I couldn’t get the right fulcrum to press the keys.
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Teach her sopranino sax instead? 
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It’s a lot harder to get a note out when you’re a beginner, and even when you’ve been playing for a while it’s hard to be in tune with good tone.
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This weekend I’ve pretty much just played music. And sang. And played more music, and then sang some more.
And went to a play and attended a live art performance and played more music.
My life is awesome.
Yesterday Colin and I played celtic music in the hallway for about 5 hours straight, and were joined by one of the other Colins towards the end. Then today I had a chorale concert, then played violin and bassoon duets, then did shape-note singing for two hours.
Basically you should envy me a lot, because my weekend was the greatest ever.
Aaaaand I’m toying with the idea of starting a regular community singing session here on campus. If I don’t do that though, I’m going to see about getting involved with a group that’s in Asheville. And also seeing if I can lasso some friends to come along with.
The Fern is happy.
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Shape-note!!!
Are you singing Sacred Harp or something else?
Have you heard of Tim Eriksen?
He taught me to sing.
Fun times.
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I feel so unproductive. I have an Microeconomics test tomorrow. I just finished my weekly homework for that class, and I really don’t think I know the material as well as I ought. And I have two papers to write. And homework to do. And dinner to make, and laundry, and I don’t feel like doing anything–just moping. Just lock myself away in my room and mope and feel apathetic and waste more time. But I’ve been doing that the whole weekend basically, and I had better get started with real stuff. I just don’t want to . My brain is slow and thinking at all makes me grumpy.
…This should probably go on the rants and plaints thread, shouldn’t it. Oh, and we need a new one of those. There are nearly 700 comments.
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Right you are. It’s hard for us to keep up, too.
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TOPIC OF DISCUSSION:
Samwise Gamgee: Hufflepuff or Gryffindor? Go.
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Definitely Hufflepuff. He’s got loyalty oozing out of every pore in his body, and he definitely seemed unafraid of toil when he was carrying Frodo up Mt. Doom. I think his courageous acts were more out of loyalty than bravery.
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I think he’s quite brave. Loyal, very. But I don’t think he acted on loyalty alone. Nah, I’d put him in Gryffindor. He IS a hard worker, but still. I have the feeling that’s where he’d be most comfortable, and the Hat does of course take personal feelings into account.
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Personally, I’m with Piggy on this one. He’s incredibly brave, of course, but I think it mostly stems from loyalty, and because of that he’s a Hufflepuff.
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I agree. I could see him as a hat stall, but personally, I think he’s a bit more Hufflepuff than Gryffindor. He’s do well in either, though.
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I agree with Piggy.
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THIS IS CREEPY I was watching RotK twenty minutes ago and arguing about this with my mom. I’d put him in Hufflepuff, I think.
What about Smeagol?
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Smeagol or Gollum? They’re technically two different beings. Smeagol, before he was corrupted by the ring, I’d put in Hufflepuff. He and many of his kind lived kind of lazily, but they weren’t unintelligent or anything if I remember correctly. Gollum is an obvious Slytherin. Before people say that he helped at the end (covering my bases here) keep in mind that first, he only did that to be with the ring and second, any of the good things that he did were all coming from the Smeagol side of his personality. Gollum was pure evil, the embodiment of the ring. Smeagol was innocent and unfortunate, but fought against Gollum.
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Doesn’t Tolkien imply that before the 500-odd years of living with the ring had changed it Smeagollum was a hobbit?
I’m pretty sure that it isn’t as separated as you’re saying: Smeagol and Gollum are two different sides of the same person, not two different people, and so should be judged as one person, not two. I mean, you say “any of the good things that he did were all coming from the Smeagol side of his personality” but I mean you could say that about anyone, that all their good things come from their good side.
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Yes. He was one of three types of Hobbitses, the Stoors. They’re fairly large and chunky and known for being fishermen.
But Smeagol suffered from multiple identity disorder. His two sides (good and evil, Smeagol and Gollum) were both there, but the ring accentuated his evil side and corrupted him enough so that he was essentially two different minds in one body. The evil side, which was so corrupted by the ring that it was barely attached to Smeagol at all, was dominant for most of Gollum’s 589-year life. If he was about 40 when he found the ring, that would mean that the ring had 550 years or so to corrupt him and alter his personality enough to more or less become an entirely different mind.
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Smeagol.
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We had a WISE floor event where we went to see this researcher in the Life Sciences building who studies cell death in the ovaries of fruit flies. She showed us her microscope slides, which are treated with phosphorescent chemicals to glow and look very beautiful and Tron-ish. It was a very fascinating presentation, I must say.
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Oh! My friend’s mom works in that general area of science! I got to see… some sort of moths, I believe; I’m sure I’ll remember later… mating. It was quite exciting.
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Paper is done! Soon my room will be clean again.
I feel like writing papers really shouldn’t be this hard – it’s probably because I’m not having to do it often enough. I really didn’t practice this weekend and it’s making me feel all jittery and annoyed and on edge and tired and shaky. I can’t decide whether getting withdrawal symptoms from not practicing violin is a good or a bad thing..
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I meant to say that i was super happy to see Alice here again but then I think I forgot to hit post and now there is a new thread
oops. HI Alice!
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When I clicked the Random Page button, it took me to the Robert’s Secret Identity page, which led me to a podcast involving Robert talking about advances in space science.
Robert, you are awesome.
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Awestruck, more like it. There’s so much more out there than one person can ever understand — and I don’t even try to cover biology. But I’m glad that you enjoyed the podcast.
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What’s especially awesome is that Robert can explain things in such a way that more people who might have missed out otherwise can understand enough to be awestruck, too.
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The flourish of music that follows him makes it sound like he vanished in a little puff of pixie dust.
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I liked the piano music before he came on, too. It sounded like something you might hear just as the hero entered the dark and creepy cellar, but before the horrific monster leapt out of the closet at him.
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Any MBers out there who read the Washington Post? If so, please turn to [paws rapidly through pages] page G4! You will find there an article about microloaning. Now, have any of you Washington-Posters read the May/June 2007 issue of Muse? If so, you will know why I am excited. (For those of you who haven’t, there was an article about microloaning there too.)
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I love it when that happens. It’s a well-known fact in my family (and probably other Muser families as well) that whenever my parents say, “Hey, have you heard about [topic]? It’s-“, I’ll interrupt with, “Oh, yeah, I read about that in Muse!”
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I do that to nearly everyone I know. it annoys my sister so much.
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Oh, the one about whatshisname who won the Nobel Prize for starting micro loaning in Bangladesh? I still have that…
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Muhammad Yunus (Grameen Bank). I remember that article too!
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I think he was in mental_floss as well.
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Vampire Weekend on repeat this disgusting, grey Monday morning. “Here comes the feeling you thought you’d forgotten…” If that feeling is sad, empty and lonely, then that’s accurate.
Also, musical auditions are today after school. I’m not hoping for anything, but I do love the songs! Nerves are on edge.
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Robert, you’re in D.C., right? I should pay you a visit next time I’m in the area. I’ve never been to D.C., I think it’s about time.
I was rather curious about you, so I did the sensible stalker-y thing and googled your name. I got a Navy admiral who shares your name and your Linkdin. You’re quite impressive.
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I work in D.C., but I live across the river in Alexandria, Virginia. Several MBers and their parents have met me, and I’m always happy to lengthen the list.
Admiral Coontz was my great-grandfather, who died in 1935. My grandfather and father were naval officers, too, but I decided it would be unimaginative to follow in their footsteps. Among them, they had done just about about everything there was to do in the Navy, so I tried other things.
I don’t mind being googled, but take care: “Robert Coontz” isn’t as unusual a name as you might think. There’s a Robert Coontz in Paris who isn’t me, and a (former?) school superintendent in Los Angeles, and a fair number of others floating around. They all seem like reputable people, but I can’t take credit for their achievements.
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Ooh, pretty picture…*pokes*
Don’t have much else to say other than that.
fishi-It’s disgusting and grey here too. I’m listening to LIGHTS.
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13- Hello, oxlin!
A lovely thing about having all morning classes is that by 1:40 I’m completely done for the day (except on Wednesdays, when I have T-Lab from 4 to 5). Unfortunately, hardly anyone else finishes until considerably later so I’m just kind of sad and alone.
On the subject of the Lord of the Rings discussion going on a few posts up, I just finished watching the movies again last night/this morning. So much Tolkein love in my heart. I think I will reread them over winter break…
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So I watched the video “Coming Back Down To Our Fragile Oasis” that astronaut Ron Garan (He who captured the “Best Meteor Ever”), created using time-lapse imagery he took of the Earth from the space station and the Peter Gabriel song “Down to Earth”…
… and it is beautiful beyond words. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
http:// www. youtube. com/watch?v=jEOjDQ439p0&feature=player_ embedded
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That was absolutely amazing, Kai. I’ve never actually seen an aurora, let alone one from space. How did you happen upon this video?
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It was on Mr. Garan’s blog on the main NASA website.
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I think I may have mentioned my economics professor on here once or twice, but in case I haven’t: scary-seeming guy, extremely strict, grew up in a Spanish military family (his dad’s in a main leadership position in the UN), absolutely relentless against anyone that comes in even two seconds late or does so much as think about cell phones. But I’ve really loved the class. He has a good sense of humor, he obviously loves teaching and is extremely devoted to what he does. Today I got another piece of evidence for why he’s probably the best teacher I’ve ever met. Aside from giving 3.3 extra credit points to everyone that came to class today to listen to a guest speaker from the Federal Reserve, he just sent out an email to all his students wishing them a happy Thanksgiving, giving us a link to a list of Black Friday sales, telling us about more extra office hours over the next couple weeks, and thanking us for giving him the opportunity to teach us economics. I don’t know why, but this email really struck a chord in me. I’ve been a little doubtful about why I signed up for his microeconomics course next semester even though it doesn’t count towards any of my requirements, but now I know I made the right decision.
Also I finished my anthro paper that’s a third of my semester grade. Wish me luck, eh? It was dull as heck to write. That is a professor I do not like.
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Good luck. Anthro papers are scary!
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Not this one. It’s about two children’s books. It’s just inane.
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Wish I had your Econ teacher so bad right now. My Microeconomics class is easily the most boring one I’m taking.
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He sounds like he’s a very decent guy. I’m glad you get to take such a worthwhile class!
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42 comments…C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!!!
Does anyone here remember the Spike Pie O’ Doom?
_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_
\____ :evil:____/
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I remember it, though not its origin.
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*headkeyboard* I REMEMBER THAT! *hugs*
I believe it was… IBCF?
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Today I have (so far):
Watched Castle in the Sky
Played Settlers of Catan
Bench pressed
Ran a mile
Next up: Writing and homework!
I feel accomplished.
(oh and I went to class somewhere in there too.)
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At what point today did you see me flying?
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I really, really want to make a Castle in the Air reference here, but it’s been months since I’ve read it, I don’t remember it well enough! If anyone else can think of a clever way to refer to it, well, here’s the catalyst idea.
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Very good day!
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I just returned from visiting my grandmother. She was in a very negative mood, which for her that means getting the idea that I used rude language to her (I didn’t, so I don’t know if she really just misheard or was delusional) and insulting my reading material in a way that was just rude that she just wouldn’t do normally (She has both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, so unfortunately, these things happen sometimes), and also she isn’t feeling at all well physically, although she’s at least allowing people to treat her (She sometimes doesn’t), but afterward, we ate at a delicious Asian restaurant. I have a lot of food allergies and sensitivities, and it’s a long story that ought to be over by now that I can explain tomorrow if you want, but I haven’t eaten at a restaurant in over a year. This was wonderful, and I’m feeling fine so far! They had to make a new sauce, but other than that I could just have the regular dish, although I asked for added mushrooms! It just felt excellent to be able to eat food there. It’s not eating at a restaurant that’s so great in and of itself; it’s just that in the past year, I couldn’t eat at one even if I wanted to, which is hardly fair. I hope I can do it again sometime soon.
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My bat mitzvah was called off at the last minute because my great-grandfather, who I didn’t actually know was still alive, died.
The timing kind of disturbs me.
But now I have only one side of the family to appease, which is good.
Oh, and in other-side-of-the-family news:
I’M GOING TO INDIA!!!!!!!!
This summer. For two weeks. My aunt- the really awesome one, mother of the really awesome cousin- invited me to go with them.
India!
You know, I always complain about India, but still. Traveling. Asia. I’ve missed Asia. This is going to be so fun.
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Congrats!
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Next time I’m not going to let my friend drag me to something like Breaking Dawn, even on her birthday. /much regret
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Casting game! If I were someone in any movie or book series or anything, who would I be?
I’ve been called Ivy from the Dresden Files before. Any other ideas?
Any ideas on who other MBers are?
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Bibliophile kind of reminds me of Ginny Weasley.
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Really? That’s interesting. I’ve always thought of myself as more of a cross between Hermione and Luna, but I dressed up as Ginny to go to a party at a bookstore when the 6th book came out the midnight after my 9th (I think?) birthday. Everyone said I should have been Hermione, though. Thanks for saying this here; it’s interesting to think about…
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Maths Lover (previous thread)-How is the situation with Epsilon and Beta?
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I feel like my mental thread is slowly deteriorating and fraying, kind of like my brain is collapsing on itself, you know? I’m fighting to stay awake and to pay any attention.
Maybe this will be better when I get more than four hours of sleep a night…oops.
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I’d say it’s definitely worth a try.
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I have nothing to do on Tuesdays.
Tomorrow I’m going to visit my family! After class, of course. And today I am modelling for a friend’s art project and have rehearsal. Also, I am doing laundry. And should probably finish “The Defense of Guenevere” at some point. And I want to go back to Special Collections.
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Chem test over
Comp sci test over
signed up on anthropology wait list
called the professor who is hopefully sponsoring my winter term project
still need to stop by his house to get a form signed
oh god I should have asked him when a good time to stop by is why didn’t I think of that earlier
herp derp derp maybe I can get a friend to walk there with me and I’ll feel less awkward/alone
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On Thursday, I’m going to see my brothers again for the first time since August! It’ll be so great! I miss them so much!
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NEW CAR
AND IT HAS WI-FI
MIND BLOWN
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Your car has WiFi?!
Okay, my mind is blown too.
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Cars can have Wi-Fi?… okay, or maybe I’m just a bit technologically behind.
Anyways, muselover, congrats!
*faints from being mindblown*
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Yeah! So if you ever see an Audi driving by you and start getting a signal from LEXUSWIFI2, that’s us. (The network name is a long story too.)
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WHAT.
WHAT.
I DON’T EVEN.
WHAT.
*BRAIN EXPLOSION*
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My mind just exploded with ENVY
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My great-uncle passed away this morning. I’ve been expecting this for a while now, but it doesn’t really make it any easier. I’m glad he’s not suffering for any longer, I am, but still. It’s just so weird to think that I’ll never hear his voice again or see him or talk to him. He is going to be missed.
I haven’t talked to my mom yet. She’s still in New York City, where she has been for the past few weeks, with him. I don’t know how she’s doing. I was close to him, but she was closer. He was her uncle, and I think he’s had a strong influence on both of our lives. We’re going to New York in a week to attend a memorial service for him. I’m not sure how well I’m going to make it through the next week.
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My sympathies are with you and your family. Best wishes. *hugs*
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Thank you.
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I’m sorry. It’s so hard to lose relatives; I’ll be thinking of you. *hugs and squid*
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Would anyone be willing to play chess with me?
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Yup.
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Right, can I take on Tess, and then the winner plays Biblio? It’s okay, I’m not too great either, but chess is fun.
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Choklit Orange: Do you have an account? I can’t find you.
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…Can I play the loser instead?
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Ahoy, Choklit Orange! To play chess, you need an account. I don’t think you have one yet. Let me know if it’s disguised under another name, please.
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So would I, but I’m horrible at it.
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Has anybody seen any good fem!11 art and/or fics around?
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Can we have Wright Brothers Day (December 17) on the calendar, p*ease?
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Thanksgiving Break
nothing to do but homework
maybe I should finish all that and start a new novel.
/headache from cold weather
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Hey guys! I have a couple book/story recommendations for you. The Copperroof War by Megan Arkenberg is a wonderful short story available online! Kalpa Imperial by Angelica Gorodischer describes an empire as it rises and falls through the voices of a series of storytellers. It is a novel available for purchase at the usual sorts of places. Anything by Theodora Goss (she’s my favorite short story writer). The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner is a fantastic book about a girl sent to train to use a sword in the city.
Anyways. Today has been pretty uneventful but my friend is coming to visit!
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I just had the most wonderful week and a half. I had a massive, 15+page research paper due last Friday in my Environment & Society class (I wrote it about ship breaking in Bangladesh), and I was really stressed about it for a long time. My friend and I (she’s also in the class) decided that we would set page goals every day for the two weeks before it was due, and if we got our work done by 10pm, we would go on a woods walk. We managed to go on a walk almost every day! Sometimes, we finished earlier in the day, too, so we could go when it was still light out. My friend showed me this beautiful place in the woods where there was a marsh and ducks and a sunset and red berries. For the first time ever, I was actually a little sad to go home for Thanksgiving break because I wanted to stay at school and explore the woods and write a paper.
Alice (19): Hello, too! I also have mostly morning classes, which I really like. That leaves me with a big stretch of time in the afternoons for intense library time, piano practicing, naps, or woods walks/bike rides/whatever else I want to do. I sometimes find it hard to be able to focus on anything if I know I have class in 30 minutes and will have to stop halfway through, so the long afternoon is helpful for me in terms of efficiently using my time. But yes! Most of my friends have more afternoon classes, which definitely makes it quiet.
oxlin (23): Settlers and Miyazaki and exercise, what a wonderful day!
(39): Thank you! I have added them to my list. Hopefully I’ll get to one over winter break!
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Tell me what you think if you do get a chance to read them!
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Will do! Your book suggestions are always high on my list.
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Mars is bright tonight.
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The red sun rises. Blood has been spilled this night
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LEGOLAS
WHAT DO YOUR ELF EYES SEE
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THEY’RE TAKING THE HOBBITS TO ISENGARD!
(has anyone seen the music video for that?
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THE HOBBITS THE HOBBITS THE HOBBITS THE HOBBITS TO ISENGARD, TO ISENGARD!
(did you know there’s a ten-hour version? O_O)
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TELL ME WHERE IS GANDALF
FOR I MUCH DESIRE TO SPEAK WITH HIM
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STUPID
FAT
HOBBIT!
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WHAT’S TATERS, EH? PO-TAY-TOES
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My friend does that song sometimes.
FOREVER.
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“We’ve heard,” said Hagrid grumpily.
Also, you all are wonderful.
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You’re lucky it isn’t cloudy where you live.
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Finals, I am done with them! Now I can laze and draw a ton, and maybe actually do something moderately productive.
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Sleep is the best thing that ever existed.
LOOK OUT WORLD, HERE I COME
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Thanksgiving Break Boredom = writing letters, starting a journal, drawing pictures as upcoming Christmas presents, planning out new novel, doing homework somehow in the middle of it all.
Meanwhile still not getting enough sleep. How did I accidentally stay up till 1:30 again?…
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Well, I organized all of my Muse magazines in chronological order, just to prove I’m not a hoarder because I know where everything is. Anyways, I have issues dating back to 2006. 2006. I’ve been getting muse ever since I was about 9. SUDDEN REALIZATION. 
Also, I am missing the May/June 2009 issue for some reason. Anyone know what it was about? Did I miss anything super-awesome?
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You can check the back-issues page.
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Aw…looks like I did miss some cool stuff. Aliens are sick. Oh, well, I can always ask for it for Christmas.
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Mine are all in chronological order on my bottom bookshelf. My oldest issue is Nov/Dec 2004, but I ordered some older ones off of eBay, so I think I have back to mid-2011.
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Woohoo the beginning of Thanksgiving break. I’m not actually going back to see my family, but one of my friends invited me over to her house.
Anyhow, there will still be stuff for me to do this weekend. I’ve nearly finished watching the first season of Veronica Mars, and I got The HOuse of Leaves from the library and OMG it looks awesome.
IN other news: You know you’re a Harry Potter geek when you spend your lunch contemplating how exactly Metamorphagery is passed down according to the laws of genetics you learned in Bio class.
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I think I’ve mentioned this before, but my friends and I are working on a project for our Biology teacher who has never read Harry Potter, and we’re going to include a pedigree of wizarding genetics along with various other Biology-Harry Potter crossover references. So, I’m with you there! How did you decide it’s passed down?
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I think it’s dominant, but I haven’t been able to establish much beyond that–you?
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I don’t quite think Metamorphmagery is dominant because neither of Tonk’s parents show evidence of it. If it was dominant, and she had to get the gene from somewhere, then one of her parents should be a Metamorphmagus too. I was forced to conclude that it had to be recessive., and Tonk’s parents (and Remus) were all unknowingly carriers.
Now, magic itself, on the other hand, I think is dominant. Not necessarily common within the Muggle population at large a la Huntington’s disease, but enough. Um. I also think that, given this explanation, there would be a higher rate of Squibs in families with Muggle heritage, as heterozygous individuals mate. It would also explain why, when a witch marries a Muggle, for example, the offspring are all witches and wizards.
But wait…there would have to be evidence of magic in the parents of Muggleborns for that. Either some wizards and witches are slipping through the cracks, or…
Or it’s more complicated than pure Mendelian inheritance. Most human genes are like that, actually. Why not magic? If, say, magic was incompletely dominant–and the parents of Muggleborns all had part of necessary gene–Yes, that could work. I’m going with that theory for now.
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That’s a good point… I assumed ‘Meda was one, but you’re right; she wouldn’t look like Bellatrix if she didn’t have to.
I won’t even get into my theory of inheritance of magic; it would take a whole essay. Someone did write one that I agree with, but I don’t think I can post the link…
I wonder what happens if you drink Polyjuice potion with part of a Metamorphmagus in it. I would say you’d look like they did when you removed their body part, but what if that part is, say, a hair, and they’re changing their nose shape at the same time you’re pulling the hair out? Could you temporarily get their powers, or would your nose be in between phases, or…?
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Well, the Polyjuice potion is strictly for human use only, and technically the Metamorphmagus is part animal- ish? So say said Metamorphmagus could turn into a cat… if you plucked one of their hairs you would become… one-quarter cat and stay that way? Like Hermione in book 2, but since she drank the Polyjuice with the hair of a 100% cat and was stuck as 50% cat (rough estimate) for a while, and if you assume that the Metamorphmagus had their hair taken when they were human, what would happen? Because something in their genes must be changeable to let them turn into a cat, right? So…
*has talked self into a corner*
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Wait, could a Metamorphmagus turn themselves into a cat? I thought their changing was limited to different kinds of noses, hairstyles, and other basic physical features.
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OH NO I’VE CONFUSED A METAMORPHMAGUS WITH AN ANIMANGUS; I’M SUCH A TERRIBLE FANGIRL *dies*
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I don’t think I mentioned this before, although I did mention that I was doing MUN, but I got an award for Best Novice in my council at the first MUN conference! Admittedly they were giving out four awards per council, and it was a pretty small conference so we only had 15 people in our council I think? (Only one person in our council, however, was not a novice…) But regardless, it actually came as a total surprise – I was so sure one of my friends was going to get it – so it was really cool to get it.
Also, this should probably go on the NaNoWriMo thread but things are crawling along… I feel myself starting to hit a bit of a wall, as I keep taking breaks and not coming up with new ideas, so I’m going to start putting in some scenes in the future to try to spur some new plot twists, perhaps. I’m a little ashamed to admit I’m only at 25K now… but hopefully this Thanksgiving break will help drastically…
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So, my friend made up this awesome thing called Latin Messaging, where we write what we want to say in our (very limited so some of it is in English) Lating vocabulary. It’s so fun.
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I just peeled 15 pounds of potatoes!
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I only had to peel ten pounds. Food tastes better when you have a part in making it, doesn’t it?
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Indeed.
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KaiYves, I envy your potato-peeling skills.
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I have a phobia of peeling potatoes due to a peeler-related injury.
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Hi! I made it to New York without dying of boredom, and now I’m in the hotel on my uncle’s iPad. 
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Hi! Congratulations!
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I brought my oboe up to my grandparents’ house to practice, since All-District auditions are coming up, but my tone is horrible right now and my phrasing sounds bad and ugh.
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Breathe. No, I’m serious, breathe. Air is everything.
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Yes, definitely. Ennh, maybe I’m not putting enough air through the oboe. Sometimes that happens when I’m not thinking about it.
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Has anyone else watched the TV show Fabric of the Cosmos? It’s on in about 15 minutes as of now on PBS. It’s about really cool stuff, like string theory and time and other such things
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I HAVE A CAT
LIKE A REAL CAT CAT
She’s a brown tabby with quite a lot of white on her. We don’t know what to name her yet, but I’m pushing for Trillian (the shelter sent her home with a towel ^^) or Serenity. Take-my-love-take-my-land Serenity, not WorstStoryEver!Serenity.
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SERENITY PICK SERENITY
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REALLY CONGRATULATIONS
Both your name choices are awesome. You go, *Storm!
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My parents both like Serenity, but my sisters hate anything to do with Firefly. So I’m going to passive-aggressively refer to her as Serenity until they’re forced to accept it. 
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Cats are so awesome. They are my favorite animals ever. I have two of them.
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Hehe. Glassboro has a cat named Serenity!
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NO NAME HER AMELIA!
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Today I may have ridden an elevator with Billie Piper. After looking back and reading up on her current personal life, it probably wasn’t her, but it was a rather odd experience all the same.
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Dropped in from the paralell universe, did she?
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I will do something productive as soon as I figure out what “productive” means. Meanwhile, time to dance around and sing! Whee!
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I am back from southern California! I have wi-fi for the first time in days! (And just got to read all the posts on the Rants & Plaints thread, and oh my god, I love all of you so, so much. *hugs forever* Thank you. I can’t even. Thank you so much.)
We hit up Hearst Castle and I got a great idea for my NaNo, midway through November, which is great timing, really. Maybe I’ll try NaNoWriMo again in December. We also toured USC and UCLA, and I pretty much fell in love with USC’s screenwriting program and then endured a long discussion between my parents with me right in the car about my Other Options For My Life since clearly my chosen career path will never ever work out. (I don’t understand their thought processes, since I definitely have a chance at USC, but whatever.)
I also got to sleep a night at UCLA with my parents’ friends’ daughter, who goes there, which was cool. It was really rainy, so we didn’t really have a chance to go out and do anything fun, but we got to the Getty Museum, which remains my favorite museum ever.
And then Disneyland and Disneyland and Disneyland and Disneyland? Disneyland Disneyland I don’t think you guys understand I really love Disneyland. (I am one of those people who sincerely believes it is the happiest place on earth. Because it is. And there was this color show with fountains and it was so beautiful I was crying and it was raining on my face at the same time? and there were fireworks and it was snowing and the reason I love Disneyland is because when I am there at some perfect balance between too-high blood sugar and having bought lots of merchandise and all the Christmas lights on the trees I can actually believe in magic.
The next day we drove up to UC Santa Barbara and collected my brother! He’s basically the only person who can make me laugh, and it is wonderful to have him home for Thanksgiving.
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I’m jealous that you got to visit Disneyland. I’ve always wanted to go. They say it’s disappointing if you’ve been to Walt Disney World first, but Disneyland is where the magic began!
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Well, I went to Disney World when I was four, and I’ve been to Disneyland three times since then, and I would definitely say that I prefer Disneyland. Disney World has more parks and it’s overall got more spectacle, but Disneyland is just really, incredibly magical.
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Here I am, up after midnight once again. I might not go to bed till 2:30. Don’t tell my mom.
Meanwhile, Thanksgivings! Thanks, everyone! Have lots of warm fuzzy feeling (ahem) and love! Seriously you guys are all too awesome and ahhhhhhh what more do I even need to say
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Intraschool “conference” type thing for MUN tomorrow in school. It doesn’t promise to be anything exciting, I’m guessing just like a typical more-lame-than-real-conference-school-practice, but I’m Israel and one of the topics is the Iranian nuclear programme. This shall be interesting.
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UGHHH
I nearly got a reccomendation from my Districts festival to audition for allstates, but I missed the cutoff by 2 points.
For reference, the cutoff is (if they are using the same scoring system as last year) 1 point below a perfect score (for horns)
And I made the same chair as last year.
And I could have gotten those two points! I just made some stupid accuracy mistakes.
>Enc: rant and complain.
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*squid* I know how you feel about not making count/district/state. Nothing burns more than not making something. Congrats on District, though: it’s hard. I’m aiming for first chair on district, but auditions are tough and always full of regrets. Good job getting that far: horn’s a hard instrument.
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Thanksgiving Break!
Off to Philly to visit relatives and see their new house!
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Happy Thanksgiving, everybloggy!
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Happy Thanksgiving! *distributes slices of pumpkin pie to all MuseBloggers*
Today my six-year-old sister asked if we could watch Star Trek.
I feel like I’ve accomplished something here.
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O_O
Steven Moffat looked into my deepest fears and made everything that I could possibly be terrified of.
I must scream.
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Add in timey-wimey stuff and magic doors and you get the greatest British television writer of all time.
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Happy Thanksgiving from London everybody! Hope you all stuffed yourself with turkey! YouseewhatIdidtherelol? Stuffed. As in stuffing. Like in a turkey. So you are a turkey now. Ha. Okay, I’m too tired and jet-lagged to be posting, so have a great rest-of-the-day everyone!
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I love you, NNP. <3
(We had duck, since my family does not know how to cook turkey. So I am a duck. Quack!)
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I’m a mushroom? Awesome! (I had no turkey or stuffing, but I had stuffed mushrooms).
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I’m now jelly without having eaten any jelly.
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Happy Thanksgiving!
I’m spending the weekend at one of my roommate’s houses, with her boyfriend and our other roommate. And like 26 of her family members in a few hours 
Anyway, chem test is over! Computer science test is over! I am freeeeee ish until I decide to start my computer lab which is due monday. But no more chem studying for another three weeks yaaaay.
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The holidays are nice but…ready for summer.
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Finally awake now! As in, awake awake. Getting up four hours ago to sleepily send the rest of my Thanksgiving letters doesn’t count.
At this rate I might want to consider asking for a regular sleep pattern for Christmas.
Everyone, have a great day!
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My Mom just told me that for a graduation present, I might get to go back to England for a week! (For those of you who don’t know, I lived in the UK for 9 years before moving back to America). Because we have friends there that I could stay with, it would really only be the cost of the airplane tickets, so it would be possible. I’m so excited. xD
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That sounds great! I hope you get that graduation present! :3
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I’m with my grandparents right now; my aunt and cousins came, too. I played Scrabble twice; I won the first time and was only 4 points away from winning the second time! I’ve never won before; I seem to have gotten much, much better in the time it took for me to play again. Oh, and happy Thanksgiving! I’m reading a book about the Mayflower; it’s my step-grandfather’s; he’s a substitute history teacher.
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I thought I’d just drop in to wish everyone Happy Thanksgiving, even if we don’t do it in England. Thanks to Musers and Buffy, I at least have a vague clue what it’s all about. It’s sort of practice for Christmas, isn’t it?
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…No.
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Well, sort of.
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In what way?
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Yep, but with fewer presents.
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It’s more a test of stomach elasticity.
But really, I feel that it’s perhaps the only US holiday that hasn’t been completely perverted by consumerism. It’s stayed true to its roots, more or less. Every other holiday is more of an excuse for stores to put out a bunch of advertisements, but Thanksgiving’s still more of a day to eat food, spend time with your family, and think about what you have to be thankful for. Not a single person I’ve asked was doing anything for Thanksgiving other than spend it with their families. I hope it stays this way.
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But then you get Black Friday…
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Which is tied to Christmas.
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…It is?
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I think it’s still pretty strongly linked to Thanksgiving, as in “day after []” even though it officially kicks off the Christmas shopping season.
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Or with friends, if your family is far away.
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You could have practice presents, too. Pretty boxes with nothing in them.
On second thoughts, that’s a rubbish idea.
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That is a thoroughly discouraging thought, Paul.
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We could practice unwrapping techniques!
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Unwrapping Olympics? Prizes for speed, preventing the wrapping paper from tearing…
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I always save the wrapping paper. Wrapping paper is so pretty.
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I used to have a notebook full of pieces of wrapping paper that I liked. (Although this might have been because my family gives presents wrapped in squid and alien patterned paper….)
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Will your family adopt me?
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YES
(Side note: I just found out that my aunt dressed my eight-month-old cousin as a squid for Halloween)
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Happy Thanksgiving, MuseBlog! I’m thankful for all of you.
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I’m thankful for you, too.
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Happy Thanksgiving Museblog! So far my dog was almost kicked in the head by two different horses and my dad was shocked by an electric fence. :)?
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So, what’s the purple icon next to the pie, under every post? Is that a mop, or a robot arm? I can’t tell…
Also, hi.
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Why, it’s a SQUID! Also, hi!
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We were *squidding* so much that we made it automatic. It can be used as *congratulatory squid*, *sympathy squid*, or whatever else you can think of.
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Hi, SO! It’s an interpretable squid, although we’ve been using them primarily for sympathy.
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Hi! Glad to see you, now you can join in our exchanges of pie/squid/all sorts of throwable(or givable) objects.
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Do you ever go outside on a chilly, quiet night…
And walk a mile to the park to wander among the redwoods and the quietly trickling stream…
And suddenly sprint faster than you have ever sprinted before all the way home?
Because you felt like a mountain lion was stalking you?
I don’t know if I’m paranoid or what, but it’s always a mountain lion. At night. When there’s no one around.
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Mountain lions can run much faster than you. You should try to look big and threatening instead.
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I know the feeling.
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For me it’s the fear of a murderer with a knife…
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London is great so far: no rain, just a few clouds here and there, the wind is cold but I have my NEW PEACOAT to ward it off and BRITISH ACCENTS SQUEE. Yesterday we went to the Globe Theater (okay, not the actual thing, but a close replica of it) and the lady there giving the tour was extremely nice. She told us how the actors in Shakespeare’s time wouldn’t just stand onstage and recite their lines, they would interact with the audience, which I thought was cool. Then she recounted a few tales which I will share with you now.
Most of the time the “groundlings” in the front are there because they are really gripped by the action. One day, there was one who was there because he wanted a surface to lean on as he used his cellphone. As you can imagine, this was very frustrating for the cast. So at one point in the play, a character gets dumped in a lake. He comes onstage, sopping wet from head to toe, peels off one of his stockings, and wrings it over the guy’s head!!!!! The tour guide says she couldn’t see whether or not he had gotten the message, but I like to think he did.
Another time there was this group of boys. 14- to 15-year-olds, very loud and getting louder during the play, which happened to be “Macbeth” (don’tkillmeifIdidn’tspellitright). So finally, in the part where Macbeth is going crazy he runs down into the audience, grabs one of the boys by his jacket and screams his lines into his face. The boys got the message and stayed very very quiet for the rest of the play.
I’ve come to the conclusion that actors are extremely awesome. Also I bought a poster with a whole bunch of quotes from Shakespeare you may or may not have known were from Shakespeare.
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Welcome to Blighty, old bean. Delighted you’ve encountered the cream of our thespians. Have you located a decent tea shop yet?
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No, not yet. My mom read about one that was supposedly the oldest in London (opened 17061) on a street we were on but it was too far and our double-deck bus(!!!!!!!!!) had already arrived, so maybe another time.
In other news, my feet hurt from walking so much. London really is a pedestrian city, isn’t it? Which is nice. But occasionally painful.
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Really? I’d assumed tea shops had reached London by now, but 17061 is a long time from now. May I borrow your time machine?
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Oh. Whoops. Stupid keyboard. I meant 1706. Alas, I have yet to create a working time machine that does not explode the minute I turn it on.
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I don’t get to London much, except when people pay me, and then it’s usually a brief visit. Driving anywhere in the centre is not fun. Walking and the Tube are the best methods of getting around.
If you get chance to visit the Cotswolds, you’ll find tea shops in every little town. And the towns are gorgeous. Lots of thatch.
And if you get as far north as Kingswinford, there could be an ad-hoc kokon. With tea and scones.
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Oh, no, we missed each other in England by about two weeks! Have fun!
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You know how a lot of websites make you fill in a captcha? Well, I was just on [snip!]
IT’S MY NAME. IN SOME OLD BOOK THAT THEY’RE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT. RIGHT AFTER I FINISHED TALKING ABOUT MY OLD SELF WHO WENT BY THAT NAME. Random.
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We’re allowed to mention (that image board) but not Voldynet?
[Oops! Thank you for bringing that lapse to the attention of the Gnapping-GAPA Gnome. –Admin.]
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Oh, dear. My humble apologies. Shall we dub it “The Imageboard That Shall Not be Named?
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Or just not refer to it….
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The world fills with possibility when the sun is shining.
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Serenity is learning to trust us a bit more. Today she walked around my legs and let me pet her, and my sisters made a string toy for her to chase.
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My computer won’t let me reply, so 46.2.1.1.1: No, you’re getting Metamorhpmagi and Animagi mixed up. Metamorphmagi, like Tonks, are born, not made, and they can alter their human appearance at will but not turn into animals. Animagi, like Professor McGonagall, can turn into a certain type of animal and back at will, but that’s it. Any witch or wizard can become an Animagus, as far as we know, but it’s difficult, and there’s some debate about whether you can choose what you turn into (I think not). We don’t know how they keep their human intelligence; I think it has to do with souls, as it’s obvious that they exist in the Potterverse. We don’t know, though.
I don’t think Hermione was 50% cat at all. She had a cat’s fur and nose and whiskers and tail and ears and eyes, but that’s all. She was human-shaped and human-sized, and the vast majority of her internal organs were human, along with all her non-tail, non-nose, non-ear bones.
Anyway, I don’t think Animagi are part-animal at all, since it’s not genetic. I think if you took Polyjuice potion with part of McGonagall in it, you’d look like McGonagall–that’s all. I was talking about people like Tonks, because her appearance is whatever she wants it to be.
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So to add my two cents into this debate. Disclaimer: I have been somewhat influenced by fanfics I’ve read, and subsequently added to my headcanon. In those stories, Metamorphmagi changed their appearance, but still had a baseline “true appearance” that they reverted when they couldn’t morph, ie Tonks in 6th book. So if you drank Polyjuice Potion containing bits of a Metamorphmagus, you’d just turn into that “true appearance”, but you’d be unable to morph because that’s something intrinsic to the Metamorphmagus herself.
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Ooh, I like that idea. I haven’t heard that one before. New headcanon!
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Thanks! To give credit where credit is due, I got the idea off of Fernwithy’s RT fics, which are very, very well-written. Check them out!
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*throws self off tower* HOW COULD I BE SUCH A TERRIBLE FANGIRL
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November 25th. A great day to take over the world do something productive like write novels or draw pictures all day long instead of going shopping. And I will seriously get to that after getting up. Mwahahahaha.
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That’s how I’ve been spending it.
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*highfive*
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I wasn’t going to shop, but my sister dragged me along so we went downtown and supported local businesses while shopping there. It wasn’t nearly as crowded.
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I think November 25th should be the official starting date for Christmas decorations/songs in public places. No earlier.
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Quite.
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It’s bad enough that we band kids have to practice the songs for so long.
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Yes yes yes yes yes. So many radio stations start their Chrismas/holiday songs before Thanksgiving, which is so annoying.
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Agreed. I don’t exactly see why people would want to listen to Christmas songs in their car weeks before the actual holiday…
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Even in years when Thanksgiving falls afterward?
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Okay, how about December 1st?
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How about just the day after Thanksgiving?
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I have decided:
Maine Root’s Punkin Pie soda and Reed’s Jamaican style Ginger Brew mixed, would be heaven in a glass.
I’ve been playing Magic with my not-quite-family all day. It’s been great.
Also, day after thanksgiving breakfast = thanksgiving in a bowl.
You mix various parts of last night’s dinner into a bowl, microwave it, and have it for breakfast. I had sweet potato souffle, turkey, and cranberry sauce for breakfast. NOM.
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Maine Root makes pumpkin pie soda?!
…I think my love for them just increased exponentially.
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While brushing my teeth this morning, I figured out how two different sets of really dumb stories I wrote when I was 11 can not only be in the same Universe, but can have participated in the same adventure without the characters ever having (visibly) interacted.
Okay, so initially, I imagined Dr. Alex Banner as one of Stephanie Stone’s (The Kim-Possible-clone-who-can-see-ghosts I posted a rebooted version of on Books in Progress a while back) enemies, as a mad scientist whose MO was creating very humanlike robots to impersonate people. (I will note that this was totally ripped-off from a Totally Spies episode.)
However, I was also writing another series at the time about Trixie and Mandy, who were also mystery-solving tweens, but on a much lower-stakes, Nancy Drew level. (In practice, this mean just as much weird stuff happened to them, but their enemies only wanted to steal things, rather than rule the world.) For some reason, I brought Dr. Banner in as the villain in one of their stories, which featured him trying to replace the British Royal Family with his robots.
After a while, my Trixie and Mandy stories petered out, while Stephanie continued. When she faced Banner for the first time in one of her own stories, (Stopping him from stealing the plans for Nikola Tesla’s death ray) she mentioned that she’d previously stopped him from replacing the royals with robots. Now, since he was originally Stephanie’s villain, I intended this as simply stating the correct order of things, rather than a retcon.
Recently, as I have gotten into comics and the idea of continuity and fictional Universes, I’ve been trying to work out where all of the stories I’ve written fit in. Since Trixie and Mandy and old-school Stephanie all fought Dr. Banner, and even mentioned his evil plot as being the same, clearly they all existed in the same Universe– but, of course, Trixie and Mandy hadn’t seen Stephanie in their story, even though she stated she’d stopped him.
Since Stephanie is a fully-authorized operative of The Agency, and thus has access to classified files, while Trixie and Mandy are just ordinary preteen girls, I was inclined to take her account of the royal-robot-replacement plot more seriously.
Since Dr. Banner was constantly with Trixie and Mandy after he caught them sneaking into his lab and tried to kill them, it makes perfect sense that Stephanie and the other operatives working on the case were aware of this and seized on Banner’s being distracted by them to ACTUALLY thwart his plot, while Trixie and Mandy merely believed they had stopped him by escaping and calling the authorities. (Of course, Agency operatives would never knowingly allow innocent children to be harmed, so they were no doubt watching over Trixie and Mandy and perfectly prepared to rescue them if they had proved unable to escape on their own.)
Since Stephanie was recounting her previous encounter very briefly, she neglected to mention Trixie and Mandy’s involvement. However, it is certainly likely that, upon seeing how capable Trixie and Mandy were, the Agency decided to keep an eye on them as potential recruits.
So, there you have it, my characters had a secret crossover, one that was so secret my 11-year-old self didn’t even know it was happening when she wrote it.
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Day after Thanksgiving. I feel like I have had no human contact today. I slept for ages not because I was tired but because i had nothing better to do. I didn’t speak a word to anyone until four, and even that was not more than ten words. The highlight of my day was going to Starbucks. I appreciate alone time, but I’ve discovered that there’s a fine line between that, and hiding away not interacting with the world, lurking at other people’s doors just to hear them and convince me I’m not alone, drafting replies to entire conversations that will never happen. I reach out now into the void of the Internet trying to convince myself that there’s more than just the faded, headachy reality of my room.
Is anyone else out there?
/melodrama
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I don’t know if it helps for someone to tell you this over the Internet, but we love you very much and you’re not alone. *huggles*
(If it helps you can imagine me saying this to you face to face? I don’t know… but *sympathy squids*)
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We’re not going anywhere! I hope your day improves from here…
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Well, there are several squids…
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Thanks, guys. It does help. (So did real food. And I talked to the delivery guy, so I can’t say I’ve had no human contact.)
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There’s always Museblog. Most of the people here are human. Well, I assume they are. We don’t actually check. Maybe we should.
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Well, we know for sure that at least some of us on here are actually giant space squids. But yes, getting into conversations about Metamorphmagi genetics and MuseBlots helps.
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My goodness, I have exactly the same problem. I haven’t made any friends yet and it’s almost time for winter break. Luckily, I’ll be having all of the same classes next quarter, so hopefully I can forge some friendships there.
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Guess what.
You know how there’s a Doctor Who convention in LA?
I might go.
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JEALOUSY SO MUCH JEALOUSY
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That sounds awesome! You will have to report back with the proceedings if you do go.
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It’s Gallifrey One or NYC ( mermorial day.)
As it’s in LA, I might stay at my godfather/uncles house or my aunts.
* fingers crossed *
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Chicago TARDIS is this weekend, and I can’t go because I have no money. And the Fifth Doctor’s going to be there! Rgh.
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I just sent in a Muserology that I have been working on for nearly a month. It is 491 word. Is that too short or long? It didn’t say any word minimums or maxiums when I submitted it.
Has anyone ever had one published before? If so, could you tell me when I would know by if it was going to be published, so I’m not killing myself with nervousness?
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Yay, Muserology!
I’m pretty sure a few of us had accomplished that, although my memory fails me as to who exactly those people are… anyways, good luck!
(I wrote one before but never got to sending it. Now I can’t remember where I put it… :oops:)
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Pan has. I don’t remember who else, but I know–oh, Luna! And maybe more. Anyway…
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Also KaiYves, Kagkomix, and Cat’s Meow.
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And me!
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Also me!
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Wow, that’s a lot of us. I didn’t know there were so many. Now I’ve got to go back through my magazines from the past few years and figure out which MuseBloggers go with which stories…
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KaiYves wrote Fingerless Gloves Can Take you Anywhere. Luna wrote one about caring for an injured eagle (I think it was an eagle?). Either Meow or Eye wrote about online friends. Beyond that, I don’t remember.
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Wait! Pan wrote about mold!
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To compound the confusion, both Cat’s Meow and Cat’s Eye have written Muserologies.
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We also finish each other’s-
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-sentences.
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Meow wrote about online friends.
That was back when I was 13. It’s an interesting public snapshot of my thoughts at the time, not to mention that MuseBlog is at least as important to me as it was then. If not more.
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Nitpick: “Will Get You Everywhere”, not “Can Take You Anywhere”.
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I wrote about Shakespeare Club. (Which was recently dissolved because of lack of budget/interest. Sigh.)
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I wrote the Harry Potter muserology. I think I called it Harry and Me.
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I loved that one! (I used the H from the title in a collage I made for my sister’s birthday. I hope you don’t mind. )
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I just read it on the Games Thread, and it was excellent. I really wish I could do MUN; it sounds amazing. The thing is… There’s already been a Muserology about it. You can find it by clicking the Official Muse Website link, going to the Muserology section, and choosing it. Maybe yours will be published anyway, if they like it enough–I hope so–but… I don’t know. I’m really sorry. I know how it feels to work really hard on something and then find out there’s a possibility you won’t even have a chance no matter how well you do, and for me, it’s worse than trying and failing. Hopefully, they’ll ignore the repeated subject, like I said, but I don’t know how likely it is…
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Oh, no, that wasn’t mine. I was copying and pasting a previous one to see how many words it had, and to compare to my word count.
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Oh, good! I’m quite relieved. I didn’t remember the other one too well, so I didn’t recognize it. I’m very glad that wasn’t yours, then.
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I am educational. Swalot is now fluent in the concepts of 42, choklit, squids, world domination, and throwing oneself at the ground and missing. (Okay, even though he goes “nom” every time I give him a squid. That one might require more training.)
By the way, I made Squiddles for a friend’s birthday. Should I send in a photo? (Yes, many of my nonMBer friends know about squids and enjoy giving me squid hugs and posting squid-related pictures and doing the squid arm dance with me. :D)
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Hi everyone! Happy Day-After-Thanksgiving! I somehow wound up in Marshall’s at ten A.M. (because the sewing store was closed) and, shockingly, it was MUCH less crowded than usual.
Enc – Who cares, I’m just happy you made it!! You’ll probably get recommended next year, and everyone screws up auditions anyway. For everyone else’s reference, I made it into Senior Districts too Second trombone, second chair, I am VERY excited.
Tomorrow I’m wrapping gifts at the SHS Craft Fair in the morning, then playing a holiday concert at the town movie theater. Should be fun.
Cat’s Eye – My life’s goal is to play the trombone at Disneyland.
Anyway, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving, everyone! Now off to do some history homework that I really don’t want to do.
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Greetings, your royal highness. Always good to see you on the blog.
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Hi, P_M! So glad to see you around. Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, too! (drop by more often now, hmmm?)
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Oh! by the way, my group at NEC on Fridays is changing its schedule to let out around the same time as your group. Do you want to ride the T home together (and make it a mini-kokon)?
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What if we did something like skype on the site?
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That would be a lovely lovely thing.
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You mean video-chatting? That would be flamablamablous, but I highly doubt it works on this software. Even if it does, it would probably take the GAPAs a lot of time and money–but again, I doubt they’re able to at all. [Reference to off-the-blog website snipped. –Admin.]
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Even if video chatting is technically feasible on MuseBlog, we GAPAs have no interest in doing anything like it.
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I dunno…maybe GAPA conferences where you guys are on video and the rest of us can chime in with audio or text chat?
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What I was imagining was a form of private messaging, kind of like Facebook’s. I had no idea that videochat would factor into the equation.
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Either way, I don’t think I see how we GAPAs could moderate the messages — something we persist in insisting on doing.
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I insist that you desist in insisting on persisting that.
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And I resist your insistence on my desistence in insistence on persistence. Persistently.
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“I don’t think see”?
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Um, let me rephrase that.
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I’m resistant.
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I believe that Pie Girl was referring to “messaging” instead of videocalling – sort of like Facebook chats, but not.
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Off the blot? Wonderful, I didn’t know we were on a blot to begin with. Just imagine, MuseBlot, a great indeterminate black shape against the emptiness of other websites. The blot is probably shaped like a squid.
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I had just corrected Robert’s typo before I saw your comment. Now I’m tempted to put it back in.
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DO IT. The MuseBlot wants you too.
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I’m reminded of the Eldritch Creatures that live behind the Blog. (we writhe we whisper we wait in the cornershadows in the eyeblinks behind the weave the blot is our enemy the blot is our fear the blot is our prey shimmertwisting blacksquid we wait we wonder we want)
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So that’s where all the crawling chaos back here has been coming from.
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An example of autocorrection-induced serendipity.
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Squid ink, of course.
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This is exactly what I thought. IT ALL FITS TOGETHER~
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Found out my Interim (school trip) choice yesterday! I’m going to Jordan in March!
I don’t really know that many people on the trip, but it sounds fun. I really wanted to go to the elephant one in Thailand, but Jordan should be very cool as well.
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Woohoo! Yes, it ought to be cool. I hope you enjoy it!
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Thanks! I’m looking forward to it.
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I have a brand new cousin! Very excting. I’ve only seen a couple pictures of him. He was born on Thanksgiving. My last brand new cousin was born in 2002, so I’m pretty excited!
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I wish I could have a new cousin. All 3 of my cousins are guys, and at least 2 years younger than me, which can get very annoying.
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My dad had a large family, so I think I’m hovering somewhere around 40-50 cousins right now, but unfortunately none of them live anywhere near me.
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Anyone live in NYC?
…
Or LA?
(( welp.))
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I live in CT. Before we take this to the Kokon thread, who else lives in the New England area?
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Princess_Magnolia and I, Enceladus, AM, Beetles, SudoRandom, SilverLining, Keiffer, and Armada all live in Massachusetts (am I forgetting anyone?). Mikazuki lives in Maine, right?
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And.. nobody in NYC?
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I think RoseQuartz lives in New York, but she isn’t around MB much anymore…
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Last sighted here on March 16, 2010.
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She actually has completely disappeared. I haven’t heard from her for… I dunno, at least two years.
(I dunno if this next is going against blog rules, so snip me if you must, GAPAs — but I doubt it’s uncommon knowledge that people who’ve had kokons with one another tend to exchange email addresses.)
Sudo and I actually tried to contact her a while ago, we emailed and everything, and I don’t think she ever replied. Eventually we got some kind of an ‘I’m-just-very-busy’ message out of her. I… hope everything is okay with her. 
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Well hot damn. More than I thought.
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Chickens are so loud. Our hens start making a racket early morning even without laying any eggs. (that should come relatively soon, though. my hen, Highliter, stays inside the coup a lot these day.) Now back to sleep for me. (I don’t get regular sleep these days, it seems, but on the bright side it seems easier for me to remember dreams. I’ll see what my mind does this time. Good morning!)
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Next batch of chicks my family gets we’re naming Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.
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D’awww. Our city only allows us to keep two chickens, so we just have Highliter (mine) and Victini (my brother’s).
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My chickens are named Abbi, Elizabeth, Ruby, Elanor, Elaine, and Pika. Pika and Elanor died, though.
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PIKA PIKA!
PIKACHU! I CHOOSE YOOOOOOOOU!
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Oh holy cake. Scrolling over this really quickly, it looked like a giant bunny, but then when I scrolled back I couldn’t find it right away and thought I was going insane/being bunnified O.O
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I never got why Pikcahu is the “Electric Mouse” although it looks so much more like a bunny.
As far as pink bunnies… Wigglytuff, Whismur, shiny Lopunny… *shudder* and notice they are all Normal type.
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Cake. I meant Pikachu. /spellingfailshame
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I’ve always assumed they were based on pikas, which are lagomorphs, but Wikipedia says that isn’t so.
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Oh, they aren’t? I assumed that just a few hours ago, since it was the first time I’d heard them in the same context. Thanks for clarifying.
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“Pika” is Japanese for a flash of light or energy, as in the book “Hiroshima No Pika”.
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Holy–who has time to design stuff like this?
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If I’m not mistaken, that’s just the sprite from Emerald, so it probably didn’t actually take that long.
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That looked like a PoPo when it was in the RC bar. I’m sorry I ever doubted you; that is awesome.
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Wait, SFTDP, but I just looked at the context, and I think maybe you didn’t realize that pikas are sort of like rabbits but rounder and cuter. They’re lagamorphs, but not the evil kind.
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Awesome!
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No, actually. Some name Owen “made up” as a small child. His chinchilla was named it, until we had an epic communication failure and we dropped a chair on the poor thing. That was the first time I was at his house back when we were just good friends. So I named my chicken after it in it’s honor. The chicken was eaten by my dog.
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Ugh, mine too. Two of them usually lay their eggs under the barbecue (yes, I have weird chickens, quiet), but the third usually lays hers in the nest. Unfortunately, this morning one of the barbecue two laid in the nest, and the third was furious and squawked up a storm.
Their names are Molly, Rosie (from the Grapes of Wrath’s Rosasharn), and Babs (short for Baboon. It’s a long story.) In all honesty, Babs resembles Rosasharn a lot more than Rosie does, because she’ll flop around and molt and not lay and be a drama queen two weeks out of four.
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WOOOO! Go Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity!
Perfect launch and separation!
And watching while holding my dad’s hand… perfect.
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I want to draw an updated version of the “MuseBlog Group Picture” that Zinc’s sister drew a few years ago, but I have off-blog contact with exactly one of you, so I don’t know what everyone else looks like … Also it would be a large, time-consuming picture, and hard to hide from my parents.
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That’d be awesome! There are photos of some of us on old Kokon threads, but the rest could either give you rough descriptions or let you use your imagination…
(Also, GAPAs, if it isn’t too much trouble, could you post the photos I emailed to you a couple months ago? They were the Kokon photos of me and Meow, and I think one of me with the model tesseract I made.)
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I humbly second your request.
Unfortunately, Tess, the pie restaurant that we went to isn’t open anymore. We can still buy their pies in stores (in fact, my family had two for Thanksgiving) but the location downtown closed down just a month or two ago.
And Rainbow, I think that’s a great idea! In addition to what’s been mentioned, the “Muser Profiles” threads sometimes contain physical descriptions.
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What!? No! But the pies were so good!
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I know, I was really sad when I heard! The restaurant had really eccentric decorations and knickknacks, too, and that kind of collection is irreplaceable.
My school just finished a fundraiser sale of their pies, so there are fortunately still avenues to get them…but it’s not the same. </3
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That would be awesome! I think you can probably find most descriptions on the “Let’s get Physiognomical” thread and just ask for the others.
Why do you have to hide it from your parents?
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Presumably, her parents don’t know about MB and wouldn’t approve if they did.
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That would be flammy, if you’re up for it! I remember seeing the old MB picture.
We can certainly give descriptions, possibly making a planning thread to organize it.
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HIGHLITER LAID AN EGG
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Congratulations! (That makes much more sense after I read post 94.)
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Thank you! Admittedly, it was probably an odd statement to see in the Recent Comments bar.
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ATTENTION music lovers who want new things to listen to!
If anyone here is a fan of alt-rock, I recommend Marianas Trench, a new band that my friend introduced me to. Go listen to Stutter, Desperate Measures, Toy Soldiers and Haven’t Had Enough. This is basically all I’ve done all day.
In other news, I got a Christmas tree and my house smells absolutely glorious. Pine tree scent…me gusta.
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Without realizing it, my brother has become that *one grandchild* who brings his girlfriend over for Thanksgiving.
And meanwhile all the bubbes and zeydes and great-aunts and great-uncles and uncles and aunts and cousins and second cousins and first cousins once removed are all just side-eyeing the bajeesus out of her:
“are you going to be the one to bear us grandbabies”
“are you”
{Snip! Reference to non-MB website removed. –Admin.]
(“[Cat’s Eye’s] adventures in Jewish Family Land” … would be a terrible but delicious board game.)
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I have been that girlfriend.
My ex Henry was Jewish, VERY Jewish. His grandparents were German.
I was coming over for Passover.
Pre-Seder, his grandmother instructed him on how to get around out of date complications in female clothing removal. He was more than a little apalled. (If that needs to be snipped, just say that she gave him awkward advice.)
As the Seder was starting, Hans (his grandfather) came up behind him and whispered loudly in his ear in German something a little out of line. I was told it as “She’s a special one.” I was told that it didn’t translate well.
There were many references to us getting married or having children or getting engaged or whatever. SO AWKWARD. I mean, I love his family, but who really thinks that a 13 year old and a 14 year old are going to GET MARRIED?
’twas strange.
Later in the relationship, there was talk of if his great-grandmother’s ring would fit me, what our children would be like, etc.
I broke up with him that October. I was still invited to the next Passover, without Henry’s consent. I went. I got free yarn. And yummy Passover food. I’m pretty sure they were trying to get Henry and I back together.
Then again, his grandmother did yell at him when we broke up.
Excuse my long and random story.
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The brackets around that snip don’t match.
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Hmm, indeed they don’t…
*twitch*
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Do we, like, have the same family?
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Lately, I’ve been wondering what my gender is. It’s a bit annoying; I’ve never cared before, and now it’s complicating things. Oh, well, hopefully, I’ll at least figure it out soon…
In other news, I’m still reading the Mayflower book, and I’m amazed at how much of a Slytherin Squanto really was.
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My ancestor was the fist Governor of Plimouth or some cake.
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You’re descended from John Carver? Awesome!
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Yeah, that’s his name! Of course, the side of my family that that comes from is the creepy abusive side.
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Cool!
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99 (Cat’s Eye)~ Heh…heh heheh…
I’m spending Thanksgiving break at Boyfriend’s house, making this the second Thanksgiving I’ve spent with his family (we’ve been together for 2 1/2 years now.)
They’re not Jewish, but it’s still a similar situation. I think they’ve gotten to the point where I’ve been around long enough that I’m just part of the family though. I’m really not sure how to feel about this at all. Thankfully there’s been no speculation about our hypothetical (and highly unlikely) offspring, probably because they know he doesn’t want any.
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Hello, fellow Musers!
It’s been about…forever…since I’ve been back here, and probably even longer since I have actually written something, but I am really, REALLY losing interest in digital communications with people whose real names I know via Facebook (I know, I know, shame on me…) because, quite frankly, a lot of those people are kind of boring. (or at least the things they decide to ramble on about on the internet are boring. DON’T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT! I know I’m rambling! I know this isn’t terribly interesting! Just bear with me, okay?)
And now for the interesting part!
So, being a MuseBlogger at heart, I started wondering: What is it about the MuseBlog environment that encourages us to have these interesting, funny, compassionate discussions and close relationships with people we may never have met face-to-face?
Is it that we’re all fans of the most splendid magazine ever, and that encourages a certain demographic of people to congregate here?
Is it because there are the wondrous GAPAs, and we’re trying to write relevant, appropriate (coughcough, all ye Facebook friends of mine…) comments so that they will approve our posts?
Is it actually because we don’t know each other, and we’re not afraid to say the things we’re really thinking? More conventional social networking sites require some degree of self-marketing. You post photos and comments that you hope will make others like you (whether consciously or not) and give off the impression that you are worth space you occupy, that you actually go out and do interesting things. On MuseBlog, it’s more like a place for an honest expression of the things on one’s mind.
What does everybody think?
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Just watched Serenity … 
I mean, it was a shiny movie, but what happens near the end …
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That movie never existed. It didn’t happen. No worries. Just watch Firefly and it’s all okay.
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No spoilers plz. I’m still waiting for JLynn to come back to my house so we can watch the last 5 episodes of Firefly, A.K.A. That Show I Refuse To Watch Unseen Episodes Of Without Her Because It’s Not As Awesome Otherwise.
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Today was awesome. My mom and aunt decided to go to the De Young museum, so due to my complete inability to be quiet/respectful/politelike for more than a few minutes at a time, I wandered around in Golden Gate Park singing Gilbert and Sullivan at the top of my lungs.
Good times.
I AM THE MONARCH OF THE SEA!
THE RULER OF THE QUEEN’S NAY-VEE!
I should probably go to sleep.
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A car commercial just said “under 9000”. I missed the rest of it. So here I am, browsing MB, and I hear “blablablacarsblablagooddealblabla under 9000!” and my head literally snaps to the radio and my eyes widen a bit.
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…Why?
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It’s OVER 9000!
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I don’t understand…
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“Over 9000” is an Internet meme often used to express a very large number. It comes from an anime (Dragonball Z, I think? Something similar) where a character said that his power level was “OVER NINE THOOOUUUSAAAAND” in an overly hammy way.
“Tardigrades can survive extreme temperatures and lack of air, making them over 9000 times cooler than other microbes.”
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Indeed, it was Dragonball Z. Fun fact: “over 9000” is actually a translation error; it should have been “over 8000”.
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That sounds uncomfortable…
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Our art classes are filling up with a greater variety of people now.
We started with some Chinese kids and teens.
Today we have a 71-year-old Middle Eastern man.
Next year we might have a Special Ed adult join us.
And through all this I am doing all the translating (since my art teacher does not speak English) and being the instructional teacher aide. And setting up. And cleaning up. And giving lectures…
/nervousness
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Ummm, actually, the man is 79. andinawayheisastudentofmine
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It’s not about age. It’s about you having something to teach him.
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Back in Collegeland! Spent Thanksgiving at my one of my roommate’s houses, which was fun. Her family is nice. It’s good to be back here as well though.
Think I’m going to procrastinate on work for a bit more though… heh.
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The green anoles have gone to sleep for the inter, but I found one in my garage! I’m going to draw it; you almost never see them still, so this is a perfect opportunity! I’m excited.
Earlier today, I got a mysterious urge to read Cherokee mythology, which I knew nothing of, and it’s fascinating! It says that all diseases, for example, are animals’ revenge for when humans kill them for sport or without proper ceremony, but that plants took pity on us and made a choice to have their medicinal properties. It’s interesting.
My birthday’s July 16th; why isn’t it on the calendar?
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Because it’s not until July.
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I think en asked because on the calendar it shows January, April, June, July and August, for some reason.
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Yes, I was assuming they were in chronological order. I realize now that it’s unlikely, but I wish they were; this is illogical.
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We’re gradually switching to new calendar software and have to re-enter all the birthdays. We don’t have time to do it all at once, so we’re punching in the new dates as we post the new birthday threads for each month. The far-off dates you see on the calendar are left over from summer, when we started the transition. In between are a few dates (mostly 5K/6K/7K days) that we’ve calculated ahead of time for convenience.
In short, never fear: if you were on the latest birthday thread, you’ll be on the calendar. And if you’ve come along since the birthday thread, let us know, and we’ll make sure you get on it.
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Oh, I see. That makes perfect sense. Thank you!
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I realised that I’m going to be travelling a lot in the next few months. For Christmas we’re going to Hanoi, in Vietnam. For Chinese New Year, we’re going skiing in California, same place as last year. In February I’m going to Georgetown, Washington DC for the NAIMUN conference. In March I’m going on Interim (our school trip) to Jordan. (In April I would have gone to Budapest but we’re probably not going to that any more.) That’s quite a lot of flying.
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SKIING? IN CALIFORNIA?
OH YES YOU ARE.
(and right near my ex-boyfriend’s house, too…)
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COME TO US, SEL
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I’M COMING
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Bonus factoid: the ski lift was invented in Nebraska. Apparently they tested it first on some hilly streets in Omaha before shipping it off to the ski resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, in 1936.
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Those of you who know Japanese symbols, how does one write the word “tanken”, meaning “exploration/search”?
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hmm there seem to be two readings for it, but i think 探検 is the preferred one (the other is 探険)
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In Hiragana, ãŸã‚“ã‘ã‚“. There’s probably also kanji, but I don’t know any kanji yet. I believe Piggy is teaching himself some?
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I’VE BEEN ACCEPTED TO BOARDING SCHOOL! I HEARD BACK FROM ONE TODAY – I’VE GOT A MUSIC SCHOLARSHIP AS WELL – AND I WILL HEAR BACK FROM THE OTHER ON THURSDAY. SO I’M DEFINITELY GOING TO THE UK STARTING NEXT SCHOOL YEAR! YES!
SORRY FOR THE CAPS LOCK
BUT
THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST DAYS OF MY LIFE!
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Hooray! Congratulations!
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CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!
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I AM SO HAPPY FOR YOU, MOST CONGRATS!
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Thank you so much, all of you!! You guys are the best. ♥
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SFTDP Super speedy moderation, thanks GAPAs!
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I made myself some green tea this morning, and I finally got around to restringing my ukulele. Now I have to wait until it stays in tune for more than fifteen seconds. These strings sound a lot bouncier than the old ones, which were rather mellow.
Did November go ridiculously fast for anyone else?
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Yep, me.
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For some reason, I already think it’s mid-december because my exam scedule is so packed. I’ve been wondering why it’s still November for the past two weeks or so and before that I thought it was October. Without the time to do NaNoWriMo, November is dead to me.
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Yes. It’s NaNo. The ‘where did November go’ mentality must be contagious.
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Yes, I can’t believe my Anthro paper is due tomorrow. (It’s done, I’m just doing some final polishing.) But it seems like Halloween was just last week.
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Wait a moment. November’s almost over? o_O
Erp erp…
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Well I’m back. Jet-lagged, exhausted, but back. With a Shakespeare quotes poster (probably slightly squished) and a few postcards from the War Rooms. And chocolate. Lots of chocolate.
AMERICA Y U NO HAVE MINT AERO BARS!? *slight rage*
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No mint Aero? How do you LIVE over there?
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In America we live solely on burgers, fries, and soda … You mean you didn’t know?
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I DON’T KNOW HELP ME CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT CHOCOLATE-MINTY GOODNESS
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There’s always Amazon….
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Or Canada. It’s a bit closer to England…
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We do have relatives in Canada. I’ll ask them to bring some over for Christmas.
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I’m not sure there’s any goodness in them. They’re just another addiction.
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You can get them at World Market. I actually just ate one. xD
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*cackle*
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I have a performance in a not-very-long-time! Like, 24 minutes. I’m not too worried about the performance, but the whole scene in general has been kind of stressful. Acting is harrrrrrrdddd… harder than I remember it. And I’m nervous. But I will have such a lovely stage high in a couple of hours, so it’s all good.
And a Friday project got pushed back to Monday, wheee! And there’s a steampunk ball coming up. And Christmas shopping this weekend. And finals really soon! I’m so not ready to go home for a month…being home for a few days was weird enough. It’s like, I love my parents and I like seeing my cats and doing some useful household chores…but it’s not really where I belong anymore. My life is here, at school, and they’re kicking me out for a month. Gr.
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Break a leg, Alice! In about three minutes, if I calculate correctly.
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Would electromagnets work in space?
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Certainly. What do you have in mind?
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You want to twist an electromagnet in space?
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Anything I need to inform Certain Friends of Mine about? (By which I mean threat to the well-being of any innocent astro/cosmo/taikonauts or associated personnel.)
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So… I don’t know how many of you remember, but in June 2009 (the end of my freshman year) I posted that a boy I had been friends with in middle school, Mike, had flipped off his bike and was in a coma. Well, it wasn’t a coma, but it was a very severe head trauma, and he was unconscious for a period of days. He spent the whole summer and the early fall in a recovery facility. For a while it wasn’t clear if he was going to recover true cognitive function of control of his body. And then miraculously he did. When I saw him again that winter (he doesn’t go to my school, although his little brother is on our drumline), he was still in physical (and occupational) therapy, but he was back at school taking BC Calc and auditing Latin 4. He was a little slower, but he was somehow, thank God, still Mike, still functioning, still alive, almost back to normal. You may remember my posts about all of this.
I found out today that Mike has been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
Cancer.
He has cancer.
And–I just–he had a massive head trauma two and a half years ago. He’s only had one normal school year since then. He’s already touched fingertips with death once and come out, somehow, all right. So why should this happen to him? In what kind of twisted world is that fair? I know life isn’t fair, but it never before has seemed this purposefully cruel.
He’s seventeen. Seventeen! We’re–well no, not really kids anymore. Young adults. Becoming part of a world in which cake like this actually happens and there’s nothing to shield us from it. But–Mike. He already–
Jesus.
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I’m sorry, Tesseract. I hope his treatment goes well.
If it helps, my mom had Hodgkin’s Disease when she was in college and she survived it and her treatment went well.
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Thank you. That does help; thanks for sharing.
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It’s hard to imagine anyone’s being THAT much of a threat. People might be a little awkward at first, but I’m sure most of them will settle down without doing serious damage. Remember, they may be new to the Web, or they may have come from parts of the Web where things are wilder and woollier than they are around here. (Cyberspace can be pretty barbaric, you know.)
They’re Musers. Each of them has something valuable to contribute here. Welcome them, guide them gently, be patient, and give them a chance. Thus saith the GAPA. (Robert Coontz)
From the 2007 Newcomer’s thread.
Has anyone noticed that newbies lately seem to be a lot more mature and willing to accept advice/speak in full, proper English sentences using correct syntax? Maybe the overall age of Muse readers is increasing.
The influx of neophytes has slowed to a trickle, by the way. I don’t have any problem with a close-knit community (it’s slowed down since the search engines stopped crawling us) but has MB been “advertised” in the actual magazine recently?
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I had been wondering similar things.
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Not that I’ve noticed. Although I kind of want to write a letter about the dog vs. cat wars to inform that person who didn’t know of them in the December issue. I was thinking it would be appropriate to include how the culture of the HPB has spread to MB.
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Good idea! You could even write it in character, as somebody who participated in the old wars and is disappointed by the lack of respect some whippersnappers exhibit today.
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Cats vs. Dogs is classic Muse.
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You know, I’ve been here for less than a year and a half, and I haven’t even noticed much immaturity in neophytes. I only know about it because so many people talk about how annoying they were when they were new. At first, I was afraid I was one of the immature ones because I didn’t notice it in anyone else here. I realized that couldn’t be so when people here started being surprised when they learned how young I was, though.
I don’t think it’s age. The letters in Muse are mostly from preteens. The letter age has increased a bit recently because someone asked older Muse readers to write in, but that’s hardly noticeable and more importantly, doesn’t count, since it’s a response to a call to write. MuseBloggers seem older than letter writers because people stay here after they’ve left that age, but even if they continue to get Muse, people rarely write multiple letters to it. Anyway, I don’t know how old neophytes used to be, but now they usually seem to be preteens or early teens as well.
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I’m a “neophyte” and I’m fifteen. Then again, I never read Muse. *shame face*
I did read one article while at Castle’s house,
and I got Cricket as a kid.
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There are less newbies lately.
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I thought there were fewer newbies lately.
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WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
So, my choir teacher talked to me after class today, and he said that our school’s Colours (advanced) choir needed a tenor, and he wanted me to practice with them! This is the choir I’ve been HOPING and HOPING to try out for, but I never got the courage or the time to actually ask about it.
I’m actually a bass, but who cares?
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
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Congratulations!
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Oh dear, the spam filter ate my comment. Oh well, it wasn’t important.
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I’ve always thought that preterition was the most annoying rhetorical device.
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Someone has to help you learn to keep your curiosity in check, eh? Think of it as an exercise in self-control. A sort of meditation on the unknown.
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AAAARRRGH WHY MUST YOU DO THIS TO ME?
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No, not because it creates curiosity (I’m actually a very uncurious person, despite my using it as a moniker in various online activities) but because it’s rather underhanded and – sneaky isn’t the right word but since it’s before 7am I’m going to go with it anyway. It creates an aura of pretension around its user.
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Sorry to double post, but example: someone says, “If I weren’t so polite I’d mention the time I found xxx talking with three hot pink bunnies” and I think to myself, “What an arrogant, smug jerk.” Guaranteed.
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Ah, paralipsis. A time-honored rhetorical device that lets you throw your pie and eat it, too.
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That makes so much more sense than the normal expression!
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Today I was looking through all of the music on my parents’ computer, and discovered that we had the Godspell soundtrack. My mom had only bought it for one song (Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord), so it was really just taking up space. Then I happened to look at the artist names, and saw…
JOHN BARROWMAN.
*quick Wikipedia search* John Scot Barrowman (born 11 March 1967) is a Scottish-American singer, actor, dancer, musical theatre performer and media personality…blah blah…Captain Jack Harkness, who appears in science fiction series Doctor Who and Torchwood…blah blah…Barrowman was part of the musical Godspell in 1994, and was a soloist in two songs, “We Beseech Thee” and “On The Willows”.
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John Barrowman also appeared in the remake of The Producers, singing Springtime For Hitler.
In other news, I am now in possession of an amplifier!
…for my violin. We’ll see how long this works before I deafen the neighbors.
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I totally thought I recognized him the first time I saw him on Doctor Who, and now I know where I recognized him from!!! So weird!!!
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Dear roommate / apartment-mate:
Sorry for practicing at home today and waking you up (10am). The music building’s closed due to power outage and I’m giving a recital in a week / have playing finals to prepare for.
Love,
Me
Dear upstairs neighbor:
Sorry for practicing at home today, even though I know you’re already awake because your alarm woke me up at 6am. School’s closed due to a power outage, or I’d practice there.
love,
Me
Dear sideways neighbor:
Sorry for practicing at home – the school building’s closed. Actually I don’t know if you even came back from Thanksgiving.
love,
Me
Dear underneath neighbor:
I really hope you don’t exist because it would be creepy to have someone living in the boiler room.
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Today’s Google logo honors Mark Twain’s birthday.
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Born in Florida, Missouri, in 1835. And my great-great-grandfather was born in Florida, Missouri, in 1838. With a slight nudge to spacetime, Mark Twain could have been my great-great-grandfather!
Hm… I wonder whether Ben Coontz was part of that fence-painting incident.
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That is a very interesting thought to consider.
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I’m sure Mr. Clemens would be happy to consider you an honorary descendant. Certainly he has a secure spot in the Pantheon of Proto-Musers.
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Indeed, he was.
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It’s just as well. Samuel Clemens has no living descendants, so if he were my ancestor, I’d be dead now.
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Or! If he were your ancestor, he’d have a living descendant.
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Maybe, but I’d rather not risk it. Keep your TARDISes away from northeastern Missouri, please.
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I really like the design! It shows one of my favorite parts of the book, too.
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Today I had to ask my math teacher if I could draw a TARDIS on my paper as long as I answered the relevant question correctly.
He said yes.
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At the moment I am sitting in one of the buildings on campus listening to birdsong on my laptop for my Environmental Studies bird identification exam that’s in a half-hour and wondering how I’ll ever be able to tell female red-winger blackbirds and song sparrows apart, among other things. The blackbirds have more spots on their chests. That’ll work, I think. Also, blue jays do not sound pretty, for all of their beautiful plumage.
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Song sparrows the striping peters out as you go down the belly. Song sparrows also often have that distinctive spot in the middle of their breast. R-W blackbirds have a buff throat. Song-wise, I think they’re pretty distinctive.
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According to what we learned in my Anthropology discussion group today, SeaWorld is Erin’s religion.
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Yes! Destination Imagonation today, finally. We split into groups and choose our project. My team is doing the movie trailer one, where we come up with a plot idea, act it out a movie trailer for it live for the presentation, write on original sound track, record the sound track so we can play it at the presentation, and our plot has to involve people from at least 2 countries and show some of there culture. It will be so fun!
The bookfair was also today, but I forgot my money. So I entered the how-many-pennies-in-this-jar contest. I used the formula(~=division sign because I don’t have one on my computer, and I’ll use * for multiplication): (x~y)*(z~w). X=The area of the bottom of the jar, Y=The square area of a penny, Z=How high the pennies went in the jar, and W=The thinkness of a penny. Would this formula work? Because my guess (610) was much higher than some other people (234).
And I found a book in my old teachers classroom called Factness of Randomness, or it might have been Facts of Randomness, or something like that.
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By “the square area of a penny,” do you mean the area of a square just big enough to contain a penny? If so, your estimate should be pretty close. Probably a little high, because the packing won’t be perfect, but a lot better than eyeballing it.
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I did Destination Imaging for a few years! It’s lots of fun, and your team’s challenge sounds like a great one. You should keep us updated on how it progresses!
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*Imagination
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I loved Odyssey of the Mind was I was in middle school, and I’ve heard from my cousin that OM and DI are similar.
I hope you do well!
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Based on evidence I’ve seen laying around the blog, I’ve come to suspect that Paul Baker is really a Time Lord in disguise. If so, that’s a great human name. My only question is this: how late am I in coming to this realization?
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Disguise? When has he attempted to disguise it?
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Very late, I’ve known since before I knew what a Time Lord was. It’s alright, though; the posts I read where people mentioned the theory were all from before you started watching DW, so it’s reasonable not to notice/remember them.
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One of my friends just gave me a head massage, and I feel so much more alive/awake/not horrendously stressed out than I did before. Thank god for crazy hippies at my school who give head massages because they used to have dreads and know that having one’s head rubbed feels amazing.
Aaaaand then another friend came in and gave me back massage.
I love my friends. Seriously. So much. There are not enough words to describe it.
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