So, one day when I was about 16, my mother and I were driving by a local duck pond that she used to take my sister and I to when we were little. The pond was currently covered in ice seeing that it was winter and all. Conversation is as follows:

Mom: Krystie, you're smart. Can I ask you something?
Me: Uh, sure.
Mom: Where do the geese go? You know, in winter?
Me: Seriously?
Mom: Yeah! Do they like, tunnel under the water and hibernate?
Me: ... Mom. They fucking fly south for winter. It's called migration.
(After about five full minutes of silence and my mother looking like she's taking a Calculus exam...)
Mom: OH YEAH! Don't tell your sister I just asked you that.

My mother has a friend who is a police officer. Let's call her Betty. She has a daughter who we'll call Deirdre. Deirdre is learning to drive, and Betty was helping her practice, sitting in the car with her while she drove around in a deserted area, drilling her on roadsigns and suchlike.

Suddenly, a very drunk man stepped out in front of the car, bounced off the bumper, and collapsed in the road. Deirdre, however, did not stop the car. Betty yelled at her that she had to stop the car, it's illegal to leave the scene of an accident especially when there's a police officer in the car, etc ...

"I can't stop here, there's a double yellow line!"

(Luckily Betty did persuade her that stopping was ever-so-slightly more important, they went back and checked on the guy, and he wasn't hurt, because they'd been going slowly and possibly because his drunkenness dulled any pain.)

In the past I've done free artwork for prizes, and if you know me you know I am SLOW at artwork, especially free artwork. So this time the prizes are already made, lol.

COLR THIS

CONTEST INFO:

DEADLINE: January 15th

RULES:if you want to participate
( Full contest info here )

Back in 2006 Sarah posted photos of Larry's floor show boa.

Her photos, plus the ones I took at that year's "Denton Affair" convention, are now available at the Costume List site.

http://www.rockyhorrorcostumelist.info/index.html

This takes care of the last long-outstanding piece of business I've been meaning to resolve at the site.

Happy Holidays.

and I was ashamed (and pissed off that i could've been paid four bucks a pop)

trolling around purseforum led me to these gems

It takes you an hour to make one of these!? I only had 30 minutes of art time in elementary school!


( MOAR FELT ARTATION! )

Found at Gizmodo--
 
Do you hate using sleeping bags out of some (not entirely irrational) fear that a grizzly bear could tear open your tent and find you to be a delicious and immobile delicacy? With this product from Japan you'll have no such fears; you will be able to jump up and run away, albeit without the use of your arms.

OK, so sometimes I have trouble distinguishing "ugly" from "weird" or "ridiculous." I'll let you judge this product on your own.

So imagine your hungry and there's nothing to eat. Your cupboards are bare, don't worry just eat your slippers!



http://www.divinecaroline.com/22256/86913-bread-slippers#1

 Well, here we go again.  IBS, just in time for the holidays!  And the full digestive system too!  Reflux and loose stool which will no doubt end up being diarrhea before long.  Took the acid-blocker which I hate taking because it will probably end up giving me anemia and absorption problems, and the anti-spasmodics which I take everyday for all the good they do...
And won't working in retail on Boxing Day be fun?!  6 hours of insanity, fuck I can't wait.  UHG I can't believe this is my life now...lol can you tell I'm depressed as hell?

Уважаемые знатоки!
Перевожу на русский язык польский фильм, там есть фраза: "U was jest podbiuro?"
Кто-нибудь может подсказать, как это перевести? В тексте это кодовая фраза, пароль социалистической организации.

I posted this on my Tumblr and journal to explain to others how I sort of see time (time-spatial syn). It's still difficult to draw it though, and it's not entirely accurate. I thought I'd post it here to see what other time-spatial syns have in common, or what's different!

( Space, time and colors )

Did some Etsy browsing this evening. Here are my watercolor picks of the night.

( Artistes. )

Since debate in this community often centers around Judeo-Christian cultural perspectives, I thought I'd offer something a little different. Professor Richard Hayes, in a series of lectures given at Leiden University, discusses ten philosophical questions that could be asked of Buddhists that are relevant to Western strands of philosophical inquiry. One of those lectures discusses the classical Buddhist arguments against the possibility of a single source of creation. Since I'm both dumb and lazy, I'm not going to attempt to summarize those arguments here, but offer the text of the lecture [PDF] for your leisurely perusal. And since, as I mentioned, I'm rather dumb, I'm at a loss as to whether the arguments made are in any way sound - although they seem so - or whether aspects of them have been addressed by Western philosophers or theologians.

Here's where you come in. If you are interested in reading this somewhat brief lecture and would like to attempt to rebut the arguments contained therein, I would be most grateful and interested in your arguments. I will also do my best to defend the arguments and/or explain the cultural/historical context in which they occurred. Or if you would not like to be bothered to compose original arguments, you may instead point me toward literature that would help me see past the convincing lines of reasoning that these arguments present. In either case,

convert_me

So tell me folks... oats.... I just got handed a couple of kilos of oats direct from a (local/trusted) farm that has NEVER handled wheat, barley etc.... Never grown it, never processed it in any of it's equipment etc. So NO chance of cross contamination.

Gluten in oats? Very low? None? Lots of controversy etc about it.

I'm going to give it a shot (because if I can add oats back into my diet I can eat porridge again, and that would be WONDERFUL)...

Ideas on some reciepes?

January 2010 Newsletter

Morphicon 7: "State Fair"

May 13-16th 2010
Holiday Inn Columbus-Worthington in Columbus, Ohio
Guests of Honor: World Tree creators, Bumblebee and Floki
( Full Text )

Happy Holidays!
-- Jewel, and the rest of Morphicon Staff –

Dear Melissa,

Thank you for contacting NPR.

We appreciate you sharing your concerns. Both "different from" and "different than" are acceptable usages. Which one is preferred is generally a matter of context within the sentence. We recognize that the British favor "different from," and that there has been some debate about this over time.

We are always delighted to hear from listeners. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Thank you for listening to NPR, and for your continued support of public broadcasting. For the latest news and information, visit NPR.org.

Sincerely,
Justin
NPR Services
(202) 513-3232
www.npr.org

I am dating a girl, and I love her. She's everything I could ask for in a partner. However, there's one sticky situation: she is trying to start a career in creative writing, but her writing is really bad.

Granted, I'm no literary critic - or English major even - but I think her writing is awful. Am I obligated to pretend that I like it when I read her work? Should I try to dodge the issue with white lies? Should I try to break it to her that her writing is terrible?

Normally I'd just avoid the issue all together, but she is trying to start a career, and I'm worried she won't go anywhere. Plus, we're moving in together, and it'll be really hard paying the bills with a starving artist.

I have a question about writing dialogue. When you leave off in the middle of a sentence (perhaps the character was interrupted), you put a dash. There's no punctuation at the end, is there? One of my friends always does that and it always sticks out as wrong to me.

Like this:

He sighed. "I don't want this to--"
"Sssh," she cut him off.

She writes it like this:

He sighed. "I don't want this to--."
"Sssh," she cut him off.


It's the first, right?

Please help me.

The last three times I have tried to make cookies -- each time from scratch, from different recipes I followed step by step I swear to God, from reliable sources such as Gluten-Free Girl -- they have this horrid taste I can't describe except it is like too much baking soda or xanthan gum.

Failures include ginger snaps, sugar cookies and now Santa's whiskers.

After the second wasted batch I blamed it on old xanthan gum, so I threw everything out and today I bought brand new Bob's Red Mill flour mix and xanthan gum. The cookies are awesome in every way except for this subtle, underlying, almost metallic nastiness that is hard to describe. It's almost fizzy.

Why is this happening to me?

In this case the ratio was approx 1 1/2 C bean-based flour to 1 1/4 tsp xanthan gum and 1/16 tsp baking soda as dictated by the recipe.

When I buy store-bought GF cookies or dough, I never get this flavour. Maybe it is just something I have to get used to? In the old days I hated rice bread and pizza dough because of the texture, but I grew to like it. Is this the same thing?

I can't waste any more time or money on failure cookies.