(I'm not here right now, please email a message)

wraparoundjoy, posting in too_much_info @ 10:38pm: Ahhhh!
 I just got back from dinner, and I had to pee.  I weighed myself before and after; that pee apparently weighed 3 pounds!  You can imagine just how long I urinated, haha.

sheilamarie @ 11:36pm: New Orleans style baked mac'n'cheese
I just posted this in response to a message in an Alton Brown community asking for additional mac'n'cheese recipes and figured maybe some one here would want it too. I've tried substituting other styles of macaroni and pasta for the stuff from New Orleans, but there is no substitution, though you can get by on elbow. The beauty of this recipe is the simplicity. You taste the pasta & the cheese. Some of my family members add butter, but I find that it really doesn't add flavor and makes it very greasy; not Good Eats. The egg and milk help make it richer without making it heavy. Give it ago and let me know what you think. I don't have measurements for the mild and salt because I've never measured them. You just kinda splash a bit of mild to help the eggs be fluffy.

New Orleans style baked mac'n'cheese requires the procurement of a specific pasta to get it just right, but it's totally worth the trouble because it's the BEST baked mac'n'cheese you will ever have.

1 pkg Luxury brand No. 7 Long Macaroni (Maccaroncelli)
4 cups grated cheese (I use cheddar jack or the pre-shredded Kraft Classic melt, but plain Cheddar is great too)
2 eggs
milk
salt

Boil the macaroni in salted water until tender. Whisk the two eggs, milk, and a pinch of salt in a bowl large enough for the pasta & cheese. Drain macaroni well and add to egg mixture (if the macaroni is still hot, add a few strands at a time until the temp of the egg mixture is such that the hot macaroni won't start cooking it.) Once egg mixture seems to have coated the macaroni, mix in three cups of the cheese. Pour everything into a 9x11x4 baking dish sprayed with PAM. Put remaining cheese on top and place in a pre-heated 350 degree oven until cheese on top has touches of golden brown here and there. Take out and allow to cool for 20-30 minutes unless you really really want to burn the ever loving crap out of your mouth.

Pic of the mac that makes this perfection:

Also, in case anyone thinks the new singer for Journey can't handle the job, check him out performing WITH Journey in Chili. I'll be going to their concert in Tampa and I can't WAIT. I kinda want to get a lil Filipino flag to wave as he sings. Is that wrong of me?? July 30 - Tampa, FL - Ford Amphitheater with Heart and Cheap Trick. I CANNOT WAIT!!!!!

anti_krypton, posting in too_much_info @ 8:08pm: Piercing...again
Since the last time, its been doing well and nothings happened since. But this past Sunday, something set it off and some kind of weird bump started to grow on the underside of the piercing. [I changed it to a horseshoe btw] And I have my own opinions on what it might be, but you guys are pretty helpful at these things.

( continue )

tcpip @ 1:09pm: Horror (Fictional and Real), Nasty Conservatives, Gaming Updates
Recently had the opportunity at Splodge with caseopaya, severina_242, _zombiemonkey, and cvisors to see the classic Hammer film Horror of Dracula (with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee). A good bit of cheesy horror (the working class Londoner accent complete with Gordon's gin at a Kluj inn would horrify Transylvanians). Later in the week watched the classic Vincent Price flick House on Haunted Hill which was quite clever and finally, wonder of wonders, found the memory card for the Playstation 2 which had been missing for several months and contained four hours of a saved game for Project Zero, certainly one of the best horror games that has ever been produced.

In real world horrors, there has been both the earthquake in Chengdu and a rising death toll (approximately 10,000 mostly in Mianyang) and the effects of Cyclone Nargis in Burma, where the number of dead or missing is over 100,000. The military junta that rules Burma deserves a special award for disgusting behaviour for not only blocking aid workers, but for also holding a particularly rigged constitutional referendum days after the event. An interesting comparison can be drawn between how the contemporary Chinese government is reacting to the disaster compared to their government during the Tangshan earthquake which killed approximately a quarter of a million. Communications technology is a bedrock of an open society.

On topic, there was the kerfuffle over a local Liberal Party 'blog, managed and operated by insiders, criticising leader Ted Baillieu. Although now closed it has been mirrored with history all the way to December. Not only is it amazing to think that it took that long to go through the IP logs, but in the fall-out the conservative's hatred of Jews is once again exposed. An isolated incident? Perhaps not - consider just prior Republican Congress hopefull Tony Zirkle (who, not surprisingly campaigns primarily against pornography and prostitution) decided to attend an Adolph Hitler birthday celebration sponsored by the American Nazi Party. If one was to give a broad summary it would seem that "the left" has a problem with Israel, whereas the "the right" has a problem with Jews.

Apropos there recently has been "some discussion" over an online Harry Potter RPG which called itself "Kristallnacht", which has since changed its name. Personally, I thought it was a great name for the story with enormous potential for thematic references and an oppurtunity to teach people some history via analogy (which is one of fantasy's better uses). In my own gaming worlds, I am pleased to see that a DragonQuest PBeM I am involved in has just restarted, had a good session of Bushido last Sunday and most recently I've started a Powers & Perils PBeM which has developed very quickly. Finally, one of the players in my HeroQuest PBeM has culled the archives into a story representation; it currently runs at 185 pages.

crazycatlady, posting in techsupport @ 10:00pm: Few quick things:
1) Broken coffee pot? Not a help desk ticket. Plus, you stink up the office every day with your burnt popcorn. To the pit with you.
2) Your monitor doesn't have a signal? See, darling, it helps if the computer is on. There ya go.
3) You say Outlook keeps opening this one email over and over and over again and the only way to get it to stop is to ctrl+alt+del. I say take your notebook off the 'Enter' button and call me in the morning. Tomato, tomahto.

syringavulgaris @ 10:43pm: Yes yes all right already I GET IT
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In their lust to prove there's no God, atheists
often invoke the existence of suffering. "What kind of deity," one asked
me, "allows a child in Darfur to starve to death after seeing soldiers kill his
mommy?" While I don't claim to have the authoritative answer to that
accusation, I think it's worthwhile to consider the possibility that suffering
is a gift God gives us in order to prod our evolution. On a personal level,
your longing to escape your suffering is a primal force in making you
smarter. On a collective level, nothing refines and ennobles us more than
our passion to keep others from suffering. For every dead child in Darfur,
100 people in other places on the planet have responded with a radical
commitment to create a world in which future Darfurs won't happen.
These are worthy ideas for you to meditate on in the coming weeks. You
will have a tremendous capacity to convert your old wounds, as well as
the old wounds of others, into brilliant opportunities.

sclerotic_rings @ 9:18pm: On greasing the pan
Considering the starvation wages and general abuse, would someone please explain to me why working for a bookstore is supposed to be so glamourous? (And before anyone starts, this article does a pretty good job at illustrating a whole load of unsympathetic people. Unfortunately, bookstores seem to attract unsympathetic people, both in the rank and file and in management. It's those very same people that are the reason why I have less and less patience with bookstores in general.)

sclerotic_rings @ 8:47pm: I'm living in my own private Tanelorn
Remember how I've been going on for a while that since I already have the smile for the job, I might as well get the chrome teeth to go with it. One trip to the dentist today, and it looks as if I might get my wish. One white gold crown down, and three more needed. I'm not surprised that 25-year-old fillings are finally breaking, but then I also never figured that I'd live to see 40, either. On the bright side, I was able to take the cast of the left side of my mouth home with me, as they were going to throw it out if I didn't want it. Since the new crowns need to go in the right side, I'll have the beginnings of an interesting art project by the time I'm done. And so it goes.

Other than that, it's been a ridiculously mundane day, and I'm enjoying it to no end. 36 days to go before everything shuts down, and I'm looking forward to it.

mjg59 @ 2:14am: As noted in the comments here, one reason to forcibly slow down the CPU on a system (and waste power in the long run) is to deal with cases where failing to do so can result in the machine overheating. Part of the problem is that Linux still tends to be less power efficient than Windows, and so various components will be generating more heat than when the machine was tested. The ACPI spec includes support for passive cooling of processors, which allows the system to reduce heat generation by slowing the CPU down. The problem is that not all vendors include a passive trip point in their firmware, and in the absence of one Linux will happily let the temperature rise until it hits a critical level and the machine shuts down.

I've written a patch that generates a passive cooling trip point if your firmware doesn't provide one. Since there won't be a firmware event when the temperature crosses the trip point, it also forcibly enables polling (the spec actually requires this, so I've no idea why Linux doesn't do it anyway). The default polling interval is quite long - you can adjust it in /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/*/polling by just echoing in a value in seconds. I've gone for a long delay in order to reduce any possible power consumption issues caused by this, but in the long run I'd like it to reduce the polling interval if the temperature trend is upwards and increase it again if the trend is downwards.

The patch makes the assumption that you're never going to get within 5 degrees of the critical temperature in normal use, which I think is pretty reasonable. The probability that the machine will reach equilibrium at that point is fairly small, so if you get that close you'll almost certainly end up with a powered down machine unless we do something about it (like forcibly downclocking your CPU). I don't have any affected machines, so I've only been able to test it by artificially lowering the trip point - if people find that it still lets the processor get over temperature without attempting to slow it down first, then I'll probably need to implement the more advanced polling policy.

In any case, I'm interested in feedback.

elusis @ 5:37pm: "How do I find a therapist?"
I have answered this question a number of times in various places, and decided to make it a public post that people can save to memories and I can refer back to as needed.

The following is my opinion, and is meant to be taken as such.

So the best way to find a therapist is to talk to someone who has a therapist they like, who works with concerns similar to yours. Word-of-mouth is far better than starting with a directory. But that's not always possible.

In the absence of ideas from others in the area, I suggest you have a look in your zip code at http://www.therapistlocator.net - it's the website for Clinical Members of my professional association. Many therapists have "expanded listings" available there which can give you some ideas about their practice. Yes, I am biased toward Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists. It's the only profession whose clinical training I know enough about to be moderately comfortable recommending in a general way, and yet there are plenty of mediocre people in my field just like there are in the others (Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Licensed Professional Counselor, Licensed Psychologist, etc.)

I strongly encourage you to ask as many questions as you need over the phone, in order to get a feel for their personality. I personally didn't offer a "free consultation" because I found that people tended to no-show for them at a high enough rate that it wasn't worth the time I was taking out of my schedule. I had one or two potential clients taka a lot of exception to that, and I've seen people talk as though it's somehow shady for a therapist to not offer it. Obviously my opinion differs. My way of allowing people to check me out was to take time with them on the phone.

If you are someone who wants to research your therapist before meeting with them, as well as get a feel for them personally, I generally suggest asking things like:

- how long they've been in the field

- what their degree is, and what it's in (good: MA or PhD or PsyD in something like counseling psychology, counseling social work, marriage and family therapy, psychology, etc. Bad: bachelor's degree or some pseudo-degree with its own acronym, fields that sound dubious or woo-woo. "Sexology" is one of my personal buzzwords.)

- what their license is (good: LMFT, LPC, LCSW, licensed psychologist. Also fine: "I'm being supervised toward licensure as _____." Bad: not licensed, not working toward licensure. Some states allow this, but it is the category of practitioners most likely to have a grievance filed against them. Do with that info what you will.)

- tell them a bit about your situation. See what kind of questions they ask - do they seem able to summarize your concerns in a way you agree with? Do they seem to get intrusive or try to treat you over the phone? How do you feel when you're telling them your reasons for wanting therapy? Do you like them? Do they annoy you?

- ask them if they frequently see clients with similar concerns.

- ask them if they have a specific theory or methodology they use, and if it's not familiar to you, ask if they can briefly tell you about it in a way a layperson can understand. I call Quackwatch on some of the currently trendy pseudo-therapies like Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Thought Field Therapy, Emotional Freedom Technique (not to be conused with Emotionally Focused Therapy which is VERY well researched and a great approach), and (my opinion) EMDR. I am generally willing to try to answer questions about therapeutic approaches to the best of my ability, though as an MFT, my speciality is in family systems therapies, not in individual/psychodynamic therapies. Wikipedia pretty much sucks in this regard - most of the theories with good-sized entries have been written by promoters of said theories, and tend to be the new shiny quacky ones.

- you should ask about anything that would be a special concern for you. Do you want a therapist who is a feminist, or who understands social justice? Do you need access accomodation due to a disability? Do you want someone who understands queer people in general, or specifically transmen? Do you want a queer person or a person of color as your therapist, or would it be OK to see a straight or white person who has experienced working with marginalized people? Do you want someone who understands and supports Health At Every Size? Do you want someone of the same religion as you, or no religion at all?

- ask them how therapy with them typically looks. Do they normally see clients every week, every other week, or let the clients set the pace? Do they meet for 45 minutes, 50 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes? What's the typical length of treatment for someone with your concerns? (my personal preference is to run screaming from anyone who says they do Brief/Brief Solution-Focused therapy or says they can treat people in fewer than 12-16 sessions, but that's me. My personal experience is that my clients typically came weekly for 3-4 months if they were very distressed to start, then bi-weekly for another 3-5 months, but it varied a lot.) What's their cancellation policy, and is it one that will work for your life? Do you need someone who's on your insurance? Someone who can see you in the evenings or on weekends?

- are they experienced with working with couples and/or families? I'm biased as an MFT myself, but I often found couple work to be helpful in treating many of the "individual" problems people called about, and the efficacy research supports use of couple/family therapy for many problems. You may not care about this point, but I'm including it because I wish more people would ask it!

And then you get to go with your gut. :)

Remember, you're the consumer here - it's your money and time you're investing. You have the right to ask for your questions to get answered or to move on.

I have rejected potential therapists for a variety of reasons. I excluded one therapist from consideration when I was shopping around because she acted really frustrated when I said I wanted every-other-week sessions - she really only met with people weekly. I ruled out another guy who had an MA in MFT but a PhD in neuropsychology, because he had no coherent answer when I asked him how his PhD work (in a very hard science field) impacted his understanding of his MA work (in a very systemic field that was born out of rejecting the medical model.) I ruled out a woman who said she was straight but "really liked working with gays and lesbians" because something about her answer made me feel like a science project (and besides, I had just said to her that I identify as bisexual.) I ruled out a guy who asked me a million questions when I called about services, then tried to schedule an appointment without giving me a chance to ask him any (I'm the customer here, bub.)

You're the customer. You have the right to find a therapist you can work with.

Yes, you can link to this. No, you don't need to ask me.

Also: this post is not intended as a stimulus for people to tell me about why I'm wrong about (insert field or approach here). You're welcome to have a different opinion than me. I've based my opinions on a lot of research and experience in the field, and I keep up on new developments pretty well. If you want to defend a particular therapy, please post about it in your own journal.

zappagurl, posting in wtf_inc @ 5:31pm: hey check it out! totally not a picture of myself.
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/flash-tub/bootleg-cartoons.php

splintercourse, posting in wtf_inc @ 10:23am: Shelf it!
This will mean a lot more if you're Australian, but it's pretty fucking good either way. This guy is totally for real, I know the people who made this.





If you don't like this video, then clearly you are an asian homosexual. Don't even bother commenting.

txxxpxx @ 10:19am: Smells
There was an odd smell in my office today. Not an unpleasant smell, just something sweet & strangely familiar.

It bugged me for about an hour.

Then it dawned on me.

It was Pez lollies!

They had/have a unique, sweet, sherberty interesting smell.

Actually it wasn't Pez lollies at all. It was the perfume of the temp we have in the office today. Maybe she eats too many Pezz lollies.

Well, it made me smile.

EDIT: Now I want to figure out how to make Pez cocktails! Hmmmm. :)

violet_fade, posting in too_much_info @ 7:21pm: MMM Sinus Infection
Ive been dealing with a nasty sinus infection for the past couple of days. Ive been blowing up green stuff all day until now,when this gem came out of my nose:

( Read more... )

I know im near the end when it looks like this!

Oh,after I snapped this photo,my dog snatched the tissue out of my hand and ate it :)

the_curmudgn, posting in techsupport @ 7:23pm: Massively unclear on the concept of "excess capacity, as designed"

Thank you for calling Enormous Computer Company Premium Support . . .

What was that again, sir? . . . You see in TaskMan that both computer processors in your workstation are always using less than fifty percent of their capacity, and you want them to use more?

No sir, our engineers designed it to work that way.  The way it is working is the way it was meant to work.  You don’t want to have your processors working at 100% all the time.  When they do work at 100% for more than a second or two, every running program on the computer slows to a crawl and you can’t do any work.

No sir, that’s the way it’s supposed to work.  You don’t want your processors to run at 100% all the time for the same reason you don’t want your car’s engine to run at redline all the time.  It shortens the component’s life, and increases early hardware failures.

No sir, I cannot “find a way to increase it.”  Processor load balancing happens at a level far below anything you, as a user, can get to, or have any business trying to get to.

No sir, I cannot “get an engineer on the phone to explain it to you.”  (For the very good reason that half the engineers who designed that particular platform have been laid off or gone on to do other things, and the ones who haven’t are either in India or in China, and none of them is the least interested in talking to such an ID10T as you.)

Yes sir, thank you for calling Enormous Computer Company.  (. . . and please TRY to understand that the Puritan work ethic does NOT apply when it comes to processors, and hard work is not good for them.)

 

(Perhaps it would be in order to add that this is a imaginary transcript of a very real escalation I took today.  As level-2 tech support, I’m relaying this information via chat to the poor L1 tech who’s actually stuck on the phone with this . . . I suppose I must call it a “person,” for lack of a better term.)

mercurytide, posting in wtf_inc @ 8:14pm: Seal caught on tape molesting a penguin
Scientists study rare example of interspecies sexual harassment

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24585481/

( for linkphobes )

arkenciel, posting in wtf_inc @ 8:06pm: Clitoral Inflation
I just don't understand...

edwards @ 12:46am: Blasts from the past
I'm distracted as usual, tidying my office and I unearthed a scanner I was supposed to review a year ago oh, sometime recently. Oops? Sorry. In my defence, it replaced an £8,000 Flextight X5 scanner and frankly depressed me with the feeble transparency scanning.

Anyway, I also found a picture of my Grandfather's Bentley I presumably intended to scan, and so I grabbed a few prints (mostly of cars) and popped them in. Here, have a snapshot of life "roughly a decade ago".

	Bentley 4 1/2 Litre My Grandfather's old Bentley 4 1/2 Litre, having been restored by my Uncle Colin sometime in the early 90s (completion). I'm guessing this is around 1993; the white car is Grandfather's Rover 213 which I think he got when they moved to Sheffield.
	Me in 1996/7. Can't remember precisely, but polishing my XM around 1997 I am guessing.
	Shades This is me in 1998.

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tikvah, posting in dot_poly_snark @ 7:39pm: Preaching what we practice
Because proselytizing is such a good idea...

suwillgetu, posting in wtf_inc @ 6:23pm: WTF New PS3 Advertisement
( NSFW )

Sauce

bathtubgingirl @ 12:19am: *seethe*
( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

scottchurch @ 7:19pm: hmmmm.....
i want to do a workshop in Philadelphia and i need a good location.

don't say Eastern State

help

starr3d, posting in too_much_info @ 7:06pm: Period stuff and Lice Ladies
I hate being on my period, because a lot of the time when I try to take a shit, it hurts my stomach to push it out. :( And also about my  period- Monday, I started it, and before I left the house in the morning, I took a Pamprin. Pamprin usually works really good for me, but all day long, I had such bad cramps I thought I was going to die. Seriously, worst cramps I've ever had. Then, today, I didn't take a Pamprin, and no cramps at all. WTF.

Also- anyone remember in elementary school, when the Lice Ladies came to class? They'd have those wooden sticks and they'd make you take your hair down and root around with the sticks to see if you had lice. It felt so good. I wish someone would root through my hair with sticks now. *random childhood memory*

catbiscuit @ 9:09am: half a squirrel
5:50am

Yuck.

On Monday evening, I got a toothache - one I've had before, which could only be kept from making me go mad by having ice water in my mouth. It's one of my teeth which has had a root canal, which doesn't seem to have done it's job - last time the tooth hurt this way, I ended up with an abscess. Which is happening again now. I had a locum doctor out at 3am Tuesday morning who prescribed two lots of antibiotics and gave me a couple of start off on overnight. My temperature was at 37.9. I managed to fall asleep (finally!) at 8am yesterday morning, full of mersyndol, neurofen plus and tramal.

I slept relatively well, considering, and was up at 5pm. The pain wasn't so bad, but the side of my face seemed to be a little swollen. Slept again from 1am this morning until 5am, woke up and found myself looking like half a squirrel. Which is quite disturbing. I'm currently waiting for another locum to come out and am wondering whether I'm going to have to go in to hospital to have antibiotics IV. I really hope not.

My dentist was talking about taking this tooth out (left top premolar), as it's turned into an egg - a brittle shell of original tooth around the filling put in after the last lot of endo work and she doesn't think it can be gotten into again without shattering. As I understand it, they can't do much while an infection is active and present though, so it's not something to see the dentist about yet. I've got an appointment for next week, anyhow.

--

8:23am

Still no call to say that a doctor is on their way.. I'm really glad that I'm not in a lot of pain.

I can't seem to get the theme song from Alvin and the Chipmunks out of my head. C-h-i-p-m-u-n-k.

--

9:02am

Doctor has been. My temperature is back down to 37, my blood pressure and pulse are normal and it doesn't look as though it's gone toxic. I now know the things to look out for (temperature going up again, redness, more swelling, pain spreading) and don't need to worry too much about squirrel form in it's present state. Hopefully the antibiotics will do their thing and it'll be down again in a couple of days.

Some days I wonder how bad it would really be just to have all of my teeth taken out and replaced with dentures. If I had an unlimited supply of cash, I'd get screw in teeth.

wendolen @ 3:49pm: rrgh. decisions to be made.
So, I've been barely managing to keep up with my personal obligations around the house (sorry the laundry didn't get done this weekend, Shawn) and hardly seeing my friends due to the combined load of school and work. And I'm starting to blow off class (lately, if I know that there won't be any new topics covered in logic, but just going over proof sets, I'm staying home to sleep -- and this is my FAVORITE CLASS) and generally displaying signs of early burnout.

I had decided a few weeks back that summer classes were out of the question, mainly because I had been invited to go with my parents to see some Shakespeare in Ashland during the Art Institute's break (which does not coincide with SCCC's break), but also because of the impending burnout, my desire to stay home and knit and garden, and the chance to sink a bunch of time into lip balm concerns.

Then I found out last night that my parents had decided to do the Ashland thing later in the summer, which means that I can't go, and they had neglected to tell me. (That's what yesterday's pissy post was about.) And now I've found out that my awesome superhero of a botany professor has managed to get the ball rolling on the agroecology deal which they're hoping to turn into a degree program, and the initial course is being offered summer quarter. (SCI 298, 5 credits, 9:30-12:50 lecture TTh, 2-4:30 lab TH. It would satisfy one of my Natural World requirements.) I really want to take this.

If I take 5 credits, I might as well take 10 so I can get the bus pass. If I take 10 credits I might as well take 12 so I can get financial aid. And then the bile starts to rise because I think about all those afternoons of knitting and gardening and turning my room into an atelier that I was planning...

What would you do, in my shoes?

misterfallen @ 11:33pm: It Begins...
Turns out there's a new run of instructor training coming up in a couple of weeks. Asked Ian about it, and he seems to think I'm good enough to start learning to teach. :) My master plan is to start teaching the odd class somewhere like central London, to see if I can convince a few of you lot to join me.

ruthi @ 10:31pm: Stephen Fry heckled me. Again.

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feanelwa @ 11:14pm: Surprise practice exam! Is what I have got to mark. I think I will not do that tonight, I want a bath, but I will try to do it tomorrow. I am cheered by realising that actually my sodding data converting work for the last two weeks will get me a co-authorship on a paper.

I really just want this filling done now. I keep putting my tongue up to the cavity to check that it's not covered in sugar and catching it on the edge, and it's annoying me. 31 days to go from today *sigh* At least I have found a dentist who is kind, and understands anxious people, which counts for everything. She is so nice.

I also bought brake blocks for my bike, but failed to attach them, in the sense of having made 0 attempts so far. I went to a careers thing about academia, and I was a little worried that the academics who were speaking published lots of papers before they got their PhD in order to get a postdoc. But then the audience members asking questions were...pretty scary, asking if it would be easier to get a fellowship if they published more than one paper during their postdoc. YOU THINK? And, you know, I have papers, just a while ago. [add standard guilt about that I haven't written a paper in the last 2 years, though I am trying harder now] The academics also said, when you are looking for a postdoc, don't take the first lab that offers just because they're offering you a salary and you can see cake at the end of the tunnel. I am starting to think about applying for other things besides Japan, because (a) it's generally a good idea in case we don't get the funding, (b) moving halfway across the world to a place where "do you want to have children?" is a standard recruitment question for women, and the solution to groping on public transport is to tack a women's carriage on the end of the train, is actually hellascary, though also sunny and clean with some very pleasant colleagues.

Oh yes, also, that people will try and sneak into the first author spot when you're not looking. So far that has only happened on the paper where I wrote a first draft of deranged flu-feverish rambling and J made it make sense and added some actual materials science in one day on a Saturday, which is fair enough and not particularly sneaky, but it is worth remembering.

alexmatt @ 11:14pm: I've lost my mobile...
... so if you need to get in touch with me please send an email. Should have a replacement soon thought.

apiphile @ 11:06pm: Things I want to do in the near future:
( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

vatine @ 10:56pm: 2008 - #58, "Bones to ashes", Kathy Reichs
Previously unread.

Another Tempe Brennan book. Some things are comfortingly similar, others are reassuringly different. Donät know what more I can say without giving the plot away.

Defintely worth a read, if you like kinda-sorta sciency crime fic.

apiphile @ 10:54pm: Sexbot.
( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

elijahtc @ 10:45pm: Jörmungandir Meets Mini-Cthulhu
I'm back from Leipzig and it was one of the best I have been to. I'm in a bit of a state due to lack of sleep however combat_kitten made some healthy food which has perked me up a bit. That and sleep should see me fit as a fiddle tomorrow. I might even go to the gym first thing to start working off the kilograms of beer and cheese now attached to me. German beer equals no hangover but hangovers disappear faster than weight gain.

medusa @ 10:33pm: ( Most popular baby names in the UK in 2007 )

Hm, is aromatherapy play dough a step too far? Whatever. I think I will probably end up getting some anyway.

I don't feel like working. Might have an early night instead! :)

selke, posting in wtf_inc @ 5:41pm: Who would win?


Comic books in the 1970s were pretty heavily crack filled.

And a little bit of rule #34, at least for a good chunk of the folks here. Yay for destroying ( childhoods! )

renegade500, posting in wtf_inc @ 4:46pm: Tetra's post reminds me of this little thing I ran across:

tearsxintherain @ 10:43pm: WGT
Okay, so I'm waaaay too tired to do a proper post about it. But it was *faaabulous*!!

My favourite bits were watching Unheilig and Covenant who both put on wonderful shows, dancing to Sisters at 3am in the Moritzbastei, one of the coolest clubs in the universe, drinking cherry beer while watching folk music in a field.. and generally getting to spend time with fabulous people.

Next year? Oh yes..

edwards @ 10:29pm: Uhoh
See. The MR2 is annoying me a bit (it doesn't like speedbumps two-up, partly engine mounts, partly gearbox)... and.. well... the values of MR2s have taken one hell of a nosedive it seems. eBay etc. is saturated with them. And... there's this tiny little remaining obsession car-wise for the Vauxhall FE-series. And you know, I have a couple of months whilst the house sells... and then ickle_yuki links me to a story on a Vauxhall forum where her Viva has been killed by a truck... and there's an advert for a VX2300GLS (the last model of FE sold in the UK)...

At a garage.
In Edinburgh.
That deals in "retro cars".

And I can't help thinking that if the VX is in good shape (by which I mean not rotten, which is quite unlikely) and the owner/mechanic is suitably nuts about all cars... I could probably turn the MR2 into an FE-series with a 5 speed gearbox.

I really almost certainly won't. It's white, for a start, though it DOES have a vinyl roof.

And I have always wanted a 2300GLS. And it is summer...

Mostly this post is just to show people what terrible taste in cars I have. I also noticed my cousin Michael looking for an Austin Princess for his wife which seems like a fair swap whilst he himself drives a modified Rover SD1 V8... it must be genetic.

I mean.

I'd be mad to consider relying on a 30 year old car for a couple of months.

Wouldn't I...

This is really very tempting. The last decent FE I saw was £5,000, I don't know what this one is considered "worth"... but... argh... it doesn't detract from my determined plan of having the C6 to last me until 2015, but the MR2 is worth SFA as a trade in... I wonder if it has a towbar...

__its4am, posting in wtf_inc @ 4:36pm: Passenger sues airline over flight spent on toilet


NEW YORK - A New York City man is suing JetBlue Airways Corp. for more than $2 million because he says a pilot made him give up his seat to a flight attendant and sit on the toilet for more than three hours on a flight from California.

Gokhan Mutlu, of Manhattan's Inwood section, says in court papers the pilot told him to "go 'hang out' in the bathroom" about 90 minutes into the San Diego to New York flight because the flight attendant complained that the "jump seat" she was assigned was uncomfortable, the lawsuit said.

Mutlu was traveling on a "buddy pass," a standby travel voucher that JetBlue employees give to friends, from New York to San Diego on Feb. 16, and returned to New York on Feb. 23, the lawsuit said.

dr_atheist @ 10:35pm: Sometimes I love technology
Sometimes it fucking scares me - how advertisers are planning to advertise directly in your brain.

sheepsaysmoo, posting in wtf_inc @ 5:32pm: I want do do this.

fifi_junglist, posting in wtf_inc @ 10:02pm: olay
Its me the mighty failer ~

lee_chaos @ 9:59pm: I feel like PLAGUE.

if I get to London and back tomorrow, that'll be victory enough.

Not staying over; have a meeting at 10.30am thursday with boss of biggest recording studio in the County.

Then Pendulum, then Wendyhouse, then Hadouken.

Then death?

flemco @ 3:59pm: Humanity should be destroyed.
( You are about to view content that may only be appropriate for adults. )

oregoncynic, posting in mock_the_stupid @ 3:34pm: They should have just taken Jet Blue

Years ago. Movie Theatre. "Titanic" just finished showing.

Following two college-age girls out of the theatre:

Girl #1: Wow! Can you believe that film?! Unbelievable!
Girl #2: Yeah, seriously. I wonder how they come up with these ideas?
Girl #1: Yeah, like ice could sink a ship!

At this point, I broke in and explained that although the movie's subjects were fictionalized, the film's premise was based on a true event--the sinking of the Titanic when it hit an iceberg.

Girl #1: No way! Ice cannot sink a ship!
Girl #2: Yeah, like have you ever seen ice cubes? Hello?! They're tiny!

Me: But Icebergs are huge and cover a lot of land.
Girl #2: (Sarcastic) Right. Sure they are. Hello?! It's just a movie!

Okaaayyyyy then........

kitschaster, posting in mock_the_stupid @ 3:16pm: Happened in the summer, but the Subway mock reminded me of it.
So, reading the Subway thread bought me back to days of yore, when I would have given anything to work at a normal cafe again (even though crazies occupy this place, also). Working at a place called Great Wraps for a year, I encountered multiple strange person, and questions.

None of these are being made up. I asure you. It will sound like I am making this up, but I certainly am not. Prepare to be awestruck.

Fellow employee: Hello, what kind of wrap would you like for your sandwich? We have flour, wheat or spinach.

Customer: Oh! Is the spinach cute?

Fellow employee (thoroughly shocked): Uh...~fumbles~....I suppose if you put little bows on it.

it doesn't get any better.


Me: Would you like caesar dressing on your sandwich?
Customer: Is there caesar in the caesar dressing?

i'm sure she meant anchoives, but...~cries~

Me: So you want the South beach Tuna?
Customer: Yes, but is there tuna in the tuna salad?

that one still confuses me. she wasn't English speaking, so i'm blaming it on that.

Manager: Here's your salad (with dressing on the side).
Customer: Wait. Wait, please toss it. I can't toss salads. I don't know how. Why on Earth wouldn't you toss my salad for me?

She went bananas.

Customer: Do I order with you?

Safe to assume, if I am the only one standing there. Alone. With nobody else there. You probably wanna order with me, Chief.

The last one I wrote a while ago on my home forum after a particularly shitty day, when I had to yell at something to make the burning stop.

Customer A: If the spinach wrap is green, then what is the brown wrap?
Me: *twitchlaughter* ....wheeeeat?
Customer A: Uh. Ooooh. Does my combo come with fries?
Me: *is sure this is a trick question*

slowpurple, posting in too_much_info @ 4:46pm: I really like touching my breastesses. Not sexually, I just like the way they sproing back when I poke them and how my cleavage feels when I run my finger across the top.

When I talk to new people I tend to touch my neck a lot, and sometimes I forget and run a finger across the top of my cleavage. Um, oops.

occasusvenustas, posting in mock_the_stupid @ 1:03pm: It wasn't wine, it was grape juice!
So I'm new, and someone on dear_stupid suggested this community for this story. So here goes.

Random Girl: Drinking is so immoral!

Me: Based upon what?

Girl: Well the Bible says it's immoral to drink.

Me: I think the Bible implies that it's immoral to over indulge. Jesus turned water into wine, after all.

Girl: But... that's different.

Me: Oh? How so?

Girl: Well wine was different in Biblical times. It didn't contain alcohol.

Me: *walks away*

kallie_berens, posting in mock_the_stupid @ 3:31pm: Grocery store *facepalm*
I work as a cashier, and there's always ridiculous, annoyed, hurried people who rush in, and demand that you double-bag their packets of cheese and whatnot. So, one evening (it was quiet as usual around this time), a lady came in and had bought three bags of chips. She asked for them to be double-bagged individually (grumble grumble waste of bags grumble grumble), and so, I scanned them through. Just doing my job. Anyways, she does that squinty-eyed thing at the screen that people usually do when they believe that a price is wrong. I ask, "Is anything wrong?"
"Yeah. Those chips are supposed to be 2/$4.00"
So, I look at the screen, void the chips. After taking a double take, I see that the chips are marked 3/$6.00.
"The chips are $2.00 each ma'am, it's just showing up as 3/$6.00"
"I don't care. Those chips are the wrong price. They're supposed to be 2/$4.00!"
Oh GOD, it was extremely hard to be patient with this woman. Yeah lady. It's the same price. Take your chips and your morbidly obese child back to your homes. Pay the stupid price.

annabtg, posting in mock_the_stupid @ 10:13pm: Quickie
I admit that the expression "24/7" isn't very widely used in Greek, but still, this exchange:

Girl: So, when are we going to meet up?
Guy: Well, I'm available 24/7.
Girl: So it'll have to wait until July???

amused me.