Happy birthday, Heebie.
Not to be confused, of course, with your upcoming birth day.
Hanging out here at Unfogged for the past ~2 1/2 years has really had a humanities-style educational effect on my ability to pick apart arguments and say more precisely what I mean
Great! Now can you teach us some math?
Oh, happy birthday!
[Mine is next week]
It's Heebie Day! Everyone sing the Heebie Day song!
HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY!
It's my birthday! Everyone has to be nice to me all day!
Hmmm, doesn't necessarily follow. I assume you are relying on the fallacy of Argument by Personal Charm.
Charm may create trust, or the desire to "join the winning team", or the desire to please the speaker. This last is greatest if the audience feels sex appeal knows details about the speaker's undergarments.
Happy Birthday Heebs! Hope you're being cosseted and getting lots of nice stuff.
Heebie, like other bloggers, is like Newt Gingrich. Why must we hear all her random thoughts? It's the internet's fault for not filtering them out, much like it's the media's fault for writing down things that Newt Gingrich says. Does the media ever waste its time on whoever the Democratic equivalent of Newt Gingrich is? No. And similarly, we receive a biased view by not hearing from all the citizens of New Braunfels or wherever it is who hate all of the things Heebie likes with a fiery passion.
Happy birthday, HG!
and good luck with the paper
It's my birthday! Everyone has to be nice to me all day!
Yay, birthdays! This is helpful, because now I know the day I have to be nice. Before, sometimes, I was nice just in case.
Happy Bday, Heebie!
(Mine was last week.)
What a nice post. Kind of like Ogged except for the bra part.
Yay for sending off the paper! Yay for your birthday! Yay for marvelous underthings!
Minivet stole my birthday greetings, but BIG congratulations on getting the paper in the mail.
So which bra did you purchase? Based on price, I'm guessing the Enell.
*sends you lots of cupcakes*
Giving people delicious cake is like being nice to them, only easier.
22: And then go back to being brutally mean to her, as usual.
Happy Birthday!
The Enell rules! I also got an Enell lite, which doesn't smush quite as much, but it's still really supportive for yoga and other non intense activities.
See Jane Run is also a good store, because they give you a 10% discount off your first order.
That this thread's first comment wasn't fuck you clown! sort of disappoints me.
But happy birthday Heebie! And congrats on getting rid of the paper!
Happy Birthday Heebie!
(mine was last August)
And I suppose to be fair, and because she didn't do it herself (modest soul that she is), I should add that Sir Kraab's birthday is about two weeks away.
I'm pretty sure hers is in February, anyway.
That this thread's first comment wasn't fuck you clown! sort of disappoints me.
Shut up, hooker!
We will stand by the old rugged geebie, and exchange it some day for a clown.
It's my birthday! Everyone has to be nice to me all day!
I don't understand your justification for this claim, that "everyone" "has to" be nice to you on your birthday. What agreement or contract have others entered into with respect to you and your birthday? From whence comes your entitlement to simply engage others in this kind of agreement? I can see your ability to apply the critical thinking skills you claim to have acquired is still imperfect at best.
Yay! Thanks everyone! I stopped and bought cupcakes to take to class for my students, just cuz. Well, because it's a 400-level class of kids I know really well, and I like them.
I ended up finding the Bettysport store by looking for places that carried the Enell bra, but didn't actually end up with that. The over-the-shoulder straps aren't adjustable, and I had too much slack there. But the great bras were by a brand called Moving Comfort, the Calli bra and the Fiona bra. Which I could probably get cheaper online, but I wanted to patronize the local business since they'd been so helpful.
Don't patronize the local business by acting like they should be grateful for your business, man.
There seem to be enough bras that will offer support for D cup women, but Enell's the only one I know of for small women with DDD/F cups.
Off the glorious topic of heebie's birthday, but don't you hate it when you make a joke to someone based on a conversation you had with them 2 months ago and they've clearly forgotten all about it and take you seriously and you end up looking like an overly-earnest idiot? That's one of the things *I* like about this place, the encouragement to read, and learn by heart, the fucking archives.
Great! Now can you teach us some math?
Harder to do in text .... but I'm suspect something can be arranged.
Heebie Birthday, Happy! Umm, whatever.
Happy Birthday, Heebie!
And belated good wishes for you too, oudemia!
Happy Birthday, Heebie!
I am filled with good cheer because the Truth-in-housing guy just came by and checked all of the mandatory repairs off his list! And didn't say anything about anything else that may or may not have been altered since the last time he was here. (Should this be presidential?) Huzzah!
Oh happy day!
Hey people in England, how's the snow?
44 - slushy down here, and almost gone now despite occasional showers of snow through the day. 12yo had another day off school because of icy snow this morning though, so that was good. It's moved north and west today I think. The hysteria is over and mostly things are back to normal. (I.e. everywhere north of Birmingham could be snowed in, but we wouldn't care.)
The BBC are tossers though - this morning was a minute of people falling down the icy steps - morally dodgy to stand there filming it surely? They must have had a few complaints, and have now amended it!
Yeah, snow more or less gone where I am. Some ice around
So, 8 inches of snow literally shut the country down? No wonder the Soviets were always trying those crazy weather-control experiments. I stand with our new President in his incredulity at the wimpiness of people outside the Midwest.
50: If by "wimpiness" you mean "lack of massive investment in expensive equipment to handle rare weather events, equipment that will sit idle all the time otherwise" then yeah, you have a point, although I don't really understand the incredulity.
A big mugshot of love indeed.
When I was a kid, it was strictly barefoot in the snow, uphill both ways.
massive investment in expensive equipment to handle rare weather events
I'd like to see the cost-benefit analysis. It's always seemed reasonable for my city not to make the investment, given that we get maybe one real snowfall/ice storm per winter, but in December the place was nearly shut down for two weeks because of less than a foot of snow (as goes Portland, so goes London, as they say). We've had two accumulations of snow since. A climate trend? Maybe it's time to buy a few plows.
one of the other problems in Seattle/Portland, vs cities that get snow regularly, is that many (most of the non-skiing) residents are also sadly unprepared for snow and therefore expect even more from the city.
I was totally amazed (in Seattle in the snow) at how clean the air was, after a few days of minimal driving, and how filthy the fug a single new car left behind was, as it skritched past my out-on-foot self.
lack of massive investment in expensive equipment to handle rare weather events, equipment that will sit idle all the time otherwise
Chicago Supervisor listen carefully! Any approach is no damn good if it lands on runway 2-2. We need 2-niner. We've got an unservicable stabilizer trim. Doubtful rudder control and structural damage. If we're brought in on 2-2 there'll be a broken airplane and a lot of dead people. So you call Lincoln, mister, and turn the screws and tell that Lincoln airport manager to get off his penguin butt and clear that runway!
There's preparation in terms of massive capital investment, and then there's preparation in terms of going about your business as best you can and not whining or freaking out. DC, and there are a lot of other parts of the world with climates like this too, seems to have a good chance of getting at least a few days of cold and ice every year, doesn't it? That's not nearly as frequent as in New England, but it's still often enough that reasonable longtime residents should know how to handle it. DC-area residents who don't dare drive in even an inch of snow may, in fact, be deserving of a little mockery.
That being said, such people seem to be purely hypothetical. Traffic continued pretty much unimpeded through that ice storm last week, as far as I could tell.
I wouldn't mock people for not driving in snow that scares them -- what if they're right about their abilities? I don't want to pressure them onto the roads!
People who don't want to adapt to snow, and expect someone else out there fixing it for them*, and don't want to pay higher taxes; them I'll mock.
*Babysittee is now married to a Seattle road crew/plow driver, and they were working all the hours they could stay awake. I thought a lttle more safety margin would have been fine.
It might be wise, even if you can't afford a midwest level of snowplows, to at least design the rail transit system such that a few inches of snow does not shut it down on top of everything else. And would it really be so hard for London or DC to buy, say, 50 or 100 snowplow attachments for the regular garbage trucks? That's the system that Omaha uses.
I don't scoff as much at the lily-livered Londoners or DCites as I do at the folx in California and Texas who freak out if there's a light dusting of snow like powdered sugar sprinkled onto their palm trees. 8 inches is tough to drive through (though not by any means impossible) but the way some of these lazy southern cities carry on you'd think a little snow shower heralded the apocalypse or something.
63: Whatever it takes to make you feel good about yourself, minne.
I'd be happier if people in Northern cities were *less* confident of their ability to drive in snow. We had a huge storm last Wednesday--like a foot in 24 hours. The plows couldn't keep up and the roads were really icy. Traffic on I90 was moving at about 30 MPH and the edges of the highway were indistinct with the blowing and drifting snow. And still! People decide the charge ahead in the left lane at 65 MPH like it was an everyday commute to work!
the way some of these lazy southern cities carry on you'd think a little snow shower heralded the apocalypse or something
Totally. It's just like those poor wilting northerners who gnash their teeth over a couple of 90 degree days.
63: Just as the pun is the lowest form of humor, mockery of people not adapting to 2-sigma plus weather conditions is the lowest form of geographical mockery there is. It should be ruthlessly deprecated. And I hereby do so.
A friend from Atlanta says that northerners think they can drive on snow, but they're wrong. They can drive on salted or cindered snow. NOT THE SAME.
67: Way to rain on the parade, Stormcrow.
Happy birthday, Heebie.
Just as the pun is the lowest form of humor,
Come again, hombre?
Really, JP, being better adapted to conditions one commonly experiences than people who rarely experience that condition is irrefutable proof of superiority, and should be trumpeted loudly.
69, 71: Wait, I was supporting you. (Or more rightly, you pwned me.)
70: Not if you thought it up yourself, of course.
68: Except in West Virginia, where they use red dog (coal slag). Mmm, tasty.
72.1: I know, but it was the only punnish thing I could think of to say on short notice.
red dog (coal slag). Mmm, tasty.
I hear stale red vines provide remarkable traction in icy conditions.
And maybe the upside to that huge coal ash spill in Tennessee will be easier winter driving conditions!
75: No. Nor was it claimed to be.
I saw a gritter with a snowplough on the front on Sunday night, so we do have some. But there hasn't been snow like this - so heavy *and* widespread since 1991 they're saying - not worth making much of an investment for something that happens that infrequently, surely? It's not like flooding, which actually causes a lot of damage and is worth being prepared for.
It gets up to 90 and even 100 quite frequently around here. And it's humid, what with all the lakes. Many Southrons come up here and are shocked -- shocked -- that every indoor space is not air-conditioned in the summer. Because they haven't actually "commonly experienced" extreme heat you see, except in the 90 seconds it takes to get from house to car and car to mall or office.
78: Well, if you're saying that there's going to be a 3 billion pound hit to the economy every 20 years or so, it seems like a slightly larger annual investment in prevention might be worthwhile, economically. [/shearer]
75: That was a pun?
Fuck you, Brock, I had the rights to be make the asshole response to that comment.
What I was going to post, but toooo late.
74: Oh, so that was a *PUN*! Now I get it.
Not that I want to take the wind out of your sails.
Until very recently, China had a national policy on heated buildings as part of its coal-management strategy. Basically, if a building was north of the Yangzte River, it could have heat, and if it wasn't, it couldn't.
Almost all of my time in China was spent just south of the Yangtze, in Shanghai and environs, aka the coldest place in China where heat is not allowed. Many students remarked on how it was nice having seven other students sleeping in the same tiny dorm room since that made it a little warmer. And we all had our coats and gloves and hats and scarves on in the classrooms. The students who suffered most, however, were the ones from the far north with crazy frigid arctic winters, since they were used to having heated rooms and kangs and the like. The local students just shrugged it off.
[/shearer]
You misspelled "asshole".
Come off it, M/tch. You were never in China.
I think having to be nice to heebie has brought out the beast in all of us.
Come off it, M/tch. You were never in China.
He meant Chinatown.
85: I think having to be nice to heebie has brought out the beast in all of us.
It's like a reverse Omelas.
88: Did you mean to misspell "goddammit"?
91: Yeah, because you can't stand the thought of someone being treated nicely.
97: Give me any rule, I'll break it. I'm going to make my dreams come true. And I'll do it my way. Yes, my way. Make all my dreams come true. For me and you.
101: Stick it in your meatloaf!
Happy Birthday, Heebie.
Many, many happy returns!
Unfogged supports Heebie-Geebie in so many ways.
Hanging out here at Unfogged for the past ~2 1/2 years has really had a humanities-style educational effect on my ability to pick apart arguments and say more precisely what I mean. I am not exposed anywhere in my real life to anything close to the ruthless precision demanded of one's arguments here.
Yep, this is why I come here even though I disagree with lots of commenters on lots of issues. Better to be fairly challenged on your views than to grow lazy in an echo chamber or degrade yourself in a flame war.
What is the meaning of the current mouseover? Technical glitch, or inside joke?
Also, on the subject of preparedness, I once saw highway maintenance vehicles stationed at regular intervals along the Pacific Coast Highway just north of LA, ready, I assume, to drive out and clear the road in case the storm then going on caused any mudslides. They probably wouldn't have had any idea what to do with snow.
HBGB!
Happy birthday Geebie-beebie!
HB HG!
That is, Heebie-heegie!
i forgot the kettle on the stove and when i recalled its plastic parts were melting and catching fire
i was so close to the fire eruption! shouldn't rely on the kettle whistles
should put the battery into the fire alarm
I moved into an apartment once with a slug of some kind of metal from a melted teapot on one of the burners. I don't think it could have been aluminum ^60 degrees C melting point) , maybe pewter (240 C).
120. I've done that. I had the stereo on loud and forgot about the kettle on the stove. Melted a hole in the bottom of the kettle. Boy did it stink.
it smells all possible cancerogens i guess, opened all windows, threw the pot to the garbage cans in the basement, still a very strong smell
i was reading unfogged catching up with the threads
again i confirmed that i have a very slow reaction, was looking at how it burns like around a minute, after turning the gas off of course
then realized should cover it with something to extinquish the fire
This is a party! This is a disco!
This is just foolin' around.
This is a birthday! For Heebie-Geebie!
We'll all be nice to her now.
(I figure this is why I've had "Life During Wartime" in my head all day.)
Everyone has to be nice to me all day!
Central Standard Time?
Though cancerogens might just be the superior word.
Hurrah for birthdays. Hope you enjoyed your day!
shouldn't rely on the kettle whistles
should put the battery into the fire alarm
To be honest I'm not sure that the fire alarm is a good way to tell that your water's boiling, either.
Jeebus, people. Get a kettle that doesn't melt.
re: 78
Yeah. Bits of London looked pretty heavily snowed in and you can understand why they wouldn't invest in the hardware to deal with such an irregular event.
However, in Oxford, the snow was about normal for Oxford. I've lived here c. 10 years and I can't remember a year when we didn't have that sort of snow. To be fair, all the buses ran as normal, but at work, it was the usual suspects who failed to turn up. The people who don't come if it rains heavily, or is windy, or if the planets are aligned in the east. There was an email yesterday --- X can't make it in today because of snow -- and my primary thought was, 'I know where X lives, and even if the buses weren't running normally, X could walk to work in about 25 minutes.'
One thing that does annoy me about Oxford is that the council doesn't seem to grit anything other than main roads. In Scotland, I was used to pretty much all of the streets getting gritted. That isn't because I come from the far north where snow fall is heavily and regular. I'm from Central Scotland, which is snowier than Oxford but not by much.
89 - salemO?
Exactly so. LeGuin saw a road sign for Salem, Ohio and used it in the story.
One of my favourite bloggers made the point yesterday:
And so we find ourselves watching the TV with indignant sounding news presenters asking those in power 'Why wasn't something done!'. Sadly none of those being interviewed gave the answer I would have, "How much extra tax would you like to pay so that this one in twenty years event has no impact on your life?"
132: per wikipedia, Salem, Oregon.
Pardon, oh mighty sub-W-lfs-n. Why aren't you in bed and asleep?
133: you think I'd be looking up Ursula LeGuin stories on wikipedia at 1 in the morning if I didn't have studying to do?
Suppose not. Like I have a requirements spec to write for Friday, so I comment without checking facts.
That William James quote, in that LeGuin wiki article, it's almost W-lfs-nian.
137. The similarity is uncanny.
More commentary on the weather.
||
Does anyone have any inside info on the Daschle nomination withdrawal. Just the other day, Cokie Roberts herself was saying that Daschle would probably get confirmed. Though Ms. Washington insider irked me by saying that the limo was a gift and therefore Daschle owed taxes on it. It was more like in-kind payment which is why he would owe income taxes, because it came from a client. If it were actually a gift, the friend would be the first person who owed the taxes. Humph.
I keep hearing NPR saying that this could derail health care reform, and that pisses me off no end. I hope that they're totally wrong.
Suggestions for who would be good?
|>
Have you read Hilzoy's article? Seems to make sense, though it's about Obama as much as Daschle.
read et al., The electric water kettles can be good, because they turn off once they come to a raging boil. I've used this one pretty regularly, and it works well. Obviously, it's more expensive than your typical stove top one.
121: My parents melted a Hershey's Kiss size and shape drop of aluminum off a teakettle once, so it can be done -- I was reading in my room, and came out to find them both snoring on the couch, and the kettle boiled dry and glowing red, with a big drop of aluminum on the stove underneath. I kept the drop for awhile.
re: 142
I electrocuted myself once, dismantling a PC power-switch. The pliers I had in my hand melted and had a lovely tear-drop shaped blob at the end. In that case it wasn't aluminium, but some hardened steel alloy.
Glad you're OK, Read. That sort of thing can turn nasty very fast if the fire spreads.
Which reminds me that I need to check the condition of my fire extinguisher. Should probably buy another one to put outside the kitchen, just to be on the safe side.
139:Ezra Klein has the most complete and informed coverage I have seen of Daschle and the appointment. Petey is in comments, FWIW, but apparently besides the tax problem, Daschle was lobbying without license and entirely too close to the industry.
cancerogen gives 14400 hits, used in the scientific papers even, while carcinogen 4600000,
thanks for your sympathy, all, i didn't mean to turn the HBHG thread into the pot thread, just the title seemed like a bit relevant
the pot was glass with the plastic handles, that's why it melted in 15 min i guess, b/c it was not longer then that, usually it boiled water in 2-3 min
but i forgot yesterday and the whistle malfunctioned
143: Les Paul almost killed himself that way working on his electronics. He was out for over a year, IIRC.
It's funny how many of the innovative engineers of the XXc were completely self-taught.
i consulted urban dictionary and it says that mushpot means 'An extreme amount of hair on a bear-sized man'
never knew, i was imagining the kettle
(sorry for presidential, but this is pretty identifiable)
I was working on a motorcycle once whose owner was very confused about electronics. He'd managed to reverse the polarity on the battery putting things back together to bring to me (but never turned the key, lucky him). The wires also weren't color coded.
So when I removed what should have been thee ground wire, the wrench shorted the battery through a ring on my finger and to the frame.
After the flash, but before I could feel it, I had a horrified moment. My ring had been arc welded to the frame and was glowing red, with my finger still in it. Made for a very oddly shaped blister, later.
i didn't mean to turn the HBHG thread into the pot thread
The pot thread is over there.
149 - I've had some nasty experiences shorting batteries by accident. It's impressive the amount of energy stored in one. Now I work with pulsed high voltage and my whole mindset has changed about how one behaves around electric power. I'm way more cautious. Even so, with pulsed power if something goes wrong it's over quickly and if you're not dead chances are that everything is alright. With batteries or wall power accidents can unfold over many minutes, just gradually getting worse and worse.
When I was doing my postdoc there was a fatality in the department due to an electrical fire during routine servicing of a breaker. The victim died from the fumes produced by burning insulation. The proximate cause was a faulty breaker, but the layout of the room made it all but certain that in a fire people would get trapped.
I could ramble about this stuff for ages, as we're right in the middle of setting up two new pulsed power bays and electrical safety is issue #1 on my mind right now. Also I have profound philosophical differences with some of my cow-orkers over how to approach these issues.
Also I have profound philosophical differences with some of my cow-orkers
Cow-orkers? Is that like "sheeple," a term coined by Scott Adams IIRC? As in, there are people who in serious contexts you would call "coworkers," but among friends or in the privacy of your own head you just know those useless chumps spend their free time orking cows?
It's a fairly old joke. In the same vein, may I introduce you to my cob-loggers, who spend their day busily logging cobs?
I came upon it as an extension of the XKCD meme of moving the hyphen right when the word "$something-ass" are used: This is a cool ass-blog.