June Random Thread: Cats and Dogs

Muse covers: July-August 2002 (cats) and November-December 2002 (dogs)

After years of clamorous demands from readers, in 2002 Muse finally succumbed and ran theme issues devoted to cats (July/August) and dogs (November/December).

The cat issue ran eight articles on cats (including an excerpt from Terry Pratchett’s book The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents) and one about Dale Chihuly, “the Pied Piper of Glass.” The dog issue was all-dog, right down to the Q&A column (Rosanne on whether dogs pet one another, Robert on why they drool so much). It also ran this letter with a vaguely familiar byline:

Grant O. letter in November-December 2002 issue

Ideas for future random threads are still welcome.

Users’ Manual: Obey The Rules. Consult The Guide. Have fun!

Date: June 1, 2013

Author: Robert Coontz (Administrator)

Categories: At the Top of the Blog, Random craziness

Comments RSS TrackBack 687 comments

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LittleBasementKitten

in June 1st, 2013 @ 09:20

Man, I’ll have to pick up a copy of those issues some time. Also, first post?

Still looking for advice for my friend, by the way.

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 1st, 2013 @ 09:30

I’d say that “don’t make a big fuss” is about as far as general advice can go. Take your cues from your friend just as you would for any other illness. If en wants to talk about the hospitalization and what led up to it, then talk about it. Otherwise, don’t.

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Dodecahedron

in June 1st, 2013 @ 19:16

I agree with Robert and have nothing else to add at the moment. If I think of something I’ll let you know. Sending kind thoughts your and your friend’s way.

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KaiYves

in June 1st, 2013 @ 09:38

Heh, I predicted some month would have this theme…

Also, has there ever BEEN an article on Tintin?

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 1st, 2013 @ 09:54

Not in Muse, I think.

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KaiYves

in June 1st, 2013 @ 10:05

Wow, then we should push for one.

I think it would be interesting to have a database of every subject that has been requested in more than one letter and how many of those requests have been answered.

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Agent Hippie

in June 1st, 2013 @ 10:38

I sprained my ankle last night walking down the stairs behind the amphitheater my high school music program was playing at. Other than that, the concert was fun! We played Disney music and people in the band could dress up as Disney characters if they wanted to.

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Agent Lightning

in June 1st, 2013 @ 14:24

Somebody wore Nemo on his head.

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muselover

in June 1st, 2013 @ 12:17

My school is doing The Sound of Music next year.

I mean, that would be nice and all, if it weren’t for the fact that one of the three or four roles that I absolutely need to play at some point in my life. So it’s not just nice. It’s the most exciting thing that’s happened to me in a very, very long time.

Also I have an aggregate 3.875 GPA for the year which I guess is pretty good.

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KaiYves

in June 1st, 2013 @ 13:28

Awesome! That’s a great musical, my family got the soundtrack (the DVD was taken) from the library the week I was home and sung along in the car.

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Bibliophile

in June 1st, 2013 @ 18:22

I love The Sound of Music! The movie version is great, but the 1998 Broadway revival and the 2007 London revival are my favorites.
Anyway, congratulations! Which role is it you’re hoping for? Is the score based on the original production or the movie, or does is incorporate elements of both (if you even know at this point)?

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muselover

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 22:09

Weird. I could have sworn that I typed that CAPTAIN VON TRAPP IS one of the three or fourâ€¦and so on. And Bibliophile, I’ve asked about that, and I think it’s going to be a sort of blend. I just hope that we do Something Good instead of An Ordinary Couple, because that song’s stupid.

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KaiYves

in June 4th, 2013 @ 12:38

Somewhere in my youth or childhood…

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Bibliophile

in June 21st, 2013 @ 15:20

I must have done something good.
(I agree with muselover about “An Ordinary Couple.” It would be kind of cute for the Dursleys, though).

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Luna the Lovely

in June 1st, 2013 @ 16:02

So…I think I’m starting to crush on Spock. what is this. :/

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Kittymine, OSW

in June 1st, 2013 @ 22:11

I have a crush on Riker, who in reality is as old as my parents…

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Luna the Lovely

in June 2nd, 2013 @ 01:27

Well, original Spock is as old as my grandparents now, so….yeah.

It’s some weird combo of Nimoy!Spock and Quinto!Spock. It was the recent movie that got me to watching Star Trek (I’d watched the first episode of TOS, “Man Trap”, a couple years ago, but it didn’t really hook me enough to watch anymore, because even though I like Doctor Who 60s scifi, the 60s Star Trek wasn’t really doing it for me, and actually, I still don’t like it near as much, but it’s still an enjoyable diversion and I’m super stubborn and have decided to watch all of Star Trek), but it wasn’t until watching the first 6 or 7 eps of TOS that I’ve started to start to crush on Spock. The first few eps I just spent staring at Kirk’s hotness and thinking, “Wow, Shatner used to be hot” and then trying to reconcile that with what he looks like now.

And actually, if you were to place a picture of Shatner now next to one of him as Kirk, if I didn’t know they were the same person, I never would guess that, unlike with Nimoy or Takei, where they still look the same, just decades older. It weirds me out a bit.

I shouldn’t post in the early hours of the morning, I ramble to much and don’t make sense and treat everyone to the strangeness that is my stream of consciousness, but oh well. :/

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Kittymine, OSW

in June 2nd, 2013 @ 11:03

No no, you make plenty of sense.

TOS can sometimes be abominably cheesy but keep going. Just wait until you get to TNG – Patrick Stewart is amazing.

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Choklit Orange

in June 2nd, 2013 @ 13:23

So is Brent Spiner (the Spock equivalent in TNG). And TNG is a lot of fun because you can make fun of Wesley Crusher, who is incredibly, hilariously annoying (I’m pretty sure that even Wil Wheaton hates Wesley Crusher).

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Kittymine, OSW

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 16:17

Oh, Brent Spiner is AMAZING! The best times are when he is funny but, being Data, doesn’t realize that he’s being funny.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 17:45

I dunno. I dont’ think anything can compare to Spock. Nimoy has such amazingly brilliantly wonderful facial expressions and conveys so much with just an eyebrow or a quirk of the lips, or a *look* in his eyes. Everytime Kirk does something, and Spock makes A Look, and I’m just dying with laughter. And wondering why Nimoy has to be as old as my grandparents and Quinto has to be gay (because obviously those are the only things standing between me and having my very own pseudo!Spock in the form of one of the actors. )

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Lizzie

in June 2nd, 2013 @ 19:52

Sir Patrick also seems like a really great person in real life.

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POSOC

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 01:49

He is.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 2nd, 2013 @ 15:28

The amount of emotion both versions of Spock can convey with just the barest little twitch of an eyebrow or quirk of the lips, it’s just…gah.

And I plan to keep going. It’ll be slow going because I’ve still got 4 weeks left of school, and then I’m spending 4 weeks of my 7 week summer shadowing full-time, but we’ll see if I can’t get thorugh all of Trek in shorter time than it took me to get through all of Classic Who (3 years).

I only vaguely remember Patrick Stewart from the few episodes I saw as a kid, I remember Levar Burton’s character, and Data, and a Klingon, I think? And a lady with black spots on her neck and a veil. And a holodeck

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â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)

in June 1st, 2013 @ 19:00

Oh…. It’s June?! Woah!

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Kittymine, OSW

in June 1st, 2013 @ 22:10

Ah yes…the two magazines that started the Cat/Dog Wars that in turn resulted in the creation of the Hot Pink Bunny Symbols.

And then for a short while, lots of other symbols. I seem to recall an Eye of Sauron at some point.

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KaiYves

in June 2nd, 2013 @ 09:48

There was also “Milton Rupines is out of his mind” and “Who is Milton Rupines?”.

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fireh

in June 2nd, 2013 @ 10:20

Who IS Milton Rupines?

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 2nd, 2013 @ 11:00

No one knows. Online anagram solvers are baffled.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 2nd, 2013 @ 15:39

supposedly one of the following is his real name:

Nelson Rumipit
Sir Tolin Pumen
Otis N. Primlune
Mr. Neil Sputoni
Ron “Slime” Putin
Miles Purinton
Nestor Lumpini
Orin Stumpline
Eli Minnsprout
Noel St. Minipur
Elton Sprinumi
Lestor Minipun
Orin Plum-Stein
Murlin Pintoes
And, yes, one of those IS my real name. Good luck figuring it out!
Milton Rupines

Miles Purinton is the only one that really turns up search results in Google…. (Am I even allowed to post that? I don’t know. zap it if you which GAPAs)

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Luna the Lovely

in June 2nd, 2013 @ 16:08

*wish. zap it if you wish.

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Lizzie

in June 2nd, 2013 @ 19:51

From his headshot, Miles Purinton looks like the type of nudnik who _would_ dislike LOTR.

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 2nd, 2013 @ 20:42

He’s an actor, and the right age — altogether Muser-ish, as far as I can tell, hobbit-bashing aside. If he’s Milton, maybe we could coax him onto the blog to talk about his alter ego.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 2nd, 2013 @ 21:17

I’m tempted to tweet him and ask if he happens to have once gone by the name “Milton Rupines”.

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Cat's Meow

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 00:13

Ask him if he’s ever read Muse!

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KaiYves

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 08:45

If he is Rupines, he probably doesn’t want it brought up.

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 09:11

That’s possible. We should take his feelings into consideration. On the other hand, he may have fond memories of Muse and be happy to talk about it.

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Cat's Meow

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 13:30

He might find it interesting that he’s still a legend here.

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 14:56

Monsieur Rupines? Milton Rupines?
I… I do not know that name.
I think you do.
There must be some mistake.
There is no mistake. I am Javert — and you are MINE!

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â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)

in June 4th, 2013 @ 14:06

Possibly… (I am just on a limb here) The thing Luna said about Miles Purinton showing up in search might be one, of two things.
1) Milton Rupines might have just picked that name out of the blue and it was the name of someone who just coincedentally lived. And was just a mistake on Milton’s part.
2) Miles Purinton sounds kinda like Milton Rupines… If you move the R,U,P,I,N in “Purinton” And take the “ES” out of “Miles” and then the “TON” out of “Purinton” and then put them in the order of,
“Mil TON R U P I N ES” you have “Milton Rupines”

It’s just a theory… but it one might be right… :roll”

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Bibliophile

in June 4th, 2013 @ 20:13

Hey, you’re right! It’s an anagram!
Actually, I think they’re all anagrams. My guess is that Miles Purinton was his real name, and he chose the others because they were anagrams. It’s also possible that they’re just all made-up, though.

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â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)

in June 5th, 2013 @ 13:21

All of these anagrams make you really realize how smart this Milton Miles guy really is!

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 5th, 2013 @ 13:32

Maybe as smart as Tom Marvolo Riddle.

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Bibliophile

in June 5th, 2013 @ 14:52

He only had to think of one cool-sounding name, though. Granted, it should get bonus points for meaning “theft of death” in French.

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 5th, 2013 @ 16:15

That reminds me…

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KaiYves

in June 2nd, 2013 @ 12:50

Probably some professional guy in his early 30s just becoming established at his job but always afraid somewhere in the back of his mind that someone will discover he wrote a letter disparaging Lord of the Rings when he was a teenager and judge him for it.

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oxlin

in June 2nd, 2013 @ 19:42

Now I want to name a character Milton Rupines.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 2nd, 2013 @ 21:09

Somehow I read that as “I just want to marry Milton Rupines”…..

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Rosebud2

in June 2nd, 2013 @ 12:56

Also, there was later a symbol for questions about the red letters.

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Groundhog

in June 1st, 2013 @ 22:29

I’ve graduated from college!
Now I just need to pack up my entire life this summer so I can move…

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FantasyFan?!?!

in June 2nd, 2013 @ 01:20

If life has not been especially interesting lately, then at least it holds the potential to be. Thursday I biked to the library–the second time I’ve done so. Only this time, I was actually carrying books with me. Since I do not have a car, even figuring out personal transportation this much gives me more freedom. There’s not a lot within biking distance of my painfully suburban house. The library might possibly be the only thing, in fact. I’m just glad that it is a library. I like libraries. This is probably going to be a frequent thing, and well within my physical capabilities. I wasn’t sore from biking at all, though my back did ache from the backpack straps. If anything it will be good practice for hiking in Costa Rica.

Also today I went to an animal hospital that is also a nonprofit shelter for abandoned exotic pets and got a volunteer application. So yay! I will be doing something productive with my summer. I won’t be working on feeding the animals, because I’m just there for the summer and it takes a while to train animal feeders, but I can help with habitat maintenance and the plants and whatnot.

I love having interesting things set to happen in the future.

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Ducky

in June 2nd, 2013 @ 15:43

A BABY GOAT WENT TO CHURCH
AND IT WAS ADORABLE
AND THEN I GOT TO HOLD IT WHILE IT WAS FED AND THEN IT FELL ASLEEP AND ASGFHGDVCF

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LittleBasementKitten

in June 2nd, 2013 @ 19:20

ASGFHGDVCF INDEED YOU LUCKY LUCKY DUCK

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Ducky

in June 2nd, 2013 @ 23:39

The baby goat died
RIP Alice, the cutest baby goat that I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.

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Randomosity101

in June 2nd, 2013 @ 16:19

It’s all out of my hands now.
So why am I still stressed?

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Choklit Orange

in June 2nd, 2013 @ 22:50

I find that things being out of my hands very rarely stops me from stressing out about them. But you’ve done what you could, right? Lean back, drink tea, and watch some good science fiction.

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Randomosity101

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 10:43

This is probably the best advice ever. I shall follow it to the letter.

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Bibliophile

in June 2nd, 2013 @ 20:49

That moment when you’re thinking about your friends, and suddenly, “My Friends” from Sweeney Todd starts playing in your head.
I AM NOT PLANNING TO USE YOU AS MURDER WEAPONS, I PROMISE

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Choklit Orange

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 00:48

All that training for nothing?

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muselover

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 22:11

I’m your friend, too, Bibliophile! If you only knew, Bibliophileâ€¦

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KaiYves

in June 2nd, 2013 @ 21:52

The long-awaited (since it was teased in January) June issue of National Geographic with James Cameron’s article on his Marianas Trench dive is finally on the newstands, but because my issue has come at home, I will hold out and wait for it to come in the mail. (Mom says she’ll mail it to me tomorrow.)

I did look at the Table of Contents and saw that it also contains the two things I predicted it would– an article about Mount Everest (because May was the 60th anniversary of Hillary and Tenzing’s ascent) and an interview with Felix Baumgartner (because I was like “Okay, he got a documentary program, he was Adventurer of the Year, when’s he going to get some actual ink in the magazine? Oh, of course, in the June issue where they’ll be showcasing their other big star explorer from the past year.”), as well as an interview with Sylvia Earle, which I didn’t predict but is just another layer on the cake. (Not icing, you see, but another whole layer of the cake.)

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q

in June 4th, 2013 @ 21:24

I read that!

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KaiYves

in June 5th, 2013 @ 15:19

It came to my mailbox, I just have to go get it. We can have a discussion when I’ve read it!

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Luna the Lovely

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 01:33

So apparently Kirk/Spock are the origin of slash fiction. I…..can totally see this. It’s far, far more there than half the things that get slashed.

((What’s that? I have an exam in 6 1/2 hours that I’ve spent about 15 minute studying for so far? And have about 25 double sided pages of notes for? And a quiz in the afternoon that has over 50 pages of notes that I have yet to even glance at? al;ksdfjlkdshgla;dsfk I need these next four weeks over with so bad. summer cannot come soon enough, i am so burnt out on this studying thing))

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Luna the Lovely

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 08:31

Well given the amount and quality of my studying, I did far better than I should have. I got 20/25, but of hte five questions I missed, one i didn’t chang emy answer and should have, one I did change it and shouldn’t ahve, and then there was a third that it was pretty stupid for me to miss. So…yeah.

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bookgirl_me

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 09:08

It’s over and you did well. That’s what counts.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 09:13

still have that quiz this afternoon though…..but at least it’s just a 10 point quiz….

of course that 2 1/2 hours of sleep thing will probably have caught up with me by then…..

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KaiYves

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 08:43

Study!

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bookgirl_me

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 09:27

Today I found out that there an alternate date for one of my finals in August! Which is good, because now I can re-take some of my other exams and spread out the other ones.

I do sort of have the feeling that I’ve sold my soul to the devil: I’ll get better grades if I have time to study, but I won’t really have a summer vacation this year. Oh well.

Matching this month’s theme, I’m sitting my mother’s dog this week. He’s totally adorable, though I wish that he’d actually sleep too instead of trying to wake me up at five a.m. to play.

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FantasyFan?!?!

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 12:27

I really like looking at the main page of MuseBlog with Goggles. I feel like it’s a beautiful creative endeavor with a bunch of other anonymous MBers. (With HPBs. Uh. Maybe not so beautiful then?) It’s just cool adding stuff to it.

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Kagcomix

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 12:43

Gosh it’s been a while! Just popping round to say hi & see how you’re all doing.

I started reading Muse a bit after the cat/dog debacle & partway through the Milton Rupines thing. (although as a side note, I am one of those people who really just don’t like LOTR *dodges pies*)

As far as cats vs. dogs go, I am firmly on the side of cats–although since I moved across the country, far, far away from my parents house, I rarely get to see & cuddle with my cat. & this breaks my heart.

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 12:56

Could you and your cat Skype once in a while? I know it wouldn’t be the same, though. Somebody needs to invent tele-cuddling.

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Kagcomix

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 17:37

When I talk to my parents via Skype, my mum almost always remembers to hold Pix up to the camera, but he’s generally pretty disinterested. & it’s not quite the same as getting to cuddle with him. But seeing his furry face every once in a while, even if it’s super pixelated is nice. I mean, not too long ago, my parents would’ve had to get my cat to leave paw prints or something on the letters they would send me.

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KaiYves

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 13:41

I’m writing a review of “Oceanology” (one of the books in the “Ology” series that started with Dragonology) for another site, and since it’s supposed to be the “true story” on which the novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was based, I am of course going to discuss that book a bit in the review, so I have the following questions:

Would those of you who have read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and/or The Mysterious Island consider mentioning Captain Nemo’s nationality to be a spoiler, and if so, how big of a spoiler? And is it a spoiler for 20K Leagues if it’s not revealed in that book?

For those who read 20K Leagues as teenagers or younger, how many of you:
A) Imagined yourselves as passengers on the Nautilus,
B) Made up a story (at least in your head) in which you or a character based on yourself WAS a passenger on the Nautilus and
C) Had your character’s reason for being there that they were Professor Aronnax’s young scientific assistant?

I know that I did A, B, and C in 8th grade (I actually did write the beginning of the story down, I might even still have the notebook), because being the Professor’s assistant who gets rescued/captured alongside him just seemed like the most logical way for a teenager to be onboard the Nautilus during the events of the book. Therefore, it was interesting to me that the protagonist of Oceanology *is* serving in that very same role, probably because, as mentioned, it seems like the most logical way to have a young person there (even though most of the other Ology books have had adult protagonists.) So it led me to wonder how widespread the “Aronnax’s teenage scientific assistant” idea was among yound readers of the book.

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 16:58

Wait. You made yourself into a Mary Sue character in Jules Verne fanfiction? Why does that not surprise me?

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KaiYves

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 17:36

She actually was a Mary Sue, as I remember it– at least if that’s the story that had the lines “What manner of girl do your teachers consider you to be?” “In truth, sir, they say that I am considered a bit… wild.” And then the protagonist making some sort of vaguely proto-feminist speech that I can’t remember. I think it was from that story, anyway. Other than that, I don’t remember her having any Sue-ish traits other than being related to Aronnax, though.

I really should go find that notebook once I get home… I love re-reading my older stories, laughing at the mix of mustakes, flaws and Stuff That Actually Works (mostly jokes and descriptions of things), and thinking of ways I could write the stories better or use some of what worked in my current stories.

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KaiYves

in June 4th, 2013 @ 08:52

Wait… Which part isn’t surprising– that I wrote a Mary Sue character or that I wrote Jules Verne fanfiction?

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 4th, 2013 @ 09:03

For eighth-graders to write Mary Sues isn’t surprising. For a Mary Sue to be on board the Nautilus would be surprising for anybody except you, for whom it’s the most natural thing in the world.

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KaiYves

in June 4th, 2013 @ 12:36

Oh, okay, just as long as you aren’t criticizing my current writing. I feel like A, at least, is a pretty natural reaction to the book– it’s an interesting and mysterious vehicle that takes the protagonists on some amazing adventures– and for a kid who likes to make up stories, B comes pretty logically after A.

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 4th, 2013 @ 12:47

Undeniable. But I’ll bet a lot more kids nowadays fantasize about being on board the Millennium Falcon.

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KaiYves

in June 4th, 2013 @ 15:34

Oh, I definitely fantasized about living in the Star Wars Galaxy, too. (And I wrote fanfiction for that, too, but my original character wasn’t really involved in the main events of the movies, other than having been childhood acquaintances with Leia. I think the wider scale of Star Wars encourages “Elsewhere Fics” where people have room to imagine their invented heroes fighting on behalf of the Republic or Rebellion on some faraway planet at the same time the familiar movie heroes are having their established adventures.)

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Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 4th, 2013 @ 13:44

Though it’s ages since I read 20K, I think not knowing Nemo’s nationality added to the mystique of his character. Of course, I don’t know how exactly you’re planning to incorporate it into your own story.

I imagined myself on the Nautilus mainly while I was reading it, but I don’t recall making up a story in my head about it. Perhaps if I had, though, the role might well have been that of Aronnax’s young scientific assistant.

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KaiYves

in June 4th, 2013 @ 15:40

I’m not writing a story, just a review of a book based on 20K, and I’m comparing the original novel with the story in the book– some changes are made, but one that is not is that, from the “photograph” in the book, his nationality appears to be the same, based on the traditional dress he’s wearing. I want to guage if the position of “Aronnax’s young scientific assistant” is, I guess, fanon “canonized” (not that Oceanology is endorsed by Verne’s estate or anything) here.

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Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 4th, 2013 @ 17:30

Oh of course, wasn’t reading clearly, sorry!

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Luna the Lovely

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 23:15

There are maggots in my kitchen trash. I am seriously freaking out right now. I can’t do that, I can’t handle that, that is up there with spiders and ticks, and they soemhow made the floor near my trashcan, possibly while I was bundlign up trash, and it’s that stupid bloody housefly that got in my hosue the other day, and oh my god i’m seriously freaking out and about to start crying.

they’re up there with spiders and ticks on my list of things i seriously cannot handle b/c they’re nastyand squiggly and oh my god

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Luna the Lovely

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 23:28

i swear to god i can feel them crawling all over my body. this is not okay. this is so so so so not oaky at all

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Luna the Lovely

in June 4th, 2013 @ 00:27

i think they’re gone now. hopefully the DON’T DO LIKE IN AN RL STINE BOOK AND SEND A FREAKING GIANT MAGGOT AFTER ME TO DROWN ME IN BLEACH AND BOILING WATER. like the one book whre the kid who chopped up earthworms and pinned ubtterflies got attacked at the end of the book BY A FREAKING GIANT BUTTERFLY WITH A SHEET AND PINS TO SKEWER HIM.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 4th, 2013 @ 00:29

This is the first time in the 2 months I’ve been single that I wished I had a boyfriend because I COULD’VE MADE HIM CLEAN IT ALL UP WHILE I STOOD ON A CHAIR ACROSS THE ROO AND FREAKED THE BLEEP OUT AND SWORE AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS LIKE A SAILOR.

instead ofh aving to do the cleaning and the swearing both.

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 4th, 2013 @ 06:13

Where is Spock when you need him?

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Luna the Lovely

in June 4th, 2013 @ 06:32

THAT IS A VERY GOOD QUESTION

Because they’re not gone. I woke up at 4:15 after just 2 1/2 hours of sleep dreamin maggots were crawling on me. Woke up calmed down and went for a drink of water. Saw a couple new maggots on the tile, 3 in the rug. Killed them. Searched carpet further realizing I had obviously missed some earlier. One hour later I had found a total if 38 maggots hiding deep in my carpet

I’m sure there are more. And according to dr google (and for the love of your sanity and that of any medical practitioner you may visit, never use dr google) apparently maggots can live 4-10 days and can travel 6 miles in 24 hours. And now I cant sleep because they could be in my bedroom anytime because it sure as heck is 6 miles away. What did I do to deserve this. And there’s a fly in my bedroom and in terrified it wil find somewhere to Lay its own nasty eggs and then my room will also bcome ground zero

AND SOMEONE AS CALM AND LOGICAL AS SPOCK EOULD BE THE PERFECT INDIVIDUAL TI HAVE IN THIS SITUATION

*whimper*

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Rebecca Lasley (Administrator)

in June 4th, 2013 @ 07:23

If you haven’t already, check garbage cans, particularly the lids. That’s usually where I find eggs. Had something spilled on the carpet, or was it damp? Whatever their traveling abilities, aren’t they most likely going to stick with rotting food? Keep calm and carry on. Channel your Inner Spock.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 4th, 2013 @ 09:08

They originated in some trash that got left to long in the trash can. I had removed the trash and disposed of/killed all maggots that I found, relocated the now empty trash bin outside and reloacted the bags of trash outside to go to the dumpster sometime other than the middle of the night.

I don’t think there is anything ont eh carpet, I think they were just radiating out from ground zero in the trash can, and liked the carpet because they could burrow.

Maybe I should stick something rotting in th emiddle of the ktichen floor and let them gravitate to it and avoid any chance of their maggot sense picking up something appetizing in my bedroom.

And I think my Inner Spock is broken. It’s never functioned well.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 4th, 2013 @ 09:17

But thank you (and Robert) for the suggestions/jokes. They make me feel better.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 4th, 2013 @ 15:10

Found and killed probably at least 30 more. Didn’t count. But I am no longer freaking out. They are maggots. THey cannot hurt me. To freak out would be illogical They are a nuisance and using up precious time I do not have (exam tomorrow mornign I haven’t studied for) but I AM CHANNELING MY INNER SPOCK. So we’re good.

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Rebecca Lasley (Administrator)

in June 4th, 2013 @ 16:19

Yay! I knew you had it in you, else you would probably be looking at a different profession.

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Paul Baker (Administrator)

in June 4th, 2013 @ 16:30

Good show, old girl! Stiff upper lip. Don’t let the enemy think you’re rattled.

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â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)

in June 4th, 2013 @ 16:50

What is this “Logic” you speak of?

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Luna the Lovely

in June 4th, 2013 @ 17:50

My new roommate to be (who at the time was just a potential roommate) came by to check out the apt see if she wanted to lease. the maggot rug is right outside her bedroom to be, by teh kitchen, and she had a 15 minute conversation wandering all over the maggot infested area BAREFOOT.

I was mentally losing it hoping that a maggot didn’t crawl across her foot……

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Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 4th, 2013 @ 13:47

Oh, goodness, that sounds truly nasty, I’m so sorry. I would be gagging with horror in your situation. I hope the problem goes away as soon as possible.

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Jadestone

in June 3rd, 2013 @ 23:27

Had my first day of work today!!

It was a long day on little sleep (went to bed at like 3, but couldn’t sleep because nervous/excited/…had slept from 6am to 1pm the night(day???) before, so I slept on and off and was mostly awake for good by 7 and then had to get up at 8). But, it was pretty fun. I like my boss a lot, he was my advisor last year and taught one of my favorite bio classes. The other lab people seem pretty nice too, and there’s one I’m already friends with, although he’s not here till next week. I met my prof’s post-doc, too, who I’d never seen before.

Today he walked us through DNA isolation using PCR (polymerase chain reaction), which I’d technically done once before about a year ago, but definitely needed to go through all the steps in detail since I’ll be handling the equipment on my own over the next two months. It was fun! I don’t remember if I mentioned on the blog before, but his research is on gypsum endemism in plants, so we’ll be gathering a lot of genome data for species he’s collected, and eventually it’ll be analyzed into phylogenetic trees etc.

Oh, I also wore my dragon phylogeny shirt today to get into the spirit of things. One of the lab people, the post doc, and my prof all complimented it

Anyway yeah!! I’ll work 40 hours a week, and they’re pretty flexible (arrive at 8am or 10am or whenever and just work 8 hours to add up to 40/week), although us new lab people have to be there around when he his this week till we get the hang of things. I’ll probably do 9-6 (w/hour for lunch) since it’ll make me get up in the morning at a reasonablish hour.

Anyway yeah! Today went pretty well and it’ll be a lot of work but I think I’ll enjoy it.

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LittleBasementKitten

in June 4th, 2013 @ 06:09

That sounds really neat, and like something I might want to do later, if possible.

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Randomosity101

in June 4th, 2013 @ 11:59

Um, it just occurred to me; was there a May Day Ball this year? Someone please tell me there was and I’m just crazy and have amnesia…

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21.1

Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 4th, 2013 @ 12:15

Well, we Administrators were at the ball, but it seems MBers were too busy studying…

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Randomosity101

in June 4th, 2013 @ 12:24

That must have been an interesting ball…

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 4th, 2013 @ 13:18

Are you sure you weren’t there? I’ll bet you remember it better than I do.

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Randomosity101

in June 5th, 2013 @ 12:48

When one does not need all the fingers on one of ens hands to count the number of May Day Balls en has attended, one tends to remember the ones en HAS attended tolerably well…

I remember nothing, I am afraid.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 4th, 2013 @ 17:59

Does Indian ethnic food smell bad? I ask because my roommate to be wanted to know if I would be bothered by Indian ethnic food because her mother is encouraging her ot make some or whatever.

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Cat's Meow

in June 4th, 2013 @ 18:19

Maybe it would be a problem if you were really sensitive to spices?

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Choklit Orange

in June 4th, 2013 @ 18:22

If you don’t object to curry, it smells great.

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Jadestone

in June 4th, 2013 @ 18:30

I actually LOVE the way it smells/tastes, so I don’t think so… do spices bother you? It can taste (and smell) quite spicy, and otherwise can smell pretty strong, though I’ve never thought of it as a bad oder.

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Cello-Playing Mathematician (AKA Kyra)

in June 4th, 2013 @ 18:46

The curry is probably what she’s worried about, it’s kind of a strong spicy smell.

Smells good to me!

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Luna the Lovely

in June 4th, 2013 @ 19:21

I’m not sure if I’ve ever smelled curry.

tase wise I”m not necessarily big on a lot of spices, but there are a lot of things I don’t like the taste of that I don’t mind the smell of.

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 4th, 2013 @ 20:19

Maybe you should go to an Indian restaurant, for research.

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Choklit Orange

in June 4th, 2013 @ 22:54

Oh gosh, get thee to an Indian restaurant and/or central Michigan immediately.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 4th, 2013 @ 23:14

central Michigan definitely not happening. Indian restaurant, perhaps. Although I’m not very adventurous when it comes to eating, so I’m a bit hesitant, although it would certainly answer the question of whether i disliked the smell

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Cello-Playing Mathematician (AKA Kyra)

in June 5th, 2013 @ 01:31

You should definitely try Indian curry dishes. It’s a love-it or hate-it situation, but it could open up a whole new food dimension for you, especially if you have a roommate that’s going to be cooking authentic food in your apartment!

If you end up not liking curry and still want a meal, there’s tandoori dishes, which are meat/veggies baked in a special oven. And then there’s naan–really tasty and sometimes stuffed flatbread.

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Paul Baker (Administrator)

in June 5th, 2013 @ 03:31

I second Kyra. Indian and Pakistani food is another whole world.
I’d recommend starting with a biryani, which is an aromatic rice dish with a mild, spicy sauce, or a korma, which is mild, rich and creamy. Accompany the latter with a plain naan if you’re feeling timorous, or a peshwari naan if you like sweet, sticky, almondy things. They’ll usually give you a choice of the meat (or vegetables) that go into the curry, but unlike some Western food, the dish is defined by the blend of spices and the cooking method, not the main ingerdient. So a vegetable biryani, a prawn biryani and a lamb biryani will be slightly different, but they’e all biryanis.

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 5th, 2013 @ 05:48

Or you could buy some curry powder from a supermarket and decide whether it’s something you wouldn’t mind smelling a lot.

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Rebecca Lasley (Administrator)

in June 5th, 2013 @ 10:02

Assuming you can find a supermarket curry powder that actually has a fragrance; most premixed ones I’ve found are lifeless. An Indian market or a spice shop would be a safer bet.

If you go with the restaurant approach, I agree with Paul that a korma or biryani is a very accessible entry point. The korma sauce is my favorite comfort food among Indian dishes. Many of the Indian restaurants around here have buffets at lunch time, if that’s true where you are, that might be the best bet since that would give you the chance to experiment with a range of tastes. The term “Indian food” actually covers dozens of different regional cuisines that vary considerably as to ingredients, degree and type of spiciness, and other characteristics.

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Choklit Orange

in June 5th, 2013 @ 15:33

If the restaurant has south Indian food, you should order a thali meal; they have bits of pretty much everything, so you’ll be able to try a lot. Are you okay with spicy food?

Chaat is also the best stuff ever (mostly, it’s some form of fried wafer with potatoes, crispy noodles, yogurt, tamarind chutney, mint-cilantro chutney, and/or garbanzo bean). If you’re new to Indian food, I highly recommend it, although it’s not very curry-like.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 5th, 2013 @ 16:47

If you’re talking spicy as in hot, then no, my poor tongue can’t handle it.

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Choklit Orange

in June 5th, 2013 @ 22:48

Ah, then stick to things with lots of yogurt (I can’t handle very spicy food either, which is unfortunate, as I have a large and very chili-oriented Indian family).

Chaat, mild samosas, chole tikka (garbanzo bean curry, usually pretty mild) and chole masala (even milder) would probably all be good if you’re avoiding spice. Palak paneer (spinach and paneer) isn’t usually spicy, and any dhal is likely to be sort of flavorless.

The idea with south Indian food is to mix some very spicy curry with yogurt (or buttermilk) and rice, so the spice is kind of balanced out by the milk fat in the yogurt and the starch in the rice. It ends up tasting really good, and isn’t that spicy.

Beware of unidentifiable fried things; sometimes they’re chili peppers.

(What I mean to say is that Indian food is often really good and you should try some.)

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oxlin

in June 7th, 2013 @ 01:37

Try dahl! It is a lentil dish and should be fairly mild. Also delicious.

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22.6

Eggy Rice

in June 17th, 2013 @ 16:22

No one can make me eat spicy food. Never.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 4th, 2013 @ 18:50

So because this is obviously a good use of time I don’t have, I have decided that I am going to watch teh Star Trek movie for a second time tomorrow. T his time in 3D, because I wanted to see it in 3D the first itme, but the Trekkie friend I went with gets migraines from 3D. So we went in 2D.

And this time instead of staring all lovey dovey and Benedict Cumberbatch and drooling the whole time I shall be watching all beautiful facial expression of Spock because he is wonderful. And I shall not hold back the tears this time.

And I’ll probably do my fair share of drooling over Chris Pine, too, because I have reached the ocnclusion that he is hot, although ic ouldnt’ decide whether or not he was when I watched it the first time, because there is something odd about his face/head/i don’t knwo what, so I couldn’t decide if I thought he was hot. But I’ve ultimately decided he is.

But Spock is obviously far better, because it’s Spock.

This itme I just need to not drink so much soda I spend the second half of the movie more focused on my very overfull bladder that is about to burst, and can more fully appreciate the second half of the movie.

And i need to go study for tomorrow’s exam now. Universe is conspiring against me.

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 4th, 2013 @ 20:25

So, how do all you Spockophiles feel about Dr. Lazarus in Galaxy Quest?

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Luna the Lovely

in June 4th, 2013 @ 20:33

As it has been several years since I watched that (while on an Alan Rickman kick because I thought/think he was hot–anybody noticing a theme here?) I didn’t even know who Dr. Lazarus was in the movie.

but upon looking it up and seeing that that was Alan Rickman’s character and that that was the whole reason I watched hte movie, odds are I liked him.

((I swear I watch movies/TV shows/etc for reasons other than because they contain actors I think are hot. That just happens to sometimes be a deciding factor…..))

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 4th, 2013 @ 21:06

You watched it before seeing “Star Trek”? That’s a bit like watching “A Very Potter Musical” without previous exposure to Harry Potter (except that you’d still get to see Alan Rickman).

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Luna the Lovely

in June 4th, 2013 @ 21:14

Is that any worse than the fact that I watched the 2013 Star Trek movie before watching the 2009 one (or any of the others for that matter, although the 2009 reboot would tie in the closest). Of course I’ve spoiled myself terribly both for it and what happens in the other movies (not due to the 2013 movie, that was mostly spoiler free, but through reading things on wikipedia, etc). I’m horrified to hear that when I actually get around to watching the 2009 reboot that Kirk and Spock don’t like each other. It totally breaks my heart

maybe i’ll have to rewatch Galaxy Quest after having watched soem more Trek.

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Choklit Orange

in June 4th, 2013 @ 22:53

I’ve always felt very conflicted over the fact that Galaxy Quest has what seems to me like a better theme tune than TOS Star Trek.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 4th, 2013 @ 23:13

TOS does have a pretty horrendous theme tune, doesn’t it?

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 4th, 2013 @ 23:14

Better than the lyrics that go with it.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 4th, 2013 @ 23:21

Wait. There are lyrics? Why do I not know this.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 4th, 2013 @ 23:28

Haha, yeah, those are pretty bad.

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Choklit Orange

in June 5th, 2013 @ 00:38

Everyone together, now!

â™« BE-YO-OND THE RIM OF THE STARLIIIIIIGHT â™ª

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Luna the Lovely

in June 5th, 2013 @ 01:14

Is it weird I totally see Spock singing it about Kirk….or vice versa? But seriously, omg, it is so very obvious exactly why/how those two spawned the slash culture.

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KaiYves

in June 5th, 2013 @ 15:22

It amuses me that you didn’t know that, but I guess most people come to fan fiction organically and not academically through reading about it in outside sources.

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KaiYves

in June 5th, 2013 @ 15:23

Err, “surprises” is a better word than “amuses”, I didn’t mean for that post to read as an insult.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 5th, 2013 @ 16:45

No worries, it didn’t come across insulting.

I had never heard of fanfiction (much less slash fiction) until I was 15 years old and I was crushing on Daniel Radcliffe and googling something related to him, and I came a cross a photoshop manipulation of Draco and Harry (PG-13, but shirtless and embracing) and I also was quite unfamiliar with the concept of photoshopping pictures, and I was quite ocnfused as I had no idea what was going on. and then I learned about fanfiction, and the off branch of slash fiction. (although, come to think of it, I think I may have started my own fan fiction before I was 15, so the concept of fanfiction was not foreign to me, although slash fiction was)

And of course I have since learned that if there are two male characters in a series there *will* be slash fiction written about it somewhere. But I didn’t know it originated with Kirk and SPock, not that it would have meant anything ot me at the time if I did know that.

But they’ve definitely got far more undertones of emotion and feeling and chemistry than, say, Draco and Harry or Harry and Snape, or pretty much most non-canon slash fic I’ve encountered. I mean, Kirk and Spock in TOS are having blatant eye sex in every scene they’re together and the tension is palpable and Kirk can’t keep his hands of Spock. Which when you think about hte fact that Vulcans apparently kiss with their hands…..

It’s totally obvious how even back in the 60s/70s people picked up on this and created slash. I actually kind of find it fascinating, watching the relationship unfold on screen that started slash fiction which is so pervasive in every fandom that exists today. It’s fascinating.

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Vendaval

in June 4th, 2013 @ 20:56

Your trekkie friend might be interested in a pair of 2D-Glasses (dotcom). They’re a Hank Green invention that collapse stereo images into one.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 4th, 2013 @ 21:02

Unfortunately, she is also rather…frugal, to put it kindly. I don’t really see her buying a pair of 2D glasses to convert a 3D movie to 2D, while also paying the additional cost of a 3D movie….

But I’ll mention them to her anyway because i think they sound really cool.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 5th, 2013 @ 16:46

As predicted she feels that “in my opinion those sound like a huge waste of money.”

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Vendaval

in June 6th, 2013 @ 16:32

I think people too often tip the scales in currency’s favor when weighing money against intangibles because the currency has a number, however arbitrary. Money is just a placeholder for value. What we spend that money on shows what we value.

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Bibliophile

in June 6th, 2013 @ 17:07

That’s true, but all she’d be getting is convenience if she spent the money, whereas when she doesn’t she can spend it on something that she may value more.

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Vendaval

in June 6th, 2013 @ 21:55

Convenience or accommodation?

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Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 6th, 2013 @ 17:53

I suppose it’s not really a waste of the money itself, but more the opportunity cost of other things you could purchase of the same value, that might be a more worthwhile use of the money (in your opinion).

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Lizzie

in June 6th, 2013 @ 19:57

Clearly she values the spending power of the money more than having the glasses.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 6th, 2013 @ 21:16

Or she values becoming a veterinarian, being able to place food on her table, and have a roof to live under more important than unnecessary expenditures such as the glasses

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Luna the Lovely

in June 6th, 2013 @ 21:13

Perhaps, but you must consider the friend in question is a fellow vet student. Vet school costs over $100,000, and many of my classmates were tens of thousands of dollars in debt already from undergrad. She has good cause to not spend money too freely.

While I think the glasses are cool, I must concede that it would be most illogical in many situations to buy glasses that would allow you to, in essence, pay more money to view a 3D movie in 2D, instead of purchasing tickets for the significantly cheaper 2D version.

She spends the money she does not have on vet school, food. a place to live; she intends to pay off her debts and support her parents after she graduates. Money may just be a placeholder for value, but those all sound like more respectable things to value than an item that will increase future expenditures. when the same result (a 2D movie) could be achieved by spending less money.

I cannot fault her for her opinion on this matter, and in factkind of have to respect and admire that she has the self control to save her money for those things which are important to her.

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Midnight Fiddler

in June 4th, 2013 @ 22:03

Oh hey, I’m behind on posts. But I’m not dead, I promise!

Two days into field school, good times thus far. It’s been a lot of orientation to the site and basic procedures, which is a bit redundant for me since I’ve already taken a field methods class here, worked in the lab at school, and worked setting everything up, but it’s a nice refresher. Properly covered in dirt every day, with a solid start on hideous tan lines.
The rest of the students are pretty cool, and more will be coming in a few weeks. Tonight I really appreciated being 21, probably as much as I have yet. Being in the big-kids club is nice. I’m also really terrible at darts, but had fun anyway.
I think I’m going to try to cut down my internet time, because it’s really ridiculous and I have a bunch of books to read. One of my co-workers is also a huge book nerd, so we’ve started swapping books. I’ve got three of his currently, and he has book 1 of Larry Gonick’s Cartoon History of the Universe. It’s the [site name] bookclub, basically.

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Cello-Playing Mathematician (AKA Kyra)

in June 5th, 2013 @ 06:16

I just learned that construction on the exterior of One World Trade Center completed on May 10.

Maybe there’ll be a bigger deal when it actually opens.

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KaiYves

in June 5th, 2013 @ 08:39

It was covered in the Globe and Metro Boston, as I recall.

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 5th, 2013 @ 09:16

It was on the cover of the New Yorker, too.

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Jadestone

in June 5th, 2013 @ 11:14

Perks of job: playing with the extra liquid nitrogen!

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26.1

LittleBasementKitten

in June 8th, 2013 @ 10:18

The other day, one of the chem teachers in my school brought my study hall teacher a cone of liquid nitrogen ice cream. It looked delicious.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 5th, 2013 @ 16:52

9 hours and 45 minutes of sleep in the course of 3 nights and 1 nap should not feel this awake. But I feel super wide awake, and in T minus 2 hours I will be drooling over my imaginary boyfriend who also goes by the name of “Spock”. And over Chris Pine, too, because he’s hot. But mostly Spock.

And yes apparently I am one of those sorts of girls who goes all drooly and moronic over hot dudes and who would probably be totally game for sitting around with other girls and gushing over how hot random dudes they know are, or on TV are, which is a bit horrifying of a revelation because I never thought of myself as one of those girls. Apparently I came into it late, perhaps because I never had female friends (or many friends at all for that matter–wait, that still hasn’t changed) to do so with. I’d try my sister, but she does not believe in physical hotness and thinks it is impossible to think somebody hot if you don’t know their personality. *sigh*

Goal for tonight: don’t drink so much soda in the first half of the movie (and I barely drank any last time!) that I need to pee really bad before it’s even half over

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27.1

Luna the Lovely

in June 5th, 2013 @ 16:57

On second thought I think I feel like a nap.

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28

LittleBasementKitten

in June 5th, 2013 @ 20:07

My cat delights in sitting directly in front of the computer screen while I am trying to use it.

I have mixed feelings about this.

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29

Luna the Lovely

in June 5th, 2013 @ 21:36

So I think I enjoyed the movie better the first time I watched it, probably because I didn’t know anything at all that was going to happen when I saw it first time, so there was more suspense and all. I did find it interesting to note that unlike the first time I watched it where I felt compassion, etc, for Cumberbatch’s character, this time I was more like “die you bastard die, you upset my Spock.”

Also, Quinto!Spock and Pine!Kirk don’t have even remotely as much eyesex with each other as Nimoy!Spock and Shatner!Spock do in TOS. This is unfortunate. They should work on that should there be another movie. (actually, what should happen is they should totally take the movies cast and start making a whole new freaking Star Trek TV show with the cast….that’s my thoughts, anyway).

And Chris Pine has the most amazingly blue eyes. That particular color is just stunning and beautiful and I think I”m in love with his eyes. (Yes I”m weird. Don’t judge.)

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29.1

Luna the Lovely

in June 6th, 2013 @ 02:17

Also, now being aware (unlike when i first watched the movie) that Vulcans kiss with their hands, I have reached the conclusion that technically Kirk and Spock kissed

Also, Abrams love of lens flare is far more evident in 3D, to the point of obscuring faces at times.

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29.2

KaiYves

in June 6th, 2013 @ 08:44

Carolyn Proco, one of the head scientists of the Cassini mission, was a scientific advisor for Star Trek 2009– the scene where the Enterprise emerges from the fog of Titan was suggested by her.

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30

Lizzie

in June 5th, 2013 @ 23:35

Okay, re: Indian food, I have some sort of sensitivity to lentils (read: vomiting) and I’m not so good with spicy, although I’ve gotten a lot bolder about what I can handle lately. Also I’m sort of vegetarian. What are foods that I could try?

Unrelated to Indian food, I am so tired of hearing about Game of Thrones. I don’t read the books, I’m don’t watch it, I’m not interested in watching it because I can’t handle violence, and I get that a lot of people are really into it, but seriously, could the internet talk about something else now? Such as how disappointed I am [POSSIBLY MILD DOCTOR WHO SPOILERS ALTHOUGH NOT REALLY]

that the BBC said no to a female Doctor?

[END SPOILER]

Also I found a really cool bookstore today – it is apparently the largest collection of Latin American books in the US, in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. I got a book by Galeano that I’m looking forward to trying, as well as the music for a violin/piano piece by Halffter, who was a Spanish/Mexican composer I’ve never heard of (the owner of the shop had met all sorts of people, and had once had a beer with Piazzolla. How cool is that?)

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30.1

Luna the Lovely

in June 6th, 2013 @ 02:18

I’m actually glad about the Doctor Who thing, personally.

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30.2

shadowfire

in June 6th, 2013 @ 10:04

I’m still a little upset about that. Joanna Lumley pulled it off brilliantly.

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30.3

Randomosity101

in June 6th, 2013 @ 16:07

BBC did what?!? I was so hoping that would be a thing!

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30.4

Choklit Orange

in June 6th, 2013 @ 16:19

Vegetarian food shouldn’t be a problem. If you can eat garbanzo beans, chaat should be fine (ask about possible lentils, though, since recipes vary widely and sometimes they’re just an incidental thing thrown in). Samosas are good; you should be able to find curries with potato (look for ‘aloo’ on the menu; there probably won’t be any lentils), cauliflower, eggplant, and paneer.

In very general terms, central and south Indian food tends to be lentil-heavy, but a lot of northern Indian cuisines use more meat. You might like Gujarati food. There’s a lot of bread and curries, not too many lentils, and vegetarian curries.

Basically, just go into an Indian restaurant and ask which dishes have lentils in them.

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30.4.1

Bibliophile

in June 6th, 2013 @ 17:11

Also, if you really can’t find anything, the people at the restaurant may be willing to make you something without them. It may not be the same, but it’s something.

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30.5

Cat's Meow

in June 6th, 2013 @ 22:39

I asked my boyfriend (who is Indian and vegetarian) about the food. He suggests “paneer, naan, poori, vegetable pakora” but admits that most vegetarian dishes do have lentils. You could maybe go into a restaurant looking for those and ask about other meat- and lentil-free options!

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31

Paul Baker (Administrator)

in June 6th, 2013 @ 02:26

Well now – there are lots of diferent cultures in India. Quite a few are vegetarian, and have been for centuries. So if you ask around, you might find an entire vegetarian Indian restaurant. But most Indian restaurants will do vegetarian dishes.

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31.1

Lizzie

in June 6th, 2013 @ 10:50

The problem is that most of the vegetarian dishes I’ve found contain lentils.

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31.1.1

Bibliophile

in June 6th, 2013 @ 15:13

I don’t think chana masala does.

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31.1.2

Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 6th, 2013 @ 17:32

One I know of is palak paneer, which is spinach-based.

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31.1.3

oxlin

in June 7th, 2013 @ 01:44

I don’t think mattar paneer has lentils. It is peas and paneer and reddish sauce.

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31.1.3.1

Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 7th, 2013 @ 06:50

This discussion is making me hungry.

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31.1.3.1.1

Rebecca Lasley (Administrator)

in June 7th, 2013 @ 07:51

I was thinking the same thing.

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31.2

Paul Baker (Administrator)

in June 7th, 2013 @ 06:17

Mmm. Veggie but lentil-free restricts your options a bit. You might need to make friends with a restaurant owner and get detailed info. Or get him to create a special for you. Most Indian chefs would be happy to do that.

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32

Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 6th, 2013 @ 04:13

I can’t find my passport. It just has to be somewhere in my room, but I don’t know where it is. This is a problem.

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32.1

Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 6th, 2013 @ 07:55

Never mind! I found it! Thank goodness…

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33

Luna the Lovely

in June 6th, 2013 @ 20:42

Re: So, I tweeted Miles Prurinton the other day. Hadn’t heard anything, so figured I wasn’t going to get a response.Got an email notification from Twitter just now…

My original tweet: Have you ever gone by the pseudonym “Milton Rupines”, by any chance?

His response: Oh dear– do you know me from Muse Magazine? I fear I may have been found out! Yes, that is my infamous alias.

So….either I just solved a decade long mystery, or he gooogled “Milton Rupines” and is playing along……

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33.1

Cat's Meow

in June 7th, 2013 @ 00:19

Woohoo, huzzah! I bet/hope it really is him!

Isn’t it odd to think that he’s really a legend in our world? Who would have thought 10 years ago that we’d possibly be able to find Milton Rupines? (Also interesting to think about is why we’ve never searched based on that list of names before.)

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33.2

oxlin

in June 7th, 2013 @ 01:29

Awesome! I really hope that is him.

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33.2.1

Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 7th, 2013 @ 06:01

He says he is, he’s the right age, his name is on “Milton”‘s list, and his resume reads like an extended Muserology. I’d say Luna has got the right man. Is he coming to the blog?

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33.2.1.1

Luna the Lovely

in June 7th, 2013 @ 09:00

Dunno. I didn’t bring up the blog or issue an invite…Thought I’d leave that one up to you GAPAs.

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33.2.1.2

oxlin

in June 7th, 2013 @ 22:37

I vote we should ask him.

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33.3

POSOC

in June 7th, 2013 @ 02:31

…WOW.

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33.4

Eggy Rice

in June 17th, 2013 @ 16:28

Hurrah!!

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34

FantasyFan?!?!

in June 7th, 2013 @ 13:40

Random question: Can you take pain-relievers after a vaccination? Because I heard that anti-inflammatory agents shouldn’t be taken after a vaccine because you’re suppressing your immune system response, which you actually want to form anti-bodies against the disease.

I got my travel vaccinations a few days ago. Well, I got the TDaP one, and I’m currently taking the typhoid oral vaccine, which is four pills to be taken every other day. And then I got my period, and I have cramps and would rather not feel this way but if it decreases my immunity to a disease…well.

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34.1

Luna the Lovely

in June 7th, 2013 @ 14:19

I would recommend not taking any, especially if it is a COX inhibtor (such as tylenol and aspirin, most NSAIDs). I don’t think there has been conclusive studies in humans yet, but the following blurb was presented to us in pharmacology lecture a few months ago in regards to immunologic effects of COX inhibitors:

Aspirin, Tylenol May Decrease Effectiveness of Vaccines
Scientists discover aspirin and Tylenol block enzymes that could inhibit vaccines
University of Missouri researchers have found further evidence that some over-the-counter drugs, such as aspirin and Tylenol, that inhibit certain enzymes could impact the effectiveness of vaccines.

â€œIf youâ€™re taking aspirin regularly, which many people do for cardiovascular treatment, or acetaminophen (Tylenol) for pain and fever and get a flu shot, there is a good chance that you wonâ€™t have a good antibody response,â€ said Charles Brown, associate professor of veterinary pathobiology in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine.

â€œThese drugs block the enzyme COX-1, which works in tissues throughout the body. We have found that if you block COX-1, you might be decreasing the amount of antibodies your body is producing, and you need high amounts of antibodies to be protected.â€

COX enzymes play important roles in the regulation of the immune system. The role of these enzymes is not yet understood completely, and medications that inhibit them may have adverse side effects. Recent research has discovered that drugs that inhibit COX enzymes, such as COX-2, have an impact on the effectiveness of vaccines.

Brownâ€™s research indicates that inhibiting COX-1, which is present in tissues throughout the body, such as the brain or kidneys, could also impact vaccinesâ€™ effectiveness.

These MU researchers also are studying the regulation of inflammation and how that leads to the development or prevention of disease. Many diseases, such as arthritis, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, are all chronic inflammatory diseases. Contrary to previous beliefs, inflammation is generally a good thing that helps protect individuals from infection. Many of the non-steroidal drugs that treat inflammatory conditions reduce antibody responses, which are necessary for treating infections.

â€œSo far, weâ€™ve tested this on an animal model and have found that these non-steroidal drugs do inhibit vaccines, but the next step is to test it on humans,â€ Brown said. â€œIf our results show that COX-1 inhibitors affect vaccines, the takeaway might be to not take drugs, such as aspirin, Tylenol and ibuprofen, for a couple weeks before and after you get a vaccine.â€

So I’d be leaning toward not risking it, but if you could, would recommend getting a professional opinion on the matter from an actual medical doctor who knows what they’re talking about, as opposed to myself who is armed with just enough knowledge to think she knows something, but in reality very well might not.

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34.2

Lizzie

in June 7th, 2013 @ 14:53

My boyfriend (2nd year med student) says it should be fine, for what that’s worth

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35

Luna the Lovely

in June 7th, 2013 @ 14:28

So I’m watching the Star Trek TOS season 1 two parter: The Menagerie. If I wasn’t already pathetically beyond the “starting to crush” point on Spock, this episode would definitely have put me over the edge.

Having watched the original (and unaired at the time) pilot “The Cage” with Captain Christopher Pike, I know exactly what is motivating Spock and MILD ST TOS SPOILERS FOR CAGE AND MENAGERIE all of his seemingly mutinous decisions in this episode, because I know exactly what is on Talos IV, and to see how much Spock clearly cares for Pike to be disobeying direct orders and mutinying against his current Captain and his former, and telling semi truths if not pretty darn close to outright lies when he is a freaking Vulcan and all of that goes against everything? Yeah. It would be impossible not to fall for him at this point.

Why is Spock so awesome. It’s just not fair.

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35.1

Luna the Lovely

in June 7th, 2013 @ 14:58

MILD ST TOS SPOILERS FOR CAGE AND MENAGERIEMILD ST TOS SPOILERS FOR CAGE AND MENAGERIE

Kirk’s distrust is breaking my heart. It’s Spock. I don’t care if it looks bad. It’s freaking Spock, you should know he would never do anything to bring you harm, certainly not without a very good reason.

but Spock risking everything to do something that is far more emotional than logical? Yeah. Just, guh.

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35.1.1

Kittymine, OSW

in June 9th, 2013 @ 13:07

I loved that double episode.

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36

â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)

in June 7th, 2013 @ 15:14

I… just walked, from the town’s annual carnival, home.
And i feel like i could walk back!

It was like… 3 miles.
Holy clap…

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37

KaiYves

in June 7th, 2013 @ 16:53

I just rediscovered a funny conversation that happened on another site a few years ago in which I mentioned the underwater explorer Jacques Piccard to someone who hadn’t heard of him and accused me of making him up.

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37.1

shadowfire

in June 7th, 2013 @ 20:49

Was it you who was talking about Jacque Cousteau to someone who hadn’t heard of him and got the reply “Who’s Jack Kosto?”

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37.1.1

KaiYves

in June 7th, 2013 @ 21:57

That was me, it was some sort of “Getting to Know Each Other” exercise in my People to People travel group and we were supposed to write down certain things the other person said (either answers to questions or new things we learned about the person, I don’t remember), and “Jack Kosto” was how she transcribed it.

In the online case, the person said he thought Piccard was a made-up composite character of Cousteau and Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek (note: spelled differently) who I had invented for some reason rather than a real person he’d just never heard of. No, I don’t understand it either, even six years later.

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38

Randomosity101

in June 7th, 2013 @ 17:21

I didn’t know there are turtles around where I live, so finding one slightly larger than my hand upside-down and having been crushed to death by a car was as shocking as it was sad.

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39

Dodecahedron

in June 7th, 2013 @ 18:41

I was inspired by conversation upthread (along with the facts that the only vegetable in the apartment is a single monstrous carrot and I was tired after work) to order Indian food for dinner tonight. I had malai kofta and it was delicious (I wasn’t aware of any lentils, but it was made with vegetable balls of unidentifiable origin, so who knows.).
I’d also like to register my love of breads. Bread is the only Indian food that my boyfriend will eat, since he doesn’t like strange sauces, so we got a lot of bread. The two that I had some of (onion naan and paratha) were delicious.

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40

Choklit Orange

in June 7th, 2013 @ 18:54

I’m officially on summer break! Finals week was painful and scary, so I’m recovering by lying on the floor watching The West Wing. What are you all up to?

Dodec (39)- Malai kofta are, I think, made mostly of paneer and potatoes, so Lizzie, that could be a good choice.

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40.1

KaiYves

in June 8th, 2013 @ 09:48

That sounds like a wonderful way to spend time.

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40.2

Dodecahedron

in June 8th, 2013 @ 11:03

no sssh they are vegetables, vegetables which are as healthy as they are delicious

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40.2.1

Choklit Orange

in June 8th, 2013 @ 15:33

Right! Like many other vegetables, paneer contains protein, which is important for

for

things.

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40.3

Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 8th, 2013 @ 11:28

Favourite series of all of time.

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40.3.1

KaiYves

in June 8th, 2013 @ 13:12

Agreed!

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40.3.1.1

Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 8th, 2013 @ 13:28

Two Cathedrals has got to be some of the best television there is.

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41

â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)

in June 7th, 2013 @ 19:05

I have been reading some of the old/first thread postings, and i just wanna ask the GAPAs one question;
What are the ‘points’ at the end of some people’s names for, exactly?

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41.1

Bibliophile

in June 7th, 2013 @ 20:56

I’m not really sure, but I don’t think they’re a thing anymore.

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41.2

Errata

in June 7th, 2013 @ 21:15

They were a fad some years back. I think the original idea was that only a certain number of a given type of points existed, and they were distributed by their inventors to other Musers. Sort of a badge of honor, I suppose.

Similar to the Wung Craze a couple years ago.

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41.2.1

Rebecca Lasley (Administrator)

in June 7th, 2013 @ 21:18

They overlapped with Wung Mania to some degree, but they were not at all similar. Wungs were wonderfully imaginative, whereas points were mostly annoying.

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41.2.1.1

Errata

in June 8th, 2013 @ 14:26

I mostly meant the subsection of Wung Mania that consisted of coming up with representations of Wungs and attatching them to your name, and then trading those around.

But I can’t really compare the two. I only was around for the very tail end of the points phase.

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41.3

Lizzie

in June 7th, 2013 @ 21:21

That was a blog fad for a while where people would award other people points (choklit, etc) for various things – basically the precursor to the pie/squid. I think it kind of fizzled out once people realized it hurt their postcount on the who’s here page.

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41.4

Piggy

in June 7th, 2013 @ 22:05

There were also various types of points for the now-defunct card game Paker. Wung points were of particular importance.

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41.4.1

oxlin

in June 7th, 2013 @ 22:33

Paker is not defunct! Not when it can be played. I’ll definitely play!

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41.4.2

POSOC

in June 8th, 2013 @ 05:04

You know, I’m on break now, so I can also play Paker. Is the Game Room still open?

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42

Luna the Lovely

in June 8th, 2013 @ 00:36

I have developed an unnatural fondness for the word “fascinating”.

Also, apologies for the fact that I babble constantly and love the sound of my own voice even in written word. Thus the recent stream of consciousness monolog posts from myself.

I am currently in my third day of avoiding reality and responsibility beyond attending classes (read: I am 2 weeks behind and have spent the last three days doing anything but school work). *sigh* I am so burnt out

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42.1

Luna the Lovely

in June 8th, 2013 @ 01:20

OMG, I do not know how anyone can possibly claim that Captain Kirk’s seduction of women was done “classy” (“It was the 60s, so it was classier than that”) when prior to watching the Star Trek movie I expressed that one of the things of which I was aware was Kirk’s propensity to sleeping with pretty much every pretty female face.

Because the episode I’m currently watching (which apparently deals with Tarsus IV, which I have gleaned a fair bit of info about from various spoilerific things I’ve read on the internet, but which I mistakenly assumed was addressed in th 2009 movie), his seduction of a certain 19 year old girl (woman?) in what i hope is actually not a seduction attempt at all, but rather him actually faking the whole thing to obtain information, is not at all classy. It reads like bad romance novel, or a bad porno, or just….wow. It’s only marginally less bad than the episode I watched a few days ago where he was flirting with a girl who was just starting to go through puberty (I don’t care that in reality she was older than him, she was still a pubescent child. It majorly weirded me out). But seriously “All this power, surging and throbbing, yet under control. Are you like that, Captain?” Just….wow. Yeah. um, classy. If blatant sexual innuendo that you are rather surprised was actually allowed on air in the 60s equals classy, then sure.

I’m just watching this episode in horror and disbelief because this whole flirting thing he’s doing with this chick is just so painfully laughably terribly wow. I’m dying here, in a combination of wanting to strangle Kirk for flirting with this particular woman, and of laughter and the terrible dialogue.

And also of laughter at the look of consternation and horror and disbelief on Spock’s face as he watches his Captain flirt with this woman. It’s priceless. I can’t believe the ThinkGeek poster with “the emotions of Mr. Spock” actually uses the exact same emotionless pictures of Nimoy!Spock for all the emotions, because he is extremely expressive. Quinto!Spock doesn’t even come close.

I could watch Nimoy’s version of Spock all day. and night. and day again.

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42.1.1

Luna the Lovely

in June 8th, 2013 @ 01:29

And the editing. Cutting straight from a scene of Kirk making out to Spock wringing his hands and angsting on the bridge, alone (shouldn’t there be people manning the bridge at all times?). I mean, seriously, I’ve watched shows with established male/male relationships that are less blatantly slashy than this. You’d have to be blind to not see it (although I’d hazard a guess if I were to mention it to any number of people I know, they’d think I was completely insane and not have a clue as to what I’m talking about).

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42.1.1.1

shadowfire

in June 8th, 2013 @ 13:03

Welcome to shipping. Enjoy your stay.

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42.2

KaiYves

in June 8th, 2013 @ 09:47

If you catch up on your work, I promise to share some interesting articles about Star Trek fandom that I found online with you.

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42.2.1

Luna the Lovely

in June 8th, 2013 @ 16:57

In exactly 3 weeks I will be done with this block and on summer vacation. At that time I will be caught up.

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43

Cello-Playing Mathematician (AKA Kyra)

in June 8th, 2013 @ 01:41

I
GOT
A
RESEARCH
JOB!!!!!!!!

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43.1

Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 8th, 2013 @ 16:39

CPM:

Tell us about it, please.

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43.2

Jadestone

in June 8th, 2013 @ 18:02

HURRAY!! Yes! Let us know more!

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43.3

Cello-Playing Mathematician (AKA Kyra)

in June 8th, 2013 @ 21:34

I’m going to be studying moths’ flight patterns and other yet-to-be-revealed variables in a meadow in the woods, and then analyzing the data.

So I’m going to be in the woods for five weeks and then at the university for the other five weeks.

I got in because I had applied earlier in the year, but they lost funding. Last week they found out they had suddenly re-acquired funding and had to scramble to get people to participate. So that was a lucky break for me! I sent in a bunch of new information to show I was still interested.

I really hope I like it! This job was pretty much what I wanted when I thought about getting a job this summer!

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43.3.1

Cello-Playing Mathematician (AKA Kyra)

in June 8th, 2013 @ 22:38

Also, I’m going to be paid to do it, which is way more than I expected I would be getting out of this summer. That means I can uphold my deal with my parents to pay part of my tuition every year, since last year’s contribution wiped out my entire life’s savings. No, really, I was down to thirty dollars.

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43.3.2

KaiYves

in June 9th, 2013 @ 09:54

Very cool!

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44

Luna the Lovely

in June 8th, 2013 @ 02:31

After all that practice with the communicators, the Star Trek TOS cast must have felt right at home with flip phone cellphones when they were invented decades later….I still have trouble with the darn things (usually accidentally hanging up whilst in the process of opening it)

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45

FantasyFan?!?!

in June 8th, 2013 @ 20:33

The library had a fifty-cent book sale for hardcover books today. I couldn’t resist, so I biked out there and went book shopping. I bought Cold Fire by Tamora Pierce, so I now have all of The Circle Opens quartet. I also bought some Dragonriders of Pern books. ONe of which was actually three books in one. Bargain!

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45.1

KaiYves

in June 9th, 2013 @ 09:53

I never actually read that one, even though Tris was my favorite. Could you tell me if it’s any good?

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45.1.1

bookgirl_me

in June 9th, 2013 @ 11:55

I loved Tris too, but I think Cold Fire was the Daja one. Tris’ Circle Opens book was pretty much my favorite, followed by Briars’.

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45.1.1.1

KaiYves

in June 9th, 2013 @ 16:03

Oh, whoops, Tris’ was “Shatterglass”, not “Cold Fire”. That’s two I have to read, then. (It wasn’t that I didn’t WANT to read the books,I just never saw them for sale and eventually forgot.)

But yeah, Briar’s was great– his assault on the bad guy’s house was truly awesome. Don’t mess with the plants!

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45.1.1.1.1

FantasyFan?!?!

in June 9th, 2013 @ 23:21

I liked all of them!

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45.1.1.1.1.1

KaiYves

in June 10th, 2013 @ 09:17

I liked Sandry’s book “Magic Steps” but the whole concept of “unmagic” was kind of scary, at least as a ten-year-old.

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45.1.1.1.1.1.1

FantasyFan?!?!

in June 10th, 2013 @ 11:36

The serial killers were scary to me as a child. And all of The Circle Opens quartet dealt with a different type of serial killer. :/

I still read them though, and I’m actually amazed by my younger self’s ability to read disturbing material and not be affected by it.

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45.1.1.1.1.1.1.1

KaiYves

in June 11th, 2013 @ 17:23

Yes, and the unmagic let them bypass all of that world’s conventional security systems and strike unseen, that’s why it was scary (that and the trying to get into Sandry’s body as she wove it.)

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45.2

Bibliophile

in June 10th, 2013 @ 11:23

Has anyone here also read The Will of the Empress and Melting Stones yet? Those were set in the same universe, and I really enjoyed them.
I need to go on a Tamora Pierce spree again; I don’t remember these books well enough, and I still need to read some of the Tortall books.

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45.2.1

bookgirl_me

in June 10th, 2013 @ 13:00

I didn’t care that much for The Will of the Empress- the pacing seemed somewhat out of whack, even though it was really fun meeting adult!Tris, Daja, Briar and Sandry. I really, really want Tamora Pierce to write the book where Tris enrolls at Lightbridge- I’ve been waiting for years but the release keeps getting pushed back.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 10th, 2013 @ 16:56

Fairly certain I read Will of the Empress, can’t remember about Melting stones.

I love the Magic Opens, etc, books. All of the series about those four.

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45.2.3

FantasyFan?!?!

in June 12th, 2013 @ 14:24

I didn’t really enjoy Melting Stones, but I can’t give you any concrete reason why. Just…don’t know.

I’m going to reread The Will of the Empress soon. It’s been too long since I last read it and to be honest I don’t think I was mature enough to appreciate it the first time round. So now I’m going to reread it, six or seven years later, and see how my opinion’s changed.

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46

Luna the Lovely

in June 8th, 2013 @ 20:52

Oh wow. Oh, I’m slow. They’re talking about planets of Romulus and Remus, and then talking about how it’s obvious what aliens must be involved, and I’m like, huh, I don’t get it, so confused. and then they’re all “Romulans!” and I’m all “oh wow you’re an idiot Luna”

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47

KaiYves

in June 8th, 2013 @ 21:36

I had a nice visit to the Museum of Science today– I didn’t go to the Dead Sea Scrolls traveling exhibit because it was timed entry and the museum was pretty crowded, so I knew it would probably take a while to get a ticket in. The exhibit will be here until October, so I’ll have plenty of time to see it some other time, hopefully on a less-crowded day.

They re-opened the stairs to the third floor, so I climbed up and checked out the cool ichthyosaur fossil they have on one of the landings. I went to the mini-exhibit on Bradford Washburn and looked at the stereo-views of his aerial photographs that they had, in honor of yesterday being his birthday and all. (Happy belated birthday, Sir, and thanks for YOUR gift of such an awesome museum to the city of Boston!) I also had a quiet moment to reflect at the big model of Mount Everest because it was the 89th anniversary of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine’s disappearance.

I watched the Lightning! show, which is always great, but this time I noticed something different– when the giant Van De Graaff generator powered up for the first time, it felt like the air around me suddenly became cooler. I wasn’t sure if this was something real or something psychological, so I asked the presenter after the show, and he said he’d never had anyone say that before, but it was possible, because the generator certainly does have an effect on air currents in the Theater of Electricity room when it builds up a charge, and it could certainly have sent a mini-breeze in my direction. Has anyone else ever experienced anything similar?

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48

Luna the Lovely

in June 8th, 2013 @ 22:11

How exactly do you put into words just how thankful you are to a relative who has given you tens of thousands of dollars towards your education, and who has (in addition to all the financial support your parents have provided, which is by no means small) kept you out of student debt? I had one small student loan from undergrad. My grandpa sent a check to me at my parents address to pay this loan off. Unless something unforeseeable happens in the next 2 years, I will be graduating dirt poor, but debt free–which when the average vet school graduate has a debt of about $130,000 and makes and average salary of about $60,000? That’s huge. I feel slightly overwhelmed and don’t even know how to begin to say thanks. I mean, it’s not the first time he’s helped out with my education, but I think it’s the first time it’s really registered just how much he’s helped, and I don’t know to put into words just how much that means, how thankful I am. Hell, for that matter, I don’t even know how to thank my parents enough for all they’ve done for me financially

It’s one of those days where I realize how amazingly lucky I’ve been in my life and it’s kind of bitter sweet, because I feel like to a degree i’ve led a pretty charmed life, everything has kind of just fallen into place, but I’ve never done anything to deserve it. Even right now, I’m getting all this amazing help for vet school, and the last couple weeks especially, I’ve been dropping the ball on my end of it, being all burnt out and avoiding studying, and scraping by with undeserved Bs on my recent exams and….and i just realized I”m throwing myself an “I’m not good enough” pity party like my ex used to do all the time and that pissed me off no end so screw that I’ll just have to get my butt back on track and prove to myself that i deserve it. Starting tomorrow. By not sleeping in until 5pm like I did today

But seriously, how do I even begin to say “thank you” to something so enormous?

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49

Gimanator

in June 8th, 2013 @ 22:37

Hey Museblog! I’m learning that I’m really terrible at keeping up with this site, even when I say I’m on my way back. Noted a few other bloggers I recognise showed their faces: Hello to Kagy and Piggy! Hope all is well.

Well, school is just coming up to the last three finals before I’m off for a few weeks to work at a camp, which means endless stressing on all fronts. To put it simply: essays, essays, essays (or perhaps more aptly: procrastination, panic, panic)
On the bright side, all sorts of exciting stuff has happened in my life! Now, I suppose I haven’t really clued in any of the blog on my happenings in the past, save a few bouts of depression, but here’s general unwarranted news. Successfully registered for the classes that will put me in the track for doubling music now as well as psychology! Composition is intimidating and sometimes so abstract it seems to completely miss the point, but Davis has been shown to have a small yet spunky composition department. Post modern music leads to some strange stuff and poses some difficult questions for an aspiring composer about where they want to try to lead their own style while remaining relevant, but I’m loving every second of that.
In other life altering points, I’ve spent the last couple of years coming to terms with the idea that I could be trans. Obviously, gender is a multi-faceted thing, etc etc but really all that needs to be said is that it’s confusing. Dear god, it’s confusing. However, with the support of my loving girlfriend, I now actually feel comfortable with the possibility of presenting as female! I even picked out the name Esther and am slowly moving towards where I think I might want to go.
Everything always feels overwhelming all the time. Yet, at the same time, so much great stuff happens! I suppose that’s just life.

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49.1

Choklit Orange

in June 9th, 2013 @ 02:07

Welcome back again, Gimnator!

That seems like a really cool double-major. Also, I had no idea you were at Davis. ~~Fancy a kokonvention?~~

Esther is a beautiful name. And yeah, gender is REALLY CONFUSING, at least for me- good luck with it! I wish you all the best, and I’m glad you felt comfortable telling us!

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Gimanator

in June 9th, 2013 @ 04:33

Thank you! And good luck to you too with gender. As for kokonventions in the area, I’m not going to be around again until next year but if people would gather up who were nearby Davis/Sac area I would be thrilled! I’ve never had the chance to get to one.

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49.2

LittleBasementKitten

in June 9th, 2013 @ 06:22

Any chance your choice was connected to Esther Earl of Nerfighter fame?

Whether or not it was, it’s a lovely name, I’m glad you’re figuring things out, and I agree with your last three sentences.

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49.2.1

Gimanator

in June 9th, 2013 @ 19:34

Alas, it is not! I’m familiar with Nerdfighter videos, but I haven’t really kept up any more than seeing just a few.

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49.3

KaiYves

in June 9th, 2013 @ 09:57

Sorry about the finals and essays, but those do sound like cool majors.

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49.4

Lizzie

in June 9th, 2013 @ 21:14

Fortunately (in my opinion) in the past 10-20 years the musical trends have been moving away from the really abstract stuff like Cage, Babbitt, serialism, etc and more toward the tonal or semi-tonal stuff like John Adams, Corigliano, Augusta Read Thomas, Joan Towers… Although honestly I think often the problem people have with serialist music is that it’s usually played badly – even though the writing process may be mechanical in origin, you don’t have to play it mechanically.

~~also this is probably kind of insensitive to say but I always assumed you were female~~

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49.4.1

Gimanator

in June 9th, 2013 @ 22:13

Oh, I generally don’t have problems with Cage-like stuff or serialism, in fact there are some things I like, and there are atonal pieces that I simply adore! Just that hearing student compositions often only presents a crude facsimile of the styles, and you can be left feeling… disappointed. As for mechanical play, you’re absolutely right! Some of the best pieces out there are written very analytically and then played romantically in the most gorgeous fashion (think Berg, Messiaen, and plenty more).

I’ve heard quite a bit of John Adams, but I’m going to look more into the others! The thing about his post-minimalism (or any minimalism, really) that I can’t get on board with is it assumes there are essential qualities to music that, when isolated, are all music needs, but I’ve always felt so much more partial to the complexities of other styles that in my mind present a kind of organic beauty, instead of carefully extracting certain qualities. Even with 12 tone, the phrasing seems so much more carefully and artistically planned than, say, Short Ride in a Fast Machine, which seems more like a study of rhythms.

And when I look at the way music is going it feels like clinging to some of the more atonal stuff from before that I love is to be left behind and lose all relevancy in a world of spectralism or post-minimalism. Either way, I suppose it’s up to people like me to figure out which way to push music when I don’t like the other options!

Doesn’t seem insensitive to me! Mostly just makes me feel better about the way I present on the internet, so thank you!

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49.4.1.1

Lizzie

in June 10th, 2013 @ 13:19

Is Messiaen considered analytical? I really only know his Quartet for the End of Time and one of his organ pieces, and I know he used a lot of birdsong, etc. Berg is amazing – Wozzeck has been my favorite opera ever since I got to see it in Santa Fe a few years ago.
John Adam’s stuff has moved away from minimalism, though – consider On the Transmigration of Souls or Doctor Atomic. With the exception of Saariaho, I’m not sure if I’ve heard any spectralist music – I think most of the new stuff I’ve heard seems to be somewhat along the lines of neoromanticism with harmonic influences from post-tonal music. One of the trends I’m seeing that I find exciting is incorporating electronics – recordings, programs, etc. My exposure to new music is mostly limited to what I’ve heard live, though, and I think Cleveland tends to be somewhat conservative? Not sure.

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Lizzie

in June 10th, 2013 @ 13:25

(if you haven’t, you should listen to Corigliano’s AIDS symphony (I think it’s Symphony no. 1) – especially the tarantella. Really devastating.)

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49.4.1.2.1

Gimanator

in June 11th, 2013 @ 00:24

When I mentioned Messiaen, I was thinking more along the lines of his Turagnalila symphony. It’s this huge, extravagant, opulent piece, but it’s all built in these cyclical theme blocks. He basically takes a chunk of music and then it will repeat at points exactly the same. In that respect, it’s got a very analytic construction but the piece is really intended to be this giant romantic love song, which, in my opinion, is really the only way it should be played, but others have taken different approaches.
As for the Berg, I’m actually more partial to Lulu. Admittedly the thematic content of Wozzeck is more powerful, but I like the pit orchestration a lot more. It’s got a heavy jazz focus, and I feel that the incorporation of jazz has been an obviously important trend in modern composition that can be traced back pretty far. At least, one I really like (notably, Copland).
I heard some of Doctor Atomic at one point but it struck me as generally more of the same. I suppose it deserves a relisten.
Interestingly enough, the most recent concert I went to here at Davis by the grad students was completely based on electronics. Mostly recordings, but occasionally inclusion of synthesizers, etc. Some of it was good, some of it just really missed the mark, typically with warped recordings. Sometimes it contributes, but it’s generally not my cup of tea. Maybe I’m a little too old-fashioned.
I did get a chance to hear the tarantella on youtube, and devastating is spot on. That first screeching fanfare was what hit me, as if the horrors of reality were just oozing through the facade the rest of the orchestra tries to set up. Terrifying picture, really.
I also got a chance to hear his clarinet concerto! There’s about an hour long master class with him on youtube that talks about his composition process for it. It’s a pretty impressive piece! His plotting out of spacialization makes me think immediately of a grad student I’ve been talking a good deal to, so I can see a bit of where his inspiration came from. One of the things I’m noticing about Corigliano’s music is his trying to include percussion with the rest of the orchestra, like trying to blend it as if it were a standard instrument. For me, though, that just feels kinda showy.

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50

oxlin

in June 9th, 2013 @ 02:11

Just sent in the money (well debit card number) to re-subscribe to Muse! My parents stopped my subscription (then payed for by them) when I graduated High School in 2008. Now I’d like to regain all the old back issues I missed out on. (also that one about future earth that the bio sub LOST.) Any tips on how to do that? I need all from May/June? 2008 to whenever they start sending me them now.

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50.1

LittleBasementKitten

in June 9th, 2013 @ 06:24

According to one of my older issues, you can order them at the Cricket Mag website.

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50.1.1

Rebecca Lasley (Administrator)

in June 9th, 2013 @ 08:08

When I was collecting back issues, I found most of them on eBay.

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50.1.1.1

oxlin

in June 9th, 2013 @ 12:44

That is probably cheaper than the website. I might buy the one my teacher LOST through the website, though. (If possible.)

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50.2

Bibliophile

in June 9th, 2013 @ 15:23

All back issues are available at the Cobblestone Publishing site.

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51

Choklit Orange

in June 9th, 2013 @ 02:13

I really think we should all start using “tentacular” as a superlative more often.

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51.1

LittleBasementKitten

in June 9th, 2013 @ 06:24

Yes.

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bookgirl_me

in June 9th, 2013 @ 12:50

My new room is tentacular! Well, technically, it’s just half of my old room repainted in a greenish-grayish-blueish color, but I don’t have to share it anymore. And I have a lovely new (already overflowing, oops) bookshelf and I’ve re-hung my philodendron.

Since I’ve been forced to clean out my old closet, I’ve actually found “new” clothes as well. It was a sort of surreal shopping experience. Everything was the right size- I did pretty much all my growing at age 13- but with styles ranging from 20-year-old-guy-living-in-his-parents’-basement to valley girl, all converging towards “I voluntarily wore that?”

And apparently I own rock-climbing gear, a pair of six-inch heels and the complete collection of Robert Frosts’ poems. I’m not quite sure how any of that happened.

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KaiYves

in June 10th, 2013 @ 18:19

Do you know how to use the rock-climbing gear?

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bookgirl_me

in June 11th, 2013 @ 17:08

I’d tell you that, but then I’m afraid I’d have to kill youâ€¦

((Last time I cleaned out my closet, I even had a ball-gown. I wish I knew where it went.))

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53

oxlin

in June 9th, 2013 @ 17:02

Remember the old Student Lounge? I’ve begun to re-read some of the paleo threads. The first ones are four years old! Wow.

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54

Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 9th, 2013 @ 21:56

Iain Banks died today. Has anyone here read him?

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54.1

FantasyFan?!?!

in June 10th, 2013 @ 11:39

No, but I feel like I’ve heard of him before, or at least seen his books around. A quick search shows me that they seem pretty interesting. I’ll put them on my to-read list.

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54.2

POSOC

in June 10th, 2013 @ 20:49

Yes. I’ve read a number of his Culture novels. The best of those I know, and a good starting point for new readers, is The Player of Games.

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55

Cat's Meow

in June 9th, 2013 @ 22:26

I am a high school graduate! Congratulations to all of the other graduates on MuseBlog, whether of high school, college, or some other stage of life!

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FantasyFan?!?!

in June 9th, 2013 @ 23:29

Today I re-alphabetized my bookshelf. It was badly needed. Since I’m not at home all the time anymore, my siblings have been taking books from there and returning them in the wrong place, if not flat-out taking them. I am missing a surprising amount of books. On the other hand, there is room for my new purchases. It looks a lot better now that I’ve put my new books in.

I don’t mind my sibs reading my books, or even taking them. They’re meant to be read. Well, most of them. There are a few old favorites I would miss immediately. Although stealing my stuff when I’m gone has become a rather disturbing trend…I went into my sister’s room today, found something that had been given to me as a gift form a friend in Jordan, and…didn’t flip out. It’s happened too many times to me. I’m severely disappointed, but I know better than to expect ANY RESPECT for my personal belongings when I’m not around to protect them. *sigh* This post ended sadly.

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Cello-Playing Mathematician (AKA Kyra)

in June 10th, 2013 @ 03:50

I’m coming over here again to remark how eloquent I am when writing at preposterous hours of the night.

Spelling ability, and in some cases grammatical ability decreases. Synonym ability also decreases. But I seem to be able to find a good enough word the first time that I don’t need to wrack my brains for a synonym.

It’s really bizarre.

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57.1

Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 10th, 2013 @ 09:03

Amazing things can happen when your Inner Critic is tired or distracted.

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57.1.1

shadowfire

in June 10th, 2013 @ 11:25

This is ridiculously true. The same thing happens to me.

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57.1.1.1

Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 12th, 2013 @ 17:04

Me, too. I always seem to be at my most creative or fluent between, say, midnight and two in the morning.

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bookgirl_me

in June 10th, 2013 @ 12:31

Has anyone checked out google today? I loved those books!

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58.1

Kittymine, OSW

in June 10th, 2013 @ 15:25

Me too. Where The Wild Things Are was my favorite and the copy we owned was from when my mother was a kid. *huggles book*

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KaiYves

in June 10th, 2013 @ 18:19

I have, it’s very cute!

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59

Randomosity101

in June 10th, 2013 @ 23:18

I am officially a high school graduate!

Also, I spent last Saturday evening teaching my mother to play Paker. (Well, a pen-and-paper version of Paker anyway.) She really seems to like it. Maybe it’s boastful, but I kinda feel like I win at life right now.

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59.1

KaiYves

in June 11th, 2013 @ 08:42

Congrats on graduating!

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59.1.1

Randomosity101

in June 11th, 2013 @ 09:51

Thank you!

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59.2

Choklit Orange

in June 11th, 2013 @ 14:43

You definitely win at life!

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60

Luna the Lovely

in June 11th, 2013 @ 13:19

Went to Walmart to get father’s day cards and hamburger.

After looking at cards, had the thought that I should check the poster section, because with the STar Trek movie having just come out, there was sure to be a Star Trek poster (or three or more or at least one), and that my completely full walls were in desperate need of wonderful Spockaliciousness and Chris Pine’s beautiful eyes. Went to the poster section, started flipping through the posters. AND THEN SUDDENLY EXPLODING VINCENT VAN GOGH EXPLODING TARDIS STARRY NIGHT POSTER JUST RIGHT THERE IN WALMART IN THE POSTER DISPLAY. Since when do they even have Doctor Who posters at Walmart? Like, ever. So that’s been on my wish list for ages, and while I’ve gotten a blanket and jigsaw puzzle (yet to defeat that darn puzzle), I hadn’t gotten the poster. So yeah. Got that. And caved and got a Hobbit middle earth map poster b/c it’s cool.

Was extremely disappointed to see that while they had an Iron Man 3 poster, there was nto a single Spockalicious (or Star Trek in general) poster of any kind. At all.

Disappointed, thought I’d go see if they still made PS2 games in the game section (either they don’t make them anymore, which is highly probably, or WM just doesn’t sell them), and then thought I’d check out the movie section for the 2009 Star Trek movie b/c it’s adjacent to the games.

Sadly could only find the 2009 movie in bluray, which I don’t have, so that sucked.

But in a ginormous “Father’s Day” display at the end of one of the movie sections, was every single one of the 10 star trek movies before it. And various other assorted Star Trek DVD yummy goodness. The movies all bundled into “double features” of 1&2, 3&4, etc. And I very nearly left the store with $50 worth of DVDs in my possession. As in, I stood htere for 10 minutes–TEN FREAKING MINUTES fighting the impulse to snatch them up and buy them.

I’m pretty sure the only thing that help me not do so, was the fact that I have yet to finish watching TOS, and thus can’t watch the movies yet even if I have them, but it was a close thing. They were screaming for me, SCREAMING for me to buy them.

((Hi, my name is Luna, I have a Harry Potter-Doctor Who-Torchwood-and now Star Trek ~~addiction~~problem))

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60.1

Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 11th, 2013 @ 14:38

Acknowledging your problem is supposed to be the first step toward recovery, but in this case…

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60.1.1

Luna the Lovely

in June 11th, 2013 @ 17:29

I know! Why is it not working?!?!

Also, announced my newest addiction to my mother and requested the complete 3 season collection of Star Trek TOS (it’s only about $100 on Amazon for the DVDs, athough sadly they’re the remastered ones, but as that’s what’s online anyway and what I’ve been watching, whatever) as a “survived this block of vet school” present…..

The lack of a “no” leaves me hopeful.

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60.1.1.1

Luna the Lovely

in June 11th, 2013 @ 17:53

Actually, it’s only about $80, which is even better. That’s actually a really decent price…..

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60.2

KaiYves

in June 11th, 2013 @ 17:20

I read that as “exploding Vincent Van Gogh poster” and imagined a poster of the artist getting really mad.

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61

muselover

in June 11th, 2013 @ 16:29

So. Into Darkness.

I will preface this by saying that I was not the biggest fan of the previous movie. I thought that it was flashy (no lens-flare-related pun intended) and fun, but that the script was lacking and the characters were not the most well-developed. Especially the villain.

That saidâ€¦

OH MAH GOODNESS INTO DARKNESS WAS AMAZING IT WAS PROBABLY THE BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR SO FAR AND IT ABSOLUTELY BEATS IRON MAN 3 WHICH I TOTALLY WISH I COULD HAVE LIKED MORE. BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH WAS WONDERFUL AND HE NEEDS TO PLAY MORE VILLAINS (WELL THE HOBBIT’S COMING UP WOO) AND HE JUST MADE ME MORE AND MORE EXCITED FOR SHERLOCK SERIES 3. THE KIRK/SPOCK DYNAMIC ACTUALLY WORKED THIS TIME AND THE VILLAIN WAS WELL-WRITTEN AND THE PLOT ACTUALLY HAD SOME UNPREDICTABLE THINGS HAPPEN IN IT. THE CLIMAX OF THE MOVIE WAS ONE OF THE FEW TIMES A MOVIE HAS EVER LEFT ME SHORT OF BREATH AND IT WAS GLORIOUS THE WHOLE TIME. THIS MOVIE MADE ME THINK THAT ABRAMS COULD ACTUALLY PULL OFF STAR WARS.

â€¦yep. My thoughts.

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61.1

Luna the Lovely

in June 11th, 2013 @ 17:25

The movie made me think I might actually give Star Wars another try, with Abrams at the helm……(I tried watching Star Wars a few years back after coming to college, didnt’ really get into it. I think I only saw the older of the movies. All I remember is the teddy bears (Ewoks, I believe, but I prefer to refer to them as teddy bears because sometimes I like to look stupider than I actually am. Plus there is something oddly pleasing about baiting Star Wars fans by telling them you tried the movies and just remember teddy bears.))

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KaiYves

in June 11th, 2013 @ 17:57

I would recommend that you do, but if you try again and find they aren’t for you, I respect that as well. Everyone has their own tastes.

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Cello-Playing Mathematician (AKA Kyra)

in June 11th, 2013 @ 18:24

Wow! Well, the original trilogy relies heavily on archetypes, which may be why it didn’t catch your attention.

Whatever you do, though, just… just don’t watch the new ones. Ever.

Actually, hold on a second, there’s an alternate viewing order online that makes a whole lot of sense. It ties together themes that Lucas used for both the old and new trilogies, so that watching them back to back isn’t so disjointed. So if you want to watch all six (after you’re done with Star Trek, of course!), I would recommend watching them in this order (Nicknamed the Machete order):

Episode IV: A New Hope
Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Understand that Episodes II and III are prequels. Also notice how Episode I: The Phantom Menace is not part of the viewing order: almost none of the plot information and character development in Episode I is relevant to the other movies. The main characters are introduced again in Episode II because about ten years pass between the two movies. If you really want to watch Episode I, watch it after you finish the rest.

This viewing order leaves off the original trilogy at the lowest point at the end of Episode V. It gives you some backstory with the new trilogy, which also leaves off at a low point. All of the plot threads and character arcs are then wrapped up in Episode VI.

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shadowfire

in June 12th, 2013 @ 01:38

I finally got around to watching Star Wars and surprised myself by actually quite liking the prequels? (Except for Jar Jar but we don’t talk about him) They have a much more modern-film feel than the original trilogy does so that might have influenced it.

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Cello-Playing Mathematician (AKA Kyra)

in June 12th, 2013 @ 04:07

Yeah, I mean, coming from when I watched them all for the first time shortly after the third one came out, they definitely look phenomenal. And I quite liked Episode III. Episodes I and II? I didn’t understand what was happening and that really ruined it for me. The original trilogy was easy to understand and had a couple of really powerful moments.

For me, what makes the original trilogy better is the lightsaber as a symbol, used sparingly. Each fight had great emotional and plot significance. The final fight, Luke vs. Darth Vader, was filled to the brim with intense anger, doubt, and defiance. There also was barely any fighting done at all–and what fighting there was was raw, untrained. Luke bashing on Darth Vader over and over again, beating him into the ground, is really terrifying. I could feel Luke’s anger and frustration.

The equivalent fight in the prequels is Anakin vs. Obi-Wan. It’s really epic, with lots of awesome moves, set on this amazing lava planet. The effects are astounding. But the fight lasts for too long, in my opinion. All I get from it is, “yeah, they’re fighting, they’re over lava, oh my gosh now they’re on the lava, yikes, this is so awesome!” All the development happens before and after the fight, not during like in Episode VI. And then the end of the fight–that was really unsatisfying for me. Obi-Wan just yells at Anikin and leaves him there. …What? He’s clearly not dead, it wouldn’t take that much to rescue him, or even show a little more remorse for killing your supposed best friend. But no, Obi-Wan just walks away.

All in all, the original trilogy is tied together so much better than the prequel trilogy, both plot and emotion-wise. Lucas’ advancements in effects cannot be denied, however; the prequels look amazing, and the original looked amazing in its time as well.

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Choklit Orange

in June 12th, 2013 @ 13:46

I actually do like the prequels- at least the last two- and I have no idea why, because even I can tell that they’re probably quite awful, objectively. The prequels are less preachy than the first three movies, which in my mind almost makes up for their lack of Han Solo.

I think it’s good that evil has a backstory, even if it’s an overused, cheesy backstory- and I like the political background for the first three movies, too. But I still wince whenever Jar Jar turns up on screen.

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61.1.2.1.3

Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 12th, 2013 @ 19:30

I remember hearing about a remixed version in which the editors replaced all of Jar Jar’s dialogue with whale calls and then added subtitles in which everything he says is wise and profound. It’s probably still around on the Internet somewhere.

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61.1.2.1.3.1

Gimanator

in June 12th, 2013 @ 20:34

There are a collection of variations like this, a very small bit of research shows that they all seem to unfortunately go by the title ‘the phantom edit’. Hard to tell which is which, or if the differences are significant.

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61.2

Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 12th, 2013 @ 11:25

This may be a minority viewpoint, but I’d be perfectly happy if there were no Star Trek movies. It seems to me that with less pressure to make gobs of money, the TV shows had more freedom to explore interesting themes.

I hope nobody tries to turn “Doctor Who” into an action-adventure blockbuster. Packing in a lot of chases, fights, crashes, and explosions to broaden its audience appeal wouldn’t improve it, I suspect.

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61.2.1

Luna the Lovely

in June 12th, 2013 @ 11:33

Moffat has already turned Doctor WHo into an action-adventure blockbuster. In a short littl 45 minute time frame that prevents it from having satisfactory wrap up of whatever plot he might attempt to thrust in.

Given that the newest Star Trek movie was my gateway into the fandom (despite having seen a handful of TNG episodes as a kid), I can’t not like that there are movies. And I kinda hope they do more with the current Star Trek movie cast (as in, more movies. Or hell, I’d be even happier if they turned it into a TV show w/ the current cast, but that’s highly unlikely for numerous reasons).

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61.2.1.1

Luna the Lovely

in June 12th, 2013 @ 11:34

I mean, all Doctor Who is at the moment is chase, cut to crash and explosion, cut to more chase, cut to mroe random explosions and crashes and oh, let’s solve it all with another explosion.

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61.2.1.1.1

Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 12th, 2013 @ 11:40

I’m sorry to hear it. Put me down as anti-explosion (holiday fireworks excepted).

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62

KaiYves

in June 11th, 2013 @ 17:30

My to-read list is incredibly long at the moment, as I just got a lot of new books, but hey, that’s what summer is for! (When I’m done with Arctic Mission, I’ll finish The Universe Below, and then I’ll find an order for the ones I got last week and start on those, and then at some point after that I have to come back to The Pre-Astronauts and finish that so I can read Come Up and Get Me and The Holloman Story and Silver Linings, and of course I have to read Into the Silence at some point…)

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Luna the Lovely

in June 11th, 2013 @ 19:47

The maggots turned pupae have hatched (the ones that I couldn’t find buried in my carpet).

Just got done smashing 8 flies to pulp. At least one more MIA.

Not giving these nasty little buggers a chance to breed and lay nasty maggot babies in my apartment again.

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63.1

Luna the Lovely

in June 11th, 2013 @ 19:49

Make that 9

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64

Luna the Lovely

in June 11th, 2013 @ 23:58

Life size. Quinto!Spock. Cardboard cutout. This exists. This exists and I do not have it. Why do I not have this?

73 inches tall. 6 foot 1 inch. life size Spock I need this.

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64.1

Luna the Lovely

in June 12th, 2013 @ 00:02

Holy mother of…..LIFE SIZE NIMOY!SPOCK CARDBOARD CUTOUT

This is, omg, i think i’m about to die from sheer want. I totally must have these things. Nevermind that I have no room back home in my bedroom (and not a lot here at school, either, for that matter), don’t even have room to display the lifesize cardboard Dalek my sister got me for my birthday (she was going to get me the Tenth Doctor, but apparently the super awesome amazing store that apparently exists and sells all this stuff in real life, not online, only had Eleven).

I….I….I need this. Need.

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64.1.1

â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)

in June 16th, 2013 @ 09:18

Fact of the day:
Luna apparently has an obsession with all things Star Trek!

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Luna the Lovely

in June 12th, 2013 @ 00:11

What. What is this. Why did they ahve the same actor who played the Romulan commander in “Balance of Terror” play Spock’s father?????? (Just came across a poster of Sarek, haven’t met him yet in TOS, and I was like, why is there a poster of the Romulan commander who was in one episode, and hten I looked at the label, and it said “Sarek”, and I was like, what????? That can’t be Spock’s father. But it is. Why. Why choose the same guy as the Romulan and not even make him look at all different.)

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65.1

Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 12th, 2013 @ 01:37

Romulans in general look like Vulcans in TOS because, as Spock notes, they’re the same species. As for casting the same actors in multiple roles, I’m sure it happened a lot. Maybe actors’ contracts or union rules even required it. It was much less noticeable when the show was originally broadcast (as weekly episodes that viewers couldn’t replay on demand).

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Luna the Lovely

in June 12th, 2013 @ 01:42

Oh, no, I get that the Romulan species and the Vulcan species are related and have similar appearance. I knew that. Just seemed a bit weird that if they were going to recycle the Romulan actor, they wouldn’t try to make him look more different than they did (as in, still look like the same species or whatever, but not the same person)/

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66

Zinc

in June 12th, 2013 @ 01:06

So!

Recently blitzed through season 1 of Torchwood. Incredibly good.

Into Darkness made me cry, Nine is officially my favorite Doctor, and a friend and I have made a Homestuck fanadventure using historical figures. I’ve fallen in love with our Sappho.

I’m doing pretty well, for the last month or so! I deeply regret neglecting my 5th blogiversery. I think about you guys from time to time, and also regret falling out of touch. I have a lovely girlfriend who lives in Tennessee.

This is my third year of marching band and the third different parade instrument I’m playing! Started out with clarinet, last year was tenor sax (my darling darling true calling), and this year (the one starting in September) is, due to half the clarinet section dropping out, has me on bass clarinet.

Don’t know if I’m just popping in or if I’ll stay a while this time, but judging by past trends the former seems more likely.

Usually I’m really bad at resuming contact with out-of-touch friends, but surprisingly I’m not stressed about this at all. You guys are special like that.

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66.1

Cello-Playing Mathematician (AKA Kyra)

in June 12th, 2013 @ 03:51

Hi Zinc! Great to hear you’re doing great!

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Cello-Playing Mathematician (AKA Kyra)

in June 12th, 2013 @ 04:13

There is so much pokÃ©-news happening right now I feel like my brain is melting.

Wait, my brain might actually be melting–it’s four in the morning and I have an essay due tomorrow.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 12th, 2013 @ 09:37

Does it still count as an all-nighter if you take a 30 minute nap from 3-3:30am and a 1 hr 20 min nap from 6-7:20am?

Really need to get my head back in the loop to survive the rest of this block.

Equine exam on Friday, and I”m terrible with equine and I don’t get off class until late because it’s a wednesday and with the amount of sleep I got, probably won’t be functional this evening anyway.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 12th, 2013 @ 17:04

Having a really brilliantly flipping awesome week so far.

Got an email that my rabies titer was “insufficient” so I get to go get a flipping booster for that, plus I need to get a flipping tetanus booster this summer, as well, and am suppose to get another blood draw in a year to check again for the rabies titer (to make sure the booster gave me adequate protection), and another 11 flipping flies running around my apartment when I got home. Probably more to come, since flies can lay several hundred flipping maggots and I’m pretty sure between flies, pupa, and maggots that I have killed it’s been less than 200. So that’s brilliant. and a huge huge equine exam to study for, and I struggle with the equine course work because it’s all new territory for me, and yeah. Really fantastic week this is shaping up to be.

Grrrrrr.

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69.1

FantasyFan?!?!

in June 12th, 2013 @ 22:17

I’m sorry about your titer results. I can offer you slightly more useful advice about the flies, though. Have you tried fly paper? I mean, it’s something of an old fashioned way to get rid of flies, but we once had an epidemic of fruit flies in our house, and after a week, they were all gone. By gone, I mean dead. They were still there, attached to the fly paper hanging around the house. It was a really macabre sight, but it worked.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 13th, 2013 @ 02:45

I haven’t. My parents suggested that, as well, but I’ve not had an opportunity to swing by the store to buy any. I appreciate the suggestion.

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69.2

Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 13th, 2013 @ 06:53

About those flies:

You might consider keeping your cooking scraps (peels, cores, etc.) in a bag in the the freezer until trash pickup day. The less warm bug food you have in your kitchen, the better. I started doing that when I lived in Cairo to discourage rats and kept it up for years afterward. (During ant infestations, I’ve also temporarily moved boxes of breakfast cereal into the refrigerator.) Freezing scraps is good pre-processing if you compost them, too.

You’ll get funny looks from people who find out about it, but most MBers should be used to that by now.

</GAPA_life_tips>

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69.2.1

Lizzie

in June 13th, 2013 @ 13:21

What my mom taught me to do is rinse out an empty milk carton, open the top, and put food scraps / anything smelly in there (close the top after you put stuff in, obviously). This pretty much eliminates smells – and you could easily freeze it, too.

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69.2.2

Choklit Orange

in June 13th, 2013 @ 16:43

Also, if you freeze vegetable peelings, you can make very nice broth out of them later on.

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69.2.3

Luna the Lovely

in June 13th, 2013 @ 17:02

Oddly enough, I actually get funny looks from my one friend because I don’t already do that. (Her parents were stationed on Guam for awhile)

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69.2.3.1

Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 13th, 2013 @ 17:20

Once in a supermarket checkout line, I stood behind a woman who had recently returned from Guam and was telling a friend about her time there. She said, “Do you know how you can tell you’ve been on Guam too long? At breakfast, when you pour yourself a bowl of cereal and add the milk, and all sorts of little bugs float up, and you skim them off and eat the cereal anyway — that’s when you know you’ve been on Guam too long.” So I’m sure military people there do find creative uses for their refrigerators.

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69.2.4

Jadestone

in June 13th, 2013 @ 23:24

BUT WHEN DID YOU LIVE IN CAIRO

AND FOR HOW LONG

basically it is time for your autobiography please

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69.2.4.1

Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 14th, 2013 @ 06:15

Long ago. Sometime between the destruction of Beleriand and the founding of NÃºmenor, I think.

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69.2.4.2

Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 23rd, 2013 @ 19:04

I’ll tell you a little more. If you’d met me back then, I’d have handed you this:

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69.2.4.2.1

KaiYves

in June 23rd, 2013 @ 20:19

Our beloved GAPA, international man of action!

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69.2.4.2.1.1

Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 23rd, 2013 @ 21:18

Also, mystery.

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69.2.4.2.1.1.1

Choklit Orange

in June 23rd, 2013 @ 21:21

Please tell me you at one point dressed like Austin Powers.

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69.2.4.2.1.1.1.1

Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 23rd, 2013 @ 21:30

No, sorry. Pinstripes or seersucker, depending on the weather.

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69.2.4.2.2

Piggy

in June 23rd, 2013 @ 21:45

Hm. That font looks really familiar, but I can’t place it.

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69.2.4.2.2.1

Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 24th, 2013 @ 06:48

I couldn’t tell you. Almost nobody knew the names of fonts in 1983.

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69.2.4.2.2.1.1

KaiYves

in June 24th, 2013 @ 09:42

That’s why the San Serriffe April Fools joke worked.

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69.2.4.2.2.1.1.1

Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 24th, 2013 @ 11:07

San Serriffe would be perfect if only it had armadillos.

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69.2.4.2.2.1.2

Rebecca Lasley (Administrator)

in June 24th, 2013 @ 11:51

I could probably have told you then, as that was a time when I was very familiar with the common fonts of the day. In particular, I remember the ones used on the ubiquitous IBM selectric typewriters. Most any secretary would have known at least two or three of the standards: Courier, Prestige, Letter Gothic, Orator. But where I worked, we were also quickly moving into word processing which was a whole other ballgame. I do remember using this font or something very similar. My first guess would be Copperplate Gothic.

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69.2.4.2.3

Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 24th, 2013 @ 06:25

Woah! That’s amazing.

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69.3

Jadestone

in June 13th, 2013 @ 23:29

also oh my god you are so brave in the maggot/fly war. I agree with the fly paper suggestion, we had a fly infestation when I was 11 or so and that helped.

Mind you, what MOSTLY solved it was that I placed upwards of 15 frog stuffed animals/beanie babies/toys around the house to scare the flies away. I’m pretty sure that’s what actually did the trick

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69.3.1

Luna the Lovely

in June 14th, 2013 @ 00:35

I’ve killed 65 flies in the last 3 days. 34 of them today. But I can deal as long as no more maggots hatch out anywhere (which they shouldn’t, because I’ve been making sur eno trash stays in my aprtment for mroe than about 24 hours since the initial incident)

If I am conscious when I finish classes tomorrow, I intend to purchase and implement the fly paper suggestion

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Piggy

in June 12th, 2013 @ 20:31

My dad, my uncle, a family friend, and I went out to the gun range this afternoon. I’ve never really done any shooting before–BB guns, maybe a .22–but I wasn’t too bad. We started with a couple of handguns from twenty, twenty-five yards, and I at least hit the target. I was all over the place, but hey, I hit the target most of the time. Then we went to a 100-yard range that we had all to ourselves and went through two magazines on my uncle’s 30-caliber semiautomatic rifle. That was a blast. We started off with just iron sights, no scope. My first shot, just right of the center ring. Second shot, bullseye. Then we put the scope on and went through the rest of the rounds. I got another couple bullseyes. I seemed to have the advantage with my young, 20-20 eyes. It was a beautiful day, too–the range is way out in the country. The only injury of the day was the family friend holding his face too close to the scope–he got thwacked in the forehead from the recoil. I guess I got a tick, too, if you count insects as injuries. Sometime we’ll have to take my mom out there–she claims she was a heck of a shot with a .22 as a kid.

Anyway, I seem to be unemployed this summer. I work at a grocery store in my college city and tried to get transferred to one of their locations in my hometown, but I’ve gotten turned down by all of them. Alas. I just won’t spend any money for the next three months, I guess. No, that sounds too harsh. I’ll adopt a bohemian lifestyle for the next three months. Ah, that sounds more pleasant.

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70.1

LittleBasementKitten

in June 13th, 2013 @ 04:33

I don’t think I’ve ever told you how much I enjoy your posts. Because I really like these little “life updates” you do.

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Randomosity101

in June 12th, 2013 @ 22:30

Evidently, Doctor Who and too much sugar really get my creativity going with regard to my writing.

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Cello-Playing Mathematician (AKA Kyra)

in June 12th, 2013 @ 22:57

Homestuck updated, guys. It’s so beautiful.

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Jadestone

in June 13th, 2013 @ 00:17

still alive

work is long and many hours

sometimes after it I just come back to apartment and hermit but sometimes I do things with people

I probably don’t have a great excuse for not posting a lot whoops

anyway I’m very tired and having Emotions about hockey right now

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73.1

Bibliophile

in June 13th, 2013 @ 14:30

‘Hermit’ should be a verb.

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Jadestone

in June 13th, 2013 @ 23:03

well this night has just devolved as it went on

first I was too tiredlazy to make lunch so I just poured honey nut cheerios into my lunchbox but the boyfriend saw this happen and made fun of me (friendlily) so I had to lie face down on the floor for a while

and then later he asked me if his outfit was “too much” and 1) I do not fashion at all never ask me those questions and 2) his shirt was the same color as the couch and my glasses are slightly out of prescription so I just. could hardly see his torso. I had to lie down on the floor again and laughcry for a while.

now I’m eating more cheerios in bed instead of sleeping

I keep giggling

and almost falling out bed which is dangerous now b/c it is 4.5 feet off the ground and I can’t seem to get it to lower x_x

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74.1

Dodecahedron

in June 15th, 2013 @ 21:20

Are you me? I read excerpts of this post to my boyfriend. His response was “yeah, that’s literally you”. I too lie on the floor and laugh/cry when life is just too much.

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Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 14th, 2013 @ 04:07

Trains in this country… The one I wanted to take this morning to Birmingham was cancelled, so I’ve got to take another one to Stratford-upon-Avon (which itself was delayed, argh) and have my parents pick me up there instead. On the plus side, I’m seeing my family in about two hours! It’s my aunt and uncle’s silver wedding celebration this weekend.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 14th, 2013 @ 05:38

“Star Trekkin’ across the universe
On the Starship Enterprise, under Captain Kirk
Star Trekkin’ across the universe
Boldly going forward, cuz we can’t find reverse.”

Tied with Ballad of Bilbo Baggins for most awesome wonderfully totally trippy songs that make me ridiculously happy at the moment.

Also, completely screwed for my exam in 2 hours, despite being wide awake, studying is not going well. I swear equine is all about making up nonsensical words for conditions. It’s like trying to learn a new language. Why can’t things be named logically and sensibly?

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76.1

Luna the Lovely

in June 14th, 2013 @ 08:45

I actually passed the exam. By some amazing miracle (because given I started studying about 10pm last night…..) I actually got an 84%. So I’m happy. Completely mentally exhausted because some genius thought it was a great idea to pull 2 all nighters in a week…..

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76.1.1

Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 14th, 2013 @ 08:55

Can you crash now?

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76.1.1.1

Luna the Lovely

in June 14th, 2013 @ 09:08

In 2 hours I probably can. Two of our normal Friday lectures aren’t happening this week, and a third was cancelled for in class (it will be online for us to watch), but I have one class and an hour meeting.

And then depending on if I’m functional I may or may not go to the store and to the health center for my rabies booster.

I’ve perked up a little bit. We’ll see how I feel in 2 hours, though.

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76.1.1.1.1

Luna the Lovely

in June 14th, 2013 @ 12:28

Nap time now. Then study for next round of exams. Two more weeks. just two more weeks. (And 5 finals crammed into 2 days at the end of these 2 weeks because I’m pretty sure someone in the chain of command is a sadist, but….what else is new )

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KaiYves

in June 14th, 2013 @ 18:10

Sleep well.

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76.1.1.1.1.1.1

Luna the Lovely

in June 14th, 2013 @ 22:11

So nap time went longer than planned. No studying happening today since its now 10 pm and time for bed. A nine hour nap with a couple of times waking up (first time after only 2 hrs, but it took several confused checks of my alarm before I realized it wasn’t actually 24 hrs later)

And now time for bed and hopefully not have napped so much I can’t sleep.

And then I’ll have to study super hard tomorrow and Sunday.

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76.2

Eggy Rice

in June 16th, 2013 @ 19:05

I know that song!

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77

KaiYves

in June 14th, 2013 @ 08:42

That moment when you got hurt in your dream and, upon waking up, immediately and repeatedly check that part of your body to be sure it was a dream. (My left shoulder, for those curious.)

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77.1

â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)

in June 15th, 2013 @ 14:34

Once i dreamed a Vampire bit me on the neck and i woke up with a throbbing pain in my neck…

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77.1.1

KaiYves

in June 15th, 2013 @ 19:11

I guess you were sleeping on it the wrong way.

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77.2

Eggy Rice

in June 16th, 2013 @ 19:24

One time I dreamed it was my dad’s birthday and we had forgotten to go to the restaurant we were planning to go to and I was crying in the dream and I woke up and I was crying

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â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)

in June 16th, 2013 @ 20:52

Sheesh! that has happened only once, ever!
When i dreamed Lisa (Once my mom) was like, in court or something. And then i knew it was a dream and i was trying to wake up so i kept blinking. Then i blinked and i was outside and i ran into the house calling for “Mama”
And when i woke up i was crying….

^^Oddities of my life^^

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LittleBasementKitten

in June 14th, 2013 @ 13:40

Had some final exams (English and Biology), then got to go home early and play Flower.

So it was a pretty nice day.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 15th, 2013 @ 08:15

Morning! I think this is the fest time I’ve ever felt awake at 8am. But then a 9 hour nap followed an hour later by 9 hours of sleep….

Father’s Day cards are gonna be late though. Whoops

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Luna the Lovely

in June 15th, 2013 @ 08:28

*first

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79.2

Luna the Lovely

in June 15th, 2013 @ 09:02

Also, the sticky fly tape/paper/stuff is working. In the 20 hours since putting it up I’ve gotten 41 flies stuck. Added to the 88 I’ve killed since they started hatching Tuesday=129 flies. Clearly I lost the battle against the maggots (since at least half of them survived my attempted purge to go on and become flies). Hopefully I win the battle (and thus the war) against the flies, however.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 15th, 2013 @ 09:12

Okay, so I like Star Trekkin’ slightly less now that it’s been stuck in my head for over 24 hours straight playing on repeat and not even having the decency to play the whole thing on repeat but mostly just the refrain

I hate ear worms.

But seriously if y’all haven’t watched either Ballad of Bilbo Baggins or Star Trekkin’, you need to do so. Now.

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80.1

KaiYves

in June 15th, 2013 @ 10:11

For me this week, it’s been “Mrs. Robinson”.

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80.2

Luna the Lovely

in June 15th, 2013 @ 10:16

Leonard Nimoy has a twitter. Why did I not know this sooner. And two points of awesomeness thus far about this (besides the fact that Leonard Nimoy has a twitter)

1. He ends almost all his tweets w/ “LLAP”
2. A tweet from a month ago: “Zachary. Have to teach you the Bilbo Baggins song. You’ll get requests. LLAP” ((Which is hilariously and wonderfully awesome in light of my recent posts telling y’all to go watch the song if you ahven’t yet))

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Luna the Lovely

in June 15th, 2013 @ 10:42

“The logical treatment for irrational behavior is the application of a neck pinch. LLAP”

“To deny the Nimoy is not logical. LLAP”

((Did I say I was going to study today? You must be imagining things))

“”The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” is the 15th film to ever reach the billion-dollar box office milestone. My Bilbo Baggins helped.LLAP”

“Socks that are called “Spocks?” Fascinating.” ((There was a link. there are actual Spock socks. Like socks. that are science blue. With Spock ear design at the top. Must ahve))

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KaiYves

in June 15th, 2013 @ 12:51

Friendly reminder to study.

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80.2.1.1.1

Luna the Lovely

in June 15th, 2013 @ 13:52

Studying, yes…..As soon as I finish writing my card to my Grandpa (delaying on that has taken several hours), vacuuming flies, and eating I intend to start on that. (reminder appreciated, btw)

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80.2.2

Lizzie

in June 15th, 2013 @ 18:27

Have you seen the ad that was going around a while ago for some car with both Spocks?

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80.2.2.1

Luna the Lovely

in June 15th, 2013 @ 22:18

Yes yes yes yes yes yes. I actually saw it before i even knew who Quinto was (late to the party, I know) as I hadn’t seen Star Trek yet. So I didn’t really get it all that well. But I’ve since rewatched it several times and it never ceases to make me immensely happy (and it could almost convince me to buy an Audi)

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Luna the Lovely

in June 15th, 2013 @ 11:03

When I drive back home after I graduate (which will be a couple years, but it is never to early to start planning), I must somehow plan a route that takes me through Vulcan, Alberta.

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â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)

in June 15th, 2013 @ 13:00

BLOG, SORRY, I’VE BEEN BUSY!
BUSYBUSYBUSYBUSYBUSY!!!!

What have i been doing?
Working on a Duck Pen for when i get ducks later this summer,
Writing a LOZ fanfict (THAT takes while)
Trying to finish a music video i was planning to do for MONTHS now!,
And,
eating and sleeping.

Dang i got more stuff to even do today

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82.1

Luna the Lovely

in June 15th, 2013 @ 13:53

What’s LOZ?

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82.1.1

KaiYves

in June 15th, 2013 @ 14:30

Legend of Zelda?

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â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)

in June 15th, 2013 @ 14:32

Its…
Well, usually when i mention the Legend of Zelda, it kills chat… so i wont.
Damit i just did…

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FantasyFan?!?!

in June 15th, 2013 @ 16:22

At a guess, Legend of Zelda.

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Bibliophile

in June 15th, 2013 @ 16:30

I think she’s referring to Legend of Zelda.

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â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)

in June 16th, 2013 @ 09:04

~~NAW, DO YA REALLY THINK?…~~

Exactly,

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Bibliophile

in June 16th, 2013 @ 12:41

Your comment hadn’t been moderated when FF and I made ours, so we couldn’t see that you’d explained.

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â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)

in June 16th, 2013 @ 15:34

I know, i was just making a joke!

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Bibliophile

in June 15th, 2013 @ 16:30

At least all of that sounds fun!

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Agent Lightning

in June 16th, 2013 @ 15:39

I love ducks! Please tell us when you get them- I’d love to hear about it!

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â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)

in June 15th, 2013 @ 14:37

What happened to the R&P thread? I wish to pour my heart out because i had a rather bad day today.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 15th, 2013 @ 17:05

It;s still around. Just do a search for “rants” in the search box at the upper right of the page.

Sorry you had a bad day.

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Bibliophile

in June 15th, 2013 @ 17:21

https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=12570. When you want to find a thread that’s not Currently Popular or At the Top of the Blog, you can find it through Categories (below the RC bar) or Search (above Coming Soon).
…That was a lot of capitalization.

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Dodecahedron

in June 15th, 2013 @ 21:39

Hello all! I am on my tablet and extremely tired so apologies if anything auto corrects strangely. The internet keeps going out at my apartment (Thursday night I spent an hour trying to tether my phone to a computer to check if time warner had anything posted about outages. They did not and I called them for the third time that week.) but otherwise things are good.
This weekend I took the train down to NYC to see a concert. I managed to get tickets to see The Postal Service in Brooklyn back in February for a concert Friday night. We stayed in a hotel 15-20 minutes’ walk away, since trains home don’t run that late. The concert itself could have been better, although despite the awful seats and poor mix of sound I still enjoyed it a lot. The next day we went into Manhattan for a bit and did some shopping at The Strand (giant bookstore), Forbidden Planet (giant comic book store), and Nintendo World (yes the point here is that my boyfriend and I are possibly the geekiest people to exist) before taking a train home.

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LittleBasementKitten

in June 16th, 2013 @ 05:31

I’ve been to Forbidden Planet (got my Captain America shirt there) and the Nintendo Store (got my Eevee, Mew, and Axew plushies there ~~shut up I’m cool~~), but never The Strand. Next time my family and I go down to NYC, I’ll have to ask if we can go there.

I hope your internet gets fixed soon!

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Dodecahedron

in June 16th, 2013 @ 08:52

The Strand is literally two doors down from Forbidden Planet, on the nearest corner. It has many miles of books (I think 18? A lot.) and lots of them cost less than at the Barnes and Noble back home. The only downside is that the shelves are pretty close together- carrying a day’s worth of clothing and previous purchases on my back, I once turned poorly and knocked over about 15 books from a table.

Thank you for the kind wishes! I am posting from apartment internet now, and even though Time Warner called to ask if it was working and if so could I cancel, I’m going to keep an appointment for a technician to look at it tomorrow…

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Errata

in June 15th, 2013 @ 22:41

Recent happenings in my life:

Unexpectedly got a chance to see Into Darkness a couple weeks ago. I’m now working my way (slowly) through TOS.

I also had an orchestra audition last week, which went okay. Not great, but okay. I didn’t work hard enough and was overconfident about my abilities, and I just didn’t make as much progress as I needed to. Didn’t make the orchestra I was hoping for, but I got into the one below it. I’m content, though disappointed.

And I started rereading Lord of the Rings for the first time in way too long. I’d forgotten how very good those books are. Although I can also understand the complaints against them. Still, they’re incredibly rich, and gain so much on rereading, especially if you read the Silmarilion and the rest of the background material. There’s so many fascinating things about those books, it’s no wonder they founded a genre.

Oh, and I got a really good grade in my English class this year. Probably a better grade than I should have gotten, but the teacher was forgiving. Now I’m just waiting on my AP results…

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Luna the Lovely

in June 16th, 2013 @ 00:53

Re: Into Darkness and watching TOS. Are we, like, the same person? (but seriously, great minds think alike and all that jazz, lol. also i’m hyper)

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Cat's Meow

in June 16th, 2013 @ 15:25

I’m rereading Lord of the Rings, too! After I do, my boyfriend and I are hoping to read the Silmarillion together. Guess I’ll have to read the trilogy again later to assimilate all my new background knowledge!

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Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 16th, 2013 @ 14:51

Dementia is a terribly sad thing.

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KaiYves

in June 16th, 2013 @ 18:55

This weekend was very good for reading! I finished “Arctic Mission” last night, which was really good and has unsullied in me the desire to travel to the arctic by airship. Sadly, although South Weymouth can be easily reached from Boston by commuter rail, the Navy disbanded the lighter-than-air division based there in the 60s. (Yeah, see, everyone always thinks of airships as fin-de-siecle/WWI/interwar, but one of the focuses of the book was a mission by a Navy blimp to an ice-drift polar research station in the arctic in *1958*, and the US Navy had designated lighter-than-air divisions until *1961*.)

And today, that done, I returned to “The Universe Below” after a few weeks otherwise-occupied and finished that, too. Wow, I learned so much I never knew about underwater exploration from this book, and I thought I knew a lot already. William J. Broad really is a great writer, especially that epilogue– I kept tearing strips off my bookmark paper to mark passages I wanted to cone back to and copy down for future reference!

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Jadestone

in June 16th, 2013 @ 20:04

Just back to my apartment after a weekend in Columbus for Origins! It’s a gaming convention.

I mostly went to meet and get a book signed by a newly favorite author–Patrick Rothfuss, who wrote/is writing The Kingkiller Chronicles. Some of you might remember me gushing about The Name of the Wind a few months ago. Well, I know own a signed hardback and have a picture of him and I looking stoic.

I also went to a panel he did on Writing Your First Novel, which was very helpful, especially as I have started several First Novels but never finished one satisfactorily. I think for me, one of the biggest factors in how much I like an author is how much reading them makes me want to write. This is very true for Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, etc. I also went to a seminar on writing for Young Adult and Middle Grade (like, between YA and adult) which was also neat as that’s a lot of what I read/am inclined to write.

Anyway more on that probably belongs more on Books and Reading or Writing rather than here, so I’ll cease that trend.

I also bought some dice–a set of swirly blue-purple with sparkly pink clear parts that look like tiny galaxies (at least to me), a red-and-black set with dragons on them, a d20 “forest” themed die with leaves that’s green on black, and a “Celtic” d20 where the numbers/edges are stylized. Also I guess a d20 necklace that had a (removable/replacable) swirly orange-red d20 with gold numbers.

They’re small and pretty okay D: And I only had an incomplete set I bought two years ago since I lost my d4 and d12. And now that I’m playing D&D once a week again I have a semi-legitimate reason for needing new ones. I also use the d20s as life counters in Magic games.

uhhhhh yeah otherwise I managed to restrain myself and not buy much. I got a few Magic card lands I wanted and a Russian-text dragon for my friend. She speaks russian and gets me cards a bunch, and she probably won’t have a need for this, but I love dragons and collect them so it’ll remind her of me hopefully :3

I lusted over a fair number of books, comic books, and assorted pretty things; but managed to haul myself away before doing permanent damage to my bank account by impulse-buying a $60 blanket with a dragon on it and WELL SINCE IT’S 2 FOR A HUNDRED MIGHT AS WELL GET THE FAIRY TOO etc.

~~anyway Tetra we might need to have a talk about that “geekiest” thing~~

Anyway yes! fun! OH also I hung out with ebeth a bit! She was kind enough to let us crash in her house for the night. Sadly, family and work demanded most of her attention, but perhaps I shall see her again in due course.

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Dodecahedron

in June 16th, 2013 @ 20:20

Today I went to the library used book sale and bought seven science fiction/fantasy novels and three ancient books on computer programming

Do you really want to start this? Bring it, I can take you in a ~~fight~~ rational discussion on geekdom.

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Dodecahedron

in June 16th, 2013 @ 20:22

If I could edit I would add: I also bought a movie on Laserdisc, even though I have no way to play it, just because I love obsolete technology.

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KaiYves

in June 16th, 2013 @ 20:42

You might try looking for a LaserDisc player at a school, especially a middle or high school, as they tend not to have the funding to upgrade teaching materials as quickly as universities do. (And many excellent materials are never released in updated form, which was why my fifth grade science teacher used LaserDiscs in her lessons… of course, that WAS nearly ten years ago…)

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â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)

in June 16th, 2013 @ 21:09

I wonder…
I wonder if time moves differently for everyone.
Maybe the more patient people and the less patient people still have the same patience level, but time moves more slowly for the less patient ones. And faster for the more patient ones.
And the reason we haven’t noticed is because we are used to it.
But how are we used to it? Were we born with the same amount of time we have now? Or does it move faster or slower as we age?
And if it is 8:00 for some people, maybe its the same thing for others, but they just call it something else.
Maybe… maybe 8:00 looks like one thing on a clock to a person (We shall call Dan). But to another person (Who we will call Emily) 8:00 would look like 8:15 to Dan. And for Dan, 11:00 would look like 10:15 to Emily. And of course Dan would be the most patient one because time apparently moved faster for him. And Emily would have a short patience level because time would go slower for her so she would have to wait longer. Everyone has their limits once in awhile you know.
Emily would have to wait longer, since time ran slower for her, her patience would run out before Dan’s, because the more someone has to wait the faster it runs out, right?

This is how i spend my spare time, right here

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Lizzie

in June 16th, 2013 @ 21:27

Clocks are an arbitrary measure of time, though; a second has only the value you assign to it.

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 17th, 2013 @ 05:02

Even for orchestral musicians?

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Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 17th, 2013 @ 05:18

Especially arbitrary for musicians, I think. It’d be difficult to think in seconds for every piece. Different tempi/metronome markings govern different pieces, so in that sense the way time is measured can vary quite a bit.

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Lizzie

in June 17th, 2013 @ 18:39

Oh, definitely – some of those three-hour rehearsals seem to go on eternally.

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Lizzie

in June 17th, 2013 @ 19:45

(possible my longer post got spameaten)

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Lizzie

in June 17th, 2013 @ 19:13

More seriously, people’s perception of time tends to be extremely inaccurate. You can think you’re playing something exactly steadily and actually be rushing or dragging, and there tend to be lots of subconscious tempo fluctuations with the phrase. Plus there’s no reason to measure things in seconds – it’s simply a convention and it’s actually a very long measure of time for most people. For example, a comfortable walking speed for a lot of people is between about 90 – 110 steps per second – 60 feels very slow. Heartbeats, too, tend to be faster than 60 – and CPR is done at around 102 beats/second (tempo of Staying Alive / Another One Bites the Dust).

When you do an orchestral audition, there is generally a “right” tempo to play things at, but no one really agrees what that is. Take, for example, the 4th movement of Shostakovich’s 5th symphony. It’s marked “allegro non troppo” – fast, but not too fast. Compare Bernstein conducting it (if links are okay, http://youtu.be/ogJFXqYEYd8 ) with what I believe is the London Symphony Orchestra (http://youtu.be/LAbaAvaijfg). Beethoven put metronome markings on a lot of his pieces that no one actually plays – they’re generally way too fast.

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Bibliophile

in June 16th, 2013 @ 22:26

That’s an interesting idea. I think it’s very unlikely that it’s actually the case, but it could make an interesting story, if someone thought of a plot.

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â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)

in June 19th, 2013 @ 22:20

Bet i could do that somehow

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FantasyFan?!?!

in June 17th, 2013 @ 00:22

Well, my sense of time passing has definitely changed as I’ve gotten older. I’ve also gotten more patient, at least in my own opinion. So maybe there’s a correlation.

But I’ve heard that your sense of time speeding up is a thing that definitely happens as you get older. There have been studies done and everything. It’s because when you’re young, a year might be a pretty huge chunk of your life–say 1/10th. But at 50, a year is 1/50th of your life, so it seems much less compared to everything else. And then people would develop more patience as they got older partially due to more maturity but also because of this.

…I think you are right, but it’s people’s perception of time that changes. It’s not actually time running faster for one person than another; it’s all in their heads.

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Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 17th, 2013 @ 05:19

I seem to remember reading about something similar in a Muse article long ago.

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 17th, 2013 @ 06:26

An interesting popular book on time perception has just come out. It’s called Time Warped, by Claudia Hammond.

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bookgirl_me

in June 17th, 2013 @ 05:32

I think it depends too much on your emotions & external situation to call. For example, a half an hour is nothing in summer, but eternity during an oral exam. Today, I was ridiculously grateful because my second lecture let out ten minutes early, which gave me time to prep for my next course so that I could a) arrive on time and b) give my presentation, which means I don’t have to present next course, which means I can actually finish my programming homework this afternoon and start studying for my other presentation this night, so I can do my homework for another class and take my final test for another class, so that I canâ€¦ Well, anyway, barring catastrophes I’ll actually have time to sleep between today and the friday after next. I hope.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 17th, 2013 @ 06:26

Even 10 minutes is ridiculously long when you’re sitting in lecture (especially the last 10 minutes of lecture), but the 10 minute breaks between classes pass instantly (which may have something to do with the fact I sleep during the breaks between classes, but….even when I’m awake they pass *much* faster than any 10 minute period of class)

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Luna the Lovely

in June 17th, 2013 @ 06:07

Random thought of the day (or night or morning or whatever it is): Do you think there’s sentient life on another planet somewhere in the universe? And if so do you think we’ll ever encounter it in our lifetime?

Because that would be totally flipping awesome. I wanna meet an alien.

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 17th, 2013 @ 06:57

Are you sure? You don’t even want to meet a biryani.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 17th, 2013 @ 07:40

There’s a difference between not liking to try new foods and finding the prospect of encountering alien life fascinating….I think?

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KaiYves

in June 17th, 2013 @ 08:56

I think it is likely that other intelligent life exists somewhere in the Universe. I would hope we might make contact within my lifetime, especially given the rapid pace of exoplanet discovery and SETI projects like the Allen Telescope Array. Of course, it’s all speculation one way or the other until such a thing does occur. So, to quote and old SF movie: keep watching the (radio) skies!

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Bibliophile

in June 17th, 2013 @ 14:08

I agree. I don’t expect contact to be made during my lifetime, though, although it would be ridiculously awesome.

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KaiYves

in June 17th, 2013 @ 21:28

What we expect to happen and what we hope to happen aren’t always the same thing. Hence the expression “beyond rational hope”.

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Cat's Meow

in June 17th, 2013 @ 15:37

I would love to be an astrobiologist. The prospect of an entirely independent tree of life would be so incredible; we’d be able to figure a lot out about what’s universal to life on Earth because it has to be and what’s universal here because the first life on Earth happened to start out that way. How would they be built; out of cells or otherwise? Would they have DNA or something DNA-like, or copy themselves in a totally different way? If we somehow found a whole ecosystem out there, would there be analogs to species on Earth and/or evidence of convergent evolution? Yeah, that would be really, really cool.

I mean, I won’t hold my breath, but that being said, if I end up majoring in some kind of biology, you bet I’d want to leap to astrobiology as soon as it found something.

(No Saiyans, though…please.)

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KaiYves

in June 17th, 2013 @ 16:01

Have you seen “Alien Planet”? I thought it was some interesting speculation about how creatures might evolve on another planet to fill niches.

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Choklit Orange

in June 17th, 2013 @ 16:14

Yes, I do think there’s sentient life elsewhere! I don’t imagine it’s necessarily be life with which we can communicate, but I like imagining what would happen to the world if we made first contact. Maybe we would fight over the right to represent Earth to the aliens, or maybe the country whose people they first encountered would become the world’s greatest superpower, or maybe separate governments would all be erased and we’d either end up with a massive totalitarian regime running the whole planet or a peaceful and advanced Federation-type system. (Not sure I’m making much sense here, but it’s fun to think about alien contact being the one thing that makes all of humanity equal by making our smaller disagreements kind of irrelevant.)

Also, how would religions adapt to the existence of aliens? I bed there’d be sects which would deny the evidence and become really reclusive, and people would suddenly start trying to reinterpret holy books and traditions to incorporate the aliens, and new religions might even spring up or see a sudden revival…

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Paul Baker (Administrator)

in June 18th, 2013 @ 06:49

If our current knowledge of relativity is sound, and it’s not going to be superceded by some new idea that allows effective faster-than-light travel, the overwhelming likelihood is that our first contact with an alien civilisation will come in the form of a received signal whose content is sufficiently complex to rule out any conceivable natural process. Once we’ve identified the source, and started the decoding process, we’ll then be faced with the fact that it will take several thousand years to get a reply to whoever sent it. I wonder how we’ll deal with that?

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KaiYves

in June 18th, 2013 @ 12:23

I meant to pie that.

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Jadestone

in June 17th, 2013 @ 14:15

I… I’m on mobile so maybe things are just weird because of that but is anyone else seeing a background of the smilies behind the main page???? Like at the edges, the top edge of te site has two rows full of only them for me, and I see HuNDREDS more when pages aren’t finished loading…

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Jadestone

in June 17th, 2013 @ 14:18

Oh god on mobile the one I posted looks like the HPB bunny when I DEFINITELY typed the “lol” smiley which means this is FOR SURE a plot of the hpbs.

Also there are 20 rows of the “lol” ones below the comment box now.

All just sitting there, laughing. In unison.

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Jadestone

in June 17th, 2013 @ 14:20

Apparently every time I post it gets worse because now the sidebar items like Recent Comments all have their own laughing border.

What madness will posting this bring???

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LittleBasementKitten

in June 17th, 2013 @ 15:12

The end is nigh.

The time of the Laughing Smilies is upon us.

Hug your families, for they are coming.

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 17th, 2013 @ 18:09

I don’t see anything unusual (or at any rate more unusual than usual for MB). But things look different here in the Woven Beyond.

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Jadestone

in June 17th, 2013 @ 21:13

things are looking normal now, both on my computer and when I checked on my phone. Perhaps the alert caused the hpbs to retreat. For now.

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Paul Baker (Administrator)

in June 18th, 2013 @ 06:36

They’re playing with your head. Making you doubt your grasp of reality. They’ll be back.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 17th, 2013 @ 15:52

New favorite song (in addition to the two previous ones). “Highly Illogical”. Leonard Nimoy. There is something about the way he says “illogical” It makes me ridiculously happy. I think my crush has expanded past Spock and I’ve got a bit of a star crush on Leonard Nimoy as well (we’ll just ignore the fact he’s 83, because that makes me a hypocrite when I tease my sister about he husband being “old” when he’s less than 10 years older than she is)

And just listend to him singing “Both Sides Now” which is a song I’ve heard Barrowman singing lots and ltos of times b/c I have it on a CD, and while I’ll concede it’s much better suited to Barrowman’s voice than Nimoy’s……I think I’d rather lsiten to Nimoy singing it. Totally in love with his voice.

Anyway. Going to go take a nap so that I can study for my exam tomorrow and hopefully be able to get to bed tonight and not go for a 4th allnighter in a 7 day period. Already done 3. That’s WAY too many.

But, guh. Leonard Nimoy.

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â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)

in June 17th, 2013 @ 19:22

I’ve heard some Mission Impossible, Night Gallery, and Gunsmoke episodes have Leonard Nimoy in them. Leonard was a main character in MI for awhile. I don’t know how to link to a video yet so happy hunting!

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KaiYves

in June 17th, 2013 @ 21:24

Sleep well, Luna.

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â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)

in June 17th, 2013 @ 19:37

I need answers to a question…

I want to know if there are any free softwares out there that resemble Photoshop. I can’t afford Photoshop right now, so i need alternatives.

The reason i want it, is to make some cool 2D animations like, People like Iceriftwarriorcat, and Riverswordmaster make (Look them up when you have time)
I want to create my own cool animations like theirs and put them on the internet.

And just FYI because this reccomendation is getting annoying;
I
TRIED
GIMP
ALREADY!

I just want something for a hobby…
too much to ask?

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93.1

Errata

in June 17th, 2013 @ 20:09

Well, I have a list, but there’s some disclaimers first. One, I’ve never actually used any of these. My favorite webcomic artist listed these as the best free drawing programs out there. Two, I have no idea whether they would work for animations in the slightest. I have no experience with animations and I have no experience with these programs.

Here, with the original comments:
Fire Alpaca – An excellent Paint Tool Sai alternative which has perspective and ruler-like drawing tools. Highly recommended. (Mac/Windows)
MyPaint – A very unique program with an excellent brush system. Great for sketching and painting. (Windows/Linux)
Paint.Net – An alternative to MSPaint, good for pixel art and simple image editing. (Windows)
((He also listed GIMP. That was the only one specifically likened to Photoshop, for what it’s worth.))

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Lizzie

in June 17th, 2013 @ 20:36

To me your last two lines make this sound a bit like “I want to make really cool animations but I don’t want to have to put in any time/effort.” If that’s the case – and it may not be, I may totally be reading your post wrong – then you probably won’t be able to find any program that will do that for you.

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â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)

in June 18th, 2013 @ 11:06

Heh… No, i didn’t mean anything like that at all! Those last words were supposed to be in the lines of the me-getting-exasperated-because-i-cant-find-what-i-am-looking-for category.

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Cello-Playing Mathematician (AKA Kyra)

in June 18th, 2013 @ 19:59

Yeah I have no idea how animations work. But I use Inkscape for my vector drawings.

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Vendaval

in June 21st, 2013 @ 05:45

Photoshop isn’t really animation software, besides its gif capability. But it sounds like you want to draw longer cartoon animations? If so, Adobe Flash is what you need. It’s as expensive as Photoshop. Have you tried Pencil or Synfig?

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Rebecca Lasley (Administrator)

in June 21st, 2013 @ 10:32

If you have a mobile device, there are some decent apps out there, free or inexpensive, that might be sufficient for a hobbyist, at least to get started with.

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â˜¼Cá´€twiá´Žgs~Pá´€nthÎµr tribá´‡ ÊŸeaá´†erâ˜¼(â™¦lrishGirI100â™¦)

in June 21st, 2013 @ 18:01

I tried Adobe too, i downloaded it and it wouldn’t even let me open the software.
Never found it again…

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Vendaval

in June 21st, 2013 @ 22:01

I should’ve been more specific; Adobe Flash Player is what most of us have installed on our browser to see Flash-made things, like games and videos. Adobe Flash Professional CS6 is the tool used to make those games and movies. It’s pretty expensive, even with student discounts.
Pencil (pencil-animation dot org) is probably your best choice right now, it’s free and teaches basic animation skills like onion skinning. It doesn’t do tweening automatically, but Rebecca makes a good point about apps.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 18th, 2013 @ 03:00

Apparently Leonard Nimoy voiced one of the characters in “The Pagemaster” (that movie about all the books that came to live that was a mixture of horribly terrifying and really awesome. There was a treehouse, and an epically creepy library, and humongous rainstorm, and kids with bicycles on little ramp thingies. And then the bookworld, which for some reason I feel like I remember less of then the human world leading up to bookworld. I just remember finding the movie a mixture of terrifying and enjoyable (I was an easily terrified child)).

Too bad our VCR is busted, because now i wanna watch that movie again (we have it on VHS). Actually on second thought, we might still have the still function VCR we had prior to getting the DVD/VCR combo. It’s the VCR in the combo machine that doesn’t work (it de-spools VHS’s)…..

Study break over. Time to continue learning even more about cows, despite the fact that food animal is not my field. I don’t want to work around animals that could easily smash me to pieces……

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shadowfire

in June 18th, 2013 @ 15:56

Oh wow, I loved that movie when I was younger and I’d more or less totally forgotten about it! Google says he was Dr. Jekyll and now I want to watch it again too.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 18th, 2013 @ 08:33

So I survived. Ill-advised as 4 all-nighters in a 7 night period might be (scratch that, IS), I survived. And even got a 94% on this morning’s exam (how I’m doing best in food animal, of all my classes this block, I will never understand). And two all nighters back to back is especially ill advised. Remaining conscious (and focused) on the minimal nap that I took yesterday evening and night was…..not fun.

But hey. Three hours of lectures until I’m done for the afternoon and I can take a (hopefully reasonably length, not super long, but adequate) nap before starting on studying for finals which are the end of next week. Because I need to stay on track and focused for the next week and a half, none of this “let’s start studying at 10pm before the test” nonsense, or I will NOT live through finals.

Not sure I”ll remain conscious during classes this morning, but what else is new.

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â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)

in June 18th, 2013 @ 15:56

Hopefully it will go well!
I don’t go to public school so i can’t really say anything from experience. Except for, Hope you do well

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Lizzie

in June 18th, 2013 @ 17:06

Luna’s in grad school (vet school) anyway, so even public school wouldn’t really be comparable.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 18th, 2013 @ 17:10

Thanks!

Are you homeschooled, then? I was homeschooled from 2nd grade through the end of high school.

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â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)

in June 18th, 2013 @ 20:52

Yeah, I’ve basically been Homeschooled my entire life!
Before Lisa left, she always threatened me about sending me to regular school if i didn’t obey her. And one time she almost did. But i stopped her before she got to the phone. That is the closes i have ever gotten to a regular life.
Phew!

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Luna the Lovely

in June 18th, 2013 @ 22:40

lol, I remember the “getting-sent-to-public-school” threats, as well. There were a couple times I think Mom was really close to actually doing it, and my sister and I were practically grovelling on the floor begging her not to and swearing we wouldn’t ever again do whatever it was that we had done to make her threaten it. Good times.

I’m honestly not quite sure why the prospect of public school filled us with such terror, but it was certainly a very effective threat.

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â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)

in June 19th, 2013 @ 13:35

Probably because you would have to get up every morning at an early time, Run to get onto a bus, Have a quick breakfast, And then sit in one spot for about an hour or so, then have a quick unfair recess, Then go back inside for two more hours, Then leave, Have dinner, And go to bed.
Thats my opinion of school anyways.

Also. Normal human beings have a passion for freedom preservation. If you have been free all your life, without any worries about someone basically forcing you to sit at a desk for an hour and write on a little notepad and listen to a basic stranger tell you how to do something right. And also without the fear of not doing something perfectly correct and getting sent to someone who hates you anyway.
Freedom is a good thing, especially for a child who happens to love being outside in nature. Not locked away in a school room all day.
(This might not really BE school, but you know I’ve never been there)

Then, there’s a fear of the strict school laws. Once a kid wore a pair of socks that didn’t match, the school called his parents and fined them!
And the kid who brought LEGOs to school. He brought along a tiny LEGO gun that was with his set. They took it away and had his parents sent to jail for awhile.
The fear of school is completely understandable to me. Being homeschooled has the advantage of staying home with your family all day, Your own parents (Or parent in my case) give you some pages of whatever you really want to learn at the moment, Say your into math, you can just tell them and they’ll help you learn more about it. And you can eat the food that you like eating, instead of school food. (Did you see the pictures of those things they serve there? Blech) And you get to enjoy your own house while your studying.

The pleasure of freedom is greater then our fear of the consequences
~I just made that up.

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Eggy Rice

in June 19th, 2013 @ 18:32

And before/after dinner, there would be homework.

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Cello-Playing Mathematician (AKA Kyra)

in June 19th, 2013 @ 19:42

You can pack a lunch to go to school, just saying.

And I think that public school has the advantage of preparing students for complex social situations (getting to know people out of a large crowd). You have to experience school drama to know what it’s about and how people interact under pressure. I also think it encourages independence, having to be on your own every weekday. Personally, I would hate to be stuck with my parents all day. The evenings are fine, thanks.

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Eggy Rice

in June 19th, 2013 @ 21:20

To your first point – true.
To your second point – what the cake? “preparing for complex social situations”? In my opinion, the social situations at school aren’t that complex, from what I’ve heard. Not to mention that middle and high school puts you under high stress. Also, “school encourages independence”, you say? I am not just stuck at home with my parents all day, thank you very much! My brother and I have, in my opinion, a higher level of independence than most of you poor, unfortunate school-goers. We go places by ourselves at least thrice a week, such as the local food co-op, which is 5 blocks away from our house, the pool, which is about 9 blocks away, and the library, which is about 12 blocks away. And these are just the places we walk to! we also take public transportation to my ballet classes, our guitar lessons, my brother’s fencing classes, my brother’s group film project, and the more further away library.
No offense meant toward you. I apologize if I may have hurt your feelings.

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Bibliophile

in June 19th, 2013 @ 23:49

The social situations at school certainly feel complex to me. I’m really bad at understanding that sort of thing, though, so it could partially be me.

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Cello-Playing Mathematician (AKA Kyra)

in June 20th, 2013 @ 11:58

Oh, okay! That’s really great! Personally, my parents would probably not have let me go anywhere by myself. They always got really nervous when I went somewhere with my friends, like riding bikes to the pool or the store, right up through middle school. I was alone every day after school for a few hours, but I was expected to stay there.

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Cello-Playing Mathematician (AKA Kyra)

in June 20th, 2013 @ 11:59

Stay at home, that is.

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Bibliophile

in June 19th, 2013 @ 23:47

I think those could be potential problems with homeschooling, but certainly not anything that parents can’t address. (Other than the last one, of course, but that’s a personal thing).

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Luna the Lovely

in June 20th, 2013 @ 04:33

Wow, offensive, much?

The belief that homeschoolers don’t experience social situations is to put it quite bluntly, a certain two letter acronym that I’m pretty sure I’m not suppose to use on the blog. And one that quite frankly annoys the *bleep* out of me when people I encounter who don’t know a thing about homeschooling make snarky disapproving comments about how homeschoolings is so bad because you don’t have an opporunity for socializing. You don’t ahve to go to public school to be able to socialize and interact in “complex social situations”.

And encourages independence? You may be “on your own every weekday”, but you’re on your own at school in a structured environment, hardly an opportunity for asserting or encouraging independence. I’d say being left home alone, just my sister and I, 50% of weekdays from the time I was about 14 and on (when mom started a part time job) allows for a whole heck of a lot more independence than if we’d been going to public school at that point.

And having Mom home my entire childhood until I was a preteen/teen (and having her very actively involved in all aspects of my life, during the brief time I was in public school)? I wouldn’t trade that for anything. One of my biggest regrets about my career choice, is that when I have children, I won’t be able to be involved in their lives the way my mother was in mine, I’ll see them evenings and weekends at best, and won’t be able to be an active participant in their academic life or their extracurricular life, or, hell, won’t be able to do much more than be home in the evenings and weekends, and that’s assuming I”m not working somewhere where I’m on call. It breaks my heart that I’m going to have to be one of those crappy never at home parents who only see their kids in the evening/weekend, and who aren’t able to be actively involved. I have always felt sorry for those kids whose parents were at work before they began school and after school let out in the afternoon, and who had to be in afterschool care because they didn’t have a parent to come pick them up because they were at work.

Because having a parent who is always there for you, who is actively involved in all aspects of your life? There’s nothing like it. And I hate that I won’t be able to give that to the children I hope to have in the future

So yeah. Social interaction? Check, got that even as a homeschooler, thanks. Independence? Far more than you will ever get in a structured public school environment surrounded by teachers and rules (I was driving myself to music lessons, and work, and pet/house sitting, etc when I was 16. And when my sister could drive, before I was old enough, she was driving us to various elementary schools where we were part of a homeschool group with the Red Cross teaching Disaster Preparedness–a plan that us pre teen/teenagers–all homeschooled–designed with the assistance of one of the adult red cross members, but which was solely taught by us kids, to elementary school students. We would go and team teach, some of the others in th gorup were only 12 or so. I’d say that ranks up in both social interaction (with other members of the gorup, to work to design these presentations) as well as independence.).

My experiences as a homeschooler shaped who I am today, and made me a hell of a lot more independent and self disciplined than public school ever would have (not to mention, I learned a hell of a lot more, because let’s face it, I wouldn’t have been permitted to advance as far academically in various subjects in public school as I could homeschooled). It made me who I am, it allowed me freedoms and independence that I wouldn’t have had in public school, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 20th, 2013 @ 04:43

To clarify: I have nothing against people who go to public school. I’m not passing judgement on the education obtained therein (except as it pertains to my personal experience).

I am, however, taking offense at the suggestion that being homeschooled deprives you of any of the beneficial aspects of a public school education.

Also, I realize this is not something that was mentioned in any posts here, but it is something I’ve commonly heard asserted by people who disapprove of homeschooling: That we’re not prepared for the real world, and that we’ll suffer when we get thrown into college life/job/whatever where there’s solid deadlines, rules, etc. Perhaps for some, but likely those people would ahve had difficulty anyway. I transitioned from being homeschooled for 10 yrs to going to college in a state over 8 hours away by plane, only able to go home on school breaks, without any trouble. sure, I was homesick, I missed my family, I missed my state, I missed a lot of things, but I had no trouble adjusting to being in a completely different state, surrounded by total strangers, going to lectures and taking notes, etc.

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Dodecahedron

in June 20th, 2013 @ 07:02

Luna- while you make good points, please consider that I at least, as someone who was in public school for all 13 years, found Catwings’ post to be at least as offensive as you seem to find CPM’s reply. I mean, nobody’s parents are going to be sent to jail because they were playing with LEGOs, that’s just slander. If you see CPM’s post as I did, as something intended to provide an alternate viewpoint that public school isn’t literally the worst thing in the world, not as a scathing critique of homeschooling, I think it’s perfectly reasonable. And you’re completely allowed to voice a contradictory, evidence based opinion, but to do so angrily, as you did, without taking Catwings’ post into consideration is in my opinion somewhat misreading the post.
There are positives and negatives to both home school and public school, and since most of us have experience with only one, it’s not really helpful to speculate about which is better, especially if we’re basing our argument on rumors.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 20th, 2013 @ 08:37

You’re right. I shouldn’t have responded angrily. I apologize for that, although I still stand by then points I made in my post

I don’t disagree that catwings post is inaccurate, although I didn’t reall see how it was offensive either (however, I accept that it was).

It was not my intention to speculate which was better, only that, in my experience, the statements mentioned in CPM’s post were inaccurate in regards to homeschooling. In touchy on the subject, people who I don’t cen know like to voice opinions about it, an one of te ones I hear most often is commentary on te lack of socialization. I should not have responded emotionally, nor was it well advised to respond at 4:30 in the morning on minimal sleep. I apologize for that

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Cello-Playing Mathematician (AKA Kyra)

in June 20th, 2013 @ 12:12

I was trying to make a distinction between socialization and crowd situations. I’m sorry to offend, and kind of knew that I would…

And again, personally, my mother was very involved in my life, and I feel that having mom there all the time did not adequately prepare me for being on my own.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 20th, 2013 @ 14:33

Apology accepted. Sorry for going off on you

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â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)- Who will soon be adding more detail to her name... AGAIN!-

in June 20th, 2013 @ 22:22

Eeep

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â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)- Who will soon be adding more detail to her name... AGAIN!-

in June 20th, 2013 @ 22:26

(Oops, i meant that as a reply to post #95.1.21.1.1.2.3.2 sorry)

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Luna the Lovely

in June 19th, 2013 @ 20:23

Well, my mom made us get up every morning at an early time (we had to start on school work every morning at 9am, so we usually got up at 8), and we basically sat at a desk/kitchen table all day doing school until sometime in the afternoon.

And once we were 8th grade and on and started taking distance ed courses instead of Mom assigning us work from textbooks she’d picked up from various locations, we were pretty much doing school all day, all evening, all weekend, and on one memorable occasion, I had school work all summer (all day, weekend, and evening) because I procrastinated constantly on it. So to be honest, I probably actually spent far more time doing, or pretending to do school work, as a home schooled student than I would have in public school

Also, when I was (briefly) in public school, I think the rules and stuff were a lot mroe lax than they are now–I’m 95% sure I remember one of my classmates bringing a bow and arrow (or maybe just the bow) in for show and tell when I was in kindergarten.

And even during the brief time I was in public school, I only ate school lunch on the rare occasion I felt like it (pizza days, a couple times). All the other days I had a home packed lunch from my mom (usually PB&J, chocolate milk or capri sun, one of those tiny bite size gouda cheese rounds in red waxy plastic stuff, and a bag of chips)

I dunno. Because my experience, brief as it was, with public school was actually quite pleasant, and certainly not something that should have made the prospect of being sent back a threat.

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Bibliophile

in June 19th, 2013 @ 22:03

Most schools make you get up earlier than 8, though. My elementary and middle schools started at around 8:30. My high school starts at 8:45, but most start at closer to 7 or 7:30, I think. (Also, I go to a magnet school, so many students live pretty far; I’m 30 minutes away).

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Luna the Lovely

in June 20th, 2013 @ 02:08

I realize start time gets earlier as you get older. My grade school I went to for kindergarten through midway through second grade started class at 9am, so that’s the time we stuck to for the rest of our schooling. Although since we were no longer having to commute an hour to school, we got to sleep in. (During my brief ti,e in public school, we went to a school in a different district, because our parents felt it had a better “gifted” program (or maybe just had one at all) than the schools in our district, so Mom drove us an hour to school everyday, hung out as a teacher’s aid in both our classrooms, and then drove us home in the afternoon.)

I really liked the two teachers I had while in public school. I remember we took a field trip to my kindergarten teacher’s house once (it was a couple blocks from school), and got fed tons of pixie stix, and all got to go in the hot tub (albeit at what was probably a much reduced temp, and probably for an incredibly short period of time), but it was a total blast.

And my first/second grade teacher I remember inviting to my birthday party at this really super awesome place that no longer exists (Discovery Zone aka DZ, I had so many wonderful and memorable birthday parties there as a child). She gave me a present of sticky notes (a pad of blue, one purple, and one yellow). Illogical as it sounds, I absolutely freaking loved this present (to the point that I never even opened the sticky notes until I started college–they sat cherished and untouched in a drawer for over a decade).

And my sister’s second grade teacher was really fantastic, also. I remember for one of my sister’s birthdays we (my parents, my sis, and I) invited her out to a birthday dinner celebration for my sis. She got my sister this cool cardboard clock thing that had little spots for pictures. She still has it, although the clock no longer works.

And then there was the super cool old guy who was an assistant librarian or some such in the library (I’m not quite sure what his job was), but when I hung out in the library sometimes in the afternoons after kindergarten (I was morning class), I would silently shadow him (as in, neither of us would say a word to each other, but I trailed him all over the library, like a tiny living shadow). (I was painfully shy, I didn’t like talking to people I didn’t know). But I shadowed him, constantly and silently whenever we were both in the library. And I remember at one point, he gave me this really old, tattered little mouse stuffed animal, with a big circular body, little round feet and hands, and some kind of clothing on it’s body. I still have that somewhere.

And one of our principles (we had two while I was there), would go to classes and read stories one day a week, and bring some kind of little treat related to the story she read to us. I remember one time it was those little candy corn pumpkins, and one time it was fortune cookies. And I think it was this same principle who was into taxidermy and gave my mom a rattlesnake tail. It’s been tucked under the visor of our minivan for, gosh, 17 years? God I’m old.

I really liked both the teachers I had, but my sister’s last teacher, the one she had in fourth grade, was terrible, all she wanted to do was have the kid’s perform school plays and basically just redo the curriculum they’d had the previous grade (except with no focus on the academic, unlike in my sister’s third grade class, and all on the school plays and stuff). My parents pulled us out sometime in the middle of the school year. My sis jumped to taking pre algebra (they weren’t letting her past fifth grade math, b/c they felt she was too young to have class with the sixth graders, although event hat was below her abilities), and I jumped from the third grade math they were letting me take in second grade to fourth or fifth, don’t remember which.

But except for her one teacher that last year, and some of the bureaucratic nonsense when it came to how far we could advance in the levle of courses we were taking, I really loved all our teachers, and they were totally super awesome and came to our birhtdays and gave us presents and everything.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 20th, 2013 @ 02:12

I posted a long comment here that seems to have vanished, not sure if it’s my internet being wonky or if it’s gone, but basically it was reminiscing over the fact that I really liked the teachers I had and they came to my birthdya parties and everything….and stuff.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 20th, 2013 @ 02:13

And it unvanished. Apparently it is my browser/internet being wonky. that’s good. I liked that comment.

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Eggy Rice

in June 20th, 2013 @ 09:29

On the subject of getting up early, I think it’s a bit silly that they make you go to school at 7 or 8, a common defense of this being, “It will prepare you for going to work as an adult”, but most office jobs start at 8 or 9, not 7 or 8!

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Rebecca Lasley (Administrator)

in June 20th, 2013 @ 09:44

The usual explanation is bus schedules.

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Cat's Meow

in June 20th, 2013 @ 17:00

I wrote an essay my freshman year about how schools, or at least high schools, should start later. There seemed to be a fair amount of research saying that teenagers’ circadian rhythms are actually shifted in comparison to those of younger children or adults. Sleepy students don’t learn nearly as well, either, and are less productive in high school than I think they could be if they got enough sleep.

As Rebecca mentions, I got the bus schedules explanation in response, but I don’t really see why you couldn’t switch the elementary and high school start times, which here are 9 and 8 respectively, and adjust busing accordingly.

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Dodecahedron

in June 21st, 2013 @ 19:14

I’ve been told “most office jobs start at 8 or 9” is actually the reason why younger children start school around then — the schedules match up more closely with that of a working parent, and they don’t have to wait at home alone (or have a parent pay for daycare) for as many hours after school ends.

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Bibliophile

in June 19th, 2013 @ 21:30

Your teachers don’t stay strangers for long, although they don’t generally know you as well as you know them even if you’re the kid who always raises her hand to answer stuff (and so misunderstandings are more common with teachers than with parents, in my experience), and you may not like them. (You may not like your parent(s), either, but if you do, then you probably will continue to do so, whereas teachers change, so even if you’re happy with all of them, that’s almost certainly not permanent). However, if by “someone who hates you anyway” you mean the principal, then unless you have a really bad teacher, you don’t get sent to en just for “not doing something perfectly correct,” and unless the principal is also really bad at ens job, en shouldn’t hate you. Depending on the size of your school, en might not even personally know you.
I’m sure there’s way less freedom than with homeschooling, though.

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Lizzie

in June 20th, 2013 @ 08:56

I went to a private preschool, and then public school from 2nd grade until graduation. And yeah, catwing’s post would be offensive if it weren’t so inaccurate that I have a hard time taking it seriously.

Some good things about public school:
-science. There’s no way I would have been able to learn as much or do as many things if I had been homeschooled – we just wouldn’t have had the equipment (plus my parents probably wouldn’t have the knowledge – and I say this as someone with one parent who is a college professor in computer science and with another parent with both a BS and a BA). Dissecting a fetal pig was pretty much my favorite thing I did in school – followed by dissecting a sheep’s eyeball. I also really enjoyed all the chemistry experiments – I really liked titration, for some odd reason, plus of course setting things on fire to identify them by seeing what color they burn, etc etc. Also at my school you could be a lab assistant, which was basically mixing solutions for the various classes to use, and which allowed the people who did it experience that let them earn money by doing it through college.

-you learn both how to be around and how to work with people that you loathe personally. This is a valuable life skill, and one that you are less likely to acquire when you don’t absolutely have to. You also learn how to converse with people you have absolutely nothing in common with.

-English. The point of English classes in school is basically to a. teach you how to think, and b. teach you how to express those thoughts coherently. This usually has the side effect of causing you to examine your own beliefs and figure out which you actually believe and which you were just believing because your parents do. In-class discussions lead you to examine texts in much greater depth and even to confront ideas you’re not entirely comfortable with. This is essential to growth as a human being.

-Flexible curricula. While pretty much every class after elementary school had its own textbook, most of them never used it. If there was a topic that really interested the class – or even just interested you – the teacher could devote extra time to it, or give you additional materials about it, and even lead it into even more interesting topics.

-gym. Oh wait, this was a joke. This was my high school PE experience, in walking class: a. suit out in PE clothes. b. Walk to the corner gas station store. c. buy treats. d. walk back. The teacher usually got a 32-oz slushy.

-not being at home all day. I love my parents and we have a very close relationship, but if I had spent all day at home every day, I would be a neurotic basket case. Okay, more of a neurotic basket case than I am. When school is bad, it makes you appreciate being home more. When school is good, it lets you develop your own tastes, friends, habits, etc outside of your parents’ supervision. My parents are some of the most important people in the world to me, but being around them all day is rather …smothering.

-more curriculum options than what your parents can teach or what you can find online. One of my favorite classes in high school was AP human geography. I have no idea how I would have taken it outside of school, but it really changed the way I look at the world.

-robotics, orchestra, band, GSA, etc. You can get them outside of school, but it’s a lot harder to find, especially if, like me, you live in a small / highly religious area.

-the teachers. Some are good, some are bad, but when you get an influential teacher it can change your life – and going through school at a rate of 7 periods per semester, you have a pretty good chance of finding one. You also learn that it’s possible to stand up to authority figures – and most good teachers will welcome that, like my AP Economics teacher with whom I argued politics (he’s libertarian, I’m more socialist), and who, on the day I was absent, told the class that he saw me as the future supervillain type. I was really flattered – usually it takes teachers a lot longer than one semester to realize that. My school teachers came to my senior [violin] recital – and many of them go to their students’ dance recitals, boy/girl scout ceremonies, etc. And you don’t even have to take one of their classes to be important to a teacher – the computer tech teacher let me eat lunch in his room with a bunch of his students (and the vice principal carefully looked the other way as I snuck out of the cafeteria to do so).

-foreign language classes. I’m awful at learning languages from self-teaching courses, and I’m too shy to try conversing with native speakers if I don’t feel very very confident.

-being around people from vastly different backgrounds – cultural, socioeconomic, etc. I didn’t really appreciate this in high school because I basically hated most of them, but it’s still valuable.

-you learn to work to deadlines, and you learn how to give an assignment exactly the time it deserves and no more (and no less). You also learn to juggle heavy workloads in a variety of classes – time management, focusing, prioritizing, efficient study techniques, etc.

Probably more, but I haven’t had my coffee yet.

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Lizzie

in June 20th, 2013 @ 08:59

And, mind you, I say this as someone who hated school. Imagine what the people who liked it (yes, there were a fair number) think.

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Eggy Rice

in June 20th, 2013 @ 09:54

You seem to think that homeschoolers learn everything from their parents! We have other resources as well:

Museums. Once I dissected a cow eyeball at the museum of Science and Industry while in Chicago. I have also been to several astronomy nights at the Franklin Institute while in Philadelphia.

Films. We have watched several documentaries, most of which would fit into the social studies category. There was one about fast food and how people in poor communities eat so much junk food, and its effects on their health.

I take ballet classes. This is PE, foreign language, angles, and human anatomy,.

I take guitar and piano lessons.

We don’t follow a strict pre-planned curriculum, but we do work from books for English, Spanish, and math. Homeschool is not a classroom at home.

The Teenage Liberation Handbook by Grace Lewellyn is about homeschooling, reasons why to homeschool and ways to homeschool. It’s not just for people who don’t already homeschool or for people who are past school- age. If you read it, please don’t think I’m a wierd hippie freak. I do not personally agree with all of the views expressed in that book.

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Lizzie

in June 20th, 2013 @ 10:19

The thing is, I learned from all of those as well – substitute figure skating for ballet and violin for guitar/piano. Those aren’t exclusive to homeschooling.

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Eggy Rice

in June 20th, 2013 @ 11:24

Okay. I was just saying that all this stuff you talked about in post 95.1.2.1.1.1.5 aren’t exclusive to public or private schooling either.

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Eggy Rice

in June 20th, 2013 @ 11:26

I love arguing about this.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 20th, 2013 @ 10:41

Just some comments on your comments, as it relates to my experience.

Science: we didn’t ahve a bunch of fancy equipment or anything, but I did numerous dissections (including both a fetal pig and sheep’s eyeball, as you mention). Also, depending on your location and who you know, there are opportunities for homeschool students to have a classroom setting type science class. I remember taking a bio class one semester that was held specifically for homeschool students. We did dissections and all sorts of cool stuff. But even outside of that, I had the opportunity for things like dissection, and chem experiments that didn’t involve high tech stuff (including doing titrations and thermodynamic experiments, etc). My mom ordered numerous dissection specimens from catalogs/internet, and all the science courses I took 8th grade and on (when we began taking correspondence coruses) sent lab kits (the complexity of which varied by class).

I had plenty of opportunity to learn to work with people I didn’t really like, through the extracurricular activities I was involved in (my volunteer stuff with the homeschool group at Red Cross, primarily, as well as the children’s choir I was a member of for many, many eyars. Plus my volunteering/work that I started at 16).

English: My correspondence english classes provided this, by way of essays, etc, that provided the opportunity/necessity to analyze texts in great detail (and write essays doing so), even without directly conversing with classmates/teacher.

Flexible curricula: same.

Gym: pretty much anything we wanted to do, that invovled running around outside and getting exercise. And also one year we were in a homeschool gym class, which was absolutely lots of fun. And I was in gymnastics for a fewyears when Iwas little.

Personally,, I liked having my mom around all the time when I was little, although i also enjoyed having time to myself on days when she worked parttime when I was older.

I disagree about there being more curriculum options in public school. If you know where to look, there are just as many opportunities in a homeschool environment. My sister and I both took at least 2 AP classes a piece. My sister and I essentially self-taught ourselves AP calculus (my sister took it correspondence, but all that meant was they sent a textbook and syllabus and sent exams to a proctor for her to take). She was a highschool freshman when she took it, and she got a 3 on the AP calc exam. She also took AP music theory, and possibly others. I took AP calc as well (didn’t do as well as she did, but to be quite honest it’s because I didn’t try to learn the material) and also took an online AP chemistry class, that involved several experiments (equipment and materials were mailed). This may not sound like an effective way to take an AP chem class, but I got a 4 on the AP exam, so while it may not be for everyone, it definitely worked for me. Any class I could possibly want to take, my parents could find a way for me to take it.

extracurriculars: My sister and I were in choir for many years; we both took piano lessons and my sister violin; and my sister was involved in a youth symphony in the area (which was not something that was easy for people to get into)

Foreign language: I’m not any good at languages, myself, but there are opportunities even as a homeschooler to take non-self taught foreign language classes. For a couple years when I was little, one of the homeschool mothers in the area was proficient in Spanish and my sister and I and several other homeschoolers in the area, took Spanish from her. My sister (who is VERY good at foreign language) took French and Latin correspondence (which is basically self taught foreign language), and then after having taken at least a year of French took an evening french class at the local community college while she was in highschool. We also took American Sign Language class one year that was being offered to homeschool students in the area.

Being around peole from different backgrounds: I got this from my various extracurricular activities.

Deadlines: yes, they are pretty lenient in homeschool at times, but all of these things can be taught, if done right.

I don’t claim that my experiences are representative of all homeschoolers; it’s going to depends on where you live, and how much your parents actually care about your education. But it is possible to have just as many or more opportunities as a homeschooler as it is in public school, because there is so much more flexibility in when you do your course work.

We even had homeschool spelling bees and geography bees. My sister made state twice and I once in the spelling bee We took AP exams, and all the standardized tests (SAT, ACT, SAT II, etc), and more.

Homeschooling can be done right, or it can be done wrong. And it’s by no means for everyone. But if done right, there are at least as many opportunities in homeschool as there are in public school, and the quality of education, the extracurriculars, everything, can all be achieved.

I was lucky in that for the msot part, if there was something I didn’t understand with my correspondence classes (which were by definition basically self taught classes, the only teacher involvement was syllabi and exams provided by the school it was ordered from), over 90% of the time Dad was able to help.

It’s not for everyone, but it can be just as fulfilling and enriching an experience, if not more.

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Lizzie

in June 20th, 2013 @ 11:20

In my experience, essay writing isn’t really a good substitution for well-lead discussion, as you’re not being asked to respond to things / refine your statements on the spot – and you’re not hearing other people’s input and ideas while you’re doing so.

Re: curriculum options, I graduated with 5s on 8 AP tests, including both chemistry and calculus, and I could have easily taken three or four more. My graduating class was something around 600 people; I’d estimate that maybe 200-250 of them took at least one AP class, and 60-100 took more than three. In most of the classes, also, something like 80% of the people who took it scored a 4 or a 5. The thing with “any class I could possibly want to take, my parents could find a way for me to take it,” also, is that in high school I took some classes because of graduation requirements that I had no idea I wanted to take or would find interesting – for instance, AP Human Geography.

Also, re socializing by extracurriculars/volunteering vs socializing via school, I think the main difference is the number of hours spent. When you’re in a classroom with people for 8 hours a day, five days a week, that gets pretty unique – and unlike volunteering/extracurriculars, you can change your surrounding much less easily. This is both good and bad.

I grew up in small-town Texas, so pretty much all of the homeschooling groups were made up of families for whom the public schools weren’t Christian enough (my family is Jewish). There’s also very little external culture – no youth symphony, there was a children’s choir I was in for the two years it existed, etc. So homeschooling would definitely have been more of a challenge for me. In a lot of ways, I was one of the kids who homeschooling is usually recommended for because I was doing violin really intensively (and not through the schools at all – I quit orchestra senior year because I couldn’t stand it any longer) and that would have given me more time, but I also would have been MUCH less socially capable and probably a lot more narrowly educated.

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Lizzie

in June 20th, 2013 @ 11:24

I also took several correspondence courses / taught myself and tested out of stuff in high school to free up my schedule, and in general the material was covered on a much lower level and not very satisfyingly. Especially the history courses – can you say one-sided.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 20th, 2013 @ 14:23

Personally, I got far more out of the essay writing than I did in class discussions that occurred when I took English in college.

As for the curriculum, I also took classes just because they were graduation requirements (or recommended classes for my planned college career path). I could have taken far new AP classes than I did. I chose not to. My parents made sure we took all the classes a public school would have required for graduation, not just classes I wanted to take

My parents didn’t homeschool us for religious reasons (although I realize that us often the case ) but for academic. I got a far broader education than I would have gotten from the public schools in our area.

I’m in no way trying to say that public school (or your particular experience) was inferior to mine. Just that, if done right and if you live in the right area, it IS possible to get just as much (and depending, sometimes more) from homeschool as it is public school

My education I received as a homeschool student was far better than what I would have been able to obtain in public school. I respect that that’s not true in your case. It doesn’t work for everyone dr a variety of reasons, but for me, I was better off being homeschooled. I fr a better (and broader or certainly equally broad) education and did not suffer socially. It worked for me. Public school worked for you.

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Lizzie

in June 20th, 2013 @ 11:44

(also very non-related, I hate hate hate that music, art, theater, etc are considered extracurriculars. They’re so essential to everything around us and help you develop so many really necessary skills, and yet what gets cut first when the budgets drop?)

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Bibliophile

in June 21st, 2013 @ 14:30

I think Luna responded to this way better than I could have, seeing as I’m not actually homeschooled, but I’d like to say that just as homeschooling options vary depending on where you live, public schooling options do as well, to a huge extent. For instance, the stuff you said about English? I did not get anything like that until high school.
And in my experience, there are really a lot more curriculum options online than in most schools, depending on how much money you can pay and whether you know where to look. AP Human Geography is definitely a thing you can find (although I don’t know of a single public school in my district that offers it).
And what you said about foreign language courses really doesn’t apply to everyone.
(And as for the last one, I really do not see how that applies any more to public school than homeschooling at all).

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Cat's Meow

in June 23rd, 2013 @ 14:33

My summary of this conversation, if I may, is that a good school is better than a bad homeschool and a good homeschool is better than a bad school, and that beyond that, which is better depends a lot on the person, the situation, and the opportunities that they’re able to find in either case.

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FantasyFan?!?!

in June 23rd, 2013 @ 17:35

Yes, this. But I was homeschooled in middle school and went to a private school for high school and I don’t think I had half the opportunities either Lizzie or Luna mentioned. You can miss out on both ways.

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Eggy Rice

in June 19th, 2013 @ 18:28

I have never been to school either!! Ever!!! Virtual high-fives!

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Luna the Lovely

in June 18th, 2013 @ 17:12

Also, I love your new gravatar.

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Eggy Rice

in June 22nd, 2013 @ 10:25

I now officially leave this conversation.

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*Cskia

in June 18th, 2013 @ 13:44

One. More. Day. Of. School.

Finally.

I’ll still be busy over the summer, but at least it’ll be things I enjoy! Like handling the art program at a summer camp (and getting paid for it) and putting together a charity artbook. Yay!

Anyways, how are you all? I haven’t been around regularly for a while but I do miss MuseBlog. Things are slower-paced now, eh?

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Bibliophile

in June 19th, 2013 @ 00:07

Hi! It’s good to see you again, even if it’s just temporary.
I’m doing pretty well. I’m not really doing anything at all this summer, but I don’t mind; I don’t have trouble finding ways to amuse myself. Right now I’m reading Victor Hugo, and I have a lot of other books waiting to be read as well as musicals I need to look into. And I started editing TV Tropes.

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Lizzie

in June 18th, 2013 @ 23:56

Is it possible to sneeze while asleep?

(in unrelated news I appear to have memorized my wifi password – a ten-character string of random numbers and letters)

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Bibliophile

in June 19th, 2013 @ 12:12

That was in the Muse Q&A once! Unfortunately, I don’t remember which issue. I may check later.
Anyway, I remember the answer basically being, “yes, but you stay asleep while you sneeze, so you don’t remember it afterward,” with some speculation as to why.

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 19th, 2013 @ 12:31

I think it was more like this: You wake up momentarily to sneeze, but you might fall asleep again immediately afterward and forget all about it.

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Lizzie

in June 19th, 2013 @ 13:38

Huh, thanks. I thought I vaguely remembered it being answered in Muse – if you can dig up the column I’d love to read it!

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Rebecca Lasley (Administrator)

in June 19th, 2013 @ 15:06

According to the list under H*G*2*M*B, it was answered in the Nov-Dec 2010 issue.

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Lizzie

in June 19th, 2013 @ 19:09

does anyone have a copy they could scan/transcribe? I gave my Muses to one of my viola students and her sister when I went to college

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shadowfire

in June 19th, 2013 @ 21:40

Q: Do we sneeze in our sleep? – Perry G, age 11, Maryland
A: No, but we can come close, Ronald Eccles told me. As director of the Common Cold Centre at Cardiff University in Wales, Eccles is a world authority on sneezing, coughing, sniffling, wheezing, and ways to prevent them. “Of course, we can cough or sneeze when in bed and when we are sleepy,” he said, “but these reflexes cannot occur during deep sleep.” Instead, if something irritates your nose or throat badly enough, you’ll wake up for a moment, sneeze or cough, and then often fall asleep again right away. Chances are you’ll never remember your “micro-arousal.” People who are under deep anesthesia or in a coma, however, don’t sneeze at all.
If we don’t decide to sneeze and can’t control it, why do we have to be conscious to do it? No one knows for sure, Eccles said. It might be because we’re less likely to inhale something bad for us if we wake up to deal with it. Or maybe our distant ancestors evolved sneeze-free sleep so they wouldn’t attract predators while helpless. “In short, there is some survival benefit for these reflexes to wake us up.” – Robert

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Bibliophile

in June 19th, 2013 @ 21:40

“Q: Do we sneeze in our sleep?
–Perry G., age 11, Maryland
A: No, but we can come close, Ronald Eccles told me. As director of the Common Cold Centre* at Cardiff University in Wales, Eccles is a world authority on sneezing, coughing, sniffling, and ways to prevent them. ‘Of course, we can cough or sneeze when in bed and when we are sleepy,” he said, ‘but these reflexes cannot occur during deep sleep.’ Instead, if something irritates your nose or throat badly enough, you’ll wake up for a moment, sneeze or cough, and then often fall asleep again right away. Chances are you’ll never remember your ‘micro-arousal.’ People who are under deep anesthesia or in a coma, however, don’t sneeze at all.
If we don’t decide to sneeze and can’t control it, why do we have to be conscious to do it? No one knows for sure, Eccles said. It might be because we’re less likely to inhale something bad for us if we wake up to deal with it. Or maybe our distant ancestors evolved sneeze-free sleep so they wouldn’t attract predators while helpless. ‘In short, there is some survival benefit for these reflexes to wake us up.’
–Robert
*Note for American readers: ‘Centre’ is British English for ‘center.'”

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Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 20th, 2013 @ 10:17

I’m a bit perplexed as to why ‘centre’ actually needed to be clarified. Surely most if not all readers would still understand what it meant?

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 20th, 2013 @ 10:38

Just for fun. I like to inject a little silliness to keep from getting too didactic.

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Lizzie

in June 20th, 2013 @ 10:44

Thanks, both of you! Also that’s really odd that something can still trigger the reflex during sleep but the reflex can’t carry out unless you wake up.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 19th, 2013 @ 02:22

Thought of the night as I get ready to head to bed: Zachary Quinto is incredibly hot. Like ridiculously so. I mean, wow.

((I may have decided to watch Heroes solely for the fact that Quinto was in it and watched about a dozen episodes in the last four days….Saving TOS for summer viewing))

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â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)

in June 19th, 2013 @ 12:13

GAPAs,
I can still pie my own posts!
Should you be able to do that?

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 19th, 2013 @ 12:39

It’s possible under certain conditions. But should you if you can?

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â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)

in June 19th, 2013 @ 13:37

I don’t think you should be able to… It would probably be a way of getting “The most pied post”
Just pie yourself a few times and your way up there in the MPP (Most popular posts)

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q

in June 19th, 2013 @ 19:05

For a short time after I came here, I could pie myself once per post. Also:
“With great power comes great responsibility.”- Peter Parker

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Lizzie

in June 19th, 2013 @ 20:14

I think most people mostly care about the number of pies on their own posts, though, and so pieing your own posts doesn’t really do much for that.

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â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)

in June 19th, 2013 @ 13:44

Why can i smell onion rings?

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Eggy Rice

in June 19th, 2013 @ 15:27

sometime i smell stuff that isnt there. an olfactory hallucination?

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KaiYves

in June 19th, 2013 @ 17:06

That can happen, yes.

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Eggy Rice

in June 19th, 2013 @ 18:35

News Flash (okay, this is 2 days old but whatevs):
My new slogan if I were a diabolical villlain psychologist:
Don’t be sad. Be evil. Mwa ha ha haaah!
(evil laughter optional)

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Bibliophile

in June 19th, 2013 @ 22:00

Kind of like the beginning of the musical Assassins! “Hey, fellow, feeling blue? Don’t know what to do? Hey, fellow, I mean you! Come on and kill a president!”

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Eggy Rice

in June 20th, 2013 @ 09:58

hmmm.

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Randomosity101

in June 19th, 2013 @ 20:43

If anyone is planning on going to downtown Raleigh ever, they HAVE to go to a restaurant called Remedy Diner. It is the best! Once you’re there, try the fried broccoli. I’m serious; it’s caking amazing. Just remember, their “Mainstream Remedies” have animal products, and their “Alternative Remedies” are vegan. Also remember to keep a good look out for the sign – when my mother was on the East Coast for my graduation we went there (she has a knack for finding places like that and I’d never heard of it before) but we actually passed by the restaurant twice without seeing it!

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â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)- Who will soon be adding more detail to her name... AGAIN!-

in June 20th, 2013 @ 22:17

For some reason, as i skimmed through the posts, the only scentance i read, was “Try the fried broccoli.”

I sat there for a moment, going, “…’Eh?”

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Randomosity101

in June 21st, 2013 @ 20:24

Well, I wanted it to be eye-catching…

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Luna the Lovely

in June 19th, 2013 @ 22:09

I love my mother. I’m pretty sure she’s literally the most awesomest mother in the entire universe. Come to think of it, I should probably tell her that more often. Not just when she’s buying me stuff…..

But when i got out of lab this evening (at 7pm), I had an email from her saying that she thought the following movie was one of the [star trek] ones that I had said I wanted to see, and that she hoped so, and that it came with a free 48 hr “on demand” link for viewing it on Amazon, and that the DVD should be arriving at home shortly after me. Star Trek 2009.

I was gonna cave and go watch the movie tonight, but you needed to be logged into the purchase account and mom being mom volunteered up the info when I said that, and when I logged in, it showed me her recent orders. She also bought me all three seasons of TOS and the first 6 Trek movies (all the ones w/ Spock, and she doesn’t even know I have the hots for Spock….they just come in a collection together), and those 6 movies aren’t even something I specifically requested, so I’m just all super duper omg happy right now. And have to pretend to be totally shocked when I see it when I get home, which I’ve pulled off before, so…

But OMG my mother is the best. My entire week has been made, and now I have incentive to survive the week and a half of hell that remains of this block (who ever thought 5 finals in 2 days was a good idea is a sadist. Plus we have classes all during finals week).

But OMG I am going to have a fan-flipping-tastic summer watching Trek, and continuing to introduce my mom to Doctor Who (we made it up through Voyage of the Damned, the Christmas special Titanic episode, at Christmas break)

I am a VERY HAPPY girl right now. Very happy. very very very happy. like super very happy. like so happy words just don’t even.

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â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)

in June 20th, 2013 @ 00:21

You’re lucky! I don’t have a mom, just an old bag who thinks everyone loves her.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 20th, 2013 @ 03:37

I’m pretty sure serial killers aren’t supposed to be hot (and that you’re not supposed to be siding with the villain on TV shows), but going back to my previous comment from the other night (last night?), Zach Quinto as Sylar on heroes, is, just wow. I mean, I’m not all that taken by the show itself (and watching 8 episodes to even get to the point where you see Quinto? painful), but omg, does Quinto’s performance thus far in the next few eps more than make up for it. He may be playing a crazy serial killer, but he is so unbelievably delicious in the process. (Honestly, there should be laws against people being as physically attractive as he is. It’s sinful. lol)

And yes, it is 3:30am and yes I have to be awake in 4 1/2 hours to get ready for school. It appears that summer block (much like last year) is one of staying up far too late and being chronically massively sleep deprived. But it’s okay. Only 9 more days until the block is over.

And I am going to make darn sure that my last summer vacation (of my entire life! yikes!) is going to be totally wonderfully amazingly awesome.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 20th, 2013 @ 03:51

And of course listening to the Ninth Doctor’s voice (as disconcerting as it is to hear Eccleston’s distinctive voice coming out of a completely different character) is an added perk.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 20th, 2013 @ 04:01

Well that’s certainly an interesting twist I did not see coming (aka who the cheerleader’s biological father is)

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KaiYves

in June 20th, 2013 @ 09:21

And here I thought from the first sentence that this post would be about the Silence of The Lambs/Hannibal fandom one sometimes sees else-Internet.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 20th, 2013 @ 11:04

OMG Ralph Fiennes as Hannibal is super hot, too in whatever movie he was in. I think that’s the only Hannibal movie I’ve seen is the one w/ him.

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shadowfire

in June 20th, 2013 @ 13:05

The only serial killer on the show (If you’re just talking about the movies I have no idea) I’ve found attractive I last saw playing an archangel, so it was already weird.
I’ve been meaning to watch Heroes, a friend of mine’s recommended it repeatedly.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 20th, 2013 @ 14:35

There’s a tv show? *is clueless*

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shadowfire

in June 20th, 2013 @ 17:27

There is indeed a show, which is presumably why you’ve been seeing a fandom more recently. It’s very good but I can’t in good conscience recommend anyone watch it. Uh.

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KaiYves

in June 20th, 2013 @ 09:33

So, the new astronaut class was announced, and while my friend Ryan Kobrick didn’t make it past the third round, he says he’s not discouraged. Also, it’s awesome that this new class is gender-equal– four men and four women!

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Cat's Meow

in June 20th, 2013 @ 16:48

One of the women is from my city! And a reception for her is going to be held at the science center where I’m volunteering this summer! (No idea if they’ll need volunteers, or if I’ll get to go, but it’s still really cool!)

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KaiYves

in June 20th, 2013 @ 19:51

Sweetness!

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Armada

in June 20th, 2013 @ 12:56

Yeah, I’ve been lurking on MB but I haven’t had much to say really, so I guess I’ll just post a general life update and then ~~disappear again~~ proceed from there.

Welp. My spring’s been going pretty well so far, I suppose. My family went to Utah for about two weeks and that was quite nice (I ended up taking the SAT in Provo with a lot of Mormon kids, which wasn’t as weird or as hard as I thought it was going to be), and now I’m trying to transition into life-at-home again. Which is mostly being aided by my growing Star Trek obsession, because, I dunno, sobbing over fictional characters seems to help with not sobbing over non-fictional things.
My summer isn’t going to be all that vacation-y, because I have a lot of college-application stuff I need to do and I’m learning to drive and taking math classes and doing a Creative Thinking internship with one of the professors from a nearby university, but it’s all good. I have that two-week theatre camp for Much Ado coming up in July, too, and that’s going to be fun, I hope.

One of the guys from the Much Ado Mainstage invited me to do some readings as Emily from Our Town at a sermon he’s giving this Sunday, so I’m going to go do that. I’ve just started looking at the script, and it’s kind of intense. I feel like I really need to get used to doing more contemporary theatre, because about 80% of all the plays I’ve been in so far have been Shakespeare, and at some point this is probably going to set me back if I want to do theatre in a more serious way later on.

Also, debating whether to go post stuff on the World Domination thread — out of curiosity, is there anyone else considering going to college in Vermont or Western Mass who I could swap thoughts with?

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Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 20th, 2013 @ 16:28

It’s good to see you again! I know what you mean about college application stuff – I’m sorry I’m not applying to Vermont or Massachusetts or indeed any State, but I’d be happy to hear what you want to say!

I wish I could learn to drive soon. Here you can learn once you’re 17, but because of school it’s not terribly practical and can be time-consuming, so I’ll likely wait until I can do it at home over the holidays. Where, unfortunately, the minimum age to learn is 18 – so I’ll probably learn next summer. Good luck with everything, though!

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Cat's Meow

in June 20th, 2013 @ 16:52

I applied to small liberal arts schools in both those areas last year and would be happy to share my thoughts if our lists overlapped in any way!

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KaiYves

in June 20th, 2013 @ 19:53

Good luck with your college applications.

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oxlin

in June 20th, 2013 @ 15:53

Hello! I am at Paul’s right now with my friend M from college! We are having a lovely time, though Paul doesn’t quite approve of our taste in tea.

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Jadestone

in June 20th, 2013 @ 20:32

Yay!!

He didn’t approve of mine, either XD

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Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 20th, 2013 @ 16:13

Our politics society which I chair had dinner with the MP for this constituency this evening, which was incredibly interesting. In his talk he articulated some of his views on liberalism (many of which I share), much more coherently and strongly than I could.

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shadowfire

in June 20th, 2013 @ 17:30

So I got back from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival on Monday, and it was completely and utterly amazing. I saw six plays in three days, which was a bit exhausting but totally worth it, and spent a ton of time wandering around Ashland with some of my best friends. Additionally, Ashland is a town populated by theater people, where most of the tourists are also theater people, so I felt right at home.
(And oddly, I think The Taming of the Shrew may be my favorite Shakespeare play, assuming it’s done in the non-horribly-sexist way I saw it performed)

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Luna the Lovely

in June 20th, 2013 @ 20:25

Oooh, I was there on a choir tour when I was 12. It was tons of fun. i think we only saw one play, though, and unfortunately all I remember about that is how hard the seats were and how chilly it was outside after the sun went down. And performing in our renaissance costumes outside in the blazing heat in a park (one girl passed out–it was over 90 degrees out).

It was a blast. Gosh, that’s been so long ago.

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Tesseract

in June 20th, 2013 @ 21:31

Hello, friends!

It’s been ages since I’ve posted anything on MuseBlog. I’ve been lurking a tiny bit, but life has just gotten busy. Still, I miss you all, so I thought I’d pop in for a bit to say hi.

I’ve finished my first year of college at Brown. I think when I was last posting consistently I was still very much in the process of adjusting, but it all worked out beautifully. I have a fantastic circle of friends who all would have fit in well here on MB. My housing group was ten people, and I handled the logistics of the lottery, landing us some nice, decent-size corner rooms in a dorm with a fantastic central location. We were spread out all over campus this year, having met each other mostly through orientation activities and then through each other, and I’m looking forward to being in closer proximity to them this year. My roommate and I got on very well, despite being in very different kinds of social spheres. Basically, she’s a partier, I’m not, but she’s a really great person and good for 2am conversations. She was pretty much never around first semester, but we saw much more of each other second semester, and it will be weird and a little sad not seeing her next year!

I’m in the Brown Band, which is a lot of fun. I miss high school marching band a lot (although less than I used to) because Brown Band is really nothing like marching band except that the people are awesome. It’s very informal, very loosely organized, very low-committment… It’s actually quite nice to be able to miss things if I need to or if I don’t feel like going. I’m currently trying to decide whether or not to run for Band Board next year. I don’t expect to reach a decision on this for quite a while, depending on how the balance of band/nonband social stuff is turning out in the fall, on which people are running for band board, etc. Also, my cousin is going to be a freshman at Brown next year and will be in the band, which is exciting! Oh, and at the Yale game I had a kokon with Speller, who is in the Yale band. It was brief but fun and hopefully will be an annual Yale game thing.

I went into college thinking I’d major in Cognitive Science, but around spring break that shifted and now I’m thinking I’ll probably declare in Anthropology. I took Intro CogSci last fall and loved it, but I don’t think I’d want to spend a full major’s worth of time going into more detail about the topics. My interest has always been in language primarily, and right now I’m thinking that it would be better met with linguistic anthropology than with psycholinguistics. Also, I get to take courses that sound way cooler this way. This fall I’ll get to have “Culture and Human Behavior” and “Human Evolution” instead of Neuro and Computer Science, and that’s way more up my alley. I’m also thinking that I might like to go into museum work, so anthropology would be a better fit for that.

This summer I’m working at Staples again, and I also have two part-time internships, one at a small art museum and one at an academic press (book publishing). I’m enjoying the press one a lot, and the museum one not as much, although that’s more to do with the internships themselves than the fields, I think. The press gives me more actual tasks to do, whereas the museum has had me reading background information for about 16 hours straight now. I’ll see how they develop and how my interests develop, I suppose!

I’ve been slacking off a lot on practicing oboe, which I feel bad about, and I think I’m going to have to just kind of set myself a goal of playing for at least 15 minutes or something every day just to keep an embouchure up. That way I’ll at least get it out most days and when I do it’ll almost definitely end up being longer than 15 minutes. I’m bad at motivating myself sometimes… whoops. Anyway, I’m also in wind symphony at Brown and I love that, so I’ve got to keep playing over the summer!

I’ve started reading LOTR, but got distracted by a reread of His Dark Materials. I also managed to get the whole Great and Terrible Beauty series at a used bookstore for $15, and I’ve been dying to reread that all year (I think I read it in tenth grade which is, bizarrely, almost four years ago now), so that will probably come next.

I finished watching Doctor Who this year! New Who, anyway. I started last summer, but was only on series 2 by January. Two and a half seasons happened over winter break, and then one of my friends at school and I started making Thursday Night Doctor Who a thing, and the other seasons sped by pretty quickly. My favorite doctor is Ten (but I was heartbroken when Nine left, and while I wasn’t too keen on Eleven at first, I absolutely adore him now), and while I like all the companions my least favorites are Amy and Rory and my favorites are Rose, Donna, and Clara (oh god there’s no way to narrow that down, Donna is just fantastic but I love Rose and the Doctor together more than anything and I have an absolutely ridiculous crush on Clara). Favorite season is 4 and the second half of 7, least favorite is either 5 or 6 (but I would need to do a rewatch to be sure). Next project is Buffy, maybe, but I watch TV slows verrrry slowly generally so that could take a long time.

I’m still dating Johanna, who I posted some very angsty posts in R&R about last April and some very happy ones about at the end of October when we started dating. We go to college about two hours apart from each other and have managed a few visits, and we’re both home for the summer. I’m so, so happy with her. I’ve also come to terms with my sexuality a lot more than I had back in October (and certainly more than last April), and while I still struggle with things a bit sometimes and still don’t really know for sure what I am (I go with “queer” because it’s a bit of an umbrella term), I am doing really well with things. I’m out at school, we’re That-Website-official, and so forth. The most important thing out of all of this though is that I’m absolutely hopelessly in love with her. So that’s good. Heh, anyway.

I’m going to Ecuador with my family for the first two weeks of July–a big trip that’s a kind of combined celebration for my parents’ 50th birthdays and 25th anniversary, all of which happened/will happen within the span of a year. We’re going to a bunch of different towns/cities as well as spending some time in the Galapagos. I’m quite looking forward to it.

I think that’s a pretty complete summary of what’s been going on in my life, so I’ll leave it there. I’ll continue lurking around a bit, of course, as I’ve been doing, but I’ll try to post a little more often. Love you all! How are things around here?

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â˜¼Catwings, Panther tribe leaderâ˜¼(â™¦IrishGirl100â™¦)- Who will soon be adding more detail to her name... AGAIN!-

in June 20th, 2013 @ 22:29

Yaay! Tessie’s back!
Been awhile since i seen you! How are you doing <- figure of speech!

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KaiYves

in June 21st, 2013 @ 09:14

Anthropology is very interesting, I think you’ll enjoy it a lot.

And going to the Galapagos? That’s awesome!

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Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 21st, 2013 @ 12:07

Hello again, we’ve missed you! Ecuador sounds really exciting – do tell us all about it.

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Cat's Meow

in June 21st, 2013 @ 12:26

TESS! Hi! I’m glad there are so many interesting things going on in your life!

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Choklit Orange

in June 21st, 2013 @ 13:50

Tess, hi! It’s good to hear from you here.

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Randomosity101

in June 21st, 2013 @ 20:20

Welcome back, Tesseract! I’ve missed seeing you post!

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KaiYves

in June 21st, 2013 @ 20:31

I wonder if the whole “write a nice letter to a foreign country’s embassy explaining you’re a student who wants to learn more about that country and people and they’ll send you back pamphlets and brochures and such” thing still works or if they’d just be like “Don’t you have Internet where you live?” (Or, more politely, send you back one page with some web addresses where you could find information about the country printed on it.)

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Vendaval

in June 21st, 2013 @ 21:50

It’s well worth a try!

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bookgirl_me

in June 22nd, 2013 @ 07:57

Can you visit the embassy in person? If it’s not to busy, you might get the chance to chat with some employee there (usually expats) who can tell you a lot (or at least hand you the right brochures). A friend of mine tried this before spending a year abroad and learned a lot, though it probably had to do with the fact that his country’s embassy (Canada, I think) wasn’t very large or busy.

Most larger embassies also run various social programs, usually for expats, but sometimes also for those interested in the countries and culture. For example, the French embassy organized french language and culture classes and ran a library, which was a great place to meet french people. Even the (smaller) local Japanese embassy has a mailing list for cultural events, such as the Hanami (cherry blossom) celebration.

But yeah, if that doesn’t work I’d try writing them a letter.

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KaiYves

in June 22nd, 2013 @ 09:54

I don’t have any specific plans to do this, it was just an idle thought. (There are sone consulates in Boston, though.)

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Choklit Orange

in June 22nd, 2013 @ 15:34

I wrote a letter to the Thai embassy in Singapore for a school project once (we were practicing business letters), and got a package of brochures about different aspects of Thai culture and a very nice letter from someone at the embassy encouraging me to visit Thailand. I don’t know if it works at all embassies, but it’s certainly worth a shot!

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Bibliophile

in June 22nd, 2013 @ 17:14

Well, almost certainly not all embassies. For instance, I doubt you’d get a lot of brochures from the embassy of North Korea.

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Choklit Orange

in June 22nd, 2013 @ 19:38

North Korea doesn’t have an embassy in the U.S., does it? But I’ve heard it’s quite encouraging to potential tourists elsewhere.

They do have an embassy in Singapore, apparently, and I’ll be there next month. Shall I check it out?

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Piggy

in June 22nd, 2013 @ 21:34

You should try and get banned from entering the DPRK. I’ve always thought that would be a fun life goal.

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KaiYves

in June 23rd, 2013 @ 10:11

Given how many things they ban, it shouldn’t be too difficult.

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Choklit Orange

in June 23rd, 2013 @ 15:43

Wikipedia is informing me that journalists are routinely banned, so if my career goes according to plan (ha!), I should be banned within the decade! Though maybe I’ll have to write some shocking exposÃ© about Kim Jong Un first.

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Lizzie

in June 22nd, 2013 @ 22:36

Arrival day of this year’s summer festival tomorrow. it’s going to be weird having responsibilities again and I’m not entirely sure I remember how to play violin. I’m staying with a host family, though, and they sound a. really nice and b. really rich (i.e. own a lake and a private bar in their house) so that should be fun. If nothing else, I guess at least it will get me more or less in shape for auditioning for regional orchestras this fall.

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Lizzie

in June 23rd, 2013 @ 10:17

I can’t decide what shoes to bring when did I become such a girllllllllll

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Lizzie

in June 23rd, 2013 @ 12:48

Solution: bring all of them – sandals, sneakers, house shoes (flip flops), dress shoes, boots, running shoes

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oxlin

in June 23rd, 2013 @ 04:53

Oxlin here: “They’re really beef; they only look like dead babies.”

-Paul, on Jelly Babies

You can tell I’m having Adventures here! So far I’ve eaten Jelly Babies, marmalade, sausages and HP sauce, lots of tea (required), various other candies. Soon it’ll be crumpets.

We’ve seen a castle in Wales and walked on the town wall there. We had great fun at the Llandudno playground! The Ashmolean and the Pitt Rivers are both amazing. Oxford is lovely. I kept seeing signs saying “College closed. Prospective students welcome.” and poked my head into a couple of Oxford colleges to see if they had brocures for grad programs. I only got one brocure, though, and it doesn’t mention archaeology but it does explain things about the school which sates my curiousity!

Paul here. Apologies for not paying full attention to the burgeoning Paker tournament. As you can see, Oxlin is providing me with an excuse to romp round the country, looking at cool stuff, when I should probably be making a gittern. But life is short, and this bit of life is fun.

Oxlin again! Sorry to not pay much mind to Paker either. There is so much here to see! Perhaps Paul, M, and I can try real life Paker, though I’m not sure how that would go. Anyways. Off to the Shire now!

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Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 23rd, 2013 @ 09:17

Are you still in Oxford? I’ll be there on Tuesday.

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Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 23rd, 2013 @ 11:45

There’s probably some good symbolism in the fact that I have four different currencies in my wallet.

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oxlin

in June 23rd, 2013 @ 12:39

I have three!

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Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 24th, 2013 @ 06:23

Cool, which?

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KaiYves

in June 23rd, 2013 @ 16:19

I saw a turtle sunning himself on a floating-rubber-barrier thing along Tge river today. You don’t see too many animals besides ducks in the more-heavily-traveled parts of the Esplanade where I usually walk, just because of all the people, but this was past the BU Bridge and facing towards Harvard and Watertown, so a little quieter. I’d seen the same kind of turtle in the lake at a park in Worcester, but not in Boston like this before.

I also saw a butterfly on the sidewalk when I was going out to buy some more water at the convenience store. He was having sone trouble crawling across the cement and up the curb-thing onto the lawn of the nearest house, I think because his wings were causing a lot of drag with the wind. I watched until he was safely on the lawn and in the grass.

So those were fun encounters.

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LittleBasementKitten

in June 23rd, 2013 @ 18:32

I do the same thing with bugs, especially beetles. I don’t really like touching them, but I’ll sort of guide them towards the grass or wherever. Just yesterday I found a beetle hanging onto a board in the pool I was at, so I pushed the board over to the edge and waited until the beetle was safely in the grass.

It didn’t occur to me until after that I must’ve looked a little bit strange.

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KaiYves

in June 23rd, 2013 @ 18:37

I didn’t touch the butterfly, because I didn’t want to hurt him, I just cupped my hand a little to keep the wind off him and watched him until he was safe on the grass.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 23rd, 2013 @ 18:03

Just watched Star Trek 2009. I think I enjoyed it even more than Into Darkness, despite already being familiar with every single one of the major plot points (and apparently 90% of the funny one liners, except I didn’t know that so it made them even funnier when I heard things I’d read and realizedt hey were quotes from the movie).

And even more in love with Spock. Only he could could use “live long and prosper” as an insult like that. Which the *beeps* totally deserved, and the looks on their faces when he declined going to the Vulcan Science Academy. it was great.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 23rd, 2013 @ 21:58

Also, gotta say, I really didnt’ see a lot of chemistry between Uhura and Spock when watching Into Darkness the first time, but if I thought there wasn’t much chemistry in that movie, 2009 movie completely out did it for lack of chemistry. I mean, Uhura is pawing all over his face and kissing on him ((and seriously, stop touching him., stop touching him he doesn’t like to be touched, stop it already)) and there is no chemistry there, no chemistry whatsoever. I mean, if it’s possible to have negative chemistry ((not negative as in dislike, but negative as in so little chemistry it’s beyond no chemistry)), then they totally had that market cornered. I just can’t buy into them having a relationship. Spock has more chemistry with every single othe rperson on the ship than he does with Uhura. Heck, my textbooks ahve more chemistry with each other.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 23rd, 2013 @ 22:01

And I will deny yelling the italicized words above at my computer screen, and you can’t prove otherwise. So there.

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Kittymine, OSW

in June 23rd, 2013 @ 20:04

Just got back from a week-long family vacation. While visiting my aunt and uncle in upstate NY I saw that they had a CD of Simon and Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits. I have burned it to my computer and my mp3 player and I listened to it on loop nonstop over the trip.

I think I’m in music heaven.

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KaiYves

in June 23rd, 2013 @ 21:46

Congratulations to Nik Wallenda on tightrope-walking across the Grand Canyon!

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Luna the Lovely

in June 23rd, 2013 @ 21:54

Alright. Everytime I watch Into Darkness Chris Pine’s eyes just get more incredibly beautifully blue and he just gets hotter and hotter. ((No. Of course I didn’t just go watch it a third time. What are you talking about)) My one complaint, though (well, besides them cutting out the Benedict Cumberbatch shower scene. I mean, really) is that at the beginning of the movie, after diving into the ocean to return to the Enterprise, when Kirk is on the bridge in that deliciously skin tight one-piece uniform they were wearing in that scene? EVERYTIME they panned the bridge from behind, every single bloody time, the railing was inconveniently placed right across Kirk’s butt. I mean, all I wanted was the opportunity to check him out from behind, is that really too much to ask? But no. Stupid railing had to be in the way every single time.

“I am expresing multiple attitudes, sir, to which one are you referring?” <–possibly my favorite line of the movie

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Errata

in June 24th, 2013 @ 00:32

I just got a second unexpected chance to see it. I mean, seriously. That never happens to me. I see maybe three movies in theater a year, and that’s a busy year.

Anyway, I got to see the opening this time, which was great. (The first time we arrived in the middle of the opening scene’s climax.) And I could pay a bit more attention to the soundtrack and such. ‘Twas a lot of fun, even if nobody else wanted to discuss it afterwards. My mind apparently remains fixated on a movie far longer than anybody else’s.

As a bonus, I saw the Hobbit trailer for the first time on a giant, beautiful screen. I’m really glad I didn’t watch it when it first came out now, actually.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 24th, 2013 @ 08:41

A trailer for the second hobbit movie? They didn’t play that at ours. Just all the same previews I’d seen before

3 movies is about a years worth of moves for me, as well. And watching a movie more than once (ever) is almost unheard of. Watching one more than once in less than a month? Twice that I know of. And that easy because I cared about seeing a movie again, but because I had multiple people (family/bf for one and mom/sister the other time) who were either not in the same state or weren’t available at the same time. To see a movie 3 times in a month, and especially for the sake of wantig to watch the movie, absolutely unheard of. (And I’m already talking myself out if watching it again this Friday after finals are over. I’m crunched for time, I don’t have time, but so tempting. Really wanted watch the 2009 again tonight (48 hr free retal with the DVD mom bought me) and trying to talk myself into just waiting until I’m home where j can watch it as many times as I want without interfering with finals studying.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 24th, 2013 @ 00:54

Oh, I appear to have forgotten a word…. “I am expressing multiple attitudes simultaneously sir, to which one are you referring?”

Somehow the “simultaneously” makes it that much more awesome.

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Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 24th, 2013 @ 06:22

Today I walked around school dressed as a mediaeval monk, accompanied by a knight, a princess and a jester. No shame.

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Choklit Orange

in June 24th, 2013 @ 15:44

The public transit in Portland is glorious. Everything here is glorious. I’m in love!

Are there any MBers in the Portland area? This seems like a place in which one might find them.

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Randomosity101

in June 24th, 2013 @ 16:28

I think Ducky’s in the area…

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Bibliophile

in June 24th, 2013 @ 18:54

I’m pretty sure she lives in Portland. She hasn’t been here in a while, though…

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Cello-Playing Mathematician (AKA Kyra)

in June 24th, 2013 @ 22:41

Hi. Although I am currently near Eugene.

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KaiYves

in June 24th, 2013 @ 19:35

How much can you change in a setting-updated story and still have it be an adaptation of the original?

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Midnight Fiddler

in June 24th, 2013 @ 20:03

Hello yes this is just a PSA to inform you that if you haven’t yet gone to see Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing that came out this weekend you’re doing life wrong and you need to go remedy that as soon as humanly possible, because it very well may have been the Actual Best Thing I’ve ever seen.

(I’ll try to catch up on posts later…..also hi I’m mostly not dead.)

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Choklit Orange

in June 24th, 2013 @ 23:40

I saw it and loved it! Not quite as much as I loved ’80s Disco Much Ado About Nothing with Catherine Tate and David Tennant, but I suppose you can’t always have drunken musings with crazy straws and weird paint shenanigans. Anyway. The Joss Whedon one is convincingly acted, the lines sound incredibly natural, and they did an amazing job with the camerawork on a limited set.

Also, certain people from Firefly make an appearance.

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Midnight Fiddler

in June 26th, 2013 @ 15:04

Ooh yeah, I still haven’t seen the one with Catherine Tate and David Tennant, but I really want to!

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LittleBasementKitten

in June 25th, 2013 @ 08:58

Agh, I have to see that and Man of Steel and Monsters U and Despicable Me 2 but I’m only at home for about three weeks this summer and gah!

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â˜¼Cá´€twiá´Žgs~Pá´€nthÎµr tribá´‡ ÊŸeaá´†erâ˜¼(â™¦lrishGirI100â™¦)

in June 24th, 2013 @ 22:13

(This story is word for word true)

Well, night before last night i went up to a place with my dad’s local band [snipped for identifying informationâ€”Admin] and i was there for awhile with some of my relatives. Then, my cousin, Liberty, got there and we hung out for awhile. Until she got up on stage with the band and asked me to get up with her! I didn’t want to but i did anyway, and i had a really Fun Time! (This bold text is fun isn’t it? Whee!)
Then, after we all got done, we were standing around talking. And it was raining, y’know. So, we were talking and a HUGE BOLT OF LIGHTNING WENT ACROSS THE SKY IN FRONT OF OUR EYES AND MADE A BIG BOOM! First time that has ever happened to me. Then about a minute later, IT HAPPENED AGAIN!
So then we decided to leave, and let the DJ that had just arrived to supply entertainment for the rest of the night try not to get himself electrocuted.
Me and dad went home in Drummer John’s truck, because we don’t have a car for ourselves. And we hit the road home.
It took us an hour to get there and back so it would be a little while before we got home, so of course, in the middle of the ride…
IT HIT!
Huge rainstorm! It felt like someone was pouring big buckets of water over the truck, it was just coming down in blankets.
John could hardly see the road for awhile but a bit later we drove out of the storm and got home.

I, Had so much fun that night!

(*Crazed_Voice> FUUUN! </Crazed_Voice*)
You can tell what i just ate can't you?

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KaiYves

in June 25th, 2013 @ 09:55

Tall metallic structures do attract a lot of lightning, so if you saw two bolts of lightning that appeared to strike the same place, it’s possible they both hit the same target somewhere beyond your line of sight.

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â˜¼Cá´€twiá´Žgs~Pá´€nthÎµr tribá´‡ ÊŸeaá´†erâ˜¼(â™¦lrishGirI100â™¦)

in June 25th, 2013 @ 10:46

There was an airport and an army training base near there, maybe it hit one of the towers.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 25th, 2013 @ 00:52

Almost used “totally, completely, absolutey, irrevocably, highly illogical” in a sentence. Without even having to stretch to make it work.

((In regards to it being totally, completely, absolutely, irrevocably, highly illogical for the parking police not to have left a parking ticket physically on my car two months ago, when they apparently cited me fore one, instead of furtively billing me for it on my student account behind my back. I had no idea that garage was monitored after 5pm, and don’t appreciate finding out 2 months later that I’ve got a parking ticket, as opposed to them having left it on my car. I’m irritable because of the principle of it and it being my first ticket of any kind and all that.))

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Cat's Meow

in June 25th, 2013 @ 21:15

I got my wisdom teeth out this morning! The surgery went well, and the recovery is going well so far. Eating baby food (apple & chicken, chicken & rice, and sweet potato & corn) for dinner is more than made up with by a chocolate milkshake and a lemon-strawberry-ice cream smoothie, and my dad suggested I leave a note for the tooth fairy tonight!

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Jadestone

in June 25th, 2013 @ 23:43

WOW SO I AM SUPER BUSY ALL THE TIME WHOOPS

today I was at work from 9am to 9pm (I did not have to be I just really wanted to get the caketopping spreadsheet done before tomorrow when we have to do a bunch fiddley stuff based off it). I come home and internet but don’t feel like posting a ton usually, also I’m trying to keep reading books and stuff that I won’t have time to once classes start.

Anyway. Still really liking my job! I like working with sciency people, we just get along really well it seems like.

Also today my Professor, his post doc guy, and post doc guy’s visiting old coworker (who is using our lab/equpment for some DNA isolations) were talking about the 80’s (which they were high school or college aged during) and then metal music, and I ended up showing them some Van Canto (almost a capella metal band music and covers) and they loved it a lot. And my prof wanted to know more about folk metal, so.

Anyway. I’m mostly working on the genus Acleisanthes. I’ve done so many isolations and PCRs, but probably most exciting is a species of what’s currently classified as Cuscaitlania vulcanicola which might actually belong in Acleisanthes. Though the DNA isolations for that one are old and don’t seem to want to work super well. Alas. We’ll find a way.

Anyway yeah. Fun times busy lack of posting whoops!

“Where did the nitrogen bucket go? Did we put it away in the lab?” “That doesn’t seem like us”

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Luna the Lovely

in June 26th, 2013 @ 03:03

Leonard. Nimoy. Was in. Alaska. What. The. jfldaskhgldskfj.

Was bored of studying, so checked out Twitter. Caught the following tweet stamped 12 hours ago from Nimoy: “Anchorage, Seward, Sitka, Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan. One beautiful trip. LLAP”

He was in my state. I was not in my state. This is so many levels of not okay. I’m torn between “OMG he was in my state” and the horrible crushing horribleness that it was at a time when I was not. Because that’s like the closest I’m ever going to come to meeting him, that he was in my state when I wasn’t and this is just so so so not okay.

Not okay. Why. Why couldn’t he have like been there just a few days from now, instead (because then I could be flipping out that he was in my state and so was i and still not meeting him, but still).

Not. Even. Remotely. Okay.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 26th, 2013 @ 03:07

I am dying inside. this is just so many levels of wrong.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 26th, 2013 @ 03:10

And a tweet posted on the 24th: “Alaska. First time here since 1972. Great people. Amazing state. LLAP”

If only my school got out just ONE WEEK EARLIER, just one week. One miserable bloody week and I could have come the closest I’ll ever come to meeting Leonard Nimoy? So. Not. Fair. So. Not. Okay.

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KaiYves

in June 26th, 2013 @ 09:50

I feel your pain. Last May, although I didn’t know it for months, I was at the National Air and Space Museum the day before and the day after Joe Kittinger and Felix Baumgartner were there, but on that day itself, I was off doing something else.

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â˜¼Cá´€twiá´Žgs~Pá´€nthÎµr tribá´‡ ÊŸeaá´†erâ˜¼(â™¦lrishGirI100â™¦)

in June 26th, 2013 @ 16:14

I know your feelings.
Once i was out with a friend’s sleepover party that i didn’t even really want to go to. And then, later i found out, on the same night, Megadeath, Kiss, Iron Maiden and Three Days Grace – Four of my top most favorite bands ever – were playing in my area! And i could have gone, but my ex-mother didn’t want me to break my sleepover date so she didn’t tell me until a week after
It made me so mad…

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bookgirl_me

in June 26th, 2013 @ 05:33

Un-signed up for my exam this fridayâ€¦ I’m pretty disappointed in myself that I didn’t manage the material in time, but it’s better than going and getting a C (or worse). So my summer vacation will basically be studying for six different exams. Oh well.

Well, there had to come a time to learn about self-motivation and time management and I guess it’s now. Actually, I’m kinda psyched right now. If I pull this off, my GPA will skyrocket and I can get into a special seminar on Lebesgue Integration theory. Which sounds amazingly fascinating.

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KaiYves

in June 26th, 2013 @ 10:20

Ugh, I’m sorry, that’s bot much of a vacation.

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bookgirl_me

in June 26th, 2013 @ 11:26

It’s okay. I really want to go to grad school, so I should be thankful that I’m even getting this opportunity to fix things.

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KaiYves

in June 26th, 2013 @ 12:56

Well then, good luck!

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Luna the Lovely

in June 26th, 2013 @ 09:06

Ny mother wanted to know if I was aware Leonard Nimoy was older than she is. Kindly followed by a secon follow up email with his birthday pointing out he was cen older than my grandma. no kidding, mom, that supposed to mean I can’t be a fan? Does not mean Spock is not awesome

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Choklit Orange

in June 26th, 2013 @ 10:49

Hi!

The Supreme Court overturned both the Defense of Marriage Act and Prop. 8 (the latter by not ruling on it), with the result that gay couples can now marry in the state of California AND the federal government has to recognize same-sex marriages as valid.

I can’t stop smiling and I hope this brightens your day.

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*Cskia

in June 27th, 2013 @ 11:56

YES. YES. YES.

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Doctor Seaweed Stink

in June 26th, 2013 @ 16:14

5 theories about the afterlife:

1. When we die, we find ourselves alone in a mansion with a pool and other awesome stuff, plus a flat-screen TV broadcasting channels manned by God and the Devil

2. When we die, our spirit is sent to a spirit party to eternally party with other spirits

3. Eggy Rice’s idea for her story may be the afterlife awaiting us. http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/inkwell/node/110961

4. God has a casual chat with us to decide whether we belong in Heaven or Hell

5. Nothing happens, we just die.

I hope the afterlife is very pleasant, if there even is an afterlife. What do all you other MuseBloggers think?

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â˜¼Cá´€twiá´Žgs~Pá´€nthÎµr tribá´‡ ÊŸeaá´†erâ˜¼(â™¦lrishGirI100â™¦)

in June 26th, 2013 @ 17:12

Well, im religious, so i believe in an afterlife as either going to a Heaven or a Hell.
The bible says that during life, we have a choice. Either to believe in God and do good in his name, or follow Satan and do evil, wrong actions.
Depending on what you chose, you will get the same in return upon death.

Sorry this kinda turned into a religious speech, but that’s what i believe the afterlife will be like.

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Doctor Seaweed Stink

in June 26th, 2013 @ 17:52

Hmm. Yeah, we all know that belief…

Well… maybe God has like, a police force or something for souls who escape punishment for wrongdoing.

Maybe the Devil is not really so evil, but is actually a nice guy and he’s just doing his job to punish souls who did wrong in their time. You know, just a good dude who punishes the bad dudes… Maybe he even resents his job. He might be really tired of it cause it’s such a tedious job to operate Hell.

Or maybe one of the other beliefs are true. Maybe it’s Hades and the Underworld, or Osiris managing the soul traffic. Or someone we’ve never heard of. Or the afterlife is something else entirely.

I don’t really think I said much that was new here.

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Bibliophile

in June 26th, 2013 @ 22:51

I’m not Christian and don’t believe in the devil, but I’m pretty sure the New Testament does say that Satan is evil. I’m sure someone could write a story about a tired old Satan who isn’t so bad, though, and it’s likely someone already has.

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FantasyFan?!?!

in June 27th, 2013 @ 12:42

Starting with Paradise Lost. The “Satan isn’t so bad” stories have been around for a looong time.

Nowadays they’re practically commonplace.

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Bibliophile

in June 26th, 2013 @ 22:48

You don’t need to apologize for stating your beliefs here. You can say what you like, as long as you’re polite about it, don’t try to force it on others, and are prepared for other people to voice differing opinions. Religious speeches are fine!
Anyway, though, what you said isn’t the viewpoint of religious people in general, just some of the followers of one particular religion, Christianity. You’d get a very different response from a practitioner of, for instance, Hinduism, or even some Christian sects.
That being said, I have to wonder how many non-Christians you know. Most of the ones I know are quite friendly and don’t have any marked tendency to do evil things, certainly not more than the Christians I’m acquainted with. Could you give examples of the sorts of evil things you think non-Christians generally do? I know many, and I am one myself, so I could tell you whether your ideas seem to have a basis in reality. Of course, you may not trust me, as I am a non-Christian and according to you am therefore a follower of Satan (I assure you I’m not aware of anything of the sort) who does evil, wrong things and thus probably a prolific liar as well. However, I could give you examples of historical non-Christians who did good things, and you could look them up and have more than just my word for it.
Incidentally, it goes the other way as well. Historically, there have been a lot of Christians who have had just the beliefs you described and done really horrible things in the name of Jesus. Of course, that doesn’t say anything bad about Christianity itself. Awful things have been done in the name of pretty much every belief system ever. Still, saying that everyone who believes in the Christian god (because people have had plenty of other monotheistic ideas) does good things in his name is simply inaccurate, and again, I can give you specific examples to look up if you’d like.
I’d also like to note that yes, if you believe that the Christian god and devil are real, it’s a choice just as simple as you described. But a lot of people, including myself, genuinely do not think that is the way reality is. Can you try to imagine what that would feel like? If you don’t already believe what’s in the Bible, then it doesn’t feel like there is a choice to be made. Following a god that, in your mind, doesn’t exist, would be absurd. You can’t really make a “choice” to believe and probably wouldn’t want to. It would be no different from your friend asking you to believe in a ten-foot tiger living in Antarctica who would send you free books if you believed in her but eat you otherwise. (Moreover, this friend had never received any books herself. She just “had faith” that they would come eventually and claimed she was much happier now that she knew about the tiger). Would you do that?
I’d be interested to hear your response to all this, although it’s okay if you’re not interested.

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â˜¼Cá´€twiá´Žgs~Pá´€nthÎµr tribá´‡ ÊŸeaá´†erâ˜¼(â™¦lrishGirI100â™¦)

in June 27th, 2013 @ 16:24

I don’t believe ALL non-Christian people are terrible, some people i know have NEVER heard of how to believe in God and are still very nice.
I think if people who have never had a chance to hear God’s word still act nice and try to do good all their lives, God will still welcome them because, not ever even hearing about the Bible doesn’t really seem fair if they die and go to Hell. They never really had a choice.
No, i don’t believe you are a terrible, horrible person just because you don’t follow Christianity. You’ve been really nice to me all the while i was on the ‘blog :grin:.
And if people to bad things in Jesus’ name – like, sacrifice – then most likely God frowns on this, because they are disobeying Him in His son’s name. But someone who tries to do good in Gods name, but take it a little too far, For instance, when Jesus was walking on Earth, they had special laws of what not to do on the Sabbath. Like, one i believe was ‘No walking on the grass because it’s like reaping wheat, which is labor’. They were just trying to obey God’s commandments. And they took it to very extreme levels, but i think they get points for just trying.
No, i don’t really believe that being a follower of God is easy. Sometimes people make fun of you for not wanting to do something they do because its going agensed God’s commandments. And sometimes temptation takes over and you have to try to stop it before you get too far ( )
That’s why following Satan is so easy, how can he tempt someone he already has control of?

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Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 27th, 2013 @ 17:58

Before I go into this, let me please say that I am not trying to attack you or your decision to believe in Christianity. I am simply trying to understand the basis of your faith. This may well be better suited for Hot Topics.

1. Being a non-Christian and being nice are not mutually exclusive – the existence of ‘nice’ non-Christians shouldn’t be viewed as something surprising. (Historically, a lot more terrible/violent acts or wars have been committed or fought on the basis of religion.)
2. I disagree that non-Christians never had a choice – plenty of non-believers have grown up at least familiar with aspects of religion, and it’s not because of ignorance that people are non-believers (personally, I’d say it’s quite the opposite).
3. How do you decide what God frowns on and what acts constitute ‘disobeying Him in His son’s name’? Who decides? The Bible? Exodus 21:7 talks of selling daughters into slavery. Exodus 35:2 insists on a punishment of death for working on the sabbath. Leviticus – does touching the skin of a dead pig really make one unclean? If the Bible is the basis of all morality, I see a hell of a lot of inconsistency, and it seems very few Christians are true followers of all the Bible; most seem to engage in cherry-picking the bits they find relevant or useful.
4. Should you really get points for ‘trying to obey God’s commandments’ when taken to an extreme level? Would you condone the actions of fundamentalist Christians who believe in their minds that their acts of terror are justified by the commandments?

‘The choice before us is simple: we can either have a twenty-first-century conversation about morality and human well-being – a conversation in which we avail ourselves of all the scientific insights and philosophical arguments that have accumulated in the last two thousand years of human discourse – or we can confine ourselves to a first-century conversation as it is preserved in the Bible. Why would anyone want to take the latter approach?’ – Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation.

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Bibliophile

in June 27th, 2013 @ 20:57

As for number 4, I’m pretty sure she was talking about when people take commandments to a level that is more extreme than necessary but does not actually hurt anyone, like in the example she gave. She did say that “disobeying Him in His son’s name” was wrong, and whether or not that’s something she can judge, I think that probably shows that she probably would not “condone the actions of fundamentalist Christians who believe in their minds that their acts of terror are justified by the commandments.”

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â˜¼Cá´€twiá´Žgs~Pá´€nthÎµr tribá´‡ ÊŸeaá´†erâ˜¼(â™¦lrishGirI100â™¦)

in June 27th, 2013 @ 20:58

1: I usually just try and avoid religious discussions, just because there are so many believes in the world that its impossible for anyone to get anything ‘right’ in the eyes of others.
2: (Im sorry im kinda going againsed my own judgement here, but there is something i want to say)
I’m not saying that all non-Christians never had a choice. Most people who don’t follow God have heard many things about Christianity. Like, my cousin Erin. I’ve talked to her many times about God, she always says the same thing, “I kinda believe in God. But Christianity just doesn’t interest me.”
She knows about God but she just chose to not follow him.

“Go to their houses and teach. If they choose not to listen, wipe their sand off your shoes as you leave”
~Jesus, The Bible

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Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 28th, 2013 @ 08:01

If you believe in a religion, you should certainly be prepared to engage in religious discussion and defend its basis to non-believers who often feel the effects of religion-influenced decisions. My view is that a world with fewer believers in religion would be a world of greater inquiry, greater scientific interest, greater open-mindedness, and if I can do my bit to augment a culture of fact-based scientific exploration, I will.

Perhaps it is because there are so many believers in the world that religious discussion becomes necessary. I mean no disrespect, but religion very often fosters a mindset of greater ignorance that can be an obstacle to the progress of humanity. In choosing to accept a fantastical explanation for the origins and evolution of the universe and life as we know it, a healthy scientific desire to question and find the truth is quashed. If an individual wanted to be quietly ignorant on their own, I’d think them silly, but where it becomes detrimental to the rest of us is where religious opinion is used at the great expense of non-religious opinion, partly I suppose because religions are usually organised groups of people whereas non-believers simply don’t bother with the need to form a pressure-group-like organisation.

In so many countries religion continues to dominate government, whether directly (e.g. Saudi Arabia) or indirectly (e.g. evangelical Republican lobbyists). Religion is now not just a belief system or spiritual worldview that explains the origin of the universe, but has become so fanatically politicised that it encroaches on the way secular decisions should be made. Science – the religious outcry over stem cell research to the detriment of scientific funding and progress. Health – those such as Catholics against the use of condoms despite the staggeringly obvious fact that it would help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. Education – creationism/’Intelligent Design’. Civil liberties/human rights – gay marriage. I could probably go on. It’s quite evident to me that religious beliefs, usually derived from ancient and questionable documents, are imposed on others far too often in a harmful way.

I would say the real choice is choosing to believe, rather than choosing to not believe. You believe in Christianity, probably because your parents raised you that way. If you had been born to Muslim parents, it’s likely you’d choose to believe in Islam. In choosing to follow a Christian God only, you probably aren’t actively choosing to not believe in Islam, or Hinduism, or Judaism having examined the theological arguments of each carefully. We simply don’t feel the need to devote ourselves to an imaginary deity for which there is absolutely no proof.

It’s all very well quoting the Bible to me, but as I see it’s sort of circular evidence. The Bible says x, therefore x must be true –> This chapter says x, therefore the Bible/Christianity must be true –> The Bible says x, therefore… A passage of the Bible does not validate the Bible’s authority, and similarly the fact of it being in the Bible and supposedly said by Jesus does not mean it is true.

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Lizzie

in June 28th, 2013 @ 10:46

While I agree with a lot of what you say, catwings is under no obligation to debate with you.

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Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 28th, 2013 @ 12:56

No, I didn’t mean to come across as forcing her to debate – apologies if it seemed that way. I wrote it rather quickly. She is of course free to respond however she chooses; it’s just my opinion that believers ought to be at least willing to talk about religion, rather than avoiding all discussion completely. I would be interested in reading one but I don’t at all require her to respond to my post.

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 28th, 2013 @ 13:27

I could create a new Religion and Religions thread, or Hot Topics for 2013. We’ve had mixed results with both in the past.

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Choklit Orange

in June 28th, 2013 @ 01:35

I’m curious about your thoughts on something (on which I’ve rarely gotten a straight answer from others):

There are plenty of door-to-door missionaries where I live, I have several Christian friends who take me to church when they feel I’m particularly in need of saving, and I’ve read the Christian bible- so it’s not as though I haven’t heard God’s word, as you put it. Yet I’m not sure I’ve ever really believed in a god (I was raised Jewish/Hindu), and I certainly don’t now. This is not because I had a traumatic, faith-shaking experience, or because I’m confused. I don’t feel empty or as though some things can only be explained by the existence of a god.

(I hope that this does not come across offensively, as it’s not meant that way at all- but as someone who grew up pretty much without the Bible, a lot- well, most- of it just isn’t believable to me.)

The point I’m trying to make is that it’s not that I choose not to believe in a god. I actually can’t. There is no way I can imagine that a god exists, or fit one into my view of the universe. Not for lack of trying; I’ve tried pretty hard.

So, am I automatically condemned in your opinion- or can my salvation depend on my actions instead?

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KaiYves

in June 26th, 2013 @ 17:45

I think this might be better-suited to the Philosophy or Religion and Religions thread.

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Bibliophile

in June 26th, 2013 @ 22:09

Those haven’t been used in ages, though. I’m afraid the conversation might die if we move it there, and I’m enjoying what people have to say.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 26th, 2013 @ 17:56

I’m an atheist, I believe that when you’re dead, you’re dead. The end.

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LittleBasementKitten

in June 26th, 2013 @ 20:14

Same here. Though I have this irrational hope that reincarnation is a choice or something.

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Bibliophile

in June 26th, 2013 @ 23:04

Me, too. I’m not happy about it, though. I think there’s something beautiful about decomposition and energy transfer and how death brings forth life, but I also think it would be even more beautiful if life found a way to sustain itself on its own without all the grief. I’m not sure if it’ll happen, but I’m saving up to have my body cryonically preserved after my death, just in case. Well, mostly. It’s not like I’m not buying anything in the meantime, because it’s pretty expensive, and I’m impatient, and I probably have quite a bit of time left.

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Tesseract

in June 28th, 2013 @ 21:41

Likewise, and I actually find the idea of a traditional afterlife kind of depressing (this is entirely a matter of personal taste and is not meant at all to reflect on the “worthiness” or anything else of anyone else’s beliefs! I totally understand that heaven is a big deal for a lot of people and I totally respect that!). I really love the idea of reincarnation, though. Something about it seems beautiful to me. Regardless, I don’t think anything happens after death. You’re remembered by those you knew. Your mind and essence are gone. It’s sad, but I can’t help but feel it’s true.

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Bibliophile

in June 29th, 2013 @ 14:21

To be honest, I personally think that making anyone suffer forever would be wrong, no matter how evil the person in question was. It’s not like it’s going to help anyone. Of course, separating evil souls from the rest of the dead population makes sense, but an all-powerful god could do anything to make them as happy as possible in their isolation, and it seems to me that one whose primary value was love would.

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Cello-Playing Mathematician (AKA Kyra)

in June 26th, 2013 @ 22:44

Atheist (Secular Humanist), so the fifth option.

I was going to say something else, but realized it was pretty blasphemous, so…

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Doctor Seaweed Stink

in June 27th, 2013 @ 11:18

Hmm. Let’s imagine the Underworld of Greek myths is real. Do you think that, based on your life so far, you’ll end up in the Field of Asphodel, Fields of Punishment, or Elysium? I hope I’ll end up in Elysium. I probably will if I do everything I want to in life, but it’s more realistic for me to end up in Asphodel.

Who believes that maybe we will someday be able to cheat death through science? I think that would be cool, but it would lead to overpopulation problems. Then maybe a dystopian future where in order to control the population, some few hundred people or so are randomly chosen to die. We’d better keep close eyes on our future, or else our world could end up like in The Giver, and that would be bad.

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Bibliophile

in June 27th, 2013 @ 14:45

Don’t forget Tartarus as an option! You never know, after all! Though I can’t really see anyone here going there.
Like you, I feel that if the ancient Greeks were right about the afterlife, and I died right now, I’d go to the Asphodel Meadow, but that I would hope to get to do enough to get into the Elysian Fields. On the other hand… even though some particularly worthy mortals, like Socrates, were said to have gotten there through virtue of their, well, virtue despite not being particularly close to the gods, all of them did at least offer sacrifices and so on, and, well, I don’t. Maybe the best I would hypothetically be able to hope for if I believed in the Underworld would be Asphodel.
If you did make it to the Elysian Fields, would you stay, or would you choose to be reborn? My first impulse is to say that I would be reborn. I’d get the chance to do more good that way, and getting to the Isle of Blessed would be awesome. Before making such a huge decision, though, I’d want to learn exactly what a soul was and how much impact, if any, it had on one’s personality, since right now, I’m not seeing any room for a soul and have the distinct impression that genes and circumstances are responsible for all of it, and I’d hate it if, after learning I had a soul, I assumed that I’d be more or less the same person in my next life, was wrong, and ended up going to Tartarus or something when I could have stayed in the Elysian Fields.
As I said in post 133.3.2, I think there is a reasonable chance that we might eventually be able to find a solution to death–reasonable enough that I plan to invest money into it eventually. It would cause overpopulation problems, and we’d have to find something to do about it. We do know from statistics that generally speaking, as the death rate decreases, so does the birth rate. Also, education can really do wonders. Hong Kong had a campaign encouraging people not to have more than two kids (really just encouraging people; there were not consequences for having multiple children), and it now has the second-lowest fertility rate in the world. And there are scientists right now working on ways for people to maintain a high quality of life while consuming fewer resources.
I agree with you that killing people to stop overpopulation would be horrible. However, even a situation like you described would have only a few hundred people dying every year… and they might even be revived later. The way things are now, 56 million people die every year. If having a few hundred people die to stop overpopulation is wrong, surely the current state of things is even worse, and finding a way to stop these deaths completely is imperative?

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â˜¼Cá´€twiá´Žgs~Pá´€nthÎµr tribá´‡ ÊŸeaá´†erâ˜¼(â™¦lrishGirI100â™¦)

in June 26th, 2013 @ 17:33

I have another theory:
I wonder if people of the past, like in Moses’s time, really did have pointed ears. Because some people these days actually do have slightly long ears. But its just that over variations of generations and time, the ears became more rounded and what we know of as ‘normal’ today.
Because SO MANY people believe in races of people who actually have long ears. Like fantasy story writers find that an interesting thing to write about (Fairies, Elves, Pixies, Hylians, Vilcans, ETC…) It’s kinda weird and getting under my skin.
Just a theory, or maybe i’ve been playing Z too much…

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Luna the Lovely

in June 26th, 2013 @ 17:48

OMG MY MOTHER JUST SAID “MOST ILLOGICAL” IN AN EMAIL RESPONSE TO ME.

((My email having enquired what exactly did not compute (which she had said in her last email) and that it totally computes and Spock=awesome. and she replied “MOST ILLOGICAL”. OMG))

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Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 26th, 2013 @ 18:43

I’ve been at the first of the two open days at Oxford and it’s been absolutely fantastic. Everything serves to confirm what I’ve known for years (that I’m applying). If I don’t get an offer, I may have to get someone to kill me, genuinely.

Anyway, aside from two colleges I wanted to look at which I will do tomorrow, I’m fairly decided on a college now! Of course, there’s always the possibility I’ll be reallocated to another one, but I think you may as well put down a choice rather than make an open application if there’s one you really get a good vibe from (which I definitely did today); that said there are many colleges where I’m sure I’d be very happy. I’m very glad I came on the open days as the college I now want to apply to was not one on my radar or short list just based on Internet information. I also got to speak to two history tutors at different colleges which was really helpful.

For now, though, fingers crossed…! The next half-year is going to be terribly exciting.

On another note, I made quite a politically incorrect comment to my dad as we were walking along, and several moments later a guy walking in front of us turned around and said ‘I’m sorry, but that’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all week.’ Oops.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 26th, 2013 @ 19:58

Five finals in 2 days coming up. Starting at 9am tomorrow. Barely studied anything so far. Leonard Nimoy was in Alaska on a cruise and I’m stuck in the bloody midwest (and as mentioned above, in finals week). Not shaping up to be a very great week so far.

Guess I’ll have to console myself with the fact Nimoy thinks my state is “absolutely beautiful” and that Alaskans are “great people”.

And apparently a pub in Anchorage makes the “best pizza ever”. So I guess if I ever am in Alaska and find out Nimoy is again visiting (which let’s face it, not going to happen) I’ll skip off work or any other engagements I might have and camp out at the pub….That’s logical, right?

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Bibliophile

in June 26th, 2013 @ 23:25

It depends on your priorities. If seeing him is more important than your work or other engagements, it’s logical.
(A belief is always either logical or not, and which does not change between different people as long as they have the same prior information to work from. Whether an action is logical or not really does depend on your emotions. Not factoring them into a decision can be just as irrational as ignoring the other facts).

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KaiYves

in June 26th, 2013 @ 21:05

I know we’re not supposed to discuss other sites, but I recently rediscovered one that I enjoyed greatly during my tween years that has had at least some influence on me, and it’s definitely muserly, so I just thought I’d ask… were any other MBers frequent patrons of the UnMuseum/Museum of Unnatural Mystery? I would wait on tenderhooks for each month’s new article.

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q

in June 28th, 2013 @ 21:17

Looks flambabulous!

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Luna the Lovely

in June 26th, 2013 @ 23:12

I linked my parents to “Ballad of Bilbo Baggins” as an example of Leonard Nimoy being awesome, b/c he sang a song about Bilbo Baggins and it’s totally awesome even if the video portion is totally weird but the song is awesome.

My father replied with the following: “Not sure what kind of demented state you are in from studies, but I don’t see anything awesome or special about the vid or the song. Get well soon.”

There are days I question how I can be biologically related to these people….

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Lizzie

in June 27th, 2013 @ 07:41

To be completely honest, it’s mostly awesome in the sense of “I had no idea something this awful could exist”

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Luna the Lovely

in June 27th, 2013 @ 08:31

I really like the song and don’t think the song itself is awful. the video portion w/ the dancing girls is….weird as hell, though.

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Eggy Rice

in June 27th, 2013 @ 11:29

Agreed. Also, I don’t like it when people smile while they sing.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 27th, 2013 @ 14:01

What’s wrong with people smiling when they sing?

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 27th, 2013 @ 14:53

Somebody should write a song about that.

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Bibliophile

in June 27th, 2013 @ 15:12

And smile while they sing it.

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 27th, 2013 @ 15:37

I imagine a duet, with one singer smiling and the other frowning. And they could switch expressions with every new verse.

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Bibliophile

in June 27th, 2013 @ 16:29

Now that is actually a really good idea.

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â˜¼Cá´€twiá´Žgs~Pá´€nthÎµr tribá´‡ ÊŸeaá´†erâ˜¼(â™¦lrishGirI100â™¦)

in June 27th, 2013 @ 17:14

Bib, you and me should get together and do that

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Luna the Lovely

in June 27th, 2013 @ 17:24

Biblio–i was thinking the exact same thing.

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Armada

in June 27th, 2013 @ 09:13

Have you seen the ad (I think it’s an ad) of Nimoy and Quinto… um… basically just doing stuff with each other and being awesome? It is probably the most perfect thing I have seen it in a long time, and Nimoy sings more bits of the Ballad in it. I suspect you will enjoy it immensely.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 27th, 2013 @ 14:00

The Audi commercial? yessssssss.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 27th, 2013 @ 17:26

Less than 24 hours and I’ll be done with this block. It’ll be my first block without even one A, but it will be over at 4pm tomorrow, and that can’t happen soon enough. Just tons of studying and 3 more exams to go in that time.

((I missed an A in one of my classes today by one question. One bloody question. grrr))

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KaiYves

in June 27th, 2013 @ 22:19

Go get ’em, Luna!

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Luna the Lovely

in June 28th, 2013 @ 07:07

Thanks

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â˜¼Cá´€twiá´Žgs~Pá´€nthÎµr tribá´‡ ÊŸeaá´†erâ˜¼(â™¦lrishGirI100â™¦)

in June 27th, 2013 @ 23:04

Okay, Today, i got a rubber tarantula.
I got it because i wanted to just pull a prank on my best friend.
When she was sitting down i told her i wanted to go do something and for her to wait where she was.
I think you should know now, that usually when i get a lifelike toy, or just a book with the main character on the cover looking at you, i think that they are really alive inside, and just that they want a chance to rebel againsed humans who treat them poor,
Anyways, i got the tarantula and threw it into her lap. She screamed and threw the rubber arachnid into my face.
You know how rubber, and sweat work alike? They both get sticky when they get hot.
And it happens to be in the middle of summer here.
And you remember what i said earlier about imagining things?
The tarantula stuck right to my forehead It scared the living blood out of me, and i swear, i almost screamed up my lungs and heart, in one strongly exhaled scream.

I have… I don’t even know what i have lost besides my mind…

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FantasyFan?!?!

in June 27th, 2013 @ 23:52

Today it rained a lot where I live. I was out shopping during the worst of it, so I didn’t notice but when we left the store and approached our house there were sections of the road that were completely underwater. Water was bubbling up from the drains. It was a bit nerve-wracking going through them. But the intersection a bit past the corner of my house got it worst. The entire thing was flooded for several yards past the intersection, and into people’s yards. Cars couldn’t drive through it. I went out later and it seemed like half the neighborhood was out there looking at it, and a substantial youthful minority was treating it as a makeshift swimming pool. I waded in and it was two feet at its deepest point.

I mean…wow. We had a flood. That’s never happened in all the time I’ve lived in this neighborhood, and neighbors who’ve lived here for fifteen years say the same. You looked outside, and saw water from one yard to another, and there wasn’t a lot of yard showing. Just. Wow.

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Choklit Orange

in June 28th, 2013 @ 01:37

Did you know that SockDreams.com has an actual and physical location in Portland?

I do. And I am now in possession of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”-themed socks.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 28th, 2013 @ 07:41

I read that as SpockDreams the first time…..

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KaiYves

in June 28th, 2013 @ 09:42

Swanky! I’ll have to get some!

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Dodecahedron

in June 28th, 2013 @ 04:42

It is 5:30 am and I have officially given up on sleep. Which is…good, because this means I can get 8 hours of work, instead of cheating and counting the fun intern event I planned for this afternoon as “work”, but not great, because 7 hours of sleep is probably not enough when I have to be active from 8am to 9pm today…..

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LittleBasementKitten

in June 28th, 2013 @ 07:55

So last night I went to see Pixar In Concert in Pittsburgh and

i can’t function anymore because it was just the best thing and they played clips from literally every Pixar movie except Monsters U and everything was synchronized and

the feels

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Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 28th, 2013 @ 14:24

Tomorrow morning is my flight to Italy for a music tour with the school chamber orchestra/choir! Four concerts in four different cities. I’m very excited for the holidays. It’s going to be an amazing summer, I’m doing a lot of travelling – after Italy, a week’s summer course in Geneva, and then nearly three weeks doing various things and staying with various friends in France. I’ll hopefully post updates when I can!

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Luna the Lovely

in June 28th, 2013 @ 21:31

So random thought dump that doesn’t really have a point per se, was just something I realized.

So I was watching an episode of Heroes while eating dinner, and as some of you probably know George Takei is in some of the episodes. aNyway, he’s in this particular episode, and he’s talking to another character in Japanese (this whole subtitle thing Heroes likes to do makes it really hard to multitask and watch an episode, because I keep missing dialog). And I had the passing thought that I wonder if he actually knows Japanese. Which morphed into the conscious realization of the fact that he is of Japanese descent, which translated to the dawning realization that he’s Japanese-American and around 80 years old. Which puts him as being alive during WWII, when everyone of Japanese descent was being rounded up and imprisoned in internment camps. Which led to me doing a brief spot of wikipedia research and realizing that he did indeed get shipped off to an internement camp with his family when he was a child.

I dunno. All that stuff seems so long ago when you read about it in school; it’s a weird mental jolt to realize it happened to someone you “know”.

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 29th, 2013 @ 07:23

Yes, history is real. Amazing, isn’t it? And we and everything around us are turning into history at the rate of one second per second. I don’t know how that affects you, but to me it says: Pay attention!

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KaiYves

in June 29th, 2013 @ 09:38

I can’t believe my old “year in review” Scholastic News issues from 2003 and 2004 are almost a decade old.

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Lizzie

in June 29th, 2013 @ 08:10

It happened to my grandparents…

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Lizzie

in June 29th, 2013 @ 08:15

(and my grandmother really wants to find her high school yearbook from the relocation center because she was apparently on the student council and popular and in almost every page. I think they were in Amache but I could be wrong.)

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Cat's Meow

in June 29th, 2013 @ 14:04

Somebody brought a high school yearbook from an internment camp to my history class a few months ago, and it was one of my favorite things to look at from the entire year. It was really interesting how much normalcy they maintained (or created) out of such an abnormal situation, to the point where they had sports teams, a Spanish Club, and other things like that. Seeing all of those teenagers really helped humanize them, too.

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Axa

in June 30th, 2013 @ 13:58

it’s hard for me to understand people not living w/ it in mind constantly but i guess textbooks don’t do a good job abt it. i was shocked there are ppl who don’t even know about it at all though i guess i shouldnt be. america.

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Tesseract

in June 29th, 2013 @ 09:33

We were flying out of Raleigh this morning and saw George Takei in the airport, coincidentally. My dad does a lot of research and writing surrounding the internment and he had corresponded a tiny bit with George Takei a while ago to see if he would promote his book (color photos from the Heart Mountain internment camp) on his page. So he went up to introduce himself and say hi. (And then George Takei thanked him for his work and mentioned his book and I said hi to him and ahh it was the coolest)

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Luna the Lovely

in June 29th, 2013 @ 10:54

totally jealous. (envious? whatever, i am that)

I’ll just have to live vicariously through all of y’all.

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Piggy

in June 28th, 2013 @ 23:41

If a person were in a bad mood and wanted some cheering up, or in a good mood and wanted to make it blossom, en would do well to search for “MitchiriNeko March” on Youtube.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 29th, 2013 @ 02:47

So it makes me ridiculously happy that my mom likes Star Trek. And I asked her if she likes Spock better than Kirk and she said “probably” and that makes me even happier. ((I’m high on lack of sleep, wide awake though, finals are done even if I didn’t get the grades I wanted, and I”m busy cleaning up my apt. Lots to do–several experiments removed from the fridge. Hopefully didn’t miss any))

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Luna the Lovely

in June 29th, 2013 @ 06:30

It’s amazing how staying up all night studying is so hard to do (because you’re so sleepy) but staying up all night cleaning your apartment and packing, even when it’s pretty much the third night in a row where you’ve not gotten any sleep (in 30 minutes I’ll have been away for 24 hours with only a 20 minute nap during that time, and I only slept 2 1/2 hrs last night), and I”m not even remotely tired.

Still so so so much to do.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 29th, 2013 @ 13:04

dude, OMG, got my July/August Muse mag today in the mail and (very minor spoilers) was flipping through the pages to see if there was anything interesting when all of a sudden there was a picture of Beauty. She was at the bird treatment place I volunteered at back in Alaska for most of the first year I volunteered there (7 years ago or so now), before we sent her off to the lower 48 to the people interested in fitting her with a prosthetic beak.

I tong fed her most Thursdays during the time we were both there (chunks/slivers of raw salmon held in tongs, because she could grab her own food for obvious reasons….)

totally awesome. Wish she had more than just a pic and a caption though.

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LittleBasementKitten

in June 30th, 2013 @ 06:20

Ah, wish I had gotten that one before I left for camp. It’ll be waiting for me when I get back home I suppose.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 29th, 2013 @ 13:45

It’s been 27 hours since I last slept, and that was a 20 minute nap, following 3 hours of awakeness after 2 1/2 hours of sleep and some odd naps Thursday afternoon/evening/morning.Tonight I’ll begin catching up on all my sleep deprivation from this block.

I hope to have a fantastic summer, even if I am spending 4 of the 7 weeks essentially shadowing instead of non-school/work stuff.

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Luna the Lovely

in June 29th, 2013 @ 14:15

The whole lack of sleep think is starting to be felt. But I’ll be on a bus to the airport soon and can nap on it

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Dodecahedron

in June 29th, 2013 @ 15:09

Hi all! I took the train down to NYC and met up with Axa and Vendaval at the Met. We looked at a lot of art here, and are thinking of finding a waffle truck in Central Park. I’m posting from the Temple of Dendur (OK, from just outside it), the juxtaposition of my tablet and the ancient stone building is worth noting.

HEY FRIENDS NYC IS P COOL BUT ANNIE AND VENDY ARE EVEN COOLER! ACTUALLY ITS REALLY HOT AND IM DYING BUT POINT MADE

Artartartartartartartartart! Hello friends, we have seen a lot of art. Now we are getting waffles. I hope you are all doing well.

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Jadestone

in June 29th, 2013 @ 17:47

Ahhh awesome!! HELLO FRIENDS!

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Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 29th, 2013 @ 19:27

It’s 2 am and we’re doing a concert in Venice tomorrow so I should be sleeping but I don’t care, we just saw Verdi’s Nabucco at the Arena di Verona and it was just so amazing! A great way to end a birthday, more than making up for all the travelling! The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves was chillingly magical.

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Piggy

in June 29th, 2013 @ 23:50

Today one of my dad’s cousins (I’m not actually sure exactly what relation he is to my father or myself, but in discussions he’s been placed under the general category of “cousin”) from Mississippi and his wife visited the family up here in Nebraska for the first time; we had never met each other before. Apparently he, like my dad, has taken on the arduous task of compiling a family history and genealogy, which eventually compelled him to drive up here and exchange information and files with my dad. We had everyone over to our house for our family’s traditional pizza party, and it was really fantastic.

After dinner winded down we all piled in front of the television where we went through a long slideshow of old photos and documents my dad has painstakingly digitized over the past eight or ten years, going back to the 1870s when this branch of my ancestors first hopped off the boat and stepped into America. The frequency of photography starts to pick up around my great-great-grandfather’s generation, particularly from the tail end of the first World War. There were a number of really fascinating things my dad’s cousin brought with him, including the passenger list of the boat which carried my great-great-great-grandfather and his family from Germany to New York (which presents a spelling of the family name which we had never seen before) and what seems to be the only surviving photograph of one of my great-grandfather’s sisters, Catherine.

Now, because our family constantly recycles names, there have been numerous Catherines (including one who I think is entering first grade next year), but this Catherine is the one known to us through her truly beautiful watercolors, two of which we have hanging in our house. Yet even though we see her art and her signature every day, we had never seen a photo of her. Her sister Gertrude was very photogenic and seemed to be pretty wild, but Catherine was much more elusive. She was born in 1894, married in January of 1917, and died in December of the following year of Spanish flu at the age of twenty-six. To be able now to connect a face with this name is an indescribable feeling.

Family is a kind of incredible thing. My sister’s facial structure is remarkably similar to Gertrude’s (though their personalities couldn’t be more different and my sister’s name was borrowed from a different ancestor), and I bear a passing resemblance to my grandfather’s brother Leo, who died young of heart valve troubles. Oddly enough, that name’s current reincarnation, my cousin’s four-year-old son Leo, looks uncannily like I did at his age, excepting that he’s enormous. I seem to have inherited my great-grandmother’s talent for piano and organ, and all the boys of our family share without fail the trait of a gigantic skull. Buying hats has always been difficult for us.

Anyway, sorry for the rambling; like always, I just like organizing my thoughts here even though it’s of little interest to anyone else. Thanks for putting up with me.

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Cat's Meow

in June 30th, 2013 @ 00:33

Piggy, these posts of yours are always a pleasure to read. Thanks for sharing!

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Piggy

in June 30th, 2013 @ 14:25

You’re welcome, and thank you! This is an odd question to ask, but LBK expressed the same sentiment on my last post and I’ve been wondering: what do you think it is, specifically, that’s enjoyable to read? I hear people say they like my writing but I’ve never known why. It’s always seemed haphazard to me.

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Vendaval

in June 30th, 2013 @ 17:26

You’re clearly passionate.

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Randomosity101

in June 30th, 2013 @ 14:43

Volume two on my computer is uncomfortably loud, and at volume one I don’t catch the quietest notes of some of the music to which I listen. I wish my computer had a volume one and a half.

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Selenium the Quafflebird

in June 30th, 2013 @ 16:37

Venice today was just amazing. I spent a very happy few hours wandering around with friends – in the evening we did our first of four concerts in the Basilica di San Pietro di Castello, which had a fantastic acoustic. Murano glass factory tomorrow, then our second concert in Padua! I’m really loving this trip.

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Robert Coontz (Administrator)

in June 30th, 2013 @ 16:52

Ahoy, birthday girl! How does it feel to be 17? (I know it was yesterday, but the reality must be settling in by now.)

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Piggy on Random Thread: Spring 2023 to ???A very merry 'Blogiversary to you, Meow! I guess now you have to get permission for your MB life to continue using its pseudonym. Kidwise, the oldest…
Cat's Meow on Random Thread: Spring 2023 to ???It's been 18 years to the day since my first post on MuseBlog! My MB life is now a legal adult! Pleased to see all of you who have dropped in lately.…
Cat's Meow on Random Thread: Spring 2023 to ???Also, happy early birthday! (according to the sidebar calendar)
Cat's Meow on Random Thread: Spring 2023 to ???Wow, I'm glad you got to see the eclipse, but that housing situation sounds wild. How old are your kids now?
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Robert Coontz (Administrator) on Random Thread: Spring 2023 to ???Welcome back, Cat's Eye, and thank you for the fascinating update. (Fun factoid related to Life on the Mississippi: as Piggy noted, my great-great-gra…
Robert Coontz (Administrator) on Random Thread: Spring 2023 to ???Hm. Not exactly. Maybe I'd better let Piggy explain.
Robert Coontz (Administrator) on Random Thread: Spring 2023 to ???Sorry about that! We were besieged by spambots and had to do a lot of preliminary moderating before we could even see your posts. Welcome!
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Sinusoidal Polyglot on Random Thread: Spring 2023 to ???Hi! Sinusoidal here! This is my first post on MuseBlog. I come from ChatterBox (See my posts there). If I’m not supposed to give my email, why is it r…
You can call me "Fitzy" on Random Thread: Spring 2023 to ???I sent a post a few weeks back, but I don't think it was approved. I stumbled across this place a few weeks ago and did some brief digging into it. It…
Piggy on Random Thread: Spring 2023 to ???Hello friends! I've been trying to think of something meaningful to say for the last couple weeks, but nothing quoteworthy has come to mind. When peop…
You can call me "Fitzy" on The Hare & Hedgepig, v. VIAlas, I fear I am too late to assist with this food. Surely it must have spoiled by now? It's a shame. This is a lovely-looking spot, and quite cozy t…
You can call me "Fitzy" on Random Thread: Spring 2023 to ???I was never a user of this site. Never a user of any blogs or forums on the internet really. Never got the hang of the social internet, and ADD means…
ibcf on Random Thread: Spring 2023 to ???Same problem has kept me away like a pool of flesh eating bacteria, ha. Never mind what I've had to show for myself since; the ignominy of the nonsens…
ZNZ on Random Thread: Spring 2023 to ???I'm not sure exactly how I ended up back here, but I was so pleasantly surprised to see posts as recent as these last! It makes me happy to think of y…
Piggy on Random Thread: Spring 2023 to ???Well, today marks my 17th 'Blogiversary. Somehow that number, anything less than my current age, sounds too small, as though my self and my MuseBlog s…
Piggy on Random Thread: Spring 2023 to ???I ought to pick out some Twain to read myself. One of my half-treasured possessions is a dark green hardback set of his works published in the 1930s o…
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Piggy on The Hare & Hedgepig, v. VIOh dear, they've done milkshakes now. Where did that mop go....

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Luna the Lovely

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Luna the Lovely

KaiYves

bookgirl_me

FantasyFan?!?!

Kagcomix

Kagcomix

KaiYves

KaiYves

KaiYves

KaiYves

KaiYves

Selenium the Quafflebird

KaiYves