Small Talk: The Library

[Harvester]

I can't imagine doing my taxes with pencil and paper. Turbo Tax forever! I got my refund within a week. Also? It was a big refund this year, for the first time ever!

The Chyna kids are very bright, just like their mama.

I say yeah to delurkers. It took me years to delurk, but I am ever so glad I did.

[trudi-tru]

1 3/4 cats.

Huh?

Your little girl sounds incredibly mature and perceptive, Chyna. I wish I'd been more like her when I was a kid.

Hi casperchick now Wonderflonium! Nice to see you here.

[AnnieF]

One of Bol's cats is a superkitty who has only three legs (hit by a car years ago, lost one of her hind legs). She's pretty agile for only being 3/4 of a cat. ;)

Anyone doing anything fun this weekend? I've got to get the F-let to do homework, because his teacher assigned a fairly big reading project for spring break WHYYYYYYYYY. But everyone's back to school next week, hallelujah.

[Chyna]

Homework over spring break? That's cruel.

Tomorrow it's all sports day: Chynette is competing in a 3x3 basketball tournament at school (she barely knows how to play, but she's so tall, she was in demand when kids were putting together their teams, heh) and then a soccer game shortly after.

On Sunday, a friend is hosting a party for Sri Lankan New Year, which means that Mr. C will be in heaven with all the super-spicy Sri Lankan food and I will likely be eating the non-spicy mac 'n' cheese that said friend always makes for the kids at her parties. :)

[Boliver]

On Saturday night, the spouse and I will be volunteering in the kitchen on behalf of my stepson's high school dinner auction, and Sunday I opened my big mouth (big fingers by email?) and am carpooling with kids to a drum line competition a couple hours away in Riverside. In between those things, I hope to get caught up on Justified, and stretch out a bunch because my muscles feel locked up. And do some meth. I'm WAY behind in my meth consumtion for the quarter.

[Please accept my apologies!!] The spouse and I are very (happily) preoccupied with our participation with the Sunday Assembly, a deity free, doctrine free, and dogma free "congregation" for science-minded nonbelievers like us. It seems like it's taking over our lives: running an Earth Day table in Balboa Park, arranging our participation in the pride parade*, a conference in London we are attending at the beginning of May (Silver Fox' first trip abroad), my being the treasurer, not to mention every monthly "Assembly" being a performance piece. The main speaker for the next Assembly will talk on where Darwin got his ideas, and his band, The Galapagos Mountain Boys, will sing science-y songs. The TWoP-based gatherings aside, it's been a long time since I've felt like a part of something bigger and worthwhile, and it feels pretty darn good. We've been doing some charitable stuff, like taking donations for homeless teens and other groups, but it's time we do a larger, physical project.

* When I chaperoned some drum line kids to Las Vegas a couple weeks ago, we went to a store between the Luxor and Mandalay Bay that sells exclusively socks, and I bought some knee-high kelly green socks with the word SCIENCE running down the sides. That would be a pretty cool visual if a bunch of us wore those marching in the pride parade.

I promise not to go on and on about this in the future. I'm just pretty excited about it, and I know a lot of you are dedicated nonbelievers. These Assemblies are popping up all over, like in Portland and NYC and LA. Ahem, Darkpool.

[Wilowy]

Hey Scoobies here's a new thread if you're interested: http://forums.previously.tv/topic/4681-from-tv-to-web-to-movies-whedon/

It's a catch-all for Whedon works like Dr. Horrible, Much Ado, and everything else! 

[Barphe]

Hey, Bol, I am fascinated and LOVE hearing about your Sunday Assembly. I think if I weren't a rabbi, that would be my 'congregation' of choice. I mean, I am Jewish, and a god believer, and ok with that, but only because a person can be Jewish and an atheist (like a great number of my closest friends and family). I find that the most important parts of religious life are community and shared values and it sounds like you have that. 

I spent four hours gardening today. I got two thorns in my face, splinters on my shoulder and hands, I ache EVERYWHERE, and when I look outside, I see no difference. My neighbor drove by while I was working and asked if I was having fun. I said, "No, I hate gardening" and she looked surprised and asked why I was doing it. My only answer was, "I hate spending money, more." I really need to play (and win) the lottery.

Edited April 11, 2014 by Barphe

[Earl Is Dead]

With the exception of lousy homework over weekends and spring break, I hope everybody has a great weekend ahead. Enjoy your relaxation, sports practices, parties, and respective services.

Today was a rough one at work, and Monday is likely to be worse. The ruthless overlords who run my company decided last year some time that out plant would be closed. It'll be a long process that takes a few years and I will still have a job for quite a while, but on Monday the first round of layoffs this year are announced. Today those affected were told and it hit pretty hard that before I know it so many offices will be empty. Especially hard to see a man who's been there for 35 years be let go. I'm going to miss so many of them.

[Endeavour]

Nothing too exciting this weekend - seeing a friend for dinner and plan on catching up on some recorded shows.

I would like to see a drum line competition. Way back when I was in a marching band. We were small and bad but it was always fun.

It's great you found something you enjoy being a part of Boliver. It sounds like you're incredibly busy though.

Sorry to hear about the plant closing and layoffs, Earl. It's going to be a difficult environment to go to everyday.

[trudi-tru]

That's awful, Earl. Let go after 35 years? Harsh.

I'm glad you found something you're so excited about, Boliver. Please feel free to talk about it as much as you want.

I forgot you had a 3 legged kitty (thanks for the clarification Annie).

[KittenPokerCheater]

Earl, many many hugs and good vibes to you and your coworkers- what a terrible day.

I spent four hours gardening today. I got two thorns in my face, splinters on my shoulder and hands

Barphe, is it wrong that I got an old-school WB cartoon image of you dodging plants that shot thorns at you, and trees throwing splinters you way as you tried to prune?  Trust me, it was all very funny in my head.  I hope you are feeling better today.

It is very cool, Bol, that you have found a place that makes you and your Fox happy.  Love to hear more about it.  In my crazy mind, science and religion are not that far apart.  And if one is agnostic, like me, I feel that science actually brings the world closer to "god."  I'm nominally catholic, but for me, the holidays are more about being with one you love, as well as twinkly lights and chocolate eggs.

Speaking of taxes, it looks like I will owe the state of Connecticut about $6.76.  I only worked in that state about 2 days.  I owe my home state nothing.

Taxes are weird.

[Wilowy]

I looked but didn't see this posted. Sarah Michelle Gellar's awesome reddit AMA:

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1z4nu6/i_am_sara_michelle_gellar_also_known_as_the_girl/

[dusky]

My computer has died. I am posting from my kindle. This is a pain. I will be back when I have a frelling keyboard. I will then have a lot to say. Until then I will be reading and vibing.

Edited April 12, 2014 by dusky

[buffyjunkie]

Thanks for posting the Reddit link Willowy.  And may I say this response re: DB saying "it's ok

sara" rather than Buffy during I Will Remember You is one of the best things ever:

 

What!? Is that legit? Cause if you make me go watch that episode and this isn't true, I'll have you know I'm a marine sniper and I'll shoot you through the internet

[AnnieF]

Earl, I'm sorry, that sounds like a not-fun situation. :(

Barphe, I hope your gardening injuries are healing. That sounds like more not-fun. :(

dusky, that is also a not-fun situation. Boo. :( I demand a stop to all the not-fun. Cut it out, universe, dammit.

My 14-year-old son, the F-ster, has entered the stereotypical teenage-boys-eat-everything-all-the-time stage. It all seems to be going towards making him taller. He'll match his dad at 6' pretty darn soon. And he eats things that he never would've eaten even a couple of months ago -- chicken tikka masala? No way at Xmas time, now completely groovy and delicious and is there any more of this? It's simultaneously awesome that he's broadening his horizons and also alarming because it's true: there's never really an end to the eating. He's always hungry. There can never be enough snacks. It is expensive, blergh. Thank goodness for Costco (hi Silverfox!).

Thinking more about this, it occurred to me to ask y'all who've dealt with (or have been) teenage boys and the appetite from Hormoneland: does it level off? Taper? Anything? Heh.

Edited April 13, 2014 by AnnieF

[Wilowy]

Mine's 18, over six feet, and the legs remain hollow. He JUST went upstairs with a plate full of chicken tenders, a bag of hot wing (dipped in ranch!) flavored doritos, and a nestle quik chocolate milk. 

Not only could I never eat all that, it's that combination! We have salad fixins, we have snack food like yogurt and fruit, some nice cheeses... but nope. He goes for the most noxious mix of chemically imitation food substitutes we have in the entire kitchen - all together at once.

AND HE DOESN'T GAIN AN OUNCE!  

[AnnieF]

The F-ster is exactly the same, Willowy. My kitchen always has good food (I eat Paleo, kinda, mostly because eliminating gluten has had a positive effect on my chronic pain, but I don't make the rest of my family eat that way). There's fruit, there's nuts, there's bacon (cooked, crumbled, and stored in the fridge -- thx Bol for that idea), there's a rotisserie chicken, there's some leftover Indian takeout. And what does he eat? Frozen pizza, tortilla chips, and white bread. Dafuq, kid?

[Barphe]

So, I had to run errands (go to Costco) this afternoon, and in order to have my son come with me, I bribed him with a half hour of play at Chuck E Cheese AND a chocolate frozen yogurt afterwards. My parenting skills are lacking. 

[Chyna]

there's never really an end to the eating. He's always hungry. There can never be enough snacks. It is expensive, blergh.

 

Seriously. Chynette already eats as much as I do, often more. And all her growth is in the vertical direction (except for the horizontal growth of her feet). She's in 4th grade and taller than two of her friends' moms. At least *most* of her snacking is fairly healthy--she's not a sugar freak at all (and she gets that from her father).

[trudi-tru]

She's in 4th grade and taller than two of her friends' moms.

Gasp!

[Erratic]

Hugs to all. Or vibes. Vibes are better than virtual hugs.

So, my lacrosse team finally lost their first game this season to Colorado. However, as we've clinched first place overall with two more games left, I'm okay with the loss.

Why talk about lacrosse? Better than bitching about work.

Oh, and hey! Got a new BBQ. Very exciting, and just in time for spring.

Trivia is kicking my arse this month so far.

[cko]

Hah, arse.

I'm lounging around trying to stay awake to see the next stage of the eclipse. It's weird, my sleeping seems to be adjusting itself to earlier to bed, earlier to rise. For me, that means midnight to 6:30 or 7 am, which I realize doesn't mean "early" to everyone.

The thing with the Buffy quizzes is that it doesn't matter if I've seen the season, remember the shows, even loved the episodes. I still can't do well on the trivia. It's some weird snakebit thing in which in almost every other quiz, my average at guessing is pretty good. At Buffy quizzes, it's dismal. Dunno why.

[Wilowy]

Moved the Fargo posts to that forum.

[KittenPokerCheater]

Darn rain/snow (SNOW!) kept me from the moon.  Hopefully (snow?!) tonight it will be clear enough (snow!?) to see some red in the moon.

Seriously, it has to be tax day AND Snow?  In April?

I'm going to be groundhog hunting today.

 

ETA: Snow?!

[Erratic]

*Pats KPC's hand comfortingly*

I got snow too :/

Two more work days! Two more before a long weekend. Just two more days...

[Endeavour]

Snow and a nice layer of ice here as well. That's what I get for uncovering the patio furniture.

[Earl Is Dead]

No snow in my specific 'hood, but lots of rain yesterday and lots of ice this morning.  Add passing a doozie of an accident on my way to work this morning, and you get a lot of Groundhog Day moments I don't feel the need to relive from this winter.  *shudder*

Forgive my stupidity, but is there a spell-check feature on this forum?  I don't see one in the format buttons above.  I fear that spell-check and auto-corrects may have ruined me for life.

[Endeavour]

I think it depends on what browser you're using. If you're using Firefox, you need to right-click in the text field and choose English as the language. It will then spellcheck as you type. You only need to do that once.

With my phone it is auto-correcting but not spellchecking, and I can't get any useful posting or quoting features. They said the next mobile update should improve things. On the phone, I can no longer choose the full site option which was better.

[cko]

Nice and warm and sunny here. Well not at this moment, it is twilight. But still warm. *ducks*

Ructions in the Sherlock BBC fandom.  I'm not quite up for explaining it right now. Suffice to say, it's interesting and upsetting how a fringe element (Sherlock/John shippers, anti-Mary Morstan) can kind of turn you off to a whole fandom. Unfair, irrational, but seems to have happened. It makes me think there's something for me to learn, in this reaction, about stereotyping, but that lesson hasn't clarified itself yet.

Jeez. That kind of goes nowhere, doesn't it?

[Erratic]

That is a great and confusing sentence. I love it :)

[trudi-tru]

 

Nice and warm and sunny here. Well not at this moment, it is twilight.

Is it sparkling?

[cko]

Is it sparkling?

It kind of was, but not in *that* way.

That is a great and confusing sentence. I love it :)

:)

 

[Chyna]

Some shippers can be WAY too invested in their 'ships.

[KittenPokerCheater]

Sorry for the fanatical-ness over at Sherlock cko.

Thanks for your comfort erratic.  After this winter, I'm getting a little hysterical about snow.  

Is everyone having a okay holy week/passover/easter egg hunt/spring solstice week?  Or fun plans for the weekend?

[ZenLizzy]

We are headed into the city this weekend to get one last look at the dinosaurs before the dino hall renovation at the Natural History Museum. Have you gone by, Barphe? I'm so shocked that it's going to be closed for 5 freaking years. Like I said on fb, 5 years feels like a lifetime. It's so long that the year it's finished Jacob will be a teenager, Sofi will be a driver, and Ali will be able to legally purchase alcohol!

Chyna I need to get the American Girl book for Sofi. We have a 2 girls (it was 3 but one moved) in our neighborhood that are just awful to her and have been for years. I don't know why she tries to be friends with them, but they let her down every time. 

[AnnieF]

I keep forgetting that this weekend is another stupid holiday that requires that I go purchase stuff. Blech. I'll be going to Cost Plus tomorrow (they can keep trying to rebrand themselves as World Market, I'll keep calling them Cost Plus) to get candy from Germany and Japan, I suppose, because that's a tradition that I began years ago. Whyyyyyy did I do that, argh. I'm starting to really hate all the sugar holidays. Let's celebrate X! But how? I know, we'll eat A SHIT-TON OF SUGAR. Yummy. :/

Friday is the F-let's 11th birthday. Amazing.

[Chyna]

Happy birthday, F-let!

Chyna I need to get the American Girl book for Sofi. We have a 2 girls (it was 3 but one moved) in our neighborhood that are just awful to her and have been for years. I don't know why she tries to be friends with them, but they let her down every time.

 

Ugh, that sucks. One of the things I regret most is ever putting my time and energy into girls like that. My elementary school class was fairly small and a lot of the girls were in the mean-girl clique, but there were still girls who weren't and I should have just hung out with them.

Despite being even a bigger geek than I am/was, Chynette seems to be avoiding that trap--I think mainly because she embraced her geekdom early on and has sought out the kids who like the same stuff she does.

[Endeavour]

Long weekend ahead, KPC. Not sure if it will be fun. Lots of family time - always dicey - can go either way.

[Ace Hansen]

Suffice to say, it's interesting and upsetting how a fringe element (Sherlock/John shippers, anti-Mary Morstan) can kind of turn you off to a whole fandom.

it is my long held, and oft voiced, opinion that shippers Ruin Everything. Check any fandom and they're hard at work, ruining.

[romantic idiot]

*small voice* I'm a Buffy/Angel 'shipper and I didn't ruin it. I think. Don't think I managed to ruin  Glee with my St. Berry allegiance and TGW with my Will/Alicia preference. The latter two managed to ruin themselves. Okay, I blame a little bit of Glee on Klaine, but mostly on Ryan Murphy's crush on Darren Criss. 

Maybe it's because my 'ships never land? I should find more popular 'ships. 

In other news, work has been heavy so I've been feeling apathetic about everything else. But i"ve been reading and vining. And feeling sad about Mean Girl-ness. That's one thing having books for best friends (and being a TV Addict) saved me from in high school. Which was many years ago. Yikes. 

ETA  because, ironically enough, ship does not equal ruin. 

Edited April 18, 2014 by romantic idiot

[Wilowy]

I'm a shipper too for several shows, though not crazy-levels. I think most of us are okay. There's just that certain small percentage that get freaky about it. 

[cko]

I'm a sometime shipper; not so much for the show itself but because I enjoy fanfic, and so much of it is, you know. But there is always that fringe element that seems to want to take their ship into real life? I mean the real life of the show, which isn't, of course, real as I do realize, I swear it.

And in other real/unreal news, I just took a survey in which I had to choose the answer "I have not interacted with President Cheese online." Hahahha.

Sorry about the mean girls, ZL (and Chyna.) Right on for Chynette, and Happy Birthday to the F-let!

[trudi-tru]

Happy birthday to the F-let! (former)MM kids are growing up so fast!

Nothing special planned for the long weekend, except eat, eat and then eat some more.

Boo to mean girls.

5 years for the renovation of a single hall seems like a really long time.

Edited April 18, 2014 by trudi-tru

[Wilowy]

 

I'm a sometime shipper; not so much for the show itself but because I enjoy fanfic

Right there with ya. :) 

[Erratic]

I like shipping too*, but I hate Crazy Shippers. I was following a twitter conversation the other day between a show runner and some shippers (small 's') and it was fun and challenging within realms of normality, then one Crazy Shipper started going off on the show runner and calling the writers crap and wishing that this coulple wouldn't get shafted all the time, and so on. This effectively lumped all the other shippers into the same basket as Crazy Shipper and shut down the conversation.

Crazy Shippers be crazy.

(And I know that at least one person in here knows of what I speak and was mortified by it, poor thing)

Ships I have sailed:

Mulder and Scully

Grissom and Sara

Castle and Becket

John and Aeryn

Callie and Arizona

The Doctor and Rose

Lorelei and Christopher (right?)

And the list goes on, but these ships were/are the hooks for those shows for me. It is a smart tool of show runners especially in long running series that don't otherwise have a logical flow from week to week in terms of story line or arc.

Edited April 18, 2014 by Erratic

[mstaken]

Lorelei and Christopher (right?)

You're so not alone! I'm begging you to come visit the Gilmore Girls Unpopular Opinions thread :)

I shipped Buffy/Angel, though I can't say I'm still as enamored with them as I used to be, and The Office's Jim/Pam (though primarily before they got together.)  And as someone who's about a million years late to the X-Files, I agree with those who find it hard not to root for Mulder/Scully, though I'm fine that we didn't see much of that play out on screen. 

Overall, like many of you, 'shipping only bugs me when it's divisive, contentious, and at the exclusion of caring about and discussing *any* other aspect of the show. 

[Chyna]

I'm always really impressed with writers who have the ability to make me go along with whatever ship they're writing about. LIke on Friday Night Lights: The characters were in high school, so it made sense for the various couples to get together and break up repeatedly, and the writers did such a great job with that, I was always with them. I'd be sad to see a favorite couple split, but the writing made it feel like it needed to  happen.

And of course, they never messed with Coach and Tami, because Coach+Tami4EVA.

[Ace Hansen]

I was mostly kidding about shippers - don't be offended by my dry sense of humor! Mstaken sums it up well - I get irked by fans who focus exclusively on their ship and act like inappropriate jerks about it. Especially when they ship a relationship that's not canon and act entitled to seeing it become canon and throw tantrums if anyone associated with the show suggests the ship isn't going to beome canon. I'm mostly thinking of Dean/Castiel shippers for Supernatural and Stiles/Derek for Teen Wolf. I think Stiles/Derek is cute in fanfic but there's no reason for weekly meltdowns on Tumblr just because the show won't go there.

I root for hot people on my TV hooking up all the time for viewing fun, but the only ship I ever really got invested in was John/Aeryn. Sigh!

[Erratic]

Sigh indeed :)

[Chyna]

Especially when they ship a relationship that's not canon and act entitled to seeing it become canon and throw tantrums if anyone associated with the show suggests the ship isn't going to beome canon. I'm mostly thinking of Dean/Castiel shippers for Supernatural and Stiles/Derek for Teen Wolf. I think Stiles/Derek is cute in fanfic but there's no reason for weekly meltdowns on Tumblr just because the show won't go there.

 

OMG, WORD to that. I quit a few Leverage comms on LJ because some people got SO riled up about Eliot/Parker. I mean, yes to hot people doing hot things together (even though I will always be a hardcore Parker/Hardison girl), but there was NOTHING in canon to indicate that E/P would ever happen. P/H was always the clear endgame.

There were also a lot of Eliot/Nate shippers, and that just squicked me out since Nate was always something of a father figure to Eliot. Ew.