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[LTK]

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[Barmymoo]

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Thank you!

[schimmy]

Overslept and missed a lecture today. When I checked my email, I had one in my Inbox called "Missed Lecture" from my lecturer. I thought "Whaaat? She never checks attendance!"
Anyway, I open it, and I see that its actually an apology that she missed the lecture, because she'd written the time down wrong in her diary.

Bullet: dodged.

[lepetitfromage]

Overslept and missed a lecture today. When I checked my email, I had one in my Inbox called "Missed Lecture" from my lecturer. I thought "Whaaat? She never checks attendance!"
Anyway, I open it, and I see that its actually an apology that she missed the lecture, because she'd written the time down wrong in her diary.

Bullet: dodged.

That is awesome. I love when stuff like that happens- it's like the universe apologizing for all the times it decided to turn things to shit.

[help]

Thanks for the advice. In a way I've heard some things you said before but it always helps to hear from another person with experience in their way of saying it.
I really relate to this bit.


Going to my doctor would be the god-knows-how-long waiting list option. It couldn't hurt to talk to him though.
My first time in therapy was when I was pretty clear-headed after waiting on a list for ages but looking back it may have been more accustomed to my thoughts than clear.

Yeah, that's the sneaky thing about brains- they're really good at getting you used to thinking in ways that aren't so positive.

I think that you're definitely on the right track- talking about it to anyone is the best thing you can do. And even though we're just a bunch of strangers on the internet, we're here to help if you want/need. 

[Barmymoo]

I'm struggling a lot with my attitude towards things, I think I'm in a pattern of panic and stress and I can't get myself out of it. I'm not sufficiently bad that other people will take me seriously though. The problem is that it comes and goes, but when it comes back I still don't have the tools to deal with it. I'm heading into a major dip at the moment and I just want someone to say "here are some new ways of tackling your problems, to replace the old ones that don't work". I generally rely on other people to get me out of ruts and that isn't sustainable.

[DrPhibes]

Sounds familiar Barrymoo,

I go through cycles of stress every half-year to year and I had it so bad once I kept to myself, in my room for about a month, only going out for groceries doing nothing all day...
I dont know what the stress is about but going out sometime or just chatting with people helps for me. If else I wouldn't know what to do.

[Welu]

Nearly had a panic attack when I got a text from a friend (not in my class but better friends with my classmates than I am) saying the Head is on the war path because an inspector is coming on. Only got a glance because I was in work and saw something about an assignment being due ASAP and to contact the head and friend right away.

When I finally got to look at the text I saw it was something we did last year and I'm pretty sure I've already got a Distinction on it. Things like this don't help.

[nobo]

Got a haircut. It went like so.

[Carl-E]

I generally rely on other people to get me out of ruts and that isn't sustainable.

I dont know what the stress is about but going out sometime or just chatting with people helps for me.

We are social creatures.  Don't feel bad about relying a bit on others - often talking a little about things halps you get them back into perspective.  Especially if you have some people who know you fairly well, and can point out that things aren't nearly as bad as they seem...

Of course, sometimes your old friends can be a source of the problem.  New friends can be good, too!  Even family can be helpful, though that's pretty rare.   

[schimmy]

nobo, more or less exactly the same thing happened to me last week. I needed a haircut, my girlfriend said "I can do it!" I was foolish enough to believe her. The next morning, when I got home and looked in the mirror for the first time, I realised it was so horrifically uneven that the only thing I could do to fix it was to shave it all off.

[Welu]

Got a couple emails from my Head tutor. There's a big inspector coming in Monday and she needs everything from everyone. One person's even been dropped from the course because he didn't have enough to hand in and I'm pretty sure at least one other person will be gone soon.

Was having a mini-panic but I came in to college, she brought me to an empty room to upload my stuff to her account and I've been reassured by her and the hard-ass tutor that not only am I caught up with everything, but my work is currently the top in the class. Such a relief and feeling a big weight lifted right now. Actually thought I'd have to render two short films from last year I did which would have taken ages but found them hidden on my external harddrive.

Everything went better than expected.  

[SilentJ]

Six days ago marked two and a half years we've been together.  Things are going well.  Thought you'd enjoy hearing that.

Glad you guys are doing well! It's been a while since we've heard from either of you. 

Becca sends her thanks for the well wishes, all. 

[nobo]

I realised it was so horrifically uneven that the only thing I could do to fix it was to shave it all off.

That happened with first haircut she gave me. She messed up cleaning up around my ears and had to buzz it at a zero to fix it. She said I looked like Voldemort and was upset with me that I was not willing to live with her butchering the hair around my ear.

[pwhodges]

This is why I cut my own hair.

[DrPhibes]

It might not seem as much of something but I am glad I told this to a game: In a chat based game where you can be townsided or mafia (against town) they introduced a new something called anonymous games. Everyone gets a certain name from history, from the batman universe or from the mario universe. Not all combined, but all names are from one of those three. Before this, certain good players always got killed because they were good, no matter if they were townsided or mafia (certain townsided roles can kill mafia). Now, with Anon games, this should have stopped, but now people are allways killing Adolf Hitler, or Mario, Or Batman because their names stick out. That isn't that bad and people will, in time realise it's stupid to always do that.

What I noticed and what I pointed out was that all those names, Mario for example are always in the same order. There are 25 Mario universe based names in total. In a game of 12, mario doesn't always appear but when it does, its ALWAYS first on the list. If Whomp appears, it's always last in a 12 man game. The list always looks the same. All players that joined the game are mixed between those names, yes, randomness is there, but in my view, those names should also get mixed.
In normal setups, where there is no Anon, the list is based on who joins at what time. First is the creator and last in the list is the last to join. Mario isn't the creator, Whomp itsn't the last to join... The idea is still somwhere in peoples head that certain places on that list correspond to some elemental things...

I've ranted enough! Time to go to bed

 

[Carl-E]

This is why I cut my own hair.

Not always a sure bet...

I do mine with clippers, using a 1/4" guide.  The old guide got cracked and fell off as I was working my way up the back of my head. 

The night before a conference presentation. 


Had to shave the whole thing...  left the beard, though.  Good thing I wear glasses, I don't think I could've figured where to put the top of the sideburns otherwise...

[Carl-E]

Just heard this on the radio, through a program called This Way Out...

For all our friends.  Jim, Larry, Chris, I really miss you guys. 

[Patrick]

Guys, yesterday I went to my friend/Troubador! bandie Matt's place and we were up until 6am recording songs, resulting in one album-worthy recording and part of one throwaway session of another song (saved for posterity). I crashed at his place, we woke up around 1p, and started working again at the future-throwaway for 2 hours. We got annoyed at it, scrapped it, then started over with a different approach, which did the trick. 2 songs fully tracked with overdubs in less than 20 hours, I love working at that kind of absurd pace! We've been incredibly satisfied with the results too, and so has our mixing and mastering tech. I am so stoked to be working on this album, my life rules right now.

Tomorrow (25th) I'm playing an Injun Magic show in Berkeley, then practice the next day for a Troubador! show on the 2nd in Newark. Might've mentioned already; too exhausted to check :B

[Carl-E]

OK, mini rant time. 

I was listening to the met opera broadcast (I know, I know...) and they anounced the orchestra's concert master Janice somebody-or-other.  And I wondered, why didn't they call her a concert mistress?  Then I remembered doing an example in my stats class, where we were looking at a distribution of the ages of oscar winners.  There was the data for best male actor and best female actor.  WTF?  What ever happened to actresses?  Waiters and waitresses gave way years ago to the (more demeaning, IMHO) "server", and I somewhat understand the effort to remove gender from the language, the thought that adding "-ess" to a word somehow diminishes it, but dammit, in the few cases where English is gendered, and you want  to make the distinction, what's wrong with using the right terms, rather than tying yourself in knots distinguishing male actors from female ones?  The person who does props in our community theatre group used to be referred to as either prop master or prop mistress (though both soon fell to the linguistic seduction of the term "prop tart"). 

I know, I'm showing my age.  The distinction is silly, but it still jars me after all this time.  When you get that M.A. or M.S. degree, will you be a master or a mistress?  The connotations there have obvious problems, as does the French "mademoiselle" that's now getting the official ban.  But dammit, it just skips a beat for me. 

Of course, shouldn't a female doctor be a doctress?  Sounds silly, I know. 

If TL;DR, I understand. 

[Barmymoo]

I heard somewhere (no idea where) that female actors don't like being called actresses, because it sounds diminutive. Perhaps that's something to do with it. Also, the idea that women can't be actors is a bit stupid, we don't have masculine and feminine forms of other words, like doctor as you pointed out. Why not de-gender the remaining words? Then people who do not conform to one or the other gender don't have to wrangle with a language that doesn't fit them, they can just be actors.

[Lines]

I would never want to be called a concert mistress. Honestly, they should have just left it as maestro anyways, it's so much more fun to say. And mistress just sounds bad. Madam conductor?...Maybe? But I'd still rather be maestro or something.

And yeah, distinguishing between male and female is sometimes derogatory so it's best to have one term for both genders, it helps us ladies feel like we're on the same playing field. (Yay equality and stuff!)

[pwhodges]

I would never want to be called a concert mistress. Honestly, they should have just left it as maestro anyways,

The Concert Master is not the conductor, but the leader of the first violins, in England simply called "the leader".  My Oxford Dictionary of North American English gives it as a single word, with feminine variant (concertmaster and concertmistress).  The equivalent word (konzertmeister) is used in Germany.

the orchestra's concert master

In England we use the term "leader", so the problem doesn't arise. 

There's also a big difference between using a genderless term, like that, and using a term that appears gendered (which can be argued, I guess) but using it in a way that can be seen as inappropriate (see also chairman, etc).  There's a general preference, though, for changing to a non-gendered word rather than highlighting the issue by using the other gendered form (e.g. chairperson or just chair).

Sometimes I just wish that "man" had more thoroughly retained its original (and still quite common) ungendered meaning of human or mankind; Old English had two other words (wer and wif) to mean male man and female man.

[Carl-E]

Paul, I'd completely forgotten Wer and Wif (also spelled Wyf?). 

I guess the complaint wasn't so much the degendering (which has the noble goal of equality, as Linds pointed out), but just my bemoaning the awkward linguistic contortions to re-introduce it when gendering matters.  I've never really seen the derogatory side of some of the terms like waitress or actress, although cetainly a mistress of any kind has serious baggage ("for the whole  orchestra? really?") 

Really, I was just startled by the sudden realization that this part of the language would soon be completely gone.  It's really nothing to mourn, but it's a matter of phrasing that I grew up with, and I still find myself thinking that way and making the distinction. 

Something my children do not have to do, and my grandchildren certainly won't do.  Like the ability to do large sums in my head after growing up without calculators, it's a dead thinking pattern that still rears it's head in my mind.  It shouldn't bother me, but it strikes me that I've become a living anachronism, like my grandfather and his intimate knowledge of steam power...

Just wait 'till it happens to you!  [shakes cane at no one in particular, shuffles off the porch]

[DrPhibes]

Yeah! Next tuesday there is a playback show and I found the pefect song! Ben Folds - Bitches ain't shit! A perfect mix between indie and awesomeness
Now I have to get myself some gangster clothes and paraphernalia

[Lines]

I would never want to be called a concert mistress. Honestly, they should have just left it as maestro anyways,

The Concert Master is not the conductor, but the leader of the first violins, in England simply called "the leader".  My Oxford Dictionary of North American English gives it as a single word, with feminine variant (concertmaster and concertmistress).  The equivalent word (konzertmeister) is used in Germany.

Oh yeah. We just never used that term when I played, so I forgot it meant the #1 violinist. Still wouldn't want to be called concertmistress though. "The leader" would be just fine.

[pwhodges]

Still wouldn't want to be called concertmistress though.

It's a matter of habituation, partly.  Are you unhappy with headmaster/headmistress in schools?

[Barmymoo]

I don't really like those terms, they sound old-fashioned and dictatorial, and also to me have connotations of public schools (possibly because public schools are inclined to stick with the traditional when state schools have adopted a new system).

[Zingoleb]

It also struck me as interesting that female diminutives almost always have two definitions. Master means one thing; Mistress means two. Governor has one meaning; governess has two. Someone had a list detailing all the different ways that this takes place, and I wish I could find it again.

[Lines]

What Z said basically sums it up...mistress can either mean female master or lover to a married man. So yeah, I just don't think it's a very professional term? Like either you're a female concertmaster or you're the person who sleeps with the entire orchestra. Leader sounds better, because there's almost always a section leader and the section leader of the violins could be "THE" leader.

And we don't have headmasters/headmistresses...we have principals. Regardless of gender, you are a principal, so I prefer principal.

I mean, I'm not a huge FEMINIST!, but considering in some professions women still make less than men, I think it would be best to remove gendered titles. I think they're a little old fashioned. There's no real need to distinguish genders in professions. People are people and if they are good at their job, it shouldn't matter what gender they are.

[Jace]

Yeah, I've seen some really well qualified male wet-nurses.

[Welu]

Something awesome I somehow forgot about or at least forgot to mention. My Head tutor has told me if I need, I can come into the building after hours or during days I don't have classes to work so I don't have to deal with my classmates and for the most part, people in general. It is going around the issue but it is a gateway to getting back into my old routine.

Also, my boyfriend convinced me to go out for a meal in a nice restaurant Friday night. Got all dressed up and I had the rack of lamb and he got me in such a good mood I was able to gross him out with the details how I was eating what the now deceased animal used to breathe. He had pretty much the same reaction as Veronica Reed.

[Jace]

For the 2 year anniversary with my lady I wanted to get her something special. Originally it was going to be a pre-engagement ring (a la arrested development), and as I was looking at rings I had an idea.
So I spent a good hour or so scouring the internet before finally finding a retailer that still sells high quality Blue Lantern rings.
Now some backstory:
I wear a Green Lantern ring a lot, every day actually. It is a big thing with me.
The Blue Lanterns use the power of the emotion Hope. Green Lanterns use Willpower. Without the Green Lantern ring's power, the Blue Lantern ring will not function at full capacity, for without Willpower there is no Hope.
So I bought her a Blue Lantern ring, and I'm going to give it to her and explain the above. Then I'm gonna give her my ring to wear on a necklace so that we are never apart.

[celticgeek]

Very romantic, Jace.  And very cool. 

[Welu]

Aw, Jace. That's lovely. Got a friend who I'll tell that about because I know he'd love it.

[Lines]

D'aww. Nerdy love is the cutest.

[Barmymoo]

Yeah, I've seen some really well qualified male wet-nurses.

Really? I'd love to meet them, I had this weird feeling that we didn't have wet-nurses any more! 

[lepetitfromage]

I think the only issue that I have with gendered occupations/titles/etc is the fact that while some of them forgo both gendered titles, others just get rid of the feminine form and women are expected to assume the male gendered title.

Like waiter and waitress- and the change to server. I like that. But why should a female have to be an actor when for years and years it has referred to males? To me, that says that the male title is somehow better or more acceptable than the female variant. If actress became the more widely used form, I can't even imagine how many male performers would stomp their feet about it. Couldn't someone come up with something original?

[Patrick]

The only issue I have with gendered occupations/titles/etc. is the people in this world who actually give a flying fuck. Because actor or actress, at the end of the day, you are still somebody's bitch.

[Carl-E]

"I'd just like to thank the acadamy..."

[Welu]

Spent the last two hours art'ing. Only got to the point where I've done the rough digital ink for one character, yet to put clothes on them. Still got a giant trashbot to ink and an exploding bridge to draw. Loving (and hating but mostly loving) every minute. Been ages since I've got into a project like this and still been eager past thirty minutes in.

[pwhodges]

Hmm.  So my son and his wife are splitting up; not, to me, a huge surprise really, though one of those things one doesn't think about, not wanting to pre-empt or precipitate it.  This can (in my view) only be good for him - but <sigh> the poor children (ages 3 and 6)!  Nothing is sorted or even planned yet; they are in any case both away at work in other countries while the children have their live-in baby sitter.

[celticgeek]

Sorry to hear that, Paul.  Having children involved usually makes it worse. 

[Patrick]

So lately I have noticed that a couple of my female friends might be thinking of being something other than 'just' friends, and there was an interesting situation tonight. I had made plans to hang out with a girl I recently started hanging out with, and she stood me up, so I made plans to meet another buddy of mine and then go spend an hour or two at the bar. I got there and went to hang out with my friend Kaitlyn, and maybe 30 minutes later the girl who stood me up walks in the door and seriously apologized for a solid ten minutes, then went to the bathroom and left. The fuck?

And now it's almost 4am, I'm 3 hours late going to sleep, and I am finally about there.

ETA: Didn't see yr post, Paul, sorry to hear things are that way. But... things sometimes just don't work out, and at least they recognized it before the little ones were old enough to understand all the things it could possibly mean. Unless they're super duper perceptive. Regardless, it's sad to hear.

[lepetitfromage]

My condolences, Paul. Sometimes things like this actually end up being the best for them though- I think they are young enough that it will be easier to explain that it's not their fault (as older children tend to convince themselves). I'm obviously speculating here, but in most cases it's better to have 2 parents that are apart and able to focus taking care of their kids than together and preoccupied with their own issues. Plus, having a fun granddad will ease the sting a bit, I'm sure. 





On a completely unrelated/silly note: I was woken up this morning quite rudely....My cat seems to have made an enemy of a squirrel that inhabits our yard. This morning, the squirrel catapulted onto the window screen, the cat flew from the opposite end of the window sill and threw herself against the window to "catch" the squirrel. Squirrel then proceeded to scale the side of the building. This particular event has happened at least 4 times in the last 2 weeks. I can't tell if the squirrel is out of its mind, rabid or an asshole who is just plain fucking with the cat for fun. Typically, it's an amusing sight to see, but today I just wanted to sleep. 

[Lines]

I am going to go with it's evil and is just messing with your cat. Squirrels are weird like that.

[Carl-E]

After one indirectly broke his leg a few years back*, my father refers to squirrels as "the Evil Empire". 


*Yes, there's a much  longer story behind all that.  I won't bore you with the wall o' text, though.  Suffice to say it involves an incomplete deck, several hundred pounds of pinecones and (eventually) a carbon fiber rod in my dad's fibula...

[Lines]

D: Owwwwwww!

[LTK]

Me and my family were having dinner at a restaurant called Twitter on Sunday. Somehow an idea came to me for a restaurant; one that serves you the most outrageous of lies about the food that you receive. Such as...

"These truffles have been dug up by celibate pigs, who are fed a diet rich in turkey meat, which attunes their sense of smell to pick out the best quality ones."

"Our salmon has been caught from the Colorado river by wild grizzly bears, who have made a pact with the local Cheyenne tribe to trade the fish in exchange for divine protection against poachers."

"These salt shakers are filled with salt that is purified from central-Asian salt flats by Buddhist nomads. On average, one man has died for every ten kilograms of salt that is extracted."

Ideally, the waiters (and waitresses ) should make their stories up on the spot so that no two customers hear the same thing. It should also be forbidden to provide information about the food and the restaurant if it is A) true and B) not sufficiently entertaining. Though that might cause some trouble with the inspection, the concept could be succesful. Would you go to that restaurant?

[DrPhibes]

I would! Sounds like a fun restaurant to go to.

Tonight is the big yearly playback show and I'm doing a song! It's about Bitches, hoes and 'the streets'. Originally  a rap song, it's been put to a soft piano tune in true indie style. Very funny. Link here, dont watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSJxvi767kQ

[lepetitfromage]

Carl-E-
That's insane! Squirrels really can be pretty nasty little buggers. They're weirdly scary....that mix of almost cute but way too skittish and always looking like they're up to something. After a little more thought, I think my squirrel is definitely doing it to be a jerk.

several hundred pounds of pinecones

that is a LOT of pinecones.


LTK- i would TOTALLY go to that restaurant. Probably on the day that it opened. Do ittttt