Few Have Managed to Capture
...just what making it to this day means to those of us employed in the North American transportation network quite as well as Onsoku Tassha.
2
Merry Christmas, 'muppet! Congratulations on meeting Santa's demands for one more year!
Posted by: Ben at Fri Dec 25 19:56:45 2015 (DRaH+)
3
When you talked about being covered in cricket poop, I thought you were exaggerating for humorous effect. But you were speaking the literal truth, and that's really mind-boggling.
Kidney Stones Are Unpleasant
For over a week, I have not one, but two of these that have embarked on their respective journeys of discovery. One of them seems to have stopped just short of the threshold, either due to second thoughts, to contemplate how different the journey might have been on the right side, or simply to ensure that there is a record of its passing etched permanently along the path. Though both are born of the same awesome process that gives us spectacular cave formations, I confess I have less appreciation for the miracle of their formation than I might if they were not cutting up my urinary tract.
But enough bio-crystallography; here is something, that while in no way a substitute for content, is at least pleasant to look at.
Hestia, goddess of the hearth, ribbons, and win by Mr.Vi
(Note: Most of the discussion of Hestia's character design tends to focus on the physics of her ribbon, but I'm more curious as to the function of the air intakes over her ears.)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tue Oct 6 05:17:10 2015 (PiXy!)
2
Well, you could live in Toledo, where this happens in low spots in town every time it rains... but the drainage is better everywhere except the low bits of the streets, so only the roads under the railroad underpasses get inundated like that....
So yeah, that is pretty impressive amounts of rain.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue Oct 6 17:25:12 2015 (ZJVQ5)
The day we can start looking forward to the weeke....
Huh...That's an awfully wide cone there.
Let's see what the individual models say....
OK. Two of the models are quite divergent from the rest (one being about 180 degrees off) which accounts for the wide cone (as it is an average of the models).
However...
All but two of the models have the thing causing some degree of mischief in SE Virginia and the majority of them predict it will broadly follow the paths of the two worst hurricanes to hit this area. Isabel and "The 1933 Storm".
It's been raining here for two days and there is already standing water in my street as the storm drains are flooded. The ground is soggy so trees could fall easily.
3
To get a better idea of how likely landfall near your location is, factor in just how badly a storm would screw you over right now. Based on your previous biographical posts, there appears to a direct correlation...
Posted by: Siergen at Wed Sep 30 17:15:47 2015 (De/yN)
4
That pale orange track looks like it's trying to become Hurricane Illinois-Has-It-Too-Easy.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Wed Sep 30 17:40:08 2015 (a12rG)
5
Come now! This is Brickmuppet we're talking about! What's the worst that... could... ah, er... never mind.
Posted by: Clayton Barnett at Thu Oct 1 08:33:30 2015 (lU4ZJ)
If she didn't ask your permission, then this is violation of your copyright. (And under the Berne convention, copyright is automatic unless explicitly waived.)
If it doesn't have your byline, then it also plagiarism.
2
Taking the class involved signing a waiver. This is common in undergraduate classes today as papers are sometimes used as examples or entered into contests or whatnot.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sat Sep 19 03:00:01 2015 (ohzj1)
3
What exactly did the waiver waive? Can you reprint it yourself, or has she tied up the rights? "My teacher ate my homework" is a new one on me.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at Sat Sep 19 09:38:26 2015 (ZlYZd)
4
On the one hand, it is good to have an article for your vita.
OTOH, that "common practice" is crap. Academia does not absolve from fair trade practice. Grad students are commonly used as a paper mill by lazy profs, but undergrads? That is sinking low.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Sat Sep 19 10:55:44 2015 (ZJVQ5)
8 Months to Go
Old Dominion University starts the week before Labor Day so, since I only have a week to go before school starts, I decided just now to check and see if any of my silly busses were online yet so I could order some of my books and also find out if any classes have homework due the first day of class.
What I discovered is that school starts tomorrow...
Yeah, there's been a LOT of perfunctory posting recently.
As "blog" theoretically means Biographical log, for those interested, there is a disquisition on the banal reasons for this extended programming anomaly below the fold.
As compensation, here, courtesy of GATE, (this season's surprisingly enjoyable and intelligent fantasy) is Tuka, Chuka or possibly Tsuka.
However her name is transliterated, the art is by Otono Fei.
Serial Gruberings and Other Worries
Discussions of life's little irritants is below the fold. To keep perusal of this site in the domain of leisure rather than masochism, here is a whopping 35 feet of pulchritude (and an aspie).
Bittersweet Victory
Well, my trip to Kafkaland seems to finally be resolved.
This is kind of a shame as I was enjoying both classes. OTOH this is almost certainly for the best as it means I'll be caught up financially in a few weeks (I still need to get a car after all).
In any event, here is something that some of you might find clever.
1
Good to hear.
Update: Yay!
I wonder if I could get unsuspended from YouTube. I got suspended about eight years ago when Sony Music first turned on their little bot and it found my collection of anime ops and eds, and I'm still suspended.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thu May 21 21:20:25 2015 (2yngH)
A Certain Irksomeness
Since the content below the fold can be nothing but a horrible, horrible warning, we decided to post some positive words to live by above it.
My girls are 14 and 12. I don't even speak of college anymore; just trade schools or marriage to a guy with a trade.
You've no 'donate' button on your site. That's one way to fix 1st world problems. I know that "charity" is a dirty word for those of us old enough to have pride, but caritas amongst us of the Remnant is another thing altogether.
Posted by: Clayton Barnett at Tue May 19 01:21:56 2015 (lU4ZJ)
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue May 19 12:21:43 2015 (ZJVQ5)
3
First world problems only affect the first world.
You are talking about debt and bureaucratic obstructiveness and I am lead to believe they are fundamental properties that pervade the whole universe.
Keep pushing and you may be able to resolve it.
Posted by: Riktol at Tue May 19 14:26:19 2015 (MQZN9)
4
I would not even bother with instructors, call the Reg/Adm office.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Tue May 19 20:43:58 2015 (8hfbc)
5
Yeah, my next stop would be straight into the Registrar's and/or Bursar's.
Posted by: RickC at Tue May 19 20:47:18 2015 (0a7VZ)
Yeah, my next stop would be straight into the Registrar's and/or Bursar's.
That was my second stop (after the attempt at online withdrawal).
Step FIVE was to go to the Old Administration Building and ask to speak to anyone named "Dean". That seems to have worked except that it appears that I'm still being billed for the classes. IIt seems that Dean is almost as cool a name as Maximilian.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Wed May 20 14:52:04 2015 (ohzj1)
I think the most profound difference between the US and Australia is not the lack of taipan funnel sharks over here, but rather the fact that Pixy did not have anything to say about "cultural appropriation".
Australia rocks!
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Wed May 20 14:58:58 2015 (ohzj1)
8
"That was my second stop (after the attempt at online withdrawal)."
Argh. Well, I guess I'm glad you got a resolution that isn't horrible?
The one time I found myself in a literal Catch-22 situation (Registrar: "Can't have your class schedule without a copy of your bill". Bursar: "Can't give you your bill without a class schedule") I managed to deal with it by asking to talk to the Registrar Dean, too.
Posted by: RickC at Wed May 20 18:58:09 2015 (0a7VZ)
Exam Heck
Exams begin Thursday and last into next week. Additionally, it appears that one of my classes was actually in the sociology department and so requires APA style as opposed to Chicago/Turabian. Fortunately, I've been given the option of re-submitting it...
Experimenting, training, testing and retrying. My life is just like this picture, but without the respectability, cute girls, cutting edge tech and prototype karatebot.
Rocinante: 1981-2015
Full disclosure: Strictly speaking, nobody actually died as such. For the vast majority of folks who are uninterested in the first world problems below the fold, here are 3 views of Sakurajima.
(I did not know that Volcanoes sounded like synthesizers!)
Note that pressing "MORE" will result in banality and not more 'splodies.
Before sending the car to the junkyard, try selling it as-is on Craigslist first. Believe it or not, there are people out there who like old Cressidas; if yours is in decent shape aside from the dead engine, you might get good money for it (better than the scrap metal value, anyway).
Posted by: Peter the Not-so-Great at Sun Mar 29 18:31:18 2015 (dzzLh)
4
The year should get better from here. I hope and pray.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Mon Mar 30 12:53:07 2015 (ZJVQ5)
1
Up here in Manassas it's cloudy, so there's no shadows outside, and the snow is still coming
down hard. That makes it hard to judge how deep the snow is from
inside. The weird thing is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of wind (most
flakes seem to all straight down), but at ground level it is moving fast
enough to keep part of my front sidewalk clear, while drifting deeply
around back. In fact, the neighbor kids just dug a tunnel through a snow
drift that they can crawl through...
Posted by: Siergen at Sat Feb 21 16:58:42 2015 (ohSuC)
2
Here in Duckford, it's 29, grey and snowing a bit. This is a refreshing change from most of the past week/month/season, where it's been grey, snowing a bit, and in the single digits. Except when it has been grey, snowing a lot, and windy.
To be blunt, this winter has sucked, but you've gotten more snow. You win.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Sat Feb 21 17:14:26 2015 (jGQR+)
3
74F and partly cloudy in Albuquerque, wind about 12 knots by mid-day
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Sat Feb 21 20:21:54 2015 (RqRa5)
4
I used to live in Herndon a couple decades ago. Once on the way home from work (In Mclean) the roads were so impassable, I became trapped between two hills. (I could have made it except some other folks who didn't know how to to handle snow and ice blocked the path.
Fortunately, a family along the way welcomed in the trapped travelers for the night. And I also learned a lesson about watching my language.
(although these days, if I have to watch my language, I make sure it's colorful).
Posted by: Mauser at Sun Feb 22 02:33:27 2015 (TJ7ih)
Snowmageddon '15
Having just driven a distance of 5 miles in a bit under an hour and a half, I think that this young lady sums up the opinion of many of my fellow Virginians...
"OH GOD! WE'RE GONNA HAFTA TO EAT OUR OWN LEGS AREN'T WE?"
It's been coming down remarkably hard for several hours now. Predictions are for 6-12 inches of snow, which is quite a bit for us. There has been some flickering and intermittent outages, so power may not persist.
In other news, the plumbing situation deteriorated rapidly Saturday night with the result that both bathrooms were unusable so we sent Mom to my sister's house before finally breaking down and calling a plumber. In a few moments I will get the first shower, I've had in over two days. Yay!
Mom is still in North Carolina suffering the dreadful indignity of having to watch her three year old granddaughter play in the snow.
UPDATE: I have not as of yet had to eat my own leg...but it has been a rear run thing.
1
Good luck on your weather and plumbing issues. The power flickered up here in Manassas a few hours before the snow started, but has been steady since then. Our forecast accumulation has been dropping slowly from its high of 12 inches all day, and currently sits at 3-5 inches total.
Posted by: Siergen at Mon Feb 16 20:27:13 2015 (ohSuC)
2
4-6 (unplowed, I assume) inches of snow and ice is more than enough for me to say "Nope, I'll wait for the plow" even up here in Boston, so I have sympathy. Luckily, I had previously taken the day off so I could clear the 3 feet (somehow) of snow from my deck and dig my car out in peace.
Posted by: ReallyBored at Tue Feb 17 10:28:41 2015 (ulGxe)
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue Feb 17 16:36:52 2015 (ZJVQ5)
4
Albeit we had a lot of insanely blowing snow on Saturday, and I misjudged my Saturday enough to have been waiting for a bus in it. Luckily, I was able to adjourn to a heated indoor area when it was really bad, and then my brother kindly volunteered to pick me up from the mall bus stop so I didn't have to walk home from the "slightly closer to my place, but still thirty minutes walk away" bus stop.
But overall snowfall was about an inch and a half. It just blew around a lot.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue Feb 17 18:14:58 2015 (ZJVQ5)
5
So, yeah, here in Sydney it can get awfully hot, and sometimes everything catches fire, but at least we don't have this frozen water falling from the sky nonsense.
Except hail. Hail we got.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tue Feb 17 18:53:25 2015 (2yngH)
6
One of only nice things about being in a post-employment situation is that if you plan ahead, you don't have to go out in cruddy weather.
We've had a couple of good storms this winter here in Duckford, and two friggin' cold snaps, but I've been able to avoid actually leaving Pond Central during them entirely.
Still, we've been pretty much looking at the East Coast's winter weather with a combination of pride and fear. Pride in that, if it occurred, we'd be able to deal with it, and fear that we might have to.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Wed Feb 18 03:58:23 2015 (jGQR+)
7
While here in the PNW, it's been unseasonably warm. Not that I mind. I have some lovely Rhododendrons in the front that have the annoying habit of blooming in February, and then instantly getting killed in a frost. Right now they're in full bloom, a rarity.
I should take pictures.
Posted by: Mauser at Wed Feb 18 04:39:31 2015 (TJ7ih)
While things have not been quite as bad as the travails of the young lady depicted above, yesterday was a fitting cap to a particularly obnoxious work week.
more...
1
My youngest nephew had an utter fascination at an early age for flushing inappropriate things down the toilet. Plastic dinosaurs were a particular favourite. His name's Darwin, so this might have been some convoluted evolutionary experiment. But I think it was probably just toddler logic.
In about ten years he'll find this comment on Google and have to decide how my act of betrayal balances out against all the Lego...
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sat Feb 14 10:13:08 2015 (PiXy!)
" an awful lot of ammunition was shipped yesterday so I'm assuming its related....which should cause some concern"
Naw. One year I bought my wife a revolver for Valentine's day. She loved it, and got me a shotgun for our anniversary. It's only natural that you'd ship ammo too as Valentine's day gifts.
Posted by: Rick C at Sat Feb 14 23:23:09 2015 (0a7VZ)
3
Late winter/early spring sales, too. Plus you want to beat President's Day, because you might want to go shooting on your three day weekend.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Sun Feb 15 15:13:22 2015 (ZJVQ5)
4
I tend to be unnerved by "solid working theories" involving plumbing lines and the gadgets attached thereto, but maybe that's just me.
Posted by: CGHill at Sun Feb 15 18:52:30 2015 (+6Y9j)
A Few Quick Notes
I have a fair amount of homework due this week so posting is likely to be sporadic at best, especially Tuesday. As compensation for that and the banality below the fold, here is some Kongos .
Posted by: Wonderduck at Thu Jan 1 01:29:45 2015 (jGQR+)
2
Wait, is your birthday 1/1, or 12/31? Because mine is the latter, and that would be WAY too coincidental.
Posted by: Mauser at Thu Jan 1 03:28:31 2015 (TJ7ih)
3
Happy Birthday! And in the words of the immortal Tom Lehrer:
It's people like that who make you realize how little you've accomplished. It is a sobering thought, for example, that when Mozart was my age, he had been dead for two years.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thu Jan 1 07:29:15 2015 (PiXy!)
Hobby Space News of the commercial space industry A Babe In The Universe Rather Eclectic Cosmology Encyclopedia Astronautica Superb spacecraft resource The Unwanted Blog Scott Lowther blogs about forgotten aerospace projects and sells amazingly informative articles on the same. Also, there are cats. Transterrestrial Musings Commentary on Infinity...and beyond! Colony WorldsSpace colonization news! The Alternate Energy Blog It's a blog about alternate energy (DUH!) Next Big Future Brian Wang: Tracking our progress to the FUTURE. Nuclear Green Charles Barton, who seems to be either a cool curmudgeon, or a rational hippy, talks about energy policy and the terrible environmental consequences of not going nuclear Energy From Thorium Focuses on the merits of thorium cycle nuclear reactors WizBang Current events commentary...with a wiz and a bang The Gates of Vienna Tenaciously studying a very old war The Anchoress insightful blogging, presumably from the catacombs Murdoc Online"Howling Mad Murdoc" has a millblog...golly! EaglespeakMaritime security matters Commander Salamander Fullbore blackshoe blogging! Belmont Club Richard Fernandez blogs on current events BaldilocksUnderstated and interesting blog on current events The Dissident Frogman French bi-lingual current events blog The "Moderate" VoiceI don't think that word means what they think it does....but this lefty blog is a worthy read nonetheless. Meryl Yourish News, Jews and Meryls' Views Classical Values Eric Scheie blogs about the culture war and its incompatibility with our republic. Jerry Pournell: Chaos ManorOne of Science fictions greats blogs on futurism, current events, technology and wisdom A Distant Soil The website of Colleen Dorans' superb fantasy comic, includes a blog focused on the comic industry, creator issues and human rights. John C. Wright The Sci-Fi/ Fantasy writer muses on a wide range of topics. Now Read This! The founder of the UK Comics Creators Guild blogs on comics past and present. The Rambling Rebuilder Charity, relief work, roleplaying games Rats NestThe Art and rantings of Vince Riley Gorilla Daze Allan Harvey, UK based cartoonist and comics historian has a comicophillic blog! Pulpjunkie Tim Driscoll reviews old movies, silents and talkies, classics and clunkers. Suburban Banshee Just like a suburban Leprechaun....but taller, more dangerous and a certified genius. Satharn's Musings Through TimeThe Crazy Catlady of The Barony of Tir Ysgithr アニ・ノート(Ani-Nouto) Thoughtful, curmudgeonly, otakuism that pulls no punches and suffers no fools. Chizumatic Stephen Den Beste analyzes anime...with a microscope, a slide rule and a tricorder. Wonderduck Anime, Formula One Racing, Sad Girls in Snow...Duck Triumphalism Beta Waffle What will likely be the most thoroughly tested waffle evah! Zoopraxiscope Too In this thrilling sequel to Zoopraxiscope, Don, Middle American Man of Mystery, keeps tabs on anime, orchids, and absurdities. Mahou Meido MeganekkoUbu blogs on Anime, computer games and other non-vital interests Twentysided More geekery than you can shake a stick at Shoplifting in the Marketplace of Ideas Sounds like Plaigarism...but isn't Ambient IronyAll Meenuvians Praise the lathe of the maker! Hail Pixy!!
