Personally always ride with a helmet, and own a couple of spares to loan in case someone I loan a bike to doesn't have a helmet. I can be pretty strict about it. My father died of a brain injury from biking; my husband lived through a pretty serious accident because he had a helmet on. I'll admit I may be overemphasizing the risk, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.
Around here (college town in the midwest), the people I know how bike a good amount wear helmets. I've noticed that bikers I see around who wear helmets are more likely to be predictable and follow traffic laws. I take helmets as a sign that the bicyclist rides enough to have thought through dangers.
(The nitpicking crank in me wants to point out that first names can still be used to correlate gender in databases. As I say, the chief danger is the bigotry, and not the databases.)
My mother's thesis involved determining the percentage of homesteaders that were women using the original applications. There wasn't a gender block on the form, so she had to go off of first names. Jan was the one I heard her complain about the most. Which is probably fair turn around to her, as she deliberately gave me an ambiguous name, and then spelled in with the normally male way.
One of the things I appreciated when filling out my marriage application in Canada was that the blocks were Applicant 1 and Applicant 2 (I got to be 1).
I'm pretty sure I meant my comment at #12 to be in the spam thread. Sorry.
When I lived in Japan, there was a store on my way home that always had a bin of random shirts for sale for 500 Yen. Many had amusingly mangled English writing on them, and the price was justifiable because I could buy it with a single coin. My favorite has picture of a muscle car on it, and "Firebird - Don't Try to Keep up with the Joneses".
Pepsi is also rebranding Mountain Dew (again) and it is now Mtn Dew. I am sad (and an addict, so I'll still buy it).
The 1996 winners of the IgNobel Prize for Public Health proved that inflatable dolls are only safe from sexually transmitted diseases if not shared. I suspect this also applies to Real Dolls.
flowery at 756: Sounds like a tasty idea. Most of the recipes I found recommend piercing or halving the cherries, and making sure to include the pits. I would add sugar, probably an equal weight as the cherries. Finally, it will take a while to soak - 1 to 3 months.
I think I might have finally solved my jeans fitting issue.
Every pair of jeans I tried on was to tight in the thighs, even when the hip and waist were fine. I kept going to Goodwill and trying on jeans. I finally was down to one pair that fit (a pair of irregular Levis of unknown size and style, so I couldn't just buy more of them).
I think the problem is that I prefer the look of low waisted flared jeans. And despite what size the waist is, the thighs are tiny. I'll just buy regular jeans and add gores to flare them.
Ajay @ 32:
More funeral homes should do Tailgate Wakes. It sounds like a lot of fun.
Brennen @ 33:
Yes.
Brennen at 3:
My father-in-sin drives a hearse to Winfield with the same idea. Terrible gas mileage, but was cheaper to buy than an RV. It has a lot fewer miles on it than a comparable ambulance. It is just big enough for a bed in the back, with electrical hookups for a fridge (diabetic) and CPAP.
I voted early (Lawrence, KS). I'm tempted to walk past my polling place to see what the lines are like. Reports around town are good turn out, but not long lines. Good news is that more younger people are voting (college town).
Sad I didn't get an "I voted sticker" when I did early voting. I still have my sticker from the primaries (August, post presidential), and I might just put it back on.
My nose confuses me. I smell things no one else does, and not sure if it is sensitive or I'm hallucinating smells. But they often send me down memory alleys.
I love the smells of rains. Beginnings of thunderstorms smell different then endings of thunderstorms, and still different from fall rains. I especially love light sunlit rain smell.
I try to deny my materialistic urges, but in the end, I get sentimental easily. And I gather stuff. I feel guilty wanting a bigger house, especially when I remember the tiny cottage I shared with my family as a kid (I drive past it about once a week for some reason or another). But little of it is irreplacable. I would get over it, I suspect.
But then there's Chubby. He's my childhood stuffed animal, the one I've loved since I was a baby. He might have to get stuffed back in the jump bag.
Paula Lieberman @ 254
I've been annoyed at the lack of reporting on the aftermath of Ike. Sadly the news can only keep track of a couple of stories, and the popular consensus was that it wasn't a bad storm. However, at least 300 still missing, according to CNN today. I feel bad them and their loved ones.
On languages and hot springs -
I spent two years in Japan, stationed there with the Navy. To my shame, I only learned a little Japanese.
One weekend, I went up to a small inn in Nagano to see a shipmate get married. Half the guests were from the ship, half were teachers at the school where her husband taught English. It was the only wedding I've been to with drinking during the ceremony.
After dinner, we all went out to a hot spring. While there, we were approached by three older ladies, curious what we were so happy about. None of us knew much Japanese, the ladies knew little English. But through mime we told them of the wedding, and they offered congratulations and luck to the unmarried girls of our party.
Currently molding a batch of marzipan into leaves. I bottled up two new cordials last week, amaretto (which isn't quite amaretto, but tasty) and 44 (coffee-orange flavored rum). I finished stringing up my inkle loom tonight, hopefully I can show it off to my mother this weekend (I think it is something she would enjoy playing with). Mom is giving me a necklace to restring, it was one she bought her mother on her first big trip. Next week I get back to my second cosplay, I want to redo some bits before competing with it. And I have some pretty glass beads I bought at the local art fair that need to meet other beads and become jewelry. Finally, looked at a house for sale that has many creative projects in its future.
But really, I should be writing my thesis, so I can afford everything.
Don't be this guy and continue to vote in the district where your farm is even if you live in another county. Especially if you are a state senator.
Congrats to George and Brad.
Recently, I flew out to California to attend my exroommate's wedding. Taking advantage of the trip and father of the bride's ability to officiate, two couples attending as guests decided to get married.
Oceanesque @ 59 - I had the same question about assistance.
According to this article, Galveston had buses to get people to Austin and numbers to call to ask for help. I haven't heard any reports of how well it actually worked, though.
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2009 | 6 |
| 2008 | 21 |
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