Space Marine and Dragonwrangler Bar & Grill

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aliwood

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But what about when away from home and neighbors?

Well, we don't tend to go out too often, when we do, we tend to go together, especially if we are going into the countryside. Himself has a terrible sense of geography, thinks left is right even at home, that sort of thing, so two people make for better teamwork. Also the public phone system in the country is quite good. I believe there's a legal requirement for a working public phone every mile or something - probably five miles in the country - so we're covered. When I was a kid we didn't have a phone, my parents only got one within the last three years and I'm 42 now. They've never had cause to need a phone. My grandparents only got a phone when I went to university so they could reach them in an emergency.

Seriously, despite the fact that there are enough phones in existence for everyone in the country to have three, it's perfectly possible to get along without one. After all Alexander Graham Bell was only born in 1847. In geological time that's like a blink of an eye.
 

aliwood

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ION, we went out for a walk. We saw a bat. It was flying up and down a piece of grassland just down the street picking off insects. We stood and watched it for a few minutes. It was dead cool. I think it was a Pipistrelle.
 

jallenecs

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Yes,and I'm really hoping you can answer my hands free question back there or at least give me hints and suggestions.

Ooh, ouch, arthritis in the hands? I have occasional aches in my hands -- particularly my thumbs, and especially when the weather gets cold -- but not nearly so bad as my torso and legs.

If your hands are hurting, get them warm and keep them warm. If it's arthritis, it DOES help. When I was a teenager, and doing piano competitions, I got into the habit of keeping my fingers between my knees all the time, to keep them warm. When the above wintertime aches set in, I keep two pairs of wooly gloves (fingerless, so I can still type). One pair is on my hands, the other is lying on one of the household heating vents, getting warm. I periodically switch them out, so I've always got warm gloves.

The bluetooth headset thing works for phoning. Or do what I do, don't have friends that call the house. I don't talk on the phone more than once a week, and that's my husband, who calls me on Friday evenings to ask what I need him to bring home after work. My friends mostly know, if they need me, find me online.

What would trouble my mind would be writing. When I'm driving, or some other time when my hands are not available to me, I keep a digital recorder on my person. I actually have it on a string to hang around my neck when I'm writing. I started doing it when I was having to drive back and forth to Berea every other weekend (five-ish hours round trip).

I do my best story thinking when I'm driving.

I'd hand the recorder around my neck, and when I had an idea, a bit of dialogue or whatever, I'd just recite it into the recorder. Then I could type it out when I got home.

Does that help?
 

slcboston

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So, because of blind deference to the growing cult, I checked out Scrivener.

And realized that it's presupposing a level of organization far, far beyond anything I have ever had or even remotely attempted. At a price I'm not willing to pay for.

:e2writer:

Also, because I strongly suspect that were I to get it, I would immediately turn it into a gigantic time sink, which is counter-intuitive to it's professed purpose. But I could see me spending HOURS organizing things.
 

aliwood

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Also, because I strongly suspect that were I to get it, I would immediately turn it into a gigantic time sink, which is counter-intuitive to it's professed purpose. But I could see me spending HOURS organizing things.

I'm with you here Bos. I think that's what would happen to me. I'm not going anywhere near it.
 

jallenecs

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You go to church? You're probably the first person I've ever met that actually does that...

Yep. If the church doors are open, then I'm there. I'm the church pianist. The only time I've missed was when I was in the hospital. My mom and son took it in turn to handle the music then.
 

Kricket

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I go, too.

Though not today. Too much to do.

It's not as rare as you might think, really.

:)

Ditto.

Although since the potty training of Little K is still new I opted to stay home with him today.
 

Reservoir Angel

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Yep. If the church doors are open, then I'm there. I'm the church pianist. The only time I've missed was when I was in the hospital. My mom and son took it in turn to handle the music then.
This is such a contrast from every other person I know. I've only ever been inside a church twice. Once for my Aunt's retaking of her wedding vows and once on a field trip to a big World War memorial graveyard place.

Pretty sure if I tried to set foot in one now I'd be liable to burst into flames...

ION: I just remembered the reason I don't use CeltX to write novels. No little word count box so you can check your progress, and you have no way of knowing how your writing will look on actual pages.
 

jallenecs

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This is such a contrast from every other person I know. I've only ever been inside a church twice. Once for my Aunt's retaking of her wedding vows and once on a field trip to a big World War memorial graveyard place.

Pretty sure if I tried to set foot in one now I'd be liable to burst into flames...

Nah, you wouldn't burst into flames. And Boston and I aren't the only ones. Kricket is LDS. Stanley is studying to be a Lutheran preacher.

I know the cliche is that Americans take church rather too seriously. Maybe that's true and maybe it ain't. I know I live deep in the Bible Belt, so going to church is much more common than it may be in other parts of the country.

I like church. I find it comforting. I like that I was baptized in "natural water," rather than a baptismal. I got the desire to play piano from watching my mother play old-time country gospel in the backwoods church I was raised up in. Even that cliched "hellfire and brimstone" preaching that everybody reviles and mocks, with the shouting and such, I grew up on that stuff, and find it oddly comforting at times (there's a whole psychology of catharsis happening there, it's interesting reading, that).

The only thing that sucks about going to church is having to get up on cold Sunday mornings and putting on a dress, which, as any girl will tell you, are NOT cold weather friendly.
 

Fenika

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My grandmother used to take the family to church. She gave up ;) But she still goes herself, which is good.

ION, I have modified a lentil soul recipe. I adjusted stuff and added celeriac. I am in love. Nom.
 

amergina

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Back from church. anybody miss me?

Always. :heart:

Do you know what it is yet?


'Cause it kind of sounds like the bats I have.

:D

I'm now thinking it might be bats. Which would be okay, except that I really don't want them eating my house, you know? If they want to be in the old sun room roof, that's fine, just not in the walls of the main house.

So, because of blind deference to the growing cult, I checked out Scrivener.

And realized that it's presupposing a level of organization far, far beyond anything I have ever had or even remotely attempted. At a price I'm not willing to pay for.

:e2writer:

Also, because I strongly suspect that were I to get it, I would immediately turn it into a gigantic time sink, which is counter-intuitive to it's professed purpose. But I could see me spending HOURS organizing things.

I pretty much got it because lots of the stuff I want to write is starting to require organization.

Also, I got it cheap via a MacHeist bundle with a bunch of other useful software. :D

You go to church? You're probably the first person I've ever met that actually does that...

I do. That was actually why I was dressed before noon. :) Though singing today hurt my lungs. :( Stupid bronchitis.
 

Reservoir Angel

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See, I find churches to be the exact opposite of comforting. Maybe that's just because I grew up totally removed from them, maybe that's just because of my own personal opinions about religion (which I won't get into here, lest I cause arguments).

Other people say my discomfort around places of religious importance is because the typical view of religion isn't exactly... friendly, towards people of the non-straight persuasions. I know that's a massive stereotype of religious people, but the idea lives on regardless of how many non-homophobic religious people I've met (which is many).

Plus getting up early on Sundays and going outside is just a thing I will never be capable of doing. :D
 

slcboston

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I'm now thinking it might be bats. Which would be okay, except that I really don't want them eating my house, you know? If they want to be in the old sun room roof, that's fine, just not in the walls of the main house.

I don't think the bats will eat your house. They fit into really, really tiny spaces, and unlike mice I don't think they're into home improvement. The walls of your house are probably not as solid as you (and the rest of us) would like to think they are, so there are lots of little spaces for them.

The real concern is having them get into the house, frankly, and the risk of parasites and other things they might bring in with them. But they can be very difficult to get rid of without tearing large holes in your walls.

I like bats, myself, but having been in a place where they could get in was somewhat disconcerting.

Makes me a little paranoid when I hear them in the walls here, though, so far, they've not been inside.

So far.
 

slcboston

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I know that's a massive stereotype of religious people, but the idea lives on regardless of how many non-homophobic religious people I've met (which is many).

Yeah, it is, and despite the fact that the mass media (and a certain American political party) may tend to portray it that way, it is definitely not the case.

The church I attended while living in New Haven even flew the rainbow flag. No lie.

:D
 

Reservoir Angel

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If I found a really gay-friendly church... I still wouldn't go, but I'd at least consider it for a moment before remembering I don't believe in God and thoroughly scrapping the idea in favour of Sunday lie-ins.
 

amergina

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I don't think the bats will eat your house. They fit into really, really tiny spaces, and unlike mice I don't think they're into home improvement. The walls of your house are probably not as solid as you (and the rest of us) would like to think they are, so there are lots of little spaces for them.

The real concern is having them get into the house, frankly, and the risk of parasites and other things they might bring in with them. But they can be very difficult to get rid of without tearing large holes in your walls.

I like bats, myself, but having been in a place where they could get in was somewhat disconcerting.

Makes me a little paranoid when I hear them in the walls here, though, so far, they've not been inside.

So far.

I've heard the scritching on and off before... like last year. It went away after a few days. And have seen no bats in the house.

The only critters I have seen in the house (besides my cats, who belong here) were mice, and I found where they were coming in and put a stop to it. Because the cats? Useless.

OTOH, if I do have bats, that would explain why my cat freaks out at the wall every night.
 

jallenecs

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Yeah, it is, and despite the fact that the mass media (and a certain American political party) may tend to portray it that way, it is definitely not the case.

The church I attended while living in New Haven even flew the rainbow flag. No lie.

:D

On the other hand, a brief history lesson: in the 1860's, the American Presbyterian church split into two congregations over the question of slavery and the Civil War. They stayed separate until the early 1980's, when they finally decided to reunite into one group.

And, as of 2012, they're splitting again over the question of homosexuality and what should be the church's official position regarding same.

It breaks my heart. It really does.

But -- and I'm not preaching, I really am not -- when I meet people who say they hate religion or churches, I have a standard answer: churches are filled with people. People who have flaws, and can be stupid and pigheaded and WRONG about a thousand things. As the above example illustrates oh too well.

Church =/= faith. Faith is a different animal altogether.
 

slcboston

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OTOH, if I do have bats, that would explain why my cat freaks out at the wall every night.

Yeah, you've got bats. They scritch a lot when they move about.

My cat does the same, and it freaks me out. Even after having probably a dozen or so of them in the house at the last place, there is some sort of primal freak out response that just gets triggered.

I also know exactly what bats sound like when they fly around your room at 3 AM.

Kind of a leathery flapping noise. Surprisingly quite audible.

:eek:
 

lilyWhite

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While Scrivener is looking quite appealing (The typewriter scrolling in full-screen mode. The typewriter scrolling.), I think I'm going to pass on it...for now. Going through the tutorial is making me want to plan a new fictional universe with Scrivener, and that wouldn't be the best of ideas when I'm trying to finish something for NaNoWriMo.
 
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