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Thread: Random Thoughts

  1. #7376
    The Pan megladon8's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Scar (view post)
    I picked up a side by side double shotgun a few years back. It's a L.C. Smith that was made in 1927, and after doing a bit of research, I think its worth more than twice what I paid for it. Neat.

    That's pretty cool.

    I still have to find out the exact year/model/whatever (not sure how these gun things are classified) of my dad's Winchester. I'll let you know when I find out...
    "All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"

    "Rick...it's a flamethrower."

  2. #7377
    I'm in the milk... Mara's Avatar
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    I was looking for that Far Side comic with doctors laughing and pointing at the patient to prove that "laughter is the best medicine" (going along with the FDT) but found this fascinating article instead:

    The Science of Laughter.

    Absolutely worth a read. Some highlights I found interesting:

    In cross-gender conversations, females laughed 126% more than their male counterparts.
    Consider the extraordinary 1962 outbreak of contagious laughter in a girls' boarding school in Tanzania. The first symptoms appeared on January 30, when three girls got the giggles and couldn't stop laughing. The symptoms quickly spread to 95 students, forcing the school to close on March 18. The girls sent home from the school were vectors for the further spread of the epidemic. Related outbreaks occurred in other schools in Central Africa and spread like wildfire, ceasing two-and-a-half years later and afflicting nearly 1,000 people.
    I absolutely believe this story. Once, in high school, I started laughing so hard that I couldn't stop for several hours. Tears were poring down my face, and my stomach hurt, and I wanted to stop, but I couldn't.

    Furthermore, laughter is not randomly scattered through speech. A speaker may say "You are going where?...ha-ha," but rarely, "You are going...ha-ha...where?" This is evidence of "the punctuation effect" -- the tendency to laugh almost exclusively at phrase breaks in speech. This pattern requires that speech has priority over laughter.
    The whole article reminded me of a great book I read in my early twenties called The Theory of Comedy by Elder Olson. (Sycophant might understand why I think the author's name is funny.) It was a serious textbook trying to find out what humans find amusing in literature, and why. I wonder if I still have it somewhere...
    ...and the milk's in me.

  3. #7378
    dissolved into molecules lovejuice's Avatar
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    it's beyond me why society find the idea of "voice mail" helpful.
    "Over analysis is like the oil of the Match-Cut machine." KK2.0

  4. #7379
    I'm in the milk... Mara's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting lovejuice (view post)
    it's beyond me why society find the idea of "voice mail" helpful.
    It's part of my life-long dream of avoiding phone calls.
    ...and the milk's in me.

  5. #7380
    dissolved into molecules lovejuice's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Mara (view post)
    It's part of my life-long dream of avoiding phone calls.
    i don't mind phone calls, but there's very few things i hate more than calling a big company and have to spend half an hour talking to a machine. to no avail. people who invents this system should be shot to death.
    "Over analysis is like the oil of the Match-Cut machine." KK2.0

  6. #7381
    Wait. How is voice mail not helpful? Sometimes people aren't at their phones, but other people need to tell them things.

    Actually, I sometimes find myself wishing I could call people's voicemail directly instead of the people themselves.

  7. #7382
    dissolved into molecules lovejuice's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Sycophant (view post)
    Wait. How is voice mail not helpful? Sometimes people aren't at their phones, but other people need to tell them things.
    voicemail is good for personal call, but i hate it when i'm trying to contact my credit card company or something over the phone. just this morning, i spend about an hour trying to get something done. most of those time is navigating through all the voicemail menu. once i get to the right operator, i take only 3 minutes. :frustrated:
    "Over analysis is like the oil of the Match-Cut machine." KK2.0

  8. #7383
    Oh, well, there's a difference between voicemail and automated telephone answering systems. Though I find them frustrating, I suspect that there are a bunch of people who actually do find help while navigating these multi-layered menus when they hear things such as "Plug your modem into your computer" or "Is the power on?"

  9. #7384
    dissolved into molecules lovejuice's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Sycophant (view post)
    Oh, well, there's a difference between voicemail and automated telephone answering systems. Though I find them frustrating, I suspect that there are a bunch of people who actually do find help while navigating these multi-layered menus when they hear things such as "Plug your modem into your computer" or "Is the power on?"
    to be fair it used to do me good once. by telling me to turn off the modem and turn it on while waiting for the representative. and voila! it works. but that's just once.

    esp. in this economics. we should just fire the machine and hire more human operators. :evil:
    "Over analysis is like the oil of the Match-Cut machine." KK2.0

  10. #7385
    Quote Quoting lovejuice (view post)
    esp. in this economics. we should just fire the machine and hire more human operators. :evil:
    Actually, sadly, in the current state of things, more people would be more inclined to lose more humans in favor of more machines.

  11. #7386
    Administrator Ezee E's Avatar
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    Most automated machines go pretty quickly for me nowadays as well. And they instantly recognize your phone number as well. So, 1, then 1, and boom, you get your balance.

    And I'm with sycophant on sometimes hoping that someone doesn't answer their phone so I can leave a voicemail.

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  12. #7387
    Quote Quoting Ezee E (view post)
    And I'm with sycophant on sometimes hoping that someone doesn't answer their phone so I can leave a voicemail.
    It's not something I do all the time, but I sometimes call people when I suspect they'll be at school or work, or when I can determine they're not available from their instant messaging status messages.

  13. #7388
    Administrator Ezee E's Avatar
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    I did it. I put in for South Africa World Cup tickets.

    It's a random selection, so we'll see. I could've just followed Team USA, but I went for an alternative route that would meet my vacation ideas as well.

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  14. #7389
    Too much responsibility Kurosawa Fan's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Ezee E (view post)
    I did it. I put in for South Africa World Cup tickets.

    It's a random selection, so we'll see. I could've just followed Team USA, but I went for an alternative route that would meet my vacation ideas as well.
    Awesome. Here's hoping you're successful.

  15. #7390
    Administrator Ezee E's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Kurosawa Fan (view post)
    Awesome. Here's hoping you're successful.
    Random matches, I hope I'd at least get one of the five I went for.

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  16. #7391
    I hope you survive, E. :sad:

  17. #7392
    Administrator Ezee E's Avatar
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    On top of South Africa, I'm also thinking NYC in February '10.

    Why?

    Spider-Man on Broadway.

    No seriously.

    Also, Sven.

    Haven't met any MC, RT people in real life yet.

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  18. #7393
    The Pan megladon8's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Ezee E (view post)
    On top of South Africa, I'm also thinking NYC in February '10.

    Why?

    Spider-Man on Broadway.

    No seriously.

    Also, Sven.

    Haven't met any MC, RT people in real life yet.

    We could meet up, too.

    You, me, Jen and Sven could have a little MC get-together.
    "All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"

    "Rick...it's a flamethrower."

  19. #7394
    Administrator Ezee E's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting megladon8 (view post)
    We could meet up, too.

    You, me, Jen and Sven could have a little MC get-together.
    You'll be there in Feb?

    Indeed then. Indeed.

    And I'm sure you'd be down for Spider-Man U2 Spectacula.

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  20. #7395
    The Pan megladon8's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Ezee E (view post)
    You'll be there in Feb?

    Indeed then. Indeed.

    And I'm sure you'd be down for Spider-Man U2 Spectacula.

    I'm sure I will be. This year is the beginning of my very long "move" to NYC. I'm going to start living there a month or two at a time, then increase that to a few months at a time, etc. building up my body of work to the point where I can start getting things published and get a VISA.
    "All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"

    "Rick...it's a flamethrower."

  21. #7396
    The Pan megladon8's Avatar
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    My mom and sister are bringing home 6 boxer puppies we have to take care of for (I think) two days.

    I think they're 10 or 11 days old.

    My sister is training to be a veterinary technician and is working at the local vet's office.

    The mother of the puppies died because of complications during childbirth (there were actually 8 puppies, but one of them died in utero and ended up killing the mother, too).

    So once they're home, I'll try to get a few pics and I'll post them on here.
    "All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"

    "Rick...it's a flamethrower."

  22. #7397
    collecting tapes Skitch's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting number8 (view post)
    I keep thinking meg is skitch.

    :lol:

    Maybe it is time for a new avatar.

  23. #7398
    The Pan megladon8's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Skitch (view post)
    :lol:

    Maybe it is time for a new avatar.

    No, it was when I had the Akira avatar.

    So I changed it.
    "All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"

    "Rick...it's a flamethrower."

  24. #7399
    collecting tapes Skitch's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting megladon8 (view post)
    No, it was when I had the Akira avatar.

    So I changed it.
    Ah. I need another one of those.

  25. #7400
    There was this time that somebody had some A Scanner Darkly image for their avatar that MadMan had once had. I can't even remember who it was, because I couldn't keep it in my head.

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