You walk in worlds the others can't begin to imagine.

Drusilla ,'Conversations with Dead People'


Spike's Bitches 45: That sure as hell wasn't in the brochure.  

[NAFDA] Spike-centric discussion. Lusty, lewd (only occasionally crude), risqué (and frisqué), bawdy (Oh, lawdy!), flirty ('cuz we're purty), raunchy talk inside. Caveat lector.


Cashmere - Nov 11, 2009 6:31:12 pm PST #128 of 30000
Now tagless for your comfort.

His point was that the "often best avoided" was just not fair.

Fair is for fucking five year olds. He need to get the fuck over it.


DCJensen - Nov 11, 2009 6:33:21 pm PST #129 of 30000
All is well that ends in pizza.

Quote The Princess bride book at him.

"Life isn't fair, Bill. We tell our children that it is, but it's a terrible thing to do. It's not only a lie, it's a cruel lie. Life is not fair, and it never has been, and it's never going to be."


Hil R. - Nov 11, 2009 6:43:41 pm PST #130 of 30000
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l

This is kind of adorable. I'm reading about the curriculum at Sidwell Friends (I had an actual reason for going to this website, then found the info I was looking for and started just clicking around), and the fourth graders there have lessons in mediation and working out problems and finding peaceful solutions, and then, on certain days, two fourth graders go to join the first and second graders at recess as the designated "peacemakers," and if any of the younger kids have an argument about something, they bring it to the fourth grade peacemakers who help them find a peaceful way to settle the argument.


DavidS - Nov 11, 2009 6:56:40 pm PST #131 of 30000
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

I'm not sure what he thinks he's losing by avoiding one word which has approximately a thousand perfectly good synonyms, but he was for some reason very upset about this and complaining about it for a long while. Loudly.

I share his grievance. Different synonyms have different nuances. The word shouldn't be put out to pasture because other people are ignorant.


WindSparrow - Nov 11, 2009 6:56:57 pm PST #132 of 30000
Love is stronger than death and harder than sorrow. Those who practice it are fierce like the light of stars traveling eons to pierce the night.

Both joyful and allergy-inducing, a page full of videos of dogs greeting their humans who've been away on deployment: [link]

His point was that the "often best avoided" was just not fair. I'm not sure what he thinks he's losing by avoiding one word which has approximately a thousand perfectly good synonyms, but he was for some reason very upset about this and complaining about it for a long while. Loudly.

You know, if the guy weren't being an ass about it, he could join me in the "wistful about the otherwise kinda nifty word which I first saw in Tolkien" corner.


Hil R. - Nov 11, 2009 7:09:32 pm PST #133 of 30000
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l

Sorry for the total random: Is arrowroot powder available at regular grocery stores? (For Thanksgiving, my mom usually asks me to email her a grocery list of what I need for the stuff I'm cooking, and there are a few things I need that I usually get at health food stores, so I'm ordering them online so that my mom won't have to try to figure out where to buy it.)


billytea - Nov 11, 2009 8:18:56 pm PST #134 of 30000
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.

Hey Hil, can I ask you a Matlab question? I suspect it's pretty simple, I'm looking for a way to loop through a set of six different .mat files (names arranged in a list), and suspect I'm missing something simple.


Hil R. - Nov 11, 2009 8:34:08 pm PST #135 of 30000
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l

Sorry, I don't really know Matlab too well.


billytea - Nov 11, 2009 8:50:12 pm PST #136 of 30000
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.

Ah well. And now I can't for the life of me recall why I thought you did. Sorry about that.


Seska (the Watcher-in-Training) - Nov 11, 2009 9:31:08 pm PST #137 of 30000
"We're all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?"

Hil, huge congrats on the publication of the paper! That's fantastic.

Am getting through my dissertation quite well. Potentially disastrously, it's all methodology and not much in the way of results. I need to call my supervisor and go "waaaaah" at her until she tells me what to do about this.

PhDs also need thinking about quite soon. Some crazy departments have scholarship application deadlines of the end of November. For sessions beginning next September. Madness.

In 'Wake Up With Hugh Laurie' today, Jeeves sings. [link] (Do you guys know 'Jeeves & Wooster'? Very funny early 90s stuff - worth watching.)