On the PLUS side, I need one of those masks.

Alright, Lotus, time to mail me a no-face and a passel of tickets to New York's finest cultural events.
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 12:04 PM on July 2, 2008

I guess I don't understand stuff like this, and the whole pick-up artist stuff, because I've never considered just going up to someone on the street and hitting on them, or even going up to someone in a bar. Maybe I'm just too timid, but every relationship I've had has followed the pattern of meeting someone who is a friend's friend or with whom I'm working, hanging out with them for increasing periods of time until mutual attraction is acknowledged. I see attractive, seemingly interesting... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 3:43 PM on June 27, 2008

My foster cat had to have one of her forelegs amputated, and as soon as the stitches came out, she threw herself right into the task of re-learning how to jump and climb and bat at the dogs.

God, I know this is exactly how my cat would feel if injured.

I will overcome this- in order to kill again!
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 5:50 AM on June 24, 2008

After reading about this, and having recently done research on supplementary materials for Katrina Brown's Traces of the Trade, I am so thoroughly disgusted in not only our history, but in our refusal to teach it. I NEVER heard about this in school, I NEVER knew about the tightly-entertwined Industrial North and Slave South, I never even knew that freed blacks weren't even given the 40 acres and a mule. Any American actually looking at the situation has to realize, at a certain point, that our... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 1:58 PM on June 21, 2008

As to who is to blame for slavery and its aftermath, uh, I think it's a bit of a moot point, simply because everyone involved is dead. All shit like this ends up being is a North-South pissing match. Regardless of who was more racist, both the Northern and Southern states saw benefits from slavery and re-enslavement, just as both Northern and Southern white Americans enjoy the benefits of white privilege (although, again, the degree to which you are constrained by your skin color varies wildly,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 2:11 PM on June 21, 2008

Everyone here has made a lot of statements about whether spanking or beating can be conflated, and I'm not really sure if you can separate the two in any reasonable way. I was hit- maybe it was spanking, but it was definitely on my face- probably three times a week; my brother had his ear-drum broken by a slap. It sounds messed up now, but at the time I actually went to both a cop and the people at my church, both of whom didn't think anything was wrong with it. The social situation that I grew... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 10:35 PM on June 19, 2008

Reading back over my comment, I'm struck by how difficult to parse it is.
We haven't settled on a definition for what is spanking and what is beating- what is acceptable and what is not. I'd like for the line that separates the two to not depend on the question of how much physical pain you are inflicting on your child or how often you do so.
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 11:21 PM on June 19, 2008

From sociology- that peer groups tend to be internally homogeneous and externally heterogeneous. That is, your social group has backgrounds extremely similar to your own, but as a whole the group will have really novel, strange backgrounds. It's not that I never realized that other people had different backgrounds, or that these backgrounds changed the way they thought- I just had never really understood why some people and their motivations seemed completely alien to me until then.
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 9:58 PM on June 19, 2008

If you define tit-for-tat as payback for Clinton being impeached, no, I don't think we want to go down that road.
If you define it as punishment for war crimes, well, shit, let's git r done.
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 9:22 PM on June 9, 2008

I really hate these sorts of threads (he says, ignoring the fact that he's read all of it by now), mostly because they tend to be the same people arguing with the same, well, person. To be honest, no-one is having their minds changed to any degree, and all I see happening is people being increasingly rude. I absolutely fail to see what relevance the profession of one's offspring has to do with anything, and even as a pinko commie with extremely unorthodox views on military force, I think that... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 5:34 PM on June 8, 2008

That comparison is entirely without merit, as you have no responsibility for the fatal properties of heroin, whereas you would be at least in part responsible for the fatal repercussions of unsafe, illegal, clandestine abortions.
I repeat my questions- do you support legislation to make abortion illegal, do you vote with this in mind, do you take responsibility for those votes?
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 5:43 PM on June 8, 2008

I have tried to be exceedingly reasonable in discussing this with you, konolia, because I understand the position where you are coming from- I was there once. But you have routinely refused to answer my questions in good faith.
I changed my mind after I realized that I was considering things in a vacuum. I was not considering what the actual, real world is like. As much as you want to, you can delude yourself by thinking about how things... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 8:24 PM on June 8, 2008

I'll bite.
If any Mefite's starting a tabletop RPG in New York City this summer, and would be alright with an interested but entirely unexperienced player blundering in and tripping on things- someone who literally understands the barest facts about tabletop gaming, i.e. you roll a die and have stats, but would promise to bring beer- well...
I'd be interested.
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 9:07 PM on May 11, 2008

Man, started a new job today and was reminded of one of the nice things about New York. One of my office-mates turned out to be a very butch woman- shaved head, very built, forearm tattoos- who, regardless of her actual sexual orientation, may have had problems being hired in a more "traditional" office environment. I had happily noted this earlier- who doesn't like it when it turns out they've made the correct choice about employment?- and it's very sad to have to admit how freedom... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 11:36 PM on May 6, 2008

That is an amazing ad.
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 12:43 PM on April 16, 2008

Oh, wow, I didn't know that he was in "Murder on the Orient Express". I just recently saw "Night and the City", which was amazing, and he was amazing in it. Definitely rent it.
.
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 10:10 PM on March 26, 2008

Not sure how interested anyone would be, but I put up a mix of songs I would like my band to cover, for other members. It's not exactly reflective of my own personal tastes (I mean, I like all the songs, but they're not my favorites), but rather what I like that I think they'd like. Don't judge.
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 8:41 PM on March 25, 2008

Man, I read the comments, went to brush my teeth and came back furious, until I saw nasreddin's post, which perfectly encapsulated everything I should have said but better. The only thing that I will add is this- a simple expression of terms will reveal how ridiculous the idea of a canon IS.
A canon is a selection of works based on literary merit. Literary merit has many definitions, but I think we can generally agree that a work should have some sort of quality that sets it apart... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 12:33 AM on February 22, 2008

You know, I recently watched "THX 1138" for a class, on an old VHS copy that I bought at a Hollywood Video when they were switching entirely to DVD. I was actually amazed at how good it was, and likewise amazed at how much my classmates hated it, until I found out that they had all seen the "Director's Cut"- with the SPACE MONKEYS. It was here that I realized that George Lucas is driven, like some sort of ghoul long dead, to destroy every good thing he has ever done. I just... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 7:38 AM on February 12, 2008

I've seen my father cry once, a few weeks ago. When he was much younger, one of his cousins who he was very close to died in a plane crash. I was named after this cousin, and he's never really dealt with it, or, uh, with any other emotions at all. This Christmas, my uncle got him a copy of a documentary on the crash, and just holding the DVD in his hand apparently crushed him.
So we all met up for Christmas in New York, and, while waiting for the subway at 137th and Broadway, he and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 5:38 PM on February 9, 2008

Man, are you guys talking about New Yorkers? Those guys just won't STOP spitting.
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 9:25 AM on February 6, 2008

I sometimes wonder if I was the only cautious & overly-sensible teenager on the face of the Earth.

Me too. Drove a Volvo and a Honda, never took it more than 10 miles over. Where would I have to get to so damn fast? I was 18, very few responsibilities, might as well put on some music and go the speed limit. Of course, the first time I took the car out, the girl I was on a date with got hit by a car driven by some other teenagers and went into a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 6:09 PM on January 29, 2008

Jonze did the intro to "Yeah Right!", another Girl Films video, and his use of slow-motion combined with really well-placed close-ups of the boards and feet of the skaters really made me realize how intense and involved these sorts of tricks are. I didn't know about Fully Flared, I'll have to pick it up!
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 9:16 AM on January 28, 2008

Less labor intensive to lock you up.

Uh, seriously? We're really just going to go ahead with thought-crime?
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 5:29 PM on January 27, 2008

Oh man, i love Walker Percy, and now I love you, raysmj.
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 9:50 PM on January 24, 2008

Well, I took it to MeTa. As I tried to make clear there, I don't think we need to shy away from speaking ill about the dead, but having three or four people post basically the same comment ("WHY DO YOU GUYS CARE") and then engage in the SAME discussion FOUR times in the body of a thread just seems sort of ridiculous. Maybe you guys can get together to elect a representative who will post once about how much we shouldn't care.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 7:27 AM on January 23, 2008

It's better if you're listening to Guided by Voices while watching
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 9:04 PM on January 17, 2008

Just wanted to point out- I don't know a single person who is just "unhappy" and taking medication for it. This bugaboo that Americans are like, "Oh, I dropped my sandwich. Better take some antidepressants!" is, at least in my experience, completely unfounded. In addition, my experience is pretty damn rosy in terms of socio-economic position- the aforementioned single-mom-in-trailer-park demographic probably is experiencing depression on a lot higher rate than the people I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 8:20 AM on January 17, 2008

Oh please. "Iranians" aren't one thing.

Be that as it may, I always try to have a plan when I take a dump. It's "flush".
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 7:39 PM on January 9, 2008

Okay, my brother and I (originally from the South, now living in New York and Montreal) realized that we always ask, at restaurants, "May I have ___" or "Could I get____", not "I'll have ____." I'm not really sure if this is polite or not- is implying that they might not have something, or might not give it to me, sort of degrading the waitstaff? Should we stop?

[NOT WAITSTAFFIST]
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 7:00 PM on January 7, 2008

This is extremely not the place to debate the validity of ANTM as a cultural object.
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 2:11 PM on January 6, 2008

I made a giant poster of Joan Didion using the photo of her in the link and the Rasterbator. She stares down at me at my desk, cigarette in hand.
I personally love Neal Pollack's photo.
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 2:53 PM on December 25, 2007

...weren't these mentioned in the "Scurvy Dogs/Vampira" crossover?



I've wasted my life.
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 10:52 AM on December 10, 2007

At age 25:

The future mythologist Joseph Campbell decided to move to Woodstock to read the classics for five years, nine hours a day. Living on very little, he would make himself readily available as a dinner guest.


Oh, man, that is exactly how I need to live after I graduate.
Sometimes I feel depressed about how little I've done in life- but moving from Kentucky to New York when 17 and to Montreal at... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 11:18 PM on December 9, 2007

Likewise, the short film Twelve Monkeys was based on came out in 1962.

Actually, it was based on Chris Marker's breathtaking La Jetee, which came out in 1962.

...I...I think these say the same thing?
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 7:47 PM on December 5, 2007

is it better that a murderer go free than be tricked into confessing?

I don't think you can really make this sort of statement, because it ignores the fact that we are not discussing a particular case- we are discussing a widespread practice that is in use beyond murder cases. On the other hand, one could ask if it is better that a mentally handicapped person be sent to death row because a cop lied to them and put a confession in their mouth rather... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 11:51 AM on November 29, 2007

I've decided that anything sold as "America's ____" totally sucks. Mayors, trucks, beer, candy bars- you name it, if it belongs to AMERICA, it sucks.
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 8:53 PM on November 28, 2007

This site is run by someone from the church my family attends, and that I grew up in.
Jesus H. Christ.
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 7:43 PM on November 28, 2007

Fuck YES a sasquatch.
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 5:06 PM on November 27, 2007

I have this print from Kennedy & Sons, picked up at last year's Montreal Expozine. It is magnificently exquisite, combining both the Rural Studio and badass letterpressing.
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 9:52 PM on November 20, 2007

Jesus. This just makes me certain that the US Army believes in peak oil. Where else but some Mad Max lone standoff would this be useful? I can only see this being used in a situation where there are a whole lot of people in front of you and you're okay with them all being dead.
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 5:57 PM on November 19, 2007

That people expose themselves for sexual gratification, in public, to unwilling onlookers, is not a prejudice. It is a fact. That the vast majority of these people are male, and specifically target females, is likewise a fact.
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 12:05 PM on November 15, 2007

Politics have no more relevance to anything than sports, and you can make up all the statistics you want to prove me wrong, but it won't change the truth none.

It's awesome how you defined "the truth" after already telling us that it is IMPOSSIBLE to prove it wrong, even with "facts" and "statistics." But this is a ridiculously stupid statement on its face.
Obviously politics has a direct impact on all of our... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 7:25 AM on November 10, 2007

Uh, they ARE available online, now. I just bought my brother's birthday present (HERZOG!!!).
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 6:46 PM on November 8, 2007

If someone seeks, they will find.

Never say this to anyone. Especially never say it to children. If you ever say it to children or young adults who are struggling with their faith, you are a terrible person. Because you are setting up a terrible source of doubt in their very souls- that because the Bible does not speak to them, it is because they haven't tried hard enough, or they're not good enough yet. Some... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 9:57 PM on October 30, 2007

http://www.thebluestate.com/2006/06/rush_limbaugh_a.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/06/27/national/main1753947.shtml

Google's your friend.
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 11:33 AM on October 14, 2007

All together now!
CHRIST, WHAT AN ASSHOLE.
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 10:42 AM on September 26, 2007

I'm sorry.

yet they keep on a coming over to Brooklyn with their ironic pants and pointy boots and Vote for Pedro t-shirts (love that movie though).

What does that MEAN? Who DOES this? Does Dave Eggers traditionally wear a Vote for Pedro t-shirt?
Or are you conflating random things that you find distasteful?
I guess I'm just getting sick of the HURF DURF HIPSTERS WEARING VOTE FOR PEDRO T-SHIRTS! joke.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 11:04 AM on September 26, 2007

...it's a ghetto of fuckwit rich kids, who can't produce or understand anything of actual importance....

Great. AUTHENTICITY. This is just going swimmingly.

Some people write books. Within this group of people, who write books, there are many different people writing many different types of books. But at the end of the day, they're ALL. BOOKS. As much as you may dislike Dave Eggers, and I thought And You Shall...etc. was too... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 10:28 PM on September 26, 2007

Because of Link Wray, I spent an entire summer looking for a Danelectro Longhorn. It sits beside me right now!
posted to MetaFilter by 235w103 at 4:31 PM on September 18, 2007