Thread Drift

[salsabike]

Aw, Lise. NICE job in that post. Beautifully said.

Ho ho. Glad you were making out.

[KnottedYet]

I started reading TD over again from the very beginning.

Damm funny.

[Kitsune06]

it takes a freakin' long time, Knot. I was at 4 days, then lost my place over the weekend and gave up. That was when TD was around 168 pages. =P

[Trek420]

Kitsune06 "it takes a freakin' long time, Knot. I was at 4 days, then lost my place over the weekend and gave up. That was when TD was around 168 pages. =P"

I'm not doin' it, I'm just going to wait for "TE TD, the movie"

[mimitabby]

I think you guys are impressive, trying to read so far back into this thread.
I can't do it.

I was, however on the Marinoni website. They make beautiful steel bikes.
a guy here in my building has one. he complained that he didn't have enough gears though (that was the only thing he didn't like about his bike)


I am so happy to hear that Salsa is riding again and wish BMof4 could too.
Speaking of a lot of kids, I just heard that Nancy Pelosi had 6 kids in 5 years!

Nanci, when I was a teen, i could smell the smell of onions on my hands for days after my step mother asked me to cut an onion up and put it on a slab of meat to roast in the oven.. I didn't like so i wouldn't do the chore.. (what a brat I was)
I never smelled maple syrup on my hands after washing though.

KY, I am so glad that you are feeling better. Life is good, even though we're going to get rained on this week.

about babies, Lise, you are right, it's just biology. If we try to make sense of it, we're going to have headaches. the only requirement for having babies is enough health to bring it to term. That's how a species continues. We as human beings have tried to interject our morals, religion and opinions upon the process, and we just can't. Evil people can produce babies, as well as nuns (who say DARN!) and grandmothers who say OOPS and little girls who are still whining about having to do their homework. And some gals with the best intellects and instincts can't.
I always wonder about the little souls who ask to be born into the arms of a mom who is drug addled. I knew a kid like that.
There was this young woman with a heroin problem. she had already lost 1/2 an arm to tracks... She had this baby boy. (she was clean at the time) he was a beautiful child, and when he was very very small, i had an opportunity to watch him (and her) she was a careless jerky kind of person, but this little boy was sensitive and very aware. he was about 4-5 months old. He followed her every cue..Having had 2 babies myself, I was startled at his acuity and the way he was tuned in to his mom.
She had a nice boyfriend, someone with plenty of sense and clean time..
Fast forward. Mom is dead. Boyfriend adopted the boy, the boy is doing very very well. She was really a terrible mom, but the boyfriend was a great dad.
The kid is in highschool now, taking college classes.
ohwell, no more storytelling for now.

[KnottedYet]

I'm not doin' it, I'm just going to wait for "TE TD, the movie"

Honey, you and I were there from the very beginning. We don't HAVE to read it again, but it really is pretty fun!

[Nanci]

Mimi- did you ever try, when cutting onions, sticking a small slice on the top of your head- then they don't make you cry? Works for me!

I can also smell stuff in my pee- onions, coffee, asparagus- anything strong flavored.

My mom never let me do anything! No cooking, no laundry, no dish washing...I got to pick up apples in the yard for 10 cents, and mow the yard, starting in sixth grade, for $1.

[mimitabby]

Mimi- did you ever try, when cutting onions, sticking a small slice on the top of your head- then they don't make you cry? Works for me!

I can also smell stuff in my pee- onions, coffee, asparagus- anything strong flavored.

My mom never let me do anything! No cooking, no laundry, no dish washing...I got to pick up apples in the yard for 10 cents, and mow the yard, starting in sixth grade, for $1.

No, i never put onions on my head, then my hair would smell. I don't mind my eyes tearing up a little...
I am the same way, i can smell all sorts of stuff. Heck, I can smell when my husband isn't drinking enough water on a bike ride because his urine is too strong!
I am well endowed with nose. I have never had a cold that took away my sense of smell. ever. (and i have had some riproaring colds!)

your mom never LET you do anything? what a strange concept!!

[salsabike]

Oh, thank God, the doc was right. 48 mile tandem ride today, no problem with broken toe pain because soles are stiff and you don't use that part of your foot anyway. What a relief! Improved my disposition considerably, as Mr. Salsa would be the first to attest. (went bathroom fixture shopping yesterday in the walking boot; got fixture ambitions WAY above my station; got very tired and grumpy to boot. Urg, please pardon an unpardonable pun).

BMomof3 (I write this a different way every time)--The med side effects seem to be diminishing? If your BP stays at level X for Y amount of time, can you then bike and swim? Did they set clear criteria for you to track? I am looking forward to your first post after you get back to those two things, and I am sure you will. Also, I like Trek420's post about building new neural pathways, just another part of training. Think that's right.

MP. Yuh. Running was never my thing. Amazing that you did a marathon. You are a formidable athlete, I think.

Hiya, Quill! Nice to see you here.

That whole thing about animals reacting to shadows and painted lines is fascinating. Our cat Nina MUST sit/sleep in a visually defined place, whether it's on a sheet of paper, or a thin square of fabric, or whatever. I expect there's some pretty cool research on animal visual perception. Amazing stuff.

Kit, thought your comments on childrearing were eminently sane.

Did PR really, really do that on the bus? I am not at all a delicate flower, but I find that DISGUSTING.

Am guessing Chickwhorips did NOT get burned at the stake by the villagers last night.

Nanci. Nice century report--congrats. Is this part of the brevet series? What triggers hibernation for Fagalo in Florida? Is there enough noticeable weather change to do that? If he comes inside, does that hold off hibernation?

Haha, Knotted! Pretty fabulous day out there today, wasn't it? Especially after that elephant got lifted off your brow a few days ago...

[Kitsune06]

Knot- the Trek fan club is on page 212, and a brief summary of the first chunk of TD is on 218.

Salsa- "Eminently sane." Hm. Thanks ...I think. Glad you could go out for a spin. (I'll pardon your pun if you pardon mine)

Lise- ooooh making out. I feel like we're in highschool. *giggle! titter!* No pics, tho, thanks.

[Xrayted]

Well Knotted, I've been working my way through TD steadily for weeks now and I'm not even close to being done. Pheww! This whole now-ex GF thing has been hammering at you for a long time. I'm happy for you that you finally did what you needed to. No matter what the circumstances, it's always hard. BTW, very nice to see you so overjoyed today! I think it's sunk in, has it? Here's hoping you find a nice young woman (when you're ready ) who is good enough to deserve someone as wonderful as you.

I'm staying away from the child raising issue. No kids (love kids, just don't have any) so officially, I have no opinion.

Snap - my dog did the same thing. I had to pick her up and carry her across. This is the same dog who would hang out the window or off the side of the boat until the point where she'd all but fall out but still wouldn't walk across a bridge. Gotta love them tho.

Trek420 - glad the table is ok. Furniture isn't cheap. BTW, Did ya put the beer in the yard? I'll be over with a straw. I'm a cheap date so one plate oughta do it.

BMo3 - hope it's not a cold. I know you'll be back on the bike soon. Are you allowed to ride on a trainer? Keep after that left side. It'll come around and remember what it's supposed to be doing. Give it time.

Nanci - did ya wash the hand yet?

Sorry if I missed anyone! Take care and be safe.

-X.

[Xrayted]

Wha? How did I miss Lise making out? So, I take it he's pretty good since you said you were making out for hours. At least someone is getting some face time around here! I may have to live vicariously through you.

[Nanci]

Yes I washed it!! I'd been washing and disinfecting it and wiping tables and stuff with cleaners all day!! This morning it smells like pancake syrup. I don't even have any in the house...The other one matches, fortunately.

Yes it gets cold here! The forecast, which I don't quite believe, is highs in the low 70s all week, and lows in the low 40s. It was 90 yesterday. I think the diminishing hours of daylight and the cold and the dwindling food supply trigger hibernation. If we bring him in, he stays awake, though we could probably get him to hibernate inside by keeping him cool and withdrawing food, too. But I wouldn't want to. If he comes in, he lives in the bathtub on a rug with a box to hide in.

[Pax]

Lise - Thanks for the reply, sounds like a positive way to go about a job as challenging and rewarding as yours.

[Nanci]

Lise, you're so smart!

Salsa, you should see the research on pigeon visual perception.

From Wikepedia:

In a famous article in 1995, Watanabe, Sakamoto and Wakita described an experiment which showed that pigeons can be trained to discriminate between paintings by Picasso and Monet.

The birds were first trained on a limited set of paintings: when the shown painting was a Picasso, the pigeon was able to obtain food by repeated pecking; when it was a Monet, pecking had no effect. After a while, the pigeons would only peck when shown Picasso paintings. They were then able to generalize, and correctly discriminate between paintings of the two painters not previously shown, and even between cubist and impressionist paintings (cubism and impressionism being the two stylistic schools Picasso and Monet belong to). When the Monet paintings were shown upside down, the pigeons were not able to properly categorize anymore; showing the cubist works upside down did not have such an effect.

In 1995, the authors won the humorous Ig Nobel Prize in psychology for this work.

In a later paper, Watanabe showed that if pigeons and human college students undergo the same training, their performance in distinguishing between Van Gogh and Chagall paintings is comparable.

Similar experiments had shown earlier that pigeons can be trained to distinguish between photos showing human beings and those that do not, and between photos showing trees and those that do not, among many other examples.

In all these cases, discrimination is quite easy for humans, even though the classes are so complex that no simple distinguishing algorithm or rule can be specified. It has therefore been argued that pigeons are able to form "concepts" or "categories" similar to humans, but that interpretation is controversial. Nevertheless, the experiments remain important and often cited examples in cognitive science.