Accomplishable resolutions are good. My last year's new year's resolution was to increase my social drinking. I have been pretty successful.
I have also done a bunch of other stuff this year that would otherwise be new year's resolutionable so I really ran out of things to resolve about.
Not exactly one of your topics, but it's nice to see that I was being too pessimistic a year ago.
I made lemmy's new year's resolution last year or the year before, and I didn't accomplish it.
Nominations for most Aughtie Song of the Aughts?
Surely this would be "Hey Ya". These are just words.
I just listened to a cover of "Hey Ya".
Man, you'd be surprised how much space offloading almost a hundred gigs of DVD images onto an external drive frees.
It's almost a hundred gigs!
Or maybe the Black Eyed Peas song that got changed from "Let's Get Retarded" to "Let's Get It Started" in order to mass market it, kinda like "torture" and "enhanced interrogation". Plus, "let's get retarded" really did seem like the Prime Directive for much of the decade.
If you're going to nominate something, provide an explanation. Otherwise it's just words.
Geeze! You really are a professor, aren't you? Might as well just say "Explain your reasoning."
Anyway, for 1, I'm going to crib from last year's answer, while acknowledging that Emerson rightly called these resolutions generic:
1. Get my weight down to 190.
Done! I sustained below 190, in fact. So now, if I can get to 180 I'll quit with the weight loss stuff.
2. Finish data collection and have "a story." Start writing.
First sentence sort of done! (Data is collected but I need to flesh out and check the integrity of my story.) This year: Finish analysis. Start (and finish) writing.
3. Spend less time aimlessly wandering the Internet.
I didn't keep track, so I have no way of verifying this, but probably not done! Probably hopeless.
4. Do something in my free time that puts me in the company of others who would be receptive to friendly interaction with me.
Didn't do nearly enough of this, either. But I've signed up for one regular commitment that should get me around real live humans. New resolution: Sign up for second regular commitment, something I'd feel guilty about skipping out on.
5. Run a sub-3:30 marathon.
Done! New resolution: Sub-3:15.
6. Find someone who is interested in copulating with me, and with whom I am interested in copulating, and copulate.
Not done. This year: Send at least 1 message on that dating site per week. Get laid before turning 30.
7. Less TV.
See comments on 3.
8. Regularly prepare food using a kitchen appliance that is not the microwave.
I did use knives and a cutting board regularly for much of the year, so I guess that counts. New resolution: Get back to using the knives and cutting board, and when I have that down, start using the stove.
You could end up copulating tomorrow.
Or getting retarded. It's a fine line.
In the interest of making resolutions I can keep, I resolve to watch more television and dick around on the internet a lot.
You have to make specific resolutions if you hope to keep them, essear: What television shows are you going to watch? How exactly are you going to dick around on the internet?
If you have a plan, is it really dicking around?
Mosty aughtie song: Crazy Town's Butterfly.
14: That would be a truly outstanding song if not for the rapping.
I hope to resolve to no longer have to masturbate to Limbaugh in 2010. I know it's wrong but it feels so right.
16: Yes. Adding to that feeling for me was first hearing about it on the local TV newscast where they segued to the Limbaugh story from the continuing (still!) "ZOMG! We're all going to die in airplanes" story with "Another one of the president's critics ..."
I like, Limbaugh told paramedics that he was on medication for a back problem.
If you're asleep in Pittsburgh wake up and see the winter wonderland with sticky snow on every branch and twig. Do it soon because the temperatures are rising. Also, great packing snow unlike what we had here from the storm before Christmas.
My Christmas resolution to manage my dealings with my BF's sister-in-law better failed miserably. It's so nice to be home now. Let us call her J for future reference. Warning: Long Rant ahead.
||
Part I. General bits of tension. (I was probably too free in expressing some of my opinions).
Part II A lovely, wonderful family whose mother is a hilarious nurse who runs a rural primary care clinic and is one tough cookie. Her sons are both in university. There was some joke about how the younger one had tried when taking a course on St. Augustine to explain evil and good in terms of a doughnut. I perked up a bit and asked whether he'd enjoyed it. He said that philosophy wasn't really his thing, and he liked political science better, but he thought that bits of it were interesting. I said that I liked some philosophy because it dealt with foundational questions.
Then J said,"See this one thinks too much. She way over analyzes thinks." At which point I behaved badly by saying under my breath, "Well, who's the anti-intellectual?" The university kid looked slightly awkward for a millisecond, but then it passed.
Part II|. BF, Brother and J and I went out to dinner in Ottawa Tuesday night. We were staying in their apartment overnight, since that's where we were flying out of.
Generally awkward dinner, where I can't find a single thing to talk about. At one point I kicked my BF in the shins, because he was leading conversation in a tedious and slightly dangerous direction.
There was lots of talk about her wedding (and I'd heard plenty about how wonderful their invitations were etc. in the past), so I politely asked about the plans for her sister's upcoming wedding in 2011.
Then J: "BG, what did you like about our wedding?"
Me: "I don't know, I'd have to think about that."
J: "I mean, do you just not like weddings? Did you not like the fact that it was Catholic?"
Me: "That's a slightly uncomfortable question for me." Then, against my better judgment, "I mean, what if I didn't like any of it?"
BF: Oooh, kind of smiling, "Now you're in for a blunt answer."
Me: (Refraining from saying that I thought that the beauty of the church was seriously overrated, and I thought that everything else was kind of tacky), "Well.. I can't remember" (feeling totally cornered)
J: "It's a simple question, I mean, did you like the church? did you like the dresses? Did you like the flowers? Did you like the food?"
BG: "The food was good." (It was meh, but other than the cake--which was really bad--it was unobjectionable, and I didn't want this to escalate further.)
J: I can't wait for your wedding and to see what you do. When's that going to be?
BG: "We're still thinking about that. And look, J, there's a lot of stuff you don't know. That's private between me and BF"
At which point, even brother, aka J's husband, was trying to get her to ease up.
......
And the thing is that when she asked me at the wedding in September, "Don't I look pretty?" I smiled and said, "yes, of course, you look lovely." She had started the exchange by telling me that my dress was beautiful to which I replied with a simple "thank you." She then went after me to give her a compliment, you know even though I thought that her hair looked like it had cornstarch shellack in it.
.......
Honestly, I don't want her at any wedding of mine and have thought of eloping for just that reason. BF maintains that his parents would be crushed if they couldn't come and J and brother would have to come then. I joked that if I broked up with him someday, J would be part of the reason, and he didn't think that that was funny at all.
Now, I found out that the brother tells the mother what J says about me, and not knowing what other outlet to use, BF tells the mother what I say privately about J. Then she gives them each suggestions. So, BF feels torn between me and his brother.
She was pretty awful, but I didn't help at all. I tried to summon interest in the Britney Spears concert that she went to, but I just couldn't get excited about it. Curiously enough, she can't stand Oprah.
BAH! UGH!
|>
Curiously enough, she can't stand Oprah.
So she's racist to boot!
No resolutions as of yet, but I'm happy to report that my prediction from last year didn't come true (at least not yet, a few hours to go, I guess.) It doesn't seem like something that's going to happen in the coming year, either. So that's nice.
BG, if you can reconcile it with your principles, you've just got to start lying more. She's feeding you lines where the right (conflict-avoiding) answer is perfectly obvious -- someone mugs you for a compliment, the only non-awkward response is to come across with something effusive, whether or not it's sincere. That won't solve the intrusive inquiries, but it'll chill out the rest of the interactions.
I did tell her that she looked nice. But honestly, in the moment I couldn't think of anything in particular to say that was nice about her wedding. I mean, I was sure that she was going to follow up with questions about what specifically I liked about X.
I was just irritated, because she'd been attacking me for being an intellectual and for overthinking the choice of a restaurant. I was looking on blogs for a good thai place, and we went with one they'd been to, and it was awful.
They feel free to shout their likes and dislikes.
Honestly, I really feel that the world would be a better place if she got hit by a bus. Barring that, I'd like to avoid seeing her again.
On an emotional level, I do value honesty a little too highly, and one of the things I really dislike about J is that she's so fake.
I fully own up to having behaved very badly.
Sorting out your problems, BG, is more fun than sorting out my own. So: look at lying to her not as a chore you must perform but a game. Return questions with questions; that way you get control of the conversation. Send the conversation somewhere you want it to go. Bonus points if you can get her to act badly.
E.g.: When asked about the wedding, just answer anything. Then ask a question about it: "I really liked your dress. What material did you choose?" And so on.
Thanks for linking to the threads in 2 and 21, they were entertaining. To review my own predictions, it seems I was way off. As for the first, the prediction came true, which is good. (I have no idea about the part of the prediction related to Ben, but the comparison to my own past turned out to be accurate. Woo hoo!) As for my second prediction, I was really wrong. Tunnel vision from still having lived in Vermont recently, I suppose. As for my third prediction, I was off by one. People have come and gone, but there are still three people who have been here longer than me. And as for my fourth prediction, the only connection I can find between the two was in July 2008.
And when she tells me that I think too much, that I shouldn't care about philosophy or that I'm weird for liking books other than Dan Brown, I should listen to her talk about Britney Spears or whatever.
I'm just too worried that if I ask her about her dress, I'd say something like, "Were you going for the little bo peep look?"
my own predictions
I only bought one pack of cigarettes during 2009, so hat one turned out OK.
"I couldn't possibly pick out one thing. The entirety of the thing was what really made it marvellous."
The problemis that I rather like conflict, and I like winning, and I'd like to beat her to a pulp (in a battle of minds, that is.)
She did say racist things about how there were almost no normal white Canadian professors in the biochem department. Considering that she's a Polish immigrant, I thought that that was a bit much in addition to being generally offensive.. It's a fine line between being conflict avoidant and colluding in perpetrating offensive norms. There was a lot of (to me) very offensive anti-feminist stuff at her wedding reception.
so hat one turned out OK.
Hat two, not so much.
anti-feminist stuff at her wedding reception
That's like decrying violence at a boxing match, though.
The problemis that I rather like conflict, and I like winning, and I'd like to beat her to a pulp (in a battle of minds, that is.)
A curious game. The only way to win is not to play.
Sorry for being obtuse. You don't have to give a rat's shit about her dress or whatever. The point is simply to ask questions that indicate you have some (false) interest, hopefully get her talking about it (I assume she'd have a lot to say about her dress) and not attacking you, and give you control of the conversation.
If she is offensive you do the same but make her look like an idiot.
"You're weird for liking philosophy"
"Am I? I think philosophy is important for ... What philosopher's have read?" [Said pleasantly]
"I haven't read any."
"Oh.... So what do you like to read?"
"Dan Brown"
"Hmmm... I tried reading Dan Brown and thought it was a bit ... Did you think was realistic?" [This is the bitchy option. Subtext: J is a moron]
"Yeah, Dan Brown has certainly knows what he's doing. How did you find the movie?" [The non-bitchy option.]
"Yeah BF and I went to see the movie. What did you think of it, BF?" [Open up the conversation so she isn't focused on. Deflect attention.]
31: Okay, well I never saw anything so vulgar as pulling out the garter belt, making sure she could identify her husband blindfolded, or asking people to give marital advice which consisted of "The woman is always right." Puke. I thought it was generally trashy.
34: That would be a good white lie for me to go with.
She doesn't care about being an idiot. She trumpets the simplicity of her tastes. It's relaxing Friday night entertainment. "Anyway, I don't have time for anything else--even movies. I'm so busy TA-ing and taking care of the dog." I hate people who are self-important about their busyness.
Can't one of you just go shoot her?
well I never saw anything so vulgar as pulling out the garter belt, making sure she could identify her husband blindfolded, or asking people to give marital advice which consisted of "The woman is always right." Puke. I thought it was generally trashy.
It's like you hate America Canada.
38: It's like I'm a New England Yankee.
Well, as a Polish immigrant, she's not exactly a normal Canadian.
Further she inspires all sorts of nasty racist stuff in me. "Well, I'm not a racist, but that bump on your nose makes you looklike a peasant, and everybody knows that Poles are a backward people."
Plus, the homophobic shit pisses me off.
I didn't actually say that or anything so vile, but I thought it, and I loathed myself for it. I do not like the person I turn into around her.
42: That was my preferred method, but I'm not allowedto sit quietly.
42: say something not nice?
Well, looking back, this didn't happen, but I could, at this very moment, be at the midpoint of the process. We'll see!
The aughtiest song of the aughties was Single Ladies. Beyonce made one of the greatest videos of all time.
For the record: I don't believe in resolutions. I could hardly be less qualified to discuss the most Aughtie song. And I can't think of anything to say about the 200Xes that wouldn't be intolerably cynical.
BTW, Otto, 8 is quite heartening: nice job.
I'm sure you wish the success centered more around #6, but still, a pretty good success rate.
48: Hard to say what she should do. Of course my vacillation is informed and reïnforced by the difficulties the Poles faced in WWII.
Michael Scott: I have a very difficult decision to make. Its like last week I was at the video store. Do I watch The Devil Wears Prada again? Or, do I finally get around to seeing Sophies Choice? It is what you would call a classic difficult decision.
48: I'm now hoping to meet a Dan Brown fan so I can use that line.
24 takes a good tack, but is far too productive. I appreciate valuing honesty highly - I'm terrible at completely bogus smalltalk. But you should look at this as an opportunity to explore glorious, flagrant dishonesty directed towards someone whom you despise and for whom you have no respect. A sample:
"Well, if we get married, I'd want to do it exactly like yours, but everyone says it would be too tacky to use the same church and to borrow/duplicate your dress, so I just don't know what to do."
"Were you going for the little bo peep look?"
I'm sorry, we're going to need pictures at this point.
My resolution is the same as last year's: To spend more time naked.
I can't get married in the same church, since I'm not a Roman Catholic.
I'll try to find a picture to post to the flickr pool.
56.1: It's supposed to be a flagrant lie. Or, hell, work it into the lie: "I'd only want to get married in the same church, but converting takes so long, and of course my entire family would disown me, so it's a real quandary."
21: Damn. My prediction was spot on.
Except, you know my Mom converted back to Roman Catholicisism.
Actually, I think I will take a cue from BG's brother's sister-in-law. I'm going to spend more time naked and constantly ask people what part of my body they think is sexiest.
One of my roommates is annoying - he talks constantly, and is opinionated. Not that I disagree with his opinions and I don't even know how if he cares about them, but he sure has them - so one time when he got to ranting I kept bringing it back to what he said five minutes before. He's apparently changed his topic a couple times, but I find a connection to what he was saying earlier. The implication in my own head being that I'm going to make him have a point whether he wants to or not. This seems to confuse him and throw off the rhythm of the filibuster, and at the very least it makes me feel better about it.
That exact strategy wouldn't work so well with someone being deliberately judgemental or bitchy or whatever, but maybe some variation on it would, I don't know.
Apparently no one predicted that the biggest news stories of the year would be Michael Jackson's death and Tiger Wood's infidelities. So, Barack Obama wound up being only the third most prominent semi-black person in the news this year.
(Has anyone else pointed this out? It seems like the kind of thing someone with talent could make into something funny.)
but converting takes so long
J: Maybe you wouldn't think it takes so long if you realized the alternative was eternal hellfire.
Uggh, economics of that suck, KR. I thought you were like a partner or something.
I am starting my new job in a week. The pay sucks, but it's better than what I made before. In Keynesian terms I'm sort of a nightmare for the economy--though I do consume medical services. I'm going to max out my Roth IRA (bad policy, but I'll take advantage of it) and pay down student loan debt as fast as I can.
I could hardly be less qualified to discuss the most Aughtie song.
To prove I'm even less qualified I thought I should choose a Bob Dylan song.
Maybe "This Dream of You", mostly for these lines:
There's a moment when all old things
Become new again
But that moment might have come and gone
I dunno, I can't abide artificiality either, and I can't lie in social situations. I just resort to selective honesty.
Q. What did you think of my wedding?
A. I thought it was remarkable how well it reflected you as a couple.
Q. But what did you like about it?
A. At those kinds of events I just tend to take it all in. There's so much going on, you know.
Q. Well, what would you do for YOUR wedding?
A. Eh, long-term planning is not my strong suit. My sister's actually really good at it, but my life doesn't work that way.
I also say true things in a straightforward or light tone, such that most people think I'm joking.
Q. Aren't you drinking? Come on, have a beer!
A. Nah, it'll make me really grouchy, and that won't be fun for any of us.
Q. Aren't you coming with us for lunch? What's the matter, aren't we smart enough for you?
A. Oh, you know how antisocial I am. Even two hours with people I really like is long enough. I'll see you when you get back.
The trick with insecure, needy people who don't share your social or political views is to refuse to engage. Just keep giving non-answers. They get bored with nothing to grab on to. Plus, I do think that the honesty shines through. It keeps you feeling cleaner and more relaxed inside, and generally causes others to respect you for not getting sucked into no-win conversations.
I'm going to max out my Roth IRA
That's right, everybody, just send me $800/month, tax-free....
I'm going to do stand-up in 2010.
I'm standing right now.
Aughtie song of the Aughts. .. and no, it's not a freaking Rick Roll (although that would be another candidate).
Although on the racist front, I should add that I get an unseemly amount of entertainment from making statements that create social pressure for the other person to agree. You have to be really careful not to reinforce stereotypes or give an opening for them to be MORE racist, but when it works, it creates a wonderful thud in the conversation that punctuates things clearly enough that everybody in the vicinity is made aware of the racist.
Unfortunately, it's self-defeating in the long term, so I usually keep it in the privacy of my head. People don't stop being racist because you embarrass them.
Resolution: Do more silly, joking around stuff with family members. Affectionate the heck out of the kids before they're 13 start giving me the cold shoulder.
before they're 13 start giving me the cold shoulder.
Tuesday was a bad day for Iris, and she told AB at bedtime that AB "doesn't get a star today." Yesterday Kai had an epic, 45-minute fit (over basically nothing) and repeatedly tried to close AB into our downstairs bathroom - he was getting her up off the couch to walk her to the bathroom so he could close the door on her. 13 comes all too soon, it seems.
And you childless folk should be feeling pretty good about now.
Resolution: to get out more. When I actually do it I have fun, and I think I have had more luck meeting women that way (going out to parties in particular, although I guess I shouldn't draw conclusions from these sample sizes, and seeing who I hit it off with) than any other method although it's a good resolution to make even aside from plans in that direction.
Q: What did you like most about the wedding?
A: Oh, the ending was just fantastic!
OR
A: A really funny thing happened after you'd left. But, uh, I'm sworn to secrecy about it, so I can't say more.
JRoth, I have to disappoint you. I've been told that I'm not allowed to e-mail any or post to the internet with the purpose of making fun of her. Apparently, there are many on facebook (don't know if one can download those), but I'mnot her facebook friend.
I've been told that I'm not allowed to e-mail any or post to the internet with the purpose of making fun of her.
The purpose of you posting it would be to show other people the great wedding dress that she had. It was such a nice dress that you felt compelled to share it with your friends. If they happen to make fun of it you can't be held responsible for our crass actions.
He knows how I feel and it would be a source of real strife. The ones online are on facebook. If someone in Boston has a scanner, we can post one from a print copy.
He knows how I feel and it would be a source of real strife.
Mmmm. I would drop it then. Seriously, if the relationship with the boyfriend is good, this is really a moment to avoid avoid avoid avoid avoid. You're not going to win a straight-up fight with anyone's family. You are very likely, assuming you and the boyfriend have a longterm future, to be successful in getting him to spend less time with her, or at least less time that you need to be involved in.
New Year's Resolutions! Hmmm,,,should I resolve not to let it bother me that everyone ignores my comments? Or should I resolve to just stop commenting?
A moment's reflection reveals that I'm certain to fail either way.
Is it at all possible to just pull her aside and say "Look, I don't like you, you don't like me, but let's at least try to be pleasant to each other for the boys?" The wonders of silent passive aggression are often unappreciated outside the upper midwest and Scandinavia, and maybe you could at least transition to that state of being.
It seems there are two problems-- J and BG hate each other is one, and their SOs discuss personal matters with their mother is the other.
I wouldn't make an S-I-L a wedge issue with respect to family, you can't win unless you have more to offer the family than she does.
84: That sounds rational, but it assumes you think she is basically a decent person.
After reading KR's comments, my new resolution is to practice more backhanded compliments. These are sure to increase my notoriety.
83: I don't ignore but I'm too shy to comment on my own, so that does precisely(ish?) squat for you.
48, 68, and 73 are excellent comments.
I resolve to be able to make more KR and Witt-like comments.
88: You felt so sorry for me you forced yourself to overcome your shyness?!
I'm moved!
Deflecting and refusing to engage are excellent in almost any situation.
But, similar to Witt, I prefer discomfort when people make racist or anti-mentally disabled comments.
LB's 82 is also very good. A direct attack is only going to make you the bad one.
If it is any solace, I always say your name loudly (with an exclaimation point) in my head when I see you comment:
"PEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPP!"
Thorn: Please comment more so I remember to follow your link. It looks VERY interesting on multiple levels. Good luck!
Peep, I see and enjoy your comments. I definitely think you're part of the community here.
Thorn, glad you are here too. Lurkers should comment more.
Re:The "Naughts"
The Girlfriend Experience ...might sum it up.
"the simulacrum is superior to the original."
"...how we have moved beyond the fetishism of objects to the fetishism of people."
From the three Presidents to American Idol, Lost and many movies to all the markets (housing, equities, energy) to the wars and problems, the decade seems to summed up, recognizing that people have varying kinds of needs:
"Please lie to me."
95: Thanks, Megan!
Option 3: Maybe I should resolve to be more direct in my pathetic pleas for attention.
That seems like a resolution I might actually be able to pull off.
I got laid more in 2009 than in 2008 (which is to say that I got laid in 2009) but not "a lot".
99: Congrats, nosflow! "A lot" in 2010?
Will provide in 2010 supporting arguement that 15, 16 was an eigenvector of the decade's pop culture.
99: Let's call it a victory all around.
Matrix factorisation FTW!
In recent travels to the land of Freedom, Liberty, and Justice I noticed that the natives don't seem eager to engage in casual banter. By this I mean in casual conversation I would naturally tend towards humour of the bantering sort and found my conversational companions reluctant to follow. I notice the same thing on Unfogged. For example this thread was heading towards banter before Will and LB got all po-faced on us. In fact when I think of the chief banterers I think of KR and Apo, and there is at least one dirty furriner in there if IIRC the TFA. Thoughts? So what is the acceptable form of casual conversation in Northern America?
95: But but but then I wouldn't be a lurker! I have been resolving to comment more (easy since I'm still in single digits overall, I think) but not in any time-sensitive way.
104
Thoughts?
I don't follow. Americans don't banter because only half the chief banterers you can think of are American? In other countries, people ignore rants about family strife even when they feel they can offer helpful advice?
Personally, I've been a bit depressed lately, therefore I'm just plain less likely to banter at the moment. I think this thread seems pretty much normal for unfogged and my circle of friends, though. There's some banter.
Eh, I'd say that smartass comments are at least slightly less socially acceptable here than they seem to be in the UK -- I'm naturally smartass-inclined (despite my humorlessness here), and I spend a lot of time keeping a lid on it IRL for fear of being perceived as rude or inappropriate. Doesn't mean you can't do it at all, but you have to be willing to work through the funny looks you'll get.
104: Hey, we're the most powerul nation in the history of the earth. We have serious responsiblities. We just don't have time for your silly banter.
And I actually hadn't realized W.Breeze was non USAian. Talk about gender assumptions; I really do think everyone's American unless clearly stated otherwise (someplace I saw it and remembered it), or unless their writing-style screams not-from-here really really unmistakably. That'll make a nice resolution.
Chopper speaks the truth in 84.
Arse-faced! That's great. Being po-faced may well involve having a face like the cat's arse, after all.
Saw Sherlock Homes this afternoon. I'm voting for Kelly rather than Rachel, but C disagreed. Buttercup (the wannabe ninja) loved the fighting, especially where he was explaining first what he was going to do. She also thought drowning in your own bath was "cool". (I've known of 2 people who have died that way, both epileptic, so I'd have to disagree, though didn't get into that in the street.)
The OED suggests it might derive from po "a chamber pot".
Or from "poker".
My New Year's Eve thought is that I thought I had plans, but it turns out I will be alone. I have never been alone on NYE! It sucks.
Come over to our place, AWB! We also have no plans, but it turns out we have a bottle of champagne in the refrigerator.
I think it's reasonable to do anti-NYE stuff, like not staying up or not going out, but it still seems important not to do these things alone.
I have made plans to go over to a friend's place with a spare bedroom, so that I may get ridiculously drunk and pass out with ease. Or, rather, that I may drink a moderate amount and then comfortably head to bed, without my constant NYE fear of drunk drivers on the route home.
it still seems important not to do these things alone
I used to feel this way. Then I realized that it was guaranteed to make me feel shitty if, for reasons beyond my control, I found myself alone. (Like now.)
This is the same reason I don't make a big deal out of my birthday.
Parenthetical:
Just remember how important it is to post pictures at 1 am!
So dont forget your camera!
Awww, AWB and Josh, you are never alone! Unfogged is ALWAYS with you.
BR abandoned me for the warmer breezes of Puerto Rico. My son has abandoned me for a friend's party. So it will just be my daughter and me.
I spend a lot of time keeping a lid on it IRL for fear of being perceived as rude or inappropriate.
This is the step I've yet to master.
Also, if anyone's planning to invite me to do something NYEish, you're running out of time! As it is I'll think I'll just be in bed at home, alone.
123: I see I put an apostrophe in the wrong place, that should be friends' - but I suppose that wouldn't make much of a difference when it comes to the potential jokes, now would it?
When we were discussing these plans, I was a bit tipsy (and at the track! which was a whole new experience for me) and in a classic, ()-embarrassing slip of the tongue, instead of asking if they minded if I slept in their spare bed, I just asked if I could sleep in their bed. Oh, the shame. Didn't help that I did this in front of another set of friends who will never let me live this down (well, for at least two weeks or until I do something else embarrassing, whichever comes first). They even told my mother!
120: After a really horrible birthday experience where I ended up alone, I have come around to this way of thinking as well. The pressure we put on such days is not worth the emotional fall out if things don't turn out properly.
We're at home - were going to have friends over but their kids are ill. C just said to me, "At some point we are going to have to turn this evening into New Year's Eve!" but I'm not entirely sure what he's planning. Ordering the Chinese takeaway soon would probably be a good idea.
Knecht:
Did you ask her who she was imagining? Would it have mattered?
I am proud of you nevertheless. You set a goal, and you stuck with it. Despite some adversity.
I don't think I put pressure on it. But Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve are the two nights a year when it's really obvious everyone is having a really great time with people they care about, and being alone with nothing interesting to do on them sucks. I'm not jealous of people celebrating Christmas together because it's easy to imagine them having some kind of awful stressful time with the family. But the Thanksgiving I spent alone a few years ago was grim and not a feeling I'd like to repeat.
at the track!
Golden Gate Fields? Infineon/Sears Point? Woody Wilson?
I wouldn't make an S-I-L a wedge issue with respect to family, you can't win unless you have more to offer the family than she does.
Sounds like "New Year's Eve" in England sounds similar to "hiking the Appalachian trail tonight."
But Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve are the two nights a year when it's really obvious everyone is trying to convince themselves they're having a really great time with people they care about
Oh, Josh, you are envisioning something much more grand than what it was - harness racing at CalExpo on dollar night. Very bad beer and hot dogs and the chance to win $6 on a $1 bet. Awesome.
AWB:
You can make it to Richmond before midnight if you move fast! If you are lucky, my daughter might even cope a gratuitous feel!
you are envisioning something much more grand than what it was
Have you ever been to Golden Gate Fields? "Grand" is not the word that comes to mind.
Sounds like you had fun, though.
134: A brave try, Josh, but those have been, generally, among the best nights of my own life. Because I don't have family here, it means on the one side there's no obligation to spend time with anyone I don't really want to see, but on the other, it means there's always the risk of best laid plans going agley.
136: I've already turned down a plan that involves travel, since I just got back from MLA and am tired of not being near home. But thank you!
Here's a New Year's question: Who are you going to miss that we lost this year, and who did you get to welcome?
I was lucky enough to welcome a second brilliant and curious niece in 2009, and very sad indeed to learn that John Logue recently passed away. A kinder and more thoughtful person it has rarely been my privilege to meet.
Logue joined the Kent State faculty in 1977, was a scholar of Scandinavian studies and employee ownership, and had a strong sense of economic justice and American cultural values expressed in the writings of Thomas Jefferson. He was fond of quoting his father: "No better fertilizer can be found than the footsteps of the owner on his land."
138: I have not. I'm just guessing that anything in Sacramento is by far and away less grand than anything in the Bay Area.
It was fun, though I felt a bit like an intruder. Same goes with dive bars.
136: Am I invited too, Will? I just can't turn down the possibility of a gratuitous feel!
139: I was totally serious. I remember one year being sized up at a NYE party by two girls, trying to decide if I rated being the person they'd kiss at midnight, and being kinda saddened by that. Yes, it's nice to kiss someone at midnight, but Jesus Christ it's not a big deal if you don't. And grabbing some completely random stranger? Does not compute for me.
I'm just guessing that anything in Sacramento is by far and away less grand than anything in the Bay Area.
Let me show you around Fremont some time.
The best thing about Fremont is tasty tasty Indian food.
Oh dear - C's strategy for ordering Chinese: "Right, I will read the entire menu, and you should put your hand up when I say something you want."
That didn't work, so we are now going for random number ordering.
We're on a quest for fun.
I'm just guessing that anything in Sacramento is by far and away less grand than anything in the Bay Area.
Don't do this. Not 'cause Sacramento is so great, but because it is no way to live.
who did you get to welcome?
My friend had a 3rd baby - very much wanted, after all sorts of mishaps and hard times. Lovely.
Oh, grand is not something I look for in my daily experience, Megan (I am thinking perhaps we mean something different by the word). I love my area. I've spent a great deal of time exploring the nooks and crannies of the northern Central Valley and being quite happy with what I've found.
OP: Resolutions: I'm not "resolving" so much this year, as just planning. I've been treading water for awhile on a lot of fronts, so over the next few days I'm going to make definite plans with realistic, achievable goals and metrics to judge my success.
Aughties: Against Me! "Baby, I'm An Anarchist"
Pretty much the biggest hit single in the anarchist community this decade (except for maybe The Coup's "5 Million Ways to Kill a CEO"), even though it had very dubious politics. But it referenced Seattle, so there you go.
What's aughty about the aughts: Torture, torture pron, spurious popular front, iPod people, recuperation of left politics in Latin America, China ascendant, fumbling Euro-American imperialism, a LOT of bad movies.
Irritating family members: Lie through your teeth. Talk shit about them behind their back. Consistently forget things about them.
Missing and Welcoming: Thankfully, no one really close to me died in 2009. And I got to welcome (from afar) lots of babies born to friends and family.
I'm very late to this, but:
The problemis that I rather like conflict, and I like winning, and I'd like to beat her to a pulp (in a battle of minds, that is.)
BG, I get this, I really do. But try to clear your head of the smell of blood. It's not helping. Assuming you're in this for the long haul, and assuming you don't have any contacts in the local bus drivers' union, you've got to walk back the tension. So you can wipe the floor with J. So what? The relationship that matters is yours with your boyfriend, and for the sake of that relationship you need to take control of your interactions with J. If seeing his family is important to him, it is hurtful for you to actively contribute to unpleasantness in your time with his family.
Right now, confirmation bias is working against you. From your comments before this trip, it sounds like you went in expecting J to drive you up the wall, and sure enough, she did, just about the first time she opened her mouth. Can you train yourself to go in looking for redeeming features instead of horrible flaws? I realize it sounds inane, but it seems like a more productive challenge to set yourself than is setting a new speed record for getting your blood boiling.
Somewhat related: find a totally safe thing (seriously, like a particular sweater, or, I don't know, how she's got her kitchen arranged, or whatever) that you can honestly compliment her about, and do it. Do that a time or two per visit, ideally in the hearing of others. I have been amazed at the thaw in relations that this can produce.
Also, people act batshit crazy when they feel threatened. That goes for both of you. She might reasonably be threatened by your formidable education; you, by her dismissal of (your) intellectual life. What you have going for you is that your intellectual life should help you step outside the situation and figure out how to change it for one you prefer. You're not going to make her an intellectual, or even a tolerant person,* or someone less wedding-obsessed. But you can probably make those things fade into the background some if you stop reminding her in what low esteem you hold her opinions on these subjects, so that she doesn't feel the need to stand her ground so vocally.
*Hi there, older generation of my in-laws! We have a system whereby I dig my fingernails into my palms, and when that fails my husband steps on my foot, and when that fails I excuse myself from the conversation and my husband has a private word with the offending relative. I am under no illusions that this has made any of them substantially less racist or homophobic, but they've actually been contrite about causing offense to lily-white, straight me. Baby steps.
Good lord, that was long. Sorry.
get to welcome...will you miss?
In 2009 I welcomed, and in 2010 I shall dearly miss, my eagerly embraced, tragically impossible, and never-quite-consummated extramarital affair.
Are you one of the spouses, Sen. Harrison? Or the third party?
Is there any doubt that the iPod is the Aughtiest Product of the Aughts? (Maybe even the Aughtiest Thing) Does it even have a serious competitor?
(This thought inspired by 153.)
It's probably more fun to think about than do, WHH, which you've probably considered.
more fun to think about than do
This is not generally my experience w/r/t sexual matters.
AND BASE TITILLATION.
Was it tragically impossible because, like, the logistics were really difficult? What else would make it impossible? Is one of you a vampire and the other a werewolf?
Was it tragically impossible because, like, the logistics were really difficult?
You can always tell an engineer.
161: iPhone "scare" in Manhattan.
164: Perhaps correct. I've only been in the position of the would-be interloper, which is always more fun to think about than do.
165, 166: Maybe the Yoknapatawpha River was running too high at the ford.
You can always tell an engineer
by her workmanlike prose style?
It was a joke, AWB. Your 163 was perfectly correct.
It is true. You can always tell me the details of the affair you didn't have. Then, I will put them in Excel and calculate things.
Then, I will put them in Excel and calculate things.
And then, the titillation!
Maybe the Yoknapatawpha River was running too high at the ford.
A sign of something: at first I tried to place the Yoknapatawpha River within or near Okefenokee Swamp, until I remembered its real provenance.
Wikipedia: "The name comes from the Hitchiti okifanô:ki, meaning "bubbling water", or alternatively "trembling earth", a reference to its spongy bogs".
By Georgia's spongy bogs! This is an oath which I resolve to use at least once in the coming year.
Then, I will put them in Excel and calculate things.
Can you calculate relative grandness?
68 gets it right! Did someone say that already?
I would need data from other extra-marital affairs.
If it's really Grand, you'll know because of the automated voice telling you so.
Our married commenters need to get on the stick. It's for science!
163: To the limited extent we did anything, doing it was more fun than thinking about it. But who knows how it would have felt if we had actually crossed the Rubicon.
165: Can't explain without divulging too much. Suffice it to say that it would have been an even worse idea than an extramarital affair ordinarily is.
Channel 4 are about to tell us what the noughtiest song of the noughties is. I'll let you know.
Cheating with your sister-in-law is never a good idea.
Suffice it to say that it would have been an even worse idea than an extramarital affair ordinarily is.
Were you living out Cousin, Cousine?
Cheating with your sister-in-law is never a good idea.
That's true independently of your marital status.
Well, except otherwise it isn't cheating, I guess.
The other half is at work and young Gusty is asleep, so I'm rocking NYE all on my own (in what appears to be the Unfogged modus operandus).
I don't think much either way regarding 2009, but the passing of the year is a reminder about all the things I haven't accomplished. I got a paper rejection today so I'm especially peeved.
Adverts at the moment.
I'm thinking of taking up knitting as my NY resolution. Theoretically I know how to, but I have to relearn it all every time I do it. It would be kind of nice to remember how to cast on in betweentimes.
Blimey, anticlimax - Snow Patrol, "Chasing Cars". Booooorring.
189: I was wondering when you'd show up.
189: Yes. We have really more things in common than, for instance, ordinary lovers or cousins or siblings. I mean, we are really inseparable.
Asilon, you should knit! It's the best. It's what I should be doing now instead of reading the linked comments about sexual dealbreakers, which keeps making me snicker and then my partner wants to know what's so funny and I really can't explain.
an even worse idea than an extramarital affair ordinarily is
Your spouse's graduate student?
Your spouse's boss?
The au pair?
After UnfoggeDCon II on December 30, I just went to bed early on the 31st. I was so exhausted.
189, 193: no seriously, it's never a good idea.
GB is absolutely right. She's actually got a good education even if she is actively anti-intellectual. She's a Ph.d. candidate in cell biology and got some kind of tax-free $35K stipend from NCERC.
193: That's rich. You've gone far enough with me on several occasions, even when I was a kid; your refusing to go further is a mere quibble on your part; and besides, besides you've been unfaithful to her with a thousand girls, you dirty cheat!
86: It assumes nothing of the sort! Unless she's far more versed in PA-fu than she sounds, she'll likely respond one of these ways:
1) She'll agree with BG's assessment and proposal, and the cold war begins.
2) She'll be SHOCKED! SHOCKED! that BG would think she doesn't like her, apologize profusely, and superficially act better with the family, whilst quietly seething that BG got to tell her she hated her to her face while she has to eat it and make nice. All the while BG can be superficially cordial while digging the needles in every chance she can believably get away with it.
3) She'll lose it and freak out at BG in front of everyone, whilst BG (having mentally prepared in advance) can pretend a calm "Who me? I was just trying to come to a resolution so everyone else doesn't have to be burdened with our interpersonal difficulties. I didn't think it was a great solution, just the best we can come up with." Then she looks like the harridan, BG like the adult.
The key with winning the PA war is to know that one is being PA. Then one has the freedom to play all kinds of duplicitous cards and revel in malicious delight at the other's frustrations.
BG, I urge you to embrace your aggressive instincts, but you need to realize that you're fighting a war, not a pitched battle. If things proceed apace with the boyfriend, you can be deriving cold satisfaction from enraging your enemy while having done "nothing wrong"in the eyes of everyone else for the next 50 years.
The end goal is to be by her side as they remove the assisted breathing tube, leaning down to whisper in her ear "I've always hated you, you miserable arriviste" and watch the cold flame of hatred claw briefly to life, then fade in tortured frustration as her last breath leaves her body.
Maybe that's just me.
OT: There's a huge snowstorm moving into New Hampshire tonight and tomorrow, with wind gusts of up to 50 mph? I worry that I should call the tenant at my mom's house in NH to mention that they might lose electricity, so he should put the water faucets at a slow drip, lest the pipes freeze. But this is too worried/interfering of me, isn't it?
205: Unless the person is entirely new to living in an area with winter, I'd say that's too worried of you. Even I know to do that and I've never lived in a region with snow.
203: I think the key to successful PA is to maintain plausible deniability. "Gosh, cell biology? That must be so hard, [the stuff I've studied] is really a cakewalk." "You are so lucky to have that big stipend, I've been feeling really broke lately."
And, as above, get your digs and schadenfreude in behind her back.
I dunno, I know a lot of people who wouldn't think to do that. Compared to you-as-landlord having a heck of a plumbing bill (and a very unhappy tenant), I can't imagine what the downside is of calling. He'll think you're a little overcaretakey? So what.
205: Yeah, it's hard to say. I think () is generally right, although I seem to remember in previous discussions of this house that it was more than a little peculiar? But if they've made it through this winter so far, maybe they'll be alright without a phone call.
Witt is of course correct that there's not much of a downside to calling, and if it soothes parsimon's mind it might very well be worth it.
Yeah, why keep yourself up worrying?
Yeah, okay. It's a little weird, as the tenant actually wound up being my 26-year-old cousin, and I and the rest of the family are agreed that we shouldn't fuss at him too much, what with him being sort of the caretaker (tenant) of MY MOM's HOUSE! but he's a grown man, so don't fuss and interfere at him. Right.
At almost exactly this time last winter, my mom went through 10 days without power, and 2-3 feet of snow, and it was a hell of a time. The house is on a lake. Wind gusts are a serious thing. Plus, said cousin doesn't have a landline, just a cell phone which gets horrible reception in the house. So I guess I'm going to try to call the poor kid on New Year's Eve anyway.
Call, parsimon. As long as you can manage the conversation in a brief, professional, and pleasant way, it's for the best.
It's your cousin? That seems like it should make calling a no-brainer.
Uh, scratch "professional"; posted before I saw it was a relation. But still, minimize the familiarity - that will minimize the sense of nagging/smothering. Given that your mother had a problem just 12 months ago should provide ample excuse/justification.
Chopper's rather epic 203.last reminds me that I woke up this morning recalling an ancient, but still dearly-held grudge that made me think of Megan. I can't recall it, but it's towards an entity, not an individual. But whatever it was spurred quite negative thoughts as soon as it popped into mind.
On NYE alone: I've spent 2 very stupid NYEs with very recently ex-GFs - HSGF and BOGF, 8 years apart. Other than that, I've always been with an SO (or was just a kid).
||
Iris is across the hall, watching the Schoolhouse Rock DVD that a neighbor gave her for Xmas.
|>
It doesn't sound like you are nurturing this grudge enough, JRoth. You should keep it close and present; that it came spontaneously to mind suggests that you might not be constantly focused on your betrayal and the revenge you plan.
BG, asilon's 188 reminds me that knitting is the best thing ever for potentially tense holiday visits that involve a lot of sitting around. You can knit and talk desultorily, and then if the conversation starts to go in a bad direction, knit knit knit. If someone asks your opinion, look up and say, "I'm sorry, I just got to a really confusing part in the pattern and missed what you were saying." It really helps carve out a small private mental space in the middle of company, which I find extremely useful if physical retreat is impolitic. Plus, J has to approve of such a femme-y activity.
the revenge you plan
Well, it is an inanimate entity that I begrudge (an organization? a machine? I can't recall!).
Actually, a few weeks ago I was reminiscing about a very brief college fling that I usually don't think of at all* and I suddenly remembered something awful that BOGF said about her that reminded me of just what a Grade A bitch BOGF was. I had been considering responding favorably to BOGF's FB request (!), but when I recalled that, I was disgusted with her all over again. 10 years since the breakup, 16 years since the bitchy comment.
* to the extent that, most days, if you asked me to name the girls I dated in college, I wouldn't remember to list her (while listing even briefer, less consummated relationships)
BTW, I realize that consummation is not, technically, an action that can be done in degrees.
an organization? a machine? I can't recall!
I don't mean to judge, JRoth, but you're not exactly keeping the grudgefire stoked.
an even worse idea than an extramarital affair ordinarily is
Yeah, Tiger has enough problems right now. You have to let him go.
You can knit and talk desultorily, and then if the conversation starts to go in a bad direction, knit knit knit.
In my extended family, this would garner peculiar, slightly hostile stares, a temptation on people's part to ask me why I was acting so weird, and probably, ultimately, muttering after the fact.
Hey Thorn, I'll learn to knit, if you comment more.
Also, I do not understand how you all can discuss knitting as a solution to people you don't like and fail to point out that knitting needles are quite poky.
224: Really? It's been a godsend for holidays with my in-laws.
Wait! I got it! And it was a person! But it will be hard to avenge myself on a person I couldn't possibly identify.
The story: As I believe I've mentioned before, on the night of our wedding party, the bartender we'd hired (a friend) was driving my car back to our place and was hit by a car running a red light. Hit the right rear quarter panel and drove it into another car that was coming through the intersection (on the same street as my car). This happened not 50 yards from my house - we were on the front porch and heard a horrendous crash, and I observed, "That didn't sound good." 5 minutes later the bartender fetched me and I saw my 6-m.o. car nearly totaled (iirc $12k in repairs).
My insurance didn't cover car rental, we only own 1 car, and we were due to head for Canada on our honeymoon the next day (a Sunday), so we went to the airport for a rental on the premise that something would be worked out, and we needed to get going. As a splurge, I got a convertible Camaro, not really expecting to keep it more than a couple weeks.
The dealer took something like 10 weeks to repair my damn car, but kept leading me on that it would be ready soon; as a result, I never went out to the airport to exchange for something more reasonable. I think the total bill was something like $4500. The insurance company told me that I'd have to sue the driver at fault - who of course never so much as apologized - and I did so. I was of course completely prepared to accept less than $4500, but I certainly wanted something. We went to the magistrate, but he kicked it to an arbitrator (I don't recall the reasoning; part of it was my stupid insurance company's fault, which had told me to sign something that was vaguely-worded - they weren't trying to screw me, but the judge decided to interpret it as if they were). At the arbitration, the other driver (who, again, never so much as made eye contact with me, the horrible person) brought a freaking lawyer.
A lawyer who, in my memory, looked like Ann Coulter (I didn't know who she was then, but it's a handy pigeonhole in my brain) and was completely horrible. She flirted with the fucking arbitrators and, in a move so stunning that I was literally left speechless, said that I'd rented the Camaro "to make [my] pretty bride happy."* 8.5 years later, and I'm still disgusted by that. I wish I'd hit her.
Needless to say, whatever the hell the other driver paid the lawyer was money I would have been happy to receive, so I have a fair amount of resentment towards her, but it's the lawyer I'd like to see punished. And not in some stupid, so-called mature "her loathsomeness is its own punishment" way, either. I'm thinking stinging insects.
* my pretty bride who has never owned her own car and couldn't tell a Camaro from a Cobalt
I fully agree with GB on knitting, and would unravel a project at night if the alternative were to go without knitting at extended family gatherings. I think it acts like stimming, and soothes the nerves.
Knitting works well with hating people.
would unravel a project at night if the alternative were to go without knitting at extended family gatheringsbe forced to marry a suitor who wasn't half the man that my long-departed husband was or, hopefully, is.
If someone asks your opinion, look up and say, "I'm sorry, I just got to a really confusing part in the pattern and missed what you were saying was just encoding your name in my SCARF OF DEATH."
I should take a class or something to see if I can learn to knit faster. I can crochet at reasonable speed, but I could get old and die before I finished knitting anything.
I think it acts like stimming
Stimming hilft ihre Stimmung?
(Someone will be along to clean up my German shortly, I'm sure.)
232 is not pwned by 230; it is, rather, an elaboration of 230.
One of my resolutions this year was to remember to eat the stuff I put in my freezer - I very much enjoy stocking it but I never seem to remember that there is food in there when it comes time to eat. In an attempt to get a head start on this resolution - and because I still haven't made it to the store since I came back to my apartment - I just had the most delicious ratatouille (that I made at the tail end of summer) with baked egg and feta a la redfoxtailshrub.
How is there not an unfogged group on ravelry? Or maybe it's like Standpipe's blog and is just well-camouflaged so it can't be found by idiots/passers-by.
228: In defense of the lawyer, you did rent an extravagant car as a 'splurge' -- there's no reason the other driver should have paid for the difference between an ordinary car and what the Camaro cost, and nothing wrong with her pointing that out, regardless of her personal loathsomeness. If they somehow got away without paying anything for your rental car, that's awful, of course, but it's the arbitrator's fault.
237: I think I joined Ravelry a while back, but got confused by navigating it. If you wanted to set up an Unfogged group, I'd join it and natter about my latest pointless little thing (string bags! I need to make more string bags. I made lots last winter, and then people took them, or they got claimed as permanent storage, and now we don't have any to shop with), probably.
For a true scarf of death, you need two confederates, one to do the spinning and one to cut the thread. Portentousness in the cutting is a must.
238: Of course and, as I said, I was quite open to only paying for a base rental - iirc, I had calculated 10 weeks (or whatever) with a regular car and brought that figure. If the other driver had offered that - and we had met in person at the magistrate's weeks beforehand - I would have jumped at it.
Anyway, I had no objection to pointing out that the Camaro was a splurge; I was (and am) enraged by her misogynistic slur.
I suspect that whether you can get away with knitting at an extended family gathering is a function of whether you're a knitter or can fake it well enough; and whether knitting at gatherings is considered rude. This is to say that in my own extended family (which includes knitters), knitting would be considered rude.
That your family includes other knitters is probably the key difference: they're onto you.
244: Nah, I wouldn't knit in the first place, because I'm not a knitter.
My own extended family is not unlike other people's famed in-laws, which is to say that we're really not very much alike. However, since they're my family, we've known each other forever, so my opting out would just be weird. It's hard to cop attitude with people who knew you when you were 7, and 12, and 17, even if that attitude takes the form of knitting-when-gathered. In the end, group participation is required, and that works out more or less fine since we've all had a lot of practice with each other. We just find common ground and stick to that. Ignoring one another is really not okay, though.
Mrs. Chopper has become a fiend for Ravelry. This is her first real subsumption into an Internet community. It's kind of adorable, except she bogarts the computer in a way that she didn't used to.
241: You haven't said what they ended up paying for. Did they pay for a normal rental car?
And 'make your pretty bride happy' doesn't come off as a slur against anyone but you to me. She was calling you uxoriously besotted, sure, but she didn't say anything about AB beyond noting that she's attractive.
(Am I touchy? Sure. I end up with a whole lot of unrepresented plaintiffs hating my guts for just doing my job.)
247: They paid for nothing. That's my point - the lawyer got hundreds, if not a thousand, dollars, and I got nothing.
248: She was saying that my bubbleheaded wife needed her man to rent her a cute/sexxy car in order to take her dim little mind off that dreadful accident that ruined her Wedding The Most Important Day Of Her Life. I'm quoting the bit that I know she said; those were not her only words on the topic. It was so egregiously anti-feminist that I was shocked before I'd participated in even a single Unfogged feminism thread.
OK, here's something very 200X - just watched the firework display in London on tv. When they showed shots panning over the crowd, there were all these little glowing screens visible - about a third of the crowd were recording it on their cameras or mobiles. What the fuck did we do when we just had to remember things in our heads?
parsimon, that makes perfect sense, and makes me think I wasn't clear above. I don't mean that knitting provides a way for me to ignore people indefinitely; I like my husband's family, and it seems silly to fly across the country in order to spend lots of time ignoring them. But they're very spatty. It's just how the family works, but it's alien to me, and stressful, and I feel like an intruder.
Knitting provides cover (and not just scarves and sweaters). By dint of concentration, real or feigned, I can duck out of conversation for a couple of minutes while the spat blows over, without actually retreating from the room. (Also, as Megan says, it's soothing, which is good for my sociability. Also also, it keeps me from getting the fidgets during the interminable stretches of sitting around watching TV, which keeps me from annoying myself and everyone else.) If your family is good at avoiding needless spats, you have my sincere congratulations and no need of this strategy.
250.2: JRoth, your indignance is appreciated, and I'm just grinning at you for it.
indignance
I once turned in a seminar paper that used this non-word like 100 times. The comment from my adviser was, "Um, indignation?"
Oh yeah, man. Indignation. I can get with that.
This Ravelry thing is ridiculous. Kids can't organize a rave anymore without pre-packaged meetup software?
I end up with a whole lot of unrepresented plaintiffs hating my guts for just doing my job.
It's true: lay people don't always understand that being a vile snake is a lawyer's job.
If your family is good at avoiding needless spats
My family is trained in suppressing what might be stressful, yes. For good or ill. Mostly ill, in my view. I'm only now learning to appreciate some aspects of it, though.
When spats do arise, they're damped down pretty quickly: you get a lot of clearing of throats, uncomfortable shifting in chairs, looking away and offering to clear the dishes. When everybody goes home, they complain and criticize, I expect. It's sort of dysfunctional, I think, but what's the alternative?
indignance
Yeah. I've used it a couple of times here, and spell-check still tells me it's not a word, but somehow indignation doesn't do the same thing. I'll give up "indignance" if I must. I'm not sure where I got the idea that it was or should be a word.
They paid for nothing.
Do you recall the arbitrator's reasoning? That result seems flatly wrong.
They paid for nothing.
Oy. That's a terrible arbitrator, and a rotten defendant. Still, blame the lawyer for her tactics, not for the outcome, if you see what I mean. Of the defendant, the arbitrator, and the lawyer she's the least responsible for your having gotten stiffed. (Have I mentioned that I don't think much at all of manditory arbitration?)
Shorter LB: And John Yoo was just doing his job! Don't hate the playa; hate the game.
knitting needles are quite poky
Reminds me of the conversation I had to have with a junior colleague about why bamboo needles only were to be permitted at a youth program. Talk about visions of lawsuits dancing in your head.
The difference I see between GB and parsimon's situations is that GB's in-laws met her as a full-fledged adult. They can regard her as mildly ridiculous, tolerate the eccentricity, or whatever because "Oh, she just does that" is part of the persona they've more or less always known (even if she didn't bring knitting needles to the very first family gathering). Orienting your family around an entirely new set of behaviors is very different. If you've never practiced strategic retreats (figurative or otherwise) before, it's harder to pull off.
I have just discovered, completely on accident, that if you put a blob of frozen cookie dough in the microwave for 45 seconds, you end up with a bizarre approximation of a baked cookie. Will wonders never cease. (I was hoping for raw cookie dough. Clearly, too much time.)
I thought no one had plans--why is it so quiet?
You're all knitting to avoid talking to me, aren't you?
263: Indeed, my extended family would think me even weirder than they already know me to be were I to suddenly bring out knitting needles. And yarn, presumably.
(I kid to an extent; my extended family no longer finds me weird. Victory!)
That makes no sense to me, parsimon. Your family's approval is limited to hobbies they already know you to do? Knitting is as benign as anything is. If that sets off disapproval, I can't see how you could take up anything new now. Do they just hate change?
Not to speak for parsimon, but the reaction I've seen in similar situations is "You're going to suddenly start doing something that is overtly ignoring us and actively antisocial? Are you trying to send us a message?"
It's not about the hobby; it's about changing the way the social group perceives you.
Nobody thinks my father is rude when he spends half of any family gathering in the kitchen doing dishes; that's what he's always done. But if my brother-in-law suddenly brought a book and settled in the corner during the post-Thanksgiving inertia, there might be some raised eyebrows.
How was your CBC this year ()? I'm bummed because the P'burgh one keeps being the day after Xmas when I am generally not here, and due to weather they just canceled the January 2nd one up in the ridges near here that we did last year. We saw almost nothing and were determined to redeem ourselves, but now must live another year with our shame.
ObBirdWatchingTrivia: Clarence Birdseye (of frozen vegetable fame) was originally a field biologist and filled out a number of the Migration Observer cards that are being digitized in the Bird Phenology Project. He was biologizing up in Labrador when he began developing his quick-freeze techniques. We live in diminished times.
270: I'm considering this. I only see this extended family twice a year; they're 400 miles away. As a result, it's expected that I will interact with them when I see them. I will talk to them -- and in fact I want to, in order to know them.
It's not a matter of approval. They have to approve me of me (that's family), and if anything, my extended family has become quieter, less stridently opinionated, as it's become clearer to them that they have a couple of members, me and my brother, who aren't quite conventional.
I don't have to remain the same to and for them. I also can't fake it. Knitting would, in my case, be faking it, and I don't need to do something like that, because I don't really want or need to avoid them.
272: Our little section along the Vaca Ridge did not have the best turn out. We had an amazing first 40 minutes (surprisingly/unsurprisingly in the more populated section). In our section of a section we saw about 40 species, with many long stretches of quiet broken only by flickers and acorn woodpeckers. A persimmon orchard was another bright spot, though. Overall, the count seems to have hit the record number of species counted, with healthy numbers of critical birds. (We've been hit pretty hard by West Nile, so numbers of magpies, etc., are down.)
My step-dad does multiple CBC's, including one on Santa Cruz Island (off shore of Santa Barbara). I'm terribly jealous of that one, as they got to see parts of the island closed off to normal tourists.
Finally, to keep this in line with the rest of the thread, yet another of my resolutions this year is to actually keep a list of the birds I see, in the hopes of making me a slightly less desultory birder in the eyes of my family.
Also, JP, sucks that they canceled it!
It also occurs to me that there may be a gap in understanding here: I'm talking about seeing family for, say, a 4-6 hour afternoon/evening, for Christmas eve or something. Maybe off and on for a couple of hours here and there in surrounding days, several times, for brunch and visits and whatnot.
Other people seem to be talking about days-long house parties with families of nearly a dozen people. That's very different. I'd certainly read in a corner for a few hours then.
blame the lawyer for her tactics, not for the outcome
Oh, I do, believe me, I do. You'll note that, in the retelling, it wasn't even clear that I got bupkis. The rage comes from the tactics. The lost money is secondary.
As I recall, it basically came down to a tendentious reading of this waiver from the insurance co., which was intended to indemnify them from me suing them, but the magistrate and arbitrator interpreted (despite a written statement from the insurance co. to the contrary) to mean that everyone was indemnified, forever.
Flirting and sexism aside, I think the arbitrators basically decided, "the litigant who hired a lawyer gets to win."
Anyway, ancient grudges aside*, this will be the last from me for 2009, so: Happy New Year, everybody. Even to those I can't prove have bodies.
* I can't believe no one asked what BOGF said about the semi-forgotten fling
Holy crap, JRoth, you're going to leave the year without telling us what BOGF said about the semi-forgotten fling? I can't believe this.
276: Yeah, I was a bit surprised; there are a few parks/refuges in that circle and they'd get some ranger/warden types plus a couple of others with outdoor jobs who'd really nail some semi-obscure (for our region in winter) birds. I assume that for the most part they had them scouted out ahead of time. As newbs willing to drive on back roads, we got the steep, snowy forest road terrain--kinda fun and adventurous-- but not very birdful.
My immediate and extended families have a number of knitters, so it is quite expected that one or more have something going during most family events. It is also the stress-reducer of choice for several of them. My wife and daughter seem rather skilled at it (to me, anyway), and use some modified-Continental style that lets them participate in conversation etc.* (but which also provides a retreat mechanism). My daughter has begun making small knitted stuffed animals she designs--this is a Mickey Mouse she did for a Disney**-collecting relative this year.
*Maybe anyone good can do this on straightforward stitches.
**And now their IP Police will probably come after her.
New Year's resolution:
Alphabetize the names of the posters on the Unfogged poster roster. It goes: About Alameida, Apostropher, Becks, Ben, and so on.
You know you could have finished in about thirty seconds, had you kept up.
Yet I do not have the power to make it so.
She merely wishes to foster poster roster clarity.
You don't have the power to make that resolution, then.
Resolved: become more patient with difficult to put to bed toddler.
Happy New Year all, especially to my fellow solo celebrators. Resolving to lurk more would be, in the spirit of the OP, a resolution structurally guaranteed to naturally happen, but it sounds sort of stupid. Which is why I usually just avoid the whole resolution thing altogether.
And maybe I'm the only one, but I thought the Hey Ya cover at 5 was pretty fantastic.
And to 25, I liked the idea of the Prime Minister of Paraguay kneeing John Yoo in the crotch. He'd never see it coming.
I wanted to say "poster roster," that's true.
I perversely want the right to make resolutions that are not within my power to execute.
276: Oh. Yeah, that's different. I'm talking about 4 or 5 days at a stretch, where the main activity is sitting around talking. Being part of the circle is important, but so is being able to take breaks.
Also, Witt is right about the difference in my arriving full-fledged in this second family vs. your growing up in your first family. It must be said, though, I think they like the knitting. They're more conservative than we are (e.g., several years on, they haven't quite recognized that I kept my name), and I think it pleases them to see me doing something stereotypically feminine. Fine by me.
Happy New Year to all!
Resolutions: try to clear out old junk, make room for new experiences in my life. Recycle what I can; decent wearable clothing that no longer fits me (lost about 20 lbs in the last year), off to the thrift shops; toss unusable junk; take old books to the local library sale bin. Also signed up for a 6-week beer class at a local restaurant school in the community ed section! To meet some new people while learning more about something I already love. Must get out of the house more to interact with other people who are not my cow-orkers. 20 years at a 7-person office... where the "new kid" has been there 7 years: not much new social interaction. Be kinder to myself, overall.
All lovely resolutions, honigessig.
Happy almost-New-Year's, East Coasters! May your 2010 be joyous and peaceful.
Happy new year, unfogged. Thank you for providing me endlessly refreshable entertainment. All of you mean a great deal to me. Even peep. May the new year treat you well, and bring you much commenting time.
I don't know if this link will work, but the Montana Supreme Court just came out with a opinion upholding physician assisted ending of life. The majority ducked the constitutional issue, and found that the patient's consent meant that a physician could not be prosecuted for murder. One justice wrote a concurring opinion, reaching the Human Dignity argument in compelling terms.
Dissent was predictable.
If the link doesn't work, drop me a line, and I'll send a copy of the opinion.
http://www.missoulian.com/news/local/article_f935b1ec-f63d-11de-b887-001cc4c002e0.html
News story. Nelson's concurrence is worth it.
Happy New Year everyone, and thank you all for being around and entertaining all the time. I'll post more - that's a good resolution.
Oh, and happy new year, Easterners. You too, Midwesterners, since I'm not likely to see y'all between now and then.
Happy New Year, y'all. The DE and I will attempt to stay up until 2010 (PST), unlike the last two years.
Plus, J has to approve of such a femme-y activity.
Oh she would, GB. She does a lot of cross stitch herself. The patterns she picks are so ugly, and she was obsessed with wedding-themed patterns, but you, know.
Happy New Year's, Everybody! I resolve to be the best heebie-geebie money can buy. But for free!
Happy New Years from CST, motherfuckers!
Happy New Year, all (Unfogged Standard Time). Thanks for giving me some community in a year of upheaval.
Ha! We made it to midnite, the opposite of noon. And outside of a botttle of shampaigne too.!
I am envious of all of you who got to see this misbegotten year off already. 45 more minutes and on to better things. Happy New Year, all.
The majority ducked the constitutional issue, and found that the patient's consent meant that a physician could not be prosecuted for murder.
What about lesser crimes?
The year is off to an ok start: only a mild hangover.
Being the sole cook for the evening really cut down on hangover potential. Couldn't drink until I was sure everything was going to make it to the table. Then, whiskey, whine, bubbly and port. Chocolate-orange pots de creme are a nice way to start the year.
Now to figure out what to do with the upcoming year. I think getting a job would be good.
Then, whiskey, whine, bubbly and port.
But Iiiiiiii'm tiiiiiiiiired of whiiiiiiiskeeeeey Iiiiii want bubbly NOOOOOOOOOOW waaaaaaaah
Same here. Reports from a NYE in Camden Town...partner running like hell up Chalk Farm Road to avoid meeting ex-husband...not getting into gig as planned...being asked for directions by group of Young Conservatives from Devon or somewhere - "We're looking for the *inaudible*."I see". "He's from the West Country..." "I see." WILD LAUGHTER*...someone writes 2010 LOAD OF SHITE in snow on a car...and COCK with a diagram on another...
*The comedy was entirely unintentional, but all the sweeter for it.
Happy 12-hours-late New Year's, all. Why is the comment time stamp in CST or MST or whatever, again?
Don't worry AWB, you weren't the only person who was alone on New Year's. I hung out with my roommates a bit and ordered a pizza, but basically just sat around and watched bits of TV. I didn't try hard enough to find a date or start looking early enough or something.
198: I think I did too (you're talking about the end of 2007, right?). That didn't seem nearly as bad, though, of course.
311: If murder is what the doctor was charged with, then the question of lesser crimes is moot, isn't it?
I was not alone, thanks to a tonstant wurker who took pity on me and found us a party.
I am very glad I did not resolve to get to bed at reasonable times in 2010. If I had, I'd have already blown it. I stayed up until after 4 this morning reading! People simply insist on giving me books that are on my Christmas list. I'm not hungover (yay!) but I am tired (drat!).
BTW, Wolf Hall is a very good novel.
Consent would be a defense to any of the lesser offenses as well. The explicit question answered by the majority was whether the public policy exception to the consent defense would preclude the use of the defense in a case of assisted suicide. This defense cannot be used when one is charged with assault after a bar brawl, for example.
Predictions: Max Sawicky's are looking good on economics (stock market to capitulate in May, real aggregate demand to turn around in November - you'd have been good value for your 2 and 20 this year!) and US politics (Republican party basically dead everywhere but teabaggerville, neocons still demanding war, Lieberman making trouble), not so good on the diplomatic and military side - Pakistani government hanging on, NATO not driven out of Afghanistan, OBL certainly didn't get to declare victory. Quite right that Putin was forced to assert authority, and that there was a bunch of low-level unrest in China, although that's the forecasting principle "things that are true now will remain true unless something changes".
(Actually, more than one contribution called the bottom in equities for May and predicted that the banks would be saved but not nationalised formally. None of them was dsquared, but he can probably get along without Unfogged forecasting points, because I believe he made the same call with real money.)
Still outstanding: Lieberman to formally leave the party and Harry Reid to lose his job.
Tom Scudder gets a point for predicting Likud in charge of Israel. That would be covered by the general principle "assume the stupidest possible decision by the Israeli median voter and add 20% for the wife and kids."
Al Franken was successfully senatoricated despite constant Republican obstruction.
A major US automaker's reorganisation plan was challenged, but it was GM Europe not Chrysler and it was the management who challenged Angela Merkel and Peter Mandelson's plan.
Tesco Metros were widely deployed in dead Woolies.
Senator Webb didn't insult Geraldo Rivera, but Alan Grayson surely made up for that.
Other Unfogged predictions that didn't happen: no Saudi nukes, Larsen C still there, no supervolcano eruption, no public astronaut loss (unless you count J.G. Ballard's death), Angela Merkel didn't cock up coalition talks - did anyone really think she would?, the € didn't tank and neither did the Italian banking sector (and I claim my points), not much in the way of new refugee crises, no Indo-Pak war and Sonia Gandhi not used as human shield, no war in Moldova, Zimbabwe didn't go Congolese, no Chinese Triangle Shirtwaist - although, they did shoot the guy responsible for the melamine incident in the face. Hosni Mubarak remains non-assassinated. No aliens or new drug scares. There was no special election in California. Kim Jong-Il's continued biological existence was not disputed.
The media was full of shit.
I am unable to judge the romantic status of Britney Spears or Bitch PhD or whether Standpipe had gender reassignment surgery and if so whether anyone noticed. And I honestly don't remember what happened with the US Attorney scandal.
Obama delivered on healthcare, and disillusion ensued - points! for Mo. Megan predicted a bad fire season and Mount Wilson nearly got eliminated. Did she bench 300lbs? My own fitness drive was a success, which is proven by the fact that I now know how much iron that actually is. Lizardbreath didn't get into the NYT Metro section. PMP didn't assault John Yoo.
Obama was swamped with idiotic flag-pin complaints. However, Hillary Clinton wasn't the subject of massive rightwing noise - bit of a surprise that. I guess we've discovered what happens when racism and misogyny both try to call the hate() function simultaneously. Eventually we'll get a full set of pairwise comparisons (intellectuals or trade unions? civil servants or Jews? gays or the Panama Canal Authority?) and we'll be able to run an AHP analysis to find out what really makes 'em tick.
Ahmedinejad may well have lost the elections in Iran, but neither Jackmormon nor Togolosh specified whether he would go quietly. Also, without comment: Obama will deliver on at least one major progressive policy issue but lefty bloggers will bitch like whiny ass titty babies anyway.
TLL correctly predicted reinforcements to Afghanistan. However he/she/shell script/committee also, like everyone else, predicted an assassination attempt against Obama. Incredibly, despite all the hatred and racism and teabagging and guns and blatant incitement from people who should know better, nobody tried to shoot the president, or at least nobody got to the stage of putting their simple plan into action.
Jackmormon called Brent crude correctly. Anyone wanna start an Unfogged hedge fund?
If the apocalypse happened, as predicted by Teofilo, we didn't notice it. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case.
Washington, D.C. was not renamed Wizard Cocksucker Burg. The revolution, civil war, or whatever as repeatedly predicted by Bob McManus did not eventuate. The Troll of Sorrow did not achieve a breakthrough and become an accepted member of the community.
Hygiene to the checkouts, please.
Obama delivered on healthcare, and disillusion ensued -
Obama delivered a bit ambiguously on health care. Mostly good though clearly insufficient. However the sort of people who comment on left wing blogs are mainly from the demographic which gets the shitty end of the stick. Plus, what would leftie commenters do without something to whinge about? Over at Slacktivist they're have a heart searching moment about the poor insurance clerks who would get laid off if single payer was ever implemented. Aaaah!
Mousavi clearly thinks he's going to be assassinated soon.
I'm glad to see you're not at all discouraged, and no more coherent either!
OK, nailing my flag to the mast, in 2010...
1. Ongoing violence notwithstanding, there will be no significant change, internally or internationally, in the situation of any country between the Pamirs and the Mediterranean/Red Sea;
2. The Dow will end the year flying high, but unemployment will still be near 10%. The Democrats will crash and burn in November;
3. The British election will be put off to the last possible moment. The Tories will fall just short of an overall majority, and the Lib Dem leadership will discover enough sense of self preservation to avoid a formal coalition with either big party. The Tories will form a government but there will be another election within 12 months;
4. N.Korea will admit that Kim Jong-Il is dead;
5. Spain will win the World Cup;
6. The Large Hadron Collider will deliver results that are tremendously exciting to about 100 people world wide, but the interested lay person won't really get it for another 15 years;
7. Gore Vidal will die;
8. The "Anglican Communion" will formally split three ways;
9. At least one species of large mammal in Asia will formally be pronounced extinct;
10. The mainstream media will spend the summer speculating that Sarkoszy and Bruni are about to split up. They won't.
Predictions for 2010:
Israel attacks Iran, setting back democratic reform by a decade.
US midterms yield minor GOP gains, but the people elected are crazier and more evil than the current crop.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio is busted in a career-ending corruption scandal.
Resolved: I will stop smoking cigarettes. I will remove cowflesh and pigflesh from my diet as a first step toward vegetarianism and perhaps veganism. I will drink only sugar-free sodas. I will insert awkwardness in social situations for kicks and in the interests of learning more about people, their reactions, etc. I will spend more time playing video games.
8. The "Anglican Communion" will formally split three ways;
OFE: I see two basic fault lines. What are your three?
335. The fundies, mainly in Africa, the Romanists, and the liberal rump. Poor, decent, apolitical Williams will likely quit. I should add I'm not very confident about this, which is why it's low on my list. Correct me by all means.
I haven't thought about it deeply. It just seems like the fundies and the Romanists have joined forces.
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Appliance Bleg:
With Christmas money we want to buy the following:
1. A food processor
2. a "Dust-buster" cordless vacuum
3. a humidifier
I'm looking for advice on specific brands and models. I don't think that the particular model of humidifier is all that important, but if anyone has had particularly good success with a specific model, please let me know.
Our top budget is $250. We have an apartment-style kitchen and don't have a ton of space. I'm not sure what cup-size of food processor is appropriate. Thoughts?
|>
I have a 3-cup Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus I like a lot.
With food processors, bitter experience teaches that you really do get what you pay for. We've ended up with a Magimix, which is fine, but not dagger cheap. The cheap ones ended up in the specialist recycling centre after they died.
I often wish for a slightly larger food processor. Maybe something in the 5 cup range.
My mother has a humidifier that looks like a penguin. She says it's the best one she's experienced.
I think we have the 7 cup Cuisinart. We're pretty keen on it.
I lament the quality of my Sunbeam food processor. Not bad enough to shitcan, not good enough to actually use for much. (This is not assisted by the presence of a quite nice stand mixer and a quite nice blender, which seems to bracket the majority of food-processor related tasks.) But from all I've read, Cuisinart is still the gold standard for food processors in the U.S.
We wound up not liking or using our Dirt Devil-brand mini-vacuum. Unless you're planning on using it to replace a full-scale vacuum, I'd suggest skipping this and just going with a full-scale (with attachments) plus broom and dustpan.
Our humidifier is a 20-gallon Holmes behemoth. It certainly does put a lot of water into the air, but it seems like we're always refilling the damn thing. It's definitely helped our kids' skin, though.
Spend some time trolling ebay and CL--you'd be amazed what you can find (and if you search for "NIB" you'll only get the brand new stuff). We've saved a lot of money over the years thanks to the diligent efforts of Mrs. Chopper.
I love my area.
Not a euphemism.
Happy New Year, unfogged!
< /flyby >
I would like to associate myself with the predictions in 331.
We like our regular-size Kitchenaid processor quite a bit. I suspect it's out of your range, but my dad got us a stand mixer that was refurbed for within your range, so that may be the way to go.
Friends have praised to me the AWB-style mini, but it definitely only gets you one side of the food processor functioning (e.g. pizza dough, better in a processor than a stand mixer). Take Chopper's warning to heart.
Soup! Good to see you here, even if only a flyby. I hope all is well.
331.6: probably not 2010. Hopefully 2011. Also, more like several thousand people, maybe even tens of thousands.
Yemen will get worse, and everything that the US does (especially those things urged by the right) will make matters worse, as measured by US national security.
344: IMX the battery driven Dust-Buster type vacs are useless for jobs much beyond a little spilled salt.
The lightweight Dirt Devil corded 12 amp stick vac we got for the upstairs works fine on tracked cat litter on the hardwood floors, for chad from the shredder, and dust bunnnies. It doesn't do rugs at all well but that's irrelevant for my purposes. It's light enough to use on the stairs too without my needing mountaineering gear to avoid falling. It's pretty noisy tho'.
Cuisinart food processor and KitchenAid stand mixer. Near as I can tell, the best values are found about 2/3 to 3/4 up the scale. Below that reliability and capability suffer, above that one is paying for chrome, tail fins, and bragging rights.
Alex, you're awesome. Thanks for the synthesis.
Did she bench 300lbs?
Nope, didn't make any of my lifting goals, but they weren't far off, either. I should make some more predictions.
Obvious California predictions:
We'll spend at least four months in the throes of budget negotiations when our current budget fails.
Jerry Brown will be elected.
The water bond won't pass, not after the endless painful budget negotiations.
Dare I predict a quake and levee failure in the Delta? Naw, I'm not that bold.
National, with no justification or basis:
Death of a Supreme Court Justice.
Pres. Obama will create a commission to overhaul Senate procedure, make a speech about obstructionism.
Gas and meat will both get sharply (about a third) more expensive.
Can't think of more.
Personal:
You and your family will all be healthy and strong. Your loves will be requited and magnified.
Your work will be interesting and improve the world.
You will get new PR's on all your lifting goals. So start already!
Cuisinart food processor and KitchenAid stand mixer.
CA and I got one of each when we first set up house approximately 1,000,000 years ago and both still are in fine working order.
||
I don't mind Sir Jean-Luc Picard getting a mediaeval honorific, but he ought to have waited in line behind several Drs. Who.
|>
354: Picard was mind-blowingly awesome (seriously, really, truly) in Macbeth at BAM a couple of years ago, and I doubt John Pertwee or even Tom Baker could have pulled that off. Now, David Tennant on the other hand . . . but he has some years left.
Obligatory blog prediction:
Ogged will return, and he will bring cargo.
In 2010, "I don't even have a food processor" will become the new "I don't even have a TV".
356: Ogged will return, and he will bring cargo.
If we all swim real hard that is.
Yemen will get worse
Sounds like someone's never heard the expression, "When life hands you Yemens, make Yemenade!"
I'm happy to start an Unfogged Ravelry group, if people are interested. If you PM me there as bamber, I can put you on the initial invitation.
My prediction: Facebook will go through 2 major UI makeovers in the new year.
I have a Cusinart 14 cup, which is great for when I use it to make bread crumbs and pastry (I've been moving away from that though) and other large quantities of shredded, chopped, pureed things, be it hummus or pesto or whatever. However, I find it sufficiently inconvenient to use with smaller quantities that I'm using a Christmas gift certificate to pick up one of the new Cusinart Elite 4-cup processors too. Maybe I'll get rid of my tv to compensate.
Happy New Year, everybodies.
My New Years:At around ten o'clock I start looking for a movie, and I notice my local PBS affiliate is just starting a complete run of the recent BBC Little Dorrit I use captions to keep the British comprehensible. Not grabbing me after one hour, but nice to look at, so turn the sound down and go to the computer. One of the Marxist blogs has a long series close-reading every part of Georg Lukacs History and Class Consciousness, so I start reading.
Out of the corner of my eye I notice that the female lead in LD looks quite a bit like the legendary and elusive Sarah Patterson. Unlikely, considering the ages and listed name, but not impossible. While at IMDB, I notice someone has linked to Sarah Patterson second and last movie at Youtube. Busy site or weak bandwidth gives me plenty of free time.
So Dickens, Snow White with songs!, and reification for three hours. I can't imagine anyone else having so much fun.
Resolutions:Atkins, dumbbells and crunches, less blog comments read and written, more books.
Predictions:civil unrest.
After the double dip and Obama's New Military Adventure, left & right workers gather at Jane Hamsher's place. If revolutions could be predicted they would be reform.
362: My Kitchenaid came with a mini-bowl and mini-blade for smaller quantities, and it's pretty awesome.
365: So do the new Cuisinarts, which I'm terribly envious of! (Why do they come out with lovely new products when I've already got a perfectly decent one at home? Stupid capitalism.) But I think they're just out of BG's price range.
Or maybe the Teabaggers and Hamsherites battle in the streets until Obama/Biden resign to open the way for Glenn Beck to become President, because they don't have the guts to shoot the lefties themselves.
The dustbuster thing is just so that we can get dust bunnies on the wood floor without having to pull out the vacuum.
Brooms do that, as do Swiffers.
The easiest way to get dust bunnies on a wood floor is to wait.
I have one of the mini-thingy food processors that fits on a bowl of its own design. It is worthless. It is quicker to beat egg whites stiff with a whisk.
I also have a Braun hand-held blender. although the landlady's giant wotsname is available, this is the one I actually use. Principle: don't ask users, observe. So forget the rest and get the handheld.
(The kitchen item you will use the most and need the most is the sharpest knife in the kitchen. Therefore, if you want to spend money on kitchen goods, get a sharper knife. You can murder people with them too!)
I don't think we're planning on buying a standmixer yet. We don't have the space and we wouldn't use it enough.
I haven't had great luck with blenders other than for shakes. I tried to make hummus in one once, and it was a disaster.
371.1: I had no idea one could use a food processor to beat egg whites. Isn't that what stand mixers are for?
I don't like swiffers. I prefer microfiber mops whose pads you can wash. They have wet and dry, but I've only ever seen the good ones online.
What are the new cuisinarts of which you speak, Parenthetical? Do you know the model numbers?
I have been looking on amazon, because Bed Bath and Beyond only carries 2, I hate going to Macy's, and I can't bear to shop at Williams Sonoma. Sears is also sort of a pain.
I suppose that there's always Target, but free super saver shipping is so appealing.
375: For the moment, only Williams Sonoma* has them so I don't think they are to your specifications! It's the Elite Die-Cast line, though. They've made some improvements to their models (like a locking blade that doesn't fall off when you pour the contents of the bowl out) that appeal to me. I have no idea how Cusinarts compare to KitchenAids or anything. My first was a gift and apparently I've acquired brand loyalty without even realizing it.
*Not my preferred shopping spot either, but I've got a gift certificate, so.
Speaking of consumerism, I just had some things stolen from my car. No emergency, but I am just wondering:
- is it in any way possible that the door was forced open, despite all the windows being shut and no sign of forceable entry? Or did I just leave the door unlocked?
For some reason the answer to this question will settle my mind somewhat.
(That's not the question of a defender of Williams-Sonoma who feels threatened; it's that of someone who's bought a thing or two there and didn't find it any more or less offensive than any other UMC shopping experience.)
My only real complaint is that it's generally over priced, but if you look hard, you can find some deals.
(It's less than five years old, the car, so presumably hard to force open. I am assuming that I left the door unlocked, which the new keyless entry thing definitely encourages.)
380: Overpriced in the "you can get that same Le Creuset pot elsewhere for less" sense, or in the "I can't believe you'd spend that much for that Le Creuset when you could get a Farberware pot for less" sense?
375: BG, if you are buying a Cuisinart, you should almost certainly buy it from Amazon -- free shipping, and not overpriced.
I can't believe you'd spend that much for a Le Creuset when you could just rinse out a hummus container to cook a roast in.
384: Why rinse it? If you leave it out for awhile, the hummus remains harden up real nice. Perfect for a roast.
382: The first sense. I got an entire set of Le Creuset pots for what it costs to buy one dutch oven at WS. (It is extravagant given my extremely low income level, I know, but I'm of the mindset that it is better to invest in stuff that will last, and given my career path it's not like I'm going to be rich any time soon.) And, you know, I need a new whisk. I'm not going to spend $16 at WS when I could spend less than $5 on a perfectly decent one at a kitchen supply store.
I got an entire set of Le Creuset pots for what it costs to buy one dutch oven at WS.
??
This seems impossible.
Was it Target or Costco or what that briefly sold a reputedly pretty decent enameled cast iron dutch oven? I cannot recall.
387: It is not, dear friend, it is not, if you don't mind not having a super popular color and you mine every last deal and discount that you can find on Amazon. Of course, this was also over 5 years ago. And it's not a huge set - one dutch oven, one skillet, one saucepan with very small skillet that acts as a lid.
And at this point, I've realized that I'm thoroughly embarrassed about the contents of my kitchen. I clearly spend too much of my too little money on it and am rather attracted to status-y items. Oh well.
The Williams Sonoma and Le Creuset stores at Woodbury Commons Premium Outlet Mall are so so cheap.
388: I have a 3-quart-enameled Lodge dutch oven that I got for under $30 that is quite nice, neb.
Ok, now I'm going to shut up.
I'm sure you do, (), but that doesn't answer my question.
I'm not going to spend $16 at WS when I could spend less than $5 on a perfectly decent one at a kitchen supply store.
God, this is causing me anxiety now over the fact that I almost committed -- but didn't, yet! -- to a $500 pair of glasses yesterday, when I know perfectly well that I should clutch my new prescription in my grubby paw and head on over to ye local whatever for a pair at half the price. But I've already narrowed it down to two possible designs! And I like the people at the local small-but-not-discount shop; it's going to be embarrassing to confess to them that I appreciate them very much but will be actually purchasing elsewhere.
Chagrin.
392: Ah. Meant to say I got it at Target. And just the other day I saw a nice one at Costco. So I don't know the answer to your question, unfortunately.
I kind of want these frames, which can be had on the web for around $100 or from a shop in the Castro for around $300.
HMMM.
Hmmm indeed. Alright. Tomorrow I call the poor people at the sweet local shop (who give me 5 bottles of complimentary saline for contact lenses, plus a 20% courtesy discount, and also a warranty for free glasses repair, though it's unclear to me whether that comes from the manufacturers of the frames or the shop itself) and ask them for the make and model numbers of the two possible frames I'd had them set aside.
I feel like such a cad.
It seems a bit like heaping insult on injury to make them TELL you the make and model numbers after you've made use of their friendly in-person existence to make it possible for you to give your business to someone else.
397: I know. I'm not sure what to do. If I'd thought clearly, I'd at least have jotted down the make/models before I left their shop yesterday.
The truth is I'm not even sure if there would be a savings elsewhere. The frames are actually $200; it's the lenses (progressive bifocals) and labor for fitting them to the frames that brings it to $500. If the online/discount chain places advertising $100 or so frames would see a similar increase in total price, I'd actually not be saving that much.
It seems foolish not to comparison shop, though I'd actually prefer to do business with this local place. Money's tight, that's all. I have a feeling I'm going to just wind up going with these local people anyway. I like 'em.
While I'm on the topic, though, I might as well ask if anyone knows: is there a significant benefit to getting this anti-glare treatment done on the lenses of the glasses?
It supposedly reduces light reflected off the lenses both into your own eyes (I would assume) as well as for those looking at you when you're wearing your glasses. $130 extra. (Money's tight, as I said. And you can deduce that I haven't gotten new glasses in a while.)
I'm off for dinner. Any information regarding 399 still appreciated.
s there a significant benefit to getting this anti-glare treatment done on the lenses of the glasses
IME yes, if you drive and are sunlight-sensitive. Otherwise, eh.
I hate anti-glare, because I don't mind the glare all that much and the coating gets scuffed and cloudy faster than the lenses do without it.
378 -- Don't slim jims still work on modern cars?
Google says no. Guess I haven't locked my keys in the car in a while.
376: When I've gone in there, I've found things to be very expensive for what you're getting. I used some of their hand cream in someone's bathroom, and I was just aghast at how expensive it was for hand soap-- a lot more than Molton Brown.
I like to get deals, and I've never seen one at WS.
parsimon, Nathan Williams found a place to get glasses from Hong Kong for $18. I've seen some online places in the U.S. that are pretty cheap. You have to be able to measure your own pupil distance.
I like to get deals, and I've never seen one at WS.
Oh, it's not the place to get deals, at all. But IME new name-brand items are all the same price everywhere, and they have a very good selection of (higher-end) name-brand products.
I am perfectly happy to pay more to be treated decently. I think that makes me bourgeois, among other things.
I've heard that Williams Sonoma is a tough retail place to work. Bookstores are generally better.
I like Williams Sonoma because they let me piss on the sales associates for not too much extra.
Fucking BART's running just three times an hour right now. Anyone want to come to the airport and pick me up?
That's weird, Sifu; that's what I like about your mom.
Eh, train'll be here in six minutes. I'm just a whiny baby after it took so long (like TEN extra minutes) for United to come up with my boot bag. Whhhhhhiiiiiiiiinnnne.
414: she's cruel to her sales associates, it's true.
What's a boot bag? Like a bag that you put boots in? What kind of boots? Cowboy boots? Is Otto a cowboy?
"Boot bag" is short for "ski boot bag". The signiicance of this latter term is left as an exercise for the reader.
I'm now on BART, by the way. You are relieved.
Alta, Snowbird, Deer Valley, Brighton, and The Canyons. Day 4 was a powder day. Otherwise the conditions were quite good, considering the relatively unimpressive base. Cut a few fresh gouges in my bases on some rocks and logs, but the cold weather kept the snow that was there quite skiable.
420 - I bet they were skiing the Appalachian Trail.
Alex is right in 371. Forget the food processor, get a knife. Two, even. For the dust bunnies, get a dust mop; for the humidity, put pots of water on your stove or radiator or heat vents or whatever. That leaves you over $200 for a really nice knife or two that you will use with pleasure for the rest of your life.
Parsimon, I got the bestest frames ever for $10 on eBay (the lenses were another $90 or so). I could maybe put up a picture if you want.
Today I waited forty minutes for a train and I liked it, is all I'm saying. Damn you spoiled people with your "cities" and your "frequent public transit".
378 -- Don't slim jims still work on modern cars?
A wedge and a bent hanger will get you into my Honda. I know this because lately when I'm stressed I like to stress myself further by locking my keys in my car. I did it so many times this year that now my door is all messed up and I have to lean in from the passenger side to unlock it. I wonder if it can be fixed, or if I'd have to get a new door.
401, 402: Hm, one vote for anti-glare on glasses (lenses), one against. I'll probably pass.
406, 425: Yep, I've heard about the Hong Kong place (I think) and this eBay thing you mention. Unless I've already tried the things on and decided they look okay, I'm probably too vain nervous to order a style of frame cold. Though a $10 or $18 loss isn't exactly awful. We'll see. There's going to be a delay on all this anyway, since I think I'm going to ask for my prescription to be adjusted a bit.
Thanks all!
Just three times an hour?
I really like my trains to be run at least 5 or 6 times an hour. I'm thinking of heading down to the farmer's market soon, and so I have nextmuni.com open. An inbound N will be arriving at the stop two blocks from my house in 8, 17, and 39 minutes. This is acceptable. If we don't dare to dream big we won't end up with the public transportation we deserve, folks.
1, 10, and 21 minutes now. That's better. I think the NextBus system gives bogus predictions when a train hasn't left the terminus yet. A peak at the schedule confirms that it's supposed to run 6 times/hour nowabouts.
Further updates to come!
A peak at the schedule
Nosflow wept.
There are places where public transit comes more than three times an hour?
432: Refractory periods are shorter in large coastal cities.
432: Right in your very own city of residence, Ned. The EBA runs so frequently, even off-peak, that I don't bother looking at the schedule unless it's after 8 pm. And even then I think it runs 4 times/hour.
