Unutterably Silly technical difficulties

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Taylor514ce

I recently confiscated all cell phones until I cancel the "unlimited texting" feature. The cell phones will now operate on a library basis. You can check one out when you leave the house, and turn it back in when you come back. Failure to answer a call from a parent will result in suspension of cell phone privileges.

These draconian measures implemented due to "texting addiction", atrophy of verbal communication skills, and my wife's unambiguous reaction to getting a "what's for dinner" text message from my son, from his room. She had to stop making dinner to find her phone to see the text, "what's for dinner" from someone who could walk 20 feet and ask in person, but was too lazy.

My answers to the inevitable questions, which I'll let you infer, Gentle Reader:

1. Have them over, talk to them in person.
2. I'm not [insert name of friend's parent]'s Dad.
3. Get a job, buy your own.
4. Read a book? Walk the dog? Wash the cars? Play a game? Draw? Play guitar/keyboard/drums?

Excellent decision. My mother didn't learn this until after my brother ran up $1600 in charges over 5 months. I told her to cancel his phone after the first $300 phone bill.

BTW, that was when I discovered that the phone company had 3 different size envelopes to send the bill in. The two smaller sizes were a third sheet and a half sheet, and the largest size was a full 8.5" by 11". That first month she got two of the large envelopes.

[nekokami]

Is it too late to sign up for the Panda Tour?

What a day....

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by nekokami

Is it too late to sign up for the Panda Tour?

What a day....

panda neko !!! yay !!!!

[DixieGal]

Neko, the panda is adorable!

[BookishDreamer]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

Neko, the panda is adorable!

I agree! Love the little ears.

Dreamer

[Patricia]

Yes, I love the maneki panda too.

[vivaldirules]

I look down the page and I can only say how impressed I am with all of your avatars, many of them new. These sure aren't your grandfathers' avatars.

[badgoodDeb]

Oooo yes, neko -- I like the panda! And I see that Taylor has panda-ized too!!! yay!
BookishDreamer -- yours is lovely too! I think I saw that photo while researching (American) revolutionary war clothing.

By the way, here's a shot of somebody who got to hug a panda

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

Sigh. A bunch of literates who do books but not musicals. In "Into The Woods" a lovely witch (played by Bernadette Peters) listed the items she needed to break a spell. The list sounded a lot like the things VR was accumulating for Pshrynk. One of the items was "hair the color of corn".

Here's a clip from the musical, about the spell they are attempting to undo. Oh, and it was the witch's Greens (from her garden) that were involved. So all you vegetarians can listen too.

Love musicals, I've just never seen "Into the Woods."

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by nekokami

Is it too late to sign up for the Panda Tour?

What a day....

Don't you need to change your name to "pandokami"??

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

There are no technical difficulties of being vegetarian, only how vegetarians can get "away" with eating eggs...

Eggs are allowed, unless you are "vegan." It's a matter of degrees. Many vegatarians are what they call "lacto ovo" vegeterians, which means milk and eggs are allowed.

Unless you are in a plane crash in the Andes ... in which case all bets are off.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

As I make changes to my lifestyle to be more healthy, sustainable, efficient, etc, I still have "vegetarian diet" to attempt.

Beyond a food animal's diet, there is the fact that the amount of grain used to feed food-providing animals is orders of magnitude higher than the amount of grain that could directly sustain a human diet. And as we use up more agricultural land, increase our population, convert vegetable products to oil-replacement products like ethanol, etc, we will need to be much more efficient in our use of edible grains.

Farmers are already choking over the high cost of feedgrain, thanks to so much of it being redirected into our gas tanks. Eventually, quite a few of those animal farmers will be forced to give them up, and others will raise the price of meat to compensate for high grain prices, so high that few of us will be able to afford meat.

So it's in our, especially my, best interests to try to go vegetarian. Unfortunately, I am so thoroughly pre-conditioned to a meat-filled diet, that I haven't been able to take the plunge yet. I can't even imagine enjoying the process of eating, without meat. (Sad, huh?)

You're absolutely right, of course. But, it is not an easy thing to make a transition like that. With or without meat, my diet tends to be horribly unhealthy ... but that's because I'm basically lazy about cooking.

That said ... I can live off of dry Cheerios, chocolate and Stewart's Grape Soda for several weeks with no particular ill effects.

[nekokami]

And of course, dark chocolate is not only vegetarian, but vegan as well.

[nekokami]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Don't you need to change your name to "pandokami"??

Or perhaps パンダ神 ?

(In case anyone is wondering, the Japanese word for panda is apparently "panda," but since it's written in katakana, it's clearly a borrowed word. Since the Chinese word for panda is xiongmao　熊猫　a.k.a. "bear-cat", I just had to find out where the name "panda" came from. Wikitionary reports that it is Nepalise by way of French. Who knew?)

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by nekokami

Or perhaps パンダ神 ?

(In case anyone is wondering, the Japanese word for panda is apparently "panda," but since it's written in katakana, it's clearly a borrowed word. Since the Chinese word for panda is xiongmao　熊猫　a.k.a. "bear-cat", I just had to find out where the name "panda" came from. Wikitionary reports that it is Nepalise by way of French. Who knew?)

all the best words are nepalise by way of french.