Funny thing about black and white. You mix it together and you get gray. And it doesn't matter how much white you try and put back in, you're never gonna get anything but gray.

Lilah ,'Destiny'


Natter 74: Ready or Not  

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


Hil R. - Sep 01, 2015 7:53:10 am PDT #4538 of 30003
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l

Yeah, he's a math friend, and friends with a bunch of other people I'm friends with, so I don't really want to start anything with him -- there are a couple people in that group of friends who will turn anything into Drama, and it's just not worth it, especially since I know that the fallout would be a whole bunch of people who stop talking to me. So I'm just not saying anything.

He's really involved with Critical Mass and stuff like that, and he consistently uses social justice language to talk about biking issues, and gets horribly offended if anyone points out that, while there might be some similarities, you can't just wholesale take the language used for talking about oppression of women or black people or disabled people or whatever and use it to talk about oppression of bikers. (I've gotten into it with him a couple times before when I've pointed out that one of his "Let's get rid of all the cars and make the streets safe for bikes!" ideas would mean that I would not be able to travel anywhere.)


Burrell - Sep 01, 2015 7:54:18 am PDT #4539 of 30003
Why did Darth Vader cross the road? To get to the Dark Side!

Coffee has been made and drunk, shower has been had, phone meeting at 10 cancelled in favor of a more preferable time later in the week. It's still a long day ahead, but it all looks more doable from here.


Steph L. - Sep 01, 2015 7:55:58 am PDT #4540 of 30003
I look more rad than Lutheranism

I need ALL THE COFFEE even though it's 1 pm. The pollen count is stupid high (though apparently not as high as it's going to get later this week, oh joy), and the predominant types of pollen are the ones that I'm violently allergic to.

I am so full of antihistamines that you would need a prescription to drink my blood. And I am therefore sleepy and dopey from all the antihistamines.

Please no one drink my blood. Thanks.


Hil R. - Sep 01, 2015 7:57:50 am PDT #4541 of 30003
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l

I have written a quiz -- it took two hours, of which about an hour and a half was spent trying to remember how LaTeX works and getting it set up right with the right packages downloaded on my new work computer. At least I actually can download stuff here -- at my old university, we weren't given admin passwords, so if we wanted anything installed on our work-issued computers, we had to get IT to do it, which would usually take a day or two. Now I need to write up notes for class for tomorrow, read over what I'm supposed to be covering in my other class, make a ton of copies, answer a bunch of student emails, read through a draft of a midterm, and probably a few other things.


Burrell - Sep 01, 2015 7:59:06 am PDT #4542 of 30003
Why did Darth Vader cross the road? To get to the Dark Side!

Probably the best way to avoid Drama is to just not engage him on the oppression of bikes issue, and if asked just note that you have differing opinions and you're done debating them.

My DH is an avid biker and he totally agrees that comparisons between bikers and societal oppression based on identity really don't stand up to scrutiny.


Scrappy - Sep 01, 2015 8:04:22 am PDT #4543 of 30003
Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

I have had really bad sleep the last two nights because our big goofball labradoodle, Chet, has had bad diarrhea. He wakes me up every two hours to go out. I'm glad he does so, but it does not make for a restful night. I gave him rice for dinner and he's fasting today, so we'll see if things improve.


Hil R. - Sep 01, 2015 8:05:45 am PDT #4544 of 30003
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l

Probably the best way to avoid Drama is to just not engage him on the oppression of bikes issue, and if asked just note that you have differing opinions and you're done debating them.

That's what I'm trying to do. I'm not always too good at that sort of thing.


-t - Sep 01, 2015 8:06:55 am PDT #4545 of 30003
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

Mmmm, forbidden Teppy blood.

LaTex, I remember that being a PITA. But pretty. ETA: 25 years ago when we had to log into the mainframe to use it. I'm sure it's better now. And I am old.

Aw, poor Chet and Scrappy. That's rough.


Zenkitty - Sep 01, 2015 8:16:41 am PDT #4546 of 30003
Every now and then, I think I might actually be a little odd.

I am writing equations in LaTeX right now AIFG. Well, compared to the alternative.


Hil R. - Sep 01, 2015 8:28:53 am PDT #4547 of 30003
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l

LaTeX is kind of a pain in that I can never remember how to do stuff when I haven't done it in a while, so I have to keep looking up things like "How to I make these equations left-justified rather than centered?" or "How do I insert an image file?" because none of those things really work the way I'd expect them to. (Seriously, LaTex REALLY wants you to have all your equations centered rather than left-justified. Every way that I've seen to make them left-justified is some kind of work-around, where you exploit some function that was meant to do something else. There is no way to just say "left-justify this.")