As an FYI, if you search for the product online, there's a code on the item "Store Item Number (DPCI)". I'm sure most other retailers have something similar. The number is in the format ###-##-####. YOu can plug that into the little red kiosks throughout the store and it will tell you where that item is located. I believe it even tells you the shelf number, which you can find near the item number on any price label in the store. I think the shelf numbers are in #-#-# format.
It's not public knowledge, I only know because I used to work at a Target. But hey, it works. I think the only time they tell the public about it is when they do gift registries as the registries you print in store are labelled the same way.
And you know what gets me about the site you linked to? It's clear that easily half of the women in the various videos that they didn't find it funny. Some were visibly and undeniably upset by it.
And I can hear it now "well they shouldn't have taken those roles". Tell me, how is that not a rehash of the rapists' 'her clothes said yes' argument?
McFarlane has certainly done his best to ensure that fewer women will chose to do even tasteful scenes involving any kind of nudity. I'm with you. That's not what fits into my idea of what guys look for.
I haven't watched an awards show of any kind pretty much ever. I don't even know which ones are for music and which ones are for movies.
Every year I hear about X scandal or Y upset with whom people expected would win certain awards, but didn't. And in the end, nearly everyone forgets who won a few years on and it just becomes a shiny trophy in a rich person's trophy case or a prop in a comedy sketch.
But all of those reasons stem from it's irrelevancy, which is more an apathetic complaint than a negative one. This is a solid negative in their column. So they didn't lose a viewer in me, but they've taken away any glimmer of hope I'd ever watch in the future.
That odd feeling you get as a paid attendee to a con you once ran takes a long time to fade. I can't imagine it in your position, having spent as long as you did on staff. I was only involved for what? three years? I don't think I'll ever stop lending a hand with things to which hands need lending at cons, but I, at least, have finally made peace with being a general attendee who chips in. I hope that transition goes smoothly for ya.
By the way, due to personal busy-ness (as opposed to business) and our first Beltane celebration at Circle Sanctuary, you will likely note that I'm not at NBC. I'm sorry I'll miss out on the antics. Perhaps I'll see you at Geek.kon?
Oh, and I hope whatever family drama (and I in no way mean to diminish it by that term) pans out. Not just for your attendance at the con, but for you.
That odd feeling you get as a paid attendee to a con you once ran takes a long time to fade. I can't imagine it in your position, having spent as long as you did on staff. I was only involved for what? three years? I don't think I'll ever stop lending a hand with things to which hands need lending at cons, but I, at least, have finally made peace with being a general attendee who chips in. I hope that transition goes smoothly for ya.
By the way, due to personal busy-ness (as opposed to business) and our first Beltane celebration at Circle Sanctuary, you will likely note that I'm not at NBC. I'm sorry I'll miss out on the antics. Perhaps I'll see you at Geek.kon?
Oh, and I hope whatever family drama (and I in no way mean to diminish it by that term) pans out. Not just for your attendance at the con, but for you.
That odd feeling you get as a paid attendee to a con you once ran takes a long time to fade. I can't imagine it in your position, having spent as long as you did on staff. I was only involved for what? three years? I don't think I'll ever stop lending a hand with things to which hands need lending at cons, but I, at least, have finally made peace with being a general attendee who chips in. I hope that transition goes smoothly for ya.
By the way, due to personal busy-ness (as opposed to business) and our first Beltane celebration at Circle Sanctuary, you will likely note that I'm not at NBC. I'm sorry I'll miss out on the antics. Perhaps I'll see you at Geek.kon?
Oh, and I hope whatever family drama (and I in no way mean to diminish it by that term) pans out. Not just for your attendance at the con, but for you.
That odd feeling you get as a paid attendee to a con you once ran takes a long time to fade. I can't imagine it in your position, having spent as long as you did on staff. I was only involved for what? three years? I don't think I'll ever stop lending a hand with things to which hands need lending at cons, but I, at least, have finally made peace with being a general attendee who chips in. I hope that transition goes smoothly for ya.
By the way, due to personal busy-ness (as opposed to business) and our first Beltane celebration at Circle Sanctuary, you will likely note that I'm not at NBC. I'm sorry I'll miss out on the antics. Perhaps I'll see you at Geek.kon?
Oh, and I hope whatever family drama (and I in no way mean to diminish it by that term) pans out. Not just for your attendance at the con, but for you.
That odd feeling you get as a paid attendee to a con you once ran takes a long time to fade. I can't imagine it in your position, having spent as long as you did on staff. I was only involved for what? three years? I don't think I'll ever stop lending a hand with things to which hands need lending at cons, but I, at least, have finally made peace with being a general attendee who chips in. I hope that transition goes smoothly for ya.
By the way, due to personal busy-ness (as opposed to business) and our first Beltane celebration at Circle Sanctuary, you will likely note that I'm not at NBC. I'm sorry I'll miss out on the antics. Perhaps I'll see you at Geek.kon?
Oh, and I hope whatever family drama (and I in no way mean to diminish it by that term) pans out. Not just for your attendance at the con, but for you.
I have all of your stuff on RSS and follow it quite regularly, so I noticed when the reanimation began. I'm not sure how you envision it, but it seemed to me to be more and more a personal and more or less topical, almost blogish, sort of thing as time went on. Honestly, it probably works best as an "update whenever the mood strikes" sort of thing anyway. That's my .02.
It's very Serial Experiments:Lain. You need the bear hoodie, though. Mine's starting to head this direction, too. I have two machines on my desk and I often bring my work machine home. It's all perched right next to the main cord hub for the house (internet, phone, entertainment gear, etc) I've made a valiant effort at taming the cord mess, but to no avail.
Excellent work, as always, Trae. I gave "her" some measure of a leash at the time and had some back and forth discussions with the fake persona. I'm always a 'reasonable doubt' kinda guy, but I never did side with her, per se, as my scam alarm was going off as well.
I think the more perplexing issue has become that these devices are now serving so many purposes. With the advent of so many apps of so many varieties, tablets and phones have now become libraries, game consoles, home environmental control remotes, notepads, cameras, and any number of functions that may, at one point, have been served by separate devices or larger machines. But the form factor of the device more easily lends itself to, say, taking a picture of a leaf and instantly determining what type of plant you happen to be looking at. Can it be done with a laptop? sure. Even desktop PC's can do it, but a device that is hand-held with built-in features like a camera (sometimes two), microphone, etc is just far more convenient for many of these tasks. All of that serves to carve a de facto niche for these devices, though I fully agree that they are all PC's. Even my more rudimentary 'dumb phone' has some measure of PC qualities including low-quality downloadable apps. It's been on the horizon since the arrival of PDA's a decade or so ago.
I think the more perplexing issue has become that these devices are now serving so many purposes. With the advent of so many apps of so many varieties, tablets and phones have now become libraries, game consoles, home environmental control remotes, notepads, cameras, and any number of functions that may, at one point, have been served by separate devices or larger machines. But the form factor of the device more easily lends itself to, say, taking a picture of a leaf and instantly determining what type of plant you happen to be looking at. Can it be done with a laptop? sure. Even desktop PC's can do it, but a device that is hand-held with built-in features like a camera (sometimes two), microphone, etc is just far more convenient for many of these tasks. All of that serves to carve a de facto niche for these devices, though I fully agree that they are all PC's. Even my more rudimentary 'dumb phone' has some measure of PC qualities including low-quality downloadable apps. It's been on the horizon since the arrival of PDA's a decade or so ago.
I enjoy these posts, Trae. For someone who has batted around the idea of regular blogs (and even started and stopped a few) and other time-sensitive projects, it's interesting to see the kind of effort and planning that has gone into one that has kept that steady output for some time.
I'm tangentially involved in the art-lang (constructed languages designed for artistic reasons a la Quenya or Na'vi) community. Scie-fi/fantasy fiction writing is rather common among them as many want to build an art-lang, but what's the point of a language if no one will speak it? So let's invent someone who speaks it! Reportedly Tolkien, a linguist by trade, admitted that the fundamental reason he created the whole Middle Earth world was to give an environment for his languages. This is really apparent in the Silmarilion where he gets truly geeky and even discusses the language drift that gave rise to various forms of the different languages he created.
The trick being exactly what you describe. How does one showcase a language in a realistic environment created, essentially from scratch? In Tolkien's case he succeeded to the point that most people think he wrote the stories and made languages for them, when it was truly the other way around.
My favorite is the art-langers that create multiple languages, cause them to co-mingle (creolize), drift, and diverge into new languages. It works nicely in a fictional world as you need real world events to explain why the languages are doing that.
I'm tangentially involved in the art-lang (constructed languages designed for artistic reasons a la Quenya or Na'vi) community. Scie-fi/fantasy fiction writing is rather common among them as many want to build an art-lang, but what's the point of a language if no one will speak it? So let's invent someone who speaks it! Reportedly Tolkien, a linguist by trade, admitted that the fundamental reason he created the whole Middle Earth world was to give an environment for his languages. This is really apparent in the Silmarilion where he gets truly geeky and even discusses the language drift that gave rise to various forms of the different languages he created.
The trick being exactly what you describe. How does one showcase a language in a realistic environment created, essentially from scratch? In Tolkien's case he succeeded to the point that most people think he wrote the stories and made languages for them, when it was truly the other way around.
My favorite is the art-langers that create multiple languages, cause them to co-mingle (creolize), drift, and diverge into new languages. It works nicely in a fictional world as you need real world events to explain why the languages are doing that.
Alright, I've done it again. I responded without reading the whole post. Which bugs me because it's one of my own pet peeves. The context certainly tames the overall perception of the article. He, indeed, addresses the point of how this is unfair to women as well ("If men get everything they want, women lose, and vice versa.") I also think he's actually suggesting that we'll opt for chemical castration as a last resort preventative to rape. Frankly, his wording doesn't even come off as a joke there, in my mind, as he acknowledges how absurd it sounds, but reinforces the point. I certainly don't think he meant his main thesis to be satire. Satire requires a certain level of detectable and unexcused absurdity, of which there is absolutely none here. All that said, I see where he is actually trying to reason this out, and not truly advocating for no consequence rape. It perhaps redeems him slightly, but it's still fatally flawed in that while men may quite often be raging hormone machines, we have plenty of other ways of channeling it than rape or posting lewd pictures on the internet/text messages.
I'm sure Scott Adams will react with some psudo-intellectualargument that if you get past societal mores and look at it from a strictly biological level, that it is, indeed, a male instinct. However, from a biological perspective society, even moreso than intelligence, is our primary survival mechanism and why we are so successful. And like all mammals, and particularly primates (and elephants, whales, etc), two other central features of our biology are empathy and the so-called theory of mind which allow us to at least give a best guess as to the joy and/or suffering of our fellow creatures. Theory of Mind and empathy as functions of human society are both violated by the concept of forceable sexual intercourse. So even the cold, dispassionate, scientific argument fails.
Even so, I don't see how preventing males from violating a woman's free will, regardless of biological impulse, is somehow unfair to men. Even assuming such an urge is, in fact, an irresistable male tendency (which I don't, but I'll grant Mr. Adams for the sake of the argument), it isn't in any way fair for women to simply accept the humiliation and degradation simply because 'that's what men do.'
If you look at our primate cousins, theft, murder, kidnapping, and numerous other behaviors are common and even central survival mechanisms in the rudimentary societies they live in. But I hardly imagine Mr. Adams would accept the argument that punishment for those behaviors is unfair because we are biologically predisposed.
Back at Eau Claire, someone illustrated the difference quite nicely between simple belief and faith. Belief is seeing someone walk a tightrope over Niagara Falls and feeling confident they'll make it across. Faith is riding on their back the whole way across.
Back at Eau Claire, someone illustrated the difference quite nicely between simple belief and faith. Belief is seeing someone walk a tightrope over Niagara Falls and feeling confident they'll make it across. Faith is riding on their back the whole way across.
I find it very intriguing how many of my computer-savvy friends are shifting to Mac. I grew up on them as my mother was a teacher and riding the tail end of the "Every school uses Macs" wave.
In college and professionally I've had to stick primarily with PC's, but find myself once again shifting back toward Macs. My reasoning was a result of compatability. Ever since PC's totally dominated the market in the 90's, Macs have had a multitude of very high quality PC emulation tools. As a result, it has always been hard to make the "most software only runs on PC" argument. I skipped over Macs the last time I was in the market due to price, primarily. But I did so very reluctantly. In the end, I'm a die hard Mac fan who has simply had to live in PC land due to the fiscal and technical realities of my situation.
No problem :) It would have been more interesting if it had been overturned in the courts instead of congress. That would have been an overnight change. I'm with Gates on how bad of an idea that would have been. There's a lot of nuts and bolts that need to be taken into account aside from who's asking and who's telling.
It's been stated in a few venues that, per the DOMA restrictions, no benefits associated with marriage would be extended to same-sex married couples in the military. Honestly, I think we'll need to see at least a half dozen more states adopt same-sex marriage before repealing DOMA becomes a political feasibility.
On the upside, people under 30 are in support of gay marriage regardless of political party, and overwhelmingly so in the case of liberals and independants. Funeral by funeral, civilization advances.
Side note: I don't wish those opposed to gay marriage would die, but cold statistics suggest it would change the conversation.
Quick note: The 60 day wait begins only after the military completes and certifies an orderly path toward the new policy. Nearly everyone involved suggests it will be before the end of 2011, but it won't likely be until the second half of the year. Either way, good riddance to bad policy.
I never liked DADT, but I have to admit, it was better than the prior policy of actively rooting out and discharging homosexuals. I consider it as a step, albeit a small one, toward the end goal.
Quick note: The 60 day wait begins only after the military completes and certifies an orderly path toward the new policy. Nearly everyone involved suggests it will be before the end of 2011, but it won't likely be until the second half of the year. Either way, good riddance to bad policy.
I never liked DADT, but I have to admit, it was better than the prior policy of actively rooting out and discharging homosexuals. I consider it as a step, albeit a small one, toward the end goal.
I think the fact that most of the cons in Wisconsin (possibly all, but I don't know enough to say) are fan operated and non-corporate really helps to avoid the competition aspect. It also helps that many staffers at the various regional cons are current or former staffers from other regional cons. Heck, at Geek.kon there was a con staffer panel run and largely attended by staff from a variety of Wisconsin cons. That such a panel exists at all is testament to the community.
An interesting sidebar to all of this is that huge portions of business are conducted online now, to the point that I'd guess 3/4 of the businesses in my town have a website. That includes little ma and pa shops and even people who work from home in the 'informal' economy.
The end result, at least as far as I can tell, is that employers may look at your facebook or twitter account or dig up embarassing photos, or angry rants from 15 years ago, but they are more likely to give it a pass than they used to be.
Is it just me, or does her campaign video sound more like a 16-year-old running for class president? It's not so much the content as it is the delivery (the content has problems all its own). I half expect her to plug new vending machines in the cafeteria and an open campus lunch period.
When Twitter first arrived on the scene some time ago I was an early adopter. I had an account on the site before anyone had even heard of the service. It was advertised in a sidebar ad so I was curious. When I visited I was totally unimpressed and dropped it mere minutes after signing up.
When everyone out there started using it I gave it a second shot. Verdict? Still not worth it. As far as I can tell, it doesn't accomplish anything Facebook, or really any blog service available isn't capable of. And updating a brief status message by text message has been around almost as long as texting itself. I really, honestly, feel like Twitter is possibly the most pointless feature ever to gain any popularity on the net.
But then I don't surf the web on my phone, I don't think I even can. And I slowly, clumsily, hash out texts only on the very very rare occasion someone actually texts me. I don't get what's so much better about texts than, you know, CALLING me. But as always, cell phones are slowly becoming a manufactured need. Soon signup screens on the web will return errors if you don't enter a cell number and people will start getting rejected for employment because they didn't list one. It happened with email and cell phones are soon to follow.
"Trae has definitely given a far superior and well justified argument against changing amendment 14 than anyone on Air America has"
It's splitting hairs, I know, but Air America has been off the air for half a year now. I doubt they're chiming in. As far as who's still out there on the left, they're mostly as bad as the hosts on the right. You'll get some decent analysis out of Hartmann, though.
"Look at the violence erupting on the border right now. Conservatives have been asking to secure the border for years (conservatives, not republicans)..."
Violence rates on the US side of the border have gone down in the past ten years, not up. Certainly there is a drug war in full force on the Mexican side of the border, and some of that spills over. But by and large the numbers are down, not up, on our side of the border.
"and it's not that we can, it's that we won't."
Certainly border security can be improved, but most analysis I've read says it can't be fully "secured." Israel can't keep supplies and people from being smuggled over to Gaza and it's one of the most militarized borders in the world, and a whole lot shorter than our border with Mexico, I might add. And to paraphrase a computer security maxim, there's no wall that can be built that can't be breached. And while I don't think that's any reason we should just leave the border as it is, higher walls, more money and more guns are not the whole solution to the problem. It's not even a substantial fraction of the solution.
"they run purely to get elected and base their arguments on political litmus tests and campaign funding."
Fully and wholeheartedly agreed in reference to both parties.
"Arizona is BROKE, and it's because of the overwhelming influx of illegal immigrants taking advantage of tax-payer funded programs without paying in themselves."
Perhaps illegal immigration plays a role, even a big role. But there's a couple of points here. First, AZ is not typically known for liberal welfare programs. I doubt very much that there are many state-run programs handing out money to non-taxpayers or even to taxpayers for that matter. California? Yeah. Arizona? Not really. Second, while it's clearly law of unintended consequences, a bit of an exodus is going on in AZ right now of ALL immigrants, even legal ones. And the AZ economy is suffering greatly as a result. I'm quite certain that wasn't the plan, but it has been the result. All political stances aside, AZ's law has been a failure before it even made it through the court battles on the economic front. And the fear-mongering about kidnappings (not true), massive waves of immigration, and drug wars (also not statistically true) have heavily damaged AZ's image. My mom went to college there and has said she'd love to go back, but she's too afraid of the violence there. The non-existant violence.
I never read (past tense, &*#$@% English) Full Circle, but I recall room 825. I don't remember anything about it except for perhaps the style, which has evolved a lot since then. I definitely don't remember any characters. I love unCONventional, however. It's like three years (plus a few later cameos) of my life in cartoon form. I'm sure many NBC/Geek.kon folks feel the same.
Langland, you're probably safe so long as you don't put the k's in bold 24pt font. However, you will always get questions about it so it's something worth considering. I doubt it would significantly impact your attendance numbers, but personally I'd just go with a different name if I were you.
I don't know what city you'll be moving to so I can't really say if you have it there, but it looks like there's coverage over much of the state.
I stopped listening to NPR when I moved back to WI because of the Ideas Network/WPR programming. But I miss All Things Considered, Science Friday, and other programs I used to listen to. Monterey was the best. They used to play NPR programs during the day and fill in with BBC overnight.
I'd just like to take a break from my usual caveats to point out that this is an excellent blog series. Kudos to you, Trae. The con world needs more of this sort of thing.
I hear ya. I'm hopelessly wordy on the web so I've got little concept for that. The comments section makes a nice slot for caveats and extra details that don't have enough space in the primary article, but don't quite need their own.
I totally agree with the general concept here. I think there can be something said for having outside experience as well. I had absolutely zero experience at other cons short of our brief stint at WestCon 5 which was more goofing around and escorting one of their guests.
But what I lacked in con experience I made up for in having run university organizations and events. Part of that was just knowing how to navigate bureaucracies in general and the UWEC bureaucracy in specific, which got me the brief unofficial title of Red Tape Boy. But a lot of it was having front line experience in an event operation environment and some experience with running meetings (though it was so disorganized for NBC1 & 2 it's hard to say what impact I had from that standpoint).
{Little sibs weekend, CUBE fest} <> No Brand Con, but there are some similarities.
I'll disagree with you on the month buffer. NBC may have been in a relatively open calendar for anime cons, but the spring calendar was pretty loaded with cons of other genres. We ended up competing over vendors and even dealt with a minor turf war in the Madison area due to proximity of dates, if you'll recall.
AAS was originally conceived as a front organization, but those of us directly involved in starting the AAS portion of the whole NBC timeline made a point of creating an actual organization. And while a lot of spillover happened between the organizations, AAS and OA remained two distinct and fully functional organizations (or disorganizations in the case of OA). Getting an advisor and drafting a constitution that would pass muster with Student Senate was no small task either. They don't take kindly to front organizations.
Alright, alright, point taken. And actually I knew all that, but it's been ten years (ten years!!! good gods) so I'm a little hazy on the details, even though you've remonded me of them before.
Oh, and speaking of said gods, happy Ostara! I know it's a touch early, but I'll be too busy to reliably remember to wish you as much this weekend.
Yeah, I worry you'll have to start it if you want it, which is a challenge if you lack contacts with a local group such as Otaku was.
Keep in mind, back in 2000 there was one anime con in Wisconsin, WestCon, and we, at the time, were attending what was to be it's last year. I won't do too much bragging here, but NBC was the first of the long-duration, truly anime cons in wisconsin. It's staff has gone on to play a big part in many of the other cons in the state. I think the departure of GenCon left a void that needed filling, which was the other big contributing factor, but NBC were the trailblazers.
Would other cons have sprung into existance without NBC? Almost assuredly. However, I think NBC was a shot in the arm to the local con community. We proved that a bunch of part-timers with minimal experience and no paychecks could hash together not just a con, but a good con.
Hoyl Carp! That's less than 5 minutes from my apartment. I just did a Capoeira demo there on Sunday, the facility is, indeed, huge. I was nearly late because it took me so long to walk around the place to get to the hotel desk to ask where my demo was. Nice score on the part of Geek.kon.
Hoyl Carp! That's less than 5 minutes from my apartment. I just did a Capoeira demo there on Sunday, the facility is, indeed, huge. I was nearly late because it took me so long to walk around the place to get to the hotel desk to ask where my demo was. Nice score on the part of Geek.kon.
wow, you weren't kidding about the website. Yeesh. A webring, even. Webrings aren't an issue in and of themselves, but as a prominent feature of their main page it's kinda silly. The thing is replete with HTML 1.0-style blue links with no content framing via css and tons and tons of white space. If I didn't know any better I'd say that I had designed it, and that's not a compliment.
It's pretty much a Catholic/Orthodox/Anglican thing. It's interesting that you hadn't encountered it and so many folks on campus had. But then in a pagan meeting of sorts I went to recently a lady was discussing how her daughter, who had been homeschooled with mostly pagan and muslim kids, was totally unaware of what a cricifix was. When she found out more about christianity she was offended to the point of being pissed off. The lady I was speaking to said she had to have a series of serious talks with her daughter about how it's a valid belief and we shouldn't attack others for their beliefs. It's funny how sometimes things get flipped around from the usual.
I assaulted it with quotes from the Principia Discordia and various other non-sensical works. I even invoked a little Swift. Very enjoyable. It's remarkable how in the face of the best absurdism has to offer, LostChylde still out crazies it.
Aside from the vast number of accidents yesterday here in Mad-town, about a half dozen cars were unable to make it up a hill on University Avenue, the main east-west road through town. All three lanes were blocked. It took me an hour and a half to go about 10 miles.
Yeah, it doesn't get more coincidental than the No Brand story. That an anime club would become obsessed with a little known anime that just happened to have a catchy tune that incorporated engrish AAAAAND sounds cool as a term for staffers is just really beyond the probability pale.
I'm just glad we didn't have to fight over that one. Goodness knows we fought over everything else.
Yeah, I remember working at a certain general retail establishment in the toy department on Black Friday. While restocking shelves I found myself huddling for cover near the now-stocked shelf, hoping no one would run over me or into me. The most curious thing was coming back from my 15 minute break and noting most of the store was moderately populated, but the toy and electronics departments looked uncannily like a swarm of angry bees from a distance.
My situation is slightly different, but equally strange (though marginally less awkward). I've made a NAME for myself in the Wisconsin con world, but no one knows what I look like. So when I went to fill out a Geek.kon badge I got the sudden everyday geek to total fanboy conversion from the guy at the desk. And I quote "You're Meep!!!!!!" I do get it from time to time from my on-and-off relationship with the Geek.kon and NoBrandCon forums, but generally it's because Wisconsin con staff (wiscongoers?) are aware of the founding NBC staff.
Advantage: No one in their right mind expects me to know who they are. Disadvantage: I have no idea who anyone is.
Though my favorite con moment was also at this year's Geek.kon when Orange referred to me by my legal name and I got "You mean you have an actual name?!?!?!"
You may very well be right on that one. I know the multiple infection points in the lung was a stated issue of concern for people with respiratory issues. I hadn't heard about higher fevers, though the 104-105 that Jess and the kids were getting certainly bears that out.
I've been keeping an eye on it because I work for a health care company with clinics and hospitals and such. I track the H1N1 immunizations we're giving and a couple of the other guys are data gathering on 'flu-like illness' and other issues related to it. It's kinda hard to ignore when your day to day work life is partly centered on it. :P (I normally don't like to use emoticons, but I also don't like it when I can't convey my tone)
Yeah, my whole immediate family got the swine flu about two and a half weeks back. I gotta say for as mild as many cases are, ours was pretty bad. Jess is much like you in that I once had to talk her out of going to class when she threw up twice before she got to the end of the hallway. She was laid up for two days and under the weather for a few more. Everyone had fevers pushing 105 and Geevee had to go on Tamiflu for a bit.
Due to my allergies I got a chest X-Ray to check for Pnumonia, which came up good on that account, but now they've spotted a 'mass' near my heart, yay! (For the record no one including the radiologist or my doctor is even slightly worried about it, but there is a small chance)
The only major difference as far as severity, and the reason why people with respiratory ailments need to be concerned, is that lungs have essentially two types of cells from a flu perspective. Most flus can only latch on to one or the other, which generally correspond to the upper or lower airways. In the case of the Novel H1N1, it's capable of hitting both. The result is more severe and longer duration chest congestion on average which raises the probability of complications.
Another slightly worrying, but not distressing factor is that it has operated at a pretty high infection rate even outside of the traditional flu season. It's worrying because that's not typical behavior for ANY flu, even the deadly ones. Nothing I've read thus far suggests doctors and researches have any idea what, if anything, that might mean.
By the way, I'm not your typical alarmist, just noting my own anecdotal story and raising the few unique traits of this flu. The mortality levels in absolute numbers is likely to be a bit higher due to the sheer numbers of people infected by a virus no one has immunity to, but I doubt we'll see Spanish Flu conditions.
Yeah, my whole immediate family got the swine flu about two and a half weeks back. I gotta say for as mild as many cases are, ours was pretty bad. Jess is much like you in that I once had to talk her out of going to class when she threw up twice before she got to the end of the hallway. She was laid up for two days and under the weather for a few more. Everyone had fevers pushing 105 and Geevee had to go on Tamiflu for a bit.
Due to my allergies I got a chest X-Ray to check for Pnumonia, which came up good on that account, but now they've spotted a 'mass' near my heart, yay! (For the record no one including the radiologist or my doctor is even slightly worried about it, but there is a small chance)
The only major difference as far as severity, and the reason why people with respiratory ailments need to be concerned, is that lungs have essentially two types of cells from a flu perspective. Most flus can only latch on to one or the other, which generally correspond to the upper or lower airways. In the case of the Novel H1N1, it's capable of hitting both. The result is more severe and longer duration chest congestion on average which raises the probability of complications.
Another slightly worrying, but not distressing factor is that it has operated at a pretty high infection rate even outside of the traditional flu season. It's worrying because that's not typical behavior for ANY flu, even the deadly ones. Nothing I've read thus far suggests doctors and researches have any idea what, if anything, that might mean.
By the way, I'm not your typical alarmist, just noting my own anecdotal story and raising the few unique traits of this flu. The mortality levels in absolute numbers is likely to be a bit higher due to the sheer numbers of people infected by a virus no one has immunity to, but I doubt we'll see Spanish Flu conditions.
Yeah, my whole immediate family got the swine flu about two and a half weeks back. I gotta say for as mild as many cases are, ours was pretty bad. Jess is much like you in that I once had to talk her out of going to class when she threw up twice before she got to the end of the hallway. She was laid up for two days and under the weather for a few more. Everyone had fevers pushing 105 and Geevee had to go on Tamiflu for a bit.
Due to my allergies I got a chest X-Ray to check for Pnumonia, which came up good on that account, but now they've spotted a 'mass' near my heart, yay! (For the record no one including the radiologist or my doctor is even slightly worried about it, but there is a small chance)
The only major difference as far as severity, and the reason why people with respiratory ailments need to be concerned, is that lungs have essentially two types of cells from a flu perspective. Most flus can only latch on to one or the other, which generally correspond to the upper or lower airways. In the case of the Novel H1N1, it's capable of hitting both. The result is more severe and longer duration chest congestion on average which raises the probability of complications.
Another slightly worrying, but not distressing factor is that it has operated at a pretty high infection rate even outside of the traditional flu season. It's worrying because that's not typical behavior for ANY flu, even the deadly ones. Nothing I've read thus far suggests doctors and researches have any idea what, if anything, that might mean.
By the way, I'm not your typical alarmist, just noting my own anecdotal story and raising the few unique traits of this flu. The mortality levels in absolute numbers is likely to be a bit higher due to the sheer numbers of people infected by a virus no one has immunity to, but I doubt we'll see Spanish Flu conditions.
It is strange that you get confused for an employee. Your clothing style, while well-suited for street wear, doesn't exactly scream 'Welcome to Wal-Mart, how can I help you.'
On a related note, I often thionk people work at Target when they wear red shirts, especially when paired with khakis. Perhaps It's a copincidence, but it seems people who shop at Target like to wear red shirts and khakis moreso than in other stores. Maybe it's my imagination.
--advice solicited= "false"-- We got ours there as well. Laskers was definitely #1 in my book. Rogers and Holland's was truly awful and very pushy to us.
My main tip, though it may be too late, is learn how to effetively use a loupe (hand lens) and a microscope to identify imperfections in the stones and insist on seeing the stones before you buy. This is particularly true of smaller stones. When you go small on the karat weight, you'll want to go big on the clarity.
That said, Laskers offered that to us up front without me even requesting and their diamonds didn't even really need my scrutiny. They were, with rare exception, better than what the AGS ratings suggested, in my opinion. That's a very good sign.
As a contrast, drop by a department store jewelry counter. They'll have some big stones at low prices and generally their salespeople will be nice, friendly and accommodating. Just try not to laugh when you see enough carbon to fill in a scantron floating around in the coal they pass off as diamonds. The only exception to this rule is Macy's, which actually has some good quality stuff. It may be worth a look if there's even a Macy's in EC, though Lasker's will still probably be your option.
--advice solicited= "false"-- We got ours there as well. Laskers was definitely #1 in my book. Rogers and Holland's was truly awful and very pushy to us.
My main tip, though it may be too late, is learn how to effetively use a loupe (hand lens) and a microscope to identify imperfections in the stones and insist on seeing the stones before you buy. This is particularly true of smaller stones. When you go small on the karat weight, you'll want to go big on the clarity.
That said, Laskers offered that to us up front without me even requesting and their diamonds didn't even really need my scrutiny. They were, with rare exception, better than what the AGS ratings suggested, in my opinion. That's a very good sign.
As a contrast, drop by a department store jewelry counter. They'll have some big stones at low prices and generally their salespeople will be nice, friendly and accommodating. Just try not to laugh when you see enough carbon to fill in a scantron floating around in the coal they pass off as diamonds. The only exception to this rule is Macy's, which actually has some good quality stuff. It may be worth a look if there's even a Macy's in EC, though Lasker's will still probably be your option.
Yeah, I'm with scrot on this one. I, personally, am against anyone voting who doesn't know anything about the candidates/issues. It makes for an unfiar representation of public opinion for those who actually have one. That, of course, is countered by your 'everyone should be informed' stance so I guess it's moot.
One far less recognized tactic is to vote a blank ticket. It's perfectly allowable to do so in most municipalities and it is the closest thing to a 'no confidence' vote we have in the US.
Yeah, I'm with scrot on this one. I, personally, am against anyone voting who doesn't know anything about the candidates/issues. It makes for an unfiar representation of public opinion for those who actually have one. That, of course, is countered by your 'everyone should be informed' stance so I guess it's moot.
One far less recognized tactic is to vote a blank ticket. It's perfectly allowable to do so in most municipalities and it is the closest thing to a 'no confidence' vote we have in the US.
I think the most disturbing thing about all this is not they're searching for some of these things, but that your site is, sometimes inexplicably, coming up in the results. I get some of them, even the dirsturbing ones are often easily explained by disconnected phrases containing basic words (ie boy ass, which would turn up an awful lot of places other than the intended destination).
And I wanna know who's searching for befu obits. They best not be threatening befu.
Oh, and is that pic of the Cushman under the library that always gets washed out when little niagara floods?
I was a highlight of the convention? Ouch! Just kidding.
It was truly awesome to see you again, Trae. And immersing myself once again in the chaos and strangeness of the con world was great. It was a lot like a class reunion only I actually wanted to see everyone I ran into. Well, that and everyone is dressed weird and carrying swords.
I have to say it once again, it is incredibly strange to be in the same building with you and Orange and not be in charge of the con. I feel like a retired general watching some rookie running a campaign. Not that they did a bad job by any stretch, just different.
Meep
As I side note, posting on here has revived issues with keeping my online personae straight.
I'm gonna do my damndest toget to geek.kon. It'll probably be saturday night after 8:00 or so. Is the vendor room still open at that point? I'm too lazy to surf around their site and look it up myself. See you there.
btw, I haven't a clue what they were thinking with the site layout. They used to have a nice little page with info on vendors, a park map, etc. Now it's a huge ad with no useful links of any kind.
<beck>Got a devil's haircut, in my mind. Got a devil's haircut, in my mind.</beck>
Just thought I'd let everyone else hear the music running through my head at the moment. Seriously, though Trae, it looks good. But I do have one logistical question. Wherever are you going to put your feathers?
*Drools* Ooooooooohhhhh, Commodore 64 guitar goodness. That is quite possibly the most awesome thing I've seen in ages. It should have been so obvious to backport music games to old systems, the technology is definitely within their capabilities. After all, even the wii controller is just a higher-sensitivity version of the same technology that controlled the power glove and dance dance pads are just the old NES running pad rehashed. I want Samba for Atari!!!!
On another note, the dog thing would be fabulous if it didn't sound like a weed whacker when untethered. If they can solve that one then it will be terrifying.
I'm glad to hear things are going well for you. I've thought on these terms before as well. Say, for instance, the fact that 8 years ago Jess was just someone in my SOC class. And now we have a two year old kid and an apartment in Cali. WTF happened there?
Seriously though, Congrats. It's awesome to see you in a stable relationship. You deserve it, dude.
Someday I will return to tundra and perhaps I can meet this person.
Meep
PS as for the right in the head bit, I think it's more a matter of the proper subtle blend of insanity with the sort of crowds we hang out in.
I'm reminded of a chat I had years ago when some asked, in all seriousness, if people from WI rode cows to school. It's almost depressing how dense people can really be.
Wisconsin is, of course, not the only maligned place in the media world. A few examples:
1. Siberia - It has a climate nearly identical to Wisconsin with hot summers and cold winters and even very similar flora and fauna. The idea of it being an insufferable permanent tundra is so cliche I hardly even have to bring it up.
2. Antarctica - If I see another polar bear or South African penguin in a commercial taking place in Antarctica I might just scream.
3. Appalachia - Yes, West Virginia through Arkansas do have their share of truly redneck folks (what state doesn't) and never in my life have I seen so many bible camp buses than in a Wal-Mart in Arkansas, the folks there are not all that different from folks in the upper midwest. Perhaps a good bit more right-wing.
On the other hand Kansas seems to be portrayed fairly accurately. Kansas cities are essentially 6 blocks of buildings and 10 square miles of trailer parks. The chances of any particular tornado hitting a trailer park there are about as good as running into road construction on Wisconsin roads in the summer.
