The Life Experience ~ Winter '10

[bloodyrosemccoy]

What I Learned Since The Winter Solstice:

• A “superegg” is a fake egg that is more appealing to birds than their own eggs.
• Cool Youtube comments, usually as rare as dragon eggs, seem to cluster around MST3k episodes. Or, if not cool per se, they are at least non-fuckwad comments.
• The Stepford Wives works better as a cultural idea than as an actual novel.
• Apparently there’s a “locker room etiquette” where you’re not supposed to be naked in a gym locker room where others can see you. I do not understand.
• The reason I’m so damn good at Super Mario World is because I played it nonstop from, roughly, 1991-1997. It’s not so easy to start a new Mario game.
• There is an interesting arc of goals for constructed language through history, starting with abstract languages attempting to find the True Universal Language, to an attempt to make languages meant to be easy to learn, to languages made because why the hell not.
• It is indeed possible to highlight all the italic-formatted text at once in a Word document. This is very good news for someone who wants to switch her document to manuscript format only after she’s written it.
• Also, turning the page to white-on-black text makes things a lot easier on the eyes.
• Gamma ray bursts are strong enough that we can detect them from NINE BILLION light years away.
• John Scalzi is fuckin METAL.
• So is Nancy Springer, in a completely different way.
• Latah may not be culturally-specific after all—Western medicine recognizes hyperexplexia, an exaggerated startle response, which sounds very similar to the description of the South Asian disorder latah.
• Dimetrodon was not a dinosaur. It was a large, prehistoric, finned lizardy thing. Fortunately for our sanity, this does not make Bert I. Gordon right, as Dimetrodon was more mammalish than lizardish and did not hang out in public parks masquerading as an alien Tyrannosaurus Rex.
• After a while, you really do get into a nice rhythm when you swim. This does take some practice, though.
• It takes practice to line up hems.
• Gauge and inner diameter ratio is an important thing to understand if you want to make chainmail.
• Printing out a novel-length manuscript, even single-spaced, takes forever.
• Jumpsuits will be in season this fall. It’s 2010, people!
• Always check the ingredients of the tea can you’re about to buy, lest you suddenly get surprised by the murderous stab of stevia and realize you just flushed ten bucks down the drain for a nasty artificial sweetener.
• A sort of epiphany: much of my actions throughout life have been dictated partly by ambient noise avoidance. It’s why I hate parties and refuse to go to gyms. Background noise makes me jumpy and nervous.

Comments

[sriti.livejournal.com]

Highlight all italics-formatted text at once? Tell me how! What other cool tricks do you know?

[stormteller.livejournal.com]

Ditto. This sounds a useful skill.

[blackbyrd2.livejournal.com]

I highlight the entire text and reformat to italic, and then back to plain. How do you do it?
Gamma ray bursts are so strong that if one happens in our galaxy, we're probably all dead.
Chainmail is much lighter if it's made from aluminum. However, you need aluminum wire which isn't tempered; in other words, annealed. I think the designation used to be T-1. (Tempered shouldn't be very common, but it's good to check bendability before buying.) Of course, it's not going to do such a good job at stopping blades as steel.
Dimetrodon was mammalish?? *cries* Everything I learned from Journey to the Center of the Earth is wrong!

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I'm doing chainmail jewelry, so heaviness is less of a factor.

Actually, a GRB would have to be aimed at us--we could get by if it was tilted another way. And I knew GRBs were amazing, but after reading Death From The Skies! I am even MORE amazed. I mean, power is one thing, but NINE BILLION LIGHT YEARS is, you know, REALLY REALLY FAR.

I know, Dimetrodon surprised me too, but my sister told me that it wasn't a dino, it was a finned lizard. I was horrified that B.I.G. might have been right until she added the part where it was kinda like a mammal. (And either way, passing off process shots of your pet iguana as T-rex is never gonna fly.)

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

*makes terrified warding signs vs. stevia*

[acrossthelake.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on the MST comments. My personal favorite recently was the one I saw yesterday while watching The Starfighters; "After the MANY phonecalls by this cock-holding father, I now know why NOTHING gets accomplished on Capitol Hill. As for this film's plot, I'm lead to believe it's all elaborately woven together with the objective of plugging the POOPY SUIT."

(Starfighters is one of my favorite MSTs because I am 12 years old and the poopy suits crack me up every time. Not to mention the refueling scene. I was literally in tears laughing the first time I watched that skit.)

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I liked people doing their Torgo impressions. Who knew there was a reason for alternating capital and lowercase? ("ThE mAsTeR wAnTs YoU bUt He CaN't HaVe YoU ...") Hell, even the Joel vs. Mike is no longer a battle, but a statement of personal preference!

Although I do like how every once in a while you get some goon demanding to know what the hell was with the guys at the bottom talking through the movie. Some things never change.

I think I blushed at that host segment. Although nothing tops "Touch The Llama."

[acrossthelake.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Touch the Llama was another one that made me cry from laughing so hard. To this day I can't remember if I've seen the entirety of the movie it's in but it remains one of my favorite sketches ever.

Although I do like how every once in a while you get some goon demanding to know what the hell was with the guys at the bottom talking through the movie. Some things never change.

Surely you can't be serious. O.o (*waits for it*)

[westrider.livejournal.com]

A sort of epiphany: much of my actions throughout life have been dictated partly by ambient noise avoidance. It’s why I hate parties and refuse to go to gyms. Background noise makes me jumpy and nervous.

I'm with you on that one. It's one of the reasons I'm looking to get out of Kitchen Work: With all the Refrigeration Units and Vent Fans in a commercial Kitchen, it's noisy enough that it gets very distracting and stress inducing. Gets me all twitchy and paranoid. When I can, I put on music, because ordered noise seems to help block it out and let me focus, but a number of people who are higher in the pecking order than I am don't like having music on while they work, so I can't always do that.

It's funny where I draw the line on that. Even fairly calm, predictable conversation (say, a TV show's dialogue) falls under "distracting ambient noise", but all my crazy GrindCore and Black Metal is "Intentional, Ordered Sound".

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

For me it seems to be an inability to tune things out. When I'm actively listening to something, like music, it's okay, but if it's just there in the background it's distracting.

[cougarfang.livejournal.com]

I'm exactly the opposite - I absolutely cannot work in the school library here because it is too distractingly quiet. I get bored and antsy, and I feel like my soul is being schlorped out of my ears. I need people and background noise around to tune out, and occasionally provide entertainment for a break when I get tired.

Also, re: superegg>
My Animal Cognition class touched upon the herring gull chick phenomenon of instinctively pecking at beak-like objects, with superstimuli eliciting faster and faster pecking... there was a progression from a model of a beak to a standard No. 2 pencil. Apparently, the criteria were "long, narrow, yellow, with a red dot at the back".
_Eeeeeeeeee

Couldn't find a relevant picture, but stumbled upon an interesting blog post along the way...

[marsdejahthoris.livejournal.com]

I have that too. It seems to be part of the Asperger's package... I can have panic attacks from auditory overload. Of course, I'm also unable to separate audio streams, so someone speaking to me is completely absorbed into the background.

Also, turning the page to white-on-black text makes things a lot easier on the eyes.

I believe hackers call that "Trog mode." :) It's pretty common if you've been working on a monitor for long stretches.

[westrider.livejournal.com]

Of course, I'm also unable to separate audio streams, so someone speaking to me is completely absorbed into the background.

I don't have that to quite the same extent, but it is a problem for me, particularly over the phone when there's noise on the line. It got rather worse when I ended up with hearing damage after forgetting my earplugs when going to a concert.

[westrider.livejournal.com]

For me, it seems to be related to the fact that I can (sort of) maintain two trains of thought at the same time. If there's only one thing I'm really working on, that backup part of my brain pays attention to the ambient environment, and since I tend to get distracted by anything that draws my notice, all the random ambient noise keeps pulling my attention all over the place.

But if I can keep that second train of thought locked on to the Music, it's all orderly and can just be experienced, while my primary train of though keeps on with what I'm actually doing.

[shadesofmauve]

I've *finally* realized that this is the main reason I hate long plane trips! The occasional murmurs of other passengers don't bug me that much, but the constant plane engine drone is aurally exhausting -- by the end of a trans-oceanic trip I feel like someone's been beeting my ears.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Gah, plane trips are the worst. I always bring earplugs, but they don't quite cut it. It's like having a dentist drill boring into your head for hours.

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

Printing out out of print game books, also takes forever and GOBS of ink becuase even in black and white, there are lots of pictures.

[nixve.livejournal.com]

For the record, Stevia isn't artificial. This doesn't exempt it from its bad qualities, though.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

As far as I'm concerned, it counts as artificial because it tastes artificial. But then I've always blurred the lines between natural and artificial anyway. ;)

[chaosvizier.livejournal.com]

A “superegg” is a fake egg that is more appealing to birds than their own eggs.

Sometimes, that is totally justified.

Gamma ray bursts are strong enough that we can detect them from NINE BILLION light years away.

And on an unrelated topic, every civilization in the galaxy has the exact same origin story for The Incredible Hulk.

It takes practice to line up hems.

It takes more to line up hens.

Printing out a novel-length manuscript, even single-spaced, takes forever.

That's why I always choose double-sided and two pages to a side. Still doesn't help if you're Robert Jordan. OH WAIT HE'S DEAD, MWAHAHAHAHA.

[westrider.livejournal.com]

It takes practice to line up hems.

It takes more to line up hens.

If you draw a chalk line on some cement or a board or something, and put a Chicken's beak on it, they stay there. I'm not sure exactly why it works, but they seem to think they're stuck to it or something, and it does work. I've done it before.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Mmm. Bacon eggs.

If you're Robert Jordan (or even Robert Jordan Mark 2, aka Branderson Sanderson), you have an entire van dedicated to delivering each manuscript.

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

Nancy Springer has a knack for rocking my world. Have you read "Larque on the Wing" or "Fair Peril"?

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I have not! So far I've just read Dusssie and the Enola Holmes books. But that's enough to blow me away already!

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

I haven't read those! I suspect "Larque" at least is out of print. But track it down-- trust me, it's worth your time. I first came across it as an audiobook back when I worked for NLS. It... blew my mind.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wastrel/]

A sort of epiphany: much of my actions throughout life have been dictated partly by ambient noise avoidance. It’s why I hate parties and refuse to go to gyms. Background noise makes me jumpy and nervous.

You'd probably get along with my boyfriend, I'd bet. We've moved to get away from noise pollution more than once, which I still think it made sense to do so, and we both find parties distasteful for the same reason. Some of us are just more indoorsy types than others, what can I say?

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I believe it. I hadn't realized just how jumpy I always get when noise happens till just recently, but it really explains a lot. I can totally understand moving to escape noise.