Indiana just went blue.
Indiana, with 85.3% reporting and neither Lake nor Marion county finished:
McCain: 49.7%
Obama: 49.2%
Ken@282 (and anyone else who was wondering):
Long lines at poll closing time means a delay in counting, apparently.
Also about Indiana's too close to call: Marion County, which contains a) 1/8th of the state's population and b) a lot of the state's left-leaning voters, was at 2.2% until the last update and showing a slight McCain lead. It is now at 7.9% and showing a significant Obama lead, and I would guess that it will continue to be blue.
If anyone's interested in watching Indiana, there's a map on the the Star's home page with results. (Also the results of our gubernatorial, which so far aren't going as well, but no Indy proper votes are counted yet, so I'm hopeful.)
Yikes. Scary, but it sounds like everything's more or less okay, and I'm very glad to hear it. My well wishes for a good and easy recovery. Thankfully with quick medical attention that should be the case. Heck, my grandfather had a heart attack when he was in his 50s and he's in his 80s now and still healthy, for a nice optimistic anecdote for ya. :)
Hospitals may be boring but as someone else said, if it's boring, that's a good sign. Be well, Teresa.
Max@16
"I watched Fullmetal Alchemist on the Cartoon Network and was pleasantly surprised to get good voice acting in a dubbed anime. Usually I borrow DVDs from friends, turn on the English subtitles, and switch to the Japanese voice actors."
The fan prejudice against dubs was something I used to agree with, because the early dubs were, in a word, horrendous. But these days? These days, dubs are usually in the range of "acceptable to extremely good".
This is good for me, because if I do find the English voice acting to be good, I get to focus on something besides that bottom couple inches of the screen. Oh, in a couple cases I still prefer that over listening to the English (Utena's dub is awful; Lain's is acceptable but not great), but mostly I generally go with the English versions. In Cowboy Bebop's case, I actually think the English version is significantly better, in fact.
I turn the subtitles on anyhow, though, just so I can have that translation, too. It can be interesting to compare.
Holly@650
"I say again that he has a good heart, and to jump on him over his punctuation because he rushed too quickly to Lanaia's defense is uncalled for. He was hurt by it."
Um. I really, really don't think anyone jumped on his punctuation because he was defending Lanaia. They jumped on his (lack of) punctuation because what he wrote was almost impossible to read. I actually didn't even figure out he was defending Lanaia until people with more patience than I have for trying to decipher that block of text started responding to him.
Also, you really don't need to aspire to be a writer to have or need basic writing skills. If you're participating in a written forum, it's a good idea to be able to make yourself reasonably clear.
There's a certain reasonableness-gone-haywire in corporate culture that this is a prime example of.
There's really two bits to that particular attitude, but they're related, IMO.
The one not shown here is "It's always possible to do more work with the same people, or the same amount of work with fewer people, by working smarter." Now, if you take out the word 'always', this is actually reasonable -- very often processes need a good overhaul and there's often some way to reduce the time it takes to do a given task, particularly in a business that's incorporated new technology recently. Eventually, of course, it gets silly -- I expect that should the people who believe that 'always' is the right word be put in charge of a construction project, they would end by having one guy with a hammer out there on the skyscraper construction site and wonder if there was a way to eliminate him, too.
The second, of course, is "There's always some way to reduce costs and therefore increase profit." I'd say this is the thinking that went into the original letter. Again, without the word 'always', this isn't such a bad thought, and when paired with the first part and someone who understands the notion of small changes and waiting for results, you can end up with a company that can handle more business with the same number of people, making more money. If the company is a good one, they may even pass some of that on to the workers*.
Of course, again, there's that 'always'... which leads to hare-brained ideas like this.
The return letter from Rakusin was a true work of art. The pair really ought to be printed and handed out to anyone with a upper-manager position in a corporation.
(*For a while, a place I used to work actually had the right combination of cost-cutting and process-improving -- and they were prone to giving twice-yearly bonuses to people just for sticking around, plus the odd performance bonus. Alas, they eventually started taking it further than I thought was reasonable, which seems to usually be the case.)
Man... I haven't bought a WWN in a while, but I used to get them if I stopped off for groceries on the way home, especially if I was just grabbing something to eat right then and wanted something to read. I classified it as the least expensive humor magazine I could buy on a whim...
I started wondering a while back if they were in trouble when I saw stories repeat within months, but I didn't expect them to go under. Now I'll have to go back to Mad magazine and see if they've improved again, durnit.
I still think of Frango Mints as a Chicago thing, despite the origin. I was one of the people who was really ticked when they moved production out of the city, and I haven't eaten a Frango mint since 1999.
You know, the more I read of this thread, the more I think I was actually pretty lucky with my parents... even considering my issues with my mother. Of course, they're younger than some of the folks being mentioned (I was the reason they got married, and yes, it was quite young), which may make a difference.
I did grow up before the worst of the PROTECT THE CHILDREN scares started, which helped -- the first one I remember being aware of that seemed a little overprotective was Lawn Jarts, and by comparison to stuff today that was pretty mild. Thankfully, my friends who are parents seem to be reasonably cautious while not being prone to panic... I have me some sensible friends. They might be a bit more cautious than my folks or theirs were, but not to the "put the kid in a bubble" extent by any means (and in fact several are actively against that notion).
While living with my mom, I was what was then referred to as a latchkey kid; my Mom worked a lot of night shifts, in fact, first as a waitress and later doing typesetting. This meant I wasn't just home alone til 5 or whatever... she didn't come home from work 'til after my bedtime. During the years I lived with my dad and stepmom I was a teen, and I had a fair amount of freedom -- my Dad would ask me where I was going and who I'd be with, sure, and I had a curfew, naturally (about an hour before the official one), but I started taking public transport to school at 12 and my dad knew I knew my way around, since he'd, well, taught me.
My adult relationship with my dad is a lot easier than some folks', it seems... we actually agree on a lot of politics. He grew up a Chicago Democrat and by golly he still is one... which makes him somewhere nearer moderate than not. We have our disagreements, but they're friendly. His worst trait is some lingering racism, but considering when he was brought up and by whom it's fairly mild, and it's better than it used to be by far... when it comes to individual members of Ethnicity X he's generally non-racist, but oddly still manages to retain some racism about the groups as a whole.
Interestingly, he does watch Fox News, but he also watches CNN and local news stations, and generally thinks the media as a whole hypes things up too much.
I know he's quite unhappy with a lot of the decisions our government makes... and personally, I suspect that some of what makes him more prone to really thinking through things instead of taking what's fed to him is that he was in the service during Vietnam. He did not himself go there but a lot of his service buddies did, and it's something that he talks about infrequently but usually in the context of current events.
#118: Sorry, I'm not arguing about the basis behind the words, I'm arguing about the word, so most of what you wrote I'm leaving unaddressed.
The word is plural. Whether or not it's standard usage for a word meaning "gods" or just an odd usage for singular isn't my argument. The ending used is a marker of a plural word.
And, since Xopher quoted a sentence in English, naturally I was talking about the verb in English.
This is not a religious argument from my point of view, and I don't see why anyone had to go and turn it into one. I didn't read Xopher to say "Yay, the Bible promotes my viewpoint about multiple gods!" I read him to say that the idea that the sentence could theoretically be read that way struck his sense of whimsy.
Also, if that last paragraph is not simply about Xopher's religious leanings, you've made a big mistake about mine.
Naomi@#114: Not only is Xopher correct*, but in this case, the verb would be no help; 'created' would be used either way. Politicians created a mess, for instance, while I created this sentence.
[*You could argue the English usage of the word could be classified as a collective noun, but the actual originating word is, without doubt, plural.]
Used judiciously and infrequently in a TV series, the "n hours/days earlier" thing works for me. I've seen it done well in X-Files and Angel. Once it starts getting used regularly, it loses any impact it had, and did I mention I stopped watching BSG? (Of course, at certain points in the series I stopped watching X-Files and Angel, too, but much later, relatively.)
I will read a certain number* of beginning pages of pure description and/or character introduction if it's at least well-written, trusting that the good writing means that the establishment will help support whatever conflicts are coming. Since interpersonal/inter-family/internal conflict are all things that really work better when you understand the people to some degree, it makes sense sometimes to start with them. The sooner you can throw in the hints of something being not-at-all-well, the better, of course.
[*Not a fixed number, obviously. Sooner or later, either they get to the conflit or I say "Bored now".]
Obviously I will always give more room to an author I do know and like to establish the story than one I don't, but writers I don't know who have a flair for words get a lot of slack, too.
I worry about the pace of my own novels, subsequently, as they are often much more about the people than the plot.
I read quickly, myself, which is why I re-read books often. It's very rare that I book I finish does not get at least one re-reading. Possibly if I were a slower reader, I might end up a bit pickier about openings, but some days I just really need something to read. :)
Windycon's best and most reliable party the last time I went was... the people sitting in the lobby and/or con suite. (The lobby was mostly smokers and people who tolerate the smoke; the con suite for those who don't/can't.)
Last time I attended was the last year at the old Hyatt, though. I've no clue what, if anything, the move to a new hotel has done to that sort of thing. But, quite seriously, the con suite and/or the smokers' congregation area, depending on one's tastes, tend to be a good place meeting people who are relaxing between Doing Things. Parties are also good but tend to be louder, though people still talk, of course.
Gnus are a little heavy to carry around, though. Unless we're going to raise miniature ones.
====
I agree Old Jarhead's post is extremely well-thought out and makes good sense.
I've been close to gunfire, though never had it directed at me, nor had a gun held on me. I've lived in some pretty dicey neighborhoods, though. Ones where you know which rooms are least likely to accidentally contain bullets, for instance, and move there when the nightly gunfire starts.
Closest I've been is a gunfight that started in an alley, say... 100 feet or so away from me. I didn't take time to really look. I teleported to my front door instead. Or at least ran far faster than I realized I could -- I think it took maybe 3 seconds for me to cover the 30 or 40 yards to the door.
So, I can't say how I'd react if faced with someone with a gun who was, if not intent on shooting me, at least potentially willing to. I'd like to think that if I knew the person was going to shoot, I'd try something like rushing him just in hopes my largish mass would a) protect me and b) knock him over. But I don't know if I could.
In part this is because working retail jobs has drilled into me the idea that you cooperate with the person with the gun, should it happen. In a robbery, that's probably the best thing you can do: open the drawer, hand over the money, let them take what goods they want, and hope they aren't crazy.
Obviously, a madman intent on shooting whomever is in their path is a far different proposition. But whether or not I could recognize that was what was going on and not freeze up, well, until and unless it happens to me, I'll never know.
As far as gun ownership goes, I refuse to have one. I don't like 'em, I don't want them around me, I don't even want to learn to shoot one. I've had rudimentary gun safety taught me, but it didn't involve handling a gun. "The gun is always loaded even if you don't think it is.", "Don't point it unless you mean it."... that sort of thing. On the off chance I were to allow a gun in the house, there'd be a gun locker.
But I won't tell someone else not to own one. They exist, I can't change that, so the best I can hope for is good education about them (hence the suggestion in the other thread) and that more people who have them are sane than not.
I'm against arming any group of people who are undergoing a lot of stress but not monitored for it or trained how to handle it, thanks*. I really doubt that arming the student populace would make incidents like this less deadly, frankly.
(*As distinctly opposed to police, who while they are in a high-stress job, both are watched for signs of extreme stress and given a good support system for it and -- very much as importantly -- given some very strong guidelines on when it's okay to fire their guns. It may not work 100% of the time but it's a heck of a lot safer than none of those measures being in place.)
In my ideal world, guns would not exist and their very concept would never have been imagined, of course, but since this isn't my ideal world, I'm generally in favor of things that makes people less likely to use them as a solution.
I sometimes wonder if school-run mandatory gun safety classes, including what happens when you mess up, might not be a bad idea. The people I know with what seem to me the sanest treatment of guns seem to all have had either early or prolonged exposure to gun safety and most of them have seen a gun's effects in action, whether it be hunting or active military service or knowing someone who was shot or volunteer or paid work in a hospital. Or just knowing that some kid down the street was out playing when the gangbangers decided to have a shoot-out on the corner (and yes, that's personal experience, and no, the kid wasn't physically hurt, thankfully, but still).
Much as I hate to make much of anything mandatory, in this case it seems worth considering.
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