Orin

Well, I had a different reason for walking out of one. I don’t recall which city it was, but the cinema played Fantasia with the reels out of order. 

Mixed among the vitriol in the Politics forum were some posts that didn't center around politics, per se. The problem, though, was that nearly anything that even tangentially impinged on the realms poisoned by partisan rhetoric got sucked into the tornado. So I'm curious whether there's a way to craft a sub-venue here to host those sorts of discussion.

In an earlier age, 'salons' served that purpose. So I pose a question: are there aspects of that forum worth transplanting? What sorts of topics of interest to members, which are not political, don't have a place here now?

Delta Sigma Phi, at Florida Institute of Technology, in the early 70s. It being a technical school, pledge tasks were biased towards rewarding imaginative ways of satisfying the challenge.

For example, one of the brothers set two pledges the task of 'separating a pile of punch-card chad'. One pledge laboriously sorted them by the numbers printed on them, but then ran into trouble differentiating between the ones with a 6 from those with a 9. The other pledge immediately hatcheted the pile with his hand, and split the one big pile into two smaller ones.

During the Greek Week competitions, there was a kite-flying event. My frat decided to make the biggest kite, and worry about flying it later. Materials included 4 tarps, a bunch of wooden quarter-round moldings, u-bolts, and duct tape. When it was completed, and brothers were holding it for launch, one of the crew realized that in a 5-mph breeze at a 10° angle, the force would far exceed the strength of the cord we were using. But that didn't matter, because the people holding the rear didn't hear the signal to release the thing, and it folded up in a glorious mess.

How do you remember someone who has affected so many people in so many ways over so many years? Is it by seeing the ways in which his guidance and support of people he knew through this site's predecessor reflected that influence to others? Is it from a feeling of kinship among people who were once strangers and who have become members of a community?

For me, he was, at one time or another, a friend, a fellow programmer, a business partner, a housemate, an adversary, and a fellow traveller on a spiritual journey. He made no secret of who he really was to those he trusted. His flamboyance was epic, just ask anyone who saw him traipsing around Microsoft. But that was just the public version of him. He turned it up to 11 when in character as his clown or drag personnae. You should have seen him in that custom robe with flames.

1 hour ago, Charlie said:

I think many people in the PNW are so unaccustomed to that kind of heat that they don't understand how dangerous it is.

That's an important observation @Charlie, but we need to generalize it.

The hot spell we just went through here was about 30F warmer than normal temperatures for a large area. So, yeah, anyone expecting the weather to be consistent with the climate they've come to know wouldn't be prepared for it. But there have been hints. We moved to WA in early '91, just after the floating bridge sank And since that time we've noticed changes in the 'normal' weather patterns for the area, just not this drastic.

But there are other changes happening as well. Sea level has only risen a relatively small amount so far, but it's enough to threaten some islands, and the cities, airports, seaports, and military bases along many coastlines are already seeing high water problems even when there isn't a storm. If weather patterns shift, the areas affected by hurricanes and tornadoes could move, a prospect that people living where such things hadn't happened before won't be prepared for, either.

Replicate that around the world. Advance planning is usually done for expected events, so cities and nations won't be prepared to deal with all kinds of events that 'nobody could foresee', except those who did and were ignored. Denial won't help.

Would it help to Follow the thread, and then go to it in the Activity Streams menu item forContent I Follow? 

Or you can actually bookmark the thread you are reading in your browser, and open to it directly.

20 minutes ago, CuriousByNature said:

I heard that parts of BC hit 120F today.  And other parts may come close to that tomorrow as the heat dome moves eastward.

Looking at the weather map, it appears that the dome of hot air is pretty much trapped by a very large meander of the jet stream, which drives a lot of weather systems on the northern tier.  I haven't read anything about it, but if that river of air behaves like rivers of water, meanders are symptomatic of slowed current. I've read that the Gulf Stream, part of the global network of ocean currents, has been slowing as well. Both of these things may well be a result of warming temperatures, and further changes may be in store.

I'm in a small town near Olympia, WA, and it got to 109 here today, a few degrees hotter than yesterday. We don't have A/C, so it's been open doors and windows, plus fans of various kinds.  Even so, I've still managed to get a ~3 mi shirtless walk in early in the morning, while the temperatures were going from 70-something to 80-something. sure, I get the occasional wave, but so far nobody has tried to pick me up.

27 minutes ago, jjkrkwood said:

Ranks, titles and badges promote the idea that this site is somehow a "competition", and while it may enhance "quantity" , I'm afraid the QUALITY suffers since it becomes more about Numbers and less about content.

Makes perfect sense. After all, the whole idea of 'gamification' was to keep people on a site longer so they can be exposed to more ads.

There's an article in Seattle's 'Stranger' right now by Matt Baume about how Disney's villains got coded as gay.

Quote

Ursula has the best songs. The Evil Queen has the best cape. Maleficent has the best laugh. Scar has the best quips. Prince John has the cutest underwear. Why waste time with the tedious heroes when you could be partying with these icons?

But the interesting thing is how it got this way.

Quote

It’s a complicated history, but here’s the short version: Around the late '20s and early '30s, American conservatives launched a moral panic over what they perceived as a lack of decency in films. Targets of their ire included interracial couples, characters expressing disrespect for priests, and even (get ready to clutch your pearls here) suggestions of sexual perversion.

So, what were the unanticipated results of what Disney did?

1 hour ago, lonely_john said:

she also predicted the year of my death at my request. She didn't want to tell me but I insisted. Nowadays I somewhat regret I asked that question.

That kind of question also opens the discussion to philosophy, and to conceptions of whether there is 'a' future containing your pre-ordained date and manner of death, or rather a panoply of possible futures, in which the details of that event vary depending on how you got there. This can be tricky territory to tread for a reader, because the reader and the querent may have different views about that. I suspect the safest way to couch it might be to say that if events continue along the pathways they are now following, your death will likely be in year 'X', because that phrasing can be interpreted either way.

Some readers, including Deb and me, would preface the answer with some words about the future not yet being written: This is a glimpse of things that might be, but we each have the power to make choices, and that could alter which path you follow, leading to a different future.

38 minutes ago, Islesguy said:

I use a very simple 5 card spread where the client picks the 5 cards and I pull cards as I read to further delve into the reading.

Let's that that thought a bit farther, then. Since Crowley's Thoth deck responds well to questions about the forces at play in a situation, (as opposed to discrete events and people,) we sometimes engage in what we refer to as future-casting. When the querent is faced with several choices that will pull their life in clearly different directions, we do a series of readings. For each one, the question is framed in the form of 'what will be the result of making [choice X]?' The readings then provide a glimpse of the dynamics that result from each choice. It's a kind of visualization tool that helps to put the querent into different probable futures, enabling them to get a feel for what their life might be like in each case, and that helps them to make their choice. Have you ever tried that sort of thing?

39 minutes ago, RadioRob said:

The other challenge I ran into is Daddy changed the raw html template used in the reviews over years. So when I tried to import data from raw HTML by screen scraping files, it still failed randomally because there was not regular consistently with how each field was labeled and was it’s names were. For example, a name field was renamed at some point to instead of have one field named “name” it was later split to “first name” and “last name”. Other fields were added or removed or renamed over the years. So it’s going to be super messy. 

I don't know how you would be storing the HTML part of this, but Filemaker lets you store an HTML page in a container field. Let's give it try.

17 minutes ago, RadioRob said:

Reviews would not automatically import over unfortunately. There are too many differences that prevent me from creating an actual converter.

Just how bizarre is it? Is it a jungle of HTML pages, or is it a database? If the latter, I've used Apple's Filemaker Pro database for doing all manner of obnoxious database conversions over the years. If I can read the data in, maybe I can munch it and spit out something you can use. 

The most recent tarot reading I was part of was done by Deb (my wife) and I, as part of our New Year tradition of getting feel for the upcoming year. Notably, it said there would be a death in April, which turned out to be our friend Bill/Daddy/Guy. The first reading she did for me was at college in 1971. She laid out the cards, snatched them up and refused to tell me what they said to her. (And no, it wasn't a ploy to get my interest.)

For some people, a reading is mechanical, using the interpretations provided with the deck. For others, that's a starting point, but they look at the imagery on the cards and develop their own interpretations over time. There are even readers who use the cards to help the client focus on their question, and get psychic impressions for each 'position' in the reading that's not necessarily anchored to the card.

And each type of deck is different. Some seem to respond better to questions about specific people, places and events. Crowley's Thoth deck, in contrast, provides a reflection of the forces and influences at work in the person's situation, like the political struggle in a family or business setting.

There are also different kinds of reading layout. A simple three-card reading can provide the past, present, and future of the situation being asked about. The Celtic Cross layout provides information about various aspects of the person's question, and can be used to focus in on any one of them, but that's a discussion by itself.

On 6/7/2021 at 10:26 AM, Lucky said:

the past I have been able to print something, but now Microsoft insists I sent it to them and download it first.

What did it want you to get from their server? I ask because when I needed to set up and old printer, it said there was not a suitable driver in my Windows installation, and directed me to let it find and diwnload one from their server. Once it had done so, I could print things, with no further need of their server.

16 minutes ago, RadioRob said:

I also want to take a moment to thank @Orin, Deb and the rest of “Team Washington” for all of their help. Without them we would literally not be here today.  Your efforts are sincerely appreciated by us all and we will forever be indebted to you. While we can never PROPERLY show our gratitude, the least we can do is pick up the tab for a nice dinner. I’ll be making arrangements with Orin to make this happen once things settle down for Team Washington.

You are all most welcome. Doing this was our way to honor our friend (and 'water-brother' for any Heinlein fans out there) Bill. Deb is currently in upstate NY, caring for her mother, and will return in another month or two. When we are back together, we'd be honored to have a fine dinner out, and to raise a glass to Bill and the community here.

20 minutes ago, sydneyboy said:

What happened to Literature on Comedy and Tragedy?

Are you looking for the Literature Forum, which is now its own thing in the Media & Entertainment group of forums?

15 minutes ago, RadioRob said:

Not sure why I've got fewer options, even as I type this post.  Your window has eighteen icons, and mine has only ten.  Strikethrough, text size, text color, and the three alignment icons don't appear on my screen

I'm using a MacBook Pro as well. Those icons were hidden until I widened my window to the whole screen. For some reason, it's hiding rather than wrapping them if there is not enough room across.

Deb, who has Fibromyalgia, has taken it for pain for years, and is miserable if she misses her dose.

I was prescribed some for nerve pain after my Saab got wrecked, and I could not straighten out or put any weight on one leg due to sciatica. There were some left after I recovered, and when I took one out of curiosity, I found it had perceptual effects. My brain stopped processing the images into 3D and I had two flat images that overlapped on what I focussed on. I also slept really well.

There are times when I just have to be blatantly self-promotional. If you like to read short stories, and you're not that particular about whether they were formally published, there are several websites where you can read lots of them. One of those is my Wordpress blog, which has about 120 of my own stories. The preponderance of them are political, in one way or another, and I have a tendency towards stories in which a group of people accomplishes something, as opposed to some singular hero. So, click over if you're interested, or not.

"Where's the Beef"

I seem to recall seeing him at the Paradise, before that unfortunate incident with Swann and the 'phantom'.

Well, it looks like we don't have a lead on that, so I'm going to un-sticky this thread.

It's not too late, but we need to contact him so he can coordinate with Deb. They're leaving town tomorrow. Can anyone here do that? I'll be checking my messages periodically.

Deb and Kat are in Las Vegas for another day, and would like to see that Bill's drag supplies don't go to waste. Deb said that he has several nice dresses. A couple of wigs. Makeup. Stockings. Undergarments.

If anyone here can tell me where Deb can take these things in the next few hours, I'll pass the advice along to her. She has other tasks to take care of as well, so please limit your replies to what can be done right now, and be as specific as possible. She won't be able to make numerous stops with one item or another, so focus on places that can deal with a variety of things. Thanks for your help.