@MrShinyandNew安宇 Oh. That bites. Got any gancyclovir handy?

@KitFox I don't need to check on them much. My son, for example, breathes so loudly that an elf could shoot him in the dark.

My little one fell down the stairs yesterday.

Unfortunately, less than a week ago, there was this article in the paper about a 2-year-old [yadda yadda yadda] died suddenly a month later.

So now I am trying to remember how I fell down the stairs when I was a kid, how kids fall down stairs and bonk their heads all the time, that I really, really know the signs of traumatic brain injury and he has none, and he is FINE, really FINE, it's OK.

And if I hadn't been compelled to read that stupid article about a freak accident, I wouldn't even have thought twice about it.

@KitFox he'll be fine. Just don't forget that one kid falling down the stairs and dying is news, but millions of kids falling down the stairs and NOT dying is NOT news.

Well, and he didn't even fall down the stairs.

But did sustain a traumatic injury and seemed perfectly OK immediately after.

my daughter once fell off her tricycle and split her lip open. we went inside and she promptly fell down the stairs.

Oh God. I shouldn't laugh about that.

@KitFox me too

@KitFox it's ok, we laughed too. she was fine

Like the time my son cracked his head on the pavement and as I scooped him up, I stepped on his fingers, which startled me so much I dropped him back on the pavement and he hit his head again.

That was a stellar parenting moment.

And it is really the curse of reading these news stories. I try to stay as far away from them as possible.

I have a real issue with ruminating on stuff and it provokes my anxiety like you wouldn't believe.

I blame my mother.

I do that too. I guess it's a normal human thing

She taught me this behavior, and I don't think I'll ever be able to unlearn it.

@MattЭллен I don't know about that. I've had therapy for it. My thought patterns are pretty pathological.

huh

A certain level of empathy is normal, but I think about it too much.

Or so I'm told.

Oh well, it's probably what makes my storytelling so much fun.

Speaking of, I am off to get lunch in the rain. Back soon.

au revoir

Oh, and we can pretend I didn't say that stuff. I suppose I don't really need to go around convincing people that I'm crazy.

it's alright, you don't need to convince me ;)

speechless

@KitFox lol

When I say "dropped," he was lying on the ground, so it was probably only an inch or two.

still, it's a funny story

Now really, lunch.

enjoy your lunch!

Hi Everybody..!!

Good to see

Oh, baked apple and brie with sliced almonds on cinnamon-raisin panini, you thought you had the better of me, didn't you?

it did! I heard it

But I feared for your safety in the rain. I did, I truly did.

You didn't even make it to my office.

So. Then. Do we know any straight women?

we as in you, or we as in anyone?

We as in us.

I'm fairly sure I know some straight women

or at least women who are into men

@KitFox I sure I know some women who are "straight" in that they appear to be into men and as far as I know do not live in denial about that and have never shown to be into women.

Could you ask them under what circumstances they might be seduced by another woman?

It's for science.

OK, not really. It's for my story.

oh, well my ex would be seduced under the circumstances whereby she is single

You dumped your ex because she was cheating on you with a woman?

no! she would never cheat

but I know she dated some women after she left me

Well, then she's not very straight, eh?

But maybe that's OK.

I don't think it went anywhere because she's with a guy now

thinks about it

I'm not going to ask my mum

@MattЭллен Lots of bi girls pass.

It's just easier that way.

I maybe could ask my brother's fiancée

@MattЭллен Not even for science?

not even for science

if by some strange fluke you met my mother, I wouldn't be upset to find out you asked her, but I won't ask her myself :D

It's weird. I can't think of any women I know who aren't a little bi. Well, I guess I probably just don't know the straight girls well enough to ask.

@MattЭллен That's not how I thought you were going to end the sentence.

And I felt really weird about it.

But is anyone really truly straight or gay? like 100%? I kinda feel that there's a lot of conditioning and socialization that influences things but that most people are on a spectrum. So for lots of women the answer is "nothing could convince me to date a woman" but that's because she's been raised to completely discount that idea and it's not a strongly-felt urge for her.

I guess I am trying to think of what might spark an initial attraction.

Most straight women wouldn't (presumably) meet another woman and think "Damn, she's yummy."

probably not

So what might a woman do to get that straight woman to think "Hmm..." in the first place?

That's where I'm stuck.

I want to write something plausible.

But not stupid.

maybe the straight woman would need to be in a particular frame of mind - e.g. a friend has just come out

or she's just watched a lot of lesbian cinema

In the context I'm envisioning, that would probably seem contrived.

Well, I'm aware of stories (can't remember where I encountered them) where a lesbian seduces a straight women by "playing" first, i.e. only pretending, getting close but not too close, etc.

I imagine it might take quite a bit of time for the idea to take root though

Hahaha.

I'm sure I've never watched films where that happens.

;-D

not like some shitty porno story where a pillow-fight turns into sex or something, not that I would know anything about that.

oh, so like a good porno where she's a student and is being disciplined by her female prof?

Or the sorority sister asks her roommate to take some nude pictures of her for her boyfriend, even though she's a little embarrassed since her roommate is, you know, a lesbian.

um

And they just kind of forgot that they ordered a pizza.

lol

I've never watched anything like that.

nor me

That would be dirty and wrong and unnatural.

nor me.

Actually, I'm not sure that I have watched a movie like that. That might just have been...wait, am I typing this out loud?

gotta run! see youse in a bit

but seriously, how does romance actually happen in real life? how different is "lesbian seduces straight woman" from "ugly, unattractive man seduces attractive woman"?

Because the lesbians are attractive?

@KitFox not to straight people, right?

Well, they have approximately symmetrical features, straight teeth, and their skin is free of major blemishes?

Also, their hair is shiny and thick?

Like, if I see a really handsome/hot/whatever guy on the street. Objectively I can tell he's "attractive" and could tell you why. But he's not attractive to me. So if I were single and he wanted to seduce me, he'd have a major uphill battle.

Right, but an ugly guy wouldn't even have a chance.

@KitFox I'm not sure how much difference it'd make, honestly.

OK, but still.

If a man embodied the ultimate physical male that you desired, he would have some chance of actually seducing you.

Because he could exploit your desire to be like him.

Theoretically.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have a foothold.

Unless maybe he was rich and just offered you a gay-for-pay arrangement, but that's not really seduction.

Well, but I digress.

I think the slow build-up approach might work.

@KitFox well, perhaps. My point is that since I'm not attracted to maleness at all, I think basically a guy would have to make me fall completely in love with him first. I'm not sure that's even possible because I don't know if I'd let myself fall for him.

"gay-for-pay"? is that an actual thing, or did you just make the phrase up?

@JSBձոգչ sure it's a thing

X-for-pay is a thing, for all X

Get them friendly, look for opportunities to innocently touch, then next thing you know...

@MrShinyandNew yes, but is "gay for pay" a standard phrase for something that happens with some frequency, or did Kit just coin the term?

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Oh, I didn't mean you'd be attracted to his manliness. I meant you would envy his manliness.

which is awesome, by the way

@JSBձոգչ Stock phrase.

Also, niche kink in the BDSM world.

@KitFox I think it's easier with women because our society seems to be more generally tolerant of women doing things together that men cannot generally do. Like it's generally not remarkable for two adult women to hold hands. But guys don't really do that.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 That's very true.

i don't need to envy anyone's manliness

I bet that will be different by the time I am a grandmother though.

@JSBձոգչ Damn. fans self

I love my husband, but I wouldn't mind if he looked a little more like that.

@KitFox I wouldn't hold my breath.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 in america? i would consider it unusual to see two adult women walking down the street holding hands.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Really? It was shocking to be gay when I was a kid. Not so much now.

it wouldn't be unusual in romania, but there it has nothing to do with gayness

I feel pretty gay too.

@JSBձոգչ I guess it depends on the kind of hand-holding.

"Still no interview with driver in fatal [town] crash" Does that strike you funny?

@JasperLoy maybe you ARE gay! don't rule it out. Accept what you are, whatever that is. Unless what you are is a murderer or pedophile. In which case I say "you can always do better!"

Damn it, tweened.

@KitFox funny as in "awkwardly worded"?

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Yes.

@KitFox yeah it's slightly awkward, it seems like the driver is dead so why are they trying to interview him?

"Dead man refuses to talk!"

"Film at 11"

So box-shadow and border-radius are part of something new?

CSS3? And IE doesn't use that or look at that or something?

CSS3 is a crap shoot in every browser

you need to visit caniuse.com

it lets you know which browsers support which features and estimates what percentage of users will see what css3 enhancements you put out

OK.

but in short, IE 8 and lower don't really do any css3. IE9 does some.

IE10 does lots more but it has zero market share.

I hate that I have to support IE.

Well, I hate having to think about developing in a way that is cross-browser happy-making.

I'd rather just test something and see if it works.

I don't want to test it on five or more browsers.

There's a thing you can install on old IE that uses MS-specific features like VRML, Filters, etc, to fake some of the CSS stuff. It's called PIE

css3pie.com

basically you include it sorta like a JS file and IE magically gets new features. the performance isn't as good as native CSS features though.

Mmmm, pie.

It would be nice to have rounded corners...

@KitFox My philosophy is that rounded corners look good for everyone who can see them, and the square corners are what you always had anyway for those people running crappy browsers

i'm going to go get lunch now. cya!

Again?

Oh, that was Kit. Enjoy your lunch!

You can totally use rounded corners... most times the squares stuck using IE as their primary browser won't even notice :P

Yes. I think you have sold me.

Ack! The jade tree next to me just dropped a little branchy bit on the floor and it scared me!

Eep!

I shouldn't be so jumpy, but I've had too much coffee, and not enough of, uhh, those things with calories in them. Food.

But my better half said he'd feed me, so I'm off again to fight the wild sandwiches!

So...yay!

mmm food.

Hello

I don't think it was a removed user; the actions happened spread over the course of a view days

I have a question that might be related to the English language.

So what's making a box around my icons in IE, but not in FF?

@simchona Maybe not, but how could it be? They'd have to upvote you, then remove it immediately and downvote you.

@KitFox But I lost 7 rep per question, which means they upvoted, something was edited, and then downvoted

But you said there weren't any edits.

I am stammer when I talk to native speaker in English. I feel nervous when I talk to people. Do you guys have suggestion on this? :)

@KitFox It could be from an oldtimer I guess

@Anonymous Practice with a patient native speaker. Most people are understanding when someone is learning a language.

7 rep? Wait, how is that possible?

Hello!

Unupvote, downvote-- -5 then -2

@Cerberus who is this? Do I know you?

Oh, I see. I was thinking answers, not questions. I forgot the rep was different.

@MattЭллен Hmm I am not sure. Who are you?

@Cerberus oh! a wise guy eh? Some kinda know it all with answers for every question? We'll soon straighten you out.

Oh, dear...will you send me to a camp?

Camp and then some!

By the way, I fail to understand why we don't get tons of questions about a pronoun to distinguish you plural from you singular.

You can pray it out, you know.

English is so silly in that.

@KitFox I would prefer some hardcore exorcisms.

what? why'd we need that? that's be like having gender on nouns

bbl - cooking

You're silly.

Now was I talking about you, or you?

@Cerberus Where's your Dutch modesty now, eh?

Umm...

I think we're thinking of different things.

Right.

Inclusive and exclusive "we" would be nice too, by the way, Santa!

And a flying pony.

What do you mean when you say I am awesome like that?

(Not that Dutch has different "we"s, so I don't miss those as much.)

I am having some terribly dirty thoughts about this guy in a meeting across the hall from me right now.

@Gigili It means that I did something that shows how awesome I am.

@KitFox Dirty in a good way?

Or you are pointing out something about yourself that you consider to be a good quality.

Yeah OK it doesn't have to be an actual action.

But there must be some action or property for that to refer to.