It's Personal...

Neeeek · Post by **Neeeek** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 10:00 am

fectin wrote:
Neeeek wrote:
They will if you are in court.
Do legal documents require MLA? I thought they had their own requirement for citing cases, and whatever you could get away with for anything else.

Legal documents have their own citation format. And there's more than one legal citation format. And you'd better know which one the court you are in requires if you don't want the judge to make you cry.

Though, honestly, if they can find the thing you are referencing without much effort, it's not that big a deal.

The difference between law and general writing is they will pretty much always look up the references. They are supposed to, since your case is based on what was entered in the things you are referencing.

Count Arioch the 28th · Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:49 am

Dropped another pound in the past week. Moving slowly, but moving.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:33 am

Had my 6-week x-ray and am now allowed to go without the sling. Still 6 more weeks before I'm cleared for work though.

Excellent, I can go play video games again. I've more or less been limited to games that only need one hand to play. So, tower defence and dating sims.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 6:25 am

Aaaand I finally managed to come clean to the missionaries. I figured that, given they were thinking about arranging a baptism, I really couldn't just keep being nice.

They were very understanding about it, and don't feel that I wasted their time. As much as I have problems with the higher-ups in Utah, these individual Mormons are good, decent people.

Despite the whole "approaching people in the street" thing, I mean.

RobbyPants · Post by **RobbyPants** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 11:57 am

Koumei wrote:Aaaand I finally managed to come clean to the missionaries. I figured that, given they were thinking about arranging a baptism, I really couldn't just keep being nice.

"I decided to let them baptize me, but I drew the line at tithing. Well, I decided to tithe, but not 10 percent!"

In all seriousness, I'm glad it went well letting them down. They're probably used to it.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 7:11 pm

My son started school today. He got on the bus a little confused because Ess and I weren't coming with him, and when we picked him up three hours later, he started crying because he didn't want to come home. I can only interpret this as a success.

RobbyPants · Post by **RobbyPants** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 7:26 pm

Maj wrote:My son started school today. He got on the bus a little confused because Ess and I weren't coming with him, and when we picked him up three hours later, he started crying because he didn't want to come home. I can only interpret this as a success.

If my daughter is having fun at daycare, she'll pitch a fit when I go to pick her up. I'm glad she's having a good time there.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 9:00 pm

The whole concept of quit while they're enjoying themselves is something I read at some point in my learning in the last few years... The goal of quitting while you're having fun is essentially to leave a good memory in your head, rather than a bad one. Kids (especially) will go back to activities that they've left on a high note, be it reading, math, school, or eating broccoli, so if Giovanni starts crying because I've put the kibosh on what he's doing - as much as it makes me cringe with guilt sometimes - it's actually a good sign.

DSMatticus · Post by **DSMatticus** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 10:19 pm

Koumei wrote:Aaaand I finally managed to come clean to the missionaries. I figured that, given they were thinking about arranging a baptism, I really couldn't just keep being nice.

They were very understanding about it, and don't feel that I wasted their time. As much as I have problems with the higher-ups in Utah, these individual Mormons are good, decent people.

Despite the whole "approaching people in the street" thing, I mean.

'An Australian Lesbian's Adventures with The Cult From Utah!' This is kind of surreal.

But really, being 'good, decent people' doesn't excuse them. The Mormon church has an incredibly aggressive and successful recruiting policy that plays on the principle that "if we teach our missionaries and recruiters to be polite, people will have a harder time telling them no." And then the Mormon church uses this to recruit people into a religion which works actively to turn back the past fifty years of social progress. Even though these particular missionaries are just ignorant cogs in the machine, the machine in question is working to make society objectively worse. And they think doing so is a favor to you. That kind of stupidity is dangerous, and should not be coddled. It is unfortunate that nice people do terrible things out of ignorance, but they do, and when they do you need to be ready to discourage them with hostility.

Maj wrote:The goal of quitting while you're having fun is essentially to leave a good memory in your head, rather than a bad one.

Personally, I'm just going to connect a drip to my kid's brain and blast them with dopamine everytime they learn something.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 3:26 am

DSMatticus wrote: Personally, I'm just going to connect a drip to my kid's brain and blast them with dopamine everytime they learn something.

Actually, the brain already does that (or something similar). The learning part of the brain is near the reward centre and the opiate receptors, and learning things stimulates these as though you had taken a mild hit of an opiate. It makes you feel good. The same thing is why looking at nice new pieces of art makes you feel good.

I'm not willing to go on a limb and say this means taking morphine helps you learn, but it is kind of cool that the brain rewards you for learning.

Frank can probably explain it in much better terms than I can.

Count Arioch the 28th · Wed Sep 14, 2011 3:40 am

An extremely cute female coworker told me today that she noticed I've lost weight in the past month and I look good. That's an ego boost that I have gotten rarely (in fact, I think that's the first time a woman has ever complimented my appearance. Like, ever).

Also, after throwing freight all day, I feel something that I've never felt. I feel powerful! I am doing very well with the new diet and exercise regimen.

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 4:47 am

Awesome, count! Congratulations!

RobbyPants · Post by **RobbyPants** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 11:57 am

Koumei wrote:Actually, the brain already does that (or something similar). The learning part of the brain is near the reward centre and the opiate receptors, and learning things stimulates these as though you had taken a mild hit of an opiate. It makes you feel good.

This probably does a lot to explain confirmation bias: a combination of feeling good while learning and validating your belief system.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 2:22 pm

I like how Count is so pathetic that everyone on the dickest forum ever compliments him excessively on really small shit that doesn't matter because we feel like if we don't, he will kill himself.

Also, I can only imagine in K posted every time some girl thought he looked good, he would have more posts than Frank.

Count Arioch the 28th · Wed Sep 14, 2011 3:53 pm

http://rclol.com/haters-gonna-hate-jose ... x-edition/

But even I can't deny that K is one suave motherfucker. Bitches be taking numbers to get with that playah.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 6:00 am

So, the bookstore I frequent downtown had some convention swag for me. Among others, couple of autographed books from a series my little sister reads.

One of them is the next installment, due to come out March 13, 2012.

I'm apparently the world's most awesome big brother right now, for getting an autographed book six months before it comes out.

Wesley Street · Post by **Wesley Street** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 12:15 pm

That is pretty dope. My mom has attended American Library Association conferences and returned with swag books that were still six months to a year away from publication. The fantasy and sci-fi paperbacks went into my pile.

Count Arioch the 28th · Fri Sep 23, 2011 3:35 pm

This week I start auditioning for my ex GF's replacement. I've got two dates set up so far for the end of September and early October, let's see if any pan out.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 12:26 am

Moved all the furniture and swept the kitchen and dining room and other sundry areas only to find 3 obnoxious leaks under the kitchen sink. So, cleaned and mopped the kitchen. I placed a pot under the leaks as a temporary solution as I don't have plumber's tape.

After all this, I went into the bathroom to find the chain broken.

This wasn't a hard thing to fix.

Since I am renting, I can call the landlord to fix these problems. But I'd have to wait a few days to fix my leaks. Time to hit up home despot for tape.

Count Arioch the 28th · Wed Sep 28, 2011 3:53 am

I'm arguing with someone on Facebook, and they've started accusing me of being crazy, and that I need to be institutionalized, and I'm a liar, etc.

So I've decided to respond to being accused of being "totally nuts" like this:

me wrote:I'm all about Cashews. Every two weeks I buy a big can of cheap-ass cashews to munch on throughout the week. I find it gives me a quick boost on a small handful, but I'm wondering if maybe my penchant for Cashews is causing me other issues. For example, when I go trail running, squirrels follow me incessantly. At first their capering and chittering amused me to no end, but they've begun crafting crude deadfalls across the trail in order to crush me (like that time you walked in on me and your mom, and she wanted Reverse Cowgirl? Like that, but with less bacon grease). Anyway, so far their traps have been laughably crude, but they are starting to show a cunning I didn't expect from a rodent. Last time, they had a 40 of Steel Reserve, an issue of The American Tarantula Society Quarterly, and a set of steel polyhedral dice under a propped up log. Although I managed to get the booze and the dice, the magazine was beyond repair and I failed to get my favorite leg (the right one) out of the way in time, and I now walk with a pronounced limp. I was wondering if I could hire you and your astute observation skills to help insure that I am no longer harassed by crazed forest animals?

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 5:02 am

Another good one would be something I got from a coworker last night:

Coworkers wrote:Crazy? I was crazy once. They put me in a room. With rats. I hate rats. They make me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once....

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Sat Oct 01, 2011 3:04 am

Because I was running out of space on my computer, I bought an external hard drive. For $75.00 (including tax and shipping), I bought 1 TB of space. Admittedly, this was not the cheapest cost per TB, but considering it's four times larger than my computer's internal hard drive space, I'm pretty happy with it.

RobbyPants · Post by **RobbyPants** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 12:29 am

My second daughter was just born this morning. She was a couple weeks early, but is quite healthy. It was fun watching my older daughter get to meet her today. I think it's still setting in for her, and it probably won't be real for her until my wife and newborn come home from the hospital.

Time to prepare for a lack of sleep and abundance of dirty diapers!

Blasted · Post by **Blasted** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 2:19 am

Grats!

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 2:31 am

Seriously.

Congratulations, and I'm glad everything's fine with her.