Saturday, November 1, 2008
In the words of Becs, "If it's not in my house already, I probably don't need it."
Yeah. I've got everything I really need (except reliable air conditioning), and I've got too many of some things, like clothing, shoes, jewelry, and books. There are over six thousand books here. My biggest clue that maybe I have a problem was that solid perfume compact of the other day - it's 34 years old!
I save things. The house is so full I literally can't find anything any more. Daughter and The Man were both frustrated by my birthday - I have everything, and want very little. Daughter is giving me what I asked for, a foot and hand massage. The Man gave me time, the most precious thing he can bestow, and the trip to warmth, and a CD of him singing. (I love his voice. I wish I knew how to share it here.)
I've got to get rid of stuff. I've donated loads of overflow to the Salvation Army and the local historical society resale store over the past few years, but there are some things that, well, frankly, I want a tangible return for. Not so much for the money, but for the feeling that if someone BUYS it, they'll give it the respect it deserves. Time to turn to eBay for help.
Why haven't I been selling on eBay before now? Because I couldn't make good pictures. It wasn't until yesterday that I fully realized that was the sole holdup.
I've had a digital camera for two years now, and I never used it because it was too complicated. There was no "quick start" with it, the book was, no kidding, 70 dense pages with no index, and all the buttons were multi-purpose and badly labeled.
So last night I went to Office Max, and bought a tiny purple Nikon "Coolpix" S210 8.0 Megapixel self-focusing zoom blah blah camera with a 4 Gig card, a soft case, and Quick Start directions! In real English! With illustrations! And intuitive buttons! Two hours later (after battery charge) I was taking (and deleting) pictures. I have to install the software next.
I tried last night to get a picture of Jasper, but there's a delay on the button, and I'd frame his face, but he was curious about the camera and he'd move and the photo turned out to be his rump - every time.
Next I have to figure out how to get started selling on eBay, upgrade my PayPal account, and figure out where to store the photos for the listings. Also find out what shipping costs are. I'd like to fold the shipping cost into the minimum bid, and offer "free shipping". That draws more bidders. Given the apparent IQ level of some of the sellers I've dealt with as a buyer, I ought to be able to handle it - eventually.
I'm on the move now.
---------------------------
Just got off the phone with Daughter. She wondered why I'd choose to sell books on eBay when there are so many used book stores that will buy them, and so many places they can be donated. Well, the used book stores around here are full, they mostly don't want more "ordinary" books, and their payment is usually credit, and the one thing I don't need right now is more books.
As for donating, I am sad when I see books sitting on a shelf in those places, gathering dust, unwanted. If I sell them for a nominal amount (even as little as the shipping cost), at least I know the buyer wanted them, and they're going to a good home.
.
Saturday, November 01, 2008
2093 Step Down, Judge Judy
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Ten years or more ago I admired Judge Judy Sheindlin. She showed a lot of common sense.
Lately it looks like too many people have complimented her on her common sense, and she's now going overboard, and thoroughly pissing me off.
It started getting really bad perhaps five years ago. She'd hear about something that happened, and she'd say she didn't believe it happened that way, because it didn't "make sense", so the person must be lying. Several times that pronouncement lifted me right out of my chair, because the exact same thing had happened to me! How can she say I'd be lying if I told her about it? It can so happen!
I'm getting sick of hearing her shout, "That doesn't make sense!" in that nasty tone she has.
Just because something doesn't make sense doesn't mean it didn't happen. Lots of things don't make sense, but people act that way anyway. Some people are just plain nuts. That doesn't make the recipient of those senseless actions a liar.
I stopped watching her show.
She has recently turned up again on the station that's on by default in my day's background. Some bits break through my filters, and Judge Judy is off her rocker.
Yesterday a young woman plaintiff testified that her books, needed for a college final, were in her car, which had been taken by her aunt two days before the final exam. The aunt had permission to take the car, but a) she took the car unexpectedly several hours before the agreed-upon time, and b) the aunt did not return the car the same day, as agreed, in fact she never returned the car.
Judge Judy decided the plaintiff was lying, because a college student studying for finals would have the books with her at all times (huh?), therefore they were not left in the car, therefore she was lying about that, therefore she was lying about everything. She completely ignored the part about the aunt taking the car sooner than expected, before the girl had an opportunity to retrieve the books.
It sounds like Judge Judy has decided that everybody does everything exactly the way she'd do it, and if they claim otherwise, they're lying.
Time to hang up the robes, lady. You've got hardening of the brain.
.
Ten years or more ago I admired Judge Judy Sheindlin. She showed a lot of common sense.
Lately it looks like too many people have complimented her on her common sense, and she's now going overboard, and thoroughly pissing me off.
It started getting really bad perhaps five years ago. She'd hear about something that happened, and she'd say she didn't believe it happened that way, because it didn't "make sense", so the person must be lying. Several times that pronouncement lifted me right out of my chair, because the exact same thing had happened to me! How can she say I'd be lying if I told her about it? It can so happen!
I'm getting sick of hearing her shout, "That doesn't make sense!" in that nasty tone she has.
Just because something doesn't make sense doesn't mean it didn't happen. Lots of things don't make sense, but people act that way anyway. Some people are just plain nuts. That doesn't make the recipient of those senseless actions a liar.
I stopped watching her show.
She has recently turned up again on the station that's on by default in my day's background. Some bits break through my filters, and Judge Judy is off her rocker.
Yesterday a young woman plaintiff testified that her books, needed for a college final, were in her car, which had been taken by her aunt two days before the final exam. The aunt had permission to take the car, but a) she took the car unexpectedly several hours before the agreed-upon time, and b) the aunt did not return the car the same day, as agreed, in fact she never returned the car.
Judge Judy decided the plaintiff was lying, because a college student studying for finals would have the books with her at all times (huh?), therefore they were not left in the car, therefore she was lying about that, therefore she was lying about everything. She completely ignored the part about the aunt taking the car sooner than expected, before the girl had an opportunity to retrieve the books.
It sounds like Judge Judy has decided that everybody does everything exactly the way she'd do it, and if they claim otherwise, they're lying.
Time to hang up the robes, lady. You've got hardening of the brain.
.
Friday, October 31, 2008
2092 Anonymous Visitor
Friday, October 31, 2008
I had a visitor today, at 5:58 pm my time, who came in through FreeProxyServer.ca, a server that allows one to access sites normally blocked (by a school or library or company computer) or to visit a site anonymously. They came directly to this site, so they knew where they were headed.
That bothers me.
I've already moved this blog once because people who know me in real life were visiting, not letting me know that they were here, and discussing with others what I had to say. Please don't make me do it again.
To that visitor:
- If you're using FreeProxyServer to get around blocks installed by the owner of the computer you're using, you shouldn't be doing that. Please don't make me complicit in your dishonesty.
- If you are trying to keep your identity or location from me, that really bugs me. Leave a comment with some clue as to who you are. Otherwise, if I keep seeing you here without some explanation as to why you're being so sneaky, I might have to move again.
.
I had a visitor today, at 5:58 pm my time, who came in through FreeProxyServer.ca, a server that allows one to access sites normally blocked (by a school or library or company computer) or to visit a site anonymously. They came directly to this site, so they knew where they were headed.
That bothers me.
I've already moved this blog once because people who know me in real life were visiting, not letting me know that they were here, and discussing with others what I had to say. Please don't make me do it again.
To that visitor:
- If you're using FreeProxyServer to get around blocks installed by the owner of the computer you're using, you shouldn't be doing that. Please don't make me complicit in your dishonesty.
- If you are trying to keep your identity or location from me, that really bugs me. Leave a comment with some clue as to who you are. Otherwise, if I keep seeing you here without some explanation as to why you're being so sneaky, I might have to move again.
.
2091 Chin Hair and the Vermont Catalog
Friday, October 31, 2008
The Vermont Country Store catalog arrived yesterday. They arrive regularly, but I haven't been looking at them. I opened it yesterday looking for Welsh cookies, I get a hunger for them about this time of year, and I ended up with several dog-eared pages, and no cookies.
It's funny how the contents meshed with recent desires.
My chin hairs are driving me crazy. I tweeze and tweeze, and the next day I feel more stiff stubble that I missed. It's difficult to get them all, because I can't SEE the dang things, can't see close enough to grab them. Waxing doesn't work because the hairs have to be too long. Shaving doesn't work because they're back the next day. The other day I was thinking about the Epilady I had tried on my legs and discarded (pain!) in the '80s and wished I had it back. Guess what I found in the catalog? This! Major dog-ear.
With all the traveling and overnighters I've been doing lately, I've been wanting a solid perfume, but haven't been able to find one I really like. On Wednesday I was going through a box of old cosmetics, and I found a Coty compact from the mid-70s, containing Sweet Earth Woods Fragrances (sandalwood, amberwood, and patchouli). I was rather passionate about the sandalwood and amberwood, and wore them with a touch of the patchouli, until the day toddler Daughter discovered it, smuggled it into her room, and dug out ALL the perfume, smearing it all over every inch of herself, her bed, and everything else she could reach during a "nap" one day. She wanted her nap time to smell like Mommy.
Coty had stopped making it. I couldn't replace it.
The old compact still has bits deep around the edges of the trays, and it still smells wonderful. Still soft and creamy.
And then I found this! It's MINE! MINE! All MINE!
Yesterday, searching for my cousin, I was thinking of the few college friends I had located online. The scents of those days, the early to mid-60's, were Tweed and Woodhue. Everybody wore one or the other. I loved both, but neither have been available for decades. Then I found this! And this!
My grandmother always wore Avon's To a Wild Rose, and I'm considering it. Minor dog-ear.
The only scent I'm missing now is Yardley's O! de London, which was my favorite after the Sweet Earth Woods. It was a lot lighter than the other scents, very Carnaby Street kicky. Maybe if I write to Vermont Country Store, they'll find it for me. It is available here at a gold-plated price for 3.3 oz, and here at a completely ridiculous price for .5 oz. I'm thinking about the first one.
Still no Welsh cookies, but the almond buttercrunch is looking good....
.
The Vermont Country Store catalog arrived yesterday. They arrive regularly, but I haven't been looking at them. I opened it yesterday looking for Welsh cookies, I get a hunger for them about this time of year, and I ended up with several dog-eared pages, and no cookies.
It's funny how the contents meshed with recent desires.
My chin hairs are driving me crazy. I tweeze and tweeze, and the next day I feel more stiff stubble that I missed. It's difficult to get them all, because I can't SEE the dang things, can't see close enough to grab them. Waxing doesn't work because the hairs have to be too long. Shaving doesn't work because they're back the next day. The other day I was thinking about the Epilady I had tried on my legs and discarded (pain!) in the '80s and wished I had it back. Guess what I found in the catalog? This! Major dog-ear.
With all the traveling and overnighters I've been doing lately, I've been wanting a solid perfume, but haven't been able to find one I really like. On Wednesday I was going through a box of old cosmetics, and I found a Coty compact from the mid-70s, containing Sweet Earth Woods Fragrances (sandalwood, amberwood, and patchouli). I was rather passionate about the sandalwood and amberwood, and wore them with a touch of the patchouli, until the day toddler Daughter discovered it, smuggled it into her room, and dug out ALL the perfume, smearing it all over every inch of herself, her bed, and everything else she could reach during a "nap" one day. She wanted her nap time to smell like Mommy.
Coty had stopped making it. I couldn't replace it.
The old compact still has bits deep around the edges of the trays, and it still smells wonderful. Still soft and creamy.
And then I found this! It's MINE! MINE! All MINE!
Yesterday, searching for my cousin, I was thinking of the few college friends I had located online. The scents of those days, the early to mid-60's, were Tweed and Woodhue. Everybody wore one or the other. I loved both, but neither have been available for decades. Then I found this! And this!
My grandmother always wore Avon's To a Wild Rose, and I'm considering it. Minor dog-ear.
The only scent I'm missing now is Yardley's O! de London, which was my favorite after the Sweet Earth Woods. It was a lot lighter than the other scents, very Carnaby Street kicky. Maybe if I write to Vermont Country Store, they'll find it for me. It is available here at a gold-plated price for 3.3 oz, and here at a completely ridiculous price for .5 oz. I'm thinking about the first one.
Still no Welsh cookies, but the almond buttercrunch is looking good....
.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
2089 Looking for the cousin...
Thursday, October 30, 2008
I spent a lot of time today searching online for my cousin, Dean Morris. I have very little information. I haven't seen him since about 1963.
He's a swimmer. He was supposed to be on the US Olympic swim team (or so my mother told the story) back when Mark Spitz won all those gold medals at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich (West Germany). Spitz wasn't going to go at first for some reason, my mother said funding, but that doesn't sound reasonable given that he was already pretty darn famous. When Spitz decided at the last minute to go, and they were all packed for the plane, cousin Dean was bumped from the team. He was devastated. At least, that's the way my mother tells it.
Anyway, I do know Dean was a serious swimmer. I don't know where he went to college, or what career he pursued, but it's pretty reasonable to assume he still swims. He's tall and dark - looked a lot like Joe Namath when both of them were young. He was born probably in 1946 or so, in Buffalo or Tonawanda, NY, to Betty and Richard Morris. I don't know his middle name, but I seem to have the initial "R" stuck in my head.
He has a sister, Linda Joy Morris, born in late 1943 or early 1944. I'd like to find her, too, but with women it's not enough to know who they were - you have to know who they married, who they "belong to" now. (Damn those stupid patriarchal customs that define women not as themselves, but by who their male owner is.... )
Anyway, there are a few thousand "Dean Morris" internet hits. You'd think "Linda Joy" would be rather rare, but there are several of them, too. I thought I had located a reference to her in Long Island, but it happened to mention that her mother had died in the mid-80s, of Alzheimer's, and I believe aunt Betty was still alive in the early '90s, so it's probably not her.
Aunt Betty may be still living in the Tonawanda area, but Uncle Dick died a long time ago, and she remarried, and I don't know who her current male owner might be.
Frustrating business.
-----------------------------------
Today is the seventh anniversary of Jay's departure. In my belief system, now is the time that I must emotionally release him. It won't be easy. Especially since he had promised to wait seven years for me before he moved on.
Sigh. It's time. I feel it.
.
I spent a lot of time today searching online for my cousin, Dean Morris. I have very little information. I haven't seen him since about 1963.
He's a swimmer. He was supposed to be on the US Olympic swim team (or so my mother told the story) back when Mark Spitz won all those gold medals at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich (West Germany). Spitz wasn't going to go at first for some reason, my mother said funding, but that doesn't sound reasonable given that he was already pretty darn famous. When Spitz decided at the last minute to go, and they were all packed for the plane, cousin Dean was bumped from the team. He was devastated. At least, that's the way my mother tells it.
Anyway, I do know Dean was a serious swimmer. I don't know where he went to college, or what career he pursued, but it's pretty reasonable to assume he still swims. He's tall and dark - looked a lot like Joe Namath when both of them were young. He was born probably in 1946 or so, in Buffalo or Tonawanda, NY, to Betty and Richard Morris. I don't know his middle name, but I seem to have the initial "R" stuck in my head.
He has a sister, Linda Joy Morris, born in late 1943 or early 1944. I'd like to find her, too, but with women it's not enough to know who they were - you have to know who they married, who they "belong to" now. (Damn those stupid patriarchal customs that define women not as themselves, but by who their male owner is.... )
Anyway, there are a few thousand "Dean Morris" internet hits. You'd think "Linda Joy" would be rather rare, but there are several of them, too. I thought I had located a reference to her in Long Island, but it happened to mention that her mother had died in the mid-80s, of Alzheimer's, and I believe aunt Betty was still alive in the early '90s, so it's probably not her.
Aunt Betty may be still living in the Tonawanda area, but Uncle Dick died a long time ago, and she remarried, and I don't know who her current male owner might be.
Frustrating business.
-----------------------------------
Today is the seventh anniversary of Jay's departure. In my belief system, now is the time that I must emotionally release him. It won't be easy. Especially since he had promised to wait seven years for me before he moved on.
Sigh. It's time. I feel it.
.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
2088 Miss Thunderfoot Loves Silk
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
I've bought a bunch more silk saris over the past few weeks. On eBay. You can get some real deals there. I usually pay about $20-$22 each, including shipping. The saris are 40-some inches wide, and 5 to 7 yards long, and that's a lot of good silk, especially for that price.
When they arrive, I sit down at the computer and unfold them, open them out to examine them, for the feedback to the seller, then refold them to put away.
A package of saris arrived from India today. Saris from this particular seller are always especially soft and beautiful and in excellent condition, except that they always arrive with a strong mildew odor. They are not themselves mildewed - they just smell of mildew. Bad storage during the rainy season, I guess. It washes out (cold water!), so it doesn't bother me.
Normally.
When I get a mildewy batch I don't refold them. I just drop them in a pile on the floor to take to the laundry basket.
One of today's batch is very beautiful, an intense rose-purple with a multicolored finely woven floral edging and pallu. It's so light it floats. It was described as 50 years old, so I guess that's why no one else bid on it. I got it for $8.00 + $5.00 S&H, and it looks brand new. It was the first one I opened out, so it was the first onto the floor.
Miss Thunderfoot, who usually sleeps on a leather laptop case stored on a shelf near my elbow, took one look at it, dropped from her perch, curled up on it, and started a rare purr. As I opened up the other saris, I dropped them on top of her, and she purred louder.
By the time I'd opened up six saris, the mildew odor (probably spores) was getting to my sinuses, so I tried to gather up the saris to take them to the laundry basket, and hit a snag, literally.
She let me take the other saris, but Miss Thunderfoot unsheathed all her claws (with double front paws she's got more claws than normal cats), latched on to the purple sari, and refused to let go. She made it clear that she'd shred it before she'd let me take it. I tried to trade a lesser sari, but she wouldn't go for it. She's been on it since about 4 pm, and it's after 11 now. My sinuses are raging.
At least she's got good taste. And no sense of smell.
---------------------------------
I have several very nice light jackets and I'm getting annoyed that I never get to wear them. Around here, we go directly from short sleeves to parkas in the fall, and directly from parkas to short sleeves in the spring. A fast transition. It's always either too warm or too cold for my light jackets.
.
I've bought a bunch more silk saris over the past few weeks. On eBay. You can get some real deals there. I usually pay about $20-$22 each, including shipping. The saris are 40-some inches wide, and 5 to 7 yards long, and that's a lot of good silk, especially for that price.
When they arrive, I sit down at the computer and unfold them, open them out to examine them, for the feedback to the seller, then refold them to put away.
A package of saris arrived from India today. Saris from this particular seller are always especially soft and beautiful and in excellent condition, except that they always arrive with a strong mildew odor. They are not themselves mildewed - they just smell of mildew. Bad storage during the rainy season, I guess. It washes out (cold water!), so it doesn't bother me.
Normally.
When I get a mildewy batch I don't refold them. I just drop them in a pile on the floor to take to the laundry basket.
One of today's batch is very beautiful, an intense rose-purple with a multicolored finely woven floral edging and pallu. It's so light it floats. It was described as 50 years old, so I guess that's why no one else bid on it. I got it for $8.00 + $5.00 S&H, and it looks brand new. It was the first one I opened out, so it was the first onto the floor.
Miss Thunderfoot, who usually sleeps on a leather laptop case stored on a shelf near my elbow, took one look at it, dropped from her perch, curled up on it, and started a rare purr. As I opened up the other saris, I dropped them on top of her, and she purred louder.
By the time I'd opened up six saris, the mildew odor (probably spores) was getting to my sinuses, so I tried to gather up the saris to take them to the laundry basket, and hit a snag, literally.
She let me take the other saris, but Miss Thunderfoot unsheathed all her claws (with double front paws she's got more claws than normal cats), latched on to the purple sari, and refused to let go. She made it clear that she'd shred it before she'd let me take it. I tried to trade a lesser sari, but she wouldn't go for it. She's been on it since about 4 pm, and it's after 11 now. My sinuses are raging.
At least she's got good taste. And no sense of smell.
---------------------------------
I have several very nice light jackets and I'm getting annoyed that I never get to wear them. Around here, we go directly from short sleeves to parkas in the fall, and directly from parkas to short sleeves in the spring. A fast transition. It's always either too warm or too cold for my light jackets.
.
2087 Analysis of The Joke
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
The Man made up a joke:
A white man, a black man, and a Catholic guy go into a bar.
One of the men turns to the others and says,
.
.
.
.
. (Pause....)
.
.
.
.
.
"Hey, we left Sarah in the car!"
When he told it to me, I blinked twice, and then cracked up, which surprised and pleased him enormously. He said he'd told it to ten people at work the day before, and no one thought it was funny. A joke's not funny when you have to explain it. They didn't "get it".
I did, and that's why he loves me.
-------------------------------------
The Man and I didn't get into it then, but the question of what makes something funny was one of Jay's favorite topics.
Jay maintained that it was "disconnect". You'd laugh when you were expecting one thing, and got something entirely different. I agreed with Jay that disconnect was funny, but it wasn't all of it. I don't know. Maybe in the end, it does all come down to disconnect. I guess even shock, relief, and embarrassment, all elements in some types of humor, are, in the end, disconnect.
The Man's joke has disconnect on several levels:
Opinions, anyone?
.
The Man made up a joke:
A white man, a black man, and a Catholic guy go into a bar.
One of the men turns to the others and says,
.
.
.
.
. (Pause....)
.
.
.
.
.
"Hey, we left Sarah in the car!"
When he told it to me, I blinked twice, and then cracked up, which surprised and pleased him enormously. He said he'd told it to ten people at work the day before, and no one thought it was funny. A joke's not funny when you have to explain it. They didn't "get it".
I did, and that's why he loves me.
-------------------------------------
The Man and I didn't get into it then, but the question of what makes something funny was one of Jay's favorite topics.
Jay maintained that it was "disconnect". You'd laugh when you were expecting one thing, and got something entirely different. I agreed with Jay that disconnect was funny, but it wasn't all of it. I don't know. Maybe in the end, it does all come down to disconnect. I guess even shock, relief, and embarrassment, all elements in some types of humor, are, in the end, disconnect.
The Man's joke has disconnect on several levels:
- When a joke starts out with a disparate group going into a bar, there's a certain pattern to the joke. It's a standard type. This one breaks that pattern, forcing you to back up and look at it differently. Disconnect.
- Your mind says, "Sarah?", which requires that you think about the three men, and how a Sarah fits in. When you realize who they are, this is a second disconnect from the format. Usually it's three anonymous types.
- The recognition that they are in a bar together is disconnect.
- And the thought that they may have left her in the car on purpose is another disconnect, and perhaps the best part.
Opinions, anyone?
.
Monday, October 27, 2008
2086 I'm Back, and Hate Winter More Than Ever!
Monday, October 27, 2008
I've been away. Drove to New Jersey on Thursday, met The Man, we flew south Friday morning to palm trees and myrtles, waves and sculpture gardens, and returned this morning.
He needed a spot of relaxation after a rough month, and it was my birthday, so we went. He showed me where he lived and played and hung out in the '90s. The trip was relaxing and often romantic.
He dropped me off at my car at about noon today and went to his office. I smiled all the way home.
(Oh, and my back was no trouble at all. There was a Jacuzzi in the room, which helped to keep it that way.)
.
I've been away. Drove to New Jersey on Thursday, met The Man, we flew south Friday morning to palm trees and myrtles, waves and sculpture gardens, and returned this morning.
He needed a spot of relaxation after a rough month, and it was my birthday, so we went. He showed me where he lived and played and hung out in the '90s. The trip was relaxing and often romantic.
He dropped me off at my car at about noon today and went to his office. I smiled all the way home.
(Oh, and my back was no trouble at all. There was a Jacuzzi in the room, which helped to keep it that way.)
.
2085 Why Women Hang TP Backward
Monday, October 27, 2008
Men complain when women "hang the toilet paper backward". Well, there's a reason. It's usually women who have to deal with and clean up after kittens, puppies, and toddlers.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpI5bkZbHJk]
.
Men complain when women "hang the toilet paper backward". Well, there's a reason. It's usually women who have to deal with and clean up after kittens, puppies, and toddlers.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpI5bkZbHJk]
.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
2084 Brace
Thursday, October 23, 2008
I am now wearing the back brace. It has a hard trapezoidal panel in the back, heavy elastic that wraps around and closes with Velcro over the lower tummy, and then two "pull it tighter" elastic straps on each side.
It creates an extreme "muffin top" midway up my ribs.
I hope I don't need it tomorrow or the weekend, but I guess I'd best assume I will. That limits my choices in clothing for the trip. Muumuus? Caftans? Shifts? Blah. Not exactly sexy. He likes long skirts, but there's a limit. Good thing I have several kurtas. Looks like it's going to be kurtas and slacks for the weekend.
Mother is not happy.
Later - If you go to the "kurta" link above, notice the hands on the manikin. Seems like a poor design. It might make it hard to get tight sleeves or lacy knits on it. Last time I saw hands like that on something you have to dress was when Daughter was one year old and objected to wearing clothing.
.
I am now wearing the back brace. It has a hard trapezoidal panel in the back, heavy elastic that wraps around and closes with Velcro over the lower tummy, and then two "pull it tighter" elastic straps on each side.
It creates an extreme "muffin top" midway up my ribs.
I hope I don't need it tomorrow or the weekend, but I guess I'd best assume I will. That limits my choices in clothing for the trip. Muumuus? Caftans? Shifts? Blah. Not exactly sexy. He likes long skirts, but there's a limit. Good thing I have several kurtas. Looks like it's going to be kurtas and slacks for the weekend.Mother is not happy.
Later - If you go to the "kurta" link above, notice the hands on the manikin. Seems like a poor design. It might make it hard to get tight sleeves or lacy knits on it. Last time I saw hands like that on something you have to dress was when Daughter was one year old and objected to wearing clothing.
.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
2083 Ouchy Back
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
I took those six loads of laundry to the laundromat yesterday. Piper is always surprised that I have a washer and dryer, but use the laundromat. It's because I can do all loads concurrently instead of consecutively, which saves time, and secondly because my hard water has messed up the washer valves, so you have to keep an eye on it constantly, or it will overfill and flood the laundry room and kitchen.
Anyway, taking one of the heavy bags out of the car last night, I got a sharp stab at the top of my left hip, so sharp I yelped. It lasted only an instant, but it was a warning.
I can walk for miles, and I can stand for hours, but I can't stand with my arms held out in front of me. It unbalances me, and, added to the boobage weight, stresses my lower back. So last night I spent a long time standing at washers, dryers, and a folding table, with my arms in front of me, and then followed that by unloading the car at home, then reloading it with recycle containers.
This morning I had to dump the (6) containers into the recycle bin, the opening of which is over my head.
Today my lower back is yelling at me, and I'm yelping back. It's causing powerful abdominal/intestinal cramps. I'm running on aspirin today. I'm still working my way through the to-do list, but I think I'll skip the movie tonight.
It's got to feel better soon. I'll never last on an airplane with it like this, even is it is only a 90 minute flight. That'll wipe me out completely.
.
I took those six loads of laundry to the laundromat yesterday. Piper is always surprised that I have a washer and dryer, but use the laundromat. It's because I can do all loads concurrently instead of consecutively, which saves time, and secondly because my hard water has messed up the washer valves, so you have to keep an eye on it constantly, or it will overfill and flood the laundry room and kitchen.
Anyway, taking one of the heavy bags out of the car last night, I got a sharp stab at the top of my left hip, so sharp I yelped. It lasted only an instant, but it was a warning.
I can walk for miles, and I can stand for hours, but I can't stand with my arms held out in front of me. It unbalances me, and, added to the boobage weight, stresses my lower back. So last night I spent a long time standing at washers, dryers, and a folding table, with my arms in front of me, and then followed that by unloading the car at home, then reloading it with recycle containers.
This morning I had to dump the (6) containers into the recycle bin, the opening of which is over my head.
Today my lower back is yelling at me, and I'm yelping back. It's causing powerful abdominal/intestinal cramps. I'm running on aspirin today. I'm still working my way through the to-do list, but I think I'll skip the movie tonight.
It's got to feel better soon. I'll never last on an airplane with it like this, even is it is only a 90 minute flight. That'll wipe me out completely.
.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
2082 Busy
Tuesday, October 22, 2008
I've actually been doing my to-do list! Between yesterday and today, I've:
- sniped five eBay auctions, won all
- paid two months worth of bills
- cleared two feet of paper off the ironing board in the kitchen (flat surfaces collect paper)
- cleaned two litter boxes
- hit the big grocery store down the road
- got the Hairless Hunk to straighten my mailbox (again), which had been hit (again) and twisted 90 degrees to the road (again)
- watched three TV shows on TV, and two news programs on the computer
- did six loads of laundry, folded, ironed, put away
- my favorite clothing store sent me a nice gift coupon for my birthday, and their online store was having a 25% off everything sale, so I hit their "outlet" clearance section and bought a blouse (reg $75) and a skirt (reg. $120) for a total of $9
- looked up the weekend's flight to check where we were sitting - we got exit row! Both ways!
- discussed with The Man what we might do over the weekend, I was very surprised to learn that he wants to visit a botanical garden, I'd never have guessed. He hates walking, and outdoors
- packed up two month's worth of metal, plastic, and glass for recycle, and loaded it all into the car.
Early to bed tonight. I need to get to the recycle center by 9 am tomorrow, in order to be home to snipe another eBay auction at 10:30, then meet Piper for lunch. Afternoon - wash hair, do nails, visit bank, get mail held, decide what to pack for weekend. Evening - go to Rosendale to see movie "W". That last one's a maybe. Depends on what I get done and how I feel.
This is more than I've accomplished in a whole average week lately. Maybe even two or three weeks. I've been very lazy. It feels good to check things off the list.
.
I've actually been doing my to-do list! Between yesterday and today, I've:
- sniped five eBay auctions, won all
- paid two months worth of bills
- cleared two feet of paper off the ironing board in the kitchen (flat surfaces collect paper)
- cleaned two litter boxes
- hit the big grocery store down the road
- got the Hairless Hunk to straighten my mailbox (again), which had been hit (again) and twisted 90 degrees to the road (again)
- watched three TV shows on TV, and two news programs on the computer
- did six loads of laundry, folded, ironed, put away
- my favorite clothing store sent me a nice gift coupon for my birthday, and their online store was having a 25% off everything sale, so I hit their "outlet" clearance section and bought a blouse (reg $75) and a skirt (reg. $120) for a total of $9
- looked up the weekend's flight to check where we were sitting - we got exit row! Both ways!
- discussed with The Man what we might do over the weekend, I was very surprised to learn that he wants to visit a botanical garden, I'd never have guessed. He hates walking, and outdoors
- packed up two month's worth of metal, plastic, and glass for recycle, and loaded it all into the car.
Early to bed tonight. I need to get to the recycle center by 9 am tomorrow, in order to be home to snipe another eBay auction at 10:30, then meet Piper for lunch. Afternoon - wash hair, do nails, visit bank, get mail held, decide what to pack for weekend. Evening - go to Rosendale to see movie "W". That last one's a maybe. Depends on what I get done and how I feel.
This is more than I've accomplished in a whole average week lately. Maybe even two or three weeks. I've been very lazy. It feels good to check things off the list.
.
2081 Eyeball
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
This is a game where you test your skill at geometric estimation. I got a score of 4.03, which is about average. I'm best at convergence, parallelograms, and right angles, and worst at locating the center of a triangle, circle, or line segment.
I didn't notice it at first, but your scores on the three passes are kept on the right, so you can see how well you're doing. I got better on each pass, so I guess with practice, I would improve.
.
This is a game where you test your skill at geometric estimation. I got a score of 4.03, which is about average. I'm best at convergence, parallelograms, and right angles, and worst at locating the center of a triangle, circle, or line segment.
I didn't notice it at first, but your scores on the three passes are kept on the right, so you can see how well you're doing. I got better on each pass, so I guess with practice, I would improve.
.
Monday, October 20, 2008
2080 SNL is unprofessional
Monday, October 20, 2008
I watched Saturday Night Live last weekend, for the first time in ages, and rediscovered why I don't watch it.
Nobody bothers to learn their lines.
Soap opera people are on every day - they've got seven shows worth of script to learn every week, week after week, and they do it. The SNL folks can't be bothered to learn lines for a 3-minute skit. They read the words off cue cards or a teleprompter. More than half the time it looks like they've never seen those lines before, they're reading it for the first time, and aren't sure where it's going.
It's ugly, because they don't look at the person they're talking to. Not even close.
At the very least, you'd think they could put the cheat sheet close to, over the shoulder of, the other character, so they'd at least be looking in the other character's direction when they're supposed to be talking to them. There's no reason why camera angles couldn't be planned to accommodate that.
Nah. It's like 30 degrees or more off, so they're not even facing them.
I think this shows a huge lack of consideration for the audience, and a lack of pride in the product.
.
I watched Saturday Night Live last weekend, for the first time in ages, and rediscovered why I don't watch it.
Nobody bothers to learn their lines.
Soap opera people are on every day - they've got seven shows worth of script to learn every week, week after week, and they do it. The SNL folks can't be bothered to learn lines for a 3-minute skit. They read the words off cue cards or a teleprompter. More than half the time it looks like they've never seen those lines before, they're reading it for the first time, and aren't sure where it's going.
It's ugly, because they don't look at the person they're talking to. Not even close.
At the very least, you'd think they could put the cheat sheet close to, over the shoulder of, the other character, so they'd at least be looking in the other character's direction when they're supposed to be talking to them. There's no reason why camera angles couldn't be planned to accommodate that.
Nah. It's like 30 degrees or more off, so they're not even facing them.
I think this shows a huge lack of consideration for the audience, and a lack of pride in the product.
.
2079 Bloglines is fixed.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Well, I'm going to take credit for the fix to Bloglines. Within hours of my email to them, the backlog of missing posts from a small herd of blogs started pouring in. The timing is interesting.
I had mentioned to them that the problem first started right after they had moved a data base. I'll bet someone at Bloglines read my email, smacked themselves in the head, and said "Oops! Forgot to update the whatchamadoodle pointer!"
.
Well, I'm going to take credit for the fix to Bloglines. Within hours of my email to them, the backlog of missing posts from a small herd of blogs started pouring in. The timing is interesting.
I had mentioned to them that the problem first started right after they had moved a data base. I'll bet someone at Bloglines read my email, smacked themselves in the head, and said "Oops! Forgot to update the whatchamadoodle pointer!"
.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
2078 Clutter on YouTube!
There are now over 80, almost 90, mostly identical clips of the Colin Powell interview on YouTube. It has grown from zero in only 14 hours. I'm sure there will be more, uploaded by people who think no one has seen it yet.
Clutter! They're going to kill YouTube with overload!
Is it really so difficult to check to see if there's already a copy of something before storing another? Is it an ego thing, to see one's own id on one's own copy?
(Um, one's "own" copy of copyrighted material. Oops.)
.
Clutter! They're going to kill YouTube with overload!
Is it really so difficult to check to see if there's already a copy of something before storing another? Is it an ego thing, to see one's own id on one's own copy?
(Um, one's "own" copy of copyrighted material. Oops.)
.
2077 Powell's Endorsement
Sunday, October 19, 2008
If you missed Meet the Press today, you must watch this clip.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_NMZv6Vfh8]
A comment from "gojohnnygo5" on the video:
If you missed Meet the Press today, you must watch this clip.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_NMZv6Vfh8]
A comment from "gojohnnygo5" on the video:
I love this quote my Deacon told me once:
"We do not have permanent friends nor permanent enemies. We only have permanent principles."
Crossing party lines should not be such a big deal if a person had a set of values because if this person ever felt that his party is no longer representing his principles, it would be the only viable decision for anyone of strong character.
2076 Bits
Sunday, October 19, 2009
Daughter is 34 today. Next week, I will be 65. I have no grandchildren. I'm getting anxious.
---------------
I registered on Classmates.com a long time ago, hoping to find old classmates. I've been contacted by two college classmates, one high school classmate, and one old coworker (all male), so it hasn't been a complete bust. I have also been left contact info for another 150+ people, also all male. A few of them went to the same school I listed, but several years before or after me, so I never knew them. The vast majority are complete strangers. I don't know why they've signed my guestbook. A few of them return over and over.
Is it possible they think it's an online dating site?
-------------------------
More and more blogs from my Bloglines list are missing feed alerts, even some big ones like the Dilbert blog. Bloglines' trouble reports didn't list the problem. Either it's unique to me, or no one else has noticed. Yesterday I finally sent an email to Bloglines, telling them what I'm seeing, or more accurately not seeing. Today suddenly some, but not all, of the posts are showing up again. It looks like they've fixed something.
Very strange. Am I the only person who pointed it out to them? I can't believe that.
-------------------------
I like to read real estate magazines (those local listings you pick up at the grocery store) and online listings, especially those with interior photos or virtual tours. I'm seeing a lot of kitchens with the stove kind of stuck awkwardly in the middle of an open wall, all alone, away from any counters. It's not like the new stove was too big - there's no space in the rest of the kitchen where an old stove would have been.
That confuses me. It looks like when the kitchen was designed, they forgot there'd be a stove.
--------------------------
I have a gray sweatshirt with the smooth on the inside and the fuzz on the outside. It's meant to look inside-out. You can tell by the seams and the care label. It even applies to the writing on the chest - it's crossed hockey sticks with "Hockey" above, and "EST. 1898" on either side of the sticks - a faint impression in the fuzz, exactly as it would be if the real printing were on the other side (but there's nothing on the other side, the inside - it's a fake).
I don't wear it often beyond my house and the village, but the few times I've worn it, a few people have laughed and asked why I'm wearing it inside-out, tee hee.
The part that blows my mind is that in every case, it was a Mensan who felt moved to point out my error. (Like I needed to be told.)
And in every one of those cases, it blew my mind further that those Mensans didn't notice until I pointed it out that the writing on the chest is not mirror-image! Which it would be if it were the "inside", or backward, image.
Sigh.
Oh, while we're on Mensa, Roman did exactly what I was afraid he'd do, and dropped out of the running for the governing board as soon as he found out that there were five other candidates. So, no election again. The five remaining candidates are declared elected. I'm pissed. Especially because one of the other candidates is an idiot (an idiot who wants to be the treasurer).
.
Daughter is 34 today. Next week, I will be 65. I have no grandchildren. I'm getting anxious.
---------------
I registered on Classmates.com a long time ago, hoping to find old classmates. I've been contacted by two college classmates, one high school classmate, and one old coworker (all male), so it hasn't been a complete bust. I have also been left contact info for another 150+ people, also all male. A few of them went to the same school I listed, but several years before or after me, so I never knew them. The vast majority are complete strangers. I don't know why they've signed my guestbook. A few of them return over and over.
Is it possible they think it's an online dating site?
-------------------------
More and more blogs from my Bloglines list are missing feed alerts, even some big ones like the Dilbert blog. Bloglines' trouble reports didn't list the problem. Either it's unique to me, or no one else has noticed. Yesterday I finally sent an email to Bloglines, telling them what I'm seeing, or more accurately not seeing. Today suddenly some, but not all, of the posts are showing up again. It looks like they've fixed something.
Very strange. Am I the only person who pointed it out to them? I can't believe that.
-------------------------
I like to read real estate magazines (those local listings you pick up at the grocery store) and online listings, especially those with interior photos or virtual tours. I'm seeing a lot of kitchens with the stove kind of stuck awkwardly in the middle of an open wall, all alone, away from any counters. It's not like the new stove was too big - there's no space in the rest of the kitchen where an old stove would have been.
That confuses me. It looks like when the kitchen was designed, they forgot there'd be a stove.
--------------------------
I have a gray sweatshirt with the smooth on the inside and the fuzz on the outside. It's meant to look inside-out. You can tell by the seams and the care label. It even applies to the writing on the chest - it's crossed hockey sticks with "Hockey" above, and "EST. 1898" on either side of the sticks - a faint impression in the fuzz, exactly as it would be if the real printing were on the other side (but there's nothing on the other side, the inside - it's a fake).
I don't wear it often beyond my house and the village, but the few times I've worn it, a few people have laughed and asked why I'm wearing it inside-out, tee hee.
The part that blows my mind is that in every case, it was a Mensan who felt moved to point out my error. (Like I needed to be told.)
And in every one of those cases, it blew my mind further that those Mensans didn't notice until I pointed it out that the writing on the chest is not mirror-image! Which it would be if it were the "inside", or backward, image.
Sigh.
Oh, while we're on Mensa, Roman did exactly what I was afraid he'd do, and dropped out of the running for the governing board as soon as he found out that there were five other candidates. So, no election again. The five remaining candidates are declared elected. I'm pissed. Especially because one of the other candidates is an idiot (an idiot who wants to be the treasurer).
.
2075 Thud - Monroe is in Michigan, you fool!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
This week's PostSecrets is headed by an envelope with the PostSecrets address, sent from somewhere in south Florida. The address is given as "Germantown, Marilyn".
.
This week's PostSecrets is headed by an envelope with the PostSecrets address, sent from somewhere in south Florida. The address is given as "Germantown, Marilyn".
.
Friday, October 17, 2008
2074 Body Shaper
Friday, October 17, 2008
You know those body shapers you see advertised on TV? We used to call them "foundations", or "girdles". They're now much lighter in weight, and much more expensive. I wanted to try one anyway.
I found some on eBay, and with judicious sniping, I managed to get four different types for the price of one. Figured I'd find out what style I like best.
According to the size charts, I wear a size medium, or B, so that's what I ordered. There's no return unless they send the wrong thing, so I had examined the size charts (height and weight) carefully.
Well, I screwed up on one of them, and ordered a size XL. Oops.
That was the first one to arrived, last Wednesday. It's a two-piece type, a top and bottom.
Because it's a bit big, it didn't do much to smooth out those bulges I have in the back, between the bra band and waistband. In fact, the waistband on the bottom was so tight it made the bulge above the waistband worse. The bottom didn't do much to smooth those lumps on either side at the top of my thighs, either.
And yet, the bottom was so tight and restrictive across my middle that I had to take it off after only three hours. It was making my stomach hurt, and the waistband cut into my waistline.
That was the XL. Uh-oh.
A medium Loba and a size B Spanx arrived today, both one-piece high-waist and long thigh. The Loba (from Brazil, no English in or on the package) is as thick and heavy as a '50s girdle, and no wider than a double palm-width. My stomach hurts just looking at it. The Spanx looks and feels lighter, but it has a heavy band that goes under the bust, and just holding it up to me I suspect it will be so tight I won't be able to breathe.
Not a good feeling to be so out of shape a girdle doesn't work.
.
You know those body shapers you see advertised on TV? We used to call them "foundations", or "girdles". They're now much lighter in weight, and much more expensive. I wanted to try one anyway.
I found some on eBay, and with judicious sniping, I managed to get four different types for the price of one. Figured I'd find out what style I like best.
According to the size charts, I wear a size medium, or B, so that's what I ordered. There's no return unless they send the wrong thing, so I had examined the size charts (height and weight) carefully.
Well, I screwed up on one of them, and ordered a size XL. Oops.
That was the first one to arrived, last Wednesday. It's a two-piece type, a top and bottom.
Because it's a bit big, it didn't do much to smooth out those bulges I have in the back, between the bra band and waistband. In fact, the waistband on the bottom was so tight it made the bulge above the waistband worse. The bottom didn't do much to smooth those lumps on either side at the top of my thighs, either.
And yet, the bottom was so tight and restrictive across my middle that I had to take it off after only three hours. It was making my stomach hurt, and the waistband cut into my waistline.
That was the XL. Uh-oh.
A medium Loba and a size B Spanx arrived today, both one-piece high-waist and long thigh. The Loba (from Brazil, no English in or on the package) is as thick and heavy as a '50s girdle, and no wider than a double palm-width. My stomach hurts just looking at it. The Spanx looks and feels lighter, but it has a heavy band that goes under the bust, and just holding it up to me I suspect it will be so tight I won't be able to breathe.
Not a good feeling to be so out of shape a girdle doesn't work.
.
2073 Caption THIS!
Friday, October 17, 2008
This is a real, virgin, photo (or possibly a still from video). You can find it at the very end of this video clip from the end of the 10/15 debate. It's very quick, but the hands and tongue are right. The point of view must have been from the right, which would make them look closer than in the video.
A few bloggers are running caption contests.
My favorite so far is "Invisible Palin".
One also thinks of Gollum, chocolate, and gorgeous Black behinds.
Anyone else want to offer one?
.
This is a real, virgin, photo (or possibly a still from video). You can find it at the very end of this video clip from the end of the 10/15 debate. It's very quick, but the hands and tongue are right. The point of view must have been from the right, which would make them look closer than in the video.
A few bloggers are running caption contests.
My favorite so far is "Invisible Palin".
One also thinks of Gollum, chocolate, and gorgeous Black behinds.
Anyone else want to offer one?
.
2072 Vote, Saris, Leaves
Friday, October 17, 2008
Important - If you plan to vote a straight party ticket, to make sure your vote counts, READ THIS:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/ballot/straightticket.asp
The description is confusing. On one hand, I get the impression that if you vote for the president, and then vote "straight" party, that amounts to two votes for president, and your president vote will be thrown out. On the other hand, I get the impression that if you simply vote "straight" party, without a separate vote for president, this does not necessarily include a vote for president.
It's confusing.
The solution, if it isn't clear on the ballot or in the booth, is to vote for every candidate separately, even if you do intend straight party.
-----------------
I had a long lunch yesterday with a young Pakistani woman from whom I buy saris. I had noticed that many of the used saris I buy on eBay and elsewhere are advertised as "worn once". She told me that the younger Pakistani and Indian women in the US wear saris pretty much only to ceremonies and family parties (only "Aunties" wear them daily). And the women tend to be supremely competitive where clothing is concerned. Since you always see a lot of the same people at the occasions where you'd wear a sari, once you've worn one, it's done. You can't wear it again without losing face (and making your husband look cheap, I suppose).
Wow! That can get expensive! Given that a silk sari can easily run $180 for a print to $1000 and more for gold embroidery, and given that families and communities are large so occasions are frequent, well, my head spins.
So women will sell a sari for pennies on the dollar after one wearing.
I said it sounded like there might be a market for rental saris, and she was aghast. No one would wear a rental! "It's like a wedding gown."
Then I was aghast.
Hmmmm. There might be a market for "American" styles custom made from a favorite but "done" sari. Jackets, skirts, robes?
--------------------------
I don't like fall, mainly because it means winter is coming, and I hate winter. Other people rave about the colors of the autumn leaves, but they mostly leave me cold. Literally. I figure if I've seen one red tree, I've seen them all.
Driving cross-county through the mountains to lunch yesterday, I found something I can appreciate. I love seeing clear areas, like open woods, large lawns, completely covered in yellow maple leaves. Especially with a flock of wild turkeys scratching in the leaves.
That's pretty ok.
Then, driving south to dinner last night, the sun was at a steep angle, so that it was hitting the trees on the east side of the road straight on, and in some cases lighting them from underneath, so that they were firey bright.
That was pretty ok, too.
But I still hate winter.
.
Important - If you plan to vote a straight party ticket, to make sure your vote counts, READ THIS:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/ballot/straightticket.asp
The description is confusing. On one hand, I get the impression that if you vote for the president, and then vote "straight" party, that amounts to two votes for president, and your president vote will be thrown out. On the other hand, I get the impression that if you simply vote "straight" party, without a separate vote for president, this does not necessarily include a vote for president.
It's confusing.
The solution, if it isn't clear on the ballot or in the booth, is to vote for every candidate separately, even if you do intend straight party.
-----------------
I had a long lunch yesterday with a young Pakistani woman from whom I buy saris. I had noticed that many of the used saris I buy on eBay and elsewhere are advertised as "worn once". She told me that the younger Pakistani and Indian women in the US wear saris pretty much only to ceremonies and family parties (only "Aunties" wear them daily). And the women tend to be supremely competitive where clothing is concerned. Since you always see a lot of the same people at the occasions where you'd wear a sari, once you've worn one, it's done. You can't wear it again without losing face (and making your husband look cheap, I suppose).
Wow! That can get expensive! Given that a silk sari can easily run $180 for a print to $1000 and more for gold embroidery, and given that families and communities are large so occasions are frequent, well, my head spins.
So women will sell a sari for pennies on the dollar after one wearing.
I said it sounded like there might be a market for rental saris, and she was aghast. No one would wear a rental! "It's like a wedding gown."
Then I was aghast.
Hmmmm. There might be a market for "American" styles custom made from a favorite but "done" sari. Jackets, skirts, robes?
--------------------------
I don't like fall, mainly because it means winter is coming, and I hate winter. Other people rave about the colors of the autumn leaves, but they mostly leave me cold. Literally. I figure if I've seen one red tree, I've seen them all.
Driving cross-county through the mountains to lunch yesterday, I found something I can appreciate. I love seeing clear areas, like open woods, large lawns, completely covered in yellow maple leaves. Especially with a flock of wild turkeys scratching in the leaves.
That's pretty ok.
Then, driving south to dinner last night, the sun was at a steep angle, so that it was hitting the trees on the east side of the road straight on, and in some cases lighting them from underneath, so that they were firey bright.
That was pretty ok, too.
But I still hate winter.
.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
2071 Tired
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
When I make certain loud high-pitched sounds, Jasper's eyes get big and he stares at me with his ears turned completely around to the back. He looks like a great horned owl.
I forgot to mention that when I got home Tuesday morning, I found that he had taken a mouse apart on my bed. It looked like a jigsaw puzzle with a couple of pieces gone.
Watched the debate tonight. Prefer this format. No comments spring to mind.
On the other hand, this is cool - what alternate universe is Sarah Palin living in?
I have a lunch tomorrow with one of my sari sellers, and dinner with Mensa. I don't know that I can eat two meals in one day!
I don't know why, but I'm very tired. I was thinking of bed all day today.
.
When I make certain loud high-pitched sounds, Jasper's eyes get big and he stares at me with his ears turned completely around to the back. He looks like a great horned owl.
I forgot to mention that when I got home Tuesday morning, I found that he had taken a mouse apart on my bed. It looked like a jigsaw puzzle with a couple of pieces gone.
Watched the debate tonight. Prefer this format. No comments spring to mind.
On the other hand, this is cool - what alternate universe is Sarah Palin living in?
I have a lunch tomorrow with one of my sari sellers, and dinner with Mensa. I don't know that I can eat two meals in one day!
I don't know why, but I'm very tired. I was thinking of bed all day today.
.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
2070 Real Time
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
"It’s one thing to speak at a rally and steer the crowd into feeling an animosity toward your opponent’s platform; however, when you drive them to hate and fear your opponent as a person by painting the man as a terrorist bent on destroying everything they hold dear, you are no longer campaigning. You are simply a coward creating a modern-day lynch mob fueled by a dangerous and enraged collective ignorance." - Dan, at "The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind"
-------------------
To NJ last night. Sushi and The Big Bang Theory with The Man. We're working our way through season 1, finished off disk 2 of 3 last night. He swears he hadn't seen season 1 except for one or two episodes he'd stumbled upon, but he was speaking some of the best lines right along with the characters. Strange.
A regular episode of season 2 was on TV last night, but he's one of those people who won't watch any of the next season until he's seen all of the previous season. Sheesh. That means you never see anything in "real time". He loves Boston Legal, too, but he's so far behind he may never catch up. Not in "real time", anyway.
.
"It’s one thing to speak at a rally and steer the crowd into feeling an animosity toward your opponent’s platform; however, when you drive them to hate and fear your opponent as a person by painting the man as a terrorist bent on destroying everything they hold dear, you are no longer campaigning. You are simply a coward creating a modern-day lynch mob fueled by a dangerous and enraged collective ignorance." - Dan, at "The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind"
-------------------
To NJ last night. Sushi and The Big Bang Theory with The Man. We're working our way through season 1, finished off disk 2 of 3 last night. He swears he hadn't seen season 1 except for one or two episodes he'd stumbled upon, but he was speaking some of the best lines right along with the characters. Strange.
A regular episode of season 2 was on TV last night, but he's one of those people who won't watch any of the next season until he's seen all of the previous season. Sheesh. That means you never see anything in "real time". He loves Boston Legal, too, but he's so far behind he may never catch up. Not in "real time", anyway.
.
2069 Bits
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Many years ago, probably in the late '60s, I visited Mystic, Connecticut, where I saw what was described as recreations of the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria. They were tiny!
I asked if that was the actual size, or if these were scale models, and the costumed male docent assured me these were the actual size. I asked how many crew members each carried, and the docent told me 6 on the Nina, 9 on the Pinta, and 13 on the Santa Maria. There was no room in the holds, so the crew slept on deck. The Nina was so small that even 6 men sleeping on deck was crowded.
I believed him.
For the past 40 years, when I've seen those ships represented in movies, and the large crews they carried, I snorted. Historical inaccuracy!
Well, the docent was wrong. I don't know if he was stupid, or just teasing me, but what he told me, and what I believed for so many years, was simply not true. Here is the actual crew list. The Santa Maria carried 40, the Pinta 26, and the Nina 20.
Happy Columbus Day. Unless you're native American.
------------------------------
With all the moving I've done, and all the looking at houses when Daughter and Hercules were house-shopping, I've seen many bathrooms where the tub/shower has been placed against an outside wall, with a window above the tub.
Inevitably, the window sill rots from shower water, water gets into the wall, the wall softens, and you get moldy insulation and falling tile.
I have never understood why people allow this, when it's so easy to avoid the problem.
Some people cover the glass with a stick-on translucent covering, but people rarely put a curtain on the window, because "it gets wet".
Well, duh? Why don't they put a plastic curtain there, wider than the window and extending lower than the window sill? No more problem with shower water. Depending on the height of the top of the window, or the force of the water hitting the side of the curtain, an even better solution might be a second rod and shower curtain on that wall, cut short or installed high, reaching just past the top of the tub, so that when it's open it doesn't interfere with baths.
There's still a condensation problem. People think that if you have a window, you don't need an exhaust fan. Wrong. You need an exhaust fan because there's a window that will attract condensation, and the window should be double-paned to lessen the attraction.
So why are there rotted bathroom walls? They shouldn't exist.
(Many European bathroom showers don't have doors or curtains, or even enclosing walls. The shower head comes out of the wall, and there's a drain in the middle of the bathroom floor. It's actually kind of nice, but I've wondered about the soap scum problem involving the entire bathroom. On the other hand, it's easy to rinse the whole room down after scrubbing. You can even throw buckets of water around.)
------------------------
I'm still having problems with feeds. http://thesilkentouch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default hasn't shown any posts since October 2, and http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19031106/posts/default had a burst of twelve posts last Friday, but nothing since. Bloglines insists this blog URL doesn't exist. I checked with several verifiers, and they all say there's nothing wrong.
I don't understand....
Later - I just discovered I'm not getting Bloglines feeds from OTHER blogs, either. The last post I got through Bloglines from http://www.shoeboxblog.com/ was September 29. They normally post several times a day. Feeds from http://svensto.blogspot.com/ also died on September 29. There are many others. Now I wonder if it's just me, or is it happening for others, too. Anyone else missing feeds? Bloglines "help" seems unaware there's a problem.
Something in Bloglines is broken - at least for me it is.
Many years ago, probably in the late '60s, I visited Mystic, Connecticut, where I saw what was described as recreations of the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria. They were tiny!
I asked if that was the actual size, or if these were scale models, and the costumed male docent assured me these were the actual size. I asked how many crew members each carried, and the docent told me 6 on the Nina, 9 on the Pinta, and 13 on the Santa Maria. There was no room in the holds, so the crew slept on deck. The Nina was so small that even 6 men sleeping on deck was crowded.
I believed him.
For the past 40 years, when I've seen those ships represented in movies, and the large crews they carried, I snorted. Historical inaccuracy!
Well, the docent was wrong. I don't know if he was stupid, or just teasing me, but what he told me, and what I believed for so many years, was simply not true. Here is the actual crew list. The Santa Maria carried 40, the Pinta 26, and the Nina 20.
Happy Columbus Day. Unless you're native American.
------------------------------
With all the moving I've done, and all the looking at houses when Daughter and Hercules were house-shopping, I've seen many bathrooms where the tub/shower has been placed against an outside wall, with a window above the tub.
Inevitably, the window sill rots from shower water, water gets into the wall, the wall softens, and you get moldy insulation and falling tile.
I have never understood why people allow this, when it's so easy to avoid the problem.
Some people cover the glass with a stick-on translucent covering, but people rarely put a curtain on the window, because "it gets wet".
Well, duh? Why don't they put a plastic curtain there, wider than the window and extending lower than the window sill? No more problem with shower water. Depending on the height of the top of the window, or the force of the water hitting the side of the curtain, an even better solution might be a second rod and shower curtain on that wall, cut short or installed high, reaching just past the top of the tub, so that when it's open it doesn't interfere with baths.
There's still a condensation problem. People think that if you have a window, you don't need an exhaust fan. Wrong. You need an exhaust fan because there's a window that will attract condensation, and the window should be double-paned to lessen the attraction.
So why are there rotted bathroom walls? They shouldn't exist.
(Many European bathroom showers don't have doors or curtains, or even enclosing walls. The shower head comes out of the wall, and there's a drain in the middle of the bathroom floor. It's actually kind of nice, but I've wondered about the soap scum problem involving the entire bathroom. On the other hand, it's easy to rinse the whole room down after scrubbing. You can even throw buckets of water around.)
------------------------
I'm still having problems with feeds. http://thesilkentouch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default hasn't shown any posts since October 2, and http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19031106/posts/default had a burst of twelve posts last Friday, but nothing since. Bloglines insists this blog URL doesn't exist. I checked with several verifiers, and they all say there's nothing wrong.
I don't understand....
Later - I just discovered I'm not getting Bloglines feeds from OTHER blogs, either. The last post I got through Bloglines from http://www.shoeboxblog.com/ was September 29. They normally post several times a day. Feeds from http://svensto.blogspot.com/ also died on September 29. There are many others. Now I wonder if it's just me, or is it happening for others, too. Anyone else missing feeds? Bloglines "help" seems unaware there's a problem.
Something in Bloglines is broken - at least for me it is.
2068 Reedin n Ritin
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Back in my day (sit back and listen to the little old lady) we read. We read good books, and a lot of them. TV channels were few. We didn't have computers, or the internet, or iPods, or even transistor radios. We didn't have spellcheck, where you can accept a correction without thinking about it. We wrote real letters. When we wrote a research paper, we actually had to read the reference documents. Most of what we read was written by professional writers, proofed by professional proofreaders, and edited by professional editors, all of whom had respect for the language.
We absorbed vocabulary, spelling, grammar, construction, and usage by osmosis, and it was reinforced by our teachers all the way through school. Along the way we also absorbed attention to detail, and most of us learned critical thinking.
Today's youth don't read, not like we did, anyway. Most of what they read is written by each other! Errors, bad grammar, bad spelling, all the faults that lead to difficulties in interpretation, are reinforced. Detail is no longer important. Structure is not important. I don't think anyone is teaching about homonyms any more. The wrong homonyms are increasingly turning up everywhere. I am sick of seeing the increasing use of "site" when people mean "sight".
Is conjugation still taught? If so, why are so many people having so much trouble with the various forms of "lie" (as in "to lie down", as opposed to "to tell an untruth")?
It's getting really sad, especially because we are now seeing the effects as these young folks grow up and move into business, advertising, journalism, spokesperson positions, and even (God help us) teaching, where they perpetuate and exacerbate the problem.
I'm seeing things now that clam to be professional efforts, and I look at them and think, "Didn't anyone proofread or review this before it was released?"
The evidence tells me that no one is reviewing anything any more. Junior employees are told to put something out, and they write it up and out it goes without any review.
A current example is the hundreds of absentee ballots sent out by Rensselaer County, NY, wherein the candidate's name is listed as "Barack Osama". They claim it's a typo. Yeah, sure, the "s" is nowhere near the "b", folks. Whatever. Did no one review this, did no one proofread it, before it went out?. Oddly enough, they claim it was reviewed and approved by three different people, and missed. You know, that scares me more. There wasn't much writing on the page. That says that reviewers aren't reviewing.
I've already mentioned how I decorate the local school newsletters with the red pen of frustration, and mail them back to the superintendent's office anonymously. Don't they have any English teachers on staff who could review them before they're mailed? Worse, I doubt that teacher review would have helped.
My broadband support puts out a message when the device is first plugged in: "Please wait while configuring your device". Uh, did anyone review that message before it was shipped? Did no one notice that egregious sin of dangling a participle? Did no one suggest, "Please wait while we configure your device" or "Please wait while your device is configured"? Why did they use the most awkwardly incorrect construction possible? Does anyone even KNOW what a dangling participle IS these days?
It's snowballing, and it makes me sick.
I'm hoping Harry Potter can help, but even the advances of a new generation of readers can be held back by the sloppiness that surrounds them on all sides. Including the schools.
.
Back in my day (sit back and listen to the little old lady) we read. We read good books, and a lot of them. TV channels were few. We didn't have computers, or the internet, or iPods, or even transistor radios. We didn't have spellcheck, where you can accept a correction without thinking about it. We wrote real letters. When we wrote a research paper, we actually had to read the reference documents. Most of what we read was written by professional writers, proofed by professional proofreaders, and edited by professional editors, all of whom had respect for the language.
We absorbed vocabulary, spelling, grammar, construction, and usage by osmosis, and it was reinforced by our teachers all the way through school. Along the way we also absorbed attention to detail, and most of us learned critical thinking.
Today's youth don't read, not like we did, anyway. Most of what they read is written by each other! Errors, bad grammar, bad spelling, all the faults that lead to difficulties in interpretation, are reinforced. Detail is no longer important. Structure is not important. I don't think anyone is teaching about homonyms any more. The wrong homonyms are increasingly turning up everywhere. I am sick of seeing the increasing use of "site" when people mean "sight".
Is conjugation still taught? If so, why are so many people having so much trouble with the various forms of "lie" (as in "to lie down", as opposed to "to tell an untruth")?
It's getting really sad, especially because we are now seeing the effects as these young folks grow up and move into business, advertising, journalism, spokesperson positions, and even (God help us) teaching, where they perpetuate and exacerbate the problem.
I'm seeing things now that clam to be professional efforts, and I look at them and think, "Didn't anyone proofread or review this before it was released?"
The evidence tells me that no one is reviewing anything any more. Junior employees are told to put something out, and they write it up and out it goes without any review.
A current example is the hundreds of absentee ballots sent out by Rensselaer County, NY, wherein the candidate's name is listed as "Barack Osama". They claim it's a typo. Yeah, sure, the "s" is nowhere near the "b", folks. Whatever. Did no one review this, did no one proofread it, before it went out?. Oddly enough, they claim it was reviewed and approved by three different people, and missed. You know, that scares me more. There wasn't much writing on the page. That says that reviewers aren't reviewing.
I've already mentioned how I decorate the local school newsletters with the red pen of frustration, and mail them back to the superintendent's office anonymously. Don't they have any English teachers on staff who could review them before they're mailed? Worse, I doubt that teacher review would have helped.
My broadband support puts out a message when the device is first plugged in: "Please wait while configuring your device". Uh, did anyone review that message before it was shipped? Did no one notice that egregious sin of dangling a participle? Did no one suggest, "Please wait while we configure your device" or "Please wait while your device is configured"? Why did they use the most awkwardly incorrect construction possible? Does anyone even KNOW what a dangling participle IS these days?
It's snowballing, and it makes me sick.
I'm hoping Harry Potter can help, but even the advances of a new generation of readers can be held back by the sloppiness that surrounds them on all sides. Including the schools.
.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
2067 An opinion on real estate prices
Saturday, October 11, 2008
There's a piece of the mortgage crisis that everyone seems to be overlooking or discounting.
Real estate prices (I refuse to say values) shot way up over the past few years. The reason was the ease of obtaining credit. It used to be that you could obtain a mortgage commensurate with your ability to pay. If you had a certain income, the banks would tell you that you could afford, say, a $150,000 house, and that was that. When you went shopping, you looked at $150,000 houses. If you were selling a house, you had to be careful not to overprice it, so you wouldn't price yourself out of the market.
And then suddenly, mortgages got easier to qualify for. On the same salary as above, you could get a $200K, or $500K mortgage. So that's the size house you looked for.
Most people really don't have a realistic idea of what they can afford. They don't plan for a crisis. And real estate prices were going up, so they figured that if it turned out that they couldn't afford it, well, they'd just sell it and walk away with a profit. Nobody ever loses money on a house, right?
Well, with looser money, the folks who sell houses realized they may as well get some of that, too. So the prices on houses rose. The same folks who used to buy a $150K house are now shopping for a $250K house, so the house that used to sell for $150K is now priced at $250K. A market-driven inflation. (Not so suddenly, of course, but the movement was inevitable and inexorable, but not inexplicable. It should have been expected.)
In some areas of the country now, it's not unusual to find a four room "fixer-upper" on 1/6 acre in a bad neighborhood listed at $300K. This is patently ridiculous. It's a "deal" only because everything else around it is priced higher.
Home prices were rising faster than salaries. Defaults were rife. Now there are "bank owned" properties on the market, selling for less than average, so it's bringing averages down. It could be a good deal for buyers, except that if they have to sell one house to buy another, they can't.
I see another problem brewing.
Lenders are going to get tougher. You're going to have to really qualify for that mortgage. The banks, having been burned, are now going to tell you that you qualify for only $150K again. But anyplace you'd want to live is priced higher than that, so the real estate market is going to drop. The original $150K house will eventually drop to $150K, because the trough is empty.
This will be good news for buyers.
This will be very bad news for homeowners and sellers.
If you had bought a home with a mortgage in the past five years, you're going to find your house is worth less on the market than you owe on it. Your equity is negative. You won't be able to refinance it, and you'll take a loss on selling it. And if you've been conscientiously making the payments, the government is unlikely to help you.
You are screwed.
.
There's a piece of the mortgage crisis that everyone seems to be overlooking or discounting.
Real estate prices (I refuse to say values) shot way up over the past few years. The reason was the ease of obtaining credit. It used to be that you could obtain a mortgage commensurate with your ability to pay. If you had a certain income, the banks would tell you that you could afford, say, a $150,000 house, and that was that. When you went shopping, you looked at $150,000 houses. If you were selling a house, you had to be careful not to overprice it, so you wouldn't price yourself out of the market.
And then suddenly, mortgages got easier to qualify for. On the same salary as above, you could get a $200K, or $500K mortgage. So that's the size house you looked for.
Most people really don't have a realistic idea of what they can afford. They don't plan for a crisis. And real estate prices were going up, so they figured that if it turned out that they couldn't afford it, well, they'd just sell it and walk away with a profit. Nobody ever loses money on a house, right?
Well, with looser money, the folks who sell houses realized they may as well get some of that, too. So the prices on houses rose. The same folks who used to buy a $150K house are now shopping for a $250K house, so the house that used to sell for $150K is now priced at $250K. A market-driven inflation. (Not so suddenly, of course, but the movement was inevitable and inexorable, but not inexplicable. It should have been expected.)
In some areas of the country now, it's not unusual to find a four room "fixer-upper" on 1/6 acre in a bad neighborhood listed at $300K. This is patently ridiculous. It's a "deal" only because everything else around it is priced higher.
Home prices were rising faster than salaries. Defaults were rife. Now there are "bank owned" properties on the market, selling for less than average, so it's bringing averages down. It could be a good deal for buyers, except that if they have to sell one house to buy another, they can't.
I see another problem brewing.
Lenders are going to get tougher. You're going to have to really qualify for that mortgage. The banks, having been burned, are now going to tell you that you qualify for only $150K again. But anyplace you'd want to live is priced higher than that, so the real estate market is going to drop. The original $150K house will eventually drop to $150K, because the trough is empty.
This will be good news for buyers.
This will be very bad news for homeowners and sellers.
If you had bought a home with a mortgage in the past five years, you're going to find your house is worth less on the market than you owe on it. Your equity is negative. You won't be able to refinance it, and you'll take a loss on selling it. And if you've been conscientiously making the payments, the government is unlikely to help you.
You are screwed.
.
2066 Nudge Nana!
Saturday, October 11, 2008
This cracked me up, especially 3:13. Not safe for work, unless you turn the volume down, but then you'd miss it all. Her language would get her spanked in my house, nice-looking young lady or not, but the message is funny.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgHHX9R4Qtk]
This cracked me up, especially 3:13. Not safe for work, unless you turn the volume down, but then you'd miss it all. Her language would get her spanked in my house, nice-looking young lady or not, but the message is funny.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgHHX9R4Qtk]
Friday, October 10, 2008
2065 Tracking the Market
Friday, October 10, 2008
I've been watching the charts for the various stock market indices, and I noticed something odd. Every day, they start out low, drop lower through the morning and early afternoon until they hit an extreme low, then they start climbing again! They climb steadily until about 4:30 pm, then they quickly drop halfway again - and that's where they start the same pattern the next day.
Odd pattern?
I think I know what's happening. People who are panicking are selling off. That's what causes the early fall. It's a bit annoying to me that when the news outlets report the activity, they report the low point for the day, without mentioning the rise. That only contributes to more panic.
Then the folks who see this as an opportunity wait until prices fall about as low as they're going to fall, and they start buying. That's what bumps it back up.
A lot of people are going to get very very rich from this. They're buying valuable stock at bargain basement prices.
I hope someone has seen fit to order a temporary halt on day-trading and other fast and short-term trades. Otherwise, you could buy a hunk of equities at 1 pm, and sell at 4 pm, and make a tidy profit, and if a lot of people are doing it, the turnover would contribute to the volatility, and increase the panic. Which, of course, benefits the people profiting.
I gave Piper the order today to jump in, and buy me some indexed and total market mutual fund shares, using the cash in my money market accounts. When the market rebounds (and it eventually will, as understanding of what happened and why grows), I could make an immediate 25% profit, at least.
Piper was bemoaning the fact that he couldn't get in. "I wish I had $200,000 or so available!" I expressed surprise. Of all people, I'd expect HIM to have a spare $200,000 lying around, but he says it's "all tied up" in investments he can't sell right now.
So, if you have some money, buy. If you aren't sure of the health of individual companies, buy indexed or total market mutual fund shares. You can find their phone numbers in any investment magazine. All you have to do is call.
.
I've been watching the charts for the various stock market indices, and I noticed something odd. Every day, they start out low, drop lower through the morning and early afternoon until they hit an extreme low, then they start climbing again! They climb steadily until about 4:30 pm, then they quickly drop halfway again - and that's where they start the same pattern the next day.
Odd pattern?
I think I know what's happening. People who are panicking are selling off. That's what causes the early fall. It's a bit annoying to me that when the news outlets report the activity, they report the low point for the day, without mentioning the rise. That only contributes to more panic.
Then the folks who see this as an opportunity wait until prices fall about as low as they're going to fall, and they start buying. That's what bumps it back up.
A lot of people are going to get very very rich from this. They're buying valuable stock at bargain basement prices.
I hope someone has seen fit to order a temporary halt on day-trading and other fast and short-term trades. Otherwise, you could buy a hunk of equities at 1 pm, and sell at 4 pm, and make a tidy profit, and if a lot of people are doing it, the turnover would contribute to the volatility, and increase the panic. Which, of course, benefits the people profiting.
I gave Piper the order today to jump in, and buy me some indexed and total market mutual fund shares, using the cash in my money market accounts. When the market rebounds (and it eventually will, as understanding of what happened and why grows), I could make an immediate 25% profit, at least.
Piper was bemoaning the fact that he couldn't get in. "I wish I had $200,000 or so available!" I expressed surprise. Of all people, I'd expect HIM to have a spare $200,000 lying around, but he says it's "all tied up" in investments he can't sell right now.
So, if you have some money, buy. If you aren't sure of the health of individual companies, buy indexed or total market mutual fund shares. You can find their phone numbers in any investment magazine. All you have to do is call.
.
2064 Whoa! I'm not alone.
Friday, October 10, 2008
I found the following after I wrote the previous post.
I found the following after I wrote the previous post.
"AFL-CIO President John Sweeney denounced the recent campaign stops as dangerous and expressed alarm that the top of the Republican ticket would not protest the crowd's language.
"Sen. John McCain, Gov. Sarah Palin and the leadership of the Republican party have a fundamental moral responsibility to denounce the violent rhetoric that has pervaded recent McCain and Palin political rallies. When rally attendees shout out such attacks as "terrorist" or "kill him" about Sen. Barack Obama, when they are cheered on by crowds incited by McCain-Palin rhetoric -- it is chilling that McCain and Palin do nothing to object."
Veteran reporter Dan Balz has opined that "McCain's tactics are over the line, with no restraint in sight, and threaten to provoke reactions among partisans on both sides that will continue to escalate."
And Frank Schaeffer penned a solemn and critical column (first published in the Baltimore Sun) personally addressed to McCain himself: "If your campaign does not stop equating Sen. Barack Obama with terrorism, questioning his patriotism and portraying Mr. Obama as "not one of us," I accuse you of deliberately feeding the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate, and therefore of potentially instigating violence."
From http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/10/mccain-defends-his-rabid_n_133710.html
.
2063 They're Scaring Me
Friday, October 10, 2008
McCain & Co.'s campaign has taken an especially nasty turn. They're appealing to the basest emotions of their followers - anger, fear, frustration, racism, by leading them to conclude that Obama is a foreigner, a Muslim, a closet terrorist, a radical who wants to destroy the country, a Communist, on and on. They are whipping up fury.
What they don't seem to realize is that although those attacks appeal to people who would vote for McCain no matter what, and are therefore unnecessary, they are turning off people who actually think about their vote.
They HAVE to be aware of that. So why are they doing it?
What worries me most is that they DO realize that there are rabid nutcases out there who would think that pre-election assassination would be a valid and heroic act to save the country, and guarantee a McCain win.
They HAVE to know that, and it doesn't seem to bother them.
So is that the plan?
The possibility really and truly scares me.
.
"I just have to rely on the good judgment of the voters not to buy into these negative attack ads. Sooner or later, people are going to figure out if all you run is negative attack ads you don't have much of a vision for the future or you're not ready to articulate it."
- John McCain, the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, 2/21/2000
McCain & Co.'s campaign has taken an especially nasty turn. They're appealing to the basest emotions of their followers - anger, fear, frustration, racism, by leading them to conclude that Obama is a foreigner, a Muslim, a closet terrorist, a radical who wants to destroy the country, a Communist, on and on. They are whipping up fury.
What they don't seem to realize is that although those attacks appeal to people who would vote for McCain no matter what, and are therefore unnecessary, they are turning off people who actually think about their vote.
They HAVE to be aware of that. So why are they doing it?
What worries me most is that they DO realize that there are rabid nutcases out there who would think that pre-election assassination would be a valid and heroic act to save the country, and guarantee a McCain win.
They HAVE to know that, and it doesn't seem to bother them.
So is that the plan?
The possibility really and truly scares me.
.
2062 Personality Test
Friday, October 10, 2008
My Personality
My Personality
13 | |
41 | |
54 | |
31 | |
32 |
| You are a calm person who is considered almost fearless by some, however you are not generally self conscious about yourself. You lead a leisurely and relaxed life. You would prefer to sit back and smell the roses rather than indulge in high energy activities. You tend not to express your emotions openly and are sometimes not even aware of your own feelings [This, the "not aware", is the only part I have to disagree with. I am usually very aware of my feelings. I just don't always know what I want to do about them.]. You dislike confrontations and are perfectly willing to compromise or to deny your own needs in order to get along with others, however you feel superior to those around you and sometimes tend to be seen as arrogant by other people. You take your time when making decisions and will deliberate on all the possible consequences and alternatives. |
ugg boots |
Thursday, October 09, 2008
2061 Duh?
Thursday, October 9, 2008
This video explains what's behind the collapse, and makes me wonder why no one is going to Hell for it (except, of course, us).
Watch CBS Videos Online
This video explains what's behind the collapse, and makes me wonder why no one is going to Hell for it (except, of course, us).
Watch CBS Videos Online
2060 Double Gotcha
Thursday, October 8, 2008
My October 2nd post, 2050 Gotcha, described my annoyance with the local Mensa group's letting the nominations process slide to where there would probably not be an election again this year. If they get five candidates, they just declare them elected and dispense with that troublesome ballot business.
I pulled another Gotcha! They had five candidates. At dinner Tuesday night, I scrounged up another. With six candidates, there has to be an election!
So now everybody is in a panic because the candidates' statements and ballot have to be in the November issue of the newsletter, and the deadline for submissions is next week.
I'm giggling.
One of the five candidates is Roman, and I know he doesn't want to be on the Board, so I suspect that if he hears we have five others, he'll drop out. So help me God, if he does, I'll have to kill him.
.
My October 2nd post, 2050 Gotcha, described my annoyance with the local Mensa group's letting the nominations process slide to where there would probably not be an election again this year. If they get five candidates, they just declare them elected and dispense with that troublesome ballot business.
I pulled another Gotcha! They had five candidates. At dinner Tuesday night, I scrounged up another. With six candidates, there has to be an election!
So now everybody is in a panic because the candidates' statements and ballot have to be in the November issue of the newsletter, and the deadline for submissions is next week.
I'm giggling.
One of the five candidates is Roman, and I know he doesn't want to be on the Board, so I suspect that if he hears we have five others, he'll drop out. So help me God, if he does, I'll have to kill him.
.
2059 Deprivation?
Repeating a post from December, 2004:
I was reading something the other day that had me thinking that I'm very fortunate in that I have everything I really need. Then I thought that all my life I've always had all the material things I've needed. I've never felt materially deprived. I've been lucky.
Then I thought a little harder, and remembered that there were many times in my life when I had next to nothing.
My entire wardrobe when I was in college took up maybe 14 inches of closet space. I wore bedroom slippers all summer one year (they were straw) because I couldn't afford to buy sandals. One Pennsylvania winter I wore a rubber raincoat over a sweater because I didn't have a coat.
Then after I graduated and began teaching, I bought my first sewing machine (used) with my first savings, and my wardrobe grew. I had to resign 2 months into my second year because pregnant women in 1966 weren't allowed to teach. I had like $200 in savings, and a husband who was away in the army. The army took $125 out of his paycheck every month and sent it to me - but he never sent another cent. Rent was $125 a month [teaching salary was $4800/year]. I ate dinner every evening at the diner around the corner from my apartment because they had a $.80 "blue plate special". That and a glass of diet shake in the morning was all I had to eat every day. I did my laundry in the bathtub because I couldn't afford the laundromat. Then, just a few weeks before the baby was due, there was a fire in the store below my apartment. Everything I owned suffered smoke damage, almost nothing could be saved, my bird died, and the day after the fire I lost the baby.
In 1968 I left Ex#1. I had $500 squirreled away in a secret savings account, in my own name, to use to move away. I got a job in a different state, and when I went to the bank to get the money, I found that my husband had gone to the bank and demanded the money, and they had given it to him. That was normal in those days - a woman's money belonged to her husband. I left with what I had in my pocket and what I could fit in my tiny car (a rear-motor Volkswagon Karmann Ghia (sp?) which meant almost no trunk and a tiny back seat, and the mice, birds, and Smokey cat took up most of that).
The new employer gave me a"per diem" allowance for six weeks while I looked for someplace to live. From that, by moving into a cheaper motel and eating in the company cafeteria, I was able to save enough for the first month's rent on a little 4-room cabin in the woods. The landlady lent me a little lamp, which I carried from room to room at night. I slept on the floor until I could afford a sofa. I slept on the sofa until I could afford a bed. I ate standing at the sink until I could afford a little table and two chairs.
Then I married husband #2, who was a tightwad. In the 70's, a working wife turned her salary over to the husband to manage. The average woman had no idea what was where moneywise. I would have had to beg for things, and I wouldn't beg, so we had no living room or dining room furniture for the first 9 years. When Daughter was born, I made her bassinet out of a laundry basket, and sewed all her baby clothes. In 1979, my monthly budget for food was $70, and I fed two adults and a child quite well on that.
When I finally left him, even though next to no money had been spent on goodies, there was strangely little to be split. I left with $19,000 (half the equity in the house, for downpayment on a small house for Daughter and me), a few shares of computer company stock, my car, and $1,500 cash. (There should have been a LOT more stock, but I didn't want to fight, so I didn't push it.) I'd picked the absolute worst time to leave - I think it was 1981 or 82 - mortgage rates were through the roof. The best I could do was 17.5% and 3 points, for a 30-year mortgage. (Honest! That was a real rate for an adjustable mortgage.)
Nonetheless, living the way same way I had been living before, and now on a low starting salary, after the first ten months I had over $10,000 in savings, over half my $19,000 salary. (The ex was paying support - we had agreed on 40% of the difference in our salaries, but I put all of that money into a separate account for my daughter's college and for emergencies.)
That was when I realized the ex must have cheated me. There should have been more when we split, given his larger salary (well over twice mine) and the way we had been living for so long.
That was the first time in my entire life that I felt that I had been deprived. Up until then, no matter how little I had, I just figured that was the way it was, and I took pride in managing with what I had. I coped. Besides, in college and in my 20's, most of my friends were in the same boat. One of my friends in college had to sell her 15-years-uncut hair to buy textbooks. I didn't even feel deprived when my visiting mother looked around my kitchen in 1979, and said "You don't have a microwave?" I didn't figure I needed one.
About the same time I was starting to look back and feel like I'd been missing something (about 1984ish), that there should have been more. There was a young woman interviewed on TV - her home had been broken into, and the thieves had taken everything. Her list included a large color TV (I had a small black-and-white), a stereo with all the goodies (I had an old one-piece hi-fi), a fox coat (my only coat was cloth), a microwave oven, a VCR (what's a VCR?), etc. The kicker was that she was about 20 years old, childless, and on welfare! I decided then and there that I was going to be deprived no longer. I had worked hard all my life, and by darn I was going to have at least what a 20-year-old on welfare has!
I put a reasonable amount into savings every month, and then the rest I spent. For the past 22 years I have treated myself well. Daughter and I took the first "luxury" vacations I had ever taken in my life - to England and Wales (3 weeks! Two of them on a houseboat on the canals), Disneyworld, Puerto Vallarta (sp?), Barbados, a dude ranch. I bought shoes. I wore store-bought clothes. I bought books!!!
My first 38 years had taught me how to be shrewd about money. I still think beauty parlors are a waste of money, still cut my own hair. I've still never been to a spa or had a professional massage. I happen to like cheap food and inexpensive restaurants. Brand names are all pronounced "ripoff". Not that I buy cheap stuff - I just don't pay for cachet.
When Jay and I got married, he was pretty well strapped. His ex had taken everything, literally everything, they had acquired in their entire relationship, even things she couldn't possibly keep or use. She threw things away rather than let him have them. She left him with a 20-year-old car (it was his first car, and he had an emotional attachment to it), and a lawn tractor, and he had to buy "her" half of the house (she'd "shopped around" for the highest appraisal). She took half the savings and checking accounts, and half the stock. She had been teaching, and all of her salary through the years had been going into a saving account in her name, untouched except for vacations. Naturally, that was all "hers". Jay just lay there and took it. I don't know why he felt guilty - this was a woman who allowed sex maybe three times a year, and had banished him to the guest bedroom because his snoring kept her awake. (It didn't take me long to realize that he had a severe case of sleep apnea, and that was when I really started to hate her. How could she not have realized that he was struggling to breathe - the sleep center clocked him at 70 episodes per hour - especially if it "kept her awake"? I don't think she cared enough.)
Anyhow, Jay was pretty much starting over when we got married, and then he lost his job 4 months later and was out of work for 9 months. We lived on my savings that year. My hard-earned money-squeezing skills came in handy, especially since Daughter had just started college - out-of-state Ivy League (Penn State), no financial aid because her father was too well off, no matter that he was contributing nothing to her costs, them's the rules durn it. When Jay went back to work, his pay was significantly higher, but he had no benefits. No problem, because he could be on my health plan.
That was enough to scare me a little. I went back into save mode. Within the next four years, we had more than tripled our savings and investments. Then he got sick. Then he died.
I still don't understand the numbers during the three years he was ill. The costs, even with health insurance, were enormous. We had my retirement check, his disability check (40% of his salary), and our investment income coming in. We had the bills going out. No matter how I run the numbers, more went out than came in, but we were never hurting to pay the bills. I can't figure it out. The only time I had to dip into capital was when I sold $20,000 of my stock to buy the handicap van. (I also borrowed $20,000 from Jay's father for the van, which I paid back at $500/month, and then in full from the life insurance.) I don't understand it. That must have been some kind of super-saving mode?!? That $500/month loan payment is the kicker. How?!?
So now I'm sitting on all that financial history. And I don't at all feel bad buying oriental rugs and fox coats [and my first fancy car!]. I saved for it. I earned it. I piled it up. I have been deprived so that now I can be indulged.
.
I was reading something the other day that had me thinking that I'm very fortunate in that I have everything I really need. Then I thought that all my life I've always had all the material things I've needed. I've never felt materially deprived. I've been lucky.
Then I thought a little harder, and remembered that there were many times in my life when I had next to nothing.
My entire wardrobe when I was in college took up maybe 14 inches of closet space. I wore bedroom slippers all summer one year (they were straw) because I couldn't afford to buy sandals. One Pennsylvania winter I wore a rubber raincoat over a sweater because I didn't have a coat.
Then after I graduated and began teaching, I bought my first sewing machine (used) with my first savings, and my wardrobe grew. I had to resign 2 months into my second year because pregnant women in 1966 weren't allowed to teach. I had like $200 in savings, and a husband who was away in the army. The army took $125 out of his paycheck every month and sent it to me - but he never sent another cent. Rent was $125 a month [teaching salary was $4800/year]. I ate dinner every evening at the diner around the corner from my apartment because they had a $.80 "blue plate special". That and a glass of diet shake in the morning was all I had to eat every day. I did my laundry in the bathtub because I couldn't afford the laundromat. Then, just a few weeks before the baby was due, there was a fire in the store below my apartment. Everything I owned suffered smoke damage, almost nothing could be saved, my bird died, and the day after the fire I lost the baby.
In 1968 I left Ex#1. I had $500 squirreled away in a secret savings account, in my own name, to use to move away. I got a job in a different state, and when I went to the bank to get the money, I found that my husband had gone to the bank and demanded the money, and they had given it to him. That was normal in those days - a woman's money belonged to her husband. I left with what I had in my pocket and what I could fit in my tiny car (a rear-motor Volkswagon Karmann Ghia (sp?) which meant almost no trunk and a tiny back seat, and the mice, birds, and Smokey cat took up most of that).
The new employer gave me a"per diem" allowance for six weeks while I looked for someplace to live. From that, by moving into a cheaper motel and eating in the company cafeteria, I was able to save enough for the first month's rent on a little 4-room cabin in the woods. The landlady lent me a little lamp, which I carried from room to room at night. I slept on the floor until I could afford a sofa. I slept on the sofa until I could afford a bed. I ate standing at the sink until I could afford a little table and two chairs.
Then I married husband #2, who was a tightwad. In the 70's, a working wife turned her salary over to the husband to manage. The average woman had no idea what was where moneywise. I would have had to beg for things, and I wouldn't beg, so we had no living room or dining room furniture for the first 9 years. When Daughter was born, I made her bassinet out of a laundry basket, and sewed all her baby clothes. In 1979, my monthly budget for food was $70, and I fed two adults and a child quite well on that.
When I finally left him, even though next to no money had been spent on goodies, there was strangely little to be split. I left with $19,000 (half the equity in the house, for downpayment on a small house for Daughter and me), a few shares of computer company stock, my car, and $1,500 cash. (There should have been a LOT more stock, but I didn't want to fight, so I didn't push it.) I'd picked the absolute worst time to leave - I think it was 1981 or 82 - mortgage rates were through the roof. The best I could do was 17.5% and 3 points, for a 30-year mortgage. (Honest! That was a real rate for an adjustable mortgage.)
Nonetheless, living the way same way I had been living before, and now on a low starting salary, after the first ten months I had over $10,000 in savings, over half my $19,000 salary. (The ex was paying support - we had agreed on 40% of the difference in our salaries, but I put all of that money into a separate account for my daughter's college and for emergencies.)
That was when I realized the ex must have cheated me. There should have been more when we split, given his larger salary (well over twice mine) and the way we had been living for so long.
That was the first time in my entire life that I felt that I had been deprived. Up until then, no matter how little I had, I just figured that was the way it was, and I took pride in managing with what I had. I coped. Besides, in college and in my 20's, most of my friends were in the same boat. One of my friends in college had to sell her 15-years-uncut hair to buy textbooks. I didn't even feel deprived when my visiting mother looked around my kitchen in 1979, and said "You don't have a microwave?" I didn't figure I needed one.
About the same time I was starting to look back and feel like I'd been missing something (about 1984ish), that there should have been more. There was a young woman interviewed on TV - her home had been broken into, and the thieves had taken everything. Her list included a large color TV (I had a small black-and-white), a stereo with all the goodies (I had an old one-piece hi-fi), a fox coat (my only coat was cloth), a microwave oven, a VCR (what's a VCR?), etc. The kicker was that she was about 20 years old, childless, and on welfare! I decided then and there that I was going to be deprived no longer. I had worked hard all my life, and by darn I was going to have at least what a 20-year-old on welfare has!
I put a reasonable amount into savings every month, and then the rest I spent. For the past 22 years I have treated myself well. Daughter and I took the first "luxury" vacations I had ever taken in my life - to England and Wales (3 weeks! Two of them on a houseboat on the canals), Disneyworld, Puerto Vallarta (sp?), Barbados, a dude ranch. I bought shoes. I wore store-bought clothes. I bought books!!!
My first 38 years had taught me how to be shrewd about money. I still think beauty parlors are a waste of money, still cut my own hair. I've still never been to a spa or had a professional massage. I happen to like cheap food and inexpensive restaurants. Brand names are all pronounced "ripoff". Not that I buy cheap stuff - I just don't pay for cachet.
When Jay and I got married, he was pretty well strapped. His ex had taken everything, literally everything, they had acquired in their entire relationship, even things she couldn't possibly keep or use. She threw things away rather than let him have them. She left him with a 20-year-old car (it was his first car, and he had an emotional attachment to it), and a lawn tractor, and he had to buy "her" half of the house (she'd "shopped around" for the highest appraisal). She took half the savings and checking accounts, and half the stock. She had been teaching, and all of her salary through the years had been going into a saving account in her name, untouched except for vacations. Naturally, that was all "hers". Jay just lay there and took it. I don't know why he felt guilty - this was a woman who allowed sex maybe three times a year, and had banished him to the guest bedroom because his snoring kept her awake. (It didn't take me long to realize that he had a severe case of sleep apnea, and that was when I really started to hate her. How could she not have realized that he was struggling to breathe - the sleep center clocked him at 70 episodes per hour - especially if it "kept her awake"? I don't think she cared enough.)
Anyhow, Jay was pretty much starting over when we got married, and then he lost his job 4 months later and was out of work for 9 months. We lived on my savings that year. My hard-earned money-squeezing skills came in handy, especially since Daughter had just started college - out-of-state Ivy League (Penn State), no financial aid because her father was too well off, no matter that he was contributing nothing to her costs, them's the rules durn it. When Jay went back to work, his pay was significantly higher, but he had no benefits. No problem, because he could be on my health plan.
That was enough to scare me a little. I went back into save mode. Within the next four years, we had more than tripled our savings and investments. Then he got sick. Then he died.
I still don't understand the numbers during the three years he was ill. The costs, even with health insurance, were enormous. We had my retirement check, his disability check (40% of his salary), and our investment income coming in. We had the bills going out. No matter how I run the numbers, more went out than came in, but we were never hurting to pay the bills. I can't figure it out. The only time I had to dip into capital was when I sold $20,000 of my stock to buy the handicap van. (I also borrowed $20,000 from Jay's father for the van, which I paid back at $500/month, and then in full from the life insurance.) I don't understand it. That must have been some kind of super-saving mode?!? That $500/month loan payment is the kicker. How?!?
So now I'm sitting on all that financial history. And I don't at all feel bad buying oriental rugs and fox coats [and my first fancy car!]. I saved for it. I earned it. I piled it up. I have been deprived so that now I can be indulged.
.
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
2058 Snork!
Repeating a post from November 2004 (with slight updating):
New Version of "Survivor" Series to debut...
A television network is developing a "Texas Version" of "Survivor" and "The Amazing Race". Contestants must travel from Amarillo, Texas, through Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and back to Amarillo, through San Marcos and Lubbock ... driving a Volvo ... with a bumper sticker that reads: "I'm for Obama, I'm Gay and I'm Here to Take Your Guns".
The first to complete the round trip is the winner!
==============================
Failed World Survey:
"Would you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?" The survey was a huge failure.
In Africa they didn't know what "food" meant.
In Eastern Europe they didn't know what "honest" meant.
In Western Europe they didn't know what "shortage" meant.
In China they didn't know what "opinion" meant.
In the Middle East they didn't know what "solution" meant.
In South America they didn't know what "please" meant.
And, in the USA they didn't know what "the rest of the world" meant!
(Praveen Muley)
2057 Pay-ternity
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
The "Maury" show seems to be all about paternity tests. Today there's one woman after another who had already been on the show multiple times looking for the father of her baby, and today seems to be concentrating on the extremes. They each have had at least 10 men tested already with negative results.
Ten men? There's a window of a month. So each of these women had unprotected sex with at least ten men in the space of a month - and they're sitting there admitting it? Since they haven't found the father yet, there most have been more than ten. And they're not even pros.
There's a lot wrong there. Those people need a lot more help than just child support.
.
The "Maury" show seems to be all about paternity tests. Today there's one woman after another who had already been on the show multiple times looking for the father of her baby, and today seems to be concentrating on the extremes. They each have had at least 10 men tested already with negative results.
Ten men? There's a window of a month. So each of these women had unprotected sex with at least ten men in the space of a month - and they're sitting there admitting it? Since they haven't found the father yet, there most have been more than ten. And they're not even pros.
There's a lot wrong there. Those people need a lot more help than just child support.
.
2056 'Nother Debate
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
I tried to watch the debate last night, but I was easily distracted. It seemed like I'd heard it all before. I kept drifting off.
The blogosphere is all excited about McCain referring to Obama as "That one". They seem to think it was racist. I don't get it. At a group dinner earlier in the evening, the waitress asked "which one" had the whatever, and I pointed across the table and said "That one". I assure you there was nothing racist about it. McCain may or may not BE racist, but I don't think that remark is the proof.
I have to pay bills today. I'm behind again. Time is passing too quickly.
.
I tried to watch the debate last night, but I was easily distracted. It seemed like I'd heard it all before. I kept drifting off.
The blogosphere is all excited about McCain referring to Obama as "That one". They seem to think it was racist. I don't get it. At a group dinner earlier in the evening, the waitress asked "which one" had the whatever, and I pointed across the table and said "That one". I assure you there was nothing racist about it. McCain may or may not BE racist, but I don't think that remark is the proof.
I have to pay bills today. I'm behind again. Time is passing too quickly.
.
Monday, October 06, 2008
2055 Home and Content
Monday, October 6, 2008
Damn. I'm in love. I can't help it.
Maybe the fact that he's so maddening is part of the attraction.
.
Damn. I'm in love. I can't help it.
Maybe the fact that he's so maddening is part of the attraction.
.
Sunday, October 05, 2008
2054 Still grumbling about feeds
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Last night I went through all the old posts I had transferred over from AOL (June 2004 into November 2004) and removed all the AOL-supplied HTML. Doesn't seem to have fixed it. I don't know what's wrong.
AOL had announced early last week that they were killing all the journals as of the end of October, and that they would provide "a method" to transfer all old journal entries to other platforms. No indication what platforms.
I've been using AOL long enough to know not to wait. Whatever they provide will be complicated, inadequate, and full of bugs, and they'll announce it so late that they won't be able to handle the traffic of everybody trying to move their journals at once. I don't know where they get their programmers. The only thing that has ever worked right in AOL is the mail, and I'm waiting for that shoe to drop.
Most of the other AOL journalers agree with me, that we can't trust AOL, and they are copying, stripping, redating, and reposting just like I am.
Well, time to get me out the door.
.
Last night I went through all the old posts I had transferred over from AOL (June 2004 into November 2004) and removed all the AOL-supplied HTML. Doesn't seem to have fixed it. I don't know what's wrong.
AOL had announced early last week that they were killing all the journals as of the end of October, and that they would provide "a method" to transfer all old journal entries to other platforms. No indication what platforms.
I've been using AOL long enough to know not to wait. Whatever they provide will be complicated, inadequate, and full of bugs, and they'll announce it so late that they won't be able to handle the traffic of everybody trying to move their journals at once. I don't know where they get their programmers. The only thing that has ever worked right in AOL is the mail, and I'm waiting for that shoe to drop.
Most of the other AOL journalers agree with me, that we can't trust AOL, and they are copying, stripping, redating, and reposting just like I am.
Well, time to get me out the door.
.
Saturday, October 04, 2008
2053 Feeds? Sigh....
Saturday, October 4, 2008
If you use Bloglines, and you SEE this post on Bloglines, please leave a comment and tell me. All I'm seeing on Bloglines is the red [!] that says there's a problem with the feeds, and it seems to think that the URL is incorrect or the site doesn't exist. I'm having fits!
All I did was turn feeds off for the evening of 10/2, while I transferred over some old posts from the AOL journal, and then I turned feeds back on the next morning. I went to Blogger Help and the Blogger forums, but it doesn't look like anyone else is having the problem, although I did pick up the information somewhere along the line that sometimes there can be something IN a post, some screwy HTML, that breaks the feed doohicky.
AOL. I'd be not at all surprised if AOL inserted screwy HTML. They couldn't even get the font sizes right back when I was using AOL Journals.
Sigh.
Well, I'm off to NJ tomorrow. Wish me luck.
.
If you use Bloglines, and you SEE this post on Bloglines, please leave a comment and tell me. All I'm seeing on Bloglines is the red [!] that says there's a problem with the feeds, and it seems to think that the URL is incorrect or the site doesn't exist. I'm having fits!
All I did was turn feeds off for the evening of 10/2, while I transferred over some old posts from the AOL journal, and then I turned feeds back on the next morning. I went to Blogger Help and the Blogger forums, but it doesn't look like anyone else is having the problem, although I did pick up the information somewhere along the line that sometimes there can be something IN a post, some screwy HTML, that breaks the feed doohicky.
AOL. I'd be not at all surprised if AOL inserted screwy HTML. They couldn't even get the font sizes right back when I was using AOL Journals.
Sigh.
Well, I'm off to NJ tomorrow. Wish me luck.
.
Friday, October 03, 2008
2052 Political Contributions and other bits
Friday, October 3, 2008
On the debate: Except for once when it sounded like she thought "Al Kayda" was a dictator in some middle eastern country, Palin mostly didn't shoot herself in the foot. She was able to stick to a topic and form complete sentences that made sense. Unfortunately, the subject she stuck to often had nothing to do with the question except for the presence of the keyword or two she took off on, and she imparted no specifics. I kept yelling at the television "Answer the question!"
Everyone picked up on her getting the name of the commander in Afghanistan wrong. But worse than getting the name wrong was getting what he said wrong. She said he said an Iraq-style surge in Afghanistan would work.
WASHINGTON – The new top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said yesterday that more U.S. troops are urgently required to combat a worsening insurgency, but he stated emphatically that no Iraq-style “surge” of forces will end the conflict there. "Afghanistan is not Iraq,” said Gen. David McKiernan, who led ground forces during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and took over four months ago as head of the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan.
Also, she said that Obama was wrong that US air strikes were killing civilians. In fact, US air strikes are wreaking enough havoc on the civilian population, killing men, women, and children indiscriminately, that the US is severely impacting NATO goals with the Afghani government.
What she did best: There are a very large number of people who don't find intelligence, experience, or expertise to be desirable. They want someone "just like me". Most of her demeanor and delivery was carefully calculated to appeal to those "just like me" people. Wink, wink.
----------------------
Want to know who your neighbors made political contributions to, and how much? Go to http://fundrace.huffingtonpost.com/ and put in a zip code, or town name, or street name, or even a specific address (careful - some people didn't use their home address), or a last name.
Pretty cool.
--------------------
To correct a misconception - if the president dies, and then the vice-president dies, Nancy Pelosi does NOT necessarily become president. She would become president only if BOTH the president and vice-president die at pretty much the same time.
If the president dies, one of the first duties of the vice-president upon being sworn in is to appoint a new vice-president. Then if the new president would die, the appointed vice-president becomes the new president and appoints... etc. So it's possible to have a president who was never elected.
---------------------
Some female (young, single) idiot (Diana Falzone?) on "Mike and Juliet" today just said that if you don't like your in-laws, you probably don't really like your spouse. She also said you should not keep in touch with an ex.
She's so naive! I have disliked in-laws. One, Ex#2's mother, because she repeatedly snubbed me and made my husband's life miserable, and another because I loved Jay, and I could clearly see that the reason Jay couldn't make decisions was that his father viciously attacked every decision he'd ever made. It was next to impossible to please the man.
And certainly you MUST keep in touch with an ex-spouse if there are children, and if there's no children it's still ok if you both can keep it on a friends-only level. Even ex-dates can be friends, if you were friends before the dating.
That young lady has a lot to learn, even if she does have an advice book out. Writing a book doesn't automatically make you an expert!
.
On the debate: Except for once when it sounded like she thought "Al Kayda" was a dictator in some middle eastern country, Palin mostly didn't shoot herself in the foot. She was able to stick to a topic and form complete sentences that made sense. Unfortunately, the subject she stuck to often had nothing to do with the question except for the presence of the keyword or two she took off on, and she imparted no specifics. I kept yelling at the television "Answer the question!"
Everyone picked up on her getting the name of the commander in Afghanistan wrong. But worse than getting the name wrong was getting what he said wrong. She said he said an Iraq-style surge in Afghanistan would work.
WASHINGTON – The new top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said yesterday that more U.S. troops are urgently required to combat a worsening insurgency, but he stated emphatically that no Iraq-style “surge” of forces will end the conflict there. "Afghanistan is not Iraq,” said Gen. David McKiernan, who led ground forces during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and took over four months ago as head of the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan.
Also, she said that Obama was wrong that US air strikes were killing civilians. In fact, US air strikes are wreaking enough havoc on the civilian population, killing men, women, and children indiscriminately, that the US is severely impacting NATO goals with the Afghani government.
What she did best: There are a very large number of people who don't find intelligence, experience, or expertise to be desirable. They want someone "just like me". Most of her demeanor and delivery was carefully calculated to appeal to those "just like me" people. Wink, wink.
----------------------
Want to know who your neighbors made political contributions to, and how much? Go to http://fundrace.huffingtonpost.com/ and put in a zip code, or town name, or street name, or even a specific address (careful - some people didn't use their home address), or a last name.
Pretty cool.
--------------------
To correct a misconception - if the president dies, and then the vice-president dies, Nancy Pelosi does NOT necessarily become president. She would become president only if BOTH the president and vice-president die at pretty much the same time.
If the president dies, one of the first duties of the vice-president upon being sworn in is to appoint a new vice-president. Then if the new president would die, the appointed vice-president becomes the new president and appoints... etc. So it's possible to have a president who was never elected.
---------------------
Some female (young, single) idiot (Diana Falzone?) on "Mike and Juliet" today just said that if you don't like your in-laws, you probably don't really like your spouse. She also said you should not keep in touch with an ex.
She's so naive! I have disliked in-laws. One, Ex#2's mother, because she repeatedly snubbed me and made my husband's life miserable, and another because I loved Jay, and I could clearly see that the reason Jay couldn't make decisions was that his father viciously attacked every decision he'd ever made. It was next to impossible to please the man.
And certainly you MUST keep in touch with an ex-spouse if there are children, and if there's no children it's still ok if you both can keep it on a friends-only level. Even ex-dates can be friends, if you were friends before the dating.
That young lady has a lot to learn, even if she does have an advice book out. Writing a book doesn't automatically make you an expert!
.
2051 VP Debate Flowchart
Friday, September 3, 2008
Oh MY God This Is Great! You have GOT to see this! Absolute perfection! I tried to copy it, and I can't, so you have to go to the link. (The title is a bit misleading.)
http://www.evanmorris.com/2008/10/03/and-then-you-drag-that-poor-kid-onstage/
It works first as a joke, but then it slowly dawns on you that it isn't a joke - it's really the way it went.
.
Oh MY God This Is Great! You have GOT to see this! Absolute perfection! I tried to copy it, and I can't, so you have to go to the link. (The title is a bit misleading.)
http://www.evanmorris.com/2008/10/03/and-then-you-drag-that-poor-kid-onstage/
It works first as a joke, but then it slowly dawns on you that it isn't a joke - it's really the way it went.
.
Thursday, October 02, 2008
2050 Gotcha
Thursday, October 2, 2008
I confess that I am sometimes guilty of a very unattractive form of manipulation - the art of the "gotcha". That's when you know that someone is going to react in a certain way or take some action that is guaranteed to tic you off, and you purposely either set up a situation that will elicit that action and reaction, or you make no effort whatsoever to head it off. You sit back, watch it happen, and then say, "See? I knew he/she'd do that!" And then you get all pissed off because they did.
At least I do it only occasionally.
There are people who do it almost constantly to others to prove their own superiority, to themselves if no one else. They want you to sympathize with them, having to deal with all these stupid people.
There are people to do it to themselves, and it looks a lot like they're doing it to prove their own incompetence to themselves. They want you to sympathize with them, the way they're always taken advantage of.
None of them get any sympathy from me. If you knew this was likely to happen, why did you take no action to head it off? If you knew that something is going to go a certain way, but you made no effort to stop it or change the course, then it's partially your own fault. Don't come crying or complaining to me.
All of this is to say that in the case of the Mensa elections, I know I pulled a gotcha. I know I could have done something, and I didn't, so I am fully aware I shouldn't complain. I have no justification for my anger, other than the "it's not my job to make people do what they're supposed to do, when they know what they're supposed to do" excuse.
But I'm going to complain anyway, because I'm pissed.
The local Mensa governing board consists of five people. The elections are every two years. There's supposed to be an independent three-member nominating committee who gets out there and drums up candidates. This being a small group, the bylaws allow that if the nominating committee can find only five candidates, then there is no balloting. The five are simply declared elected. The bylaws also allow for petition candidates if the membership is not happy with the proposed slate.
Back in the days when the editor typed up the newsletter and made copies on an office copier, folded them, and stuck a first-class stamp on them, the lead time for the newsletter was only a week, and the bylaws schedules allowed for all the announcements to be made in sufficient time, and we had actual elections. But now, with all the "help" we get from computers, professional publishing, and arrival delays because of second-class mailing, the lead time for the newsletter is three weeks, which means that the membership gets announcements only a few days before the next step in the process has to be completed.
The result is that there have been no elections in the past ten years. The Nominating committee asks the current board if they want to run again, they might have to find a replacement for one who wants to bow out, so they've got their five, there's no time for petitions, there's not even time to publish a ballot!, and the five are declared elected.
This has created a lot of grumbling, because the same people are "elected" all the time, and the few replacements we've had have every appearance of being hand-picked by the current board. Like, "If I had been aware it was an election year, maybe I'd have run, but I never saw a call for candidates ...." There was never an opportunity for "outsiders" to get inside.
That has thoroughly pissed me off for years.
So this year I got onto the bylaws committee, and took the election procedures and notifications as my personal project. I was proactive! I tried to fix this! I stretched out the process to allow time for proper notifications, and pegged it to newsletter issues rather than months, specifying what information was to be in what issues (ballot-5, ballot-4, ...), and so on. Everyone who saw it agreed that it was good, and the current board even unanimously passed a resolution to use the proposed schedule for this fall's election, even if the new bylaws were not yet approved by national.
The steps, to be published in the monthly newsletter:
- June - call for volunteers for the nominating and election committees
- July -announce makeup of the nominating committee and call for candidates for election
- August -pause to allow for volunteers to come forward or be coerced
- September - announce slate and candidate's statements, and publish procedures for petition candidates if one is not happy with the slate
- October - publish full slate, statements of petition candidates, and ballot
- November - pause for return of ballots
- December - publish results of election
There wasn't a call for committee volunteers until early September (note that we were supposed to have a slate by then), and then it wasn't in the newsletter. It was on the chat group, to which fewer than a quarter of the membership subscribes. I volunteered for both the nominating committees and the election committees, specifying that I did not want to chair either. Then I sat back and waited.
They way I figure it should happen is that the chair of the nominating committee should ensure that a call for candidates is in the newsletter, the committee should meet and discuss any volunteers who have come forward, get a copy of the full membership list, see if there are any people who might serve if only asked, get on the phone and ask people, and drum up MORE THAN FIVE people, even if it requires some twisting of arms and pouring of guilt.
So I volunteered, and then I waited. Three weeks later, I was still waiting for someone to tell me that my offer had been accepted, and that the chair of the nominating committee was so-and-so.
I didn't find out I was on the committee until I got a panicked email from the person I assume is the chair, freaking out because he discovered that two of the current board members do not intend to run again, and we have to find two more people, and WHAT DO WE DO NOW!!!???
I just received my October issue of the newsletter, containing a call for candidates. The October issue was supposed to contain the ballot. Ballots are to be counted the first week in December. But of course, there was never any intent to issue ballots. There was obviously no attempt whatsoever to ensure that there was a real election.
What @#$^&.
I don't care. If we don't have at least five, national will disband the local group, folding us into probably the Albany group, or maybe the NYC group, and I don't care. We deserve it. I'm done.
Now, do I deserve any sympathy for my frustration with these stupid people? Or should I be blamed for knowing exactly what would happen, and instead of standing up and pushing, making sure things happened as they should, should I be blamed for just sitting back and watching it happen?
What @#$%^.
.
I confess that I am sometimes guilty of a very unattractive form of manipulation - the art of the "gotcha". That's when you know that someone is going to react in a certain way or take some action that is guaranteed to tic you off, and you purposely either set up a situation that will elicit that action and reaction, or you make no effort whatsoever to head it off. You sit back, watch it happen, and then say, "See? I knew he/she'd do that!" And then you get all pissed off because they did.
At least I do it only occasionally.
There are people who do it almost constantly to others to prove their own superiority, to themselves if no one else. They want you to sympathize with them, having to deal with all these stupid people.
There are people to do it to themselves, and it looks a lot like they're doing it to prove their own incompetence to themselves. They want you to sympathize with them, the way they're always taken advantage of.
None of them get any sympathy from me. If you knew this was likely to happen, why did you take no action to head it off? If you knew that something is going to go a certain way, but you made no effort to stop it or change the course, then it's partially your own fault. Don't come crying or complaining to me.
All of this is to say that in the case of the Mensa elections, I know I pulled a gotcha. I know I could have done something, and I didn't, so I am fully aware I shouldn't complain. I have no justification for my anger, other than the "it's not my job to make people do what they're supposed to do, when they know what they're supposed to do" excuse.
But I'm going to complain anyway, because I'm pissed.
The local Mensa governing board consists of five people. The elections are every two years. There's supposed to be an independent three-member nominating committee who gets out there and drums up candidates. This being a small group, the bylaws allow that if the nominating committee can find only five candidates, then there is no balloting. The five are simply declared elected. The bylaws also allow for petition candidates if the membership is not happy with the proposed slate.
Back in the days when the editor typed up the newsletter and made copies on an office copier, folded them, and stuck a first-class stamp on them, the lead time for the newsletter was only a week, and the bylaws schedules allowed for all the announcements to be made in sufficient time, and we had actual elections. But now, with all the "help" we get from computers, professional publishing, and arrival delays because of second-class mailing, the lead time for the newsletter is three weeks, which means that the membership gets announcements only a few days before the next step in the process has to be completed.
The result is that there have been no elections in the past ten years. The Nominating committee asks the current board if they want to run again, they might have to find a replacement for one who wants to bow out, so they've got their five, there's no time for petitions, there's not even time to publish a ballot!, and the five are declared elected.
This has created a lot of grumbling, because the same people are "elected" all the time, and the few replacements we've had have every appearance of being hand-picked by the current board. Like, "If I had been aware it was an election year, maybe I'd have run, but I never saw a call for candidates ...." There was never an opportunity for "outsiders" to get inside.
That has thoroughly pissed me off for years.
So this year I got onto the bylaws committee, and took the election procedures and notifications as my personal project. I was proactive! I tried to fix this! I stretched out the process to allow time for proper notifications, and pegged it to newsletter issues rather than months, specifying what information was to be in what issues (ballot-5, ballot-4, ...), and so on. Everyone who saw it agreed that it was good, and the current board even unanimously passed a resolution to use the proposed schedule for this fall's election, even if the new bylaws were not yet approved by national.
The steps, to be published in the monthly newsletter:
- June - call for volunteers for the nominating and election committees
- July -announce makeup of the nominating committee and call for candidates for election
- August -pause to allow for volunteers to come forward or be coerced
- September - announce slate and candidate's statements, and publish procedures for petition candidates if one is not happy with the slate
- October - publish full slate, statements of petition candidates, and ballot
- November - pause for return of ballots
- December - publish results of election
There wasn't a call for committee volunteers until early September (note that we were supposed to have a slate by then), and then it wasn't in the newsletter. It was on the chat group, to which fewer than a quarter of the membership subscribes. I volunteered for both the nominating committees and the election committees, specifying that I did not want to chair either. Then I sat back and waited.
They way I figure it should happen is that the chair of the nominating committee should ensure that a call for candidates is in the newsletter, the committee should meet and discuss any volunteers who have come forward, get a copy of the full membership list, see if there are any people who might serve if only asked, get on the phone and ask people, and drum up MORE THAN FIVE people, even if it requires some twisting of arms and pouring of guilt.
So I volunteered, and then I waited. Three weeks later, I was still waiting for someone to tell me that my offer had been accepted, and that the chair of the nominating committee was so-and-so.
I didn't find out I was on the committee until I got a panicked email from the person I assume is the chair, freaking out because he discovered that two of the current board members do not intend to run again, and we have to find two more people, and WHAT DO WE DO NOW!!!???
I just received my October issue of the newsletter, containing a call for candidates. The October issue was supposed to contain the ballot. Ballots are to be counted the first week in December. But of course, there was never any intent to issue ballots. There was obviously no attempt whatsoever to ensure that there was a real election.
What @#$^&.
I don't care. If we don't have at least five, national will disband the local group, folding us into probably the Albany group, or maybe the NYC group, and I don't care. We deserve it. I'm done.
Now, do I deserve any sympathy for my frustration with these stupid people? Or should I be blamed for knowing exactly what would happen, and instead of standing up and pushing, making sure things happened as they should, should I be blamed for just sitting back and watching it happen?
What @#$%^.
.
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
2049 The Quote for the decade
"Beware of the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry, [who,] infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How will I know? For this I have done."
- Julius Caesar
.
- Julius Caesar
.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
2047 Observations
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
My house is on the helicopter flight path between Albany and NYC, and they fly low through here - I mean treetop level. Normally there's an average of one helicopter a week thrumming over, shaking the house and scaring the cats (it sounds like a train is heading straight for the house).
Lately it's been two to four a day. Even if I had no idea what's going on these past two weeks, I'd know there's something big going down.
-----------------------
The government and media are trying to scare us! Everybody keeps stressing the 700+ drop in the Dow. They say it's the biggest drop blah blah blah.
Well, in bare numbers, like 750, yeah. That's the largest number. However, it's not the biggest drop! Nowhere near. Don't forget that the Dow has been rising steadily for years. In percent, this drop is (heh heh) a drop in the bucket. It's only a 7% drop. That's only the seventh largest drop since something like 1940!
To call it the largest drop since the Great Depression is sensationalism and fear-mongering, and it's not true, and it pisses me off. AND, by creating fear, it almost guarantees further dropping (not to mention the administration gets its power-grabbing way).
I run a portfolio table online. I don't check it often because I'm a long-term investor and day-to-day rises and drops don't bother me. So I checked. Yeah, I have had some painful losses comparing three weeks ago to today. However, one of the columns in the table tracks gains over the cost basis (mostly the prices in 2002 through 2004), and even with the losses of the past week, I'm still showing high gains over base. So even today, I have not lost a cent, and have actually gained by an admirably healthy amount.
[Later Update - See this. He agrees with me. I'm hoping that this delay in pushing the bailout through will allow the OTHER proposed solutions to get a hearing.]
----------------------------
I saw The Man last night. We had dinner in Newburgh, our "halfway point".
He'd had some stuff going on, and we hadn't been able to get together in five weeks. A very frustrating five weeks. He had suggested an overnighter for last night, and I said no, just dinner.
I needed to see how I felt, and how I felt about "us", and I didn't want to be distracted by a promise of the physical.
I know how I feel about him. There's no question of that. What I was unsure of was the relationship. Over the past five weeks of not knowing for sure what was going on, and wondering why I'm putting up with what feels like half a relationship, like there's something missing, feeling shut out sometimes and wondering why, I needed to reexamine what I want, and whether what we do have is enough.
I'd almost reached the conclusion that no, it wasn't enough, and maybe it would be better to go our separate ways. Yeah, I arrived at the restaurant in breakup mood.
Within a half hour of his arrival last night I knew that it's worth it. Worth the frustration. Worth everything. We have some kind of Vulcan-like mind meld, and it's extremely satisfying. We were together four hours, and it was non-stop talk and laughter and mutual admiration.
The chemistry between us could power a nuclear submarine.
I guess I just need to be more definite with him about what I want and need, and more insistent than I have been. I still don't know where this is going, but once again, I don't care.
.
My house is on the helicopter flight path between Albany and NYC, and they fly low through here - I mean treetop level. Normally there's an average of one helicopter a week thrumming over, shaking the house and scaring the cats (it sounds like a train is heading straight for the house).
Lately it's been two to four a day. Even if I had no idea what's going on these past two weeks, I'd know there's something big going down.
-----------------------
The government and media are trying to scare us! Everybody keeps stressing the 700+ drop in the Dow. They say it's the biggest drop blah blah blah.
Well, in bare numbers, like 750, yeah. That's the largest number. However, it's not the biggest drop! Nowhere near. Don't forget that the Dow has been rising steadily for years. In percent, this drop is (heh heh) a drop in the bucket. It's only a 7% drop. That's only the seventh largest drop since something like 1940!
To call it the largest drop since the Great Depression is sensationalism and fear-mongering, and it's not true, and it pisses me off. AND, by creating fear, it almost guarantees further dropping (not to mention the administration gets its power-grabbing way).
I run a portfolio table online. I don't check it often because I'm a long-term investor and day-to-day rises and drops don't bother me. So I checked. Yeah, I have had some painful losses comparing three weeks ago to today. However, one of the columns in the table tracks gains over the cost basis (mostly the prices in 2002 through 2004), and even with the losses of the past week, I'm still showing high gains over base. So even today, I have not lost a cent, and have actually gained by an admirably healthy amount.
[Later Update - See this. He agrees with me. I'm hoping that this delay in pushing the bailout through will allow the OTHER proposed solutions to get a hearing.]
----------------------------
I saw The Man last night. We had dinner in Newburgh, our "halfway point".
He'd had some stuff going on, and we hadn't been able to get together in five weeks. A very frustrating five weeks. He had suggested an overnighter for last night, and I said no, just dinner.
I needed to see how I felt, and how I felt about "us", and I didn't want to be distracted by a promise of the physical.
I know how I feel about him. There's no question of that. What I was unsure of was the relationship. Over the past five weeks of not knowing for sure what was going on, and wondering why I'm putting up with what feels like half a relationship, like there's something missing, feeling shut out sometimes and wondering why, I needed to reexamine what I want, and whether what we do have is enough.
I'd almost reached the conclusion that no, it wasn't enough, and maybe it would be better to go our separate ways. Yeah, I arrived at the restaurant in breakup mood.
Within a half hour of his arrival last night I knew that it's worth it. Worth the frustration. Worth everything. We have some kind of Vulcan-like mind meld, and it's extremely satisfying. We were together four hours, and it was non-stop talk and laughter and mutual admiration.
The chemistry between us could power a nuclear submarine.
I guess I just need to be more definite with him about what I want and need, and more insistent than I have been. I still don't know where this is going, but once again, I don't care.
.
Monday, September 29, 2008
2046 Leno on Bailout
“I listened to President Bush’s speech. I think I understand this whole economic crisis. See, rich people on Wall Street made a big mess, and they’re too rich to clean it up. So the rest of America, you know, their maids and butlers, they have to clean it up for them. You see how easy it is?
“As far as this whole $700 billion thing is concerned, they keep saying, “We have to act now. We have to act now.” This is like a bad TV offer. “Just 10 easy payments of $70 billion each. Operators are standing by, but you have to act now!”
Jay Leno
2045 What Black Hole?
Monday, September 29, 2008
Thinking about the collider. If it did happen to create a black hole that didn't disintegrate and swallowed the universe, would we notice?
Movies always show people being stretched as they're being sucked in, and shrieking in pain, but really, I don't know if you'd notice a thing. It's not like your nerve fibers are being stretched. Think of it this way - if overnight, some space was added to every particle, atom, molecule, everything, inside and out, so that everything was twice the size it had been, as long as everything, inside and outside of everything, including you of course, got "bigger", but still retained exactly the same relationship to everything else, would you notice? Maybe not.
So if everything got "smaller", like packed closer together, but all the relationships stayed the same, maybe you wouldn't notice. That would be like being sucked into and being inside a black hole. Maybe the sun would look funny for a nanosecond, before it got sucked in, too, but if all the relationships stayed the same, maybe reactions stay the same, too, and it would continue to "shine" in our "sky". Everything would be "denser" than it was, but in relation to everything else, it's the same.
Sorta like when you travel fast and time slows down, you don't notice because everything traveling with you has slowed down too. I think. I guess.
Maybe it's already happened a time or two or three, the black hole, I mean. Maybe we're in one. How would we know?
-------------------------
Another LSAT question. This one is bugging me because required information isn't given.
Example 7
Alice, Bobby, Carole, Dwight, and Elva were playing a game with marbles. When the game ended Alice wrote down the following information:
- Carole has more than Alice and Bobby together
- Alice's total is the same as the total of Dwight and Elva together
- Alice has more marbles than Bobby
- Everyone has at least one marble
Question 2
If Dwight has more marbles than Bobby, who ended the game with the least marbles?
A. Alice
B. Bobby
C. Carole
D. Dwight
E. Elva
We know that Carole and Alice both have more than Dwight, and we're to assume that Dwight has more than Bobby, so the question becomes, "Who has the least, Bobby or Elva?"
Let's allow Bobby one marble, and Elva two.
Then Dwight must have at least three marbles, Alice five, and Carole more than six.
That works.
Let's allow Elva one marble, and Bobby two.
Then Dwight must have at least three marbles, Alice four, and Carole more than six.
That works.
Both allocations fit all the rules given, and the premise in Question 2. (Question 1 should have no effect, since it simply asked who ended up with the most marbles, which is obviously Carole.)
Either Bobby or Elva could be the least!
It annoyed me enormously. Then I looked at:
Question 3
Which one of the following is a possible order of children going from most marbles to least?
A. Alice, Bobby, Carole, Dwight, Elva
B. Carole, Alice, Bobby, Elva, Dwight
C. Carole, Bobby, Alice, Dwight, Elva
D. Dwight, Carole, Alice, Bobby, Elva
E. Carole, Alice, Elva, Bobby, Dwight
Carole>Alice+Bobby, therefore
Carole>Alice and Carole>Bobby, and
Alice=Dwight+Elva, therefore
Alice>Dwight, Carole>Dwight, Alice>Elva, Carole>Elva, and
Alice>Bobby
and that's all the players, and that's all we know.
We don't know anything about the relationship between Dwight, Bobby, and Elva.
It's obvious (unless I'm missing something significant) that Carole is the highest, so that eliminates answers A and D, leaving B, C, and E. At this point it's obvious (unless I'm missing something significant) that we aren't to use the supposition in Question 2, because all three of our choices show Dwight as lower than Bobby.
Alice has more than Bobby, so C is out, leaving B and E.
Assigning marbles to the kids in B and E, we can have
B. >9, 5, 4, 3, 2 -or-
E. >9, 6, 4, 3, 2
Both of them check out as possible valid orders, highest to lowest.
So, what's the answer? Do they allow multiple answers? Am I missing something?
I think I found the black hole. Help!
---------------------------------
Actually, I often read and hear things too literally. Last night on the news, a woman was saying that someone had broken into her home "and stole her jury box." I was wondering if she'd bought it at an auction or something, like people who buy church pews, it might be fun to have a jury box if you had like a home theater or something and then she went on to say her "best jury was in it" --- and my head exploded.
It took me a few seconds to figure it out.
.
Thinking about the collider. If it did happen to create a black hole that didn't disintegrate and swallowed the universe, would we notice?
Movies always show people being stretched as they're being sucked in, and shrieking in pain, but really, I don't know if you'd notice a thing. It's not like your nerve fibers are being stretched. Think of it this way - if overnight, some space was added to every particle, atom, molecule, everything, inside and out, so that everything was twice the size it had been, as long as everything, inside and outside of everything, including you of course, got "bigger", but still retained exactly the same relationship to everything else, would you notice? Maybe not.
So if everything got "smaller", like packed closer together, but all the relationships stayed the same, maybe you wouldn't notice. That would be like being sucked into and being inside a black hole. Maybe the sun would look funny for a nanosecond, before it got sucked in, too, but if all the relationships stayed the same, maybe reactions stay the same, too, and it would continue to "shine" in our "sky". Everything would be "denser" than it was, but in relation to everything else, it's the same.
Sorta like when you travel fast and time slows down, you don't notice because everything traveling with you has slowed down too. I think. I guess.
Maybe it's already happened a time or two or three, the black hole, I mean. Maybe we're in one. How would we know?
-------------------------
Another LSAT question. This one is bugging me because required information isn't given.
Example 7
Alice, Bobby, Carole, Dwight, and Elva were playing a game with marbles. When the game ended Alice wrote down the following information:
- Carole has more than Alice and Bobby together
- Alice's total is the same as the total of Dwight and Elva together
- Alice has more marbles than Bobby
- Everyone has at least one marble
Question 2
If Dwight has more marbles than Bobby, who ended the game with the least marbles?
A. Alice
B. Bobby
C. Carole
D. Dwight
E. Elva
We know that Carole and Alice both have more than Dwight, and we're to assume that Dwight has more than Bobby, so the question becomes, "Who has the least, Bobby or Elva?"
Let's allow Bobby one marble, and Elva two.
Then Dwight must have at least three marbles, Alice five, and Carole more than six.
That works.
Let's allow Elva one marble, and Bobby two.
Then Dwight must have at least three marbles, Alice four, and Carole more than six.
That works.
Both allocations fit all the rules given, and the premise in Question 2. (Question 1 should have no effect, since it simply asked who ended up with the most marbles, which is obviously Carole.)
Either Bobby or Elva could be the least!
It annoyed me enormously. Then I looked at:
Question 3
Which one of the following is a possible order of children going from most marbles to least?
A. Alice, Bobby, Carole, Dwight, Elva
B. Carole, Alice, Bobby, Elva, Dwight
C. Carole, Bobby, Alice, Dwight, Elva
D. Dwight, Carole, Alice, Bobby, Elva
E. Carole, Alice, Elva, Bobby, Dwight
Carole>Alice+Bobby, therefore
Carole>Alice and Carole>Bobby, and
Alice=Dwight+Elva, therefore
Alice>Dwight, Carole>Dwight, Alice>Elva, Carole>Elva, and
Alice>Bobby
and that's all the players, and that's all we know.
We don't know anything about the relationship between Dwight, Bobby, and Elva.
It's obvious (unless I'm missing something significant) that Carole is the highest, so that eliminates answers A and D, leaving B, C, and E. At this point it's obvious (unless I'm missing something significant) that we aren't to use the supposition in Question 2, because all three of our choices show Dwight as lower than Bobby.
Alice has more than Bobby, so C is out, leaving B and E.
Assigning marbles to the kids in B and E, we can have
B. >9, 5, 4, 3, 2 -or-
E. >9, 6, 4, 3, 2
Both of them check out as possible valid orders, highest to lowest.
So, what's the answer? Do they allow multiple answers? Am I missing something?
I think I found the black hole. Help!
---------------------------------
Actually, I often read and hear things too literally. Last night on the news, a woman was saying that someone had broken into her home "and stole her jury box." I was wondering if she'd bought it at an auction or something, like people who buy church pews, it might be fun to have a jury box if you had like a home theater or something and then she went on to say her "best jury was in it" --- and my head exploded.
It took me a few seconds to figure it out.
.
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