Old trusty soda machine. I push you for root beer, you give me Coke.

Willow ,'End of Days'


Natter 70: Hookers and Blow  

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.


§ ita § - May 16, 2012 4:07:27 pm PDT #5363 of 30001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

You know that the name Unix was supposed to be a pun, right? It was MULTICS with the balls cut off.

I doubt I knew it at the time, and I'm pretty sure he didn't. It was the gripping story of a computer nerd getting in over his head because he invoked a demon when he was supposed to be running a daemon, and he doesn't understand what the strange people are saying about his OS.

And then I (woefully underaged) (named Ethelerita, but always called ita) get acid thrown in my face. I still shiver.


Matt the Bruins fan - May 16, 2012 4:30:24 pm PDT #5364 of 30001
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand

And the phrase "fire drill" was used.

I can't even tell you how long it took me to realize that this was a figure of speech. Like seven or eight rescheduled conference calls before I finally just asked.

I'd always heard the expression with a very un-PC "Chinese" on the front.


§ ita § - May 16, 2012 4:50:03 pm PDT #5365 of 30001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Magically, I have gotten this far and I don't think I've ever had that used in a meeting I was in. Or, well, not in any context in which I could have (or wanted to) worked out what it meant.

Blissful sort of ignorance, this is.

However, a Chinese fire drill was always the game you played at the lights were everyone got out the car and went in a different door.


tommyrot - May 16, 2012 4:54:48 pm PDT #5366 of 30001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

For us, a Chinese fire drill was when everybody got out of the car and ran completely around the car and then got back in (the same door one got out of).


amych - May 16, 2012 4:58:28 pm PDT #5367 of 30001
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?

Granted, I'm not so much the corporate type, but I was completely unfamiliar with "fire drill" other than (a) Chinese, with car doors, or (b) the literal kind which used to happen several times a week at the looni, usually mid-meeting.


sarameg - May 16, 2012 4:59:29 pm PDT #5368 of 30001

No fire drill is a drill to me any longer... Even the head of mission know not to joke about it to me. Last actual drill, he actually came over and asked if I was ok. I must've looked REALLY bad when the halon went off.


lisah - May 16, 2012 5:08:31 pm PDT #5369 of 30001
Punishingly Intricate

That cat video is hysterical. Cats!

Kat, hoping for decannulation for Grace next week. I love that she's vocalizing "bowtie"! So random and hilarious!


Kat - May 16, 2012 5:13:13 pm PDT #5370 of 30001
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo

Not actually so random. She wears a split piece of gauze between her trach and her skin, beneath her ties. We call it a bowtie. Today she asked for water.

I got to see meara which was awesome even if all I can do these days is kvetch about my kids (whom I love, I swear! Even if they make me nuts).


sarameg - May 16, 2012 5:17:56 pm PDT #5371 of 30001

Amazing to think she's gone from whispering 'mama' to water and bowties and stuff since November. I'm already missing TG this year, but hopefully will pop by for 24 hours or so on the Australia trip.


meara - May 16, 2012 5:24:14 pm PDT #5372 of 30001

Hah. Kat tried to convince me kids are not a helpful gift with purchase. Or something. :)

Also, how the hell do you LA people not go on murderous sprees more often due to the traffic? Because seriously.

However that meant I got to hear ALL of NPR, and find out that 80 year old Senator Lugar runs a 5k as fast as I do (apparently neither of us are "breaking land speed records", per NPR). Jim Thune, however, managed to run one in 19 minutes. I don't even get that. How?!?