I was raised very comfortably and in the same state that my family had lived in since coming to America. That's why I never wrote a novel where furniture comes alive.
It sort of reminds me of one of my favorite lines from Tig Notaro, where the interviewer said something like, "So, you dropped out of high school in 10th grade. But you're very smart! How did that happen?"
and Tig says, "....it was easy. I just sat there and didn't do anything."
I guess you can't really transcribe Tig Notaro, because half her genius lies in her pauses and silent stretches. Her delivery is the best.
You know who else had great delivery.
Domino's, back when they used to promised 30 minutes or the pizza's free.
How much of the video should we be expecting to watch? 10 seconds? 40 minutes? I'm at work here!
Lately, I've been buying a lot of Amazon ebooks, because 1- Kindles are awesome devices, 2- after I downloaded a decent German-English dictionary, it made it a *lot* easier to read German books, and 3- now that I have the disposable income to support creative works through purchasing, I should, and just buying the books is a pretty straightforward way of doing so.
But seeing "Hardcover: $18; paperback: $9.39; Kindle edition: $20.37" for her book makes me grumpy.
Hmm--apparently there are two Kindle editions, one of which only costs $13.43, but they direct you to the $20.37 one unless you click the + toggle to see that there are others. Oddly, that might make me even grumpier!
10: Just checked and the e-book is $9.99 for me.
Other prices are the same.
I introduced Zardoz to those dementedly horrifying Toy surprise egg disney peppa pig frozen fashem kindle surprise toy monster high unboxing surprise videos because I want her to be an astronaut someday.
Unboxing! I forgot about that unbelievable weirdness.
12: O spent a fair amount of time prefacing the opening of any box with "Hey, guys . . .". But Sesame Street makes terrific parody unboxing videos with Cookie Monster. Like so.
11: Ah, it's pricing by region. When I set use a VPN to go through the USA, it's 9.99 for me, too. The $13.43 appears when I pick Canada, and I guess the $20 is EU (although as I said, weirdly, you can still pick the $13.43 from there, too).
Hmm--apparently there are two Kindle editions, one of which only costs $13.43,
I guess one is the paperback Kindle version and the other is the fancy hardcover Kindle version.
I tried to get my kid to watch more TV but he told me he thinks TV is boring compared to YouTube. So I told him to get off my lawn.
This makes me feel better about all the time my kid spend on weird ass stuff he is really into, thanks!
My wife is into limiting the kid's screen time, but I actually prefer to let that shit slide.
The screen time research is basically bullshit. Don't let your two year old watch non-interactive tv for seven hours a day and you're fine.
It really is amazing how every single Penny Arcade strip I've ever seen makes me want to kick the PA dudes in the knees.
I assume the guy talking in the cartoon in #19 is a sort of "Kevin The Teenager" figure, right? The character that everyone despises?
And we do limit paper, though maybe not time spent on art. So there, Penny Arcade!
The character is an idealized representation of a real person that everyone despises, as far as I know.
I wasn't aware of everyone despising the IRL dude, but it wouldn't surprise me.
28: I was reading between the lines from that time he apologized for being a dickwad.
Sounds like he mostly despises himself.
That's where he ended up, after people started boycotting the conference he makes a ton of money off of.
He reacted badly to that, but I have sympathy for the guy. Dude made a joke in a comic that was off color, but never meant to hurt anyone. He found himself at the center of an internet shitstorm, and responded using satire, which only threw gasoline on the fire. His mistake was pushing back instead of shutting the fuck up.
Φ splits her screen time between movies of herself and the trailer for Home, the new animated movie that replaced a character named J.Lo with a character voiced by J.Lo. Not sure how, but she knows how to pull it up on Mrs. K-sky's iPhone every time.
Yeah, my kids can always find the trailers. They're somewhere in itunes/videos/whatever it's called on the iphone.
Say more about screen time research being bullshit, Sifu?
Say more about screen time research being bullshit, Sifu?
We've covered that one before.
35: the original paper as referenced on the american academy of pediatrics site (can't find it without doing more than cursory looking) found that children under the age of three who were in a room with a TV on for something like seven hours a day ended up with worse near-term outcomes on a couple of different measures. This got morphed into "no screens ever for kids under three" via the same "can't trust moms with nuance!" thinking that led "you shouldn't get wasted while pregnant" to become "EVEN A DROP OF ALCOHOL WHILE PREGNANT COULD RUIN YOUR BABY".
Also the research is generally about passive screen time -- none of it really says anything about interactive "screen time" like ipads or video games, but of course the way it gets spun is that the problem is actually, like, photons.
In a sort of mordantly amusing development it's become something of a problem for child development researchers, who are always having to reassure (the kinds of engaged UMC rotor-driven) parents (who are interested in bringing their kids in for experiments) that no, watching a screen for ten minutes as part of an research study isn't going to ruin little Kennel's grades ten years hence.
There are lots of follow-up studies on screen time but they generally have little tiny (barely significant) effect sizes. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the whole thing evaporated entirely eventually.
Wave? Particle? Can't commit to anything.
Yeah, so aloof.
Just wait til you meet neutrinos.
Just wait til you meet neutrinos.
Just passin' through.
I'm trying to remember what first brought Galchen to my notice; maybe this LRB review of a Kafka biography. Anyway, thanks for reminding me that I did want to read her fiction.
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I mentioned this before, and maybe one of the front page posters will pick this up, but I'll be in DC next week.
Sunday 3rd to Saturday 9th.
I'm pretty sure I'm free on the Sunday evening, the Friday evening, and possibly one or more or other evenings if anyone wants to meet up.
>
this LRB review of a Kafka biography
That review is also just so smart.
>That review is also just so smart.
She clearly has that mental whateverness. Also I think her hair is pretty.
48: My schedule is pretty flexible; I'll defer to the other DC folks on a meetup date. Where-ish would be convenient for you?
Nobody ever says shit about my hair. Which is fine.
It has been nicer lately since I realized that I didn't need to wash it with shampoo every single time I showered.
re: 51
My hotel is between Dupont Circle and Foggy Bottom. But I don't mind catching the Metro somewhere. I don't know DC at all, I've only been there once before, and it was for a grand total of about 6 hours.
The Air and Space Museum is nice, if you like airplanes.
If you're from Nebraska, like to have a "Continental" breakfast, and are there on the right day, you can write your representative and get a ticket to the Nebraska Breakfast.
Speaking of the DC Metro, they should show that map in design classes as an example of how not to do it.
AIMHMHB, my dad got kicked by a hobo while we were walking along the Mall in D.C., possibly while coming back from the Nebraska Breakfast.
If I don't wash my hair essentially every shower it gets quite nasty.
That's just Proctor and Gamble's brainwashing talk through your mouth.
58: What's bad about it? It seems to me like a pretty standard metro map, but my experience is a bit limited.
61: Well, you say "potayto" I say "slightly smelly disheveled grease potahto"
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#$%*@#! bike tires. Flat a month ago, took two weeks to get the tire changed (given that I'm not the most adept bike mechanic, and hadn't actually ever changed a tire before), and now, about a hundred miles after the tire change, it actually popped while I was starting my ride into work. Audible popping noise, and the bead of the tire off the rim for an inch.
I will take it in to a shop to get it changed this time. Feh. And end up borrowing a bike for the 5 Boro tour this weekend. I wonder if I remember how to ride a fullsized bike.
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let's crowdsource this for you, LB. Post a picture of the tire/rim and hole in the tube in the flickr pool.
re: 62
http://www.wmata.com/rail/maps/map.cfm
Huge fat lines, labels that don't seem to line up with stations, no 'whitespace'. It's all crazily cramped. Like there was a competition to fit it all on a postage stamp.
Took ages to work out that Foggy Bottom wasn't the island, but in fact the station a surprisingly long way above and to the right. And that Dupont Circle wasn't on the pale green line [I know], but on the Red. And what do the little white lines extending from some stations mean? And what are the odd little grey icons that hover over some bits, or appear to the right, or below? And to which station do they belong? Why is some text at 45 degrees, and some horizontal? What do the varying numbers of concentric circles mean?
It's hilariously bad.
She didn't say anything about a hole in the tube.
That was me. I'm wondering if maybe the tire didn't just pop off leaving the tube intact.
I'm guessing the tube pinched between the tyre and rim?
66: I thought you were going to complain that there is, at best, a tenuous connection between a station's location and its position on the map. I agree that it's ugly. The white lines extending are a new thing, because there are three parallel lines (well, one one track, but you get the idea), and the previous scheme of putting the station dot between two lines didn't work for three lines. I hope they improve that in the next iteration. The grey icons are decoded in the legend ("Station Features"). Concentric circles, also in the legend, are transfer points.
We can probably find an agreeable place in Dupont. It has lots of bars and restaurants with (weather permitting) patios.
66: this is a total engineer's response, but the key doesn't answer almost all of those questions for you?
68: I don't have it off to see the hole, but there's a hole in the tube -- it's dead flat.
69: Yeah, must be something like that. I'd think it would have failed quicker, but I don't know what I'm basing that belief on. Anyone have useful tips on changing a bike tire so as not to pinch the tube?
Huge fat lines, labels that don't seem to line up with stations, no 'whitespace'. It's all crazily cramped. Like there was a competition to fit it all on a postage stamp.
Agree.
Why is some text at 45 degrees, and some horizontal?
Agree. Also the white ticks on the parallel lines w/in the city proper. I don't know what they're about.
The rest though, I mean, there's a legend, and the grey icons are not more confusing than the weird icons on the london tube map.
The map should say which lines lead toward suburbs with more assholes. I can never keep track.
Anyone have useful tips on changing a bike tire so as not to pinch the tube?
Put a little bit of air in the tube before putting it back on the rim/in the tire, and work the tire bead back onto the rim by hand, rather than with tire levers.
If you had written "tyre levers", I would have mentally pronounced "levers" differently.
A couple of the versions I looked at online, the legend wasn't obvious. The London icons are much much clearer, and less cluttered than those grey things. Obviously the 'symbology'* is clear to me because I know it, but I mean just aesthetically.
* non-religious variety.
What Sifu said.
Getting the last bit of bead over the rim is done with a wrist flexing motion, pressing the tire bead with the heels of your hands. You can find illustrations online.
Drat. This sounds like "Take the bike into the shop to get the tires changed." I'm not all that weak generally, but my hands, specifically, are pathetic, and getting the tire back on the rim even with levers was hard enough that I thought I wasn't going to be able to manage it. I can't imagine getting that last couple of inches on without tools. (This may be partially tiny-wheels folding bike specific -- I've never changed a tire on a full-sized bike, but the online instructions for the Brompton mentioned that the size of the wheels made it harder. Less room for stretch, I guess.)
Shop it is.
What is the size of a hand-stretched Brompton wheel?
80: you should be able to do it with practice/struggle. It's difficult and annoying (especially if the tire is tight and/or new) but I imagine you have enough strength in you given the right technique. One thing I'll do is turn the tire around and pull the remaining bead towards me with my fingers -- it helps stretch the tire a bit and can give me more leverage than the typical heel of the hand/thumb technique. Sometimes if you just have an inch or so left you can pop it all in at once that way.
you should be able to do it with practice/struggle
In my experience, that nearly always means it won't be worth the effort.
Sheldon Brown reminds me that there is a tool you can use to pop the head back on.
Yep. We have one. To be honest, I find it kind of annoying to use, but that's on skinny road tires, which tend to be pretty small and soft.
We have one. To be honest, I find it kind of annoying to use Blume bought it and is a bigger fan of it, for similar reasons to those LB mentions in 80.
Heh. I was wondering about that.
Darn, though -- out of shame at having gotten a flat with no supplies with me, I went right out and bought the tiniest possible underseat bag, just big enough for a tube, multi-wrench, patch kit, and tire levers. If I need to add another tool, I'm going to need a bigger boat bag.