January Random Thread: Happy New Year! –Part 2
Date: January 21, 2014
Categories: At the Top of the Blog, Random craziness
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KaiYves
in January 21st, 2014 @ 15:45I am fully in favor of multi-part random threads, as well as every other sign of our blog being a happenin’ place.
I’ve finished nearly my entire “To-Read” pile, at least here at college, and, unintentionally, all that happens to be left are the two Everest books, “The Conquest of Everest” and “Into the Silence”. I’m not sure which one I should read first– “Conquest” is shorter, but “Silence” is about something that occurred earlier chronologically. Thoughts?
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KaiYves
in January 21st, 2014 @ 16:03Ah, you see, the trick to getting a first post is to expect you won’t get it and never mention the fact in the post.
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oxlin
in January 21st, 2014 @ 16:15The strategy I used the month I got first post on all three of the month’s random threads.
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Cat's Meow
in January 21st, 2014 @ 16:44Personally, I would want to read them chronologically. Shortest last is also nice because you can finish two books in quick succession, which feels like an accomplishment.
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KaiYves
in January 28th, 2014 @ 21:52I’m reading “Silence” and it is very good. Which random thread was it where we discussed George Mallory’s disappearance? I want to say it was in May or June, but I don’t know of what year.
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Cello-Playing Mathematician (AKA Kyra)
in January 21st, 2014 @ 17:49…Um, I was under the impression that all monthly threads were multi-part. *sigh* I guess the months just go by really fast or I don’t notice anything. When was the last one that had more than one part?
Re: Piggy–I was sorely tempted to get Oblivion but I felt that Skyrim would be a better place to start.
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ebeth
in January 22nd, 2014 @ 10:03i think oblivion is by far the most boring elder scrolls game. i have friends who swear by it, but i’m with paul – morrowind is the best. skyrim is more accessible though, especially if you’re easily frustrated/used to games where things level with you. morrowind just kind of tosses you in and says “everything is trying to kill you and your starting stats are horrific, have fun”
i had a super scary thing happen yesterday – i was driving home from work and all the muscles in my neck and shoulders basically froze up. everything hurt like crazy and i couldn’t turn my head, which was super inconvenient for driving. usually when i’m coming back from the state library i have to get over two lanes and turn left just as i hit downtown which is always busy and not super fun, but under these conditions i didn’t even try. i got over to the right, which was easier to see (and still almost got in an accident) and took this wide circle around so i didn’t have to turn left on a busy street (it had to be a really wide circle because there are a ton of rules about when and where you can turn before 6). i ended up parking in the law school parking lot rather than trying to work my way around to my garage, because apparently they’ll give you a warning your first time parking there and it seemed like an appropriate occasion to use my one warning
so i got upstairs and managed with difficulty to get my coat/clothes off and had a super hot shower which relaxed everything to the point where i could move slightly but everything was still ridiculously stiff and sore. i managed to get into bed and prop my head up and try to rub my shoulder a bit and then finch got back and he went out and got food and a heating pad because he’s fantastic. the heat helped a LOT. i called off today because i’m still pretty sore and i’m being super cautious but things aren’t so stiff any more and it’s getting exponentially better. i’m going to schedule an actual massage (it’s actually covered under our insurance and i have a prescription from when i was getting really frequent migraines).
so anyway that was fairly terrifying and made me hate driving more than usual. i’m pretty sure if i had gotten into an accident with my muscles locked like that it would have done some pretty serious damage to my neck (which is not a good place to damage!). i’m not sure what the cause was but there are possibilities that i’m going to be super careful about now D: basically everything i do is something that could lead to strain in my neck/shoulders
ALSO THIS MEANS I’M NOT CLEANING ANYTHING TODAY SO THE MINI-KOKON WILL JUST HAVE TO DEAL WITH MY GROSS APARTMENT (though i will vacuum for the cat hair because allergies are no fun)
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Midnight Fiddler
in January 22nd, 2014 @ 14:34Based on the expectation that dancing in bars will probably be the most fun non-work-related thing I’ll have to do this summer, I think I’m going to make use of the swing-dancing lessons on campus if it’s possible. Because blame it on the cutiepants sailors, right?
In other news, I’ll be in SoCal this summer on tall ships and I CANNOT WAIT to get back in shape and sail on the Pacific and have big ol’ calluses on my hands again and carry a big knife without getting odd looks.But first I have to muddle through a few months of school.
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KaiYves
in January 22nd, 2014 @ 15:06Awesome, I’d love to sail the Pacific. (But digging on the shores of the Mediterranean this summer will also be great, and maybe possibly being a Space Academy councilor later in the summer.)
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Midnight Fiddler
in January 24th, 2014 @ 13:34Those sound like wonderful summer plans, and exactly in line with your interests!
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Luna the Lovely
in January 22nd, 2014 @ 17:23Dilemma: go to a medieval/renaissance faire type thing with the woman I’m staying with Sunday (I’d hVe to pay for both of us), go visit my gramma because Saturday I’ll be halfway between where I’m doing my externship and where she lives (which is a long drive) and probably make my homestay person sad because she’s already expressed how much she’s gonna miss me when I leave, or make my homestay person happy by going with her to some town that has some antique shop she thinks I’d like (and which unlike the ren faire fits her budget)
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Luna the Lovely
in January 22nd, 2014 @ 17:25I’m torn. Because the faire looks really fun, but I’d love to see my gramma, but using want to hurt the feelings if the woman I’m staying with by ditching her on my only remaining day off before I leave
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Luna the Lovely
in January 22nd, 2014 @ 18:53*but I don’t want to hurt
I swear I proofread that post. I hate my iPod some days
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FantasyFan?!?!
in January 22nd, 2014 @ 21:20Yeaah a multipart thread. If I had the time or inclination I’d look back through the archive to exactly when the last time we had one of those was but….
Well school is now in the full swing of things. I have had all of my classes at least once and homework has started and basically I am busy. And I have professors to email and networking to conduct and stuff like that. And I’m busy. I should probably be doing something else right now. Good bye.
(I’ll be back, though. I’ll be back.)
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Cat's Meow
in January 23rd, 2014 @ 02:29I found a Part 3 in June 2011 and many Part 2s in 2012, the last being in Chad-ember. It doesn’t seem like there were any multipart Random Threads at all last year.
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Maths Lover ♥
in January 23rd, 2014 @ 02:48The last time we had had a multipart thread was September 2012: Chad-ember. (That creepily coincides with my burnout over an enormous assignment in Year 11 and the subsequent meh. Heh.) It seems to mark a sudden decrease in random thread length. Part 1 was 362 posts, Part 2 was 253. The combined totals of preceeding months were 800-1000ish. Then Blog-tober had 502, Bo-vember 652, Decemory 496, and all but April 2013 were in the 300-500 range.
Yes, I’m procrastinating on something.
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KaiYves
in January 23rd, 2014 @ 07:12Ugh, I didn’t realize how caffinated that tea was until I couldn’t fall asleep… Better drink it only with breakfast in the future.
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Kittymine OSW
in January 23rd, 2014 @ 10:57This semester I am taking a Graphic Novel course. The first class was yesterday.
OH. MY. GOODNESS. So much geekiness!!! Here are some great conversation snippets:Professor: So in the 1960s, Marvel comics are the strong players. Because this was during the Cold War, radiation was converted in the comics into this empowering force. Like the Hulk, who was transformed by some sort of radiation, can’t remember the name…
Class: Gamma Radiation!
Professor: *makes Vulcan salute* Good work, guys.Professor: When I was a kid, I read all of these Marvel comics and I thought, “hey, radiation is good for you”.
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Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in January 23rd, 2014 @ 12:06Whereas the Fantastic Four, as everybody knows, acquired their powers from cosmic rays.
(Wait — turning into the Hulk is good for you?!)
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Kittymine OSW
in January 23rd, 2014 @ 13:37Well, it keeps Banner from dying…though immortality might not be such a plus…
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Kittymine OSW
in January 23rd, 2014 @ 13:48Side question: any chance of the January Birthdays Thread being put up soon?
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Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in January 23rd, 2014 @ 19:00Happy to. From the lukewarm responses to it last year, I figured everybody had lost interest in it. We do have the calendar, after all.
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Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in January 23rd, 2014 @ 19:09Incidentally, happy 21st birthday, Kittymine!
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Dodecahedron
in January 23rd, 2014 @ 19:30Happy birthday, Kittymine!
My first reaction to seeing this post was “I didn’t realize Kittymine was so OLD, that can’t be right, I thought we were in the same year”
and then I realized that I’m turning 21 this year as well
how time flies!
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Catwings
in January 23rd, 2014 @ 22:34Oh, happy Birthday, Kittymine!
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Selenium the Quafflebird
in January 24th, 2014 @ 03:32Happy birthday, Kittymine!
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KaiYves
in January 24th, 2014 @ 15:35Happy Birthday!
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Kittymine, OSW
in January 26th, 2014 @ 11:10Thanks, everyone! *feels the warm fuzzies* *also apologizes for delayed response*
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KaiYves
in January 23rd, 2014 @ 14:59There’s also Spider-Man, although it’s not quite so integral to his origin– the spider was radioactive in the original story but later is one that has been experimented on in other ways. Daredevil’s radar sense came from an accident with radioactive waste in his origin, but that isn’t brought up so much in adaptations. And the X-Men are sometimes called “Children of the Atom” although the writers have gone back and forth over time on if their mutations are caused by radiation or not.
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Kittymine OSW
in January 23rd, 2014 @ 16:43I notice that the HPB symbols have reverted to lightbulbs.
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Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in January 23rd, 2014 @ 18:52Trojan light bulbs. Don’t be fooled. The transformation is temporary.
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KaiYves
in January 24th, 2014 @ 15:36Quick, smash them to bits while they’re light bulbs!
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Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in January 24th, 2014 @ 15:51What if they’re full of mercury?
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KaiYves
in January 24th, 2014 @ 16:14The
symbol looks like an incandescent bulb to me, rather than a fluorescent.
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Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in January 24th, 2014 @ 16:55They’re notoriously devious.
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Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in January 24th, 2014 @ 18:05In fact, when I view the blog on my iPad, they look like hot-pink bunnies. Most unsettling.
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Errata
in January 25th, 2014 @ 10:37Hm, my iPad sees them as lightbulbs. Wonder what the difference is?
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Kai D.
in January 23rd, 2014 @ 22:33I think I know the solution to the HPB issue- it has something to do with this URL which I assume only GAPAs can access:
/home/gapa/musefanpage.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/word-replacer/word-replacer.php.
(Line 359)
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Kai D.
in January 23rd, 2014 @ 22:34An error message told me this.
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Agent Lightning
in January 25th, 2014 @ 16:53Yep, the pies and HPB’s replaced the traditional WordPress lightbulbs and arrows through a bit of clever coding by the GAPAs. The update must have reset the replacement.
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Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in January 25th, 2014 @ 18:25Except for me.
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Luna the Lovely
in January 23rd, 2014 @ 22:36Anybody have any suggestions for lotion for really really dry skin? As in so dry it’s close to cracking and lotion actually burns?
Because I’ve always had dry skin, but vet med is killer on your hands. And this externship, especially. Because having to scrub for surgery in addition to the extremely frequent hand washing that goes with any sort of healthcare or animal work, my hands are so dry. I’ve put lotion on at least three times this evening, and they’re still dry. And the lotion burns, because of all the micro cracks you can’t see, but can sure as heck feel when you run the lotion in. Or get rubbing alcohol in your hands.
Any suggestions much appreciated
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Dodecahedron
in January 24th, 2014 @ 08:20I don’t know if it would be possible for you to wear latex/plastic gloves during the day, and keep them on all day, and wash your hands as necessary over them?
I have dry skin/eczema in the winter as well, and my dermatologist puzzled over it for a bit last winter before eventually prescribing a steroid cream. She seemed really reluctant to do so, and I don’t know if it would be feasible for as large an area as your entire hands, but seeking professional advice might help better than we can.
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Jadestone
in January 25th, 2014 @ 02:05I sometimes get eczema on elbows/arms/shins and usually steal the intense ointments the dermatologist gave my sister for her psoriasis, but if you don’t want to go the medicated route, what I use on my chronically dry hands these days is Aquaphor.
Well. To be honest I use aquaphor for everything now. I got a small tub a year and a half ago to use on my lips (SO MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE THAN CHAPSTICK) when I went on meds that super dry out your face/skin (they stop all oil production basically), and it worked wonders, so I started putting it on my dry hands (which in past winters have gotten bad enough to crack and bleed), and it worked super great on them as well. Even started putting it on my eczema patches when they turned up. Despite using it multiple times every day (like, 8+ times a day as chapstick for the 6 months I was on meds and ~ 4 times a week on hands in winter) I’m only a little over halfway through it!
However: ointments are not exactly like lotions. They don’t absorb into your skin nearly as fast, but work SO much better in my experience. You also need a lot less, it really spreads over your skin. If you don’t like the feeling, the same company (Eucerin) also makes a great hand creme I used before I stepped it up.
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POSOC
in January 25th, 2014 @ 15:21Eucerin’s hand creme would give me this horrible burning/stinging feeling so I stopped using it. I’ll have to try out Aquaphor sometime.
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Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in January 25th, 2014 @ 18:34Luna, there’s this stuff called Bag Balm that comes in a boxy green tin. It was designed to keep cows’ udders from chapping but works wonders on dry human skin, too. It’s a thick, heavy, oily, sticky unguent that you can smell a block away, but many people swear by it.
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Piggy
in January 25th, 2014 @ 22:12I wonder if adding some sort of essential oil could improve the smell?
I’m gonna try it. Working at a restaurant my hands get horrifically dry, cracked, painful, and occasionally bloody, especially in the wintertime, and the best thing I’ve found so far (Badger Balm) doesn’t work as effectively as I’d like (though it does smell wonderful). I’ve ordered some Bag Balm and a little bottle of birch oil and I’ll see how it works.
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Luna the Lovely
in January 26th, 2014 @ 11:44My mom has some of that that she’s used before. I’m afraid I can’t stand the smell. The same goes for the “cornhuskers” lotion dad uses, which is a similar consistency.
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Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in January 26th, 2014 @ 12:15I think I heard somewhere that they had developed a less pungent version.
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Kittymine, OSW
in January 26th, 2014 @ 11:16I also get extremely dry, cracked skin in the winter. I generally use Curel’s Ultra-Healing: intensive lotion for extra dry skin. I’ve found it to work really well, even on my inconsistent basis (lazy me).
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ebeth
in January 24th, 2014 @ 09:40HELLO THIS IS EBETH AND NOT AN IMPOSTER.
Also my apartment is a lot cleaner than I think it is (or my guests have no standards) and I am a fantastic host go me.
Luna- one of the people hiding at my placee who is certainly not typing this has mild psoriasis and got a derm to fix a similar issue. They have magical creams that patch that stuff up (no really
Ishe was a compulsive handwasher as a kid on top of that, and this did wonders).
Out of curiosity, what did you try? Aloe usually helps with calluses (esp the stuff with vitamins in it). Oh, and there’s Vitamin E cream, also worked wonders. Also, sometimes if you sleep with lotion on your hands, and soft gloves over them, it goes in / stays in better.
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Sweet Melpomene
in January 24th, 2014 @ 18:39HI THIS IS MEL AND NOT AN IMPOSTER
i just thought i would mention that i am posting on MB and it is totally me and not anyone else
i have no real advice to offer other than the fact that you can know with absolute certainty that this is actually me
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Luna the Lovely
in January 27th, 2014 @ 16:37Thanks, everyone, for all the suggestions. I’ll have to try some frown when I get a chance to go by the store.
Ebeth–I’ve used lubridern and jergens brand lotion before in the past, without much long term effect. Probably partly due to erratic application
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bookgirl_me
in January 24th, 2014 @ 10:36Sorry if this is off-topic, but what’s racist about watermelon cups?
To explain: la bookgirl was surfing around and procrastinating. She ended up finding several articles about a college fraternity throwing an offensive “party” for MLK day. Each article particularly mentioned that the students were drinking (alcohol?) out of watermelon cups as if it were a bad thing. This is probably going to be obvious in retrospect, but what’s with the watermelon cups? I guess there’s some sort of reference, but I really don’t get it.
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KaiYves
in January 24th, 2014 @ 11:56There were a lot of old racist comics where there would be “jokes” about how poor black people really liked eating watermelon, which is stupid because watermelon tastes good and all kinds of people really like it, but as a result people tend to see associations between black people and watermelon in media (even accidentally, like a brand of Disney lollipops that had Tiana on the watermelon-flavored one) as questionable at best and offensive at worst.
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bookgirl_me
in January 24th, 2014 @ 12:05Oh, thanks.
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Midnight Fiddler
in January 24th, 2014 @ 14:08Reppin’ the Mostly Harmless shirt today.
That along with the fact that my hair is actually long-ish (and not in dreads anymore) and I didn’t braid it today like I usually do, is making me feel like I’m in my early teens again. Not really, it’s just a reminder that I haven’t actually changed all that much, which is embarrassing given how well that phase of my life was documented.
In my Literature of the Restoration class we’re talking about Samuel Pepys’ diary this week, and today we discussed how those of us who keep journals thought it compared to our own writings, and the audience for which such things are kept, etc. I think it’s interesting, because not only do I have my intensely cringe-worthy journals, I have my writings from around the internet that kind of became a secondary, more public journal with discussion aspects. What a time to be alive.
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KaiYves
in January 24th, 2014 @ 15:33I’m taking a class in archaeological method and theory, and this week we were doing processualism vs. post-processualism, and the professor was explaining how both schools of thought had people who took things too far and ended up looking a little ridiculous. So I thought that the most extreme example of a processualist would be the old Fantastic Four villain the Mad Thinker, who thought he could predict everything people would do with mathematical formulas and computers. And I guess an extreme post-processualist bad guy would be someone who creates illusions and makes you unsure of what’s real, like Mastermind or Mysterio.
And now I kind of want to make a comic where every issue’s problem is based on a different aspect of archaeological theory…
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Catwings (Who is finally thinking that you are rather tired of hearing all of her fangirl rants about people she likes on Youtube)
in January 24th, 2014 @ 15:41Well… there’s this guy on Youtube (like you haven’t heard that from me in a while) who I want to do a fan fiction for, but I feel like I need to ask him a few questions first (like, how he would react to a few things, and how he would want the story to go, so I can make it where he likes it) and I don’t know how to get a hold of him to ask him. I mean, he’s not too popular, and I’m pretty sure he would answer to a message of mine. But, Youtube has this rule, where you can’t just type in the username they currently have with Google. No. You have to send it to their Youtube username. (Y’know, the username they first had before they changed it to the Google username?) And I can not for the life of me remember correctly! Youtube’s PMing system is case-sensitive as well… I can’t recall if all three letters in his username were capitalized, if he still had replaced the Es in his name with 3s yet, or which Es he’d changed….
*Exhausted growl*
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Cello-Playing Mathematician (AKA Kyra)
in January 24th, 2014 @ 21:18If you go to his page, his username should be in the URL.
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Lizzie
in January 25th, 2014 @ 06:39I think if someone sent me a message asking me that sort of thing so they could write fanfiction I’d be a bit creeped out
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Choklit Orange
in January 25th, 2014 @ 01:58My school has an annual group dance competition, and my club, the Lighthouse Enthusiasts, entered this year. The performances were tonight, in front of over a thousand people (they were also aired on a local news channel).
Ours featured a piece of cardboard labelled “Kierkegaardian Existential Cliff,” a guy in a lighthouse costume, a mimed wedding, and the song “Lighthouse Keeper” by Sunforest, which you should all go listen to.
Still not sure how we didn’t win.
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bookgirl_me
in January 25th, 2014 @ 14:26HELLO THIS IS BOOKGIRL (OR POSSIBLY A CLONE BUT REALLY WHO WOULD BOTHER)
Ahrg dear god finals. Also, apparently there was some sort of giant protest yesterday with people smashing in store windows and no one told me? I mean, I honestly didn’t notice anything… (No1 warning sign that you may be hyper-focusing on finals)
Anyway, if I go without sleep until early Tuesday, I think I might be able to pass Algebra and Calculus. Of course I had to procrastinate the entire day today because – no silly bookgirl there is no hate, only Algebra. ((At this point, I’d even be willing to try a seance to summon the spirit of Gauß. Or the ghost of caffeine.))
Eh, sleep is for the weak anyway (and future bookgirls post-exams, except that for some reason there are these friends and this boyfriend who want to see her/know if she’s still alive? but sleep will be first)
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KaiYves- Go MAVEN!
in January 25th, 2014 @ 16:57GAPAs, did the drawing I sent last week get to you okay?
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Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in January 25th, 2014 @ 18:25Yes, I’ll post it tonight. I wanted to shrink the image file first.
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KaiYves
in January 25th, 2014 @ 19:48I went to Watertown today with my Food and Culture class to explore the Armenian neighborhoods and bought some dried pineapples, cocoanuts and mangoes, some honey, and a package of mixed nuts that were so tasty I already ate them all.
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Cello-Playing Mathematician (AKA Kyra)
in January 26th, 2014 @ 11:59I had this really vivid dream that Bill Nye and Ken Ham were on this tropical island going to do this crazy motorbike jump before their upcoming debate. There was some conspiracy and they ended up crashing into each other and both dying. I was so convinced that Bill Nye died, but then I realized that I had made the whole thing up in my head and that I hadn’t even gotten any information about it.
I then proceeded to have a different dream where I was on the motorbike island, and doing a not-so-crazy jump with a bunch of other tourists. I didn’t make it up the really steep hill the first time, but it was okay.
That was the closest I’ve ever come to lucid dreaming.
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KaiYves- Go MAVEN!
in January 26th, 2014 @ 12:18Phew, fortunately it was just a dream. I’ve had dreams like that where I’ve thought someone actually died and woke up freaked out.
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Errata
in January 27th, 2014 @ 01:06Read enough blogs about writing, and eventually something sticks. Today I wrote something reasonably substantial. Not four hundred words, but better than nothing. Cause for celebration.
Only a melancholy celebration, though, because I’m also lamenting the need for a celebration. It would be really, really, nice if I could make this a habit.
Maybe I will, maybe this is the beginning. Hope springs eternal.
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Rebecca Lasley (Administrator)
in January 27th, 2014 @ 05:38Rule one: never lament the need for a celebration.
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KaiYves
in January 27th, 2014 @ 09:15I’m sure that what you wrote is very good.
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oxlin
in January 27th, 2014 @ 11:24Yay! Keep writing and you’ll eventually have 400 words. Somedays I only write a sentence but that is still one sentence more than I had before I wrote it.
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Errata
in January 27th, 2014 @ 21:26Thanks, everyone.
…If you lot aren’t careful, you’ll encourage me into doing it again.
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fireandhemlock1996
in January 30th, 2014 @ 12:37That’s the point, my dear!
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oxlin
in January 27th, 2014 @ 16:04What celebrities have you met?
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Luna the Lovely
in January 27th, 2014 @ 17:34Do the starkid people count? Otherwise, the closest I’ve come is being in the same room as celebrities. I was in the same room as Arnold Schwarzenegger, there was only one row of people between me and being able to shake his hand/get his autograph for my mom. It was a little teeny tiny hallway outside his dressing room at the opening ceremonies for the special Olympics when they were in anchorage about a decade ago. I was also in the same room as Melissa Joan Hart (Sabrina te teenage witch), also at thn opening ceremonies for the special Olympics. And the same room as Frankie Munoz, again at the opening ceremonies. He actually came to the dressin room were all us choir kids who were performing were being housed and was shaking hands an signing autographs for everyone, and I remember all the girls were freaking out, but that my sister and I thought he was “stupid” and didn’t want to have anything to do with him, lol
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Lizzie
in January 27th, 2014 @ 20:44What counts as a celebrity?
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24.2.1
oxlin
in January 27th, 2014 @ 20:52Whoever you think counts as a celebrity.
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24.2.1.1
Lizzie
in January 30th, 2014 @ 11:19off the top of my head, people no one but me probably has heard of:
played a concert with Andre Watts last week
worked with Jaime Laredo, and members of the cleveland, juilliard, shanghai quartets
played for / shook hands with / got a picture with former SCOTUS justice David Souter (I had just been told it was for a ceremony for a member of the supreme court, was really glad it didn’t turn out to be Scalia)
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24.3
KaiYves- Go MAVEN!
in January 27th, 2014 @ 20:47Actually meeting:
I guess the most well-known person I’ve met is Jane Goodall, I shook her hand very briefly on a school trip to the United Nations building. I’ve met quite a few people who are famous in their fields, but I’m not sure if any of them other than her would be considered celebrities. In that category, I’ve met Robert Ballard, the discoverer of the Titanic wreck, Bobak Ferdowsi, the famous Curiosity flight controller with the sweet mohawk, Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise (Bill Paxton played him in the movie), Apollo 15 astronaut David Scott (Okay, his name isn’t famous, but he walked on the caking moon so that makes him a celebrity), video game designer/space tourist Richard Garriott, current NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, his predecessor Michael Griffin, former NASA Deputy Administrator (second-in-command) Lori Garver, and Steve Isakowitz, the current President of Virgin Galactic. (And a lot of other awesome astronauts and other space folks, but I don’t think any of the others are famous enough to the general public to be called “celebrities” without really stretching the definition.)
In the same room as:
I’ve seen John Glenn give lectures twice, but didn’t get to interact with him on either occasion, so I don’t really consider it “meeting” him. When I was interning on Capitol Hill, I saw John Kerry walk by like 20 feet in front of me getting onto a trolley, and kind of the same thing happened with Buzz Aldrin at ISDC, except it was an escalator, but in both cases I don’t think they even saw me, so that’s not really “meeting” either. (Come of think of it, that also describes what happened with Steven Spielberg at that event at my mom’s gallery…) Oh, and I saw Pope Benedict giving Mass in St. Peter’s Square, but that was from all the way across the square and I couldn’t see him without a telephoto lens. So I’ve seen those people with my own eyes, but didn’t really meet them.
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24.4
oxlin
in January 27th, 2014 @ 21:00People I’ve met: Billy Joel for 30 minutes or so before a concert of his. He sat with my family and chatted to us. Neil Gaiman at a signing and also at a con that he randomly decided to show up to. Many other fantasy authors at various cons. Some are famous or somewhat known, but it feels weird to list them as I know that they are friends of my friends and, in some cases, have become my friend as well. Some of the more famous ones that aren’t as close to my circles of friends: Jane Yolen, Patrick Rothfuss. I met Mary GrandPre once. She’s the illustrator of the American editions of Harry Potter. (And then she left a painting at my Mom’s library and we had to go to her house to return it. So I’ve been to her house too. She doesn’t live there anymore; she moved to another state.)
People I’ve seen with my own eyes. Al Franken, Olympia Snow, John McCain, other senators. (I watched the senate floor once, while in DC. I was much closer to Al Franken, though. He’s my senator and you have to get tickets to observe the senate floor. You go to your senator or representative’s office to request them. When I went to get mine, Franken happened to actually be there.) Elton John (at that same Billy Joel concert. It was a Billy Joel and Elton John concert). Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Billy Collins.
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24.5
FantasyFan?!?!
in January 28th, 2014 @ 21:16I had my picture taken with Ron Paul once during a Junior Statesman of America Summer Program in Washington DC. I wasn’t even sure why he was famous at that point, but everyone else was doing it.
Oh, and I briefly talked to Martin Chalfie, who was one of the winners of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of Green Fluorescent Protein. I think I posted about that here, actually. We were sitting next to each other in the lobby, and because I didn’t know why he famous (okay this is a recurring concept with me I am very often out of touch with…things) the only thing I said to him was, “Oh so you’re the guy who giving the talk today, huh?”.
To which he replied in the affirmative. “Oh, I guess I am,” or something like that. After the talk, when I knew why he was famous, I thought of questions I could have asked him and bitterly regretted my ignorance. So embarrassing.
I can’t think of anyone else off the top of my head. Unless I passed a celeb in the street or something and didn’t realize that they were famous, which is certainly possible and even quite probable.
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24.6
Maths Lover ♥
in January 29th, 2014 @ 02:30I think some actor or singer or something walked past my mum and I in Melbourne airport when I was a baby, but I don’t remember right now who it was.
I was a few people away from Julia Gillard last year, while she was still PM. I was with a school group at NICTA event at Parliament House and she made an appearance. At that point my feet were tired and I’d exhausted my socialising-with-strangers quota, but others talked to her.
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24.6.1
Choklit Orange
in January 29th, 2014 @ 21:39Was this the time that someone threw a sandwich at her
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24.7
Agent Lightning
in January 29th, 2014 @ 11:33I’ve met Linda Sue Park and Jordan Sonnenlick, both of whom are children’s/young adult authors
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24.8
Selenium the Quafflebird
in January 30th, 2014 @ 14:16I met Joshua Bell after a concert he played in Hong Kong; I still have his autograph. I’m not a particular fan of his interpretations, but he’s probably the most famous musician I’ve ever met/spoken to briefly. I’ve seen many others in concert (off the top of my head, Emerson Quartet, Paul Lewis, Simon Trpceski, Simon Rattle…) Ashkenazy conducted in Hong Kong last year, but I missed that as I was at school.
He’s not really famous, but over Christmas I skied for an afternoon with JT Holmes (friend of Shane McConkey) and a group of others; it must have been some kind publicity thing by Squaw Valley.
I’ll see if any more come to me..
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24.8.1
Selenium the Quafflebird
in January 30th, 2014 @ 16:42Oh, I did actually briefly meet all four members of the Emerson (before the new cellist) and Simon Trpceksi. Not that it really matters.
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24.9
Cello-Playing Mathematician (AKA Kyra)
in January 30th, 2014 @ 17:47I got my picture taken with John Barrowman at a convention… it wasn’t one of those crazy pictures because he wasn’t doing a photo op, but it was a picture.
I think that’s it, actually. Whelp.
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24.10
Randomosity101
in January 30th, 2014 @ 21:19When I was little I got autographs from the guys on the kid’s show Zaboomafoo. More recently I got an autographed book from Russ Woody. (He’s a published author who also writes for a lot of TV shows, so I kinda think that makes him a celebrity of a sort.)
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24.10.1
KaiYves
in January 31st, 2014 @ 09:39You met the guys from Zaboomafoo? Awesome!
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25
KaiYves
in January 27th, 2014 @ 21:25Today we remember Apollo 1 astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee, killed in an electrical fire during training on January 27, 1967.
Ad Astra Per Aspera.
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Lizzie
in January 28th, 2014 @ 07:34rip, pete seeger. what an amazing life.
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26.1
Cat's Meow
in January 29th, 2014 @ 02:24My math professor titled his blackboard “What Did You Learn In School?” today, and when he mentioned that it was in honor of Pete Seeger, only a few people knew who that was.
R.I.P.
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27
Lizzie
in January 28th, 2014 @ 07:41I guess i kind of thought he was immortal
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27.1
oxlin
in January 28th, 2014 @ 09:38Yeah. I’m going to miss him.
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27.2
Rebecca Lasley (Administrator)
in January 28th, 2014 @ 11:10Same here.
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KaiYves
in January 28th, 2014 @ 19:03Today we remember the crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger, Francis “Dick” Scobee, Michael Smith, Ronald McNair, Judith Resnik, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe, lost on January 28, 1986.
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28.1
Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in January 28th, 2014 @ 20:38We do.
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FantasyFan?!?!
in January 28th, 2014 @ 21:26Today school was canceled early, because of the great quantity of one inch of snow. It’s canceled tomorrow too. As a Midwesterner living in the South this struck me as…odd. Although I’m not complaining. Now I can catch up on my to-do list.
Georgia has only 3 snowplows in the entire state, apparently. Presumably they have a similar amount of salt trucks, since the reason everything is closing is because if they can’t clear the snow in time, it’ll ice over and that will be dangerous. If they had salt trucks, they could salt the roads and the snow would just melt. It’s not that cold.
I just…one inch. People here are really not prepared for winter weather.
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29.1
Luna the Lovely
in January 28th, 2014 @ 22:11They cancelled school in Florida for the mere threat of “extremely cold” (mid twenties at lowest, hardly extreme) weather and the threat of sleet/occasional snowflake/possible freezing rain
It’s kid if ridiculous. It’s currently stil above freezing. And everytime somebody talks about how it’s supposedto be “extremely cold” tomorrow it’s really hard to keep a straight face. I think the theoretical low is 25. Which is cold, sure, but not extreme. It’s gotta be zero or lower for extremely cold to even begin to apply.
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29.1.1
Hummingbird
in January 29th, 2014 @ 00:36The temperature is floating around from the low sixties to low seventies here. Which means I still have to go to school and no one takes me seriously when I talk about how cold I am. Grr.
As far as the terminology of “cold” goes, I consider temperatures in the forties and fifties to be terrifyingly extremely cold, so…..I don’t really have much of a point to make there. But my skin is dry and I’m not used to temperatures below seventies-eighties so I feel everyone’s pain! Kinda. Somewhat. Not really.
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29.1.2
oxlin
in January 29th, 2014 @ 09:13Where you are, maybe, or where I am. But in Florida the average low is around 40-60 degrees Farenheit (depending on the region of Florida) in the winter. People probably don’t have the same big jackets, scarves, mittens, hats that you do, especially if they can’t afford it. If they are waiting for the bus, their bodies aren’t as used to the 25F weather and they’re not wearing as many layers. 25F can still give you frostbite. Sure, I would be feeling warm in 25F, but I’m from the north, not Florida. And I have a nice warm winter coat, a good scarf, mittens, and a hat.
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29.1.2.1
Luna the Lovely
in January 29th, 2014 @ 16:58Oh I don’t argue that it’s unusually cold. I just don’t feel it’s “extremely” cold. To me unusually cold=/=extremely cold.
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29.1.2.1.1
Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in January 29th, 2014 @ 17:43*usage hat* Actually, you mean you don’t deny that it’s cold. Arguing that it’s cold means asserting that it is cold — the opposite of what you had in mind.
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29.1.2.1.1.1
Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in January 30th, 2014 @ 02:12(Long experience, however, has given me a reasonably good feel for unstoppable linguistic changes, and I strongly suspect that this is one. Once people start thinking of “argument” as meaning primsrily “a dispute” instead of “a body of logically connected statements invoked to support an assertion,” they’re bound to want to use the corresponding verb differently, too. It’s a natural shift, even if it makes old-timers like me cringe.)
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29.2
Agent Lightning
in January 29th, 2014 @ 11:29My county (in NC) decided to cancel school yesterday, but it didn’t start snowing till 6. Now we’re completely snowed in.
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KaiYves
in January 29th, 2014 @ 07:29I dreamed I exposed an evil plot by the Boy Scouts to rule the world using a teleportation machine and got a parade and all of these other awesome things. It was a fun dream.
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30.1
Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in January 29th, 2014 @ 09:03Kai has the best dreams of anybody I know.
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30.2
Catwings
in January 29th, 2014 @ 14:07I dreamed thrice in three nights:
The first night, I dreamed I got a mod in Minecraft, which was the Nether Queen mod. Not sure if this is an actual mod, but…
You had to shoot pumpkins on top of these revolving pedistals to hurt the female ghast queen (Who had feminine eyes and lipstick). But, if you get too close to her, she spazes out, and spins and twists everywhere, blowing up everything in her path.
Then, the queen sends out for pirate ships to shoot at you, and Endermen to toss blocks at you…The second night, I dreamed I was strangely teleported to the basement of this mansion… and there was an owl from Legend of the Guardians, the movie, Dory from Finding Nemo (Which I haven’t seen since I was four), and Gollum from Lord of the Rings… and we apparently went through this strange adventure to escape the odd mansion with its many traps and flooding basements.
And then the third night, I dreamed I was on my computer watching a Metallica music video, and James (singer) looked oddly like my cousin Shannon (With Shannon’s hair and hat).
And the song that went with it… I’m pretty sure they don’t have a song like that out. Either that, or I have ESP and they will have a song out like that sometime.
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30.2.1
KaiYves
in January 29th, 2014 @ 17:04And Catwings has the best dreams of anyone I know.
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Cello-Playing Mathematician (AKA Kyra)
in January 29th, 2014 @ 11:15It’s 18 degrees F now! Which means I don’t have to wear my scarf wrapped around my face anymore. When it’s 2 degrees outside it’s pretty much mandatory for me; I have a big nose.
I have a ten-minute walk to my classes every day, so it was sort of fun to see how numb my legs got while walking. I only have one pair of long underwear, and when I did wear them they didn’t help very much.
I’m really hoping that these past two days were the last really cold days for a while. Looks like the rest of this week will be in the twenties.
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Randomosity101
in January 29th, 2014 @ 12:37The bunny emoticons once again look like bunnies to me. I wonder how long that has been the case, since I hadn’t really looked at them in a while.
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32.1
Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in January 29th, 2014 @ 13:27Oh, days and days.
Piggy’s pies, too:
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32.1.1
Piggy
in January 29th, 2014 @ 14:37Oh, I was thinking–if I sent you a version of the pies with a transparent background instead of the white, would you be able to swap them out without too much trouble? It’s been bugging me for years but somehow I’ve never taken the five minutes to fix it.
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32.1.1.1
Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in January 29th, 2014 @ 15:30That would be easy to do. In fact, only sheer laziness has kept me from turning them transparent myself.
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32.1.1.1.1
Piggy
in January 29th, 2014 @ 18:00Did you get the links? It seems my comments are in the Trash section, which either means you saw them and grabbed the links, or the software decided I was suspicious.
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32.1.1.1.1.1
Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in January 29th, 2014 @ 18:12The former. Thanks!
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32.1.1.1.1.2
Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in January 30th, 2014 @ 07:05Righto, all installed. I had to convert the PNG file to a GIF file, but that was no problem.
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33
Fortune Cell (Julia)
in January 29th, 2014 @ 17:04Good news! I have a tentative date for when I’ll be getting my new archery equipment, which was a Christmas present.
Bad news! It’s the end of February. As far as I can tell, the only thing that’s still backordered is the riser (Hoyt Grand Prix Horizon Pro, purple), which is…pretty crucial to the whole set-up.
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KaiYves
in January 29th, 2014 @ 19:02So today I finally got to ice skate at the Fitness Center, and I can’t even remember when I last skated, but I remembered enough to be able to “walk” around without falling as soon as I got onto the rink. I guess it’s just that it’s similar to rollerblading? It was a lot of fun!
And then my food anthropology class went to an ice cream parlor in Cambridge run by a friend of the professor’s who looks like Maurice Krafft, which is sort of ironic.
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Luna the Lovely
in January 30th, 2014 @ 15:23We just got an email from the administration at my vet school telling us that it’a a violation of copyright for us to post any verbatim text on flashcards sites like study blue, or any pictures/media. And that if we were to get permission from a teacher, we must password protect the flashcards. And that we could get in trouble with the university’s IT or in legal trouble for copyright violation. What the cake? I mean, seriously? It’s not like anyone is selling them or claiming the content as their own. And what happened to loopholes in copyright for educational purposes? And who the cake really cares? If we’re gonna worry about copyright violations, aren’t their bigger ones to worry about than the harmless reproduction of lectures in flashcard format to study for exams??????? And what the big deal if the general public could potentially access our flashcards?????
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FantasyFan?!?!
in January 31st, 2014 @ 00:57I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna go out and buy a toilet scrubber thing and clean the toilet in my dorm. I’m tired of looking at it and the layers of brown scum that coat the inside.
Maybe I should go buy a broom too. The floor could use sweeping. Or vacuuming.
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36.1
Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in January 31st, 2014 @ 02:53It’s official: today you are a grownup.
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36.1.1
FantasyFan?!?!
in January 31st, 2014 @ 10:52I don’t know how I should feel about this.
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36.1.1.1
Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in January 31st, 2014 @ 11:25Ecstatic? Rhapsodic? Tickled pink?
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36.1.1.1.1
FantasyFan?!?!
in January 31st, 2014 @ 12:09Being tickled pink, at least, sounds like a horrible new method of bunnification. I hope you are not trying to imply that with adulthood comes transmogrification into hot pink lagomorphs via the application of gargalesis, because if that’s the case, I want out. Also, the toilet shall never be cleaned.
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36.1.1.1.1.1
Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in January 31st, 2014 @ 14:46It’s a different shade. Scrub without fear.
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36.2
KaiYves
in January 31st, 2014 @ 09:40Good luck with the cleaning, it feels so satisfying to be in a place you cleaned.
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Selenium the Quafflebird
in January 31st, 2014 @ 03:46Happy Chinese New Year!
My parents are in China with my grandparents/extended family. I wish I could be there too; instead I’m stuck in England where we’re having a horridly wet January. History coursework due on Monday so I’m working away at that. I’ve got a detailed plan, now it’s a question of finding the motivation to actually sit down and crank through it.
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37.1
KaiYves
in January 31st, 2014 @ 09:41We had a special dinner at the dining hall last night, the fried rice was delicious.
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37.1.1
Selenium the Quafflebird
in January 31st, 2014 @ 15:25Nice! I wish I could say the same about the Chinese lunch (“Chinese” lunch) our school dining room provided today. At least I can make my own fried rice instead.
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37.1.1.1
oxlin
in January 31st, 2014 @ 15:28My co-worker who went to high school in Shanghai brought in pineapple cakes.
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37.1.1.1.1
Selenium the Quafflebird
in January 31st, 2014 @ 16:57Ugh, so envious.
Although in food-related news, I poached an egg for the first time ever today, and it was successful!
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Catwings
in January 31st, 2014 @ 13:19Handy Water Glass: ✔
Ideas: ✔
Characters: ✔
Character Designs: ✔
Writing Mood: ✔
Good Music: ✔
Plot: ✔
Words:
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KaiYves
in January 31st, 2014 @ 20:43I feel bad that I don’t read Sky and Telescope and Astronomy now as much as I did in High School, but back then I could go into the school library whenever I was free and read them for free and now they’re only at the campus bookstore and I have to buy them… also, I lost my cool red Jacques Cousteau hat…
But I finished “Into the Silence”, so I feel good about that.
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