Vondy Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 Re: A Thread for Random Musings I'm not an actor, but I play one on TV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 Re: A Thread for Random Musings I feel petty... and I like it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solomon Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 Selling sangria on a graveyard During cabling and plumbing works in my town's square, an old and previously unknown ancient graveyard was unearthed. It consists of a few dozen shallow graves, without coffins, about 1,5 meters under the present-day street level. The graveyard is a bit of a mistery, since our town's history is pretty well documented since IX Century but there's no mention of this burial site. Apparently there are foundations of what appears to have been an old church too. So, throughout most of my live I must have walked on those graves many thousand times, and danced on them, and sold sangria for the local charity right on top of those old bones. Brr! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 Re: Selling sangria on a graveyard I have another "performance review" aka ambush tomorrow. It's been 4 weeks since the last one, boy time flies. See you on the cranky thread tomorrow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 Re: A Thread for Random Musings My deep-felt condoleances and apologies to Solomon, but . . . Yes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemming Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 Re: A Thread for Random Musings I am so tired. And we have people coming over for dinner tonight about plans for Burning Man. I just hope I don't go into a coma. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 Re: A Thread for Random Musings Somehow, I missed my 5000th post mark. So congrat me on 5006 posts! lemming and Solomon 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 Re: A Thread for Random Musings T-Minus 20 Days And Counting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 Re: A Thread for Random Musings Von D-Man has hit just over 8,000 posts Way to go, you are now a shoe in for anything ! Get it ? Shoe in ? Oh please yourself ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klytus Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 Re: A Thread for Random Musings I went in for an eye exam yesterday - my first one is over 5 years. Not surprisingly, my Rx had to be changed. What did amaze me was the the doctor reduced the corrective strength of my lenses! Go figure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thrakazog Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 Re: A Thread for Random Musings So I'm standing in front of the mirror shaving this morning and Madonna's Express Yourself comes on the radio. I'm merrily shaving away and for whatever unexplained reason my mind picks out this lyric: fancy cars that go very fast you know they never last, no, no Now, I know some folks who happen to collect cars and I've been to a few Woodward Cruises and I can authoritatively state that there are a lot of very old, fancy, fast cars out there which, considering how well taken care of they are, could very well last forever. I don't know why but this has been bothering me all day today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 Re: A Thread for Random Musings Having heard spoilers on the Super Hero hype about the novelization, my thought still stands on CINO (Catwoman In Name Only) "Catwoman: The Melvin of All Movies!" I just hope this thing bombs in a big way, and yet Spider-Man 2 kicks ass in the box office so maybe, MAYBE, WB will get the hint. It's too late to save Catwoman, but there is hope yet for Batman Begins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemming Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 Re: A Thread for Random Musings 13 more business days of work. Current project is pretty much done. Unless a bug jumps out of the NIC and rips out people's jugulars, the product will ship. Looks good to me, but that's as far as I'll push the NDA. Now what to do for the next three weeks besides cruise the various job boards and other items of interest that I'm not supposed to be doing. Two more resume' s sent off. We'll see if I get a ping back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocMan Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 Re: A Thread for Random Musings Well, Mage had his surgery on Saturday. The vet got the tumor out, so the pressure on his spine has been relieved. But it's been replaced with post-operative swelling. Still, we're pretty hopeful. We brought Mage home on Monday. He's still on pain meds. And he hasnt' started using his back legs yet, although we have seen the odd leg movement and tail twitch that gives us hope that he will regain the use of them. We've had to isolate him in his own little cage with his own food, water, and some towels to use as a litter area. And we have to give him steroids every morning and evening. We're trying to do some physical therapy with him to loosen up his muscles so he'll have an easier time getting back into using his legs. At least he's eating well. We take him back to get the surgical staples removed on the 30th. Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enforcer84 Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 Re: A Thread for Random Musings I'm feeeling oddly content and happy today. Something bad is going to happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 Re: A Thread for Random Musings I thought of this on the 21st, just after my exams and when the dentist discussion was in full swing, but I have been to busy to post it. Taking a university exam is like going to the dentist -- you enter a sterile environment and all you can do is grin and bear it. Both occur twice yearly. The difference being, that at the dentist you keep your mouth open for most of the time and in an exam you're supposed to keep it shut. Also examinations are usually take 2 to 3 hours and dentists appointments seem to take that long, or worse, DO take that much time. Consequently doing a university assignment is like doing your own dentistry. This bit of satire is paid for by the Dentist's Examination Association of the NGD (not really). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mightybec Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 Re: A Thread for Random Musings A documentary of the Revolutionary War from the Brittish perspective. Interesting... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thrakazog Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 Re: A Thread for Random Musings I close on the new house tomorrow. Shudder. Interesting packing story, though. I found a huge box in the basement with my old collection of Magic: TG cards. I haven't seen these in years. So I haul it upstairs and start rooting though it so as to put the contents into a new box - the old one was too worn to make the move. The wife comes up. "What are those? Oh, neat pictures." "Magic cards," I reply. "It's a game. I haven't played in years, though. I tried to teach you back when we first met, remember?" Wife, with a cross look, "No, that was your first wife." ----INTERRUPT: Ouch. She was right. And I do that more often than you might think. Maybe I erred in marrying a Kristin followed by a Christine - that can get ugly when names get crossed at key moments. Damn years of pot smoking fried my memory, but I digress. Me: "Oh. (weak chuckle) Sorry." I hand her one of those little starter deck rulebooks, of which I have many. She walks off. Some two hours later she returns and asks a timing question about damage assignment during combat when both attackers and blockers have banding ability. Heh. Well, we won't be going out much once we start paying the new mortgage anyway... Insert Dr. Evil laugh here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Worldmaker Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 Re: A Thread for Random Musings Heard on NPR today: "The current hoopla over Clinton's new book has as little to do with liberal politics as the recent hoopla over Reagan's funeral has with conservative politics." And I agree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 Re: A Thread for Random Musings Wheeee, I'm anti authoritarian rebel! Time to get myself some cool shades and a nose ring that itches! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocMan Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 Why? I have noticed that it seems like a lot of modern men seem to go really gah gah over a particular female look. And I can't figure out why. The look I'm referring to I can only describe as being dirty blond junkie prostitute. Well, that's not true. I can describe it otherwise, but it would get my post deleted from the boards. Why do so many guys think that a poor, emaciated, heroin addict is sexy? I much prefer curves. Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beetle Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 Re: A Thread for Random Musings At the end of a long, stressful day, there's nothing better than dropping into a comfy chair and listening to some Louis Armstrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted June 25, 2004 Report Share Posted June 25, 2004 Re: A Thread for Random Musings The Israeli Beauracracy must be brought under the heel of Von D-Man!!! Must... Withold... My... Rage... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Worldmaker Posted June 25, 2004 Report Share Posted June 25, 2004 Re: A Thread for Random Musings For some reason, boredom makes me depressed, which enhances the boredom, which makes me more depressed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zornwil Posted June 25, 2004 Report Share Posted June 25, 2004 Re: A Thread for Random Musings I was thinking today - why do we call someone who is afraid "gutless"? I would guess that we correlate guts with bravery as in the olden days a brave person, particularly in the more violent Western dark ages and even later medieval society, would end up at some point with their guts exposed against their will but as a result of their facing up to a challenge. Whereas someone so afraid would avoid combat and never be known to actually have guts. But that seems stupid. I wonder if there's a better explanation? Hmmm, according to etymonline.com - "Figurative pl. guts "spirit, courage," first recorded 1893; hence gutless "cowardly" (1915). The verb meaning "to remove the guts of" (of fish, etc.) is from c.1300. To hate (someone's) guts is first attested 1918. Gut reaction is 1963, probably a back-formation from gutsy (1936) "tough, plucky." " Not really an answer. More was found at http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:YYllnHraM0AJ:www.takeourword.com/TOW172/page1.html+gutless+etymology&hl=en "We have just been reading a book on food history (In the Devils' Garden, a sinful history of forbidden food, by Stewart Lee Allen) which is very entertaining and informative. There was one passage, though, which had us diving into our dictionaries and it was this: Organ meats fetched significantly higher prices than chops in the markets of seventeenth-century Paris. The French called these delicacies parties nobles, and every hunter carried a ritual set of knives with which to remove them. He would then present them, on a forked stick, called la fourchie, to the most powerful person present and they would be grilled on the spot in a little ceremony meant to honor the nobleman's bravery. We still say a brave man has "guts" or "pluck" (a kind of intestine). Cowards, of course, are "gutless" or "lily-livered". We do not doubt the accuracy of Mr. Allen's descriptions of culinary preferences and aristocratic hunting etiquette but we find no evidence for his assertions about guts. If he were correct, then we would expect to find a French word which means both "intestines" and "bravery" as guts does. Unfortunately, no such word exists. There is a French phrase: il a cran which translates as "he has guts" but, literally, it means "he has groove". Just to muddy the waters, the similar French word crâne means "gallant" or, indeed, "plucky" and, entaille, a synonym of cran, is only one letter away from entraille, "intestine". There was an old dialect expression to have neither gut nor gall but, as far as we can determine, guts (plural), did not denote a character trait until the end of the 19th century. As late as 1893, a dictionary of slang considered guts unfamiliar enough to require explanation. Even so, neither of the two definitions given quite fit the modern usage: Put your guts into it... = Row the very best you can. He has no guts in him = He is a common rotter. [i.e., cad - M&M] Here, guts seems equivalent to "energy" in the first example and "integrity" in the latter. [We could have said "heart" and "backbone" - M&M] It is not until the 1920s that we find novels using the phrase you don't have the guts to mean "you don't have the courage". Even then, it is more American than British; the word gutsy means "courageous" in the U.S. but "gluttonous" in the U.K. Stewart Lee Allen's second attempt at etymology concerns plucky. Does this word indeed come from the pluck which means "a kind of intestine"? Well, first off, pluck is certainly "organ meat" but, rather than being "a kind of intestine", it is the collective name given to the heart, liver and lungs.* Jonathan Swift used pluck metaphorically (in 1710) to refer to his innermost being when he said "It vexes me to the pluck..." Around the same time, boxers were using pluck to refer to the heart as the seat of courage and by 1785, Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue explains he wants pluck as "he is a coward". The liver is suffused with blood and it is the blood which which provides this organ with pigment. A lily-livered (literally "white-livered") person is, presumably, deficient in this vital fluid. Far from deriving from French 17th century hunting customs, lily-livered had been in use in English at least a century earlier: Go prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, Thou Lily-liver’d boy - Shakespeare, Macbeth, 1605 Well, we don't know about you but all this has made us hungry. We're off to fry up some black pudding... " Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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