Groundhog requested that we dedicate a thread to the October 2001 issue, and for obvious reasons we couldn’t resist. Most of the magazine was devoted to photo manipulation (then still a novelty; hard as it may be to believe, “Photoshop” was not yet a household word). Other topics included the non-manipulative photographer Elliott Erwitt, Mexican Day of the Dead celebrations, and the 7600-year-old flood that created the Black Sea. In the Q&A column, Rosanne explained why chocolate makes people feel good, and Kokopelli & Company introduced Koko’s puppy, Devil. Ah, good times…
That must have been a fantastic issue. I’ll have to get a copy…
And happy October!
Great Muses, another issue I don’t remember!
So, equine medicine lecture this morning by one of the main equine vets at the school (he’s british and funny. I like him).
On one slide, he’s got an image of Captain Kirk and Bones (from TOS, not reboot), with Kirk holding a PADD and stylus in his hands. Dr. ***** goes “the original version of UVIS on the iPad”. UVIS being short for Universal Veterinary Information System, it’s the electronic database/program our school uses for records, etc. Cracked me up, because a) Star Trek duh and b) everytime I think about PADDs and iPads I get amused because really, hello, the original PADDs are totally archaic iPads, and then add on the similarity in names, and I can’t help but wonder if iPads were deliberately named after PADDs everytime I think about it.
Then Dr. **** asks if we knew who those people were, and it’s was kind of like, yeah, duh, we’re not completely clueless. Still popular, or at the very least most people will recognize them.
And then, as if this weren’t awesome enough, the whole Star Trek pic, apparently William Shatner has/had saddlebred horses at some point and Dr. ****** treated one of his horses. One of my professors “knows” William Shatner, in more than a “I ran into him on the street/at a convention/what have you” type of way. I totally spaced out the next 5 minutes of lecture because I was just like mildly shellshocked thinking “guh so unfairly awesome and oh my god you just became more awesome, and maybe there’s some stock in that whole three degrees of separation thing, afterall?”
And it just occurred to me, not sure why it’s taken the better part of an hour, but if Dr. ***** has treated one of Shatner’s horses, I’m not just less than 3 degrees of separation from Shatner, I’m 3 degrees of separation from Leonard Nimoy. And thus 4 or less from the entire bloody cast of both Star Trek reboot movies.
I’m just going to go wrap my head around that one…..
Oh, also, pretty sure I remember that magazine issue.
Hehe. How far photomanipulation has come!
Speaking of which, I need to think of 3 photographers I might want to emulate for my next photography project, shoot… I just am not sure what I want to do D: D: I don’t really knowwwww
Also: government shutdown means I can’t do my biology field trip/fieldwork experience this weekend
I am. really upset about that.
We were going to go camping in the adirondecks… it was going to be beautiful
Sorry about your field trip. As for photographers to emulate– Ansel Adams?
The landscapes/settings that are really characteristic of his work aren’t really easy to find around here
, especially since all the national/state parks are closed now. He’s also SO well known, like Dorothea Lange, imitating his work isn’t really… I dunno… impressive? It’d be feel like I wasn’t putting a lot of thought into who I picked I guess.Jadestone: How about Elliott Erwitt?
Voltaire’s thinking he’ll probably have to cancel his European tour if he doesn’t get enough people to buy advance tickets!
I haven’t been on anything except the Music thread in forever. Hi, guys.
This issue was awesome, I loved seeing all of the elements that went into the finished cover.
Any chance of a NaNoBraSto thread?
Actually, considering everything, we could probably do with one thread for brainstorming as well as the event…
you all will be pleased to note my sleep habits have not changed much
Finished my illuminated manuscripts essay. A picture/text analysis of a scene from the gospels in the Book of Kells (we got to choose, heh)–I ended up with the Temptation of Christ. I feel like I missed a lot/didn’t get a lot probably since I… don’t know… religion… but he takes that sort of thing into account at least I think.
Still bummed about not being able to go on the trip this weekend : / looks like we’re just gonna do another tree survey in the nearby park. Sigh.
Why, why is Legolas in my Hobbit movie? He really really doesn’t belong there. I mean, I like Legolas. And Orlando Bloom is hot and all, but seriously? Legolas doesn’t belong int he Hobbit. Of course, half the stuff in the first Hobbit movie didn’t belong, either. I feel like Jackson was pretty true to the books with the LOTR trilogy, but he seems to be determine to take all the liberties he didn’t take with those, and take them with the Hobbit. LIke he has a set amount of stuff he can change per movie, and he stored it all up to change in the Hobbit movies.
Also it looks like it’s way too CGI, even the bloody people look half animated. What is with taking real actors and making them look have CGI? Is this suppose to improve the movie somehow? No, didn’t htink so. If I wanted to watch animation, I’d go watch a bloody animated movie. I dont’ want my real people in real people movies CGIified.
I can’t even completely place exactly what it is, even when the people look normal, the whole thing on the trailers just looks so fake. More fake than cheesy horrible costumes from mid-1900s shows. LOTR from a decade ago looked more real.
the scenery, everything, just doesn’t look real, and I know it’s possible to make stuff look real, they’ve done it before in LOTR (which with few exceptions, looked real). This almost looks like, acutally, it almost looks like a videogame, come to think of it. A very high quality video game animation. Not a movie filmed with real people.
I’m glad I’m not the only one this seems to hold true for. I enjoyed the first movie when I was in the theater, but… How is it that it can look more fake than LOTR when it has more advanced CGI? Are they just relying too heavily on it?
Wikipedia may shed some light on the “fake” look:
Ouch. Talk about backfiring.
Legolas didn’t appear in The Hobbit, but his father did, and it’s reasonable to assume that Legolas was in the neighborhood. (Of course, the real reason he’s in the movie is that 25% more people will watch it with Orlando Bloom in the cast.)
Anyway, if you’re uncomfortable about Legolas, wait till you meet
MeridaTauriel.Is that the female elf in the trailer who appears to be playing Legolas’s romantic interest? (And who also looks horribly CGI?)
I just don’t like Legolas being there, because even though he came from Mirkwood, and it’s not outside the realm of possibility that he was there in the book (just without being named), it just smacks of “let’s throw in this well known popular character just to garner more views”. Which, like you said, is exactly the reason. I just don’t feel it adds anything to the movie, and therefore is gratuitous and unnecessary.
Actually, I want to know what he’s making the third movie out of. Because the entire book seems to be in both the first and second movie, since we reach the showdown between Smaug and Bilbo in movie 2, according to the trailer. What’s even left for the third movie at that point? I don’t feel like much happened after that, and I don’t remember the journey back to the shire being very eventful. But it’s been a while, so maybe I’m misremembering on that count.
Well, there’s the Necromancer, a narrowly averted war between Elves and Dwarves, and the Battle of Five Armies.
Clearly I need to reread the book….I only vaguely remember the Necromancer, and I had it in my mind that his story was more a vaguely mentioned off screen thing, and I’m not sure I remember the Battle at all…. :/
A lot of things happen “between the lines” in the book, but that won’t stop a movie director from showing them.
True. And for the most part I don’t mind if they end up fleshing out the “between the lines”, I just hope they don’t significantly deviate from the book, as he seemed to be trying to do with the first Hobbit installment.
I mean, I enjoyed it, but unless I’ve forgotten some between the lines stuff, there was no armless orc from Thorin’s past subplot in the book as there was in the first Hobbit movie.
Azog the Goblin is mentioned as having tortured and beheaded Thorin’s grandfather, but he was killed years before the–
Oh, never mind. The upshot is, it deviates.
Well at least he exists to some degree in the hobbit verse.
Also I envy your knowledge of the lotr/hobbit verse….it reminds me of how well I use to know HP. Actually, what I would totally pay money to see: one of our anatomy professors really likes LOTR trivial pursuit. I would totally pay money to watch the both of you battle it out. Good entertainment.
This one irritated me. Mostly because I was sitting beside my eight-year-old cousin when they started into the backstory, and when Thorin said “He died from his wounds long ago”, my cousin came back with an “I doubt it” type reaction.
I knew this backstory, of course, and was rather pleased to see it in there. So I told him that no, that was acurate.
And then he turned out to be right. It rankled.
I wonder whether we’ll see his equally fearsome son, Bolg.
(No, I don’t.)
The Necromancer part isn’t actually much mentioned in the book at all, but it’s the reason why Gandalf isn’t much of a character in the Hobbit: he was off fighting him.
Because Pottermore had to send me a darn email that GoF was up (even though I haven’t finished PoA): an excerpt from JKR talking about colours: “[green] ought never to be worn at weddings, due to a further association with misfortune and death.”
My first thought: Oh, dear….My sister’s colors for her wedding were sky blue and apple green, all of us bridesmaids had apple green accents on our dresses (or at least mine did, we all had a different dress, they may not have all had accents, I don’t recall). So is that my misfortune and death, since I was wearing the green, or my sister’s?
And her husband and my dad were wearing apple green ties (because it went with the bridesmaid colors…don’t ask, I thought making their ties match in that particular shade was rather, well, highly amusing….)
Also, a quote on the Floo Network that just makes me love Rowling that much more, as well as a quote on hot pink that literally made me lol:
“‘Floo’ came from the flue that you find on a chimney and don’t ask me to tell you exactly what a flue is, because I don’t know. I just know it exists, but I’m not sure what it does exactly.”
“shocking pink, as sported by the likes of Nymphadora Tonks, conveys a certain punky ‘yes, I’ve got a Muggle-born father and I’m not ashamed of it’ attitude.” (Not sure why I found that as laugh-out-loudable as I did, but, well, I did).
The floo quote is totally my quote of the day. My profs at school are going to have to be working overtime to beat that one, today.
Dolores Umbridge certainly conveyed an unabashed attitude.
Teddy Lupin’s full name is Edward Remus Lupin. I didn’t know that.
Posting from the Minneapolis Convention Center at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing!
Four interviews in the next three days, maybe more if I’m feeling adventurous. Right now is breakfast of the first morning — I ended up sitting next to some nice women from Groupon, which is where I am posting this from.
Greetings, Dodecahedron!
I haven’t been gone all that long, have I? XD
Update: Sitting in a corner next to an electrical outlet, charging my laptop. Considering going to a session that starts in 40 minutes soon.
So i put in a maintenance request Monday because our kitchen sink was leaking. The office called me today to say maintenance had been by, wanted me to verify if it was fixed. So I went to check, it was still leaking water where the sink meets the pipe. I told the girl in the office, nope, still leaking. “Oh, well they put a new garbage disposal in, because they thought that might be what the problem was….”
“Uh, yeah, it’s not that side of the sink. It’s the side opposite the garbage disposal.”
Shouldn’t you check where the leak is before throwing new equipment at the sink to see if it fixes it? I’m sure fixing the actual problem is far cheaper than the cost of a new (and unnecessary) garbage disposal….
But hey, brand new garbage disposal, yeah?
Look what came in the mail today!
oh NO WE WORE THE SAME THING
WHAT A FAUX PAS
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Look what I bought, guys!!
awkward…
jk i love you
We’re building a bevy of Batgirls on MB– criminals beware!
And one of them has a fish tail.
SFTDP. Doesn’t that make Jade a Batsquid with a mild-mannered mermaid for an alter ego?
what can I say, being a multidimensional superbeing has its perks…
Am I weird because the only thing I can notice with this picture is, Holy cake, Jadestone has really long hair! ?
Lizzie and Jadestone – Wow…
I wore orange and black to classes today and ended up getting free candy.
I just saw on the news that my favorite coffee roaster back in my hometown was broken into and burglarized last night. I feel awful for the owner and his wife. I hope their insurance covers it and that the police catch whoever did it.
I’m beginning to think the only movies my roommate owns are Harry Potter movies. She was watchin the 8th one when she was home on her lunch break yesterday, and judging by the strains of music filtering through the vent she’s watching HP again tonight, although I’m not positive which from the music alone, although I’d guess probably still 8. It not 1-4, vecause it’s no John Williams, and I have the 4th soundtrack practically memorized…..
Well, that’s good for you right? I mean, I’ve always assumed you liked the movies as well as the books, which would mean you could watch them together.
I actually hate the vast majority of the movies. One and two were decent, here is the first that stared to deviate far too much (also the first I saw after becoming a hardcore potter fan), and four was worse than three, five I didn’t think it could possibly get any worse, and then I saw six and I realize just how horribly wrong I was (how Yates managed to turn six into a freakig teenage romcom I still don’t understand), seven wasn’t bad, and eight was actually surprisingly good. But that may have been because I went into it with such dreadfully low expectations
But to be honest, even if I really loved the potter movies and wanted to watch them as frequently, as, say, I’ve wanted to watch into darkness, I just don’t have that kind of time.
((And yes I accept it is perhaps a bit odd I have all the movies on DVD given that I would furiously rant for hours/dys/etc about how badly they screwed up the movies, but…..*shrug*))
And I don’t really have any interest in socializing with my apartment mate. She’s nice enough, I’ve got nothing against her, I just don’t like people
So I realized my initial post about thinking that my roommate only owns the hp movies reads in a rather grumpy way, like I’m bothered by that. That wasn’t the intention, was just a random observation
Ah, I see. I didn’t know that, but I completely understand. That’s basically why I never watch movies based on books.
For some reason I thought you did like them, but since I only know three people who aren’t Potter fans at all (and one of them is me), I was probably just confusing you with someone else.
Well, I own them all on DVD, went to see all of them in theatre (midnight releases for the last two), have all the soundtracks, and have piano music books for the first 4 movies, have several calendars with images from the movies, and have 17 Harry Potter posters based on the movies in my bedroom at my apartment, alone (and at least half a dozen more in my bedroom at home, where i also have 3 cardboard displays that housed the DVDs at the grocery stores when they went on sale, plus another in the hall, and at least two stashed in the basement (my bedroom doesn’t have room for them all).
I can see where you might think I like the movies more than I do. and to be honest, I guess i kind of have a love-hate relationship with them. They’re Harry Potter, and the casting choices were all excellent, and there’s parts that are great, and even merchandise that’s based on the movies or the HP park at Universal I love, because it’s HP, I just don’t like how much they deviated/took out/added. it’s complicated. I don’t claim it entirely makes sense….
As for not watching movies based on books, I have a friend at school who’s like that, for the most part. Although she did watch LOTR and Hobbit, so I guess she picks and chooses, despite her repeated comments of not watching movies based on books.
I love Lizzie and Jadestone’s matching outfits! Sorry I haven’t been dropping in as much — I’ve been incredibly busy!
Their raucous race from Earth to Mars– can you spell that without any “R”s?
Sure, T-H-A-T.
A teacher here went to North Korea over the summer and gave a talk about it this evening. It was super interesting. I’ve always wanted to go, and it doesn’t seem that difficult to do; all you have to do is apply for a visa and arrange it with a tour company. I’m definitely considering it for the near-ish future.
There’s an interesting article about the experience of visiting in the latest National Geographic. “Gone With The Wind” is hugely popular there.
Just tried out for my college’s fall musical – we’ll be doing the Wizard of Oz. It’s funny, but I feel shakier now than I did when I was doing the audition…
Kittymine – What an interesting coincidence; I just auditioned for my college’s fall play! Being shakier after rather than during seems odd, but it’s not that uncommon. *shrugs* At least you can be assured that it will wear off.
I had a blast at my audition. Not enough girls auditioned, but at least two more said they would audition, so the director is supposedly going to hold another audition for those who didn’t show up at today’s. This is going to be such fun!
Well that’s…..awkward.
I laid down for a nap at around 6:30 Thursday evening, with an alarm set for an hour later, because I have a whole bunch of stuff i still need to get done before Friday morning. I end up not wanting to get up when the alarm goes off, set my alarm for a little bit later, or think I do, or something, noting at least there’s no chance that if I forget/fail to set it, that I’ll sleep thorugh until morning, not in my clothes and with my light on, so it’s not a big deal if I set my morning alarm yet.
Wake up to my morning alarm going off, but not the first one which goes of at 7am, it’s almost 10 after, which means I barely have over 20 minutes to get ready for class. I brush my teeth, jump in the shower, take a speed shower, check the time: 20 after, I have ten minutes to blow dry my hair; no worries, that’s plenty of time, it’ll be dry, just not put up in anyway. Ten mintues later, cussing myself out for my stupidity, thinking I would wake up sometime before the morning, when I know just how well I can sleep for huge chunks of time, and now I’m so far behind on my studying, didnt’ ahve time for this with finals next week. But at least I got a nice fully night’s sleep, that’s something. At least I’m refreshed and awake for classes
I double check the time as I’m pulling on a shirt and buttoning it: 30 past, that’s good, right on schedule….Wait, what the bloody caking cake, it’s 30 past nine. I didn’t just sleep all the way through the night and not get any studying done, I slept through my first class, my 8am, I missed my 8 am class, well there goes studying during our break at 9, at least I’ll make our 10 am, but I missed my 8am, I can’t belive C [girl I sit with, and friend] didn’t call me when class was over, to see where on earth I was, she knows I never miss class. Why didn’t she call.
Shirt still half buttoned. Check time again, on both my ipod and phone, not quite believing my eyes aren’t playing tricks on me, that it’s really 9:30. It is. Then something clicks. It’s really 9:30. 9:30 bloody PM, Thursday night.
While I may have dreamed the alarm that woke me up (I didn’t have one set at 9 anything), I did not sleep through the entire night without waking up from my nap, I did not sleep through my 8am class, and I did not actually, apparently get that full nights sleep, although I was surprisingly refreshed feeling. I did, however, go through my entire 30 minute morning “get ready for school routine”, including shower, getting dressed, brushing teeth,a nd blow drying hair, and checking the time numerous times, without once realizing it was not, in fact, morning. The lack of gnawing hunger should have been a clue it wasn’t morning, though.
I feel kind of stupid.
On the plus side, it means I still have a chance to make a dent on the other 10 or 11 lectures I really needed to get through tonight (I just won’t be getting any more naps in, if at all avoidable).
And I always laugh at the stories of people on the internet who wake up to go to school onlly to find out it’s not morning or its the weekend, or or or. I actually had the panicked thought when I saw PM that “oh, god, it’s no PM friday is it? I couldn’t have slept 24 hours….could I?”
*headdesk*
Reminds me of the morning back in my early working years that I had to go outside and pick up the newspaper to find out whether it was Friday or Saturday.
So much for my plan of getting my laundry done tonight, since after 7 weeks of being at school, I’ve now run out of clean underclothes. I had hauled all my laundry to the washer (which since we have one in apartment, is only about 3 steps from my bedroom). Only to find that my almost full bottle of detergent that I know I had last block was nowhere to be found. My nice, unscented detergent. Upon further investigation, I have reached the conclusion my new roommate decided it was communal property and helped herself (as opposed to the old roommate taking it wiht her when she moved out), as the bottle of detergent that is currently in the laundry room is also unscented. But it’s a different brand. And for some reason the fact that it’s a different brand, combined with the fact it’s not mine, has squicked me out and I have a psychological aversion to putting it on my clothes. Which is stupid, because if I don’t mind washing my clothes in the same washer, using untouched detergent straight from the bottle shouldn’t bother me, even with it being a different brand (b/c I’m really not a brand snob, I dont’ care that much), and I had no problem washing my male group mates sweat drenched surgery gowns with mine last block, but for some reason it does. grrr
So now I can’t do my laundry tonight afterall and have to go the store and spend more $$$$s replacing laundry detergent that would almost certainly have lasted me rest of vet school. At the very least the rest of this school year, provided I don’t have to do a huge amount of laundry once on clinics (scrubs/coveralls, etc)
I feel like I should have been asked before she just assumed it was communal property. Although conversely I really don’t care if she uses, say, my dishsoap/papertowels/trash bags without asking, so maybe I’m just being irrational. But then again, dish soap seems less personal than laundry detergent. I don’t know. whatever. I needed to go to the store for mountain dew, anyway. it’s the principle of it, i guess.
So, was on the internet, noticed that “Sleepy Hollow” was renewed for a second season. Didn’t know anything much about the show, other than having seen a couple previews over the summer, and knowing that Sulu from Star Trek reboot (aka John Cho) is in the first episode.
Decided that meant odds were it’s decent if it’s getting renewed, and it being Thursday and having learned all my shows that i watch air Monday-Wednesday and I could really do with something to watch in the second half of the week (mainly, meaning I”m already caught up on this week’s shows), and having started and never finished the first “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” episode), I decided to watch the first few minutes of the first Sleepy Hollow episode as a brief break from studying.
So I’ve watched 15 minutes, and am really into it. Possibly partly because the actor who plays Ichabod Crane, OMG, his voice. I think I love his voice. So I’m really liking it so far. Wish I didn’t have 7 more lectures I really wanted to have done in the next 2 1/2 hours (not going ot happen, but going to happen even less if I watch the rest of the episode and the next two as well). So yeah. I’m actually really quite surprised, because it didnt’ really seem like it would be all that great, for whatever reason. Maybe because none of the other sci fi/fantasy shows the broadcast channels ahve ocme out with of late hve really captured my attention (Grimm, Once Upon a Time–although I may not have actually watched any of the latter, I’m nt sure. but the former failed to engage me), but I didn’t even have high enough expectations to even bother trying it–even knowing Sulu was in the first episode.
But I”m glad I did, because this actually looks good/is good for the first 15 minutes at least.
Downside: It’s on Mondays, so it doesn’t help with the evening out my TV schedule, because it means I have 3 Monday shows now (or three I watch middle of Monday night/sometime Tuesday), 2 Tuesday shows when Supernatural starts back up (only one at the moment), and 2 Wednesday shows. And when Almost Human starts in November (Karl Urban, yum) that’s on Monday. But it’s coming on when Bones is currenty and Bones is moving to friday, so it will still be 3 Monday shows, and finally a non Mon-Wed show.
But yeah.
Happy Sputnik Day!
A public library near me (not technically my local library, but it’s within driving distance) is having a Welcome to Night Vale Scavenger Hunt.
With a 25-dollar Amazon gift card as a prize.
Oh, was this the issue with the Black Sea Flood article? I remember that one, especially the joke the Muses in the margins made “Why couldn’t it have been passed down by oral tradition for thousands of years?” “Because their language lacked the words ‘Popped like a cork from a champagne bottle.'”
Ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh. I have decided hte next time I take a bloody nap, I need to freaking record it, determine once and for all if I’m turning off my alarms in my sleep, if they’re going off and I’m turning them off without regaining consciousness enough to have any memory of it, or if both my phone and iPod are such total pieces of trash that they fail to go off nearly every bloody time I take a nap.
Because I laid down for a nap at 2:30. with my phone set for 3 and my iPod for 3:30. I woke up at 6:45. Overslept by 3 hours. Three hours I really couldn’t afford to oversleep.
and my phone was flipped open, instead of closed like I’m sure it was after I set my alarm, so was it open b/c I turned the alarm off in my sleep before it went off, or did it go off but I somehow turned it off without waking up? Because it’s *really loud* and I shouldnt’ possibly be able to not wake up when it goes off, because I’m a really light sleeper. I mean, there’s a reason I have to sleep with earplugs at night. But I don’t wear the earplug for naps, so the alarm is that much louder, and should be that much harder to somehow not register it going off and switch it off.
So I’m going to record every blasted nap for the next week, figure out what’s going on once and for all. al;kfjdkl;afjasdl;
Meanwhile, I had 12 hours of lectures I really needed to get through today. which will take a minimum of 12 hours, which if I’d woken up on time, I might have been done wiht by 3am. Now there’s no way in heck of finishing them all tonight, and there’s so little time, with finals next week, and our full schedule of classes throughout finals week, because god forbid we not have all our classes right up until our finals. *whimper*
Have you tried putting your alarms across the room?
I did once last block. Alarm went off, I got up, turned it off, and promptly crawled back into bed because I decided I didn’t want to be up yet.
Lizzie’s idea is a good one, although mine you might not like so much…
have you tried… not napping? at all?
it seems counter-intuitive, but honestly, naps mess me up. I don’t think I’m built to sleep for short periods of time–even when I wake up “naturally” (aka not in the middle of a REM cycle), I still feel groggy and horrible, and they really mess up how I sleep the following night/next day.
Instead of oversleeping on naps, maybe try to get more sleep during the actual night? As opposed to a 3 hour nap in the afternoon, then staying up extra late to finish work and sleeping for only 5 more hours? Maybe if you got the 8 all in a row it’d help.
For this to work, you’d have to be more dedicated to making yourself stop working around 8 hours before you have to get up though, and force yourself to go to bed then. That’s uh. The part I’m bad at. And why I only sleep 6 hours a night (or 4, the ngiht before last
)
Just a thought/something to try on a week you’re not OVERWHELMINGLY busy? (I figure as a vet student, you are always SOME level of pretty busy…)
If the video shows something hot, pink and fluffy, we’d better alert Muse Central and go to DEFCON 3. There has to be a reason they’re messing with people’s alarms. What is it that they don’t want us to see?
Pink-anormal Activity?
In old movies, you often see a very mean wife, threatening her husband with divorce, and the husband’s like, “Oh, honey, don’t leave! I’ll go anything, just don’t leave me!” Why? If your wife’s that mean, why not just get a divorce? Just something odd I’ve always wondered about old movies.
In some cases it’s just a trope/thing movies do and that people are used to seeing, and is meant to show that the husband is the “good guy” in that situation. Or sometime it’s to make the audience worry, while still reassuring them that the couple “belong” together.
But sometimes in movies, like in real life, it’s because relationships can be really complicated. Even when one person is mean to the other. Sometimes the mean person will make it seem like it’s all the other persons fault/they deserve to be hurt, and the other person can honestly believe that. This can happen in romantic relationships AND normal friendships, I had someone I was close to behave similarly for a long time (although she is thankfully out of my life now).
Sometimes, this behavior goes past being mean/manipulative into abusive too : / People and emotions are complicated. Mixing the two is very dangerous.
1) Divorce used to be socially stigmatized.
2) It’s never that easy. Once you’ve been married, you’ve made a commitment that’s hard to just walk away from. Especially if 1) is in effect.
Last night while I was waiting for choir practice to start I got a call from my mom–very unusual–and she said that our dog had started to cough up blood; they’d taken him to the vet and an X-ray showed that he apparently had advanced lung cancer. After rehearsal was over I drove back home (through a heckuva rainstorm). This morning my dad, my grandma and I took the dog back to the clinic to have him put down. It’s really weird–just a few days ago we had no idea anything was wrong. Even yesterday morning he ate breakfast and mooched off my sister just like normal. It’s hard to believe how quickly he went downhill. The vet said that in his forty years or so of practice he’d only seen ten or fifteen cases of canine lung cancer. Poor dog. I guess I’m lucky enough to not have been too close to him–I was the one who took him for walks, but other than that he and I were more or less ambivalent about each other. Not ambivalent, exactly, but we were on different wavelengths. I think it’s hitting my dad the hardest–he really loved that dog. They were partners for grilling, for sitting out on the patio at night, for watching TV. I don’t see my dad cry very often, but he went through a couple of tissues at the vet’s. But even though it was so sudden, we’re glad it happened quickly, so that he didn’t have to suffer very long.
We’re already talking about our next dog. We swore this would be the last…but none of us really believe that. My sister wants another Scottie. I think a corgi would be great. My mom’s only request is that we wait until the start of summer so that she can stay home with it until it’s house-trained (she works in a school). The cat seems pleased by the restoration of his long-lost peace and quiet; this is the second dog he’s managed to finish off. Life continues apace.
Hoping it wasn’t too hard of a loss. *gives loving-memories-of-pets squid*
I’m sorry for your loss.
I’m sorry, Piggy. Losing a pet is never easy.
… I’m so sorry.
Piggy, I’m sorry for your loss.
Commiserations and a large squid, old man. Pooch loss is hard.
My mind still boggles that my therio professor keeps describing giving birth as being like pooping. Because really? From what I’ve heard giving birth described as from women who have had kids, I really think they’d punch you in the face if you tried to liken the experience to pooping.
Just….no, dude, no.
…Men…
Jade and Lizzie, you are both lovely in your new outfits. (and always, of course.)
Piggy, pets are hard to lose, I’m sorry.
Mom’s visiting me this weekend at shool, and today she wanted to come into town, so we’ve now spent an hour and a half in the shoestore. I like shorstores and all, but I’m getting a bit less enthusiastic about it at the moment (thus hiding on a corner and museblogging).
It’s nice to have her here though.
Last night I played for my first squaredance! I’m in one of the old-time bands gere at school, and we played for the homecoming squaredance. The power went out, so we ended up playing unamplified for a while to hold the crowd until they could get the generators working again, but it was ok. Then we managed to break 3 strings and swich around knstruments, and the power came on and we played another couple dances that could be called. I was really proud of the taditional music departmnet, old-time division, to have kept it going to smoothly despite mini catastrophies. So that was fun.
Last night’s Star Trek episode,
Spock, “It’s… biology. Vulcan biology…”
Kirk, “You mean… the biology… of Vulcans?”
Me, *Cracks up*
No, REALLY?
Biology…as in….reproduction?
((because obviously when you say biology, reproduction is where your mind initially goes…except not so much. that seems like a huge leap in logic, to me. But whatever. I guess Kirk always has reproduction on the mind, so maybe not))
Yes exactly, you never watched that episode?!
I think she was quoting Kirk (although I’m not sure if it was the exact line) and then commenting on it in the parentheses.
Yes, this exactly. I was quoting Kirk (and it was the exact line
) immediately following where Katherine left off in her quoting. And then commenting on the whole exchange in parentheses.
I’ve seen the episode twice.
Oh, peh…..
I think the joke was that it’s a Captain Obvious statement, but I agree that probably is the way Kirk’s mind works.
((Well, that’s the kind of biology that’s most likely to make people skirt around the topic the way Spock was doing. I already knew what was going on before seeing the episode for the first time, though, so it’s possible I’m being influenced by hindsight bias. It certainly would have been amusingly awkward if Kirk had said that and been wrong.))
Yeah, I knew what was going on in the episode before I watched it, as well. But when Kirk makes the leap straight from “biology” to “reproduction” without any sort of hinting at anything reproductive related, it still kind of made be go “lol, what?”
Does anyone else remember a short story in Cricket about a boy who was trying to help a grouchy old woman prepare when their town was under a tornado warning? She didn’t have a TV or radio and so she thought he was making it up, but finally he got her to go take shelter in the bathroom (because she didn’t have a basement, either), and they both survived.
Yes! I remember that one. Didn’t a tree fall through her bedroom?
Something happened to the rest of the house, I don’t rememberif it was that. Dang, what was that story called?
Selenium from last thread– no problem! Both universities are Australian, one interstate and one not. Moving to and applying for places in, say, the US, would have been a lot of effort. And given that it would be for academic reasons, that would mean getting into and paying for Caltech or MIT or something… I’m actually quite fond of my country and why deprive it of my awesomeness?
I would have been happy with living in New Zealand, but I preferred the options in Australia.
I’m not in a stark minority at school for wanting to go somewhere interstate, but it does appear to be the less common choice.
And since I’m making a post now: Great, 3 assignments to do (physics, chemistry, English), 2 of which are counting towards my ATAR and have to be perfect, and I haven’t started any. In my defense I’ve been researching stuff and doing math as well as procrastinating. Said math was homework and study, but there’s also a problem one of my teachers gave me for fun. Specifically, Snape (the weird teacher whose classes and tests everyone except me dreads) gave me a problem to do with what we’ve learnt in McGonagall’s class.
I guess regular integral calculus problems are fun-horrible enough.Have just sent off my UCAS application for university (to read History and Politics), so I’m all done with that! My music one I’d already sent off a few weeks ago. It’s a good feeling to no longer have that hanging over me. I know I’ve been a bit sporadic in posting but I should be less busy after, well, Christmas (if I can survive that long given all the auditions and interviews I’m hoping to get!)
Did that include scholarship application stuff, and residential colleges if you’re doing that? I’m still in the process of that.
May you be continue to be busy in a good way.
There isn’t really a scholarship application; at least, for music they might give you one if you audition well, but there’s no separate form or anything. I’m not sure what you mean by residential colleges (isn’t it funny how different countries have such different systems/terms for everything?) but with Oxford you can choose to apply to one college, or make an open application. I did the former, but there’s a decent chance you’ll get sent to another college either, for interview or ultimately for a place, so it doesn’t matter so much.
The same to you!
Do you think it would be possible to write a story about using Ham Radio to communicate with the past without it being seen as a rip-off of “Frequency”?
AT LONG LAST: VICTORY!
After all the times I’ve worn my “Keep Calm and Don’t Blink” t-shirt around campus, and even to Friday Night Magic meetings, today was the first day I got more than “I’m not a Whovian, but my friends are Whovians.”
I FOUND THREE WHOVIANS IN ONE DAY! And one of them is in the fall play with me!!
Speaking of which, we did our first read-through of the play today. Once you’re actually reading it in a group, it’s caking hilarious. (If you try to read it alone, it seems to be basically “Life sucks. Then you die. Then someone else’s life sucks when they have to scatter your ashes.”). I’m at least as excited about the play as I am about finding other Whovians.
E, V, and Bashir gave me a Tardis wallet for my birthday in April. It took until an outing last week (where V and Bashir were present but not in earshot) for not one, but two people to comment. The conversations included asking me where I got it…
Yay, nerds!
I saw someone wearing a bright red “Keep Calm and don’t blink” t-shirt with a weeping angel statue above the words walking past while I was eating lunch outside today with a friend…..but I didn’t say anything to her because I don’t know here and I’m antisocial and don’t talk to strangers when at all avoidable. Because I only like talking to people I know well….
I did have a similar moment a week or so a go, when after having worn my fourth doctor t shirt for every single exam this block (it’s my lucky shirt of the block), it turns out my cardiology prof (who is in charge of the cardiology elective rotation, which also happens to be my first clinical rotation, which I start in…8 days oh my god) is a Whovian. She is the first and only person to comment on the shirt, wanted to know if Tom Baker was my Doctor, was impressed I”d watched all of Who, wanted to know if I watched it on Youtube or where, that she’d seen “Unearthly Child” from the old stuff and 2005 on, but hadn’t had time/access/opportunity to really watch anything else. And then after the little mini lecture she gave us in lab was all “SO what was the name of that Youtube alternative you said you watched them on again….?” [dailymotion fyi if you’re wondering and if i can post that GAPAs]
’twas awesome. Made me slightly less terrified of my cardio rotation I’m getting ready to start, because at least the head person is cool.
Maths Lover – That sounds awesome.
Luna – Mine’s TARDIS blue and has a picture of said TARDIS at the top.
My Bio teacher’s into miniatures gaming, and my Math teacher was considering starting a Roleplaying club that would include LARPing. Hooray for awesome teachers!
I am concerned by the fact the chocolate Hershey’s bar I accidentally melted in the sun over lunch hour yesterday, while no longer molten liquid, is still very much liquid as compared to solid. Because except for te one hour at noon yesterday it’s been in my backpack inside. Why has it not resolidfied. This is not normal
Also not normal is the group of people I saw jogging at SIX THIRTY in the morning in te dark on my way to my personal hell known as the 7 am exam. Seriously. Not right. Nobody should be awake
Try refrigeration.
I will if I happen to think about it when I’m back at my apartment this afternoon/evening/night/sometime. Or I might turn it into a n experiment and see how long it stays soft. We’ll see. Depends on how i feel later.
I generally approve of experiments, but not ones that risk rendering chocolate inedible.
I actually prefer to eat my chocolate slightly melty. Or even melting it till it’s super liquify, cutting a small hole in the corner of the wrapper, and then squezing/eating/drinking it out through that. OM.
So you’re taking chocolate back to its days as a beverage?
That’s how it started, of course.
The Kakawa Chocolate House in Santa Fe, New Mexico, serves an “elixir” called the Aztec Warrior — supposedly a recreation of the chocolate-and-chili-pepper beverage the Mesoamerican Indians used to drink in rituals. It comes in two sizes. (My advice: order a small.)
Oh man, their chocolates are so good. I should make my parents take me next time I’m home..
Y E S
I love drinking chocolate. It’s delicious. I want it all the time. I always make my hot chocolate much stronger than it’s “supposed to be” anyway. One of my friends makes it just my melting together nutella and milk, which I am going to need to try…
I’ve had mexican hot chocolate and enjoyed it a lot too! With chili pepper flavoring in it, that is. Probably not very close to the “original” beverage as it was still sweet, not just bitter/spicy, but SO good.
No sweetness in the Aztec Warrior. It would not be honorable.
Chili pepper in chocolate is just *wrong*, I don’t care if historically speaking it was done that way, it’s just…yuck. yuck yuck.
As for melting nutella and milk together, well, that also sounds pretty unappetizing, in my opinion. But then, I don’t like nutella, so…..
Hersheys chocolate syrup mixed with milk is good for chocolate milk. Better than store bought chocolate milk by far.
I’ve mixed my own hot chocolate ever since I saw “sugar” was the main ingredient of the pre-mixed kind. I use dark chocolate cocoa with minimal sugar. The Aztecs still might not approve; then again, maybe they wouldn’t have gone around ripping people’s hearts out of their chests if they’d indulged in a little sweetener.
If a certain Jell-O commercial is to be believed, the Maya gods were quite pleased to receive a “sacrifice” of chocolate pudding lat year…
I’ve never had Mexican hot chocolate, but chocolate and chili peppers seem like they evolved to be eaten/drunk together. They’re the best! (Chili powder is also delicious on mango or in mango smoothies and popsicles.)
In southern India, people sell (among other things) slices of mango covered in chili powder and salt on the roadside.
That sounds delicious, and I’m not surprised.
I first heard about mango with chili powder when I learned that you can buy whole mangoes on sticks from roadside vendors in parts of Mexico, and several of them have containers of chili powder you can sprinkle over the mango.
I think it’s illegal to refrigerate joggers, however good an idea it seems.
Some folks are night owls, some folks are morning people, some folks are early-to-bed-and-early-to-rise types (like me), it’s just what their bodies and minds are comfortable with.
Yeah, I know. My dad is very much a morning person (he is vocally opposed to my staying up late and sleeping in late because “you’re sleeping half the day away”), and I am very very much not. To the extent I could very easily adapt to ring up all night and asleep during the da. Even more easy after having spent a summer working late evening/nights and keeping to it even kn the days I had off (that was 2 years ago, but I feel it’s stuck)
I’m a night owl, too. Apparently research shows that we have badly wired brains and go through life in a state of perpetual jet lag. I have to get up early for work, but I feel smarter whenever I get to sleep late.
I’m a night owl, but sleeping late just makes me feel even more behind. No matter what schedule I’m on, my productive puts up the “closed” sign in the late afternoon and doesn’t reopen until about 10:00 at night. My most successful strategy is to get up at 5:00 or even earlier, so I can relax in the fog for an hour or so, yet still have a nice long stretch of time to get things done once I’m awake. (Getting up between 6 and 8 is worst of both worlds.) Otherwise my most alert time would be roughly midnight till 3:00, which simply doesn’t mesh too well with other demands of life. From everything I’ve read, probably the most important thing to do is to establish a consistent waking time—the very thing that seems hardest to do for those of us who are out of sync with the prevailing rhythms.
Hm. I guess we’re not too far apart. I feel like I can think better when I’m hungry. After I eat, I can’t brain.
But, night owls runs in my family. I stay up until around dawn, then I feel it’s time to go to bed.
Missed an A by one question. What the bleepity bleeping bleep is with this bleeping bleep?
School and I are not friends right now. Because that was probably going to be my only possible A this block. And to get a 91% B just really bleeping irks and makes me mad. Especially when I changed one of my answers from a right one to a wrong one and that would have made all the difference. So yeah.
Hi. This is Luna. I’m going to be in a really really cruddy mood this entire cruddy week because it’s finals. And I’m going to almost certainly be getting at least one C, quite probably 2, and they will be the only C’s I’ll have gotten in my entire life and right now I just feel like finding and stabbing something to death. grrrrrrr
Wouldn’t you rather spay something or give it a distemper shot?
Happy Leif Erikson Day!
I watched the first episode of the web show Voltaire’s staring in AND THERE ARE TARDIGRADES!!! That snagged my interest more than anything else in that scene (the rest of which just confused me). Despite that one confusing interlude, though, it’s a really good episode/show!
On a completely unrelated note, I just thought of something a few minutes ago.
SPOILERS DOCTOR WHO SPOILERS SPOILERS THE END OF THE WORLD SPOILERS SPOILERS DOCTOR WHO SPOILERS SPOILERS THE END OF THE WORLD SPOILERS
: idea : without the spaces is how we type this:
According to Nine, “If you think about it, a repeated meme is just an idea. And that’s all they are, an idea.”
Therefore, the HPBs could be the Adherents of the Repeated Meme. Which would mean they work for Lady Cassandra. The “Last Human” rules the bunnies.
That’s awesome! I didn’t even know he was starring in a web show! I definitely want to see it now!
…I just tried to find it on the Internet, and I couldn’t. I’ll try again later… Does it have a name? I found out that the first episode was called “Chapter Four”…
I don’t think the whole show has a name, and you have to go to a certain website to watch it. GAPAs, may I post it as a de-linkified link?
Also, only Chapter Four is up so far, and it’s two dollars per episode to download.
I suppose so, though as you’re aware, we’re no fans of the rest of the Net.
I understand. Actually, I just found out what to Google search to find it, so a link won’t be necessary after all!
Bibli – Google “Monsterpants”. It’s all indie, so it’s a dot net rather than a dot com.
Twenty seven hours.
Nah, until my last final is over at noon tomorrow. I slept six hours yesterday afternoon, I’ve only been awake 16 hours at the moment. Although, if at all possible, I don’t intend to sleep between now and noon tomorrow, as I have 2 finals tomorrow, neither of which have I studied for yet at all. So that may well be an accurate statement before the night is over.
And one of those finals is cumulative, not just over this block, but over the food animal information covered last spring, as well, so….I’m probably doomed on it anyway, but I’ve gotta at least try….
I regret to inform MuseBlog that Project Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter died in Denver today at age 88.
John Glenn is the only one left.
(I might get some hated for this.)
Who?
Don’t worry, I’m always glad to teach people about space.
Scott Carpenter was the second American to orbit the Earth, in 1962. He never flew in space again, but he stayed an explorer and worked closely with Jacques Cousteau in his underwater explorations and took part in SEALAB, an experiment at living underwater as an analogue to living on a space station. (SEALAB and several other experimental underwater habitats of the 1960s helped the space agencies learn a lot of what has made the space stations built since the 1970s possible.)
Carpenter was the first astronaut to also be an “aquanaut”, for which he was fittingly described as “a dynamic pioneer”.
Interesting. Thanks.
You’re very welcome.
Well I have so many more pages of The Book of Kells to look over for class, but as assignments go this has to be one of the better ones to be up past 2am for (not that… I ever go to bed before 2 anyway…). Listening to the Secret of Kells soundtrack as well because of course I am.
Lots of work this week/weekend anyway though
Worst. Finals week. Of my life.
As in my grade just drop two letter grades on my equine final this morning. I went from an A to a 79% C. There are no words to even begin to express the frustration and feeling of shock.
Also I just got a flu shot and now my arm is starting to hurt. And still one more final, and probably a third C of the goddamn week, and and and adl;skfjdslkghlsdfjkslhgldas;kfjkdalshgdlsjfdkls;aj
Kill me now. Please.
And deprive the world of a Muserly veterinarian? No way.
But we still love you too much! *huggles*
We still like you. ♥
Thanks all. I love you too.
Oh, look. Another C. Just bloody lovely. At best, i got a 64% on that last exam, the super cumulative food animal exam.
That’s 3 exams in a row, in 3 different classes, that I only got about 60% on the finals. And dropped my grades to Cs.
Worst blasted finals week ever, which is preventing me from enjoying the fact that it’s also the last blasted finals week ever. or the fact that my parents will be in town soon. Nope, still flipping livid about the three goddamned Cs
Ahoy, Luna! Do you know what they call someone who gets Cs in her last semester of veterinary school? A veterinarian.
I know you’re disappointed, but go easy on yourself and the world, please. Soon this will all be ancient history, and you will be off doing interesting and useful things in a place where you don’t have to work and worry all the time. Can you imagine? Probably not, but I assure you it’s true.
:/ I guess.
On a more cheerful note I got a question back on therio so will have a B in it afterall. And my mom and gramma (and soon my dad) are here for white coat (the ceremony thingy where we get white coats and head to clinics)
So that’s nice
When you’re a fully trained vet, standing contentedly in a muddy field in the rain, with your arm stuck up the rear end of a cow, you’ll look back fondly on all this stress and angst.
While the sentiment and thought is greatly appreciated, I sincerely hope never to being doing things like having my arm up the rear end of a cow beyond the end of vet school. Companion animal medicine all the way.
Was that an “All Creatures Great and Small” reference?
It was. I thought a few Anglophiles would get it.
There was an excerpt from it in our 7th grade biology textbook, so when I saw the full book in the school library, I picked it up to read it, but those first few pages grossed me out so I put it down. I should try reading it again.
Great series. I grew up reading simplified versions of them in a beautifully-illustrated children’s book, and then at some point read my way through the first book and a half, before getting bogged down by some confusing section. I can see how you might be grossed out by them, though. Though I don’t remember having much of a problem… How old was I? I cannot remember.
Now I want to pick them back up again. Of course. I do not have time for such a reading project, not now.
(This semi-legible post is brought to you by Not Enough Sleep and Too Much PSAT Preperation.)
I think I read them when I was a preteen or so. They were okay. Kind of saccharine.
My mother has become a total John barrowman fangirling like whoa. She joined his email listserv (which I have, too, for that matter), apparently knows there’s a faction that believes him about not being in the doctor who anniversary and a faction that doesn’t believe him. She also knows he’s currently at a comic con in New York because he commented that she could e there instead of here. I told her not to I to a comic con with him without me and she said okay as long as I promised the same. And she wants to get a photo with him groping her chest. And she was googling photos if his butt
And when I was talking about how hot Karl urban is she was all yeah wa okay but he’s nothing compared to John barrowman. Pretty sure she thinks he’s like the hottest thing ever
Tellin you, I come by this honestly. I love my mother
And I thought talking to my mom about John Barrowman was awkward…
I actually found it far more hilarious and awesome than awkward.
“The day Scott Carpenter died, I was learning to street fight in the alley behind the roleplaying supply shop.”
I think that would be a good first sentence for a novel. (Of course, the second sentence would explain that it was part of my Kung Fu class, and that the instructor believes practicing in the streets near the gym makes the self-defense scenarios more realistic.)
Because I’m sort of rude and presumptuous and suddenly remembered my admittedly short-lived campaign to become more active on here, I’ve crawled back in.
Completely missed my birthday, but what can you do.
I’m sick. Sinus headache, though there’s no… dripping. Eugh.
My mental health has been… quite rocky since I was frequent, but ever since my birthday it’s been very good!!
(it’s such a struggle to type nicely again; I’ve gotten very lazy)
Zinc! So glad to see you back here! *jump-hugs*
Zinc! How marvelous to see you again!
ZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINC!!! I’ve missed you!
I was actually thinking about you the other day and wondering how you were doing. I’m glad you’ve been feeling better recently, and I hope it continues in a progressive trend likewise.
((I had the same problem when I came back a while ago; I had gotten myself into the habit of chatspeak, keyboard smashing, and “tumblr-speak”, per se, but I find that it is far too easy to fall back into the old habit of speaking semi-formally once more.
))
Hello, Zinc! *glomps*
well
I am not as done with my photog project (went with the artist Alphonse Mucha for the emulation) as I would like to be but I am done enough to present it tomorrow… I guess… x_x
Guess I’m getting up to print it in the morning blerrrhhhhggg
I went to the first true meeting of my college’s GSA today. I spent half of the time I was there talking about the actual GSA-related stuff everyone else was talking about, and the other half talking about Doctor Who with the guy who started the GSA in the first place (who has the TARDIS and a quote tattooed on his arm).
I’m not sure how fall break is next week, but it is. Which means I need to figure out what I’m doing REAL SOON. My roommate and I had nebulous plans to maybe go to the outer banks, but it looks like now that’s going to happen (somehow, by hook or by crook) because while I could just go back home she’s from Minnesota and so doesn’t have that contingency plan. Or she could come home with me, which would be fun, except there’s not much space at my house/my room (though we are used to living together in small spaces, so…) and since so much of DC is shut down there’s not really that much to do. Boo. Outer Banks should be fun though, it’s just figuring out how we’re actually going to swing it with minimal cost.
In other news, if you could amend the Constitution in any way, how would you do it, and why? (Please tell me as soon as possible because I have a couple weak ideas but nothing else and an appointment at the writing center tomorrow, and the paper is due on Friday OH GOD OH GOD I AM THE WORST STUDENT EVER, etc.)
Equal Rights Amendment?! cliche, I know, but still.
Mandatory voting?
Definitely mandatory voting.
The thing that makes me unsure about mandatory voting is, will the people who wouldn’t bother voting if it wasn’t required by law take time to research candidates and issues involved at all, let alone thoroughly? Basically, do I want them voting?
But there should be a “None of the above” option as well; if it gets the majority, then cue a revote with new candidates. Otherwise, mandatory voting doesn’t make much sense.
I went to the writing center and it made me feel a billion times better about life. There’s one political science major who works there (who I had my appointment with) and she’s a senior and brilliant and the sweetest person ever and you can’t be within 10 feet of her and not feel totally loved and she’s just adorable and good at helping make sense of ideas and figuring out how to make them work. It was generally great.
Anyway, the amendment I’m going to propose is that any legislation that directly affects “disadvantaged or discriminated against persons” must be addressed on the federal level (instead of leaving it to states). The reason being that then those people will have protection wherever they are and can move across state borders without worrying about losing rights. (And it would include all kinds of good things, like marriage equality, disability welfare, age of consent, and stuff like that.)
Then she helped write out a structural outline and now all I have to do is write the thing and do a bit of research to back up my arguments.
Aw yiss.
Except that the past few hours I have done absolutely nothing because I am still a terrible student. >.<
Been lurking a lot lately. Feel like posting.
My sister, who will be thirteen on Saturday, is currently up to her neck in a pile of leaves. My mother just made this pile of leaves about half an hour ago using the leaf blower. She did this because our neighbor leaf-blowed (totally a phrase) his yard the other day and she was afraid that the leaves in our yard would blow into his yard. Oh, the joys of autumn in New England.
Been in obsession with this video game/manga series for around two years now, and it is starting to get on my nerves that wherever I go, nobody (And I seriously mean, nobody) has any idea what it is.
And everyone says it’s one of the most popular series that Nintendo has put out, besides Mario. I’m beginning to feel like I’m the only person I know who has ever heard of this. Even though it’s supposed to be so popular.
Maybe it’s mostly because, Lisa takes me everywhere to meet people, and everyone she has me meet is over fifty, and usually has no idea of what a ‘Video game’ is, or even realize what ‘manga’ is.
Well, there is one friend who is into manga, who says she’d definitely check out the manga I’m into, so that’s one. One.
Besides that quick rant, I must rejoice one thing, I have hair again! I’ve been going through life for the past few weeks, with greasy hair, that looked like someone scrubbed tar into it. Now it’s nice and flowey again. (I made a word!) And I can pretend to cosplay as my favorite manga character again, even though my hair isn’t naturally purple, nor is it currently! And, there I go referencing that again.
This is just, seriously how I talk, whenever I do talk. I talk like a certain Let’s Player, who I’m sure that almost nobody on Museblog has any idea of who he is, because I just always seem to run into those people.
I asked my boyfriend about Let’s Players, since he watches videos of people playing video games all the time (or at least that’s how it seems to me!).
He recommended videos by Chuggaaconroy on youtube — have you heard of him? I’m told there are several Zelda videos by him, and that he’s a generally good person who doesn’t, for example, make fun of groups of people for things they can’t change about themselves.
That’s who I was talking about! I love Emile so much!
Yes, of course I’ve watched him, almost every single one of his episodes, except for most of his Mario64.
Which series?
Legend of Zelda.
That’s really pretty popular. Have you seen any of the speedruns of it?
Not yet. NCS is uploading a try on a LttP speedrun, I should probably watch that.
Look up cosmowright – he speedruns ocarina of time and wind waker
So, last Friday, I cleaned up half my room, organized my clothes, vacuumed places that hadn’t seen the light of day in ages, rearranged my furniture, and built a blanket fort. Which was a marvelous success, of course, I’m sitting in it right now and it’s everything you could hope for from a blanket fort. (Hint: Music stands make for really good structural support.)
If anybody else wants motivation to clean up their room, I can definitely reccomend a blanket fort.
I’ve just done my ABRSM Diploma exam on the violin this morning – it’s sort of consumed my whole life up till now, hence my relative inactivity on here (sorry!). I’ve never felt happier playing during an exam; it was weird as I’m usually utterly nervous but I felt really good going into and coming out of this one! So that’s what’s new with me. The result will take a few weeks (and not many people pass..) but for me the outcome is secondary, I had such a good time preparing for and playing all my pieces. Next hurdle to clear: auditions!
So my parents are out of the country for ten days–they boarded a plane to Rome yesterday afternoon–and what does my sister decide that it’s a good time to do? Get possible appendicitis. If she’s still feeling bad at midnight, her boyfriend and I will have to take her to the hospital for surgery.
If you’re the praying type, I could really use all the divine assistance I can get right now.
I hope everything goes well with your sister and that no surgery is needed.
Update: Nothing conclusive yet. Her boyfriend took her to the ER this afternoon (before I wrote the above post) and they ran a bunch of tests to see what might be producing her symptoms–nausea, vomiting, constipation, fever of 103. A CT scan showed an enlarged appendix, but they couldn’t say whether or not it was actually inflamed, and so they gave her an IV with some stuff in it (anti-nausea meds, etc.) and told her that if she was still feeling awful at midnight she should get to the hospital immediately. It might or might not be appendicitis but it’s not worth taking any chances.
I had to go to a motorcycle class from 5:30 to 8:30 (more on that in a few days), but her boyfriend stayed with her. She’s eaten some broth and drunk Gatorade and 7-Up, and now I’ve got some Jello setting in the fridge. She’s not nauseous, she doesn’t have any abdominal pain, and although she’s very tired (from staying up all last night) she seems quite a bit less miserable. I decided to stay home tonight, so I emailed my professors and told them I won’t be in class tomorrow. Right now, gastroenteritis seems to be what’s going on, but we’re not positive. I’m not sure how late her boyfriend is going to stay–I hope he goes home and gets some sleep. I’m so immensely grateful for everything he’s done for my sister today. I’m also very glad I just happened to be coming home today, and I think my sister is too. Hopefully this will all work itself out without any surgery involved.
This girl has the most impeccable timing. When my parents and I were in Colorado for a few days this summer, her car broke down and she locked herself out of the house. Now the parents are out of the country, and as soon as they cross the border she comes down with whatever this is. It’s a good thing space travel isn’t common yet–I don’t even want to know what sort of disaster she’d come up with.
Well, so much for that plan. She’s currently in the OR and I’m in the waiting room taking advantage of the hospital’s less-than-speedy wifi. My sister’s boyfriend is here as well as our aunt and uncle. I’ve talked to my vacationing parents several times today. The last time my dad called me it was three a.m. in Rome, so it seems that they’re pretty worried.
When my sister woke up this morning she was having a bit more abdominal pain and her fever was back, so we took her back to the ER, they did another CT scan, and her appendix was definitely inflamed. Ambulance to another hospital, plenty of waiting, and now she’s being operated on.
Oh, scratch that. Her number on the TV just switched from “Procedure” to “Closing”, so the doc should be coming out to talk to us soon. If it went well, she might be going home tomorrow morning already.
Man. It’s been a long day. The parents had better bring us back some spectacular souvenirs, gosh darnit.
The surgery went well. The appendix was just about ready to burst so it looks like they got to her just in time. She was awake when we wheeled her over to her recovery room, and she seemed to be doing okay. Uncomfortable, thirsty, but okay. The nurses kicked us out so I just got back home (it’s a little past midnight), and I’ll be going back first thing in the morning. She said she didn’t want to be alone. If she does well and everything’s under control, she may be released tomorrow afternoon, though she won’t be back to full health for another month or so.
Guys, if you’ve never stopped to be thankful for your health and for the health of the people you love, you should stop once in a while and think about what a blessing that is. It’s amazing how fast the rug can be yanked out from under your feet.
I’m so glad she’s okay! Appendicitis is scary.
I’m glad it went well. I don’t like surgeries. I hope she can go home soon.
I’m glad the surgery went well.
Start clinicals tomorrow. Cardiology rotation for the next two weeks. Absolutely terrified when I think about it, haven’t made it through even a fraction of my cardio notes, and I don’t feel like I remember anything we learned. Got a feeling it’s gonna be a rough and stressful day.
While waiting outside a room in the Earth Sciences department for my Oceanography class to begin, I overheard the following from the geology class using the room…
Professor: “When Mount Pinatubo erupted in 1991, it sent so much ash into the atmosphere that there were red sunsets for a year. I remember taking my kids out and going ‘Look, red sunset!’, and they would go ‘Yeah, yeah, dad, we know, it’s because of Mount Poopoo.'”
I love it here on Museblog.
So say we all!
Did anyone ever try to write stories about people who really exist, but you don’t really know much about their personalities to get very far? If anyone knows more ways to learn about personalities without asking, please tell me.
Do you mean celebrities or people you know?
They aren’t really celebrities really, but they are kinda famous, and I don’t know them in real life.
Are they famous enough that there are videotaped interviews with them online? If so, watch as many as you can. This is especially good for getting a feel for how they speak.
That’s a pretty good idea. Thanks.
I would say hover around them a little bit if possible, and observe their actions from a neutral standpoint.
This could be construed as invasive if they’re not public figures.
They live in Canada.
Moxy Früvous fanfiction?!
No, who?
I wish it to be a TheRunawayGuys fanfiction.
I just wanted to add this: I am not sure that it is a good idea to write stories about people who really exist.
How would you feel if someone you didn’t know wrote a story about you? Personally, I’d find it creepy, and scary too — what if the person who wrote the story tried to find me and stalk me? It would be an uncomfortable situation.
So before you post anything online, I would consider the feelings of the people involved in your story.
They already mentioned once, that they don’t mind fanfictions about themselves. They always reference them.
I just want to throw out for the weird news file that we have a string of serial Dunkin Donuts robberies in my area at the moment.
Has Feather’s head been turned by Kokopelli?
They’ve been stealing money, not donuts, so probably not. Even Evil Feather would go for the donuts.
Money? How disappointing.
Does anyone have any idea of who’s doing it?
Uh oh. Targeting pastry shops? It must be a militia group gathering weapons for the War. *begins stockpiling lemon meringue*
Oops, I almost missed my blogiversary.
These past four years have been considerably more awesome than they would’ve been otherwise. Thanks, guys, you’re amazing.
Help! I am a failure at drawing Anime!
Many people are, but that doesn’t seem to stop them.
If you practice enough, I’m sure you’ll get better. And you may not be as bad as you think.
You just have to keep practicing. Just keep drawing. If you draw a bit every day, you will start to see improvement! Also, there are many helpful tutorials online for almost every aspect of drawing that you could imagine… good luck!
However, I would advise staying away from those “How to Draw Manga” books you see at the library, because the people who make those never seem to know what they’re talking about.
I did learn some things from those– the trick with any how-to-draw book is not to blindly copy what’s in the book, but to take a larger view and think about how to apply the tips (rule of thirds, how to use vanishing points, meauring height in heads, etc.) to any picture you want to create.
Question of the day: What the cake is this mythical beast called a “cow” that people have been talking about recently?
(*vanishes, cackling, in a puff of dust*)
I’m not entirely sure, but apparently several people in my Introduction to Psychology class are afraid of it.
WHAT IS THE THING ABOUT NOT KNOWING WHAT COWS ARE I SWEAR TO KOKOPELLI
Something on the PSAT. Tumblr knows. I bet a quick google might reveal helpful hints.
-A
Unfortunately, everyone who took the PSAT made an agreement not to discuss the questions… The GAPAs likely wouldn’t appreciate discussions that are technically illegal, so I recommend you just look it up.
This year’s PSAT (or one form of it) just had some stuff on it that people found really amusing, so now it has an actual fandom. With shipping and gifs and everything. Despite the fact that it’s technically illegal for reasons discussed above.
I’m just relieved I’m not the only one who had certain reactions.
It’s not illegal – it’s not against any laws. It’s against the rules of the test, and may void your results, but it’s not illegal. I feel that this is an important distinction to make, because as much as they wish they were, College Board is not the law.
Is it? Pretty sure I signed something stating that I wouldn’t share any information about the questions– would that be legally binding?
Not that I seriously expect any consequence besides score cancellation, I’m just curious.
I am not a lawyer, obviously, but being legally binding isn’t the same as being a law – if you break a contract, for instance, you aren’t going to be arrested for breaking the contract, you’re going to be sued.
(also, as most people taking the test are minors, can they sign legally binding documents anyway?)
As far as I can tell, the people talking about it (and writing fics about that dude and his translator) are just discussing the reading passages and not the actual questions. However, I can’t remember if CollegeBoard instructed us all to not discuss just the questions, or any material…
I asked my brother, who took the PSAT this week, and he said that while he did have the form with the cow passage, he didn’t think it was hilarious. It makes me really curious to read it in context! Unlike the SAT, PSAT questions and answers are released with scores, right? It’d be great if those of you who took it told us what the deal was after it was okay to talk openly about it.
It has been literally four years since I took the PSAT but I don’t remember questions and answers being released with scores.
Or maybe, like with many other disgusting side effects of the College Board being a private company with a monopoly, you had to pay to get your PSAT questions/answer keys released?
(also, since this is likely the last time I am going to be able to brag about it, at least after my little sister gets her PSAT scores back in a couple months — I had a perfect score on the PSAT, and my SAT scores were also quite high enough for me to be a National Merit Scholar. It doesn’t mean nearly as much as it used to, though — the $2000 stipend isn’t offered to every scholar anymore, and even if it was it’s not enough to pay for even the state school I currently attend.)
I don’t think I was that amused at the cow passage at the time either, really. I was surprised that there were apparently people who thought teenagers hadn’t seen cows (…That’s information, but besides the fact that it’s all over the Internet, I don’t see how it could help anyone on their PSAT in any way, and I’m not sure College Board would care, but I don’t think I’m in any real danger of them discovering this and tracing it to me), but I wasn’t amused for context reasons.
The Internet is good at taking things out of context to make them funny, so even though it didn’t amuse me at the time, I find most of things I’ve seen relating to it hilarious.
It’s… actually mostly the shipping that made me go,”Oh, good, it wasn’t just me.”
I gotta go, Julia, we got cows…
And why do you have to write about it in cursive?
The College Board makes you copy down an oath that you are who you say you are on their answer documents in cursive and then sign it, possibly because they are under the impression that teenagers will not cheat on a test if they have to write in cursive.
It solemnizes the oath — like signing in blood.
I’d imagine most students would prefer to sign in blood.
They may have to switch to that method soon, considering how few schools teach cursive now.
When Madeleine L’Engle spoke at my college back in the 1970s, she predicted that cursive writing would disappear because machines can’t read it. She urged us to write in longhand defiantly, as an assertion of our humanity. At the risk of sounding archaic (actually not a risk but a certainty, and not something I fear — in fact, I revel in it, as you all surely know), I must admit I have some sympathy for her point of view.
It’s funny to hear cursive spoken of as something arcane, like Gregg shorthand or hieratic Egyptian or Norse runes (except that Norse runes are considered cool). I’m not sure exactly what pupils gain by not learning it. As I recall, it wasn’t that hard to learn; it was just something bigger kids did, a natural step, like reading books with smaller type and no pictures. No doubt it will become fashionable again at some point. Considering how people tend to overdo things, maybe hipsters will even take pride in learning fancy 19th-century calligraphy that we mid-20th-century types weren’t taught in school.
What is the benefit of writing in cursive, though? It seems to smooth out the letters, especially when writing quickly, so it’s harder to read than print, and it gives your hand fewer breaks from pressure.
I do either, as needed. It’s the difference between legato and pizzicato.
I think of cursive as more formal than print–so I think of it as useful in the way anything formal is useful: it announces that you took more trouble for a person or situation.
Hmm, that will probably be a contributing factor to the future cursive resurgence Robert was talking about. “Hey, look! I feel so strongly about this, I didn’t send you pixels. I used Paper and Ink and Fancy Writing!”
Oh, and as far as hand pressure goes, it does vary by writing instrument. Pencils and ballpoint pens need pressure, but fountain pens and calligraphy brushes–oh, and quill pens!–send the ink rushing eagerly into the paper. …Aaand now I’m seeing a possible correlation between prevalence of tools and popularity of style.
You don’t have to move your pencil from the page midword in cursive, which in theory is supposed to let you write faster. That’s what I was told when I was writing cursive. It wasn’t true for me when I learned it, but I had major difficulty forming letters properly at a decent rate until eighth grade, when all of a sudden something just clicked in my subconscious and I could write at a normal speed basically overnight. (My handwriting’s still bad, but it’s legible, and I don’t think it’s worse than before). When that happened, and I didn’t have such trouble getting my pencil to do what I wanted it to do, it did immediately become easier for me to connect two letters than to move the pencil, and I’ve been using cursive ever since (although no one looking at my handwriting would use the word ‘formal’). Since it felt like a natural consequence of my muscle memory finally deciding to do its job, I just assumed it was like that for everybody, although I suppose I shouldn’t have because otherwise, no one would use print.
On an unrelated note, every elementary school teacher since second grade told my class that we would be required to use cursive all the time the following year. This never happened, although there were one or two classes where it was required on tests.
Just for fun, I wrote out a random passage from a book in both print and cursive to see what it would be like. The numbers at the bottom are the time it took.
Print:
http://i.imgur.com/y1avYRz.jpg (36.36 seconds)
Cursive:
http://i.imgur.com/n1FBqnh.jpg (1 min 49.22 seconds. Also I couldn’t remember how to do capitals in cursive and I’m not sure I got all the letters right.)
For comparison, I typed the same passage in 15.66 seconds.
This got me wondering, so I looked up the definition of Cursive:
1. Running; flowing.
2. Having successive letters joined together.
Your print sample is somewhat joined, and running, while your cursive sample is joined but less flowing. My print is, like yours, mostly separate, but also completely joined in common words, and mostly flowing. (I’m defining flowing as like running water, and I’ve got some spindrift.) What if we plot Flowing and Joined as axes on a coordinate plane? I think that would put my print just inside the as-yet unnamed Not Joined/Flowing quadrant, and your cursive inside the also unnamed Joined/Solid quadrant.
I love your idea of activities to do “just for fun.”
today on MuseBlog: I discuss how Lizzie is a perfect human being (see below for more!)
I write almost exclusively in cursive, unless there’s a real need to print. I’m dyslexic, which made it extremely hard to learn to print when I was younger, and I had horrible handwriting because of it. Once my mother figured this out, she taught me to write in cursive, which was far easier for me and actually looked halfway decent when I was done.
I can now write in print, but only because I decided in the last two years that I was ashamed of looking like an early elementary student in print, and figured out a way to write that looked better than that. It’s still far slower than my cursive, and tends to come out as an unholy mishmash of smallcaps and lower case.
So, yeah, I’m pretty sure the distinction between how useful they are, reletive to each other, is based on how much practice you have in each.
(I was highly amused when I discovered people were complaining about the cursive on the PSAT. That was so far from the worst part, for me.)
Wait, seriously? I had to learn cursive in second grade; using it was compulsory for every assignment from then on until graduation. (Unless you typed your assignment on the computer). I’ve almost forgotten how to do print letters- actually, I can’t print b’s anymore at all.
At college, I’m even implicitly learning more cursive: some of our profs use an older form of cursive that’s no longer standard (Kurrentschrift) for some of the single letters (especially the capitals) even though they’ll write in standard cursive. One of our teachers even would use cursive and non-cursive letters to get more variable names & avoid indices- so nonstandard cursive A obviously wasn’t equal to standard/print A. Well, that and the greek alphabet (and a few letters of hebrew). My xis are pretty awful.
I write in cursive, and I like that I do. I don’t religiously join up all the letters though; sometimes I lift the pen in the middle of a word, but the way I do so isn’t really consistent.
There are schools (geared toward the English language) that don’t teach cursive?!
I mean, I prefer to write in print on a day-to-day basis, but I can’t really imagine an education without cursive. In my elementary school, we learned a sort of halfway-between-print-and-cursive style of writing called “slant” to prepare us for the cursive we would learn the next year. I’ve always been told that if you are going to hand-write something important, especially the kind of thing with multiple drafts, that the end result should be written in cursive. And in ink. I once spent half a school year forbidden to write a single letter in print because my teacher thought it would improve the handwriting of all the students.
I mean… No cursive? I just can’t quite comprehend that.
SFTDP. I seem to have left out an important segment of one of my sentences. It should be: “In my elementary school, we learned a sort of halfway-between-print-and-cursive style of writing called “slant†in second grade to prepare us for the cursive we would learn the next year.
My school taught it in 2nd or 3rd grade and then never used it again ever. Skipping teaching it seems to be the logical next step.
From all I’ve read, it’s rapidly disappearing from the curriculum in public schools. In most states it’s up to the school district to decide whether to teach it.
Today I went to a lovely restaurant that gives away three free books with every meal. It was delightful. I got lunch, a book of short stories by an author I have never heard of, a book by Garrison Keillor of Lake Wobegon stories, and a novel about a weird family that looks to be very good. The restaurant is small, with has a yellow roof, a birdfeeder outside the widow, close-together tables, lots of bookshelves, and pictures of famous writers on the walls. There is also a bookshop in the basement with narrow aisles and wallpaper on the shelves.
Also, there was a very nice antique shop on the other side of the parking lot that was selling some very nice antique-store things.
The devil-spawn that was this week is finally over!
Either three or four midterms – can’t remember which and don’t care to look back to clarify – two labs, and several large assignments as well. The carnage of completed work in my wake was glorious (especially the Cognitive Neuroscience exam, which I may have decapitated and run through several times over, if we’re sticking with the metaphor) but left me with near-negative time in which to catch my breath… Flagged by the time Phonetics rolled around, and I’m not proud of how it went, but it is over, so at least there’s that.
School aside, I’m pretty great. Spent a flamablamablous [extended] weekend with the better half (I’m just gonna assume R&R doesn’t exist at this point)… She left Tuesday, midday. Since then I’ve been asked about falling down stairs and strangulation, predictably, but also whether or not a lemur had slapped me… =shrugs= Friends are friends.
Ooh, in other news, I just got a work study job! Now that the only thing I’m paying the university is comprehensive fees, which amount to [usually] less than a grand, it’s REALLY confusing as to why they’d feel the need to provide me with more financial aid, but hey… I’m not really complaining, honestly; just confused. I’m down in the laundry room, which seems pretty boring, but it’s actually a lot of fun- switching over machines & folding stuff, which is super easy, and while I’m waiting for stuff to be cleaned slash dry, I can do homework or just relax. The hours are pretty flexible so far, too- I came in today unannounced and stayed for a solid three, just picking up the slack, and nobody minded.
=sighs= Nothing like a Friday night alone at home. Ahh well. Tomorrow night’s going to be just about the polar opposite of that, and Sunday morning is a tournament in Saratoga Springs! I’m going to try seeking for most of it- been working on that at practice, and granted, the snitch I’ve been going against is pretty amateur, but it’s an area of the game I haven’t expanded upon and it’s super fun, so. So so so.
Yeah! Things! Whoo! Hope y’all are well. Much lofe. (Yeah, I caught that… Was going to fix it, but it’s so much better this way, don’t you think?)
-A
Good things that happened today:
-I survived my first motorcycle crash.
-My sister can stand up and sit down without assistance.
Bad things that happened today:
-I (or rather the left turn signal, as far as I can tell…maybe the shifter) tore a little hole in my favorite pair of jeans.
And this is a reminder of why I think motorcycles are dangerous and will never ride one. And have never ridden one.
Oh, it was a blast! Sure, they’re dangerous, but that just means you have to practice more and think more than you do when you drive a car. Have you ever gotten in a car and driven somewhere, and when you get there you realize you have no memory whatsoever of driving there? You can’t do that on a bike. That’s what makes it fun. You get to sit on top of this giant twisted mass of steel and gasoline that weighs as much as a grizzly bear, and every little movement you makes it do something. You’re not walled up behind glass and seat belts–the wind, the sun, the rain, you meet everything head-on. If you put your foot down the pavement will try to rip your toes off. It’s exhilarating. Even though I’ve spent all of five or six hours on a bike and I’m still extremely unconfident about every little fundamental thing, it was the most fun I’ve had in a very long time. I’m not saying it’s for everyone, but for me personally it’s something I’ve wanted to do for most of my life and I have no regrets whatsoever about taking the class.
*shudder* I prefer my exhilaration in slightly more controlled environments….
And while I can’t deny that I have driven places on autopilot before, I think part of why I feel much less safe with the idea of a motorcycle, is that my odds of surviving a car crash at, say, highway speeds, is higher than my odds of surviving a motorcycle crash at highway speeds.
Also, meant to say this earlier: I’m glad to hear your sister’s surgery went well and that her recovery is going smoothly.
I’ve noticed, in most horror games when someone is playing and they get scared, their hand flies to their face. Is it like, survivalist instincts to protect your face, or what?
I guessed every answer correctly in the “National Geographic” Jeopardy! category when I was watching last night, including the one where the answer was Robert Ballard!
And I had a lovely time with my mother today at the Museum of Science’s Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit.
I saw some of the Dead Sea Scrolls with my best friend when they came to San Diego; I think the closest I’ve come to a religious experience was in that exhibit. Just. Wow.
It really is an awesome exhibit, they had some incredible artifacts and seeing the scrolls themselves was just amazing.
hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
well
yesterday I finished my midterms (barely before the deadline) and removed my self-imposed internet ban (I REALLY NEEDED TO CONCENTRATE ON THE MIDTERMS)
and today is first day of break but it has. not been going as I had planned. or very well.
Made plans yesterday to go to brunch with the boyfriend/my housemate, went to walk downtown to meet them like 15 min after I woke up and didin’t realize till I was out the door that I was having. Pretty bad abdominal pain when standing. Cramps but also like, bloaty etc. So that was a slow walk but I just went anyway cause I figured boyfriend could drive me back afterwards at least.
and then brunch + books from library for fun reading which was good!! and then I got home and sat down with book and was like “I’m never standing up again” which worked well for many hours, despite constant abdominal pain still. And then I had to go upstairs to use the bathroom and WOAH NELLY DELAYED DIZZYNESS FROM STANDING UP so I had a short sit-down in the hallway. and afterwards scooched down the stairs in leu of walking. Then roommate came in and was witness to my pitiful display
cue sitting for another hour or so, except since before even I went up the stairs my chest has also been hurting even when I fixed my posture to be straight not slouched, which is something that happens before I get a precordial catch (if you don’t know what that is, you can look up “precordial catch syndrome” on wikipedia and it explains it. I’ve gotten them my whole life although none in the last few years but it looks like I’m one of the unlucky adults
). So switch to straight-back chair which seems to help some, and then I finally ate some food again around 8pm, and after sitting till like 9:30 I was like “well my back’s getting sore from this new chair, guess I’ll lay on my back on the floor till it cracks (I do this probably 3-4 times every day. I have old people joints. it sucks.). So I went to lay down and HELLO CHEST PAIN INCREASE. Better crunch up the legs oh god nope thta’s not helping either oh god it keeps getting worse. So I ended up having to be like “BOYFRIEND HELP ME UP” “huh” “HELP ME UP NOW OH GOD” but PRECORDIAL CATCH. finally get pulled up to sitting position and have 7-8 minutes of chest feeling ripped apart/trying not to cry to hard because that makes the pain worse which makes cry harder etc. Deep breathing and floor sitting for probably half an hour total while boyfriend/housemate look on in concern, but at least housemate also gets the catch’s on occasion (though hers only apparently last a few seconds, mine have always been several minutes :|) so she knew what was going on since I mentioned to her earlier in the day I felt one coming on.
Anyway. Even after the episode’s “ended” I can still feel it in my chest, waiting. Usually this fades in a few hours but idk it’s still here so. we’ll see I guess. I don’t want it. It was on the opposite side (right) than usual and weirdly high so I don’t know if that had anything to do with it uhhhg. Continuing to be sitting is probably not helping but I can’t stand w/o cramp pain and now I’m too afraid to try lying down.
Oh I guess I. Also. maybe fainted a little bit. I stood up to try to stretch abdomen a bit by “standing up less hunched over” and I was fine for the first several seconds but then. THE DELAYED DIZZYNESS. Leaned agaisnt wall. Whoops here’s the tunnel vision as usual okay that usually clears up pretty fast hmmm I appear to be on my knees gripping the couch, why am I shaking uncontrollably, oh dear boyfriend/housemate are staring at me BETTER PLAY THIS OFF AS NO BIG DEAL AHAHA DON”T WORRY GUYS IT WAS JUST A SLIGHT FAINTING SPELL LET’S WATCH DOCTOR WHO and they did not reall ybuy it but watched with me anyway
anyway. just slowly switched back to a straight backed chair because was having pre-catch moments again
no funny or emotional things for me they do not go well. or coughing. that also was horrible.
This had all better clear up by tomorrow night because I am going to be on trains for 14 hours and the tickets are nonrefundable
anyway I’ll just be here too afraid to sleep for who knows how much longer
I am afraid to lie down and to stand up and while sitting is uncomfortable and still painful at least it’s better than the others 
Oh no. I’ve had precordial catch but it was never that bad, and of course I have no knowledge of what it’s like combined with cramps.
I hope you feel better soon.
like over 7 hours since I had the precordial catch and I still can’t lie down without having so much trouble breathing that I have to get up from the pain ha. hahaha. ha.
all I want to do is lose conciousness until this is over
Jade, this sounds very severe for precordial catch. I think you should get it checked out by a doctor.
Wiki says it’s also known as Texidor’s Twinge, which is the quaintest name for a debilitating and poorly understood medical condition I’ve seen in a while. I used to feel it too from time to time, I hope yours goes away!
hello friends, sorry to keep you in suspense
I am doing much better today!! around 4:30am I just attempted to sleep in my chair, dozed until around 6am, by whcih time I had improved enough in the beathing respect to lie down in bed, where I stayed until 1pm.
The catch has all cleared up now, although I still have abdominal pain, but that was far the lesser of the two evils so that’s okay. I’ll be sitting forever on a train tonight/tomorrow anyway and sitting is best for that anyway.
Paul: there is no medical info on PCS so doctor visits are pretty useless. They’re not sure what causes it and all they do is run expensive tests to make sure it’s not the heart after all (which I know it’s not, it’s on the other side).
Thanks for condolences, everyone.
Glad it’s cleared up. Let’s hope it buzzes off permanently.
I hope you continue to improve.
Woah, I haven’t been on since??? A really long time….
A lot happened? I’m going to change…..my username because that won’t really work anymore but…
I love your new avatar!
Thank you! I really, really. really love Mirai Kuriyama.
It’s at rather terrifying levels.
Hello! I rmember you! Didn’ you change your user name to Vriska Serket at one point? I kept remembering you when reading Homestuck, because of that.
Anyway, it’s nice to see you back!
Oh yeah, I remember that! (vriskaaaaaaaa……….)
I would quote the whole “Well, first the Earth cooled…” thing from “Airplane!” but I’ve heard that so much that I don’t find it funny anymore.
Okay, so I was going to put this in the Music thread, but no one ever reads that. So you all get the privilege of reading my latest music rant.
I grew out of my Eminem phase a long time ago. He has technical talent, but his music is so generally boring and intentionally edgy that it’s really just put me off.
On a completely unrelated note, growing up in (and still actively engaging in) a Christian environment, I’m used to hearing people speak against gays. I don’t generally agree with them, but at least in a religious context, I can see where they’re coming from. As long as they aren’t actively telling people that they will go to hell for being gay, I’m fine with that.
Now back to Eminem. Eminem is obviously not religious. And, three years ago, he said that he was totally okay with gay people and would stop writing homophobic lyrics. So why is it that his latest song Rap God contains the following lyrical composition:
Little gay looking boy
So gay I can barely say it with a straight face looking boy
You witnessing a massacre
Like you watching a church gathering take place looking boy
Oy vey, that boy’s gay, that’s all they say looking boy
along with about five separate homophobic slurs, and he gets near-unanimous critical praise? Never mind that the song is terrible.
The fact is, rap music has moved beyond dissing gays. Now that artists like Frank Ocean and Chance The Rapper have entered the hip-hop scene, people are starting to be more mindful of what’s offensive and what’s not. Eminem isn’t. Which just goes to show how irrelevant he is nowadays.
The worst part about this whole thing isn’t the song itself. It’s the fan reaction. Here are a few comments from an article calling the song homophobic:
“He’s a lyrical genius and I love the song–people are just too sensitive.”
“Maybe just maybe people are ‘anti-gay’ because they are sick of people like you telling them they have to be ‘pro-gay’.”
“I pretty sure ‘Gay’ has been used as an all-round offensive term to attack someone for anything, not just homophobic people for quite some years now.”
“read his lyrics he isn’t attacking “gay people” just a few gay rappers.”
What can I say to that? See, this is why these sorts of lyrics do matter. It’s not just because they’re offensive in and of themselves, it’s because it sparks ignorant reactions like this, making people defend homophobia even if they aren’t necessarily against gays themselves. This is exactly why I fear there won’t be many steps forward in toning down the misogyny in rap music. If people are okay with this, they’re okay with pretty much anything. Which makes me really sad.
Sorry. My rant is over now.
What do you think about his remarks on his own misogyny, near the the end of the song?
I feel like the second of those lines at least use the past tense (“the bitter hatred I had“). His following statement effectively neutralizes it, though, so it’s still inexcusable.
I agree. It’s perplexing to see him appear to comprehend his misogyny and homophobia, but proceed to do nothing about it. Technically masterful lyrics, but not good writing.
Those are actual song lyrics written by a well-known rapper? They look like they were written by an elementary schooler raised in a homophobic and exceedingly negative environment…
SFTDP. That was supposed to be a response directly to the rant, sorry.
How good is Homestuck? A lot of people have been referencing it lately.
It’s pretty good, and it’s about to end so now is a pretty good time to read it, if you plan too.
Word of warning: it will consume your life.
Yes. Please. Help us keep the fandom alive during the gigapause.
I’m not sure–I’ve started it twice, but I haven’t been able to get through it. It’s long, and you have to read it all to understand it. I do know a lot of people who love it.
It does have a lot of swearing and explicit language; I don’t know whether that would make a difference to you or your parents, but I feel like I should warn you just in case because I personally probably would have freaked out if I’d tried to read it when I was eleven, and my parents certainly would have if they knew about some of the stuff in it. (Actually, they still might; I’ve just stopped caring). What you choose to read certainly isn’t any of my business, though.
Oh, I don’t mind anything like that at all. And my dad doesn’t care either, he swears sometimes too, mostly just to make jokes.
I didn’t know my USERNAME WOULD TURN INTO A LINK WHOOPS????????????
WHOOPS……
I guess I should probably remove it……or just not log in i guess? What do I even do about this is there like a rule….
Did it do that? It shouldn’t. Hm…
We’ve all got italicizitis too.
Everybody wants to rule the blog.
There’s a room where the light won’t find you
Holding hands while the walls come crumbling down.
I took out the links. Were you logged in somewhere else, cheesecakes?
77.1.1?
I don’t know anyone else who is interested in anything I am obsessed with. Is this a bad thing?
No, just an annoyance.
I know how you feel; I’ve definitely been in that situation. Kai’s right. Your interests aren’t any less valid or important than other peoples’ just because they’re less widespread. It can be frustrating when you have a lot of things you want to say and no one wants to listen, though. If you haven’t already, you can try to find an online community where a lot of people share your interests; that’s what worked for me until I was able to enter an environment with people whose interests overlapped somewhat more with mine. It isn’t the same as having people to talk about these things to in real life, but it’s something, and it can be a really valuable or even life-altering experience in its own right–I’m still here, after all.
Anyway, I know this probably isn’t much comfort now, but you will eventually be exposed to a wider variety of people as well as more choice as to who you spend your time with, and I’m sure you’ll eventually meet people who are interested in your obsessions, as well as (probably sooner) people who are not familiar with them yet but would be interested in learning more.
things I learned today:
Vet school is like a gallon of milk (apparently not because you dump half of it down the drain, which was my comment when the cardiology tech told us that, nor because too much of it gives you diarrhea, which is what our apparently lactone intolerant cardio clinician supplied, but rather because there is an expiration date on when it ends. As in, we should make the most of it while we can, because eventually we won’t be learning from it ecause we won’t be here, or something. I’m still stuck on the “dumping half of it downthe drain” imagery I supplied, as that’s what happens when I buy milk)
And also the cardiology intern has never seen even a single episode of Star Trek. (The cardio clinician made a comment that I can’t recall but it ended “Number One”, and the intern didn’t get it, which really surprised the clinician, and the tech as well, one of my classmates sussed out it was a Star Trek reference–I’m afraid I didn’t pick up on it, as it is apparently a TNG reference, which Ed (the tech) assures me is the best of all of Star Trek when I said I hadn’t gotten there yet. As well as apparently the 2009 movie which he really likes. And then the intern said he’s never seen a single episode of Star Trek, and I made the comment about “that’s sad. That’s really sad.” And of course, one of hte other cardio clinicians is a Whovian, so yeah. Cardiology, woot! too bad it’s only 1 1/2 more weeks before I’m off of it and onto oncology, which is going to be so depressing, i think.)
I’m not sure why this is squidded? But whatevs.
It’s weird to think just a little over a week ago I was taking finals, and now I’m actually doing vet things. It’s nice to only be studying one subject, instead of 4-5 at once. And cardio is kind of fun so far, and unlike some of the other services, it’s a pretty light caseload (usually a max of one case per student per day), so it’s kind of a good one to ease into clinics with, I think.
I like seeing these posts as compared to your “OMG clinicals I’m going to die” posts a few weeks ago
Whoa wait why would you ever ever ever dump half a gallon of milk down the drain?!
-A
Well, usually it’s only a quarter gallon. I buy a half gallon, get about have of it used before it spoils, and so then the rest goes down the sink because its loooong past jets expiration
***get about half of it used”
and “its expiration”
I really need to proofread better when i type posts on my ipod.
Slash, you definitely need to drink more milk.
-A
Actually, milk is bad for you so you shouldn’t drink milk at all. Science.
I’ve heard the contrary a lot. Does “science” have any reliable sources?
fireh – Even though I agree with your claim, I think it would be better to provide some evidence to go with it. Such as these little facts:
People tend to drink cow’s milk because they think they will get calcium from it. However, despite the fact that milk does contain calcium, it also contains compounds that prevent the human body from effectively absorbing it. Apparently, some studies show that it might even leech a little bit of calcium out of the system of the person drinking it.
Also, cow’s milk is high in inflammatory compounds.
Probably true. Actually, I probably need to drink quite a bit more of anything other than what I do….As in, soda is really probably not the best choice of hydration, but is by far the bulk of the liquid I consume. Followed very far behind by water, and even further behind by milk…..
As in I probably drink on average less than one glass of water a day….yes i know that’s dreadfully unhealthy. For instance, I don’t think I’ve drank any water today, but have drank two cans of pepsi and a can of mountain dew. so much for my “cut back on soda” plan I’ve had for a while now.
My roommate seriously just asked me if she needed to put in a maintenance request because some of the eggs in the fridge keep getting frozen. She’s 27. She wanted to know why they keep freezing. I had to explain to her that sometime there are cold spots in the fridge and stuff gets frozen. It happens. And no you really don’t need to inform maintenance. (I mean, beyond possibly saying “turn up the fridge temp” what would they even do about it? Besides, fridge temp is fine. Not uncommon for fridges to get cold spots.)
can I trade fridges with you? ours spoils the non-soy milk after a day on its coldest setting.
Both of you might want to put in requests for maintenance / new fridges…
sigh, yeah. we actually did, a few months ago. The landlord-appointed person came by, rearranged the food in our freezer (?), and gave us a mini-fridge to use (that also runs hot, but not quite as hot?). He told us to call back if rearranging the freezer didn’t fix it, but it’s been easier to just not use milk than to find the time to call and make an appointment and wait. Especially since he said the next step would be emptying our freezer and letting it defrost for a few days, and we don’t have a backup freezer and own a fairly large amount of frozen food.
ask him to provide an ice chest and ice while you defrost the freezer
you’re brilliant, thank you (especially from my boyfriend, the resident milk-drinker in our apartment)
Due to all the real-life Halloween stuff going on for me right now, I didn’t even think of this until today. Are we going to have a Halloween Ball at the Muse Academy this year?
I’ve been standing by the snack table eating candy corn for a week and a half now.
I’m happy to create a thread, if enough MBers want to take part. You all seem to be so busy nowadays.
Please do!
Here you go. But remember, it’s up to you all to make it a success.
84.2.1.1 – Thank you!
I dreamed last night that I went to a comic book shop and they had some old Power Rangers action figures and I was reading the information on the backs about the characters (like I sometimes do in real life for action figures from shows I’m not familiar with.) The one for the villain described how one of the characters had suddenly found out one of his teachers was also his father who was also posessed by a demon from another dimension and the head villain they were fighting against. In the dream I remarked to one of my friends who was with me in the shop “That’s screwed up, that kid’s gonna need therapy.”
If I remember correctly, both of those seperate situations (finding out your teacher is the villain, finding out your father is the villain) did happen in canon Power Rangers, but not both at once.
I gotta thank Museblog for one thing, my level of maturity. Museblog has made my brain stronger, being around people who are older and smarter than me, and taught me spelling, grammar, and helped me through some hard times, made me a bit stronger.
So, if it wasn’t for Museblog, I’d still be an immature, hyper, crazy, girly nine-year-old. Thank you!
We would like to take credit, but growth comes from within.
Soon you will become a true paleo. Whenever that happens. Qualitative requirements, anyone?
I’m thinking it’s whenever you first remember something that happened ten years ago, and then think, “Dang, I’m old,” but then realize you aren’t actually that old and continue with whatever you were doing.
I’m sorry, am I rambling? I’m rambling. It’s 2am and I’m on teh internetz for no discernible reason. Time to go to bed and prepare for more tedious algebra tomorrow.
Dangit *quantitative
that’s it it’s bedtime can’t think of words anymore
Driving to school this morning, pulled up to the stoplight, and I caught a glimpse of the make of the car in front of me as I glanced over my shoulder to check for traffic. Did a double take because I swore it said Tarsus (as in Tarsus IV, where Captain Kirk was unfortunate enough to live for a while as a kid. Yes I have Star Trek on the brain. And I love that my iPod knows to automatically capitalize those two words when they’re in a row). Turns out it actually did Taurus SES, but….yeah
Still have an hour left of lunch break, we don’t have any scheduled cardio appointments today, so we’re just doing lots of discussions. Off to try and make an appt to get my oil changed….
I was in London for the day, looking round a couple of colleges, and I had a few hours to kill before seeing a West End production (Matilda) that evening (it was a fun little musical, and impressive that the actress playing Matilda was ten). So I went to Kensington Gardens as it was near one of the colleges and sat on a bench while I thought about what I would do for a few hours. There was a group of Afghanistani men nearby and one came over to ask me something – do I know any restaurants nearby? I honestly didn’t, so I said no, but instead of going away he sat down and started asking me questions. A lot of questions. Creepy, personal questions. Where I lived, what was I doing just then, whether I was alone, how old I was (he thought I was 19..), if I had a boyfriend (should I have said yes? I was majorly panicking in my mind) etc etc. I didn’t know how to leave. He went on about how he’d come from Afghanistan in 2011 and could be pretty lonely or something, his accent was hard to understand, and he wanted to give me his number and I felt quite uncomfortable and pretended to write it down, then finally came out really awkwardly. with ‘I’m meeting a friend, got to go’. I fled to another part of London via speedwalk and the Piccadilly Line to the sanctuary of the British Museum. I just had no clue how to handle such a situation, it was awkward and I was somewhat freaking out internally, but I didn’t want to do anything to, I dunno, get angry and do something bad or something. How is one meant to deal with these things? I’d never’ve expected it to happen to me.
Not sure there’s a “right” way to deal with it, but sounds like you handled it fairly well.
I mean, you obviously have no obligation to continue a conversation with a stranger when it is making you feel uncomfortable.
To address the specifics, if you were to choose to engage and continue answering questions, I’d go as vague as possible, don’t give any specifics. And definitely, whether it is true or not, lie and say you’re not alone. Kind of like when you’re a kid and you answer the phone (or even when you’re an adult) never let on that you’re home alone. It’s “Mom can’t come to the phone right now” not “Mom isn’t home right now.” Give the illusion that there’s somewhere nearby who you are there wit.
Probably not a bad idea to lie and say you have a boyfriend, but I know when my mind is panicking, lying about trivial things like that are surprisingly difficult because I find myself automatically answering the true answer if I’m too panicky or whatever to come up with a plausible lie.
I’d say making a get away by telling him you were meeting a friend was a pretty good plan.
There was an article in National Geographic Adventure years ago where a woman said once she’d replied “Why, yes, I do have a husband, he’s a professional contract killer and he’s coming back in five minutes.”
I think you managed to handle that pretty well.
So…..even though this thought has occurred to me before, it’s never really bugged me that much. Until at one point today, our cardio clinician made a comment about how to him all bovines are cows (and I nod my agreement, because seriously, they will all always be cows to me, and I’m probably going to get lots of annoyed looks when I’m on food animal when I call a bull a cow). And then he starts questioning us about what exactly a single individual bovine is called, commenting that a single equine is a “horse”, but what is a single bovine? Because we have cattle, which is the generic for bovids, but what is a single generic bovid? Because you don’t go and say, “hey, look at that bovid!” Anymore than you say “look at that equid”, because you’d say look at that horse. To quote the doctor [no, not The Doctor, the cardio clinician, you silly whovians]: “These are the things that keep me up at night.”
And now it’s really bugging me. What is the singular for cattle? Because most people, myself included, see a bovine and call it a cow, regardless of whether it’s male or female. But strictly speaking, only female cattle, that have born young are cows. Females that have never had a calf are heifers. Males that are intact are bulls. Non intact males are steers. And I don’t remember what an intact male bovid that hasn’t been bred is called.
But seriously, what is the gender neutral, singular word for cattle? Does it exist? Because as our cardio clinician pointed out, even though it would be accurate, nobody goes around calling individual cattle “bovids”, anymore than a single horse is commonly called an “equid”.
Because pretty much all species have terms for males and females, but they all have a gender neutral generic specific. I mean, we’ve got horses but also stallions, mares, geldings, etc. And alpacas but also (thanks, therio) machos and hembras. But cattle???????????
These are now going to be the things that keep me up at night, as well.
It seems like a lot of “gender neutral” terms for animals are technically masculine, but nobody considers them such. *shrugs* But then, I’m no veterinary student and may be completely wrong.
Which ones are you thinking of? Because all the gender neutral terms for animals I can think of right off are actually gender neutral, as the males and females of the species have different terms.
For instance gender neutrals and the accompanying gender specifics:
Horse; male=stallion, female=mare
Alpaca; male=macho, female=hembra
Mule; male=jack, female= jenny (I think? something along those lines, anyway. Or maybe that’s donkeys.)
Dog; male=stud, female=*****
Cat; male=tom, female=queen
Goat; male=buck, female=doe
Sheep; male=ram, female=ewe
Chicken; male=rooster, female=hen
Pig; male=boar, female=sow
Ferret; male=hob, female=jill
And of course most of these have yet another set of terms for castrated males and spayed females.
I really want to borrow someone’s little kid, take them somewhere with lots of cattle (including bulls), and then when they point at a bull and call it a cow go “no, sweetie, that’s not a cow” and thoroughly confuse them. I’m a bit twisted.
I thought the term “stud” referred to male dogs who had mated, producing a litter of puppies, at least once?
I think once they’ve father pups they’re known as “sires”, and that stud is applicable if they’re intact. But to be honest I’m a smidge fuzzy on that one
That does sound right, now that you mention it.
I guess I was just incorrect in my original statement. I didn’t know there were so many specific terms for so many species. I guess my assumptions were based on vernacular rather than actual classification terminology.
Is there a neutral generic inclusive term for the witches and wizards in Harry Potter? Hermione is a witch; Harry is a wizard; each of them is a…. what?
English used to have such a term for cows and bulls, at least those raised for meat: beef, plural beeves. There are many references to beeves in the King James Bible (often in descriptions of rich men, cattle rustling, or rich cattle rustlers). I’m not sure when those terms went out of fashion, but apparently Elizabethan people really did say things like “hey, there goes a beef.”
Ooh, the HP-verse gender-neutral term question that nagged me. I did get excited at some point, because Griphook called them “wand bearers.” I like that, partly because it also begins with “W”, but have since learned that there is some opinion that the term is exclusively used by goblins. {Le shrug.} Dunno, but I use it anyway.
I’ve seen “wizarding folk”, but that’s plural.
Nope, I’m pretty sure there’s no gender-neutral term. Hogwarts is even called “Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry” despite the fact that there doesn’t seem to be any actual difference between the two. It also automatically excludes those who don’t identify as male or female, who I suppose would just be really out of luck linguistically even more than in the Muggle world.
I’m not really sure about the Harry Potter terms, but aren’t male Witches called Warlocks? I heard someone protest, though, that male Witches were Wizards and that there were no such thing as Warlocks. Either that, or they’re the same thing.
It’s been ages since I read the books, but I think I remember titles like “warlock”, “Mage”, and “sorcerer” being thrown around in discussions/descriptions of historical magic-users.
I believe the only real references to Warlocks was describing Dumbledore’s position in the Wizengamot. (If I remember correctly, he was Chief Warlock through the first four books.) It has been a while since I read the books, so I may be forgetting something.
Although rereading your question, it looks like you might be less interested in Harry Potter specifics. For more general applications, I believe witch and warlock tend to be paired, as users of more rural, wild magic. Wizards tend to use a more refined lever of magic, along with mages and sorcerors. I can’t think of a lot of terms for female refined magic users.
All of this varies depending on the writer, of course,
There are sorceresses and enchantresses. In the Oz books (the canonical ones, not the Wicked spinoffs), Glinda was specifically identified as a sorceress. That seemed classy when I was a kid.
Yeah, I thought of ”sorceress”, but it sounds a bit villainous to me. Not as outright evil as “necromancer” for example, but I think I’d still be suspicious of anybody going around calling herself a sorceress.
I can’t tell for sure now. Semantic satiation has set in.
“Thaumaturge” is gender-neutral and not too sinister-sounding. I’ve always loved that word.
“Mage” is gender-neutral, isn’t it? Or at least it was in Circle of Magic.
“Mage” is very popular nowadays, but I wonder how widespread it was in the pre-Dungeons-and-Dragons era.
Historically, I think it does have masculine connotations. The original Magi were Persian priests, and I’m pretty sure that was a men’s club.
Pretty sure that word is going to be in my novel this November. Somewhere.
“MuseBlog: Superedifying the Illuminati Since 2005.”
I’ve read that this was because at the time they were written, the word ‘witch’ usually specifically meant someone who received power from Satan, and so Baum decided using it to describe good magic-users was probably not a good idea (even though he’d done so in the Oz books earlier).
In general, like Errata says, the term ‘witch’ is used for more nature-related stuff, and like you thought, males who do that sort of thing are usually called warlocks. ‘Wizard’ comes from a term for ‘wise’ and used to mean philosopher/sage, so when not a generic term for male magic-users, it usually indicates someone whose magic involves stuff like math and astronomy and ancient books. Because of gender stereotypes, there are a lot more witches in fiction than warlocks, and women who get their abilities from studying and math are not even common enough to have a name that I’ve heard of. Equal Rites, the third book in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, did a lot of commentary on this (mostly through showing, not telling) that was really thought-provoking and intelligent, and the book was also hilarious. In the Harry Potter books, though, all female magic users are called witches, and all male ones are called wizards; the distinction seems to be in name only. I think Jo talked once about how the term ‘warlock’ is used in her series; I don’t remember exactly what she said, but I believe it mostly just shows respectability. I don’t know if there’s an equivalent term for witches; now I’m curious as to what a female chief of Wizengamot would be called.
The word ‘sorcerer’ was occasionally used in the series, but every instance I can think of seemed to be included for alliteration, so I don’t know if it has any particular meaning.
I’m almost certain ‘mage’ was never used, although that would put an end to the search for a gender-neutral term in the series.
For a less Harry Potter – themed approach (and I know that makes this a bit off-subject), the fiction I’ve read tends to classify witches as spells, potions, and amulets crafters who use the powers of the earth; wizards as spellcasters who use magic based on a sort of underlying logic; sorcerers as channeling raw energy from various sources (sometimes through words, sometimes through actions bender-style, sometimes through objects); and mages as using elemental magics, often through an intermediary (elementals). Of course, there’s a lot of overlap, and no two authors can ever quite agree on the distinctions.
Well, the word ‘dog’ is used to mean ‘male’ in several types of animals. But when she said that, I thought of words like ‘lion,’ tiger,’ and “leopard” and how they’re used generically–you say, ‘a pride of lions’ when on course a pride includes females, too–but when you refer to a female, you have to add ‘-ess” (and in the case of tigers, subtract an ‘e’). I actually can’t think of any other species that are examples of that off the top of my head, though–but I certainly can’t think of any examples of the inverse.
Which species? I’m curious. I hadn’t realized that.
I was thinking of lions, tigers, and leopards, although as Randomosity said she was doing, I was thinking of the vernacular, and I don’t know they don’t have different official terms.
Sorry, to clarify, I meant which species of animal is “dog” used to mean male?
Oh, okay, that makes sense. Um… foxes and… I know there are more… Okay, I just looked up ‘dog’ in the dictionary, and it says that it’s the standard term for male canids.
My guess would be that “cattle” can be singular as well as plural. Implied on Wikipedia’s “List of animal names,” which is an interesting related read.
My SAT scores come out tomorrow morning. *anxious buzzing*
*lurks sheepishly*
Does anyone have any suggestions for getting a reliable amount of restful sleep at night? I’ve been having problems getting to sleep, and when I wake up in the morning for school I feel like I haven’t slept at all; I’m even more tired after I sleep, really. I’ve been taking melatonin supplements for almost a year now but it doesn’t seem to be helping much anymore. >.>
Stick to a schedule. Have a bedtime routine. Use your bed only for sleeping. Avoid computer screens and TVs before you go to bed. Exercise a couple hours before bedtime. Keep your room cool, not warm or cold. Look up muscle relaxation routines. If you can’t fall asleep, get up and do something (reading, etc.) so that you associate your bed with falling asleep, not with tossing and turning.
Can you exercise in the afternoon to be more exhausted? That helps me. Or take a warm shower.
I’ve started going running at night so I’ll be tired enough to fall asleep, and it seems to be working. Also, I stopped drinking caffeinated tea in the afternoons- that helped- and have been trying to get all my homework done at least half an hour before I go to sleep (I realize that that’s not always possible, but when it is, I really recommend it).
I’m baaaaacccck…..(attempt to be spooky, like in a horror movie)
I’ve been gone for a while, because I’ve just been really busy with different things, between music, school, stress, romance, and mainly video games. Yeah, fun times. But now I’m back, which is what’s important. I hope to be able to go on more often, because I’ve been missing you guys
Hey, Spuddy! *Hugs you* I remember you! Welcome back!
SPUDDY!!!! Oh my gosh, you haven’t been around for ages! Welcome back! =[} =[} =[} =[} How have you been?
I’ve been very scattered emotionally. Last year was very bad, I was failing some classes, so I couldn’t do extracurriculars. Luckily, my grades are getting better, I’m in forensics club (speech-giving, not crime investigating), and I have gotten a friend group! Overall, things are looking up!
Ooh, forensics club sounds exciting. Is it like debating or what?
We deliver speeches in different categories, like humor, dramatic, serious poetry, children’s literature, persuasive, informative, etc.
Hi, Spudman, welcome back!
Hello, welcome back! Lots of us seem to be so busy right now, myself definitely included, but I’m glad to see you posting again!
Hey, Spudman! Welcome back! Stick around for a while!
That should have been way more enthusiastic, of course I didn’t really know ‘pud.
Spuddddddddddd *glomps*
It’s great to have you back!
So. Today sucked. Like, my car may not ever be drivable again and I learned what an airbag looks like and rode in the back of a cop car sucks. And still have half an outline to finish for my rounds topic tomorrow morning.
So basically, car accident. My car is really bad off (hopefully not irreprably so), the other cars undamaged. Cop car ride was because the officer offered me a ride back to my apt. But I’m unharmed, so I guess all in all that’s the most important thing.
And I missed dinner. Because I was on my way to get food. So I’m really hungry now.
Oh my, I hope the damage isn’t too bad and I hope you managed to get some food! I’m glad you’re safe though.
Unknown on the true extent of the damage, currently. It looks pretty bad though.front doors almost impossible to open, hood bent upwards in half, front bumper/whatever hanging down to the ground, front lights don’t work, leaking blue fluid. Airbag deployed. Metal frame around windshield bent
Windshield intact. And aside from a slightly abraded thumb from te airbag, a slightly tender/stiff feeling nose, and very minor muscle stiffness in my left shoulder, I’m completely unharmed.
Just hoping the insurance don’t decide the car is too expensive to fix. I really like my car. And it’s Spock decals.
I did get some food, made a frozen pizza at home
Well I”m hooked up with a rental. Driving in an unfamiliar car in peak rush hour traffic (even if that’s relatively not bad in this town) the night before homecoming (meaning worse than normal traffic)? With lots of trick or treating little kids (seriously, what? Halloween isn’t until next week, folks.). *shudder* I was driving like I was 14 again and terrified. Like omg I’m kind of afraid to drive.
Just been offered an audition at one of the colleges I’ve applied to! It’s not unexpected as they do audition most applicants, but to have a concrete date and time set and everything.. It’s in less than a month!
Congratulations! You will wow them with your poise and perfection, I am sure of it.
Just purchased tickets to go see the Doctor Who Anniversary special with my mommy (yes I called her mommy) on the 25th of November (yes, I’ll probably have already watched it in 2D), but we’re gonna go see it in 3D in the theatre. For an exorbitant $15 per ticket, but whatever.
And we’ll ignore that mom has only seen up through the Crash of the Byzantium 2 parter in beginning of season 5, and hasn’t seen anything since, doesn’t even know who River Song is, knows nothing about Clara, and will be beyond confused about John Hurt’s character, but….She wants to go with me. And there’s no way we can get her caught up in time, as little as she likes Eleven so far (she misses Ten’s hotness,I think)
So questiont hat all the trick or treating little kids prompted me to think of.
We always went trick or treating on Halloween night itself, regardless fo whether that was a school night or a work night.
Talking to dad, he was acting like all the little kids out trick or treating was normal, because “Halloween isn’t on a weekend”, so obviously you go trick or treating the weekend before, rather than on the night itself “That’s how they do it where I grew up. That’s how they do it in the states [meaning lower 48].” And telling me that our mom was weird, as were us two kids, with having gone trick or treating on Halloween night itself regardless of the day of the week when we were kids.
So: poll. Is trick or treating done on Halloween itself, or on the weekend before if Halloween is a weeknight?
I live in Texas, and I always went trick-or-treating on Halloween itself. I can’t remember trick-or-treaters ever coming to our house the weekend before or after, so I’m pretty sure everyone else in my area does as well.
Halloween is on a Friday this year, though, isn’t it? That’s not a school night. I don’t really get why it would be considered better to go on a Saturday than a Friday.
It’s on a Thursday this year.
To houses, on Halloween itself, but some businesses may have earlier events featuring trick-or-treating, in which case we would go and do it there.
Oregon, the night itself. Though some intrepid candy-goers may continue on Nov. 1 if the weather was particularly nasty on the 31st.
Story time: Until I was in third grade, I lived off a highway with no other kids for miles. I went trick-or-treating in town with one of my friends. Naturally, nobody ever came to our house for candy, so we never decorated or anything. One year, though, for whatever reason, I decided that we needed to put out candy just in case somebody decided to pull down the quarter-mile-long-with-no-lights gravel road that led to our house to trick or treat. My parents relented and bought a box of fruit by the foot to leave out. Needless to say, I got to eat all of those feet, and they were delicious.
Texas also, night itself.
So basically mom and I are right that dad is mental and is either misremembering when he trick or treated a a child (and actually I find it hard to believe he actually did something like trick or treat), or his parents were the odd ones.
I should try and remember to ask his brother the next time I see him. Get his version of the trick or treat thing
I’ve got a feeling my uncle will say my dad is nuts, lol
My city often schedules trick-or-treating for the weekend before Halloween, at least for the central Old Town neighborhood. It does happen. It seems like cheating, though.
In the Massachusetts town I live in, trick-or-treating is always the night itself. The day after Halloween, the schools always schedule a meeting for the teachers and no school for the kids if it’s a weekday. A few years ago, there were rumors that trick-or-treating would be postponed due to a blizzard, but that didn’t actually end up happening.
Oh, well, we never actually got school off on Halloween. We just have to make time or not.
I can’t say for sure if the day after Halloween was an inservice day back home, or not, as most Halloweens I remember took place after I was homeschooled. But I don’t think it was.
Of coruse, I don’t recall that trick or treating kept us out past bedtime, either, but I could easily be wrong on that. I mean, I know it was dark when we went trick or treating, but that could have been as early as 6pm-ish.
I can’t imagine a city being organized or cohesive enough to agree to have trick-or-treating on a night other than Halloween. Maybe it works better for small subdivisions or apartment complexes?
That’s because you’re used to cities that are actually the size of cities. Where I live now (technically a city, though a small one), trick-or-treating is organized across the whole city. It IS on Halloween night, though.
We’ve always done it on Halloween night. The only exception that I can remember is when Halloween was cancelled (maybe postponed?) one year because of a huge ice storm.
I’m sad I forgot to make a Star Trek reference when getting my rental from Enterprise. I mean, seriously. I should have asked them to send Spock to come pick me up. But the girl probably wouldn’t ahve got it, and I was just glad she found a driver to get me, since she said they were all booked up for pickups.
I’m sure they’ve heard them all. She probably would have said, “We’ll beam you up.”
Got to hear two BU alums involved in the production of The Newsroom talk– the one who’s a writer writer said both he and Aaron Sorkin have wanted to do space stories in the show, but they just haven’t been able to work any into the ongoing personal storylines the characters have. (If a dedicated ACN science correspondent had been created as a character from the get-go, maybe it would be different, but they can’t suddenly introduce one now and pretend en’s been there for two seasons, because we know en hasn’t.) He did say to keep watching in Season 3 and that they’d try to fit it in there.
Hello friends! I have not posted very much lately because I’ve been busy with coursework and traveling and whatnot. Costa Rica has been generally awesome, and I’ve been doing lots of interesting things. Jadestone–I have seen lots of reptiles and amphibians in the forests I’ve been to so far. And took pictures, if you want to see.
Robert–I have also seen lots of different birds, though I haven’t actually woken up at 5 in the morning to go birding properly.
I have managed to complete my very own research project from start to finish, though. By myself, too–you could work in groups, but I ended up not doing that. I was researching to see if there was an increase in earthworm mass under this one nitrogen-fixing tree, because nitrogen is an important nutrient for earthworms. Spoiler alert: I did not disprove the null hypothesis. But I suppose it was a good experience anyways. For the four days we were collecting data, I would get up, eat breakfast, hike out into the forest to collect soil samples, get back for lunch, analyze the samples afterwards in the lab, and usually I finished around dinner. One day, the river flooded, and the labs for this biological station were on the opposite of river form the cabin I was staying in. Anyhow, they evacuated that side of the river entirely. I hadn’t finished before dinner, so I had to hurry up and get my soil samples out of the incinerator. I didn’t have the time to analyze the rest of my samples, sadly. SCIENCE.
I also caught, killed, and gutted a fish. And then ate it. Well, actually, the gutting and eating were separate steps, so it might not have been My fish that I ate, but someone ate it. This happened when we were in the mountains in Cuerici, which was this sustainable farm/privately owned reserve in a montane oak forest. Also a few nights ago I experienced my first earthquake. So yeah! Life’s been exhausting, but interesting, with lots of new experiences. Though it only seems that way when I sit down and write it all out.
I have just finished the part of the course where we had homestays with Costa Rican families in San Jose and took Spanish classes. My Spanish has noticeably improved, though I’m still miles from fluent. Also, Spanish and Arabic have become increasingly confused in my head. Apparently brains only recognize two languages–your mother tongue and everything else. This next week will be fall break. I’m going to Nicaragua with some of the other students from the course. I leave at 4:45 int eh morning. Not super thrilled about that. Afterwards, we head to Panama to do marine biology. So exciting. Then to Monteverde, and then to Palo Verde. In Panama and Monteverde, I’m not going to have any Internet for a few weeks. So I’m making this post right now and won’t see anything else from you guys for a while. I hope you are all doing well!
Wow. This sounds like a mad and awesome adventure. I’d really like to hear about Monteverde, if you get a chance to write about it!
I echo what Choklit said! I’ve missed hearing from you, but it seems like an absolutely incredible adventure. Keep on having a great time! I can’t wait to hear more about it once you’re restored to internet.
That sounds amazing! Please do tell us more when you can!
I’m at Rebecca’s house! My roommate and I stayed here last night on our way back to school from the Outer Banks where we spent fall break. It’s been lovely, we had delicious Indian food and I finally got to meet her (and also my) friend who I met through voldynet conversations and who has appeared as a guest contributor here on MB (through Lady B), and who has so become friends with Paul. It’s a strange web that the internet weaves.
My National Geographic came in the mail, but I must resist tearing it out of the plastic before my homework is finished.
You know you’re doing it right when your college application essays begins,
“With one arm, I draw. With another, I sew. My third arm writes poetry, my fourth plays table tennis, my fifth composes music while my sixth tests them on the piano. My last two arms surf the internet, blog, and type my college essays.
I am a giant space squid.”
and ignore the fact that I haven;t gotten any further into the essay? yup.Yes yes yes. I love this beginning because it says so much about you and your many talents. And GIANT SPACE SQUID!
*Cskia! You are my favorite person right now because GIANT SPACE SQUID. YES.
YES. Cskia, you lovely person, that essay will be great!
Thank you all so much for the encouragement! I finally finished this essay and am pretty happy with it, now I have to write the other one (preferably before Halloween, which is tomorrow).
I seem unable to pie or squid any posts, which is odd…
update: and I just realized I’m over the word limit by 136 words. Oops.
Recently, my pies and squids have only showed up after I revisit a page, and I don’t know why. I don’t know if this might be the case for you.
That’s been happening to me as well.
That happens to me, too, but only on the iPad, I think. (Can’t verify it because the wireless adapter on my desktop just went down.)
I was reading a Jurassic Park RPG board, and one of the roleplayers said something I’d never considered before but that makes perfect sense– in the JP world, post-Lost World, people who would would believe the chupacabra was real would think it was InGen’s fault– there are already conspiracy theories about it being an escaped genetic experiment in our world and they know for a fact that there was a genetic engineering company creating dangerous creatures in Central America in the 90s.
I should just call myself “The Cat Who Likes to Change Her Name a Lot”
I ate lunch next to Michael Lopez-Alegria today, the holder of the current record for most spacewalking time by a NASA astronaut, so that’s something.
Did the post I made the other day never go through? Boo.
I was at Lady B.’s day before yesterday, and it was lovely! My roommate and I were passing through on our way back from the Outer Banks and stopped overnight at Rebecca’s and fun was had. We had a lovely dinner with a friend of Rebecca’s who became a friend of mine through her, and we found some of Paul Baker’s favorite ginger beer which we drank/will drink in his honor, and we terrorized the poor cat with our presence (he got brave a couple times and sniffed our fingers and even allowed himself to be pet for a second once).
Then last night we stayed at another friend’s house, and now we’re back at Wilson.
Overall it was a successful Fall Break, and now I’m in absolutely no shape to return to academia tomorrow morning. UGH.
Spam filter caught it. You had euphemized a social-networking site. (Yes, even jocular euphemisms can trigger it.) Anyway, it’s back now.
Oh, goodness. Wasn’t I the one who invented that euphemism? I’d completely forgotten about it O.o wow, that certainly takes me back to freshman year…
I’d forgotten that was a triggerword, whoops.
I am suitably honoured.
I fell into another one of my occasional extended bouts of unintentional existentialism today. This one was one of the longer ones I’ve had, and I ended up concluding that this universe is the fever-dream of an insane mathematician in another reality.
SFTDP. Or whatever the equivalent of fever-dreams, insanity, and mathematicians are in that reality.
What’s your reasoning there? I’m curious.
Well, to be honest, it’s sort of a half-joking extrapolation on the fact that just about everything in this universe is based on numbers – and that life as humanity knows it is improbable to the point of near-impossibility.
I mean, think about it. There are thousands of conditions that must be met for a planet (or moon, asteroid, et cetera) to even be naturally habitable in the first place, and thousands more for life to actually start. Then look at the biological basis for life as we know it. DNA is so ridiculously complicated, yet so elegantly simple in makeup. It has plenty of fail-safes, but still if even one mistake happens in just the wrong place, the organism’s dead. No matter how well the error-checking system works, doesn’t it seem like it should eventually be self-defeating? Yet somehow it isn’t. Then look at humans. How did humans even evolve? No claws or sharp teeth or other mechanisms to make them successful predators, no natural defenses to protect them as prey. The idea that humans survived because of “intelligence” and the ability to use tools and work in groups, just doesn’t seem like a complete enough explanation to me. Chimpanzees and other apes do the same, but they still need fur to regulate temperature, sharp teeth for offensive and defensive purposes, superior strength to humans. Am I saying humans are impossible? Probably not, I don’t know enough to make that judgement. But unlikely? Yes.
As for the mathematical part: a tree is made up of fractals. A hallway is parallel lines. Physical form is made of geometrical concepts. Light and sound energy are waves. Change the number of the wavelength, change the number of frequency, you get a completely different kind of energy. There’s more, but that’s what I can think of off the top of my head.
Basically, this universe is made up of numbers bundled into neat little paradoxes bound together tenuously by strings of improbability. Hence, the dreams of a mad mathematician explanation.
Hmm… I wish my brain was like yours
Got asked by the whovian cardio clinician today while taking our exam if I was planning on going to the 50th in theatres in 3D. She then said that she and the cardio resident were going and offered me a ride. Had to decline, obviously, since I’ll be in a different state, but it was pretty awesome. even if it would ahve been awkward had I accepted and gone (were I in town).
We’ll pretend that I’ve not been asked to movies/gone to movies with friends (ex boyfriend doesn’t count, and techically he never asked me to a movie per se) less than a dozen times (probably less than half a dozen times) in my entire life. Because that would just be sad.
HELLO BEAUTIFUL LITERARY PEOPLE.
Tell me your favorite haiku and who wrote it, so I can set and print it in my letterpress class tomorrow. I’d also open this up to haikus written by you guys, but I also need the author’s name. (Maybe if you want to tell me one you’ve written I can ask my teacher if I can use a pseudonym for the author’s name and have it still count.)
Anyway. If I chose your haiku and it’s logistically possible to send you a copy of the finished project, you get a small print of it.
Even if it’s not logistically possible to get a print to you, you’ll have the satisfaction of telling me your favorite haiku? By tomorrow morning? Yeah? Maybe?
I am nobody.
A red sinking autumn sun
Took my name away.
-Richard Wright
(Not my favorite haiku of all time — I’d have to do more reading of haiku in order to pick one — but one of the most memorable.)
Three by Basho:
even in Kyoto
longing for Kyoto
the cuckoo
chrysanthemum flowers
bloom at the stonemason’s
between stones
today is the day
people grow older
first wintry shower
It’s normal to be already starting to plan my wardrobe for the in theatre viewing of the 50th, right? I mean, deciding what to bring home with me so I have it to choose from?
My TARDIS winter hat (one of those with ties hanging down on the side and a bobble on top), my fourth doctor 1/2 length scarf, my fourth doctor t-shirt, a pin that says “I <3 <3 the doctor", another pin with a picture of the TARDIS and the words "TARDIS: Time and Relative Dimension in Space", my fourth doctor knee high socks, possibly my Dalek keychain (don't know where I"ll where that, I'll figure something out), my TARDIS necklace and "whovian" necklace.
And I'm trying to decide on my sonics. Should I bring a sonic? Which one? Should I choose just one and bring it? Bring all home so I have them all to choose from? Should I not bring any? I've got 3, 4, 10, 11 (small noiseless version and large noisy version), and River Song's to choose from. And Doctor Who sweatshirts? I've got 2. Or maybe 3? Bring them all home and decide later which to wear? Let my mom wear one? Bring home all my DW shirts, even though I can only wear one? Let my mom wear one?
And then again….Maybe I shouldn't wear my 4th doctor T. Maybe I should wear the one with all 11 doctors on it, because it *is* the anniversary of the last 50 years, maybe that would be more fitting? Maybe I should bring my TW sweatshirt home, because it has Jack on it and mom loves Jack and maybe she'd rather that than a sweatshirt with eleven, because she's nto big on eleven?
And OMG, she's not going to know what's going on, she's going to be so lost, I can't believe she's going when she's only seen the first few eps of season 5.
Should I bring my other DW socks home, or just call my fourth doctor pair good?
All these very important questions!!!!!!!
Buying round nonprescription glasses to enable Katia Krafft cosplay at some future date– worthwhile or not?
Hi all!
I’m giving a talk at my school about the conference I went to at the beginning of the month. And they’re apparently making posters about it!
I need to think of a really clever title so that I can cherish my copy of the poster forevermore (and also so that I can intrigue people into coming. and also, it’s my first professional talk, go big or go home, as they say.)
Please, if you have ideas for clever wordplay involving the difficulties faced by women in computing, let me know ASAP — the talk’s Nov. 12 and I am supposed to submit my title and abstract by Nov. 1.
Hmm… How about something involving a “silicon ceiling”?
Or (as a popular book on women at work puts it) “leaning in”? Or breaking into a loop? Or leaning into a loop?
Computing terminology has changed a lot since I worked as a programmer for NASA, but you can see the lines along which I’m thinking…
Robert, you are my favorite human being right now. Also, you worked as a programmer for NASA? That’s so cool!
(although I also have to give credit to my mother, who suggested the title “speak software and carry a big data stick”… it’s just your suggestions are slightly more relevant to my talk. did I mention I quote Sheryl Sandberg, author of Lean In, not once but twice in my slides? Her keynote session was very quotable.)
you also reminded me of a phrase I heard a lot and then forgot entirely — the “leaky pipeline”, describing how women leave tech careers at all stages of their lives
I am still thinking on how to integrate this into a coherent title, but I have a day still to figure it out.
Yes, my first job out of college was writing programs to download data from satellites measuring Earth’s magnetic field. That was fun for a while, but I got restless and decided to try other things — all sorts of things. as it turned out.
If you don’t mind my asking, what satellites were these?
GOES, GEOS, and ISEE.
I don’t recognize the names, but Google research indicates that my grandfather did, in fact, work on one of those. I thought it sounded like the kind of thing he did.
(i’m pretty sure anything I said here about ‘small world’ would be trite, though there might be an interesting ‘small universe’ joke somewhere.)
It is a small Musiverse. Do you remember Beetles and Ambystoma Maculatum? I saw their mother act the lead role in a play in 1969 — and remembered her! And I was in a play (in Egypt, of all places) with Nancy Kangas’s first cousin in 1984.
I don’t think it’s mysterious. If you do things you enjoy and pay attention, you’re bound to meet people who know people who have been where you’ve been and done things you’ve done. The nice thing about the Internet is that it makes it easier to realize you’re connected.
Which of the GOES series were those?
Just 1 and 2, I’m pretty sure — this was in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
“Lady Lovelace’s Daughters”?
Today I was hugged by a person who I care for a lot and who gives really great hugs.
So, is anyone else doing NaNo this year?
If n>1, I’ll start a NaNoWriMo thread.
Last night, according to our student newspaper and what my floor mates wrote on my door-mounted whiteboard, the Red Sox won the World Series on their home field for the first time in 95 years. I’m very glad to see the people of this city so happy.
(I don’t really know sports ettiquite, but “home city’s teams > college city’s teams > everybody else” is okay for transplants, right?)