The Frying Pan

2:20 AM

The US reaction to The Walk has been really bizarre. There is a very loud faction on IMDb that really finds it offensive because of 9/11 memories.

ElendilTheTall

8:19 AM

@Jolenealaska oh for heaven's sake

thank you for starting my day with a dose of idiocy

I had forgotten to watch the news

Jolenealaska

Hi Sweetie

about two minutes ago, I had an "out of data" scare.

ElendilTheTall

8:39 AM

@Jolenealaska terrible

have you recovered?

Jolenealaska

I had called my ISP earlier today (several hours ago) because I suspected that I was about to run out of data. my phone tells me a little about my data usage, but it is not with pinpoint accuracy.

barely

my blood pressure is returning to normal, I think.

ElendilTheTall

phew

I thought you had sorted out the whole debt thing with the broadband ISP?

Jolenealaska

So, since I am trailer-trash-rich due to the dividend having just been deposited, I bought 5GB worth of data over the phone before close of business. Apparently I was down to less than 100MB.

No, they still won't do business with me. That is unlikely to change but now I have a bit more ammunition for the fight.

I am one manipulative conniving bitch when I want to be.

ElendilTheTall

It seems odd that you can't just choose another provider

Jolenealaska

I know. Welcome to Alaska.

ElendilTheTall

8:45 AM

here, the actual communications infrastructure is owned by one company

they serve the entire country

you can choose any broadband provider you like, anywhere

because they basically rent the infrastructure from BT (British Telecom)

Jolenealaska

My old provider with whom I had a long and mostly pain-free relationship thinks they will be serving this area quite soon (within weeks), and infrastructure is the problem.

ElendilTheTall

you need to write to whoever polices monopolies

Jolenealaska

So one company is on a human level exactly what I want (ACS), the other company ISP would be the bane of my existence (also on a human level). The nasty company leaves itself open to being manipulated by people like me. The good company doesn't have the infrastructure yet to provide for my needs. So, I am in a bit of limbo, but GCI is losing my money.

ElendilTheTall

if they had any sense they would arrange for you to pay, say, half of the debt in tiny instalments. At least they'd then recoup some of their losses.

Jolenealaska

Haha... they would rather flaunt their power as the only game in town.

so, I laugh behind their back.

I will laugh louder once I have Internet from another source.

until then I smile sweetly

I get three communications needs met through them. I have had a Lifeline phone for five years or so. Lifeline is a federally subsidized program that supplies gimpy cell phone service to low income people. The subsidies are paid to the ISPs, and the end-user pays a pittance per month for cell service.

If make a call, I do it on that line. Federal regulations will not allow GCI to nuke that account unless I fall hugely in arrears paying the three or four dollars per month that I'm expected to pay.

My cable television (woo-hoo) comes with my apartment.

My cable is provided by GCI. I neither pay nor see a bill.

GCI provided me with this stupid-ass, difficult to use Android phone, but it is a usable Android phone. I can link it to my computer and tether to get Internet access at home. I can also use it anywhere there is a public hotspot.

Eventually I will upgrade to something other than this stupid ass, ugly, difficult to use, low definition buggy thing, but it will always work in hotspots until something changes.

There is a phone number linked to the Android phone account that I will have to pay for eventually as long as I keep using it basically as a modem, but that time isn't this month.

ElendilTheTall

9:15 AM

and so it goes

Jolenealaska

So, I pay GCI for data.

$30 buys me 5GB, which used judiciously will last me over a month.

ElendilTheTall

did you turn images off in firefox?

Jolenealaska

For the most part I can't watch videos, but I still find cable TV pretty novel, so I guess I don't really care.

I thought so, but apparently not. BRB

ElendilTheTall

you could use this, which allows you to be a bit more judicious

addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/image-block

Jolenealaska

that looks awesome for me!

I'll install it later, but that will probably save me a lot of money.

ElendilTheTall

9:27 AM

you're welcome

Jolenealaska

I also have to get into the habit of de-tethering if I step away. Windows updates and antivirus database stuff can surprise me if I'm not careful.

TY :)

The book has entered a new incarnation as most of it is actually "on paper" now.

The damn thing has a life of its own.

It is not even recognizable as the thing I thought it would be when I first decided to do it.

ElendilTheTall

it's ALIVE

Jolenealaska

apparently

that reminds me, how 'bout that running water on Mars thing?

how cool is that??

ElendilTheTall

meh

i'm fed up of all these announcements. Fucking do something already

Jolenealaska

Really?

ElendilTheTall

9:36 AM

Everything's happening in the next ten years, then ten years goes by and nothing has changed. Our smartphones got bigger. Whoop dee do.

give me a moon colony, or nuclear fusion, or even self driving cars, and I'll be excited. Running water on a planet that we kinda sorta thought there probably would be running water anyway? meh.

Jolenealaska

It may be a little anticlimactic after the Clinton announcement of a few years ago regarding possible microscopic life on Mars, but the discovery is still pretty exciting (to me anyway).

ElendilTheTall

How come?

Jolenealaska

News like that continues to chip away at this perception some people have of the impossibility of life elsewhere.

ElendilTheTall

pff

there's whole clouds of interstellar water out there

Jolenealaska

Part of our different ways of looking at it may have to do with who we interact with on a daily basis.

ElendilTheTall

9:44 AM

possibly

do you interact with many morons?

Jolenealaska

yep

ElendilTheTall

a sad state of affairs

wait... you're mostly in here ಠ_ಠ

Jolenealaska

to the point that people who aren't morons startle me

the two phenomenons are related.

Coming here offers me a balance.

ElendilTheTall

We should rename it 'The Brain Trust'

Jolenealaska

It doesn't matter that you're a figment of my imagination, you're still way smarter than almost anybody I interact with in real life.

ElendilTheTall

9:49 AM

Figment indeed ಠ_ರೃ

Jolenealaska

speaking of real-life, Marv is coming through the day after tomorrow. Apparently this really will be his last professional trip to Barrow. Shell Oil is selling out, and Marv is retiring.

So I will see him the day after tomorrow and again in about three weeks.

After that, probably never again.

he has been rewritten in the book BTW.

He is now a composite with another man with whom my relationship is best kept cryptic.

the other man was somebody I could have fallen in love with, but I didn't. The closest thing we ever had to sex was when he kissed me on the forehead one Christmas.

Stephie

Hi guys!

Jolenealaska

Hi @Stephie. What's new?

ElendilTheTall

@Stephie mornin'

Stephie

@Jolenealaska My daughter was switched from first to second grade this morning.

I have a dejà vu...

ElendilTheTall

9:58 AM

well, stop raising geniuses

Jolenealaska

She apparently did not ask you for input. See how they are?

ElendilTheTall

you have no one to blame but yourself

Jolenealaska

ungrateful wretches

Stephie

@ElendilTheTall I won't risk a third child...

Jolenealaska

condoms, the key is condoms.

ElendilTheTall

10:00 AM

Artist's impression of Stephie's hypothetical third child

(note the uncanny resemblance to the father)

Jolenealaska

:)

Stephie

@Jolenealaska as I was told already.... ;-)

ElendilTheTall

If you took a microscope and peered at the business end of the condom, you would probably find the gametes had fashioned a rudimentary angle grinder and were cutting their way through the rubber

Jolenealaska

Jeez, enough TV today. Good God. This thing is mind sucking.

Stephie

But that means a new schedule (easier, in fact - get up early every day), new books and - drumrolls, please - a fountain pen. I guess for her, that's the main highlight.

ElendilTheTall

10:03 AM

she's required to have a fountain pen?

Jolenealaska

I happened to catch a review of a particular show on CNN and the hostess of said show.

Stephie

@ElendilTheTall No, it's more the fear that - statistically speaking - we don't cover the other end of the Gaussian curve yet.

Jolenealaska

I can't remember the source of the review, but I remember that it struck me as pretty reliable.

Stephie

@ElendilTheTall permitted! She will start cursive this week and once she's mastered the basics, she can switch.

ElendilTheTall

@Stephie perhaps you two are at the end of the Gaussian curve showing intelligence of children born to sets of parents

Stephie

10:05 AM

She's been oogling mine and brother's fir a while...

ElendilTheTall

@Stephie what pen will you be bestowing upon her?

Lamys are nice, German pens

always smooth

Jolenealaska

A fountain pen?? Good grief. I used to use one for calligraphy decades ago. Why on earth do they want to handicap a second-grader with such an object?

ElendilTheTall

They aren't handicapping at all

Stephie

@ElendilTheTall Lamys are so poprietary when it comes to cartridges... I will take her shopping, a pen must feel good and fit. Like a shoe...

ElendilTheTall

perhaps in your day when you had to cut the quill at just the right angle

@Stephie this is true. but not exactly hard to come by

Jolenealaska

10:08 AM

<snort>

ElendilTheTall

The Japanese make some excellent fountain pens

the Kaweco Sport is a classic

also, OHTO make some fantastic little pens

one even has a German name, the Tasche

Stephie

I have my eye on a good Mont Blanc, but.... perhaps one day. <dreamy sigh>

@Jolenealaska The kids learn cursive - and using fountain pens really helps.

I still use them occasionally.

Jolenealaska

so what good are fountain pens? I didn't even get them as a kid.

although they never used one to teach me how to write. I don't think I've ever handled one except in art class.

ElendilTheTall

@Jolenealaska They write nicely

Jolenealaska

Give me a smooth action ballpoint any day.

ElendilTheTall

10:12 AM

@Stephie lose yourself here: cultpens.com

@Jolenealaska to each their own

Jolenealaska

Although, since I can't use one of those either, my perspective may be a bit skewed.

ElendilTheTall

I have fountain pens, ballpoints, rollerballs, mechanical pencils, all sorts

Stephie

@Jolenealaska They teach you not to press down too hard, so you learn to write fast and legible without tiring. It's all about smooth movement.

@ElendilTheTall Ah, another afficionado!

ElendilTheTall

I rather like this very high gloss Kaweco

cultpens.com/i/q/KW26149/…

Jolenealaska

I never wrote proper cursive. Maybe that has been my problem all along.

ElendilTheTall

10:14 AM

and this brass one

cultpens.com/i/q/KW43592/kaweco-brass-sport-fountain-pen

Stephie

@ElendilTheTall Too "hard" and "edgy" for my taste. I go for the really oldfashioned ones. Guve me something black (bakelite?) and curvy and I'm hooked!

Jolenealaska

does anybody actually do this? Furthermore, what percentage of the population would even know what that symbol is supposed to represent?

Stephie

Aehm, no idea? But here in Germany I can guarantee that every child learned a version of cursive and lots of people use (their somewhat adapted) version of it.

Or some slight variant...

Jolenealaska

that is a capital Q according to English language second-grade handwriting class.

I have never actually seen it used as such except in second-grade handwriting class.

The capital "S" in your example is new to me.

ElendilTheTall

@Stephie ah, so you would prefer something like

cultpens.com/i/q/DP41220/…

Jolenealaska

10:22 AM

It's almost exactly like an "L".

ElendilTheTall

I think they try and teach cursive much more strictly in the US

here, you learn the basic concepts, then just go in your own direction

Stephie

@ElendilTheTall Yup. This is what it might look like after a few decades:

ElendilTheTall

cultpens.com/i/q/DP41234/…

this is nice

ribbed for your pleasure

oh, this is nice

cultpens.com/i/q/FC11637/…

Stephie

Jolenealaska

Maybe they did, I don't think they do anymore. Certainly I never gave a shit. To me writing has always been about legibility. Things that look like 2s instead of Qs and Ls that look like Ss seem counterproductive.

ElendilTheTall

10:26 AM

@Stephie my eyes! rotate, rotate!

Stephie

@ElendilTheTall So tilt your head...

Jolenealaska

:)

ElendilTheTall

then it looks like I'm looking at a centrefold

Jolenealaska

ha

ElendilTheTall

also cursive in a foreign language is much harder to read, I have just found

Stephie

10:28 AM

Ok, just for you:

Jolenealaska

<snort>, damn foreigners

ElendilTheTall

@Jolenealaska i know, right? Learn English or shut the fuck up

Stephie

ElendilTheTall

(I jest @Stephie)

vielen Dank

Stephie

I could have searched for one of my scripts in English... Were you interested in ontologies?

ElendilTheTall

10:29 AM

not in the slightest

but your writing is very nice, understandable or no

check out reddit.com/r/handwriting for some really stunning handwriting

(from Reddit, not mine)

Stephie

That stuff wasn't written to be pretty, just quick and legible. Study material, copied from blackboard.

ElendilTheTall

I'd like to have a stab at calligraphy, but like electric guitar, there is a left handed tax ಠ_ಠ

Stephie

Are you a "from above" or "from below" leftie?

(Hand position in relation to text, of course.)

Jolenealaska

How left hand use fountain pen

►

ElendilTheTall

@Stephie below

@Jolenealaska yeah, but you need an angled nib... and left handed angled nibs are naturally more expensive

also, while I'm on this path, fuck spiral bound notebooks

Jolenealaska

10:36 AM

lol

My recent experience is topical.

Stephie

They make ones with the spiral on the right... twice as expensive, obviously.

ElendilTheTall

@Stephie If I must use one, I just turn it upside down...

not sure how that differs from one with the spiral on the right...

Jolenealaska

I am very right hand dominant, yet my right hand is very spasmodic. So, at the age of 48, I am learning how to write with my left hand.

ElendilTheTall

@Jolenealaska welcome, Sister

Jolenealaska

There are challenges :)

ElendilTheTall

10:38 AM

Sinisister

Jolenealaska

that too

ElendilTheTall

Challenges, pfff. When you have to use right handed scissors in your left hand, then you'll know what challenges are

especially if they're those ones with moulded grips - painful and useless

Jolenealaska

um... Yeah. Scissors are the same thing, I have four or five right-handed scissors yet no right hand useful to use any of them.

ElendilTheTall

the struggle is real

Jolenealaska

So, I use right-handed scissors in a left-hand that I don't quite know yet how do use.

ElendilTheTall

10:41 AM

@Stephie have you tried your hand at Sütterlin?

Sütterlin

Sütterlinschrift (German pronunciation: [ˈzʏtɐliːnˌʃʁɪft], Sütterlin script) is the last widely used form of Kurrent, the historical form of German handwriting that evolved alongside German blackletter (most notably Fraktur) typefaces. Graphic artist Ludwig Sütterlin was commissioned by the Prussian ministry for culture to create a modern handwriting script in 1911. His handwriting scheme gradually replaced the older cursive scripts that had developed in the 16th century at the same time that bookletters developed into Fraktur. The word Sütterlin is nowadays often used to refer to all varieties...

Jolenealaska

I'm more concerned these days with the fact that I have to use my right foot to use the brake and gas pedal.

Stephie

@ElendilTheTall Not yet. I can sort of read it and we have old stuff written in it, but no, I never took the time to really learn it.

ElendilTheTall

@Stephie lazy...

;)

Jolenealaska

Do either of your countries have a recent history of trying to make left-handed students use their right hand?

Stephie

@Jolenealaska Define "recent"?

ElendilTheTall

10:44 AM

@Jolenealaska how recent? my grandmother had her hand tied behind her back in the 20s

Jolenealaska

Your childhood

@ElendilTheTall so did my aunt Kristy.

ElendilTheTall

oh, no

Jolenealaska

That would've been in the early 60s.

Stephie

Not in my childhood. Fifties, sixties, probably yes, later most likely, no.

Jolenealaska

She remembers it as seeming like a moral issue. If she used her left hand to write her name she was going to end up a teenage mother or something.

She bought into it to until the damage was already done. She has plenty of processing power, yet she can't imagine herself as anything but "slow".

ElendilTheTall

10:49 AM

humans are stupid

Jolenealaska

That came up when we talked recently. She and I were pretty competitive at Pente. I didn't know until recent conversations that she took pride in that because if she could beat me, that must mean she wasn't dumb.

ElendilTheTall

makes you wonder what unnecessary nonsense we do now that people will scoff at in 50 years' time

Stephie

@ElendilTheTall Especially those that want to decide for others what's best for them.

ElendilTheTall

"you know, people used to define themselves as gay or straight! barbarians!"

Jolenealaska

@ElendilTheTall I can imagine a bit of it

ElendilTheTall

10:50 AM

"really? why the fuck did they care?!"

Jolenealaska

anything outside of the "norm" is suspect to small minds.

Stephie

As I told my son - being different is not wrong. The norm exists only because of statistics.

Jolenealaska

Everybody is abnormal in some way.

ElendilTheTall

@Jolenealaska cough feet cough

Jolenealaska

Therein lies greatness

ElendilTheTall

10:53 AM

greatness of shoes

Jolenealaska

that too :)

my grandfather always told me that I have a very large understanding.

ElendilTheTall

sounds like a veiled insult to me :)

Jolenealaska

it probably was. He was a cantankerous old fart.

Stephie

Guys, I have to go - the minors will be home soon. Has been a pleasure, as always! Take care!

Jolenealaska

CYA steph. Take care of the short geniuses, they may support you one day.

ElendilTheTall

10:56 AM

@Stephie cya

Jolenealaska

or not

ElendilTheTall

may support?

they'll be ruling the world

we'll all have to learn cursive

Jolenealaska

spoken like a father

ElendilTheTall

@Jolenealaska damn straight

what's happening with the hurricane?

I haven't seen any news about it, so I assume it's buggered off out to sea

Jolenealaska

as far as I know, it has. The flooding is record-breaking in (South Carolina?), but the hurricane is only tangentially related to that.

ElendilTheTall

11:00 AM

hmmm, yes, seems to be heading for Bermuda

Jolenealaska

in the last few days I have watched several hours of CNN. My estimation of the intelligence of the American public has dropped considerably.

ElendilTheTall

Ha

You're surrounded by more morons than you thought

Jolenealaska

There is an upstart news channel that seems a lot more unbiased. It seems to be run by people who are smart and that cater to people who are smart, but visually it seems like a local news broadcast. They do not spend their money on fancy production stuff or expensive "talent". So far, their only agenda seems to be reporting the news.

ElendilTheTall

I absolutely would not be surprised if Donald Trump won the nominatoon4

Nomination

And subsequently the presidency.

Jolenealaska

It would be rather unprecedented. He reminds me of Ross Perot.

Either he will quit or he will shoot himself in the foot before push comes to shove.

But, who knows?

ElendilTheTall

11:17 AM

Indeed.

Jolenealaska

on another note

I am a bit intrigued by the movie The Walk because I have a very vague memory of the occurrence.

ElendilTheTall

Oo, it'll be cindy's first day today!

Jolenealaska

YES!

Except, her first day will be slightly different than originally planned because of the weather.

Her first impression of the company left her with concerns. More than anything, I hope for her that those concerns prove to be unfounded.

ElendilTheTall

Absolutely

Jolenealaska

unfortunately, her situation is such that she is unlikely to quit even if she hates it.

At least she knows the field well, even if she doesn't yet know the company.

I happened to catch a review of The Walk on CNN, and it was repeated several times while I still had the TV on.

I had caught wind of the controversy because my first impulse was to go to IMDb when I first heard of the movie.

This was perhaps a day before I first saw the review on CNN.

So, it would appear that the controversy in the American mind predated the review. (Of course I could be wrong)

the review was overwhelmingly positive, yet one line from it sticks out. From the review: "Of course they couldn't get away with that today"...

yeah, without the towers he probably would've fallen

reading the conversation on IMDb, you would think that the World Trade Center had no history prior to 9/11.

Some people seem to even have the idea that the whole thing was made up to exploit the heartbreak of that day. the filmmakers just needed two skyscrapers reasonably close to each other.

They showed a serious lack of sensitivity using the memory of 9/11 towards their nefarious ends.

All of that was ping-ponging around my little pea brain while I was watching Independence Day.

I think it was the Empire State Building that the aliens destroyed in that flick, but it could have just as easily have been the World Trade Center. As a matter of fact, that would have been pretty visually cool juxtaposed against the other destruction which was always a single beam. A forked beam destroying the World Trade Center would have been pretty neat looking at the time of Independence Day.

Certainly the World Trade Center is prominent in the background of a lot of flicks.

ElendilTheTall

11:54 AM

hard to miss

Jolenealaska

it's a wonder that we haven't had a shitload of highly trained world trade center wipe-outers with nothing else to do.

after all, seeing the towers in a movie has probably caused untold PTSD flashbacks.

Think of the Children!

My dad has a friend who owned a company in the World Trade Center. As it turns out, the friend was on a business trip or sick or something like that that day.

every single person the man worked with died that day, yet he survived.

Ouch

I predict that by this time tomorrow there will be a video on YouTube showing the man who was caught on video diving from the towers in what appears to be a very relaxed way combined with footage from The Walk. Perhaps it will show Petit falling from the tightrope with that same posture.

The next card is the two of cups.

That explains everything.

ElendilTheTall

12:17 PM

Pisces (20 FEB-20 MAR)
DNA tests show the boy you have been raising as your son is a blend of Aries and Virgo but carries no Pisces genes, meaning he cannot be yours. You can’t argue with science.

lol

Jolenealaska

:)

I am a Virgo, but had I been carried to full term, I would've been a Scorpio. Charlatans have latched onto that little tidbit since before I can remember.

Apparently, that explains everything there is to be explained about me. That and having big feet. And big hair.

I'd be President of the United States had I been born with size 8 feet like a normal person.

Or I'd be circus midget. Always in motion is the future.

ElendilTheTall

like tarot

ask a tarot card reader to give you a reading immediately after they've finished your first one. they will give you some schtick about how the future is constantly changing so it won't be the same. So what's the fucking point of doing it in the first place?!

Jolenealaska

12:35 PM

I played it completely differently when I "read" tarot cards. I would not answer questions period, I would only tell stories as the cards spoke to me. I would look to the subject and try to get a clue as to where his mind was going with where I was going.

like any good mentalist, I was usually able to run with whatever.

If it made no sense, I would feign a sincere attempt at communication and a certain puzzlement.

Then I would quickly change the subject.

ElendilTheTall

that's how it's done, gloss over the misses, seize on the hits

Jolenealaska

absolutely! I never charged for my "services", but it occurred to me that I could.

Every once in a while I'd have a brain fart and forget what a specific card was supposed to mean. I could always wing the "minor arcana" (number cards), they were easy. The "major arcana" was more open to over-the-top interpretation. Good grief the shit I pulled.

Never once did I think that anybody would ever actually believe it until Sgt Bouclaire. Damn. He was a smart guy too, but apparently not about young women wielding tarot cards.

I probably could've taken him for everything he was worth.

To this day he probably tells stories the about psychic he once knew.

ElendilTheTall

1:05 PM

~~psychic~~ pyscho. FTFY.

:P

Faheem Mitha

@ElendilTheTall I hereby dub you International Figment of Mystery.

Jolenealaska

that too.

Faheem Mitha

Hi @Stephie. So the tailor installed some blue cloth curtains today.

Jolenealaska

on that very special note I probably should go to bed. Holy crap, it's 5 AM.

Faheem Mitha

We need to get some white cloth curtains to back it.

So, two separate curtains.

Jolenealaska

1:08 PM

Hi @FaheemMitha.

Faheem Mitha

I guess this is what we call adjusting expectations. Once I thought I might do something with my life. And here I am, talking about curtains. No offense to professional curtain people, whoever they might be.

@Jolenealaska Hello.

Jolenealaska

you've got me beat, I was talking about tarot cards.

ElendilTheTall

@FaheemMitha draper

Faheem Mitha

@ElendilTheTall Draper?

ElendilTheTall

A person who sews and hangs curtains is called a draper. A tailor makes clothes.

Faheem Mitha

1:10 PM

Oh, if you mean the guy who made and installed the curtains, he called himself a tailor.