conuly

Firstly, let me just give this a resounding WTF?

In other news, this person wants information about traditional Thanksgiving foods. We're all MORE than happy to help... and I managed to get into a flame war about the definition of the word yam.

Well, I tried not to. I said sorry, I pointed out it's my own personal pet peeve (yams! They're African! You can't (easily) get them over here! THEY ARE NOT THE SAME AS SWEET POTATOES!), and I posted a few explanatory links...

but when the person I'm talking to goes "In America we, as Americans, call them yams" I have to point out that I, in fact, have been an American all my life, have lived here all my life, and only see them (mis)labeled "yams" in the supermarket (the same place that sells "wanuts", "peers", and "apels", so I don't take this very seriously) sometimes (probably due to dialectical variation). Most of the time they're labeled "small" and "large" sweet potatoes. And I certainly do not call them yams.

The yam issue is kinda like the robin issue. Settlers from England saw these birds kinda like their robins, didn't see their robins, and so decided to call these new birds "robins" just for the heck of it. Now we distinguish them by calling them "American" robins and "English" robins. Similarly, slaves from Africa saw these tubers kinda like their yams, didn't see their yams, and decided to call these new tubers "yams" for lack of a better term. Which is all well and good until a new wave of immigrants from Africa (and apparently the West Indies) hits and they bring real yams with them! I'd be happy to call them "American" yams and "African" yams (it's not like sweet potatoes are really just "sweet" potatoes either!) but to just use the term "yam" bugs me.

Firstly, if anybody is interested in creating a journal at DW, I've culled a lot of codes from old posts. I feel bad for the poor, unused codes! They're not getting any love. *sniff*

And now, three links I got from The Post of Doom, before it, uh, broke.

Facebook won't shut down stalker
LiveJournal integrates Facebook into its website
After Facebook and LiveJournal, Russia buys Twitter

Edit: A last minute link on an alternative to Facebook launching on the 15th.

Just had it stolen out of the washing machine. (Well, I suppose she could be lying, I certainly don't know, but it harms me not to assume it's the truth.)

Well, I commented offering to send her a pad when I got paid (and I got FIRST POST too, which is always nifty), and then umpetyumpteen people commented after saying the same thing - and she never replied to any of us, which was just great. I mean, here I am with the karma and gold stars of having offered, and I didn't even have to do anything! That just rocked!

Of course, just when I started feeling great about that, she did reply to everybody with her address in a locked post. She got more than enough pads (at least one person sent her a dozen or so!), but I *had* offered, so I went over to daybreaksadness's etsy shop and bought a "pay it forward" pad for $.20.

So I still got to do an actual good deed, instead of wallowing in intentions, and it didn't cost me much. That's good :)

LIVEJOURNAL IS NOT PEOPLED WITH DOCTORS.

Oh, I'm sure there are doctors here, but none of them can really prove it anyway.

If you or your loved one or your KID is acting funny, and you have the opportunity to post on LJ asking "Gee, should I take him to the doctor?" - stop and think. If the odds are that everybody is going to say yes, get off the computer and head out now.

Repeat the mantra with me now, everybody: WHEN IN DOUBT, CHECK IT OUT.

I'm not saying you should rush to the emergency room on a Friday night just because your precious stubbed her pinky toe - but when you suspect a serious injury or illness just get up and go already. Don't waste valuable time posting on LJ, because your uninsured ass is just going to end up in the hospital anyway, might as well be sooner than later, right?

GOD, people.

O NOES! ITS STUPID! SHE SAVED LIVES!

Here's the thing. Unless her school has a rule that states "discipline for breaking school rules shall be suspended (no pun) if, while breaking the rules, the student does something moderately heroic" the fact is they really have no choice but to punish her for skipping school.

Because she was, in fact, skipping school.

Unless her school is set up very oddly, I imagine that the only way to go home before the end of the day is to go to the office and tell them you're sick, and then wait for a parent to either pick you up or tell them to send you home. And she didn't do that. Which means she was skipping school and, yeah, breaking the rules.

And she says she was sick, but I said that all the time. And half the time I just either came home anyway or else never left home to begin with. I didn't "skip school to come home", I did it so I wouldn't have to go to school. I had no real desire to do anything, so I defaulted to going home and watching TV, or reading, or playing video games. (This all assumes she really did intend to go home, of course - she may have meant to just stop at home and pick something up before going out again, or to take the bus near to home and then do something else. Or maybe she was really sick, I don't know.)

"But she did something heroic!"

Yeah, through coincidence. And despite what everybody over there is claiming, she didn't really "choose" to be a hero. She kinda had that choice thrust upon her, as the other choice was "sit here and get seriously injured or killed, along with the driver and all the little kids". Not much of a choice.

"But don't they cancel out????"

No, they don't. They're two unrelated things. "Sure, he robbed a bank - but he gave some of the money to charity!" It doesn't really work that way, or at least, it shouldn't.

Okay, if she'd skipped school for the specific purpose of committing the heroic deed... maybe. "Yeah, he robbed a bank - but he only did it because it was the only way he'd be able to ransom his wife from the nefarious evildoers, and all the rest of the money went to the poor!"

Or if you said the policy was wrong, that the punishment was too much for the crime, okay. But I really fail to see how a day of Saturday detention is really that arduous. I mean, it might be, but... really? It's probably not.

Am I the only person who thinks that 3 am is an unreasonable hour for a baby/toddler (young toddler? Older baby? Whatever) to be awake and playing with people? Is it perfectly sensible to find quiet games to play with the kid at that hour instead of putting her back to sleep? And when asked for quiet games, is it wrong to suggest that maybe, just maybe, the kid needs to sleep more than she needs to have fun? (Not to mention it can't be good for the parents to be up at all hours when they presumably do not have odd sleeping habits by nature.)

Because, frankly, I think the advice (politely stated at first... the person in question doesn't like me, and I feel no need to keep up the pretense) "PUT THE KID BACK TO BED" is eminently better than whatever That Twit was fishing for.

On What Just Happened.

(However, all her comments are here, even though the rant is less complete.)

Is any of this true? I don't know, and would really appreciate more information. But it sure is interesting.

Also, if the fandom counting comm struck you as a good idea, you may also be interested in fandompays.

Edit again: Now there's people talking about buying up lots and lots of SA/LJ stock themselves. I wish them luck, though, again, not sure this is really going to work. It certainly won't work until somebody organizes this shit.

Yar. Here be updates.

I'm maybe-not-literally waiting with bated breath to see which journals are or are not restored.

Here's the first bit.
And here's an explanation.

I'd just advise everybody to take whatever precautions, from nothing to full-on-paranoia, that they think is necessary to protect their own journals.

...that does not mean you can discount the advice as though it was worthless. Nor does it mean you should delete the comments in a snit because it's not the advice you wanted.

(Oddly enough, it wasn't me. I did do some backseat modding though. That wasn't appropriate. Oh well.)

(And it's almost my birthday! Tomorrow! *hugs people who gave b-day messages* Yay! 24! YAY!!!!)

1. I don't like chicken & broccoli. I mean, I love broccoli, and I can tolerate chicken if it's spiced so much it no longer tastes like chicken (or if I'm allowed to suck the marrow out of the bones....), but I don't like the meal "chicken and broccoli".

2. I know waaaaaaay too many pregnant people. Online, offline, I don't know - what the fuck have you all been doing lately??? (This question is rhetorical, for obvious reasons.)

Seriously, I'm happy for everybody doing things that make them happy, but... sheesh!

3. I lived without a bathroom sink for, um, about a decade? That's why it's such momentous news, by the way.

4. No, actually, we *had* a bathroom sink, it just didn't drain, so we used it as a surface. Same difference.

5. ( TMI - period related )

6. I'm not very interesting. Alas.

7. If I ruled the world, I'd actually probably panic and move to Mars.

8. I love the holidays. ANY holidays. I love holiday music, and holiday foods, and holiday decorations, and every aspect of holidays.

9. I most love the icons I hardly ever use. It just works out that way.

10. This list was more interesting in my head.

Oh, no, I can't dare conceive of more than one holiday at a time!

*eyeroll*

Well, that was mildly amusing. I shouldn't bother engaging them, I know, but I've been good... more or less... for a few months (I think), so... yeah.

You'll note that she's probably right - I've never once really heard anybody get offended at being told "Merry Christmas". Even the most die-hard non-Christians I know usually just roll their eyes and accept the greeting in the spirit in which it was given. As that's the case, why the heck can't these twits do the same thing?

Save your indignation for things that really matter, guys. Oh, hey, did you know that there's, like, a war or ten going on right now? There are people starving to death, and going hungry in this very country. There really are Christians in this world who are being persecuted, if that's what matters to you - though not many of them happen to live in this country. For that matter, there are honestly people in this world who really have never heard of Jesus - not many of them live in the US either. And what with the usual outbreaks of war, famine, pestilence, and death all over everywhere, why don't you do the rest of us a favor and go shove that Christian love and charity at somebody who could really use the help. I can name a few places.

Of course, here I am being all hypocritical and all, but man, this sort of stuff irritates me no end! All I want for Christmas is the right to greet people in the manner I see fit, preferably without starting the next world war. And I'm thinking that shouldn't be too much to ask.

Maybe it's just me, I don't know, but was it really worth that whole thread (not to mention this entire pointless entry)?

I didn't think so.

Seriously.

And yet, I cannot tear my eyes away!

kid_videos

Check it out. Apparently, the rules are quite flexible, and furbabies count as well.

You may now go about your daily business.

Three comments before I moved into an outright kinda-flame. I guess maybe I'm the one having the bad day, huh?

For the record, children under a year definitely aren't capable of manipulating others. It's got nothing to do with intelligence - some of the smartest people I know can't manipulate others! And some of the smartest people I know are babies! It makes a neat little Venn diagram, meeting in the middle for a small slice of the population in both groups!

I'm dating this yesterday, because I didn't post then, because I was sleeping.

Isn't there a parable about this? Something about how the laborer is worthy of his hire?

A guy wanting to bring in his harvest hired people in the morning to help him, but when he saw he didn't have enough people he went back in the afternoon to hire more people to help him, and when that still wasn't enough he went back a few hours later for still more people - and then paid everybody the same flat wage, right?

And Jesus' response was pretty much "Yeah, it's unfair, suck it up", right?

Something like that*.

Of course, Jesus wasn't talking about LiveJournal, I think he was talking about Heaven, but the point still remains. If you buy a t-shirt for $25, and the very next day it goes on sale for $5, yeah, that sucks, but you're not going to whine that the store cheated you.

Well, probably. I may be overestimating the sense of the average LiveJournal user here. This isn't even the same thing! It's like if the store started selling cheap knock-offs for $5.

*_{Corrections to my version of events are more than welcome}

If you don't like it, don't like it *constructively* because she's my foster sister and I love her. And also because she's a beginner and restricted to Paint, though I believe that need not kill her icon ambitions...?

On the subject of icons, I've recently noticed that my sister gingembre has only one icon!

This is simply unacceptable.

At the very least, she needs an icon of her two kids. I'll post pictures soon as I can get them scanned in. Then I want icons. Scroll her interests list. If you can find some icons that match up with her interests, feel free to post 'em here, yours or not (so long as they're free to use!). She also likes the same books I like - Diane Duane, Donna Andrews, Hilari Bell (duh), Diana Wynne Jones, Tamora Pierce, Terry Pratchett, you know the sort. Right now we've been reading the Foundation books. *thinks* And she likes Mrs. Pollifax and Aunt Dimity books. And... um... *ponders*

Oh, yes, and she's a Scooby and PowerPuff Girls afficionado. And she presumably will still take anything that's Miss Piggy or Miss Piggy & Kermit related.

Or random stuff, any icons you really like. I am *determined* to get that girl using more than just the one, even if she never actually uses them.

[Poll #667042]

The woman's house is, as near as I can tell, stuffed with food (but she's buying more because she doesn't want to go without). She's convinced her appliances are broken, and worried about how clean they are.

Whatever's going on here, it's not stupidity. In fact, in my extremely unprofessional opinion, I agree with every other person there saying "Yup, probably OCD" (or possibly the person saying early Alzheimer's).

But, while the replies from the OP indicate that it's not insensitive of us to mock this woman (her own relative!) for being stupid, it's terribly insensitive for us to suggest that she's not just "quirky" but might possibly have an actual problem! After all, she's seen professionals and gotten help and there's Just Nothing Wrong. (Isn't seeing professionals about what I can only imagine is this exact problem (though it's hard to tell with the vagueness) a sign that it's not sheer stupidity?)

I hate people.

(Not, of course, that I think it's proper to give people actual diagnoses over the internet, especially when you aren't in any way certified. However, really, in this case I'd say the symptoms just scream at you.)

Edit: Post's been deleted. I *think* it's been deleted by the OP, not by the maintainer-of-the-comm (who also is the moderator - I'm still not sure why she approved it.)

To clarify, *every* comment (except those replies by the OP, who was outraged that we thought her mother-in-law wasn't merely "mockably stupid") said that the woman had some sort of Absolutely Not Funny problem. Most people said OCD. One person said early Alzheimer's. One person started a small subthread on hunger-in-childhood (specifically growing up in the depression) leading to food hoarding in later life. That's how obvious it seemed to everyone.

It seems that if I type too much, it lets me keep typing, then just edits out the extraneous text in the entry. And when I go to edit the entry, the text isn't there either (of course), so I can't recover it. Now, I know I used to just get a warning, and the text would be all there. I do believe I'll go complain. When I stop being lazy.

*checks one last time for weird code errors*

Oh, and that last article:

What the Motorman Saw

( Read more... )

[Poll #630043]

I can't reply to everyone, because... well, because typing the last post took a lot more effort than I'd realized it would when I started. And every reply I want to make ends up wanting to talk on the same subject, and that's more than I can give right now.

Besides, I can't very well talk about the argument in autism because I just have to stay away from there. Forget about helping people - I'm getting pissed, and my comments show it. And this is an issue too important mihi to do that. I've always gotten irritated at people who let being right come before doing right - mostly because I'm one of those people, and it's really counterproductive.

So I need to just back out of that discussion until I can be calm, reasonable, and *not* want to smack everyone there until they Stop Being Stupid. That might take a while.