(Ballard Street via GoComics.com)
.
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Back in the 1980s, Stan Mack had a “Real Life Funnies” cartoon explaining the Asshole Truck. I wish that strip was availabe on his website, because nothing so well expresses the day I’ve had.
So… what’s it like in your neighborhood tonight?
PsiFighter37
About to exercise. Done so every day since New Year’s…need to get back in shape after slacking off at the end of the year. I do P90X…so please do not hate me. I started doing it before I had any idea Paul Ryan did so.
Walker
Just finished A Memory of Light. Now The pressure is all on GRRM.
Mnemosyne
I got through a full day of work after flying back from Phoenix last night. Later tonight, I get to discuss the details of my dad’s will and financial situation with my brother. Fun! G already has a hard cider on ice for me.
TheMightyTrowel
still dealing with fallout from major admin clusterfuck in my dept. All I want to do is drink. At least the bushfires are mostly extinguished.
@Walker: I really really really tried to love Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy. I enjoyed Elantris (even if it ended too quickly) but I just could not get into Mist Born at all. I know people love him. I don’t get it. Insight?
PsiFighter37
Oh, and I’m about 100 pages into Ender’s Game. Not supremely impressed yet…will wait to see how the rest of the book plays out before passing judgment, but I am a bit disappointed given the good things I had heard about the book.
Mnemosyne
@PsiFighter37:
I think it’s one of those books that was really amazing at the time, but has been imitated and improved on so much since it was published that it doesn’t entirely hold up. Sort of like how Godard’s Breathless doesn’t look as revolutionary today as it did at the time because everyone else started imitating it.
Pinkamena Panic
Spent the day being a lazy hump since I was off work. Am now in the process of trying to procure some TF2 items so I can work the awful, terrible magic that is crafting.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Trying to figure out how to prove that there are an infinite number of primes of the form 6n+1. It’s actually a lot easier to prove there are an infinite number of primes of the form 6n+5 (6n-1).
dr. bloor
Stan Mack = Brilliant. I still have a stack of yellowed strips from the Village Voice c. 80’s in my files.
Keith G
As some of you have learned, I work with a nonprofit hospice that serves those afflicted by HIV/AIDS. Its a wonderful place and we do important work.
This year’s Houston Marathon may choose us to receive some of the proceeds. What “may” happen will be determined by votes tallied at the marathon’s blog site.
Should you wish to help, just visit here and scroll down to “Bering Omega Community Services” and vote.
Of course if you see causes on the list that you are affiliated with or care about, give them your support. There’s a bunch of good groups on that list.
Here is more info about the good folks with whom I work.
arguingwithsignposts
Only a few days until NHL hockey picks up again. I have mixed feelings.
ranchandsyrup
Oh yeah the asshole truck. The one that Scott Brown drives and brags about.
Mnemosyne
@efgoldman:
I think I need a t-shirt that says “Congress — Less Popular than Nickelback”
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: This, of course, raises the important question: What is less popular, cockroaches or Nickelback?
aangus
@Mnemosyne:
Ding, ding, ding!
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Omnes Omnibus: I would love to be as
richunpopular as Nickelback.Pinkamena Panic
@Omnes Omnibus: Cockroaches have a place in the ecosystem.
Litlebritdifrnt
My DH has decided that he must get down to 160lbs, he is at 190lbs right now, he works out three time a week, 3 hours a work out, I am not sure how I can cut his diet to get him to where he wants to be short of murdering him. Although thinking about it if I can stop him whining about him not being 160lbs then murdering him might be worth it.
the Conster
After watching 4 seasons in a row – basically 50+ episodes – of Breaking Bad, I think my favorite line so far is Walt’s statement to Hank that “I’m done justifying my life to anybody”. As big a monster as Walt has become, that simple declarative statement has burrowed into my cerebral cortex and has become my own personal mantra at the age of 57.
MonkeyBoy
That Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen pretty much
rips-offpays homage to George Booth’s concept of dogs.Luna Sea
I don’t ever post here (well, really rarely), and don’t mean to bring down the thread with sadness, but my brother died yesterday, after over 26 years living with HIV/AIDS. We were always really close, and I took care of him through every illness, every new drug, every side effect. He was at the brink of death so often, always made it through. We had the support of our sisters and parents, but it was still the two of us against the world. Then his personality began to change, maybe due to meds, maybe just life, and after a series of fights I couldn’t handle it anymore. He moved away, then my parents died, there was more fighting, and we stopped talking to each other. We hadn’t talked for 9 years. I hope he understood I still loved him, I just couldn’t carry the both of us anymore.
I miss his sense of humor, the kindness he could show at times, even though he sometimes balanced it with amazing cruelty. I miss the man he was. I miss my big brother.
Sorry, everybody, I just needed to put this out there somewhere, and this is the only community I know.
Comrade Jake
It would seem that Obama might need to borrow those binders Romney’s holding onto.
Who knew the President was such a misogynistic pig? #sarcasm
redshirt
@Litlebritdifrnt: A single 3 hour workout sounds extreme, and maybe counter-productive. Better to have 3 1 hour sessions than 1 3 hour.
JGabriel
Daily Kos had an article on PPP polling the popularity of Congress, compared to various things like Donald Trump and cockroaches — Congress less popular than both, by the way.
However, I suspect the methodology may have been flawed. For the life of me, I can’t understand how Congress, particularly the House GOP, could possibly be more popular than Gonorrhea.
It just makes no damn sense.
.
MaryJane
Tonight’s meeting ends my four-year stint as Secretary for our local Democratic Club. Due to a change in my work schedule necessitated by husband’s health problems, I can’t commit to the duties this year. It’s bittersweet; I’ll miss the fired-up feeling I always leave with, but tired of the same old ideas and grand ambitions that never play out. But for a small club, we did do a great job at voter registration last year. I’m proud of that.
22over7
I just finished reading 300+ entries in the comment thread over at Politico, concerning the Alex Jones appearance on Piers Morgan’s show.
I learned so much. I learned that the KKK and the New Black Panthers are in cahoots with the Democratic Party, and that only 300 or so people died of gunfire in 2011. One fellow had a little trouble writing, and when he was castigated for it, responded that it was petty to insult his punctuality.
As Saint Molly once said, it’s like opening your refrigerator and finding Fidel Castro in it. You just don’t know what to think.
MonkeyBoy
@PsiFighter37:
That book and the related ones are rather monarchist/randian/social-darwinist. The hero and his family are superior because they were born that way with the bestest blood/genes.
Comrade Jake
@22over7:
Heh – I did some of the same this morning. Really not much better than your typical comments at a CNN political ticker post. Lotta nutjobs out there.
Pooh
@Litlebritdifrnt: have you tried Paleo? Have him try eating basically just meat and veg for a month. Ymmv, but I dropped about 20 lbs in 6 weeks combining that with a heavy workout regimen, though I’m a bit bigger than he is (190 is my idealish weight).
Suffern ACE
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): hmm. Have you thought about statistical sampling? Or demanding the formula shut the fuck up? That solves a lot of problems, especially if your the type of formula who likes to avoid conflict and won’t bring it up again.
Walker
@TheMightyTrowel:
Mistborn is okay, but I am not a fan. Way of Kings, on the other hand, is awesome.
cckids
@TheMightyTrowel:
I’m reading it now, at the urging of my daughter, who loved it. It took some getting into, I agree. I just finished the second book, and I enjoyed seeing the (semi) realistic problems the rebels had in setting up an actual working society, one that had been led by a tyrant for thousands of years. The end of The Well of Ascension (2nd book) is wonderful, hair-raising & touching. Really makes me want to finish the trilogy.
Give Mistborn some time, the characters may grow on you, they did for me. But I’m a character-driven reader, so there’s that. Love Sazed, in particular.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@MonkeyBoy: And yet they still had to put the youngest through the toughest training regimen ever, and had to worry about him being a psychopath.
Superman had pretty good genes, and Batman had a pretty nice trust fund. Do you find those flawed as well? And just think of all of the mutants in Marvel.
Felinious Wench
Discovered The Dresden Files series over the holiday. Digging into Book 6 and trying not to think about information security requirements for Level 2 government data centers.
FW +2
Maude
@Mnemosyne:
I hope things settle soon and my condolences.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf Was far more startling that Breathless. Breathless was artsy fartsy. And dull.
In Woolf there’s a scene where you hear her yelling from inside of the house. It is chilling.
mainmati
@Mnemosyne: Agreed “Enders Game” is a classic but is now dated, in some ways. Modern SciFi, (cyber punk and more deeply psychological scifi genres) are (or can be) more compelling.
Mandalay
The latest in phone technology.
Does the world really need a phone that you can submerge in two feet of water for half an hour? Or will we soon be whining that what we actually need is a phone that can be submerged in thirty feet of boiling oil for a week?
handsmile
@Mnemosyne:
Re Breathless
Perhaps not as evidently revolutionary for the reasons you describe, but it’s still one of the greatest films of the past 50 years. A work that changed narrative cinema. Sight and Sound‘s recent “Critics’ Top 250 Films” poll ranked it at #13, surpassed by only 2001: A Space Odyssey (#6) and 8-1/2 (#10) in that time period.
http://explore.bfi.org.uk/sightandsoundpolls/2012
(I seem to recall this is a subject on which we have disagreed before.) :)
MikeJ
@TheMightyTrowel:
Literal or figurative?
Hob
@MonkeyBoy: I can’t tell if you’re objecting to the idea that several child prodigies could come from one family, or to the idea that child prodigies are “better” people. Card really doesn’t propose the latter, since Ender’s brother isn’t a good person at all, and Ender himself only becomes a good person (as opposed to just a sheltered, naïve one) after he decides to atone for a horrible crime. And once he gets out of school, Ender is never in a leadership position— although people see him as sort of a spiritual leader, but that’s based on his philosophical writing about empathy, which is about as un-Randian as you can get.
I have lots of problems with Card’s world view, but belief in a natural aristocracy just isn’t something I see in his writing– at least up through the mid-’90s which is when I stopped reading all his stuff.
Mnemosyne
@Litlebritdifrnt:
The first question for ambitions like that should always be: has he ever been 160, or is this a number in his head that he’s always wanted to get to? I want to get back to 130, but I’ve been there before and know I can do it and that it’s realistic for me. Sometimes people have numbers in their heads that they want to see on the scale that are unsustainable.
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
I think most superhero stories are Randian by nature. People accused The Incredibles of it even though there were really, really big hints at the theme (say “Nomanisan Island” out loud).
nellcote
@MaryJane:
thank you for your service.
sincerely.
Mnemosyne
@handsmile:
Yes, it’s true — I do not like the French New Wave, and most of it bores me to tears.
I do tend to like Truffaut’s films, but Godard’s mostly make me want to punch him in the throat for being a pompous ass who’s not nearly as clever as he thinks he is.
Yutsano
@MikeJ: Hopefully the answer is yes.
mainmati
@redshirt: Agreed. Reps at lower power levels matter more than one big endurance session. It’s all about gradually building fitness and tone.
amk
@efgoldman: These ‘polls’ are meaningless since the voters keep sending the same assholes back year after year.
Maude
@Mnemosyne:
#49 You said better than me. thx.
Hob
@Mnemosyne: Most superhero stories either ignore the existence of non-super people (i.e. they’re just about super people beating each other up in increasingly impossible ways), or propose that the supers have a sacred duty to serve and protect the non-supers, even at the risk of being misunderstood and unappreciated. Rand would say that the non-supers are worth nothing except to the degree that they kiss the supers’ asses, and that civilization prior to the advent of superheroes did not exist.
Walker
@cckids:
Sanderson has a lot a female fans because he is a bit of a rarity: a male fantasy writer that writes female characters well.
MikeJ
@Yutsano: Too hot in Oz to use iphones today.
http://www.wired.com/design/2013/01/australia-temperature-map/
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Mnemosyne: Do you think Jesus is Randian? One of the things I find interesting about a lot of the modern superhero stories is the reconciliation of their power with responsibility to society. I particularly enjoyed Marvel’s clash of mutants with the rest of humanity. The Elementals was also another good series dealing with the concept if unrequested power.
Mnemosyne
@Maude:
My pompous film school graduate answer is that I prefer Samuel Fuller, who people like Godard were imitating to more critical acclaim.
:-)
The Big Red One was his big budget “respectable” film, but I prefer the unrespectable ones like Shock Corridor or Underworld USA. There’s also a great documentary about him called The Typewriter, The Rifle & the Gun that includes a scene with Quentin Tarantino going through Fuller’s garage with him and looking at the props he saved.
Cassidy
@Litlebritdifrnt: The paleo is a good suggestion or vegetarian will work as well. I’m assuming he’s lifting weights as well as a substantial cardio. I would suggest, move the cardio to his off days, if time permits, and decrease the weight and start doing a modified 5×5 of low weights/ hi reps, probably in the vicinity of 5 sets of 25 reps. Or, he can ditch the resistance altogether and do bodyweight tabata.
? Martin
@Mandalay:
The number of cell phones that go through the washing machine or get dropped in sinks and toilets, pools, puddles, flood damage – is in the ballpark of 2 million per year.
Put another way, we sell about 150 million smartphones annually, at an average price of $250 each. Two million damaged phones is (potentially) $500M in economic losses. If you can waterproof the phone for about $3.00, economically, the world breaks even. If you can do it for $25, you can easily get consumers to buy it as insurance against a potential loss of 10x that value.
So yeah, we legitimately need that. One of the few things at CES we probably do need.
redshirt
The Mutants should totally take over. Magneto is right. If you’ve got all these super powers and YET you are being persecuted and discriminated against, why wouldn’t you fight back if you could?
Or even, aiding and abetting your people’s persecutors?! X-Men are fascist tools. MUTANT POWER!
PsiFighter37
@MonkeyBoy: I probably need to read more, since the only thing I know about the family at this point is that Ender’s older brother is an asshole, and he cares the most about his sister. His parents basically seem like placeholders at this point for parental units.
Cassidy
@redshirt: They’re outnumbered and most aren’t bulletproof. And Sentinels.
? Martin
@redshirt:
IOW, Magneto would make a fucking monster of a platinum coin and not look back.
Linnaeus
Rain and wind (another day in the great Pacific Northwest) and I’m making pasta with red clam sauce.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
How did I not know until today that Elvis and Nixon had the same birthday?
sharl
FYI, for those of us without a TV but an intertoobz connection, there is a Twitter chat that started around 10pm for tonight’s Frontline show on education “reform”, featuring Michelle Rhee [see earlier posts by Kay (today) and Anne Laurie (last night)].
link for hash tag #Frontline
link for hash tag #EdChat
Just started following them myself, so cannot speak as to the value of the feeds.
ETA: Ooh, there’s also a #rheechat.
Suzanne
I am trying to relax after a stressful couple of days. I am currently designing a new geropsych unit for a hospital, and the deadlines are, shall we say, aggressive. This is the first time I’ve run a design/construction project myself and it is an experience.
AND. While reviewing my daughter’s homework tonight, I saw that the worksheet her teacher provided contained this racial slur. GOOD LORD.
JoyfulA
I took my first father-in-law a stromboli for lunch for his birthday (a tradition), came home and worked enough to stay on schedule to pay the bills, and am now taking my meds from India out of the foil pockets they come in and into pill bottles before going to bed and reading about Greenland in Diamond’s Collapse.
Pooh
@Mnemosyne: good point.
Pooh
@Cassidy: invoking tabata makes me want to punch someone in the face.
Schlemizel
@efgoldman:
But how about they ask “Do you like YOUR congressperson?”
I bet you a dime that a very large majority love their own rep. Its all those other slugs that are the problem.
The popularity of “Congress” is totally irrelevant. As long as the morans luvs them some wingnut we will have to suffer with the asshole running the body. There is a joke about that but its longish and I’m not feeling funny about this mess.
JoyfulA
And I just sold my third used book this evening, which will make a heavy bag for the post office. Today I sold only one.
Punchy
@MikeJ: Its damn hot if it’s melting a goddamn iPhone. Also too, reason #294 why the Sammy Gal Trey is a better callbox
Allen
Well, I don’t know about anyone else, but I hit my normal 8:00 P.M. bedtime a little early only to hear my Tunch sized cat (Kitzel, the Shy.) laying kitty puke land mines for me when I get up at Oh dark hundred next morning. She (the cat) has decided the best way she can have me find these little treasures is to place them where I am most likely to find them, my morning path to the bathroom. Yes, it works well on barefoot morning jaunts in the dark. Oh joy, what fun.
RedKitten
@Suzanne: Holy shit. Seriously.
MonkeyBoy
@Belafon (formerly anonevent), @Hob, @Mnemosyne
Yes, I’m objecting to the very large cannon of stories where superior people turn out to be superior because because they have magic blood and are expected to act importantly and be leaders and kings, and kings by definition are naturally superior because of their superior inheritance.
Those are some of the earliest stories recorded and have been encouraged by kings to promote their natural right to rule. Fairy tales are full of this theme. In particular you can find the story of the baby royal who is sent to be raised by peasants but because of his royal blood rises to take his “natural” place – examples include “The Ugly Duckling” and “Star Wars”.
Too much of modern science fiction and fantasy is based on the fairy tale model and its emphasis of magic blood. Any fantasy of the future that involves Kings or Emperors depends on this trope. Hell, the recent super popular sub-genres of vampires and zombies are based on the magic blood idea but with the twist that normal people can be infected with the blood magic.
Blood magic is a monarchist/social-Darwinist/randian superiority trope and I would prefer to read fiction that doesn’t indoctrinate me in it.
ruemara
I’m beat. My plan is to cobble together a passable article, visit azeroth and sleep enough so I am highly functioning for work tomorrow. A question for the more internationally traveled amoungst us. Did you ever move a pet? How did that work out?
sharl
Five Questions for John Merrow, longtime PBS Newshour education reporter and also behind tonight’s Frontline show.
? Martin
@Punchy:
GSIII has the same operating temperature range. Samsung just doesn’t bother telling you that except in the fine print of the operating manual.
RedKitten
I’m just playing the waiting game now. 38 weeks pregnant, and waddling around like Danny DeVito’s depiction of The Penguin. Once the baby’s born and I’m settled into the new routine, I’m going to seriously start exercising. Experiencing so much exhaustion and limited mobility (and diabetes) while pregnant has given me a rather frightening sneak preview of what my every day will be like in 10 years (or fewer) if I don’t start being more active and eating more healthfully. Scary shit. Plus, when your bff dies at age 37, you realize that life is pretty fucking short, so why shortchange it by being too fat and tired to go and do stuff?
MikeJ
@Mnemosyne: @Mnemosyne:
Goddard knew he was imitating, and neither he nor Truffaut thought they were making more than entertaining movies (at least some of the time). I don’t like everything he ever did, but Two or Three Things, Band of Outsiders, Alphaville.
Truffaut was always entertaining, and Godard was when he wasn’t trying to be important. Hell, I even like a lot of them where he was trying (La Chinoise), but I can see how they aren’t for everybody.
Speaking of someone who wants to make entertainment and knows everything about the people he’s imitating, I finally got a chance to see Django Unchained today. Wish I hadn’t waited so long.
Allen
@? Martin: One year, while going on a rafting trip in a remote part of Idaho, I decided that it would be a good idea to take my cell phone (the only one on the trip who had one, at the time. Figured that at least one of us would be able to hike to a ridge line and get a cell site. Well, one morning while packing for the next days journey I spilt a cup of coffee on the cell phone, which killed it. The beginning of a long struggle with AT&T to buy a replacement phone without signing a new contract.
sharl
FRONTLINE show is available online: The Education of Michelle Rhee.
Suzanne
@RedKitten: Is that not TOTALLY ludicrous and horrible?! I wrote her teacher an email about it, and was like, “I wanted to let you know that there was a racist term in the homework tonight, I’m sure this was an oversight…” blah blah blah. I really like her teacher, so I really hope this was an accident.
Hang in there. You and Tom Petty both know that the waiting is the hardest part. And hatching the second one is easier, so yay.
sharl
Roger Moore
@efgoldman:
I said it earlier; if they keep that shit up, they need to spin off a branch as Public Policy Trolling, because that’s what they’re doing.
MattR
@Roger Moore: I do think its funny that of all the options polled (hair lice, Genghis Khan, the Kardashians, Nickelback, North Korea, ebola, root canals, etc) the thing that Congress does the best against is “meth labs”. People favor Congress over meth labs by 39 points, 60-21.
Yutsano
@Allen: I will say this one slightly good thing about AT & T: when you shell out for the insurance the replacement is cheap plus it doesn’t extend your contract. Which iss fine because I’m about to dump them like a hot mess.
PsiFighter37
Song of the evening: “Homecoming” by Green Day, from “American Idiot”. Both it and its sister 9-minute, multi-part song “Jesus of Suburbia”, are overlooked parts of that album.
I do also like “Whatshername”, mainly because I am a sucker for depressing songs like that. It’s a perfect way of ending what has probably been one of the most complete and listenable albums for me this century.
And with that, I’m off to sleep. 3 days to the weekend!
Mnemosyne
@Suzanne:
Um. Wow. Since the picture with it is some kind of Viking, I’m assuming it was written by someone who is not familiar with American idiomatic English (like, say, India or another English-familiar but not American English-familiar country). I would definitely bring it to the teacher’s attention.
@MonkeyBoy:
Though, frankly, the “royal blood” theme in the Star Wars universe is something that George Lucas retconned into it later to universal disdain from fans. Say “midichlorians” to any fan who saw the original film before they saw The Phantom Menace and you will risk their spraining an eyeball. You could maybe argue that Luke was sort of like a secret aristocrat in the original trilogy, but it’s more like he was someone with secret musical talent who didn’t know his father was a musician.
Also, read some commentary about “The Ugly Duckling” — it’s actually the opposite of what you’re saying. Andersen was responding to critics who disdained him because he wasn’t an aristocrat and the story was meant to show that there could be beauty even in someone whose background was not noble. You can disagree about whether Andersen was successful, but that was what he meant to write. (See some of Maria Tatar’s commentary about the story in her books.)
sharl
Grand Dame of education policy Diane Ravitch commented on tonight’s PBS Rhee special – link. Some excerpts:
? Martin
@Suzanne:
She didn’t write the handout. It came from the publisher. My kids’ are chosen by a curriculum group – all the teachers from one grade use the same handouts – so it might have been some other teacher that chose it.
My daughter got one a few weeks about that mentioned the population of the Soviet Union. It was printed in 1981. The teachers got a good laugh out of that.
PsiFighter37
@Mnemosyne: Goddamn midichlorians. That, along with JJ Binks, really makes the movie intolerable. And since he also votes to give Palpatine unlimited powers in AOTC, it really does end up being all his fault, too.
James E. Powell
@MonkeyBoy:
Thank you. I don’t object enough to keep from reading any of these kinds of books, but this is the reason that I did not enjoy Tolkien as much as nearly everyone I know did.
Roger Moore
@Mandalay:
I’d like a phone that can survive being dropped in water, because accidents happen. If it can survive for half an hour in two feet of water, then being dropped in a puddle should be no problem.
Roger Moore
@? Martin:
I’d bet it’s the battery that they’re worried about. Lithium batteries store a ton of energy, and have been known to burst into flame when abused. Operating them causes them to heat up, and doing it when they’re already hot from the environment may be a really bad idea.
JCT
@Suzanne: Holy crap. I guess it could be worse – any of Sheriff Joe’s posse of criminal “defenders” patrolling your schools? Down here in Tucson, on the 2-year Anniversary of the shooting we had dueling gun buy-backs. One was legit and the other run by some wing nut asshole who was buying them back to increase his own collection. Sigh.
Roger Moore
@MattR:
I was a bit surprised that colonoscopies did so well, though I guess they’re doing some good. When I mentioned the poll to a coworker, I got an interesting story about a medical technician encountering a patient who loudly enjoyed hers.
Old Dan and Little Ann
Chris Kluwe, the Minnesota Vikings punter was on Colbert just now. He looked like a hipster doofus with his knit cap and sandals, but he was pretty funny. He was a good voice for the NFL this year.
BAtFFP
@Luna Sea: This made me very sad to hear. Even if you can’t live with them, it’s very hard to lose someone you are so close to in spirit. I hope the week treats you gently.
? Martin
@Roger Moore: Batteries are a big part of it. Screens fail at both high and low temperatures. Some of the sensors are also sensitive to temperature.
Most lithium ion batteries cannot safely charge below freezing – particularly the pouch type that are used in cell phones. If they get too hot – a high ambient temperature and then add the heat from discharging plus the internal heat generated from the components in an enclosed space and that can trigger a kind of thermal runaway reaction that ends with the battery rupturing.
? Martin
@JCT:
That was one of your city councilmen, btw.
sharl
Another post at Diane Ravitch’s blog:
Another Halocene Human
@PsiFighter37: It takes a while to pick up, and some of the stuff about the book infuriated me, but overall I think it does kick ass.
thedean
@Luna Sea: Deepest condolences, Luna Sea, sounds like a difficult situation, which doesn’t make the loss of a loved one any easier.
ranchandsyrup
One galtian overlord is throwing a fit and taking it out on food servers
20%15%10% at a time. http://early-onset-of-night.tumblr.com/post/39981292390/left-in-lieu-of-a-tip-gotta-love-those#notesAnother Halocene Human
@Luna Sea: {{{Luna Sea}}}
jurassicpork
We Need a Good Samaritan Law For Wall Street.
Another Halocene Human
@efgoldman: And our politicians act as if they’re proud to be cheap, that cheap is some badge of honor.
Wasn’t Alabama the state that when the schools were legally segregated, proudly set the state budget for Negro education at $0?
ranchandsyrup
@Luna Sea: sorry for your loss. There aren’t words to make this better right now but we will listen whenever you need to vent.
Also, what another halocene human said @ 106 hugs.
Roger Moore
@MonkeyBoy:
Really? Because I’ve just finished re-reading the Brothers Grimm, and that is not a major theme in their fairy tails. If anything, they seem to go in for the clever and/or virtuous peasant who succeeds in winning the princess when the princes have failed.
Another Halocene Human
@MaryJane: Are you dealing with inside-Democratic-party problems, or not finding enough community allies for your initiatives
cause if it’s intranecine, I got nothin’
Another Halocene Human
wait wait wait, I got moderated for commending on Ender’s Game but blogwhoring is all blogwhore away?
FYWP
FYWP
FYWP
handsmile
@Mnemosyne:, @MikeJ:
Just now returning to this thread, and it’s late and you’ve both likely moved on to other matters, and this is probably futile, but I’d still like to write a brief defense of the French New Wave. As i know you to be a serious student of film, Mnemosyne, it’s all the more puzzling how you can state categorically “I do not like [it]'”
Those directors identified with this term (Godard, Truffaut, Rohmer, Rivette, Resnais et al) were deliberate iconoclasts who self-consciously brought aesthetic modernism to film-making. They employed innovative film techniques and experimented with narrative forms rarely seen previously in conventional cinema. Each advocated a distinctly personal style in their individual bodies of work (auteur theory).
While writing for Cahiers du cinema, they championed directors like Fuller, Hitchcock and Nicholas Ray whom they regarded as stylistic predecessors or as artists able to realize personal visions in spite of low budgets or provocative subject matter.
As filmmakers they did far more than imitate and their interest in “entertainment” was no more or less than other serious modernist artists working in other media.
Reading this over before submitting, I realize you are well aware of these points. I do have a keen interest nevertheless in supporting Godard in particular, because I believe him to be one of the most important artists of the second half of the 20th-century.
And MikeJ, it’s good to know someone else who has a kind word for La Chinoise. On the other hand, my contempt for Tarantino will have to wait for another occasion.
Here endeth the lesson. :)
ETA: A lesson that could perhaps be reduced to YMMV.
Violet
@Keith G: I clicked on the link to vote but it said voting is closed. Good luck. I hope your organization gets some of the financial support.
red dog
@? Martin: This is so you can drop it in the toilet or bath and no damage will occur…maybe
Another Halocene Human
@MonkeyBoy: That book and the related ones are rather
monarchist/randian/social-darwinistMormon. The heroand his family are superior becauseis a 1/10,000 chancethey were born that waywho nearly wasn’t bornwith the bestest blood/genesbecause teh ebbil federal gubmint’s one child rule argle bargle.It’s lucky his parents were a Mormon-Catholic couple, or that spirit baby would have been born on another world and Earth would have perished. THIS IS WHY ABORTION IS WRONG, SHEEPLE!
Yutsano
@Luna Sea: Oh man that’s rough. I hope you find some peace with him as he moves on to the next level of his existence.
Another Halocene Human
@Pooh: How did you do it? I got massive muscle cramps, headaches, and insomnia. I think mainly because I wasn’t getting enough Mg on that diet. And yes, I do eat greens and carrots. And chocolate.
Roger Moore
@ranchandsyrup:
I’ve got a tip for the asshole who left that message: don’t eat in the same restaurant twice; you might not like some of the extras that come with your food (ETA:) the second time.
Another Halocene Human
@Hob: Well, I guess it totally depends what superhero stories you read. Some of the Randian notions have been explored, especially on indie imprints. For example, JMS’ RISING STARS has characters expressing these kind of Nazi-ish ideas, although to be fair to the Nazis, and Rand, these kinds of notions belong to any group of
bozosbonobos given sufficient power:Neo-cons, the French aristocracy, Athenian citizens (even if they sometimes pretended otherwise), Junkers, the Dutch East India Company, the brothers Koch, Sylvia Brown, Pat Robertson…
Luna Sea
@Yutsano: you know, as crazy as this sounds, we’ve already had a long talk in my dreams since he died. Whether that’s my own mind trying to find some peace, or some kind of connection, I don’t know, don’t much care. Just know he was smiling, and it’s unlocking memories of better times, so that’s a comfort.
@Another Halocene Human and @ranchandsyrup: thank you so much for the much needed hugs. Getting kind of numb. Doesn’t seem real.
Another Halocene Human
@Cassidy: ya, lifting isn’t really going to make you lose weight
unless you go on the holocaust diet
potato peel soup
water
potato peel soup
get dysentery
Hob
@MonkeyBoy: That’s all well and good, but what does it have to do with Ender’s Game? Ender doesn’t have “magic blood.” He’s a very precocious kid whose two siblings are also very precocious; such people do exist. He doesn’t have any other unusually smart relatives. He’s “expected to act importantly” by the military school because he did well on their tests and they think he can do a particular job; he only gets good at it because they train him really hard. He doesn’t become any kind of political leader.
It’s fine if you don’t like the book, but what you’re describing is not that book.
@Another Halocene Human: Well yeah, of course there have been some comics like that; it’s a pretty natural idea for someone to want to play with. But the claim was that most superhero comics are “Randian by nature.”
Another Halocene Human
@redshirt: I thought X-Men First Class was a nicely nuanced take on this.
Look, even Napoleon was able to take over
the worldmost of Europe but he wasn’t exactly able to keep it, was he?AA+ Bonds
FUCKIN POST OF THE YEAR, RIGHT HERE
AHAHAHAHAHA OH SWEET LORD I CAN DIE HAPPY…. Teens! They’re cuckoo for CONGRESS.
MonkeyBoy
@James E. Powell:
Yes, Tolkien was fairly right-wing/monarchist/religious. His conflicts involved a disruption of the “natural order” which had inherently wise kings at the top and happy peasants proud to be subjects at the bottom. – Pure top down propaganda.
I don’t know if Tolkien would have become so popular in the 1960s and 70s if a large part of his audience weren’t pot smokers who non-discriminatorily enjoyed fantasies.
Another Halocene Human
@sharl: rhee is not getting a good grade
Another Halocene Human
@Suzanne: I’m going to choose to file that under the category of Joker’s boners.
Yutsano
@Luna Sea: If you believe (as I do) that death is just moving on to another phase of existence, then what you’re describing is not all that unusual. I swear on occasion I will hear my grandmother’s voice in a store yet she’s been departed for over three years now.
Another Halocene Human
@Allen: Cats: too bitey to love, too stringy to eat.
ranchandsyrup
@Roger Moore: The word asshole gets tossed around casually but that guy is a true gaping asshole. Ingesting excrement is far too easy on him.
Another Halocene Human
@MonkeyBoy: Fairy tales are full of this theme. In particular you can find the story of the baby royal who is sent to be raised by peasants but because of his royal blood rises to take his “natural” place – examples include “The Ugly Duckling” and “Star Wars”.
Wait wait wait–seriously? SERIOUSLY?
Star Wars? Yes. A thousand times yes. The UGLY DUCKLING?!
It’s a 19th century children’s story (not a fairy tale, which were folk tales collected by ethnographers) written by a GAY MAN about a child who is mocked and misunderstood his whole life but finds his REAL FAMILY as an adult WOW I WONDER WHAT THAT’S SUPPOSED TO MEAN.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Luna Sea:
My condolences on the loss of your brother.
AA+ Bonds
@MonkeyBoy:
It’s pretty much un-American to think otherwise than you do IMO; Americans who are not basically disturbed by blood inheritance are questionable as democrats
Another Halocene Human
@MonkeyBoy: Hell, the recent super popular sub-genres of vampires and zombies are based on the magic blood idea but with the twist that normal people can be infected with the blood magic.
Most zombie stuff looks like nihilist/anarchist fantasies to me, but YMMV.
Of course, the only zombie movie I really liked was Sean of the Dead, and there’s certainly nothing special about Sean.
I mean, besides being played by Simon Pegg.
HOT FUZZ was sooooo fucking funny.
AA+ Bonds
I also agree that the Ugly Duckling is a fucked up story to tell a kid not only for that reason but for its fascist celebration of physical beauty as virtue
Hob
@MonkeyBoy: Oh great, it’s this David Brin shit again. Tolkien is in favor of good kings in a fantasy world, therefore the point of the whole story must be to convince you that kings are good, and the conflict can only be about that aspect of “the natural order.” Brin– like everyone else who rehashes this argument as if it’s a major revelation that Tolkien was conservative– talks as if the defining feature of Sauron is that he’s anti-monarchy (and therefore maybe a misunderstood revolutionary!), leaving out the minor detail that his goals are to either kill or enslave everyone and to rule the world personally forever.
And if Tolkien’s intent was to write “top-down propaganda,” then he sure fucked up by telling everyone over and over again that his work was not supposed to be an allegory for anything in the real world.
Another Halocene Human
MonkeyBoy, if you want to get outraged about something, instead of wasting your ammo on mischosen targets, like The Ugly Duckling and zombies, get pissed off about JK Rowling who hypocritically attacks the idea of a hereditary overlordship in Harry Potter while riding the idea of special people with special powers being our natural elite (Tom Riddle vs. The Boy Who Lived) all the way to $$millions in book and movie deals.
Why? I guess audiences like to identify with Harry and imagine they’re special, too. Harry’s picked on in school and generally dumped on in life (he’s like a Dahl protagonist, one more author Rowling ripped off), but like Superman, he sekritly has sooperdooper powers and could totally cream all those bullies asses. You just wait.
Now to be fair to JKR, the first two books are pretty ripping adventure yarns, skipping past the premise for a moment. I had to stop at book 5, though, too turgid (==editors had backed off because the public demanded moar Potter).
AA+ Bonds
@Another Halocene Human:
Agreed, Harry Potter is also fascist shit, also Orson Scott Card (big surprise there) and yes, a lot of Superman is too, especially after WWII
Kids should be allowed to read this stuff but responsible parents will let them know what’s wrong with it
Another Halocene Human
@Mnemosyne: Uh, yeah, sure. That’s what it’s about. ;-)
Of course, it could be about anyone who marches to the beat of a different drummer, who grows up different from the people around them. Especially the much of the (breeders’) barnyard. Like an … aesthetic person. You know, someone who appreciates the arts … light in the loafers… elegant.
Luna Sea
@Yutsano: I have trouble figuring out exactly what I believe at times, some tough years have taken a toll on my philosophy. But I would like to think there is some transition to some other experience. I’ve had that sort dream visit with everyone close to me that has died, whether it’s a one-time good-bye, or a continuation of the relationship, of sorts. I was much more certain of my beliefs when I was much younger. But I’ve always liked contemplating the possibilities. Even if it’s just “we are star dust”, that’s still kind of magical to me.
Luna Sea
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: Thank you.
sharl
OK, a (longish) wrap-up on the Michelle Rhee stuff…
A gathering of some other responses to the PBS FRONTLINE show on Michelle Rhee and her brand of “education reform” –
There was this (bolding is mine):
@mikeyfranklin is concerned that this item will draw undue attention from the more worthy parts of the FRONTLINE episode.
…
@EWAEmily retweets the following:
If you mute show 1 thing clear: U.S. schools are segregated. Are we okay with that America?
…
Several tweets from well known education commenter Jersey Jazzman (@jerseyjazzman) – some slight editing for clarity:
Clear that #frontline is taking the line the story is cheating. The cheating is ONE story, not the WHOLE story.
_ _ and _ _
So, #Frontline is going after #rhee for DC test cheating scandal. But nothing about her Baltimore test fiasco.
_ _ and on the matter of Rhee’s current organization, Students First:
Merrow won’t ask #rhee about who funds StudentsFirst?!? Seriously?!
…
@AleckWilliams reminds all what matters most:
It’s not about Michelle Rhee. DCPS (Washington, DC Public Schools) was and still is a broken system. She used DCPS to help further her career. I feel sorry for the kids
…
And finally, here’s @ZaidJilani:
Michelle Rhee charges as much for one speech as a Louisiana teacher makes in a year http://goo.gl/l2ezM – Rhee pulls down $30K per speech, according to at least one account;
–and in response, kimsoutherngirl notes:
The sad part about Michelle Rhee is she came into power through the Democrat (sic) Party. Arne Duncan (Pres. Obama) have praised her.
Another Halocene Human
@Roger Moore: Trudat. Sen to Chihiro covered similar themes–a pure heart and perseverance vs. greed, gluttony.
Some folk tales just take the piss out of society in general, like the German story “Hans im Glueck” about the fool who trades away a cow for items of lesser and lesser value but is very happy with himself in the end, or the Irish tales of Leprechauns who harass the English landlords but never get caught.
Debbie(Aussie)
@Luna Sea:
So very, very sorry for your loss. Take care, Deb
300baud
@Hob:
What’s your point? That it’s illegitimate to critique authors for the worlds they create and the political implications thereof? Or just that you disagree with a crude version of this particular critique?
For a lot of people, it is a major realization that Tolkein was conservative. It wasn’t Nixon supporters printing “Gandalf for President” buttons; it was the hippies. The stories are still huge among liberal nerds. But for whatever reason, quite a lot of those people overlook all sorts of questionable things in Tolkein’s work.
I don’t mind if people recognize and are ok with the conflict; I enjoy reading Tolkein’s stuff myself. But I do mind that people try to pretend the conflict doesn’t exist. And I think is sad that your first reaction is to try to shut down mention of it via scorn against what is mainly a straw-man version of the critique.
Another Halocene Human
@handsmile: And MikeJ, it’s good to know someone else who has a kind word for La Chinoise. On the other hand, my contempt for Tarantino will have to wait for another occasion.
Why contempt? I mean sure, he’s lazy, for certain values of [lazy].
Like, Django I guess could have been a different movie, one which disgusted and outraged the audience in exactly the way they needed to be skewered. Instead, it’s a commercial piece of shit that pays homage to old movies exactly like Red Tails was trying to be but failed on almost every level at. And at least Tarantino didn’t run around the Black media and Oprah all but whipping it out and masturbating himself on camera au Lucas.
That’s contemptible.
Django doesn’t make my blood boil, it makes me reach for the popcorn. Actually, the movie was surprisingly historically accurate on a number of points and I hope it twists the fragile little minds of those little boys sneaking to watch it underage (on der innert00bs shhhh don’t tell) and maybe inspires some of them to read real slave narratives one day.
It also was fun to watch and was highly competent overall. I mean, I enjoyed Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Killer on the level it was intended, but a lot of the movie looked like shit, the pacing was weird, shots were fuzooozled, etc. Django is the same kind of jingoistic revenge garbage (maybe with an even dumber plot… also, the book AL:VK was based on was highly researched, just thought I’d throw that in there), but it is realized more competently and maybe with some more stuff in there that makes you think or has a deeper history.
Although for all I know AB:VK has obscure visual references to Russian genre cinema that I will never get. It’s hard to get past the smokey CGI horse stampede, though. Ugh.
Another Halocene Human
@Roger Moore: Hm, they keep at it and restaurants might start getting reluctant to serve old white anger bears with NoBama stickers on their trucks.
They… they… might have to sue Denny’s.
cckids
@AA+ Bonds:
I dislike it too, for that as well as for the barely hidden theme that an adopted family isn’t “real”. The Disney short film of it always used to make my son cry, and the “happy” ending didn’t really help.
Another Halocene Human
@AA+ Bonds: What the fuck was that argle bargle, I don’t read Dutch and Googlefish is on the fritz, my good man. Now have a good brandy and settle down, [as] you seem rather overexcited.
300baud
@Another Halocene Human:
I think there’s a lot to grumble about with the Harry Potter series (and your comment on editing is spot on), but I don’t think this claim of hypocrisy is fair. Rowling makes clear that The Boy Who Lived thing is situational; it could have been somebody else. Potter’s not a particularly great wizard. And after he does his bit, getting rid of the guy who’s been trying to kill him all his life, he ends up taking a government job and spending a couple of decades working his way up to running his department. That’s pretty far Potter being any sort of natural elite.
Another Halocene Human
@MonkeyBoy: I don’t know if Tolkien would have become so popular in the 1960s and 70s if a large part of his audience weren’t pot smokers who non-discriminatorily enjoyed fantasies.
I’m not sure he wasn’t just popular with raging nerds who had never read anything like it before.
He created a new genre–even if you can see antecedents like IVANHOE and all that medieval costume drama romance jazz. Those were basically love stories straight up with a studly hero and nerds sometimes have trouble relating to that. Frodo’s like the little guy everyone overlooks but he destroys evil forever. Plus Dernhelm. For all those she-nerds out there.
Another Halocene Human
@ranchandsyrup: Human centipede?
Too late?
different-church-lady
Tonight my neighborhood is Tampa, and I’ve been to Ciro’s Speakeasy enjoying some finely crafted cocktails with my TV crew.
Yutsano
@Another Halocene Human: My wingnut translator is on the fritz, so I’ll just call it the ramblings of an old man in search of a cloud.
Dead Ernest
@Luna Sea: I’m sorry to hear of your loss and I’m glad you reached out here. I think you did the right thing.
I’m sure that you already know that our feelings of loss and the grief that loss brings becomes more gentle over time.
But it’s also true that when the pain of that loss first comes over us, that knowledge can seem unreal, or feel like it can’t become true for us.
Of course though, it is still true. The pain and sadness will lessen. The memories of his kindness, the happy events you shared, the trust and the love he certainly felt for you, these things are still as true as in those moments they occurred. The painful feelings will meld into those happier ones – and that’s the way it is. The way it has to be for all real love. The price of admission I suppose.
Right now, do grieve. You both deserve that. It’s honorable and its right.
But don’t worry. Do take care of yourself. Don’t humor any of the little weasels of recriminations that may intrude.
It’s also right, and good, that your pain will become more gentle. It will. You’ll be okay.
It’s okay if you don’t feel okay now.
Peace.
Another Halocene Human
@300baud: Actually, by the end of the story, of course you’re right. I mean not to SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER but it’s a team effort. However, through much of the series one might be forgiven for arriving at the impression that such is so.
Potter has the SPESHULL sticker stuck on him in so many ways as soon as he arrives in wizard-land, after being the four-eyed step child in the real world. It’s a transparent sucker-in maneuver, and it’s not clear till much, much later what’s really going on. So I’m going to stand by the statement that she made $$MILLIONS$$ off this notion as the books turned into a sensation while all the while disavowing it.
I’m also bitter about the way she depicts house-elves and mocks Hermione for objecting to their treatment. //real reason comes out
The prophet Nostradumbass
@AA+ Bonds: you need to stop huffing sterno or glue or whatever it is you’re using.
dead existentialist
@Another Halocene Human: Maybe your diet helps explain your propensity to make multiple comments on numerous threads about nearly everything. I dunno. Maybe cut out the carrots and you’ll be fine.
Another Halocene Human
@AA+ Bonds: It’s pretty much un-American to think otherwise
I thought so, too, but then I found out about Confederate cosplay, and about the actual antebellum Southerners who were into Ivanhoe cosplay, and about Northerners who fell in love with Gone With The Wind, and people in the bdsm community who claim they are doms who can perform “sex magic” because they’re descended from European royalty (it’s a descended from royalty thing, you wouldn’t understand), and woke up and smelled the coffee about how obsessed Americans are with the British royal family (and the Grimaldis, but oddly not really any other)….
I like our “royalty” in the US being tv, movie, music celebrities. They’re so stinking liberal (well, some of them) because so many of them come from working class and rural poor backgrounds. (Probably why so many of them have shitty money management skills, too.) They have a union too, without which history shows they would be up shit creek without a paddle. They’re employees, rather than management, and they say stuff that pisses off all the right people.
But then you have ding-dongs who worship Getty.
Another Halocene Human
@AA+ Bonds: I took it that the Ugly Duckling was called “ugly” because he didn’t look like a duckling. They picked on him because he was different. They didn’t know the magnificent swan he would become. They didn’t realize that looking like that was normal for him.
Rather than celebrating physical beauty, it’s challenging you not to prejudge someone just because they don’t fit in.
Luna Sea
@Debbie(Aussie): Thank you so much.
@Dead Ernest: Wow, thank you for that. I thought somehow the grief would be less since our separation, that I’d mourned then. I can’t say it’s less, but it’s different. There was anger involved then, now it’s sadness, but with a bit of celebration of his life as well. And much more love than I thought possible.
Really, thank you to everybody who has responded tonight, it really helps.
Another Halocene Human
@dead existentialist: I’m pretty sure that’s my neurological problems/mood disorder, but thanks for your concern.
Rome Again
I’m trying to locate onlymike so I can try to help him out of his predicament. If anyone sees him posting, can you ask him to check his email? Someone from here emailed me and forwarded his address and email contact to me. I’ve sent him a message but so far I haven’t had any contact with him from either my post on here last night or from the email I sent him.
The person who contacted me (I’m not sure who it is, their email name is not familiar and when I search for that name on here it doesn’t match) suggested that we try to take up a collection fund. I’m not sure if anyone is interested in doing that. To be honest, I remember seeing onlymike’s name but don’t have much recollection of having any interaction with him, but since he’s a local Juicer, I want to help him out if I can. Would anyone want to take up a collection?
There are apartments out here that are a lot cheaper than where he was living (I know this because I used to live in the same place he just got evicted from – the person who contacted me forwarded the address of the apartment he was in and I used to live there myself.) I know of places that he can get into for about $400 a month or not much more. Many places here have utilities paid. Does anyone want to help out a Juicer besides me?
Mnemosyne
@handsmile:
Ironically, it’s because I’ve seen enough New Wave films that I can say that. Because it was a specific movement, there are enough similarities between filmmakers that I usually know whether or not I will like filmmakers who are similar to one another. To me, there’s something fundamentally cold and deterministic about New Wave films, as though something was lost in translation between the Hollywood films they admired and the films the New Wave filmmakers ended up creating.
Fuller’s films leap off the screen, grab you by the throat, and don’t let go until the end credits roll. Godard’s films try to create a similar effect, but it’s cool and intellectual. He clearly thought out every motion, which to me removes the soul from it.
Take a look at the Fuller documentary I referenced above. He says something along the lines of, “If the opening scene doesn’t give you a hard-on, you shouldn’t be making the movie.” I’ve never felt that passion from Godard, just ironic detachment.
I also don’t like most of Stanley Kubrick’s films, FWIW, though I can admire him. Again, the pose of intellectual detachment puts me off. 2001 literally put me to sleep. And yet Kubrick and I share a favorite filmmaker — Max Ophuls. If anyone can watch the end of The Earrings of Madame de … when Danielle Darrieux desperately strains to hear a second shot and not burst into tears, there’s something wrong with them.
Dead Ernest
Holy cow!
I meant what I said.
I didn’t think it needed to be repeated, and repeated, and repeated though.
My apologies to all for causing all the scrolling it takes to get past me, and me, and Oh Look, Me again!
Don’t know if its FYWP, or FYiPhone but it wasn’t intended. Poop.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Another Halocene Human:
Back in the Sixties and Seventies I was reading William Burroughs and Thomas Pynchon. Someone gave me a copy The Hobbit, but at the time is just seemed a bit silly. I did finish it some years later and then went on to the trilogy. They remained books that I only read when I was seated in the smallest room in the house.
Another Halocene Human
@300baud: I don’t mind if people recognize and are ok with the conflict; I enjoy reading Tolkein’s stuff myself. But I do mind that people try to pretend the conflict doesn’t exist.
I wonder if the conflict’s in the book itself? I mean, I start reading about these bawdy, earthy Hobbits and somewhere around book two I find out that Strider is really an ancient hereditary king from a race of king-supermen and I nearly threw down the book in disgust. However, I had the flu, so I didn’t really have anything better to do but to finish it. I also wanted to get to the part about Minas Morgul.
Which, like the movie, was a big let-down.
I wanted to explore Minas Morgul.
I dunno if that makes me weird, or something. I just thought it was cool.
Mnemosyne
@Luna Sea:
I don’t know if it helps, but I’ve had that same dream experience with several people who have died. My father died last Thursday, and I’m fully expecting to have a last conversation with him in a week or two when I’m not so frantic with grief. I sometimes try to be super-rational and convince myself that they’re “just dreams,” but I really don’t believe that.
Mnemosyne
@Another Halocene Human:
Yeah, I can tell you didn’t read to the end of the series.
I’ll just say, that was an authorial trick that she used to distract your attention so she could rip your heart from your chest in the last book. It’s been years since I burst into tears while reading a book, but Rowling managed it.
Yutsano
@Mnemosyne: “There are more things in Heav’n and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy Horatio…”
sharl
@Luna Sea: My condolences for the loss of your brother; that is a nice tribute to him you wrote upthread (@26). And my apologies for missing it until now, due to excessive self-absorption (or maybe Rhee-absorption?).
Dead Ernest @176: Heh, no worries, that’s just FYWP’s (or Tunch’s?) way of saying “Howdy! And just remember who’s really in charge here!”
ETA: @Mnem: Oh wow, just saw this – my condolences to you as well. The last time I saw you post on your dad, it was some time ago, and IIRC, he had been discharged from the hospital for recuperation at home (do I remember that correctly?). Sorry to hear this.
dead existentialist
@Another Halocene Human: Well I’m glad to know it’s not carrots.
Whatever your mood/neurological condition* may be, you certainly liven up the place.
*Coke? Ah shit, you tootin‘?
Radio One
Trolling on the internet has really deteriorated in the past few years. Yeah, let’s call the Ugly Duckling story and Harry Potter fascist propaganda, that will totally stick it to the people who take things too seriously on the internet! Just stop, or at least show some effort.
Luna Sea
@Mnemosyne: So sorry about your father. I hope when he does appear in your dreams, you have a good, long conversation and find comfort and peace.
Luna Sea
@sharl: Thank you, I really do appreciate that. And your Rhee-absorption is certainly justified.
Mnemosyne
@sharl:
Thank you — it happened pretty suddenly. He was released home for Christmas Eve and ended up back in the hospital on New Year’s Eve. He was a tough guy, but eventually the combination of COPD/emphysema, kidney failure, and multiple organ cancer (lung, liver, and I think kidney) was just too much for his body.
We’ve been joking that he deliberately held out until after the New Year so we wouldn’t be stuck with complicated taxes for 2012, but we’re only half-joking, because it’s what he would have been thinking.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Mnemosyne:
Sad to hear of your loss. My parents died within a few months of each other when I was thirty. Doesn’t matter how old you are, the loss hurts like hell.
Rome Again
@Mnemosyne:
Sorry to hear of this news. :(
Hob
@300baud:
If I had meant to say such a ridiculous thing, I would’ve said it. I said I disagreed with Monkeyboy’s idea that The Lord of the Rings is “top-down propaganda,” based entirely on the notion that it’s all about “a disruption of the ‘natural order’ which had inherently wise kings at the top and happy peasants proud to be subjects at the bottom”– which I think is a hilariously inaccurate description of the theme(s) of the books– and on the fact that Tolkien was reactionary in many ways, which is interesting, but saying so isn’t a substitute for critiquing the work.
I mentioned David Brin because he’s made an identical argument many times, and I don’t find it convincing. It’s certainly possible that someone could write a more insightful critique along those lines.
It could be that hippies and “liberal nerds” just don’t know the shocking secret of Tolkien’s politics, and would think twice about Gandalf if they did. Or it could be that they find value in an entertaining story with memorable characters and imagery, and don’t see why they should give a crap that it– like the mythology it obviously references– has heroes who are kings, as well as a villain who’s a king. And it’s widely known that Tolkien vehemently insisted the books weren’t meant to be political commentary.
I didn’t try to shut down shit. I expressed my opinion of what I read. No sadness required; carry on.
Hob
Luna Sea and Mnemosyne: I’m so sorry to hear about your loss, both of you. Please pardon my filling up this page with silly arguments.
Yutsano
@Hob: What would Balloon Juice be without silly arguments and endless flame wars?
(I’m not accusing you of indulging in either, honestly. I’m actually enjoying the back and forth here.)
Elizabelle
@Mnemosyne:
Very sorry to hear of your dad’s passing. Good that you got to spend time with him over the holidays. Do think there’s something to holding on for holidays, and for special dates.
@Luna Sea: Glad that you are here, and do stick around. Very sorry about your brother’s loss.
TheMightyTrowel
@MikeJ: literal. fucking australia.
Keith G
@Luna Sea: You posted after my very early bed time, so I hope you check back in to accept my kind thoughts and admiration and a “Well done!”
I tested positive in 91 and I feel so lucky that except for a few turns, my body has withstood the fight and so fortunate that I have been around supportive folks. Your love and support extended your brother’s life. While I am saddened by your pain, I am cheered by the love and happiness you brought to his life. No medication regime can be effective without those supports. All of us fighting this (or any other mortal) disease know this at the molecular level.
JoyfulA
@MonkeyBoy: “The Princess and the Pea.” She’s royalty because she can’t tolerate the least bit of discomfort. (Huh?)
Cassidy
@Pooh: How can you hate on tabata? Tabata Burpees?
thedean
@Rome Again: I would be up for donating to help out onlymike. My understanding is that he only has sporadic email access now, but I believe he is going to check it this afternoon.
Barry
@Pooh:
“@Litlebritdifrnt: have you tried Paleo? Have him try eating basically just meat and veg for a month. Ymmv, but I dropped about 20 lbs in 6 weeks combining that with a heavy workout regimen, though I’m a bit bigger than he is (190 is my idealish weight). ”
When somebody is doing three-hour workouts, I’d say that a consultation with a sports nutritionist is called for. For one thing, one will need a lot more carbs than the average person.
Pooh
@Another Halocene Human: you probably weren’t eating enough – not a lot of calorically dense stuff in there and it was a daily struggle for me to get enough good calories. Eating 2 lbs or so of meat a day is actually pretty difficult…
Pooh
@Cassidy: it’s just my least favorite kind of workout (he says while leaving for the gym). And yeah burpees suck balls. But so do box jumps or ring dips or overhead lunges or…
MaryJane
@nellcote: Thank you. I appreciate that.
@Another Halocene Human: It’s some of both. The thread is dead so I won’t get into details. I’m optimistic, though. Regionally, I see a bluer electorate emerging.
Luna Sea
@Keith G: So sorry you have to battle this disease, but so glad you’re in that 20+ year survival club. And glad I checked back in to find your comment, thank you. It takes so much hard work, and luck, and you’re right, love and support to manage all the challenges that come on every level, lots of scary times. May you have continued success, and a long, full, happy life. If it helps to have support from a stranger, you’ve certainly got it from me. Keep up the fight!
@Elizabelle: Thank you. Finally slept a bit last night, after all the great support from people here. I’d seen that in action before, but never experienced it for myself. Pretty amazing.
Rome Again
@thedean:
Thanks for the offer of help.
I am not an admin of this site, so I don’t think I should be the one to decide if this can be done. I’ll contact Anne Laurie and see if she’s interested (and she’s so good at that sort of thing, whereas, I’m NOT!)
Thanks again.
smedley
@Mnemosyne: I suspect our right, but I took the White caricature of the spear hurler to be a rather famous Valkyrie from a Wagnerian opera by a composer with his own set of bigotries . Ironic?
YellowJournalism
@Mandalay: I just need a phone that can be submerged in toilet water for 15 seconds after a small child drops it in.