Miranda&James

Even though it will never happen, the thought of Chuck Norris as Sec of Defense after all those CN jokes just absolutely cracks me up

We had a weird mail experience a few weeks ago - we moved to the house we're in now last June from an apartment. I had my mail forwarded and I still get some forwarded mail from time to time from places I didn't change the address at, as usual. I got this letter in the mail that was address to our old apartment address, but the weird thing is that the person had the same last name as we do (first name was Ric on the letter, then our last name). I opened it because I thought maybe someone had somehow gotten Jame's first name wrong (I mean, it had our last name and old address on it). Inside was this letter from what I assume was this person's mother, telling them some personal things and with a picture of someone. It seems really unlikely to me that whoever lives in my old apartment has the same last name as me, and I never got any mail when I lived there for anyone with that name (but I did for other previous owners). I keep forgetting to put it back in the mail to whoever actually sent it but either way, it still seems a bit odd!

... they're not allowed to actually get their hands dirty.

Not really knowing the nature of his work in Helmand province over the last few months, I can't really comment on whether or not he got his hands dirty. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't.

I'm not criticising him BTW - but rather the government & military higher-ups who don't think his choice to serve in the armed forces - in an active combat zone - is a commitment that should be taken seriously.

Both his grandfather and uncle served in wars - without the silly "should he, shouldn't he" garbage.

I think it is absolutely noble that he served just as it is noble for every other soldier (regardless of their status) but the fact remains that he is of course a high profile target. By keeping his involvement private they reduced his risk as well as the risk to his comrades so releasing this information was very irresponsible. With his grandfather and uncle there wasn't nearly the plethora of information readily available whereas now the entire world has probably seen pictures of Harry splashed across the internet.

... they're not allowed to actually get their hands dirty.

Not really knowing the nature of his work in Helmand province over the last few months, I can't really comment on whether or not he got his hands dirty. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't.

I'm not criticising him BTW - but rather the government & military higher-ups who don't think his choice to serve in the armed forces - in an active combat zone - is a commitment that should be taken seriously.

Both his grandfather and uncle served in wars - without the silly "should he, shouldn't he" garbage.

I think it is absolutely noble that he served just as it is noble for every other soldier (regardless of their status) but the fact remains that he is of course a high profile target. By keeping his involvement private they reduced his risk as well as the risk to his comrades so releasing this information was very irresponsible. With his grandfather and uncle there wasn't nearly the plethora of information readily available whereas now the entire world has probably seen pictures of Harry splashed across the internet.

Wait, wait....if the mother delivered the baby, would it not have still been attached to her for a short time by the umbilical cord? I don't know how long an umbilical cord is off the top of my head, but it seems like either the baby was hanging down into the toilet for a bit and them would have dropped onto the tracks when she delivered the placenta (since the mom was passed out) or, if it was long enough, the baby could have been hanging right by the tracks! Obviously the baby wasn't hitting the tracks or else it would likely not have survived. That seems a bit graphic but I honestly wonder how this was possible!

I'm about to go teach a Psych 101 class (college level) and I'm terrified! I've taught plenty of times before but this time I'm actually getting graded on how well I teach

Imagine your students in their underwear

Ha! It's almost 100 people, so that makes it more scary since there are so many of them. It's a weird feeling to have 100 people with their full attention only on you, about 5 feet away. That would be a whole lotta naked people...

I'm about to go teach a Psych 101 class (college level) and I'm terrified! I've taught plenty of times before but this time I'm actually getting graded on how well I teach

Me either. It has to be a control issue or something.

I think so too. Schools, for the most part, seem to have an obsession about controlling every single behavior that a child enacts. As for me, I'm glad the days when I can't even pee without someone else telling me that I can are long gone.

Does anyone else here own a hookah?

i didn't know you could own one, i though you could just rent one

I was quite sad when I found out my brother almost brought me one home from Iraq, but then didn't Even if you don't use it much they can still be very pretty. He got me something else instead that I won't mention on the board for legal purposes

It was probably best that he didn't bring it back. They have a new program in Iraq to prevent soldiers from bringing back mujahideen engraved automatic rifles, bazookas, and other enemy belongings.

US Navy Customs!

They are worse than any customs inspection I've ever experienced. They prohibit hookahs as well. It sucks.

Well, as cool a a bazooka sounds, I'm not too upset he wasn't allowed to bring one back What he brought me back was small enough to hide. He made it sound as if it wouldn't be a problem getting a hookah from one of his friends still over there. He did bring back some beautiful prayer rugs for my mom.

Yeah like Dan said since you made more you probably got bumped up to a new tax bracket. It kind of sucks in that you may be making more but end up really making what you did when you had the lower paying job since you get taxed more My dad always uses Turbo Tax but if you aren't trusting those results I'd recommend trying the free one at taxact.com and see if they match up, or you can always pay a fee to have them done to be more sure.

Does anyone else here own a hookah?

i didn't know you could own one, i though you could just rent one

I was quite sad when I found out my brother almost brought me one home from Iraq, but then didn't Even if you don't use it much they can still be very pretty. He got me something else instead that I won't mention on the board for legal purposes

Does anyone else here own a hookah?

There are a few really nice hookah shops in the area. Of course, you can use a hookah for illicit use as well.

We have one and have for a few years and just now the local news is doing an OMG THERE IS A HOOKAH SHOP story. Although, they do sell some "mind altering" but nonetheless legal substances (salvia, other stuff), which of course means the local news must freak out.

Oddly enough - American Psycho is very similar to Fight Club. Which is odd - because if you read the books, they are actually quite different.

There are whole chapters in there devoted to Patrick Bateman's love of the artistic merits of Genesis and Phil Collins.

I though Fight Club was pretty good. The plot in American Psycho just seemed to lack any direction throughout most of the movie.

The book is mainly a character study.

I would probably enjoy the book if I read it. Honestly, I think that Bale's performance was the last straw for that movie. Like I said, the idea of what they were doing was good, which I'm sure is well-represented in the book, but the movie just stumbled to conclusion.

If you like books that spend half of the pages describing what the character is wearing and the rest describing what other people are wearing, what their place is in society, as well as a few brutal murders (graphically described, of course) thrown in for fun then yes, you will like the book. To be honest, in my opinion of course, the movie actually had more direction than the book. It is a brilliant book in its own right but certainly not a plot driven book that leaves you knowing exactly what just happened at the end.

ok I understand the importance of this but how are they going to know.... are they going to go around and check or something??

Well, all pets are supposed to be rabies vaccinated so they could maybe check when that process occurs. It won't really affect bad pet owners that never take their pets to the vet but for anyone that does take their vet to get their yearly checkups I imagine it won't be hard to be sure they have that paperwork.

Yup they do have earthquakes! James felt some in Manchester at his office a couple years ago when he still lived there.

These are great!

I have to admit, it is amazing how 'protected' America really is. While I was working globally, I remember that I mentioned to some foreigners that 90% of Americans don't have a passport, and never leave the USA during their lifetimes. They were shocked!

Anyways...these maps are funny I got a kick out of them!

Peace,

MarkNAam

Maybe cause we like it here! Besides, with such a massive country it makes sense less people here go to other countries compared to places like Europe where you can be in another country in a couple hours and another a couple hours after that.

Never tried it but I can't see what it would hurt. It should just dissolve and leave a nice lemonade smell, which is what you wanted anyways

I love the Onion!

Cool! I just read this book on the worlds greatest treasures (yeah, it's probably for a little kid but it was fun to read it) and the Amber room was in there.

"With bipolar, you can go from pretty much normal one day, to the next day being very, very, very sick

this is so true, someone i cared for before grew up normal life, was a twin but as i knew him he also expressed this jealiously from his brother as being the favored one with him always being the trouble maker, jumped from one relationship to another, no responsibility for his kids or their feelings and he always had this urge to SPEND always had to have these new posessions, excitement one day from them then they just lay from then on. But the problem was these posessions were beginning to come as an expense to me, they are never settled, always the oh poor me ones and he was on his medicine. Then one day he felt the urge to leave, he did, married his old gf (glad she has him now not me) but very hard to understand

Well, typically bipolar is characterized by mood swings that change over a period of weeks/months, with only a small number of cycles in a year. There are lots of other psychological disorders that can be characterized by quick mood swings (Borderline PD, etc) that look like bipolar disorder but are differentiated by the length of the moods. Not to argue against what you said, just adding in a quick note about something people don't always realize with bipolar.

Jackie,

I am not a physician; but let me ask you this: if you had -God forbid- diabetes; would you consider going off your insuline? If this medication is helping you live a better life sweetie, don't let go. Talk to your doc.

, L.

I have to agree. Plus depression don't necessarily last forever. Maybe you will be able to get off the meds soon. It's not like bipolar that you have to take your entire life.

Absolutely - be sure that your doctor is prescribing these dosage changes. If you do decide to go off of it be SURE you let your doctor know and never never never just stop taking the pills cold turkey. You have to go off of them slowly. Hopefully you already know this and your doctor has told you.

Like others have said, any psychiatric medicine should also be combined with therapy - there are no magic pills. They might treat the symptoms but regardless of where your depression originated (life problems or chemical imbalance or any combination of both), it will have affected your life and therapy is the best way to deal with those issues.

jimmy kimmel and ben affleck...

I thought they looked quite nice with one another

I'm tall enough not to have enough room, and I book aisle seats already as window seats would be terrible. I find economy class extremely unspacious, and I don't have $4000 for a business class ticket. I mostly fly with Lufthansa and I see very little people pushing the seat back. I find it rude and I was brought up not to do as you take away space from people who paid the same price as you did - so you can at least give them the same space you have!

Anyway, I mostly book emergency exit seats... This time I couldn't - so at least the pregnancy should make people sensitive enough to be considerate of my request.

If you put your seat back too, there is no loss of space.

But for long flights, I prefer to fly on airlines that offer a premium economy class. Its too hard to sleep in most airlines economy class seats.

Well, it depends on the plane really. I've been on planes where the tray moved back as the seat moved back. I've also been in planes where the tray stays in place regardless of how the seat moves. But either way, if the seat doesn't move forward as it moves back there is a loss a space and you may not want to move yours back, therefore you have less space to move around. It isn't too bad if you are sitting but it makes it reallyyy hard to get up and down if you're constantly having to lean around someone who has their seat back. I think the whole leaning the seat back thing is a pointless feature that should be gotten rid of - you aren't far back enough to help sleep and all it does is typically piss of the person behind you.

the only time I'm annoyed is by the person in front of me who insists on laying their seat back into my lap so my bomb countdown wouldn't do any good!

That's when you start "accidentally" bumping into the seat.

I was disappointed by Children of Men.

Yeah, I was too. I was expecting something completely different than what I actually got.

Grad student. I gots big dreams.

I feel your graduate school pain Although, I like the administrators here for the most part but I might buy the University so I can shame a certain few students that need a good kick in the #######!