Posts made by BetterJudgment

@HelloRaptor Man, you're more tolerant that I am. I read 2/3 of the first one when I was 14 and flush from discovering Tolkien. This wasn't Tolkien; it was crap. I think I may have thrown the book away.

@Bobotron said:

Also cheated and looked at possible rings for my partner and I (this July is the 14 year anniversary, I think it's sentimental mostly but I really want to do it, even if we can't legally get married here in Kentucky).

I think you will be able to soon, and that's something I didn't think five years ago.

My partner and I went to Iowa in March to get married back in 2011 after 22 years together. Our rings are simple titanium bands; mine only comes off if I'm putting on hand salve. Don't knock sentimentality, especially when it combines love, a shared life, and asserting your rights.

I'll hazard that you may not have read older stuff and recommend Michael Moorcock's series The Cornelius Quartet (which consists of The Final Programme, A Cure for Cancer, The English Assassin and The Condition of Muzak). While they're not urban fantasy in the way I think most people term that, they are definitely urban and fantastical. It's likely easier to get into them if you're British or an Anglophile and if you have some knowledge of twentieth century European culture. (It also helps to have at least once dropped acid and listened to Hawkwind.)

Earlier this week, I had a college student who, three weeks into the course, still does not have the textbook (i.e. who ordered it at the end of the first week of class online and didn't pay for expedited shipping instead of getting the list of books that was available over a month before class started and ordering it then) assume that he could take the announced quiz over this week's chapter at a later date because he doesn't yet have the book. It took all of my considerable professionalism not to stare at him and say, "That'll happen when monkeys fly out of my ass."

Sure you can graduate with a 4.0. Please don't resort to grade-grubbing, though (not that I think you would). Nevertheless, it is true that undergraduate GPA doesn't matter very much unless you're going to graduate school, and graduate school is frequently an awful idea.

@Spitfire said:

@BetterJudgment said:

Effectively, if you don't move into the bike lane to turn right, it's like you are making a right-hand turn from the center lane of three-lane street. If there is no bike lane at the intersection then the bike can't pass you on the shoulder, but that's not what you say is happening.

I'm gonna need to check your sources.

Source: ODOT Driver's Manual 2014-2015
http://www.odot.state.or.us/forms/dmv/37.pdf

Page 38

Do not move into a bicycle lane in preparation for a right hand turn.

Page 82

Do not move into a bicycle lane in preparation for a turn.

I was wrong, but in fairness this is a mess. I was looking at the Oregon Revised Statutes on a PDF that's in the history of a machine that I don't have access to right now, but what I saw as confirmed at http://www.stc-law.com/bike_right_turn.html was that motor vehicles can enter the bicycle lane to turn right and that a cyclist can move left to avoid a vehicle in that lane that is turning right. At the same time, another statute says that motor vehicles have to yield to bikes in the bike lane; as that page puts it, "the law clearly [sic] requires motor vehicles to first yield the right-of-way to bicyclists occupying the bike lane, just as vehicles changing lanes on a multi-lane roadway must first yield the right-of-way to other vehicles occupying the lane the driver would like to enter." No mater what that bicyclist lawyer says, that's not very clear, and I can certainly understand being confused by it.

So, in Oregon, unlike elsewhere (where those turning right are expected to merge into the bike lane), you do have to yield to bicyclists on the right when turning right on a road with a bike lane. I was definitely wrong about that. On the other hand, you do have to yield to bicyclists on the right when turning right on a road with a bike lane. No matter how irritating they are, that's what cyclists are expecting because it's the law. If you don't do it, you run an increased risk of injuring someone and causing yourself a huge amount of hassle.

@Spitfire I just looked this up, and from what I see you're supposed to move over into the bike lane when it's clear and signal your turn when you're turning right. Oregon laws treat the bicycle lane as another traffic lane and permit people in that lane to overtake and pass another vehicle in a lane to the left when that vehicle is slower-moving or stopped.

Effectively, if you don't move into the bike lane to turn right, it's like you are making a right-hand turn from the center lane of three-lane street. If there is no bike lane at the intersection then the bike can't pass you on the shoulder, but that's not what you say is happening. So, yeah, from what you say, you're in the wrong and need to change what you're doing instead of being smug about endangering others because you haven't bothered to learn about traffic laws.

@TNP said:

As a partial non-sequitur, how the hell can I go straight to the first unread post?

If you mean how do you go to the first unread post on a thread after clicking one of the thread names on the Unread page, as near as I can figure out you can't. At least, it has never worked for me with any accuracy. Even when the pop-up appears in the upper right that offers to take me to my last spot in the thread, on long threads it at best only takes me within a few days of that position. And, since times are given relative to now rather than as actual times, determining what I've read by when I knew I was reading last is more difficult. None of which is a big deal.

I pretty much ignore the front page and go right to Unread, so I'm fine with whatever.

I like big, well-written grids with places that are described as actual places. I even like grids whose rooms have hidden exits and are intentionally linked in ways that turn them into mazes. However, the only places I've seen with grids like that are ones that have been around more than a decade.

@Admiral You likely shouldn't be drinking diet sodas even if you are diabetic; studies suggest that consuming diet sodas may increase insulin resistance. I've also found that they are one of the things that triggers IBS for me.

What helped me lose weight was sticking to the "no S" diet: no sweets, no seconds, and no snacks except on days that start with S. (Google "no S" for the site.) Other things happened that led me to stop eating that way, so I have gained about ten pounds back that I'm fighting to lose now that winter makes walking to and from work impossible.

@FirePuff said:

Yeah, yeah. I'm a MOOer.

Really? Have you ever played on HellMOO?

@Thenomain said:

edit: I made the topic 'Advert-is-ments' again so people can test this out and report their findings here.

I think you got it. "Aver-tis-ments" worked fine, and "Advert-is-ments" brought up a gray screen until I refreshed. Now that I've disabled AdBlock Plus on musoapbox.net, I can hit either page without any issues.

You're right, refreshing fixes it in Firefox as well. It's still strange that that page--and now this thread--consistently require a refresh, though.

I can't get the page with the listing of threads to come up on Firefox 34.0.5 on Yosemite. I can read the individual threads, but the main page is blank. It does work on Safari.

Well, it turns out that I haven't played with any of you.

I tend to stop logging in to games pretty quickly. The few characters that have made it for a while, in more or less chronological order, are:

Bonaltham and a briefly held staff bit@Shadows of Isildur (an "RPI" MUD)
Hannarr@Forgotten Kingdoms MUD
Bellaegis, Candamon@Elendor
Finnach@Akashat
Arne@Windy City
Arn@FireflyMUX (where I met Ravaun! Yah!)
some character I don't remember @SerenityMUSH
Macsen@Crossroads

That's not a lot for ten years.