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Who doesn't?

Funny this topic coming up. I've used several pieces of software including Ulysses, but have never found the 'perfect' thing for me. At the moment I'm using a combination of OneNote and Word. OneNote is very good for outlining, notes, and drafting. The notes can be moved and arranged as I see fit and anything I write can be exported to Word perfectly. I'm planning a blog and it seems like Word/OneNote will become my unified writing tool for the foreseeable.

For the same reason people think that overturning Roe v Wade is somehow going to stop women from getting an abortion, spoiler alert: it doesn't, it just stop women from getting a safe abortion, if abortion would become illegal again it would mean the return of abortions in a dark alleyway with a coat hanger.

Happy Thanksgiving, fellow Americans! And Happy Thursday everyone else!

What did you do to that poor man, Dabbler?

"Klaus" on Netflix. Normally this is one I would have passed over. But after reading an article about the production process and its risky venture into traditional 2D animation, I decided to give it a watch if for no other reason than to support 2D animation, which I would like to see make a comeback. I was pleasantly surprised. It was funny and very cute. I would unbegrudgingly watch it again sometime.

That scene is not only touching and funny, it's so beautifully timed that what could have been a hopeless mess is perfectly easy to understand. A quiet little masterpiece by all concerned.

My best guess is that they're not intended to be random, but either the manufacturer doesn't know much English or their customers don't either. (Though it's my understanding that a lot of Japanese high-school students study English.) I seem to recall that Dave Barry (in his book Dave Barry Does Japan) quotes some that appear to be actual sentences in search of a meaning (though I can't seem to find the right chapter just now). But I should talk -- I used to have an Asian-style straw hat with some Chinese words on it, and for all I know, it said "Ignorant Round-Eye."

Oh, YES. If I knew how, I'd make a video just for that. And include the vessel with the pestle just for fun.

"It’s very late and that underappreciated moment in asip when John comments on all the rubbish in the flat and Sherlock starts throwing stuff in boxes in an alarmed fashion like ‘Don’t go I can clean the thing I can clean 3 thing’ is corroding me" [Link]

There are a lot of factors involved but it all amounts to a decline in basic services. At least for those of us that can't go private.

Except "abstinence only" is a lousy birth control method thought in the USA, along with the fact that some people over there believe that the pull out method is a good contraception method. Also do these conservatives approve of sterilisation? Or not? Because I can't shake the feeling that conservatives consider women nothing more than human incubators, welcome to Gilead everyone.

OneNote lives on both your computer and in the cloud. Your notes are stored both on your drive and in the cloud via OneDrive. They sync pretty much 100% of the time. If you have MS Office you get 1 TB of space on OneDrive so there's plenty of room.

Not if you live in a smaller town. And I'm not sure if the pharmacies in Poland work on a base of the usual business competition. But I think if you don't want to sell those things, you should think of a different occupation. Plus - some of the contraceptive pills are prescribed for medical reasons. I took them for a long time to keep my endometriosis under control.

I'll watch it! I don't know her backstory, could be interesting. You know, it just occurred to me … I watched Infinity War (and most of my other favorites) I don't know how many times. I watched Endgame … once. I think it was just too final for me. Maybe these upcoming movies will get me over that hump. Or maybe I just didn't enjoy it that much..... hm.

what's up with parents and their obsession with grandchildren? It gives me the feeling that people are either having children to eventually have grandchildren or are hoping that their children will eventually take care of them when they're too old to take care of themselves. Newsflash: just because you have children isn't going to guarantee that you will eventually have grandchildren, nor will it happen that they will take care of you, 99% of the time you end up in a senior home!

That's what I was going to add as well; some consider birth control itself to be murder, because it prevents the fertilized egg from developing. (I think I've got that right.) It's not an entirely indefensible p.o.v., imo.

That's what I was thinking, lol. Weird, I've never heard it pronounced any way other than the "rhymes with hoe-ee" way. BOO-ee, lol.

I'm not a parent either, but I did use to be young, so I'm sure you're right about that! However isn't it a parent's job to offer advice, in the hopes that some of it will prove useful? If I were aware that my daughter was having sex (or considering it), I'd presumably offer somewhat more specific advice than might otherwise seem appropriate -- same as if I knew she was tempted to try drugs. Not that even adults have much sense when it comes to those two activities, but at least one can try.

Yes! It’s a webcomic series called “Strange Planet” by Nathan W. Pyle. You can find him pretty much everywhere: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, etc., and his own website. I love it, lol.

I don't think they care if it makes sense, as long as it gets them the attention they're seeking. Me neither, except … I couldn't have imagined a lot of the things that have happened in this country, and around the world, in the past two-three years. I am making no bets. Yep.

I know artists who slit them and put them around their art when transporting them, to help prevent damage to the frames.

I like both of your addenda. Do you have any idea who said (or was supposed to have said) either of them? Seems to me that the author of that article continued to miss the point in a few cases: Actually, St. Paul didn't say that "money is a cause of evil" either -- he criticized the love of money, not money itself. The article quotes a few contenders for the original version of "Murphy's Law," but fails to note that the usual quote differs in meaning from all of them. "If anything can be done wrong, it will be" is a comment on human nature, while the usual quote is fatalistic. This is a clear example of Murphy's Corollary: "If anything can be misquoted, it will be." I've have heard that mangled version a few times, but I've more often heard the original saying misused. As the article points out, “The proof of the pudding is in the eating" actually “meant ... that you had to try out food to know whether it was good.” This comes from the original meaning of the word "prove," which was "test" (as in "proving grounds"). A lot of people seem to think it means "eating the pudding will prove that it's good," in the modern sense of the word.

Oooo, that pic of Tony snapping makes me want to cry.....

Undeniably.

I think the only other ones I've heard of are Breaking Bad (US), which I've never seen, and Death Note (Japan), which I have. It was interesting but I maintain Full Metal Alchemist was better than any of them.

Some of us have taste and recognise quality!

Thank you. I am going to have a very happy Thursday... I am off to see Andrew Scott in Present Laughter, via NTLive. I have spare ticket, too. Shame none of you are here and not doing the Thanksgiving thing!

Is there a way to possibly keep the old dark theme as an option? The new one is really hard on my eyes, and the light theme is too. I have to squint to post this.

Thanks for the tip! I’ve known about the cover photo, but my default is green, which is my fave, so I haven't felt inclined to change it yet, lol.

I'm not charmed by the idea of Columbo as a sadist, tbh. Mr. Moffat does have a, uh … unique way of phrasing things, doesn't he?

There, there -- it'll probably be on MeTV in another twenty years or so.

I never understood that either! I like the song and I am not religious. It's a great lullaby Btw.

Just ran across a whimsical interview with Dave Barry (one of my favorite writers). It's on this page, but never mind reading it, just scroll down to the video (and ignore the subtitles, which I'm guessing were computer generated). This is probably more for people who've been wondering what Dave Barry's up to now, rather than people who are wondering who the heck is Dave Barry, but if you're among the latter, just bear in mind that Barry is rarely entirely serious (but just about always somewhat serious).

I had a look at the Study in Pink thread earlier today, and saw that Tim had quoted the BBC episode synopsis in the very first post, which includes this sentence: "The two men couldn't be more different, but Sherlock's inspired leaps of intellect coupled with John's pragmatism soon forge an unbreakable alliance." I love that phrase, "inspired leaps of intellect." Just about sums it up, I think. Wonder who came up with it? Presumably the Moftisses?

Sometimes remakes work in their own way, though. The Addams Family movies, for instance.

Whew. It just goes to the bottom of the page. So "end" is opposite of "home." Got it.

Partly lucky and partly able to deduce the most likely answer. Is that the same as being a good guesser? My thoughts exactly.

Gahhhh!!! My claustrophobia!!!! Well, if you buy a separate house, even after the mortgage is paid off, you're still paying "rent" to the county every six months -- and if you fall behind, they evict you and "rent" the place to someone else. (Admittedly property taxes aren't nearly as big a chunk as rent.) I shall immediately stop bitching about the local housing developments: People moving to "the country" in order to live in a house that's about ten feet away from an identical house on either side. Hundreds of acres of them.... But at least they have back yards. And the colors vary all the way from mushroom to taupe to gray.

It's not nearly that cold here -- yet -- but I'm wearing hmm, let's see, five layers up top and two pairs of pants. Just a couple weeks ago I was still wearing shorts. It's that transition that'll get ya. I have a heated footrest (either this one or a very similar earlier model) under my computer table. I love it. If my feet are warm, the rest of me is a lot more likely to be comfortable. Added: After reading some of those reviews, I'd guess that there are several variations being sold under the same model number.

That's hard. I actually do not desire or want (any more) love, but it still can happen, that my hormones go berserk over someone and because I always fall for those I know I can't - or even want(!) to get, it's always super-annoying and feels more like an illness. Not to mention it's a waste of time and energy. Good, it doesn't happen too often and the last time it happened 10 years ago.

As someone who is gay, it genuinely annoys me that both the straight and LGBT community are so hostile towards people who are ace, it's bad enough that the bisexuals are being discriminated against by both the straight and LGBT community. My mother does the same thing, she's remarried to a foreigner who only speaks English and French but no Dutch. I speak Dutch and English but no French, you'd think that when I visit them they'd speak English. Unfortunately that's not the case, they speak French. Sometimes she starts speaking to me in French before my nonplussed face tells her that I have no idea what she's saying, it's very annoying.

I'm thinking more about caring for BORN children and supporting mothers. I cannot even imagine how women manage to have kids in the USA. If they put the energy and means used for fighting abortion to actually make maternity easier as much as adoption, the abortion rates may go back by themselves. As for the situation in Europe: In Germany it's not satisfying at all. It's more and more difficult to find doctors doing abortions and they are obviously under pressure (even if not so openly as in the US). We've had a case lately when a doctor got in trouble for giving the information online - it was interpreted as advertising and this is illegal. Condoms are available but you have to pay for them, the same with pills, which have to be prescribed by a gynecologist (which is good IMO) In Poland it's getting worse in a frightening speed - the governing party frequently attempt to push trough a complete ban on abortions. At the same time pharmacies are allowed to refuse selling means of contraception for conscientious reasons. And they do. It's the twisted, "morality" spread by Catholic Church: "Sex is only for making children". I suppose other Christian churches are not better. https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/01/08/poland-is-trying-to-make-abortion-dangerous-illegal-and-impossible/

That's terrible, I'm sorry for you and your friend, and your mom. I do part-time work in a funeral home, so I see a lot of sadness and death under sad circumstances. Last week we had a 17-year-old girl who took a nap after school one day and never woke up. They think it was complications from diabetes. Before that there was a young man's suicide, a young woman who overdosed in a hotel room, and a baby who hadn't even been named yet. We see more deaths the closer to the holidays it gets; that's our "busy" time of year. We're not even allowed vacation time because of how busy we'll be. It's just all very sad.

That’s sad. I’ve attended a few funerals this year myself. One of my aunts had a stroke about a decade ago which left her unable to communicate at all and in need of constant care. She eventually ended up in a nursing home. Earlier this year she made the decision to refuse all food, effectively starving herself to death. My uncle visited her every day, and her kids went as often as they could, but she must have felt so lonely. It’s very sad and I sometimes think it would have been better for her if she had died from the stroke in the first place. At least her suffering is over now.

I always liked this one. [Clorox Pirates]