Look, you got a little stabbed the other day. That's bound to make anyone a mite ornery.

Mal ,'Ariel'


Natter 48 Contiguous States of Denial  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


Trudy Booth - Dec 28, 2006 8:34:47 am PST #8376 of 10007
Greece's financial crisis threatens to take down all of Western civilization - a civilization they themselves founded. A rather tragic irony - which is something they also invented. - Jon Stewart

Oh my god, downtown Chicago has been dead in the morning this week, but by afternoon it's filled with tourists who walk too slowly and talk too loudly and cluster together, clogging the sidewalks and doorways. Taking public transit is an event, and they won't shut up and let people read in peace.

They keep asking me for directions. They're lucky I'm not more malicious. And two guys stopped me in the grocery store last night for help locating things, and not in a hitting-on-me way. I feel like a shepherd this week, or some shit.

They walk four-abreast! And they crane their heads upward to look at the miraculously tall buildings and then crash into me! And they've always lost somebody named Timmy!

And someone needs to teach them how to jay walk. They mosey their way across as the light is changing. They amble when they take a short cut mid block. Alternately, they stand there in a big insoluable lump when the WALK starts to flash and prevent me from making the light.

SOME of us are going to work, People! Do I show up in your square state and stand with all my nears and dears at the foot of your driveway as you're leaving for work? Do I whip out a map and unfold it there and then spend ten minutes refolding it while you dodge my progeny? NO I DO NOT.


Strega - Dec 28, 2006 8:36:31 am PST #8377 of 10007

if your part in the DOS is simply downloading their largest file repeatedly

It’s still a DOS attack. You’re not just using the site normally, you’re trying to make it unavailable to others. It seems worth noting that DOS attacks tend to affect innocent bystanders. Odds are that the server they’re trying to overload hosts other websites, too.

I’m pretty sure that most ISP’s explicitly describe that sort of thing as a breach of their terms of service.

It's not that much different from an organized boycott of a company that expresses ideas you strongly disagree with.

It’s completely different. In a boycott you don’t go into the store, stand in the aisles, hide the merchandise, and otherwise try to prevent anyone else from shopping there. A picket line can’t actively block all traffic.

Having a marketplace of ideas means that there are more than few worthless ideas are out there.


beekaytee - Dec 28, 2006 8:39:54 am PST #8378 of 10007
Compassionately intolerant

11 years on Capitol Hill has ground me down to a head-shaking paste when it comes to dealing with the tourons. I could say I've gone all buddist-loving-kindness but the fact is, around here there is no point in fighting it. There is no 'off-season' in this town. And I've chosen to live a few blocks from the epicenter of all things gawky. It's my own damn fault.


Tom Scola - Dec 28, 2006 8:43:33 am PST #8379 of 10007
Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.

They walk four-abreast!

Friggin mallwalkers.


Gudanov - Dec 28, 2006 8:44:42 am PST #8380 of 10007
Coding and Sleeping

Is this a DOS attack on Phelps' website? Is there anyone who doesn't think he is a nutcase? I guess I don't see what the point is.


Theodosia - Dec 28, 2006 8:44:49 am PST #8381 of 10007
'we all walk this earth feeling we are frauds. The trick is to be grateful and hope the caper doesn't end any time soon"

Don't get me started ranting about people who stand in the middle of the aisle on the subway cars, blocking access to and from the doors, and ignoring the perfectly good open seats that could hold their useless carcasses.


Cashmere - Dec 28, 2006 8:49:27 am PST #8382 of 10007
Now tagless for your comfort.

New Yorkers aren't rude, Tourists are slow.

Heh. After a week using the Tube in London, DH and I were dodging tourists like natives. The weeks studying the tube lines on their website so we knew how to get to all our planned destinations payed off, big time.


Lee - Dec 28, 2006 8:52:26 am PST #8383 of 10007
The feeling you get when your brain finally lets your heart get in its pants.

When was the last time you had fun on New Year's Eve?

Does being asleep count as fun?

I'm not a NYE person. Comes from growing up in Pasadena, I guess.


Jesse - Dec 28, 2006 8:55:49 am PST #8384 of 10007
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

I grew up cursing the Damn Students every fall when the new groups showed up to wander four abreast through my grocery store, so I was well primed to curse the Damn Tourists who meander in front of me every day here. I've decided that walking slow isn't so bad, but the meandering KILLS ME. You can't get by them!


Allyson - Dec 28, 2006 8:57:15 am PST #8385 of 10007
Wait, is this real-world child support, where the money goes to buy food for the kids, or MRA fantasyland child support where the women just buy Ferraris and cocaine? -Jessica

Ugh. Biggest peeve for me is the five or so asswipes who charge into the subway car as soon as the doors open.

The people on the train get to leave, and THEN you can enter. Jerks.

See also: Elevators

Or people who stand at the bottom (or top) of the escalator, trying to get their bearings. We get to push those people down and trample them, right? That's the law, right?