What made you middle-of-the-road today?

[MatthewV]

The government is giving me gobs of money to go to school. The federally issued grants now cover more than tutition, fees, room with some extra money left over. 4680 > 4296

Ahhh....our tax dollars at work!

[CzarJ]

A tropical storm came rumbling through Oklahoma last night for certainly the first time in my life, probably the first time in a hundred years or more. Some areas of the state had winds up near 90 mph, and rainfall was generally at least 4 inches, in some areas as high as 10.

In an area where a mile-wide tornado is relatively mundane, this is something the likes of which I've never seen. Norman was among the luckiest places (in contrast to, say, El Reno and Watonga, where, as I understand it, several people were rescued from the roofs of their houses), and we still have several very major streets closed.

[Livingod]

Amanda Bynes came to where I work on the 16th. Unfortunately, across the street was a Macy's with Beyonce in it.
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ScumTube!
Endless Mafia. Replacements constantly needed.

[Samadhi]

mattv: I get about the net you do, but twice the gross. Ahhh, CA.

My m-o-t-r today:
It looks like it's going to be another scorcher.
I have air conditioning.
It only cools my bedroom not my computer/TV room.
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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

[Beartalon]

My parents are coming to visit my nearby sister's for a month.

They'll be happy to see me.

They don't know I'm married.

[Quailman]

I was sitting at a red light and noticed in my rear view mirror that I had a little personal grooming that needed attention, so I pulled out the scissors on my pocket knife and got after it. After a minute or two I happened to glance over at the woman in the car to my right. She was giving me a rather unpleasant look. Sheesh! You'd think she had never seen someone trimming nose hairs before.

[Courk]

My order from almost two weeks ago has been upgraded to "Shipping soon."

[Samadhi]

I don't know if any of you are familiar with the 'kneeling' buses, but they basically are designed to make it easier for people to get on board. Kind of a low rider hydraulic thing. I was too close and drew this to help make you undrstand.


It should hurt but it doesn't because they game me some strong drugs. So, I'm middle of the road right now.
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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

[Neo]

I finished my (undergraduate) thesis last night. It was due at noon today, but at 11 I got an email stating that the deadline had been extended to Monday. I have no idea why, but figure at least one of the other 6 graduating Physics majors will know.

I suppose this means I could find somebody other than myself to read through the paper for me.
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_{Ad Astra}

[Quailman]

[Neo]

[Samadhi]

FWIW I liked it and thought it was interesting. Waaaaaaaay outside any claim to expertise I have though. Too bad Dr. Dog doesn't post any more.
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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

[worm]

why is "singly ionized helium" called He II and "doubly ionized" helium He III? i'm used to Roman numerals after an element referring to the oxidation state. since elemental helium only has 2 electrons, the +3 oxidation state isn't possible for helium.

does the notation mean something different here?

[Neo]

Regular He = He
Ionized He = He II
Doubly Ionized = He III

I don't know the why of the notation.
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_{Ad Astra}

[Neo]

[The Ragin' South Asian]

You know how either all your friends are busy, or you get a bunch of different invites for the same time? The first part just sucks, the second part is middle of the road, I guess. I'm going to have fun this week, it just sucks that I have to blow off people I want to see to do it.

[Trojan Horse]

What made me middle-of-the-road today: watching the Boston Celtics beat the Detroit Pistons. Thus setting up a clash of the Titans: it'll be Lakers vs. Celtics for the NBA championship.

Oy vey.

I've been a Laker fan since the days of Kareem and Magic. I was indoctrinated into Laker fandom when I was extremely young. "Lakers good. Celtics bad. Magic Johnson good. Larry Bird bad." So you'd think I'd be happy about this upcoming matchup, right?

Wrong. I don't see how the Lakers can win this. But we'll see.

[Courk]

Sorry, the Celtics have a far prettier floor than any other basketball team I've seen.

What? I don't like basketball, this is how I choose.

[worm]

[mps1453]

It's interesting to think what will happen. The Lakers have been dominant because of Kobe, and the Celtics WERE good in the regular season. But, they've struggled in the playoffs, going to 2 7-game series, and a 6-game against the Pistons. Maybe the Celtics play bad against a bad team, and good against a good team. I would like to see this go to 7 games, but I think the Lakers will win it in 6 games, as long as Kobe plays like he has in the playoffs.
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Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at math.

[Courk]

IIRC (and God knows I didn't want to watch it), the Cavs either won or lost close games, or lost blowouts against the Celtics.

[Samadhi]

761mb patch downloaded in ~1 minute.
~30 minutes to install.
hmmm
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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

[Poisonium]

Hearing about the American school system from an exchange student. I feel sorry for you. She was apparently the 40th best in a school of 2500 students, when everyone in her grade was 2 years older. But this also means that I'm not going to feel stupid when I talk to the next random "I have straight A's"-American on AIM. Getting straight A's here is really, really hard.
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I tried apt-get install lifebut it only returned E: Couldn't find package life

[LordKinbote]

[Chuck]

The valedictorian of my high school class was the German exchange student.

[Poisonium]

And she has went to my school, which is sort of famous for being a kind of elite school. So, well...
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I tried apt-get install lifebut it only returned E: Couldn't find package life

[Courk]

I don't get why her being two years younger has a whole lot to do with it. I was a year younger than my class and did fine. Had I taken classes at the same time as the class a year ahead of me, I'm quite confident I'd do just as fine -- heck, some people in my pre-calc class were two years older than me. I'm not a genius or anything, but given that you have an adequate and comparable foundation, I don't see how taking a math class, or almost any other class, when you're 16 is all that different from taking it when you're 18.

And if getting straight As placed her 40th, then surely that illustrates it's not all that easy to get straight As here, considering that's still within the top 2%.

I'm not saying the American school system is great. It varies widely in quality even within small geographic areas, and depending on what specific school you go to, it can appear remarkably easy or incredibly hard. But that's why you can't generalize based on one experience.

[worm]

i <3 Courk...I tried a couple times, but couldn't say it any better than she did.

i will find ways to fail students in your honor, Courk

[The Ragin' South Asian]

Just had a weird trip home. Really don't know what to make of it.

[The Ragin' South Asian]

Tomorrow I get to go on my first trip for work, that's cool.
I'm going to Texas.
I'm going to Austin, which people say is pretty nice.
My whole time is basically scheduled so I never leave the hotel.
The hotel is some fancy resort.
Being some fancy resort, it's in the middle of nowhere so what free time I do have is worthless.
They're taking me to some fancy restaurant/
There is nothing about the place's menu to distinguish from a fancy place in any part of the country, so I might as well be eating here.

[Thok]

It's a fancy restaurant in Texas. You should have some sort of steak.

Also, I got a new computer on Saturday, to replace my old computer that was perfectly fine except for being four years old. The experience was relatively straightforward, except for having to fight through roads being rerouted for some sort of concert.

[Buzzsaw]

Interesting to see the calendar dates some of the most recent posts in this thread, 2 yrs apart. Was at first glad to see worm posting but then realized when the post was made.

I hope you post more about your experiences at the hotel and your trip to Texas, RSA, am interested to find out how it went.

[The Ragin' South Asian]

This place is super not near anything. Despite there being like 10 restaurants, everything closed before 11 when I finally got here. Luckily they were able to get me a turkey sandwich at the bar.

[itisally]

I got pulled over this morning doing 26 in a school zone. The intersection where I pull on dosen't have a school zone sign, but you pull on between two schools. I should have known by the time of day, but I totally forgot to go 20.

I told the officer this and he said that it was a defensible possition, then took my licences and registration. When he came back he said he would give me a $215 warning rather than give me a ticket, citing my excellent driving record.

Well it isn't the first time I have been pulled over and gotten a warning. A friend of mine insistes that it is because I am a girl. And it isn't because I am so hot. I am short and round. I hate the idea that there is sexism even when it works to my advantage.

So, while I am glad that he gave me a warning; I am irritated by the idea that a man may have said the same things and had the same driving record and gotten a ticket.

And then I feel guilty for not just appriciating that I got off.
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I could agree with you, but then we would both be wrong.

[Jedo the Jedi]

You have to pay money for a warning? Where I'm from, a warning means precisely that you aren't being fined.

And yes, the idea of sexism in the giving of tickets is sad. I feel like I've experienced racial discrimination when being pulled over. (I'm white pulled over by a hispanic or black officer.) It's sad that those things happen.
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Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[itisally]

I didn't have to pay... he was just saying that the ticket would have been that much.

I just want equal to mean equal.
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I could agree with you, but then we would both be wrong.

[Zag]

Well, my wife has no problems with getting out of tickets because she's in a wheelchair. ("Oh, just a few minutes, officer. My registration is in the glove box, so I'll have to shift over to my wheelchair to get it, and it takes me a little effort.") I'm not sure where she would stand (so to speak) on using sex appeal.

[Mackay]

[Mackay]

[Buzzsaw]

~pulls up a comfortable seat, prepares a bowl of popcorn~

I have to agree with Mackay, though. Or it would be interesting to at least hear some reasoning behind this conclusion.

It reminds me that a year ago when I got pulled over by local police, was going 10 over the speed limit and furthermore had some of my legal paperwork unavailable for officer (vehicle registration). I was polite, respectful, and they let me go with only a warning.

I think they must have felt sorry for me because I am adopted. I don't know how they knew, but they just knew.