Thanks for the ~mas, all. I bet it's helping, because my little fellow looks more vital this morning, even if he still won't get near food (though he drinks a lot of water).

If it's an edema that's hurting him, a simple steroid shot would do the trick and we'll get him back for some more time.

I'm amazed just how much, even with all of that emotional roller coaster of shit, the part of me that doesn't want to let him go is still greater that the part that's so tired and emotionally and physically exhausted from all of it.

I need to survive somehow in uni, without difficult questions coming up my way. Not sure how I'll be able to pull that one.

Heh. Well, if it makes you feel better David, I'd only have a dirty VODKA martini, since I won't drink gin. :)

I'm going to argue and say, Diet Coke and Jack? That's fine. But don't pour your Diet Coke into Lagavulin.

Hey, don't pour it in my Lagavulin, but if you like it better than your Diet Coke in Jack have at. There's plenty of Lagavulin left in the world for people who need to go all Major Winchester over it. Hell, it makes it even MORE fun for the Major if you do - what fun is looking down on people if there is no one to look down on? It's really win/win.

But don't pour your Diet Coke into Lagavulin.

But it adds juuuust the right amount of aspartame.

If megan's mixing, I'll take a dark and stormy.

More photos: [link]

what fun is looking down on people if there is no one to look down on?

I am not even a little concerned in pegging people to a board and seeing who's on top.

I don't pretend to know anything about knitting, but I do know that there's a wide variety of yarn to work with.

I don't know anything about horse racing, but I understand that there's a depth and wealth of knowledge on the subject.

So I will make a distinction between an informed opinion and an uninformed one.

You can go to bat for Kraft Green Can parmesan, but it's not going to convince me you know anything about cheese.

You can like what ever you want; that doesn't make it good.

Opinions and qualitative informed choices are two separate things. Your opinion can be informed by deep knowledge of the subject, or it can be shit you pulled out of your ass.

I can have an opinion about knitting with merino wool but that's shit I pulled out of my ass.

Heh. Well, if it makes you feel better David, I'd only have a dirty VODKA martini, since I won't drink gin. :)

To put this in meara-ish terms, to me this is roughly equivalent to saying, "I only read Nora Roberts since I won't read Tom Clancy."

There's a better cocktail that you would enjoy more out there for you. I mean, I haven't had as many kinds of gin as you've read books, but even just a brief excursion around the back bar with a decent bartender would get you something tastier. Just as one walk around a used book store would yield many better results than Nora Roberts and Tom Clancy.

Oh, fear not. I wouldn't have one very often. I'm much more likely to...probably have something that would offend your sensibility even more. Or a dark and stormy. Or, given my migraines, no alcohol at all. But even Nora and Tom have their place. (Nora and Tom! See? They're MFEO!).

You can like what ever you want; that doesn't make it good.

If it tastes good to someone it tastes good to them.

That's what informs an opinion on how something tastes. In fact, it is the only way for an individal to form that opinion.

They can have all the wealth of knowledge in the world but if they don't say "yum" when it goes in their mouth they do not like it. Conversely, if they do say "yum" then they do like it. In matters of, quite literally, taste how something tastes to the taster is the only opinion that matters. To them if it tastes good it is good.

In matters of "which horse ran faster" there are actual objective standards at hand. In matters of "which fibers are finer and straighter" there are objective standards. Even in matters of "which cheese/bourbon/pizza was made with care and fresh ingredients and quality control there are quantatative factors -- but "yum yum" may or may not be influenced by such things and is certainly not beholden to them. In fact there ARE people who enjoy both the terroir of various brie AND salty shit from cans and they may even have no interest in convincing you of anything.