Random non sequitur posts catch-all thread

Ghostship wrote:

I don't get it.

Neither do we with irrational fears. I'm bigger, faster, smarter, stronger, and better looking (FACT) than any spider I'll ever come across, and I'm told they're more afraid of me than I am of them (DISPUTED), but they still give me the willies (willies given are commensurate with size of spider).

So what's to be afraid of? The absolute worst that could happen is that I get bitten (so unlikely in almost all scenarios as to be not worth considering), which would just be worse than a mosquito bite, but better than, for example, a burn from the stove. There's no explanation: my reptile brain just says, "Big spider bad" and I find myself agreeing.

Before I start, do live in Australia? If so, all commentary is null and void?

If you force yourself to touch a small spider, or catch a cricket, or something similar, does it get easier?

It's easy for me to ask because:
A) I live in Canada, and very little is poisonous.
B) I was raised in a rural area an we caught leeches, frogs, crickets, beetles, worms as bait for fishing.

I still get that instinct to drop a worm, or frog when I feel wriggle in my hand, or to let go of the fish when I'm unhooking it, but I find I can override it.

Of course I still don't think I'd try to pick up a snake. Except for one small area where we have near extinct rattle snakes (Massasauga rattlers in the Port Severn Area), all we really have are garter snakes. I know that, if I gathered enough knowledge about how they bite, if they carry salmonella, how to handle them, watch videos of someone doing it, I could get to a place where I'd try, but I know I'd subconsciously let go the first couple of times. I would eventually be able to override that though.

The reverse is also true. There's a bridge that we used to jump off into the water. I know I can't get myself to jump now that I'm not 19. I've tried.

Gravey wrote:
Ghostship wrote:

I don't get it.

Neither do we with irrational fears. I'm bigger, faster, smarter, stronger, and better looking (FACT) than any spider I'll ever come across, and I'm told they're more afraid of me than I am of them (DISPUTED), but they still give me the willies (willies given are commensurate with size of spider).

So what's to be afraid of? The absolute worst that could happen is that I get bitten (so unlikely in almost all scenarios as to be not worth considering), which would just be worse than a mosquito bite, but better than, for example, a burn from the stove. There's no explanation: my reptile brain just says, "Big spider bad" and I find myself agreeing.

There's a spider on your shoe right now.

IMAGE(http://flossiefrufru.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/spider-shoes.jpg?w=590)

LiquidMantis wrote:

IMAGE(http://flossiefrufru.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/spider-shoes.jpg?w=590)

How can you post that and not provide a link to buy them?

Ghostship wrote:

Before I start, do live in Australia? If so, all commentary is null and void?

Canada, and I grew up catching crickets and snakes for (admittedly short-lived) pets all the time. My fear is big spiders only, and by "big" I mean full-grown aggressive house spiders/wolf spiders—big hairy fast f*ckers (I think I have that DVD actually). Other spiders bother me, but I can deal with them (i.e. catch them in a cup and flush them down the toilet), even juvenile AHSs. I'm fine with any other creepy-crawly or flying insect that I have to see here in BC (crane flies are a little heebie-jeebie-ish, but they're also really stupid).

So if you're talking exposure therapy, the only candidate object is out of the question. Wait I mean

Grenn wrote:

There's a spider on your shoe right now.

The other night Mrs. Gravey thought she felt a spider in bed. If she didn't see anything, I said, don't worry about it. I tried to go back to sleep, felt a tickle, and as calmly as I could, leaped the hell out of bed and tore the cover back. Found nothing, and couldn't sleep for another hour for every little itch and tingle.

LM, you son of a Female Doggo.

I could wear those slippers, but there IS something about them which doesn't make me think of lounging in a high wingback with a pipe and ascot and smoking jacket.

So they do, in fact affect, my psychological comfort.

Chumpy_McChump wrote:
Mex wrote:

So I haven't masturbated and had no sex in 2 weeks. Not a conscious decision, but I was like 2 days without "nothing" and I went "Wonder what would happen if I didn't do anything for a while, will I become super smart or something".

If you want to find out what happens, ask a married friend who's a relatively new dad.


:(

/weeping

Best FB post from a friend in recent memory:

Warning! If someone sends you a link to download the latest Justin Bieber single DON'T DO IT! It's a link to the latest Justin Bieber Single

I think your friend appropriated the joke from a guy on Twitter. As it happened he died recently.

http://themixtressonline.com/2011/09...

I just ate a potato chip that was shaped like the Death Star. It was a rippled chip with a missing chunk and the ripples around it were only half-formed, leaving fingers with space between them.
It tasted awesome.

Aries wrote:

I just ate a potato chip that was shaped like the Death Star. It was a rippled chip with a missing chunk and the ripples around it were only half-formed, leaving fingers with space between them.
It tasted awesome.

IMAGE(https://gs1.wac.edgecastcdn.net/8019B6/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_m80uuwuTuR1rnfmydo1_1280.jpg)
<3 Robot Chicken

The landlord made renovation noises. He said he was going to redo the kitchen. I attributed this to normal landlord nonsense and paid no attention to it. Maybe he'd reface the cabinets. Then Monday I came home and the kitchen wasn't there. Walls were missing. Appliances were gone. I'm now eating dry bread out of a bag. I've got a semi-broken coffee machine and a freezer. For a week. Good times.

Nothing to see here. Move along

Miashara wrote:

The landlord made renovation noises. He said he was going to redo the kitchen. I attributed this to normal landlord nonsense and paid no attention to it. Maybe he'd reface the cabinets. Then Monday I came home and the kitchen wasn't there. Walls were missing. Appliances were gone. I'm now eating dry bread out of a bag. I've got a semi-broken coffee machine and a freezer. For a week. Good times.

Ask him to provide you with a copy of the building permit.
- "walls are missing" - I'm continually amazed at owners' and contractors' inability or disregard for determining which walls are load bearing.

I did a renovation in a 100 year old farm house where modern structural conventions weren't followed. ALL of the walls were loadbearing, and the floors were acting as structural diaphragms. We came up with a design to unload the floors by retrofitting a beam sitting on existing masonry walls on one end, and a new post, through two stories into the basement on a new pad footing, on the other end. I get a call and the site super says, "we're done the demolition, and we've cut the slab for the footing, and we had a question for you about the footing....." meaning, the walls are gone and the new beam isn't in place yet. So the undersized, 100 year old floors are free spanning the whole house; just waiting for a wind to knock the house down. This was supposed to be an experienced renovation contractor.

If he can't provide you with the building permit, have him put you up on a hotel until an Architect or Engineer have verifed to you that it's legit; Or if you can determine yourself that you're safe. If not, GTFO.

Miashara wrote:

The landlord made renovation noises. He said he was going to redo the kitchen. I attributed this to normal landlord nonsense and paid no attention to it. Maybe he'd reface the cabinets. Then Monday I came home and the kitchen wasn't there. Walls were missing. Appliances were gone. I'm now eating dry bread out of a bag. I've got a semi-broken coffee machine and a freezer. For a week. Good times.

Same thing happened to a newlywed couple who's friends with us. He's in professional school and dealing with midterms while they hop between sleepovers at friends' houses.

MrDeVil909 wrote:
dejanzie wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:
Chumpy_McChump wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:

I'm a little giddy. Bill Harris asked to write something for Dubious Quality!

Wow. That's big time, baby! :)

Heh, yeah. Bit intimidated, I haven't written in years.

Nice, congrats!

Thanks. Well, he's happy with it, it goes up tomorrow.

And it's appended to the end of this post.

http://dubiousquality.blogspot.com/2...

Ghostship wrote:
Miashara wrote:

The landlord made renovation noises. He said he was going to redo the kitchen. I attributed this to normal landlord nonsense and paid no attention to it. Maybe he'd reface the cabinets. Then Monday I came home and the kitchen wasn't there. Walls were missing. Appliances were gone. I'm now eating dry bread out of a bag. I've got a semi-broken coffee machine and a freezer. For a week. Good times.

Ask him to provide you with a copy of the building permit.
- "walls are missing" - I'm continually amazed at owners' and contractors' inability or disregard for determining which walls are load bearing.

I did a renovation in a 100 year old farm house where modern structural conventions weren't followed. ALL of the walls were loadbearing, and the floors were acting as structural diaphragms. We came up with a design to unload the floors by retrofitting a beam sitting on existing masonry walls on one end, and a new post, through two stories into the basement on a new pad footing, on the other end. I get a call and the site super says, "we're done the demolition, and we've cut the slab for the footing, and we had a question for you about the footing....." meaning, the walls are gone and the new beam isn't in place yet. So the undersized, 100 year old floors are free spanning the whole house; just waiting for a wind to knock the house down. This was supposed to be an experienced renovation contractor.

If he can't provide you with the building permit, have him put you up on a hotel until an Architect or Engineer have verifed to you that it's legit; Or if you can determine yourself that you're safe. If not, GTFO.

The walls he removed were aesthetic. They were nothing but drywall and wiring, and you could see the way the studs ran in the floor. Also, it's a townhouse and through the front windows of some of the other houses on the strip, you can see these walls just aren't there in some of the other models. So from a safety perspective nothing seems unreasonable.

Of course the appliances, which are now gone, were plugged into those aesthetic walls(see previous descriptive clause). Hence: bread in bag.

Edit: And now sections of the floor are gone too.

I just saw a commercials for a board game version of Words with Friends and it wasn't called Scrabble.

My first world problem:

Too many F-in awesome games to play and not enough time.
-new minecraft update
-Dishonoured
-Mechwarrior Online
-My stack, including Batman AA, Deus Ex, Dragon Age,
-xcom

Borderlands 2 is my first finished game in a long time.

Two full months into the whole "learning to draw" thing. Still VERY early days, but i'm taking a class in NYC now, and slowly, achingly, getting over the whole "it's too late to start and you'll never be competent at drawing" mindset. It really is astonishing how, for those of us who gave up drawing at some point during our lives, such an endeavor somehow becomes equivalent to magic.

That said, the entire experience has been gratifying, even for all the long, long, long moments of "Jesus christ this is awful what the f*ck are you even trying to draw here just give up now". It helps to have a ultimate goal in mind, as I do, but I cannot recommend "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" to anyone looking to learn themselves enough.

I assume I can't be the only person who has ever gone though this, and I kinda want to start a Tumblr/DA account where people can track my progress and find out for themselves that no, it's never too late to learn, and that yes, it's possible for anyone to learn to draw. Even if i'm still trying to convince myself of that.

I think that would be awesome Pred.

Its gotten to the point where I prefer the Rogain commercials over the political pandering. I don't live in Missouri, why should I care about Prop B?

Mex wrote:

So I haven't masturbated and had no sex in 2 weeks. Not a conscious decision, but I was like 2 days without "nothing" and I went "Wonder what would happen if I didn't do anything for a while, will I become super smart or something". It's just like a willpower thing I suppose, wonder if I can go for a month (probably not)

I had a friend who voluntarily went three months without masturbating or having sex. He said that when he finally decided to have sex, the orgasm was the closest thing he had ever had to a transcendental religious experience. He didn't appreciate my speculation that it probably wasn't the best fifteen seconds of sex that girl had ever had.

I'm about 3 months into my new relationship and I had an "interesting" discussion with my gf. She's intimidated by the fact I seem to know what I want out of this relationship, but she doesn't yet. It's her first serious relationship and it seems that she's not sure exactly how to proceed.

So I've had to re-adjust how I approach this, which is frustrating because I really like the girl and we seem to have a LOT in common.

*shrug* Oh well, as my mum says. It'll either work out or it won't.

Coldstream wrote:

I had a friend who voluntarily went three months without masturbating or having sex. He said that when he finally decided to have sex, the orgasm was the closest thing he had ever had to a transcendental religious experience. He didn't appreciate my speculation that it probably wasn't the best fifteen seconds of sex that girl had ever had. :D

I can't remember if it's three months or six months, but abstaining from masturbation / sex is, for men, part of a particular tai chi training. You're training to have someone jump on to your abdomen from a few feet in the air.

I think Seinfeld covered it, when George got smarter and Elaine got dumber as they both abstained.

Of course then George calculated the odds of getting another chance to have sex with a woman from some country that he met, and figured he had to take the shot, and turned back into George.

1Dgaf wrote:

I can't remember if it's three months or six months, but abstaining from masturbation / sex is, for men, part of a particular tai chi training. You're training to have someone jump on to your abdomen from a few feet in the air.

That is quite literally the weirdest thing I've heard in some time. Everything that's involved in the process of male sex and reproduction is...not in the abdomen.

Coldstream wrote:
1Dgaf wrote:

I can't remember if it's three months or six months, but abstaining from masturbation / sex is, for men, part of a particular tai chi training. You're training to have someone jump on to your abdomen from a few feet in the air.

That is quite literally the weirdest thing I've heard in some time. Everything that's involved in the process of male sex and reproduction is...not in the abdomen. :D

Well, you use those muscles a lot during sex. So there's that, I guess?

Nicholaas wrote:
Coldstream wrote:
1Dgaf wrote:

I can't remember if it's three months or six months, but abstaining from masturbation / sex is, for men, part of a particular tai chi training. You're training to have someone jump on to your abdomen from a few feet in the air.

That is quite literally the weirdest thing I've heard in some time. Everything that's involved in the process of male sex and reproduction is...not in the abdomen. :D

Well, you use those muscles a lot during sex. So there's that, I guess?

I think it's just a tai chi prank.

"You can't have sex or masturbate for three months, and then after that Li here is going to jump on your abdomen."
"What?"
"Sorry, I meant six months. Look, you want spiritual enlightenment or not?"