I grew up in the middle of a freaking forest, and I played outside all the time. And I still couldn't tell the difference between two kinds songbirds or two kinds of flowers. I can tell you what a crow looks like, and a pigeon, and a gull, but other than that, they were all birds. And flowers that don't come from a florist are, for the most part, 'wild flowers'. I don't think this is a massive failing of kids these days. Did kids ever give a shit about primroses?
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 4:01 PM on August 1, 2008

It's a sport that requires relatively little running when played at an amateur level and relatively little equipment. If the colleges have mandatory Physical Education credits and Archery is filled up, you have to take something.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 2:50 PM on July 22, 2008

I'm ignorant of both the Stella Shorts and the Stella TV Show, so, I guess, guilty on all counts.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 2:32 PM on July 22, 2008

I posted this in an Ask.Me thread awhile back: A list of about 4000 jobs that are being cut because of bad lumber prices and the pine beetle situation.

In an area that only has 100K people, that's an insane job loss percentage, especially given that those are the good, high-paying, union jobs.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 8:02 AM on July 9, 2008

Pfft. We once put 11 people in[*] a much smaller car than that to get home from a bar. And none of them were children. And some of them were fat.

[*] For certain values of 'in' that include 'standing onto the bumper holding onto the spoiler while we drove home'.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 11:05 AM on June 24, 2008

I'm sort of confused why this is such a huge issue. It seems like it would be pretty easy to put together a portfolio of samples and letters of reference aimed at your conservative homophobe client base that includes nothing but brides and grooms of the appropriate race and religious background who are tattoo and piercing free, well dressed and apparently still virgins until their wedding day, and another that includes a broader mix of your clientele to be used for your more open-minded clients.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 5:50 AM on June 20, 2008

es_de_bah, the law seems pretty clear on where you can and can't discriminate. You can discriminate against people all you want, provided the reason doesn't fall under one of the protected classes: age, sex, race, national origin, disability, creed or religion (and in some jurisdictions, sexual orientation).
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 6:57 AM on June 20, 2008

If you take the 'artist' out of the equation, does it make a difference? What if we're talking about a chair rental place?
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 3:12 PM on June 21, 2008

That doesn't seem to be the objection the original photographer is making, though -- he doesn't object to shooting gay weddings on artistic grounds. He objects for commercial reasons -- that he might not make as much money if his bigoted straight clients find out he's willing to work gay marriages, too.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 10:06 PM on June 21, 2008

Yes, because, certainly, when gay people go into the emergency room for medical treatment, they're actually looking to be lectured on their lifestyle choices, and not, say, treated for whatever urgent problem brought you to the urgent care clinic in the first place. They're not suing, they're just complaining -- it doesn't seem all that blown out of proportion to me.

Were it me, I couldn't imagine feeling comfortable being treated by a doctor who just took the time to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 11:34 AM on June 23, 2008

I find this move almost totally baffling -- the database costs associated with this stuff would be negligible. And if they're sending you a new movie every time you send one back, why do they give a shit which list it comes from?
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 1:17 PM on June 19, 2008

Well, sure, it made it to YouTube and MetaFilter, but will it end up on Broadway?
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 3:03 PM on May 4, 2008

At dinner last night, we were snuck a sample of the bacon jam that Chef Luke is introducing with his spring menu next week. Bacon jam -- sounds disgusting, tastes amazing.

There was also bacon ice cream, but it was too salty to really be good.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 2:34 PM on May 4, 2008

I'd be interested to know what the standards of proof are for listing something on someone's credit record in the first place. Do the Big Three just take their customers' words for everything? Or is their some level of verification that has to be offered up front?
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 10:49 AM on April 26, 2008

Harper Valley PTA was the second grown-up song I learned all the words to. It's without a doubt my favorite song to belt at the top of my lungs in the shower.

You know, all of a sudden, my hair feels like it needs a washing...
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 9:49 PM on April 24, 2008

The thing I find most interesting about this, process wise, is that there are lots of subtle colour variations in the original large fields of green. Many of the people assigned those squares didn't even attempt the variations, they just painted a green square of some shade. But collectively, you still get an impression of subtle colour variations because of the differences amongst neighbouring squares.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 8:24 AM on April 12, 2008

Also interesting is watching how people decide what's positive and negative space in their drawing.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 8:26 AM on April 12, 2008

I read them, I admit it. I also read things with a little more literary value, but I like the Sweet Valley High books better.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 9:36 PM on March 27, 2008

err, 'liked'.

I don't still read them.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 9:36 PM on March 27, 2008

I'm not clear on why the big distinction between dress size and everything else sizes. Assuming you buy pants sized like most women's ready-to-wear 2/4/6 etc, and not by waist/inseam or small/medium/large, your dress size should be pretty much the same as your pant size or your skirt size or your blouse size, no?
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 7:41 AM on March 28, 2008

I didn't really read them when I was in high school. Maybe the 8th grade, but by the 9th, I'd moved up to tacky Harlequin romances.

They were set in high school, but I think they were read more by middle-school aged kids 11-13ish. Much like the babysitters club books, which were 12-14 year old characters, but which everyone I knew who read them read while still in the 9-11 age range.

I think these books were aspirational -- you read them while... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 10:18 AM on March 28, 2008

I've seen it a couple of times -- Justin Rutledge plays it in concert occasionally.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 9:13 AM on March 25, 2008

Can I be having an uncanny valley problem over legs? Because like others, I am both awed and totally fucking creeped out by that. The fact that the front legs appear to bend backwards relative to what I'd expect just adds to the creepiness.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 8:59 AM on March 18, 2008

I feel bad about this on about a zillion levels -- not the least of which is that in the back of my mind, I one day aspired to write a feature for No Depression. And now that's not possible.

The fact that half my music geek online friends just lost one of their major revenue sources is another problem.

If I'm depressed about No Depression, is that obvious, ironic, or obviously ironic?
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 8:53 AM on March 4, 2008

There's definitely some weirdness going on here.

The reality of foreign exchange is that some host families do suck. A lot. Some are even deliberately sucky. But that's why there's usually an option to move families to another one if the first one goes horribly wrong. The reasons why they didn't do that in this case seem a little vague -- and also the two different articles present it differently.

I suspect the host family was not deliberately... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 9:42 AM on February 29, 2008

I'm not sure I understand how this ends up working out in the end. Does this mean that BC's traditional industries -- forestry, mining, etc -- will end up paying the largest bulk of the taxes, while service sectors like say, law firms, banks, etc, will end up paying virtually none? Because taxing the hell out of corporations that actually produce something and instead of corporations that just push paper around seems kind of, uh, what's the word I'm looking for here? Insane.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 7:58 AM on February 28, 2008

"Heck, I'm not even sure Alton Brown really exists."

I have a picture of him hugging me. He is adorable.

However, he spelled my name wrong.

Would it be wrong to get it changed to match his spelling?
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 2:00 PM on February 20, 2008

I have no idea what most of the words on that page meant, but I was nonetheless impressed.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 8:27 PM on February 7, 2008

And that's not even right. Wait until the "Cleaveland is dying" phrase comes up, and click on that.

Don't forget to allow pop-ups after you do this.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 1:05 PM on February 7, 2008

I've IDed Posh, Baby and Sporty but which one of them is the Scary Spice equivalent?
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 9:33 PM on January 31, 2008

God, I wish I'd known about that before I spent money on that piece of crap The Alchemist.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 12:45 PM on January 25, 2008

I don't understand why this required a math paper. The end case conditions they describe as places where the formula breaks are the only ones where the answer is non-obvious. Unless the time between buses is longer than the walk, there's never a point in walking -- because even if you make it to the next stop before a bus passes you, the one that picks you up will be the same one that would have picked you up at the last stop, given their one bus/one route constraints. Unless you walk faster... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 2:01 PM on January 23, 2008

That's a really sweet story.

I bet the Law&Order version of it won't be nearly as charming.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 5:21 PM on January 22, 2008

I don't disagree with Hasbro on this -- I've wondered why they were letting Scrabulous exist since it's clearly a violation.

At the same time, it's kind of a dumbass move, unless it's just a tactic in their negotiations to buy Scrabulous. Because people who I would never in a million years imagine playing Scrabble play Scrabulous. And now they've started playing real Scrabble, too.

I play twice a month with a group of friends in the real world.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 2:46 PM on January 17, 2008

I don't think it implies any problems for Facebook, unless they're monstrously stupid enough to let Scrabulous stay on their system after a C&D is sent out.

I'm not sure Scrabulous could really be described as 'on their system'. Third party apps seem to be hosted on third party servers--Scrabulous itself went through massive amounts of pain with their servers for a couple of months last year. Facebook just sort of passes the third party stuff through.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 3:45 PM on January 17, 2008

Frankly, who cares who runs the game? If Scrabulous disappeared but was replaced the next day by "Official Scrabble (tm)" why wouldn't you play?

I suspect you seriously underestimate the fickleness of social networking app users.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 8:28 PM on January 17, 2008

Heh. I have that same problem, Alvy. I expect all my writer and editor friends to kick my ass. But my ESL computer geek friends? Not so much.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 11:11 PM on January 17, 2008

That's the funny thing -- I don't think the one I have in mind in particular is using a wordbuilder (and there are tons of them out there, though that one looks particularly nice). She's not playing obscure words . She's just playing normal words very, very well.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 11:19 AM on January 18, 2008

I once slept on King Street overnight to rush Rent.

I wasn't, to be honest, all that into Rent. But I've always felt that one should camp out overnight for something in their life just to have the story to tell. I figured Rent, while not as cool as a rock concert, was marginally cooler than the Star Wars re-release and much cooler than a Best Buy Boxing Day Sale, plus, one of my friends was doing it, so I went with that.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 8:27 PM on January 16, 2008

Huh. I was aware of The List, but maybe I was permitted entry into the cartel because I was a known associate of some serious Rentheads, because it never caused me a problem.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 10:40 PM on January 16, 2008

The main reason Scientology hasn't done much bad stuff is that it's new and small. We have to give them time to grow into their evil. After all, Christianity started with the apostles, not the crusades.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 7:14 AM on January 16, 2008

Hell, just point me in the direction of the major religions that labels a certain class of people as "fair game" to "be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist" and who "may be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed" without penalty and I'll be happy to make the same criticisms.

Does the Inquisition count?
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 8:06 PM on January 16, 2008

I'm thinking the latter. It's better for everyone.

Dude, breathe in, breathe out. It was a joke.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 8:53 PM on January 16, 2008

Sorry for the misunderstanding, then.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 10:29 PM on January 16, 2008

I'm in favour of cute things -- I'm just not clear why these cute things are 'art' instead of just cute things.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 10:49 AM on January 7, 2008

Heaven knows, I'm no expert on art. But usually on artists' sites, there's some kind of statement talking about their art as art. Not just technique, but what they're trying to capture or say. A lot of those statements read as so much bullshit, mind you, but they at least imply that the artist has given some measure of thought to their objets as art instead of just as the sort of crafty things one can buy in a church basement.

I knit this, along with some other items... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 1:06 PM on January 7, 2008

Hrmm, no. I think the googly eyes give it personality it wouldn't have if it were just base knitted representations of real world objects. They make it seem more like it might be art, not less.

I know 'what is art?' is a huge philosophical question, but I still find myself asking that about this sort of endeavor. As an example, I saw a show at the Frist Center in Nashville last summer, the work of a clay sculptor, Sylvia Hyman, who was creating trompe l'oeil pieces out... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 4:05 PM on January 7, 2008

So you have to be a navel gazer, not to mention a post-1996 Internet user with a "site", to be an artist now?

Yes. Clearly, that's precisely what I meant by that statement.
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 5:10 PM on January 7, 2008

I don't know. Can it?

I'm not being facetious here, though I realize that these are probably infantile questions to anyone who is involved in the world of art.

If there's something that sets art apart from craft or decoration, it seems to me like that something might be intent or meaning. I can't, looking at these photos or at Nicole Gastonguay's website, discern what intent she had or what meaning she attaches to those items. Nor can I attach... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 7:46 PM on January 7, 2008

A lack of a statement about meaning does not imply a lack of meaning.

Are you even reading my posts? I specifically note that a lack of a statement doesn't mean there is no meaning, but that if there is meaning in these pieces, I can't figure out what it might be. This feels like one of those conversations you have with customer service bots, where you get automatic replies that relate to some specific words you used in your email, but which have no... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 11:04 AM on January 8, 2008