quote:Imagine if 9:11 were your birthday. How do you suppose it would feel when that day rolls around and instead of celebration you find the whole world is in mourning?
True story: I may have already told this story but here it goes...
I wanted to do something special for our 10th anniversity. I started putting a little bit of money away, every chance I got, for a couple of years. Finally I had enough for a trip to Hawaii and planned on giving it to her on her birthday. And what day would that be, you may ask.
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I lose the plot when it skips to a new page.
The main personal decoration in my work space is a bunch of postcards (all sent by me to my usual coworker) and a baseball-themed calendar (provided by said coworker). Other than that, everything is utilitarian, needed for the job, and so on.
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I have a diaper next to my laptop. It's staring at me. I feel like it's related to the money I could be saving with Geiko.
Posts: 3687 | Registered: Jan 2007
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I had a workspace, once... it was surrounded by piles and piles of books, plus an assortment of random drawings done by my Girl Scouts, picture collages and lists of funny quotes.
Posts: 715 | Registered: Nov 2007
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Methods for getting people to believe you (as good as, if not better than, proof). A collection of proof techniques that will prove invaluable to both mathematicians and members of the general public.
PROOF TECHNIQUE #1 – ‘Proof By Induction’ Obtain a large power transformer. Find someone who does not believe your theorems. Get this person to hold the terminals on the HV side of the transformer. Apply 25000 volts AC to the LV side of the transformer. Repeat step (4) until they agree with the theorem.
PROOF TECHNIQUE #2 – ‘Proof By Contradiction’ State your theorem. Wait for someone to disagree. Contradict them.
PROOF TECHNIQUE #3 – Fire Proof Summon all your inferiors for a departmental meeting. Present your theorem. Fire those who disagree.
PROOF TECHNIQUE #4 – The Famous Water Proof State your theorem. Wait for someone to disagree. Drown them. This is closely related to the ‘bullet’ proof, but is easier to make look like an accident.
PROOF TECHNIQUE #5 – Idiot Proof State your theorem. Write exhaustive documentation with glossy color pictures and arrows about which bit goes where. Challenge anyone to not understand it.
PROOF TECHNIQUE #6 – Child Proof State your theorem. Encapsulate it in epoxy and shape it into an ellipsoid. Put it in a jar with all the other proofs (one with one of those Press-to-Open lids). Give it to a professor and challenge him to open it.
PROOF TECHNIQUE #7 – Rabbit Proof Generate theorems at an altogether startling rate, much faster than anybody is able to refute them. Use up everybody else’s paper. Run away at the slightest sign of danger.
PROOF TECHNIQUE #8 – Fool Proof State your theorem. Invite colleagues to comment. If they don’t agree, exclaim loudly, “You fools!”
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I suppose you could call where I am right now my "workspace," but since I don't really "work" here (except the occasional words to a story), and I don't make a living here, it doesn't count.
Other than that, it's jam-packed with papers, books, magazines, disks, file folders, and whatnot. I try to clean it occasionally, but it usually gets back the way it was in a couple of weeks.
Actually I call it my "office," but it's really another bedroom (one of three). (The "other" other bedroom is my "library," and that's in nearly-as-bad a state as my "office.")
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Sweet! I wish I had a whole room I could devote just to my books... it might make it easier for me to find the rest of my junk!
My most recent roommate and I had so many books at one point that we had six bookcases between the two of us, not counting the piles of our (combined total of) about 300 library books and the closet that we crammed full of boxes of books that we got from a retiring professor (we had to bring in the minivan to pick them all up from his office.) During our free time, we took to building book castles in our empty floor space :-)
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My dream workspace, which I will build if I ever find myself with a room I can devote to it in my house (and, um, also a house)
Steel whiteboards. I can write things on the walls and magnet other things. It will be fantabulous. That is the true reason why I want to make a living as a writer, so I can justify such a thing.
Also the proof I use is the Demmuggledited one: State your theorem Then if anyone tries to argue against you start talking in a bizar way, act as if you are making sense continue till you have your opponent questioning their own sanity. (helps if you have others to agree with you're jabber)
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My books have spread out through the house. I live a Collyer Brothers lifestyle...someday they'll find me crushed under a pile of books that fell over on me when I dived in and tried to dig out the one I wanted to read.
I figure the total number of books / magazines in my house is approaching ten thousand. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking.
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So I read the topic in the writing section on "The Sun Must Die" and I thought - yes! I woke up at 4:01 A.M. this morning, and the sun was trying to shine. Die, sun, die!!
Do they have seasonal defective disorder for people who get too much sunlight?
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BoredCrow has been on vacation recently and debhoag's got two novella/novelettes coming out. I don't know what's up with TS. Has skadder posted?
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Totally random. Today at the library, I got my hands on a 500-year-old book that had been severely damaged during the WWII bombings of London. Just the memory of the way the thing had been literally shredded still gives me the chills. And the saddest part? I opened the flyleaf to find a 19th century note declaring the book to be a rare "perfect copy" of the work. Not anymore... Posts: 715 | Registered: Nov 2007
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I'm having a rotten day, and I am fishing for some sympathy. I lost the keys to a loaner car, and so I've been stuck at home all day long until my husband can get to the dealer and get another set of keys. Whether or not I have anywhere to go, I hate feeling trapped.
And I am on Day 3 of midsomer madness, and it's very obvious that all the great scenes I have planned out in my head are not the same thing as a plot.
What I need is to sit down with someone who will ask me the tough questions.
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Do you think the keys could be in the car or did you drop them somewhere? If you lost it, I hope the key didn't have a microchip in it.
Posts: 2003 | Registered: Jul 2008
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Sorry, Unwritten. I hate losing stuff. Hope your day gets better!
Tough questions: Who is God? What is the meaning of life? Are we more than just a bag full of chemicals and electrical impulses? (I know my answers, but many would not agree.)
Oh, wrong type of questions...
So, um, what does your character want? What will get in his way? How will he fail? How will he change? Who will stand against him? How will he fail again? What builds up to the grand climax? What will be his last big struggle, where he saves the day?
If you need tough questions, I'm your man. Of course, we'll have to arrange a time for them--I've got a busy day today (headed toward Brunswick to do some work), but tomorrow will be better.
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I once lost my mind on main street. Is that what you found in your basement? I once found a hobo spider in my basement, those things are freaky, I had to kill it fourteen times before I could sleep that night. Also I was cleaning out behind my greenhouse that collapsed and after a few layers i noticed the ground was black . . . and moving. It was a hoard of black widows. I sprayed so much poison that nothing will live there for generations. I still feel them crawling up my ankles, into my socks up my pant leg.
Thanks alot for bringing up those traumatic memories.
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I found the car keys last night. They were at the bottom of my pants drawer. I have no idea how they got there, since the pants I had been wearing were in the laundry, not in the drawer.
And philocinemas, your "I hope it didn't have a microchip" was an exact quote from the salesman who had let me use the car in the first place.
My son lost his Nintendo DS for a couple of days recently in much the same way. I was not too happy with him at the time, but I certainly was relieved when he found it. My 2-day lecture to him while searching for it was worse punishment for him than the possibility of never seeing the game system again.
I think I've told my black widow story before, but for those who haven't heard it...
I was walking through my apartment about 11-12 years ago and thought I saw a piece of lent on the floor in a darkened hallway. I picked it up and walked to the bathroom to throw it in the trash. When it started moving, I dropped it in the sink. I saw that it was a spider, so I proceeded grab some tissue paper to smash it without examining it in detail first. After I lifted up the flattened arachnid, I saw that it had a red hour-glass on its underside. I called the emergency room at my local hospital and asked if I would have felt it if it had bitten me. They said I might not feel it and that I should probably come in. I spent an hour and a half in the emergency room, without admitting myself, to see if I showed any symptoms of being poisoned. I never did, so it apparently never bit me in the 20-30 seconds I carried it through my apartment.
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The other day, my husband decided to burn a black widow with hairspray and a lighter. No joke, the thing made a noise like one of those screamer fireworks. So. Gross. Plus it smelled really vile and bubbled and stuff. I do not recommend this method of killing a black widow spider to anyone.
philocinemas, I'm glad you escaped your ordeal with no bite. My mom was bitten by a black widow. She said she could feel the poison burning and it traveled up her veins. No fun at all. Plus, she said that wasn't even the worst part. It's a neurotoxin so it made her anxious for weeks, like, pace-around-the-house-turning-lights-on-and-off-semi-nuerotic anxious. Crazy stuff.
On another note, I just have to say that I love reading posts in this forum because everyone proofreads their comments.
Other forms you seesoooooo many psots that lookc more liake this adn nooone seems to careat all.
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"Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?"
No idea where this first came from, but even after several years I'm still amazed I can read the thing.
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I was just thinking this morning about writing a story about a man who kept himself in his house. He ate mice and spiders, which inhabited his house in abundance. I am sure most of us don't want to think about how many critters share our living space. (Shiver down my spine)
Posts: 1608 | Registered: Feb 2009
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Owasm, ever heard of a character named Renfield?
Edited to add: come to think of it, the story he's in is in the public domain (I think), and writing a story from his point of view could be done. Whether I (or anyone else, for that matter)think it should be or not is another question, however.
[This message has been edited by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (edited June 05, 2009).]
Their posts are grouped in clumps. They participate then go away. Sometimes they return for another peek.
The curious thing I found about the other five names is that you see them everywhere else on hatrack. Full time members they greet, comment in F&F, and offer opinions in the Writing section. Just not here.
quote:Wow Snapper, are you an accountant at heart?
Ugh. I considered becoming one of those. I believe I have the patience and organizational talents that fit but when I got a brief look I came to the conclusion that it was a Stepford job. The kind that turns you into a perfect citizen but you lose the thing that makes you human. Like fun. My brother proved my point when he became one. He used to be such a happy and an alive guy. Now he’d make a nice cardboard cut out for a politician. He has this pasted on smile, is always guarded on what he says and is careful to not make a public spectacle. He doesn’t take anything that could ever be construed as a risk anymore. No more dancing with a lamp shades on his head these days. His house is three times the size of mine though. Maybe he has it right and I don’t.
quote:Thanks to all of you who frequent Hatrack; what a wonderful forum!
And thank you, MrsBrown. We really enjoy your company. A late joiner that has dove right into the thread. Another is Kitti she first joined at post 324 but didn’t post her second until post 427. She posted 30 more of the posts between then and post 700. That made her responsible for 11.1 % of the posts in that space. That’s Robert Nowall territory!
[This message has been edited by snapper (edited June 05, 2009).]
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My parents just acquired a cat. It walked up, my mother started feeding it...it lives at their house now.
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A guy I knew in my Internet Fan Fiction community went by the name "Renfield." Hey, are you hanging 'round here under another name?
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
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In high school I once had a math teacher tell me she would staple my tongue to the tongue of the boy across from me if we weren't quiet during her evaluation. At least your supervisor just made you move.
[This message has been edited by Unwritten (edited June 06, 2009).]
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