The person below me

[SquirrelHead]

YES!! I am pretty sure it is all mental most of the time.

tpbm is still eating Easter candy

[catinthefunnyhat]

Nope. I managed not to get any this year, which is good, 'cos I'd have eaten it all at once and given myself a tummyache anyways.

TPBM makes homemade candles.

[theCryptofishist]

No. Candles are not my thing.
TPBM loves salt water taffy.

[maryanimal]

Ooooh yes I do!! Mmmm, freshly made taffy is the best!

tpbm is about to jump intosomething with both feet, so to speak.

[catinthefunnyhat]

Nope, I already have two feet in too many pies, or something.

TPBM has summer plans involving a kiddie pool, but no kids.

[theCryptofishist]

No.
TPBM is working on the perfect recipe for jerky.

[catinthefunnyhat]

Nope.
TPBM is thinking of buying a sewing machine.

[theCryptofishist]

I have Scott's Sears. Depending on when it was made, it's totally worth getting it serviced. If it's newer, I guess I have a collection of nylon gears that are larger than my nylon clock gears.
Of course, there's always the peddle problem...
TPBM things sticking it under my arm is a good solution.

[catinthefunnyhat]

It's ingenious, actually. Would it work?

(Because I can't resist the urge to satisfy every passing curiosity with a Google search, I found this rather sketchy-looking website for a company that sells modified Singer machines with hand-or-mouth-operated air-compressory things instead of foot pedals: http://www.bedhandles.com/ByteSwitch1.htm. I also found a discussion thread in which people were saying that certain Brother models have a hand-only option: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/se ... 54.html?11). Of course, using the machine you have and coming up with a cool technique like the armpit-squeeze would be pretty swell.)

TPBM thinks old-school slang is just dandy.

[Elorrum]

I think you can get a bite switch for a sewing machine. Under arm might pinch, but you can certainly try it.

Tpbm is a hand stitcher.
edit to catch up.... neato

[theCryptofishist]

Copacetic, Daddy-O.
I just induced a painful beatnik flashback in tpbm.

[catinthefunnyhat]

Nah, I've never had any beatnik experiences to flash back to. The closest I've come is watching Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem on the Muppet Show, but that's pure joy.

Oh, and in reply to Elorrum.... I am, indeed, a hand stitcher. I do daydream of buying a machine sometimes, but I'm not sure I'd use it often enough (or well enough) to justify the space it would take up. My hand stitching, BTW, is solid but generally crooked and occasionally interrupted by knots and loops. Great for costumes or other things that needn't be of the highest quality, but not so much for everyday wear.

TPBM has puppets and knows how to use 'em.

[Box Burner]

Nope. But before my brother had the misfortune of getting married he was a pretty good puppeteer and used to do shows for all the elementary schools in the area.

TPBM has written and/or illustrated children's story books.

[catinthefunnyhat]

Many years ago, a very different cat wrote such a book. It was titled the "ABCs of Theology," and it consisted of rhyming couplets following the "A is for..." formula, where each letter introduced a new piece of fundamentalist Christian jargon and the dogma behind it, accompanied by a cartoon-style illustration (done by a friend of mine). It was unironically Ned-Flanders-esque, the kind of book some would use to indoctrinate a toddler. Dogma doggerel. A 12-year-old could've written it.

(It was written as a project for a supposedly-academic theology course with a lazy prof who punished serious thought and rewarded mindless "creative" group projects. I took my A+ and ran. That book never saw the light of day... NO CHILDREN WERE HARMED*).

TPBM knows a 12-year-old whose writing is better and more interesting than that of most adults.

*Oh, shit... one might have been. I'd forgotten that, as part of the project, we read it aloud to a kid and wrote about their response to it. DEAR UNIVERSE, I AM SO VERY SORRY.

[OregonRed]

Nope. Writing is a craft and I have yet to meet a twelve-year-old who has developed it well. Ideas are a completely different subject. Twelve-year-olds are not afraid of their imaginations the way most adults are.

TPBM woke up in a weird place today.

[theCryptofishist]

Yes. It is called "my own bed in my own room." I coulda woken up on BART, but I didn't quite fall asleep there.
TPBN had a metaphorical wake up this month.

[catinthefunnyhat]

This month? No, I don't think so. I'm probably due for one.

TPBM is crafting a hilariously snarky response to the latest "Gimme Ticket!" thread.

[theCryptofishist]

Oh, I wanted to hit the "why didn't I get low income, please let me marry my girlfriend" thread, with my opinion that getting married on playa your first time out is a big mistake, but I'd already invented the "severely injured free tickets for life" (or something like that) list for the second newest thread so I'm trying to bow out for the rest of the morning.
TPBM has a thing or two to say about mr. low income, too.

[catinthefunnyhat]

First, I was so distracted by his apparently random use of punctuation marks that I failed to absorb the content of his post. Upon re-reading it, I realized that he's essentially been evading taxes for the last two years and is now taking it personally that one of the costs of that is ineligibility for a low-income ticket. And that's only the half of it... there's also the playing of the "mawwiage, mawwiage, mawwiage.... twue wuv" and "everything is telling me to go" cards. For the first time in my life, I find myself wanting to say "shut up, hippie!"

TPBM thinks I should grow a pair and post my response in that thread instead of whining about it here.

[theCryptofishist]

Oh, I broke down and said something. Undoubtedly, now that I've made it okay, others will chime in.
TPBM hopes that's not how things on this board work.

[catinthefunnyhat]

I think I beat you to it, Fishy, but I'm glad I'm not the only one.

I'm kind of ok with it if the board works like that. It's human nature to be somewhat risk-averse, and the less-established among us here probably have a greater sense of risk (rightly or wrongly) when it comes to snarking. Once someone has said something, the risk for everyone else is reduced (or at least shared).

TPBM is becoming less risk-averse in many things as s/he gets older.

[knowmad]

Nope just slower and dumber!

TPBM please explain:
THE 'CHEERIO EFFECT': WHY FLOATING THINGS TEND TO CLUMP TOGETHER

[catinthefunnyhat]

OK, I figured it would have something to do with surface tension, but that was as far as I could get on my own, so I turned to Wikipedia. Thus, you're getting my hasty summation of something I've only read the intro to, and which itself may be an unreliable source. With that caveat out of the way...

*Ahem.*
The Cheerios Effect is the result of surface tension and buoyancy.

Buoyancy refers to the relative density of some matter to a liquid. A material is buoyant if it is less dense than the liquid; objects made of this material will therefore tend to float in this liquid. Conversely an object is non-buoyant if it is more dense than the liquid; objects made of it will therefore tend to sink.

Surface tension refers to the fact that molecules in a liquid are attracted to one another; this explains why water forms droplets or puddles, rather than a sheet, on a flat surface. Because of surface tension, a non-buoyant object may appear to float, if it is sufficiently broad and flat, as the gravitational pull of the earth on that object is insufficient to break the surface tension of the liquid.

Now, the weight of a non-buoyant object resting on the surface of a liquid will deform that surface downward. So multiple non-buoyant objects on the surface of the same liquid will slide down and bump into each other, much like multiple people sleeping in a too-soft bed together.

But what about buoyant objects, like Cheerios? Well, another relevant concept here is meniscus. if a liquid is attracted to the material its container is made of, it will curve upward at the sides. If it is repelled by that substance, it will curve downward. This is the meniscus effect. Buoyant objects, seeking the highest place, will tend to move towards the edges of the container when the surface is concave, towards the centre if it is convex. But if they are of a substance which water is attracted to, they can also cluster together regardless of the edge, as each buoyant object itself creates its own meniscus, thereby raising the water level around it a bit and attracting the other buoyant objects.

Phew, that was a hard assignment. How'd I do, teach?

Oh, and applying it to Cheerios: I guess the water in your milk is attracted to the porcelain or plastic of your bowl, creating a meniscus along the sides, and Cheerios, which are buoyant, will tend to gravitate there. But the cheerios themselves are made of stuff that attracts water, so each cheerio raises the surface of the milk around itself a little bit, thereby creating a little "hill," which attracts the others.

TPBM thinks I should shut up and eat my Cheerios before they get soggy.

[theCryptofishist]

No.
TPBM is glad s/he eats Muesli.

[catinthefunnyhat]

I don't eat it much. My partner eats it every day, but I stick with my bran.

A while back I bought a dry (i.e. not honey-coated) Muesli because it had a pretty girl on the package. It was quite yummy, but after the package had been in my cupboard for a couple of weeks (it was a large package. I was eating the muesli regularly), we started to notice a LOT of moths in our kitchen. We did not make the connection until I poured some of it into my bowl and it was... moving. Most of it was moving. Goodness knows how many of those worms I had eaten without noticing. Anyways, I'm a little squicked out by muesli now.

Plus, no matter how many times I type that word, I have at best a 50/50 chance of getting the vowels in the right order.

TPBM likes food that is shaped like letters.

[theCryptofishist]

We used to have german cookies in letters of the alphabet. It must have been made for export, no umlauts, no ess-set.
TPBM is making stew for dinner.

[catinthefunnyhat]

Not tonight, but either Friday or Saturday I'm going to make shepherd's pie... which is a bit like stew. Only I'm more "assembling" it than making it -- I'm going to use some leftover curried beef that we have in the fridge, combine it with some veg, and top it with garlic-and-masala-infused mashed potatoes.

TPBM has a friend called Stu.

[SquirrelHead]

hmmmmm, actually I don't have a friend named Stu. Maybe I will search one out.

tpbm thinks Disco Stu everytime they hear Stu.

[Elorrum]

I think of Kitty Stu, a downstairs neighbor cat from ages ago.
Tpbm is waiting for replacement.

[jella]

Nah...when I leave we turn off the lights. Hell I turn off the lights hehe



TPBM had beeeeeautiful weather today