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maybe it makes sense to undermine them from within? Oh, where's the sabotage manual when I want it?
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Poll #33546 Left handers unite!
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 41
Which are you?
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DW and Bluesky (and probably others)
Aug. 28th, 2025 07:32 pmare now going to block Mississippi IP addresses.
Link to DW explanation
Link to Tedium post on Bluesky
So, yay, piracy and VPNs all the way?
(I fucking hate this timeline, have I said that lately?)
Link to DW explanation
Link to Tedium post on Bluesky
So, yay, piracy and VPNs all the way?
(I fucking hate this timeline, have I said that lately?)
Wanton and dissipation
Aug. 27th, 2025 02:51 pmThem: If you’re familiar with the meanings of wanton and dissipation, could you please describe them in a way that will help me never confuse them with other words or forget their meaning?
Me: Oh, there is no way the comments to this post are going to be helpful.
And I was half right! I was just about the only person to give the asked-for definition of "dissipation". As predicted, everybody else used the science sense rather than the moral decay sense. What surprised me is that they also all defined the word "wanton" in terms of violence rather than sexual promiscuity.
Anyway, I said myself that dissipation (meaning debauchery) is an old-fashioned term and that I'm not quite sure how I even know that one off the top of my head, but then the next day I was re-reading Ancillary Justice and there it is, right in the first few chapters. Seivarden is in a bad state due to her dissipated lifestyle, and that's the word used to describe it. Huh. (But I think I already knew that word before I read the book for the first time.)
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Me: Oh, there is no way the comments to this post are going to be helpful.
And I was half right! I was just about the only person to give the asked-for definition of "dissipation". As predicted, everybody else used the science sense rather than the moral decay sense. What surprised me is that they also all defined the word "wanton" in terms of violence rather than sexual promiscuity.
Anyway, I said myself that dissipation (meaning debauchery) is an old-fashioned term and that I'm not quite sure how I even know that one off the top of my head, but then the next day I was re-reading Ancillary Justice and there it is, right in the first few chapters. Seivarden is in a bad state due to her dissipated lifestyle, and that's the word used to describe it. Huh. (But I think I already knew that word before I read the book for the first time.)
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August by Dorothy Parker
Aug. 24th, 2025 11:57 pmWhen my eyes are weeds,
And my lips are petals, spinning
Down the wind that has beginning
Where the crumpled beeches start
In a fringe of salty reeds;
When my arms are elder-bushes,
And the rangy lilac pushes
Upward, upward through my heart;
Summer, do your worst!
Light your tinsel moon, and call on
Your performing stars to fall on
Headlong through your paper sky;
Nevermore shall I be cursed
By a flushed and amorous slattern,
With her dusty laces’ pattern
Trailing, as she straggles by.
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Link
And my lips are petals, spinning
Down the wind that has beginning
Where the crumpled beeches start
In a fringe of salty reeds;
When my arms are elder-bushes,
And the rangy lilac pushes
Upward, upward through my heart;
Summer, do your worst!
Light your tinsel moon, and call on
Your performing stars to fall on
Headlong through your paper sky;
Nevermore shall I be cursed
By a flushed and amorous slattern,
With her dusty laces’ pattern
Trailing, as she straggles by.
Link
Which I guess I can sum up as "trenchant criticism of capitalism, maybe a little preachy, not subtle at all". This might not sound like a big endorsement, but then again, I'm pretty sure most of you are Star Trek and even Babylon 5 fans, so actually it is!
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Anyway, E was looking at Halloween costume patterns and obviously your opinion doesn't really matter at all, only the parents' does, but I thought I'd put up a poll anyway. Which costume is best for a six or seven month old?
* Former stepmother, but the relationship is still there even if she's not with their dad anymore
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Poll #33490 Halloween costumes!
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 52
* Former stepmother, but the relationship is still there even if she's not with their dad anymore
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Voyager episodes!
Aug. 17th, 2025 01:01 amSo, we watched that one with the telepathic pitcher plant. Seven and Naomi bond - the writers really worked to make Naomi useful to the plot rather than just being kinda there, and it mostly works - but honestly, our space Ahab has chosen the least-efficient manner possible to destroy his whale.
Then we watch the two parter with the Borg Queen, in which we establish that the Hansens (whom Seven actually refers to as the Hansens) were absolutely terrible parents. I mean, even beyond the way they brought their child on a platter to be assimilated, growing up on a tiny spaceship with only two other people is just no life for a child. They should have left her at home. (And all the flashbacks establish that she spent a lot of her brief childhood scared. Poor baby!) At one point in this episode, Seven helps rescue a group of astonishingly passive refugees who are about to be assimilated. There's a lot of off-screen screaming, but I guess these refugees weren't paid enough to talk, because they're both passive and totally silent. Also, nobody at any points suggests trying to de-assimilate any drones, even the one who is probably Seven's father, if we can believe the Borg Queen. Seems a bit uncaring, but as I said, he wasn't a good father so fuck him, I guess.
This is followed by a kinda sad and pointless episode in which Harry Kim contracts love from having surprisingly racy (for 90s Trek) sex with a dissident from a xenophobic society. She achieves her primary objective, forcing the people in charge to allow those who want to leave their society to do so, but they still break up. He's sad about it. (E and I decided that the only other Varro with a speaking role has gotta be her dad. He sure acts like he knows her pretty well, and that ship has a lot more people than Voyager does!)
And then one of my absolute favorite episodes, the one where Tom and B'Elanna get married and there's apparently a new baby on the ship we haven't heard of before and, by the way, the ship is disintegrating. Lots of people hate this episode because it's sad and bleak and pointless, but I absolutely fucking love it.
We skipped the Chakotay episode because ugh, fake Native American fake spirituality, something something "vision quest", and then it was Think Tank, which is a very watchable episode. It's not great, it's terrible - it's watchable. Also, nobody really says it, but the spokesperson of the eponymous Think Tank is himself a victim of it. He was taken from them in childhood, which wasn't all that long ago. Possibly they all are victims except the founder. It sounds like being part of a particularly reclusive cult.
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Then we watch the two parter with the Borg Queen, in which we establish that the Hansens (whom Seven actually refers to as the Hansens) were absolutely terrible parents. I mean, even beyond the way they brought their child on a platter to be assimilated, growing up on a tiny spaceship with only two other people is just no life for a child. They should have left her at home. (And all the flashbacks establish that she spent a lot of her brief childhood scared. Poor baby!) At one point in this episode, Seven helps rescue a group of astonishingly passive refugees who are about to be assimilated. There's a lot of off-screen screaming, but I guess these refugees weren't paid enough to talk, because they're both passive and totally silent. Also, nobody at any points suggests trying to de-assimilate any drones, even the one who is probably Seven's father, if we can believe the Borg Queen. Seems a bit uncaring, but as I said, he wasn't a good father so fuck him, I guess.
This is followed by a kinda sad and pointless episode in which Harry Kim contracts love from having surprisingly racy (for 90s Trek) sex with a dissident from a xenophobic society. She achieves her primary objective, forcing the people in charge to allow those who want to leave their society to do so, but they still break up. He's sad about it. (E and I decided that the only other Varro with a speaking role has gotta be her dad. He sure acts like he knows her pretty well, and that ship has a lot more people than Voyager does!)
And then one of my absolute favorite episodes, the one where Tom and B'Elanna get married and there's apparently a new baby on the ship we haven't heard of before and, by the way, the ship is disintegrating. Lots of people hate this episode because it's sad and bleak and pointless, but I absolutely fucking love it.
We skipped the Chakotay episode because ugh, fake Native American fake spirituality, something something "vision quest", and then it was Think Tank, which is a very watchable episode. It's not great, it's terrible - it's watchable. Also, nobody really says it, but the spokesperson of the eponymous Think Tank is himself a victim of it. He was taken from them in childhood, which wasn't all that long ago. Possibly they all are victims except the founder. It sounds like being part of a particularly reclusive cult.
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Caged Bird by Maya Angelou
Aug. 15th, 2025 02:30 amA free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wing
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.
But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
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Link
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wing
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.
But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
Link
A few unrelated questions
Aug. 12th, 2025 02:23 pm(Some of which I may have asked before, in which case, forgive me.)
1. People often do say that the English subjunctive is in decline. However, literally nobody I've ever heard say this has provided any sort of evidence. Is there any data on this other than "yeah, feels that way to me"?
1a. I've also heard that the subjunctive, or at least some forms of the subjunctive, is more common in USA English than UK English, from somewhat more authoritative sources but with roughly the same amount of evidence.
2. I got into it with somebody on the subject of "flammable/inflammable". I am aware that there are signs that warn about inflammable materials, and also signs warning about flammable materials. Is it actually the case that anybody has ever been confused and thought they were being warned that something could not catch on fire? Or is that just an urban legend / just-so story to explain why the two words mean the same thing and can be found on the same sorts of signs?
3. Not a language question! I've recently found one of the Myth Adventures books in my house. Gosh, I haven't re-read these in 20 years. Worth a re-read, or oh god no, save it for the recycle bin?
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1. People often do say that the English subjunctive is in decline. However, literally nobody I've ever heard say this has provided any sort of evidence. Is there any data on this other than "yeah, feels that way to me"?
1a. I've also heard that the subjunctive, or at least some forms of the subjunctive, is more common in USA English than UK English, from somewhat more authoritative sources but with roughly the same amount of evidence.
2. I got into it with somebody on the subject of "flammable/inflammable". I am aware that there are signs that warn about inflammable materials, and also signs warning about flammable materials. Is it actually the case that anybody has ever been confused and thought they were being warned that something could not catch on fire? Or is that just an urban legend / just-so story to explain why the two words mean the same thing and can be found on the same sorts of signs?
3. Not a language question! I've recently found one of the Myth Adventures books in my house. Gosh, I haven't re-read these in 20 years. Worth a re-read, or oh god no, save it for the recycle bin?
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Well, today I saw a groundhog
Aug. 9th, 2025 01:08 amAnd then tonight as I took out the trash I saw where it's evidently been burrowing, a big hole directly under the retaining wall to our yard.
Now what?
Now what?
I think I just saw a groundhog
Aug. 8th, 2025 06:00 pmCrossing the street right in front of my house!
I didn't see his shadow, so I have no idea if the current [insert whatever] will be long or short.
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I didn't see his shadow, so I have no idea if the current [insert whatever] will be long or short.
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Betrayed by Labi Siffre
Aug. 7th, 2025 09:44 pmBetrayed
To despise your government
To distrust your government
To be unable to respect your government
To know the leader of your country has contempt
for the people of your country
To be angered
not because it’s “Not in my name”
but because it IS in my name
To despise your government
To distrust your government
To be unable to respect your government
To know the leader of your country has contempt
for the people of your country
To be angered
not because it’s “Not in my name”
but because it IS in my name
First we've got Bride of Chaotica!, in which Kate Mulgrew enthusiastically chews the scenery. Mmm! Part of a balanced breakfast!
Also, she's pretty judgey about Tom's extracurriculars. E remarked that her daily coinflip must've landed on "Mom", and I can't say she's wrong.
It's a fun breather episode so long as you forget the fact that dozens of photonic aliens died before anybody on Voyager even realized they were at war. Whoops! Also, they spend almost the entire episode mere inches away from a shipwide epidemic of some sort of gross gastrointestinal illness, but nobody seems to care about that either, it's all played for laughs.
Then this episode I completely forgot where Tuvok and Tom are crash-landed on a time displaced planet for several months or a year with a woman who is deeply crushing on Tuvok. Tom, for whatever weird reason of his own, is adamant that the correct course of action is for Tuvok to get in touch with his emotions and just go to bang city with this woman. E and I agreed that the actually correct and logical course of action was for Tuvok to give Tom that punch in the face that he is just begging for, but for some reason Tuvok refrained. Seriously, I have no idea what bug flew up Tom's butt this episode, but he was so fucking obnoxious for no reason at all. Maybe, Tom, you should get in touch with your emotions before you start lecturing the Vulcan about his. I genuinely have no idea what his deal was or was supposed to be.
On a very different note, I don't know if anybody can make it to London who cares, but Camlann is doing a live prequel episode in September. If you know a bit more about Arthuriana than I do you probably would like the audiodrama a lot. Or even if you only know as much as I do or a little less. The music is amazing.
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Also, she's pretty judgey about Tom's extracurriculars. E remarked that her daily coinflip must've landed on "Mom", and I can't say she's wrong.
It's a fun breather episode so long as you forget the fact that dozens of photonic aliens died before anybody on Voyager even realized they were at war. Whoops! Also, they spend almost the entire episode mere inches away from a shipwide epidemic of some sort of gross gastrointestinal illness, but nobody seems to care about that either, it's all played for laughs.
Then this episode I completely forgot where Tuvok and Tom are crash-landed on a time displaced planet for several months or a year with a woman who is deeply crushing on Tuvok. Tom, for whatever weird reason of his own, is adamant that the correct course of action is for Tuvok to get in touch with his emotions and just go to bang city with this woman. E and I agreed that the actually correct and logical course of action was for Tuvok to give Tom that punch in the face that he is just begging for, but for some reason Tuvok refrained. Seriously, I have no idea what bug flew up Tom's butt this episode, but he was so fucking obnoxious for no reason at all. Maybe, Tom, you should get in touch with your emotions before you start lecturing the Vulcan about his. I genuinely have no idea what his deal was or was supposed to be.
On a very different note, I don't know if anybody can make it to London who cares, but Camlann is doing a live prequel episode in September. If you know a bit more about Arthuriana than I do you probably would like the audiodrama a lot. Or even if you only know as much as I do or a little less. The music is amazing.
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Yesterday ended in a headache
Aug. 4th, 2025 09:10 pmLowkey enough that I felt bad complaining about it, but bad enough that I couldn't focus and had to go to bed early, and then I slept through half of today as well and only woke when I got hungry enough.
So, yeah.
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So, yeah.
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The shooting was on Monday
Aug. 3rd, 2025 06:36 pmHow're you gonna send your "thoughts-and-prayers" email on Friday? At this point, silence would've been better. (I have no idea how I got on the mayor's email list.)
Speaking of the shooting, my aunt texted me to check in. She, uh, she called me by the name I tried out for like five minutes in middle school. I have no idea how she remembered that. I barely remember that. But at least she didn't ask after Mommy's health this time.
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Speaking of the shooting, my aunt texted me to check in. She, uh, she called me by the name I tried out for like five minutes in middle school. I have no idea how she remembered that. I barely remember that. But at least she didn't ask after Mommy's health this time.
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Oh thank goodness, it's storming
Aug. 2nd, 2025 10:15 pmThis should drop the temperature to something livable.
E and I watched three more Voyager episodes.
First, we watched the one where Tom Paris gets put in solitary for 30 days due to an environmental crime of conscience. Janeway flipped her morning coin and landed on "martinet / asshole", I guess. Tom tries pointing out that a month of solitary is cruel and unusual punishment, but nobody, least of all the writers, takes it seriously.
I take it seriously. This is literally torture. The worst thing that happens to Tom is he's bored and has a few nightmares about his astonishingly abusive father. (I thought the man was astonishingly abusive. I'll bet the writers thought he was just ordinary bad.) What happens to real people includes but is not limited to hallucinations, obsessive thoughts, a heightened risk of suicide, and lasting psychosis.
Anyway, the episode was surprisingly still topical, 30-ish years after the fact. The one moderately amusing part of this episode is where Tom tells the turbolift to bring him to the brig because nobody wanted to pay the security guard extras to speak. Great episode, but, to reiterate, solitary confinement is literally torture.
The next episode was Counterpoint, in which a fascist thug thinks he has culture, but actually he does not. They never do. Voyager is smuggling telepathic refugees. The fascists have some inane argument about how you can't trust telepaths and they're a real and present threat to society, but it's a weaksauce argument and nobody buys it. Outside the ship children are getting smuggled around in crates and incarcerated in concentration camps everywhere you look. This is another surprisingly, and dismayingly, topical episode.
At the end, Janeway is sad that the thug betrayed them instead of defecting for real, but that's because she thinks he's hot. I think she could've just kidnapped him. It worked with Seven, after all. (To be honest, there's a long list of one-episode characters that I think Janeway should've outright kidnapped. And also Seska and her baby.)
One of those refugee children shows up again on Prodigy as a Starfleet security guard and... honestly, I have so many questions about the way they apparently jaunt back and forth to the Delta Quadrant on a whim nowadays. Is this something they explain in Picard? Because I'm not watching Picard, not now that I've heard they kill off Icheb.
And today was a Robert Picardo Showcase Episode wherein the Doctor has a psychological crisis after finding out his memory was modified to make him forget his previous psychological crisis, when he chose to save his friend Harry over some random extra. It's a good episode. Don't ask me what Voyager planned to do if he never overcame his trauma and they had to go the rest of the trip with no doctor, though.
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E and I watched three more Voyager episodes.
First, we watched the one where Tom Paris gets put in solitary for 30 days due to an environmental crime of conscience. Janeway flipped her morning coin and landed on "martinet / asshole", I guess. Tom tries pointing out that a month of solitary is cruel and unusual punishment, but nobody, least of all the writers, takes it seriously.
I take it seriously. This is literally torture. The worst thing that happens to Tom is he's bored and has a few nightmares about his astonishingly abusive father. (I thought the man was astonishingly abusive. I'll bet the writers thought he was just ordinary bad.) What happens to real people includes but is not limited to hallucinations, obsessive thoughts, a heightened risk of suicide, and lasting psychosis.
Anyway, the episode was surprisingly still topical, 30-ish years after the fact. The one moderately amusing part of this episode is where Tom tells the turbolift to bring him to the brig because nobody wanted to pay the security guard extras to speak. Great episode, but, to reiterate, solitary confinement is literally torture.
The next episode was Counterpoint, in which a fascist thug thinks he has culture, but actually he does not. They never do. Voyager is smuggling telepathic refugees. The fascists have some inane argument about how you can't trust telepaths and they're a real and present threat to society, but it's a weaksauce argument and nobody buys it. Outside the ship children are getting smuggled around in crates and incarcerated in concentration camps everywhere you look. This is another surprisingly, and dismayingly, topical episode.
At the end, Janeway is sad that the thug betrayed them instead of defecting for real, but that's because she thinks he's hot. I think she could've just kidnapped him. It worked with Seven, after all. (To be honest, there's a long list of one-episode characters that I think Janeway should've outright kidnapped. And also Seska and her baby.)
One of those refugee children shows up again on Prodigy as a Starfleet security guard and... honestly, I have so many questions about the way they apparently jaunt back and forth to the Delta Quadrant on a whim nowadays. Is this something they explain in Picard? Because I'm not watching Picard, not now that I've heard they kill off Icheb.
And today was a Robert Picardo Showcase Episode wherein the Doctor has a psychological crisis after finding out his memory was modified to make him forget his previous psychological crisis, when he chose to save his friend Harry over some random extra. It's a good episode. Don't ask me what Voyager planned to do if he never overcame his trauma and they had to go the rest of the trip with no doctor, though.
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We saw the huskies yesterday!
Aug. 1st, 2025 09:24 pmMoonpie started to get super hyped up, as usual, and so did they, so I picked her up... and ended up with two huskies eagerly jumping up on me to say hi to their best chihuahua friend!
Well, at least my feet were firmly planted. Before we saw the huskies, on our earlier walk, we bumped into a friendly yorkie (?) - no collar, no people. But well-fed and groomed, this isn't another Finn. He eventually disappeared under a fence, but I've been asking everybody I saw if they know whose dog he is exactly, because I was that worried. Was he outside alone in the heat? That's no good.
Anyway, I asked the guy with the huskies, and he had no idea, but he told me something else - the day before, he thinks he saw a fox! I'm not sure he wasn't just mistaken, but if he isn't - wow! I know we have bunnies on the South Shore, and coyotes in the Bronx, and whatever the city says we definitely have a full time population of deer mid-Island, so maybe a fox isn't so strange.
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Well, at least my feet were firmly planted. Before we saw the huskies, on our earlier walk, we bumped into a friendly yorkie (?) - no collar, no people. But well-fed and groomed, this isn't another Finn. He eventually disappeared under a fence, but I've been asking everybody I saw if they know whose dog he is exactly, because I was that worried. Was he outside alone in the heat? That's no good.
Anyway, I asked the guy with the huskies, and he had no idea, but he told me something else - the day before, he thinks he saw a fox! I'm not sure he wasn't just mistaken, but if he isn't - wow! I know we have bunnies on the South Shore, and coyotes in the Bronx, and whatever the city says we definitely have a full time population of deer mid-Island, so maybe a fox isn't so strange.
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What even is this fucking bullshit
Go leave a public comment, though I don't even know what to say. "This is garbage and you know it, and you're bad and should feel bad", maybe.
Go leave a public comment, though I don't even know what to say. "This is garbage and you know it, and you're bad and should feel bad", maybe.
Really? You really don't see it at all?
(The comment is a few years old and gave a few more details in the thread that read to me like they were a teen or young adult when they wrote it, so to protect their identity I'm linking to a different lyrics video of the same song. But seriously, there's a level of stupidity that can't be entirely excused by youth.)
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(The comment is a few years old and gave a few more details in the thread that read to me like they were a teen or young adult when they wrote it, so to protect their identity I'm linking to a different lyrics video of the same song. But seriously, there's a level of stupidity that can't be entirely excused by youth.)
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So, there was the one where Naomi Wildman's mother doesn't die but we never see her again, which is kinda weak as episodes go but which does set up Naomi becoming Seven's little duckling.
We skipped the ice episode - I mean, it's a great episode, I just wasn't feeling it - and went on to Seven's multiple personality episode, or as I call it, "Jeri Ryan is an amazing actress". Like, wow.
This is another episode in which the crew has seemingly forgotten the concept of diplomacy. Okay, you have a Borg device with a computer virus that kills lots of Borg. The people who invented the thing obviously want it put back in space, intact, so it can kill even more Borg. You don't want to do that until you've cured Seven - great, wonderful. Have you considered asking them if there is anything they might accept in trade? Like, I don't know, information about the Borg? They only met the menace four years ago! Sure, they've made remarkable strides in killing them since them, but they'd surely like to know more about your novel approach of deborgifying the drones? They could get some of their own people back if they tried that approach, and that'd surely be better than killing them all? More information so they could pursue multiple goals can only be a good thing, especially as the Borg are bound to adapt to any one approach sooner or later.
But no, nobody even suggests it. Geez, these people. (And also? Maybe information on this virus would've been a good thing to trade for. You don't need people to sacrifice themselves. If the virus is nonfatal but persistent you can just infect people prophylacticly and hope for the... uh, best? Worst? You can hope that if the worst ever happens, at least you'll take some Borg out with you.)
And we wrapped up with the episode in which the Doctor creates a holographic Cardassian war criminal as a medical expert with whom to confer. So-so writing, honestly - the themes deserved better, and it's only saved by the acting.
We skipped the ice episode - I mean, it's a great episode, I just wasn't feeling it - and went on to Seven's multiple personality episode, or as I call it, "Jeri Ryan is an amazing actress". Like, wow.
This is another episode in which the crew has seemingly forgotten the concept of diplomacy. Okay, you have a Borg device with a computer virus that kills lots of Borg. The people who invented the thing obviously want it put back in space, intact, so it can kill even more Borg. You don't want to do that until you've cured Seven - great, wonderful. Have you considered asking them if there is anything they might accept in trade? Like, I don't know, information about the Borg? They only met the menace four years ago! Sure, they've made remarkable strides in killing them since them, but they'd surely like to know more about your novel approach of deborgifying the drones? They could get some of their own people back if they tried that approach, and that'd surely be better than killing them all? More information so they could pursue multiple goals can only be a good thing, especially as the Borg are bound to adapt to any one approach sooner or later.
But no, nobody even suggests it. Geez, these people. (And also? Maybe information on this virus would've been a good thing to trade for. You don't need people to sacrifice themselves. If the virus is nonfatal but persistent you can just infect people prophylacticly and hope for the... uh, best? Worst? You can hope that if the worst ever happens, at least you'll take some Borg out with you.)
And we wrapped up with the episode in which the Doctor creates a holographic Cardassian war criminal as a medical expert with whom to confer. So-so writing, honestly - the themes deserved better, and it's only saved by the acting.
A maverick is, literally, an unbranded cow. Sam Maverick refused to brand his cattle. Mommy just could not get over that semantic drift.
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Not as hot as the Primaries, god that was hellish, but still plenty hot.
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I'm a little relieved. I mean, not very, I'd rather have the job, but if I'd gotten it then I'd maybe have had to interact with him again and who needs that?
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while denying that it was in any way wrong to act like that.
But now I'm not sure where I read that. Does anybody have a link?
But now I'm not sure where I read that. Does anybody have a link?
And another interview today
Jul. 24th, 2025 01:48 pmIt never rains, but it sure does pour.
(Although this really is a somewhat archaic construction and doesn't mean what I've formed it to mean here. I do know that.)
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(Although this really is a somewhat archaic construction and doesn't mean what I've formed it to mean here. I do know that.)
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Quick question....
Jul. 23rd, 2025 04:32 pmHow bad of a faux pas is it if you're filling out a job application in person and then realize after you hand it in that you've gone ahead and proofread it?
(Asking for a friend!)
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(Asking for a friend!)
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I scheduled two interviews today
Jul. 22nd, 2025 12:34 pmWith a generous leave at one commute schedule and 2 hours between them
But then it turned out the first one had inexplicably been scheduled in GMT so I didn’t eat and barely made it out the door. And I’ll have to jog to get from one to the other, too!
But then it turned out the first one had inexplicably been scheduled in GMT so I didn’t eat and barely made it out the door. And I’ll have to jog to get from one to the other, too!
Not to be rude
Jul. 21st, 2025 09:20 pmbut I feel like you could've found this one yourself.
This book too.
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This book too.
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Glancing at Trump's tantrum-of-the-day
Jul. 20th, 2025 11:39 amI guess today's coin flip has landed on "pivot to popcorn". If the world is burning we may as well get some use out of it, right? Popcorn all around!
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Robben Island by Pamela Sneed
Jul. 18th, 2025 10:59 amThe only antidote I may have to Trump’s election
is in a small ferry to Robben Island
one that shuttles you to the former prison
where those who fought against apartheid were held
The only answers may be in one wool blanket
a basin
toilet
cell
and the tiny windows of Robben Island
in the discarded artillery
the rock and the limestone yard
where many were blinded
driven mad
Now the survivors former prisoners
give tours
their faces carved like tree roots exposed
The only answers may be in the surrounding peaks of Table Mountain
its Twelve Apostles
all now standing as testament to what
through years of struggles
can be defeated
overcome
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Link
is in a small ferry to Robben Island
one that shuttles you to the former prison
where those who fought against apartheid were held
The only answers may be in one wool blanket
a basin
toilet
cell
and the tiny windows of Robben Island
in the discarded artillery
the rock and the limestone yard
where many were blinded
driven mad
Now the survivors former prisoners
give tours
their faces carved like tree roots exposed
The only answers may be in the surrounding peaks of Table Mountain
its Twelve Apostles
all now standing as testament to what
through years of struggles
can be defeated
overcome
Link
Today's five second mini-rant:
Jul. 16th, 2025 02:35 pmNonstandard and informal are not synonyms. Dialectal and informal are not synonyms. Regional and informal are not synonyms. You can speak formally even if you're speaking a nonstandard regional dialect.
Everybody needs to stop saying that dialect words are, ipso facto, informal.
Edit: On a different note, omfg this dude.
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Everybody needs to stop saying that dialect words are, ipso facto, informal.
Edit: On a different note, omfg this dude.
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Something that's always interested me
Jul. 15th, 2025 07:27 pmis when an organization feels the urgent need to say something both in officialese and also everyday talk. I can think of three very relevant examples in NYC:
1. Every time you do your taxes or do almost anything that involves interacting with the state government, you'll have to pick your county, and if you live in Brooklyn or Staten Island that means they list the county with the coterminous borough in parentheses.
2. If you have a kid in school, every year they send you a form reminding you to fill out your Emergency Contact Card, and every year they include the phrase "Blue Card" right afterwards. Because that's what we all call it. Because they're blue.
3. And here's one I haven't thought about much since adolescence, but if a job is apt to hire teens then they will ask for their Employment Certification and then, inevitably, add "Working Papers" right afterwards, again, because that's what everybody calls them.
There must be other examples I'm missing, as well as non-NY examples. I sometimes wonder if it'd be easier for them to just cave to the inevitable and start listing the everyday term first and then list the "real" term afterwards.
1. Every time you do your taxes or do almost anything that involves interacting with the state government, you'll have to pick your county, and if you live in Brooklyn or Staten Island that means they list the county with the coterminous borough in parentheses.
2. If you have a kid in school, every year they send you a form reminding you to fill out your Emergency Contact Card, and every year they include the phrase "Blue Card" right afterwards. Because that's what we all call it. Because they're blue.
3. And here's one I haven't thought about much since adolescence, but if a job is apt to hire teens then they will ask for their Employment Certification and then, inevitably, add "Working Papers" right afterwards, again, because that's what everybody calls them.
There must be other examples I'm missing, as well as non-NY examples. I sometimes wonder if it'd be easier for them to just cave to the inevitable and start listing the everyday term first and then list the "real" term afterwards.
but it turned out to be a big bag of dog food.
This is... not so great, really.
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This is... not so great, really.
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and completion of orientation. They really are taking anybody with a pulse, as judged by the extremely detailed list of instructions for appropriate behavior during orientation. I'd be more insulted, but that's good for me, I really need a job. If they had higher standards they would hire somebody with formal work experience, or at least an associate's degree.
(Don't think I've stopped applying other places, mind you, but I'm really not in a position to be picky, either.)
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(Don't think I've stopped applying other places, mind you, but I'm really not in a position to be picky, either.)
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