Dillon Levenque

Cool. Thanks a lot!. :-)

I got kinda burned out on big houses—always seemed like I had way more space than I could use—but I like the style of this one. I bet it looks better without the big front deck/porch and the column business: cleaner. Have fun with it. :-) Ooops! I see I biffed the comment: this bit was supposed to be in the quote up there.

First, congratulations on being a contributor to what must be the most comment-filled, humorous, and enjoyable Monday for "Where are all my friends" in a very long time. A whole page of fun. Don't know why I missed it But that's not really why I called. Now that you've dropped "I'm the personification of chaos" in here, you really should work out a new 'title' to celebrate that. I know, I know, mine still has boring old "Advanced Member", but you should be creative, Gottverdammt! And don't worry that Maddy will want to steal it; she's much too happy with Nefarious. ;-)

Thought of this for some reason. While I was digging it out of youtube and playing it was thinking about how we used to all sing along when this came on the radio; a carful of teens all belting it out. I got a little sentimental, then maybe even more so while listening. Then I looked at the notes, and saw where someone had written just two words: Heart tunes

I loved this! And while Rafaella is definitely swoon-inducing, you gotta admit Adriano's pretty cute his own self. (When I said his name I rolled the 'R' nicely and stressed the hell out of that third syllable: Ah-dr/ree-AHNNN-o!). ps: How did I miss all this? I posted in this thread! I must not have checked back in all weekend.

If you enjoy learning the evolution of words and phrases, as I do immensely, Google can be a whole lot of fun. :-)

Well, I'm glad I remembered your involvement correctly. Hey, good news on the shutters, too!

Fascinating, both the 'Happy Birthday' business and 'Frère Jacques'. As to the latter, I learned it (here in the US) in French as a small child. It wasn't until I was much older (like, ten or so) that I learned the English words and that Frère Jacques meant Brother John.

Random thoughts upon waking up today... ( background) Someone here (Sukubia, I believe) was talking about a green German beverage. It's made by steeping the leaves of a plant called Waldmeister aka woodruff, and apparently it has a terrific flavor (I googled it a lot when I read the post). So my thoughts? It would be so cool if somehow the beverage could be made to give off fumes, so that it could be called "Fuming Rigellian Wine" in honor of the old James Blish science fiction novels "Cities in Flight". A quote: "It included fuming Rigellian wine, which he despised as a drink for barbarians;..." Now I have to find one of those novels and read it again; see if they were anywhere near as good as I remember. As a kid I was utterly captivated by them. You can identify a "Cities in Flight" fan anytime by saying, "IMT made the sky .. fall!" They'll react. :-)

Yikes. I saw this thread title on Wednesday and studiously ignored it. I sensed either a brief parody of political threads (given the title's grandiosity) or something worse: an actual thread about those issues. Thus I ignored the bold type each day telling me there was something I hadn't read. I already knew that—I hadn't read any of it. Regrettably, as I logged in this morning I saw that GD's newest post was from Maddie, and it was for this thread! So now I had to at least take a look at the thread (Snugs likes me to keep an eye on things in case Maddie goes completely off the rails). I am fully and completely on the side of those who felt this thread had no business being here. There are lots of forums out there for talking politics. There is even one that has to do with SL, but has a well-populated sub-section on politics et al (and boy, do they get into it over there!). This forum is different. Not as much passionate discourse. Probably not as serious or important, but I like that. It's a fun place to be and mostly we just kind of tease each other when differences occur. We don't get all riled up. Of course one reason for that is the fact that LL sees to it, but fact is it is mostly fun around here. I spend plenty of time elsewhere, including that SL-related forum I mentioned: I enjoy that one as well, but it's a different vibe. It's got a whole lot of edge. Having kind of skimmed through it all, I see it is the worst of the two ideas I'd had of it. It's for real. Even so, there were some things I liked here. Ellestones had some quotes from Thomas Jefferson that were new to me. It does not surprise me in the slightest to learn that Jefferson (and the other founders) spent a lot of time thinking about how they could make the country an improvement over the system(s) they'd been born into. I got a laugh, too. The spheroidal one actually referred to us ('us' being everyone but him, presumably) as the Hive Mind! I chortled. Talk about hackneyed phrases... Anyway, I got through it. Maddie was surprisingly restrained and thoughtful, which happens from time to time. Fortunately she keeps that to a minimum. I won't be back here. As I said I can talk politics elsewhere. I don't mind sharing a few laughs at the expense of our laughable excuse for a president (or even for a rational human being) now and then and I admit that's political.

It's in a range of numbers (there are more) that were set aside as "private" as the whole IP (Internet Protocol) was being worked out. That means they can't be used as "public-facing" or "internet" addresses. If you try to send a packet to one such address via the internet it won't go through. I believe it won't even actually go out on the wire; your own device's IP circuits will block it. For reasons unknown to me, 192.168.0.1 was so commonly used as a base network address it became almost a standard, although it is not in any way. As I indicated, there are several blocks of numbers available that work the same way. I just checked my own router. Look at me, the rebel! I set it as 192.168.1.1*. There are a whole lot of people on this forum who know from a little to a lot about how the Internet (I'm towards the "little" end of that spectrum) and networks in general work. So while it seems like common knowledge here, I assure you it isn't like that in RL. I like that you just went ahead and asked the question without trying to make anything up. *Probably because the DSL (yes, I am on one of those) modem is using AT&T's preferred base net of 192.168.0.1.

I had to force myself to stop staring trying to figure out the geology. Overlooking the beautiful way it's eroded (wind, looks like), the difference between the sides is very odd. The right has a much deeper stratum of the dark rock. And the bizarre way it overlaps at the bottom of the vee makes no sense to me. What did that? A fault, maybe? I'd love to see the whole complex from a little farther away, at all angles.

That looks terrific! I really wish we still had kids at home; that would make such a terrific home project. We could make wall mounted ones; use 'em as Christmas presents for the family. :-)

I'm finding myself hoping she does venture across the street; it'll be fun to watch.

I am pretty sure your correspondent will disagree.

Turkish rock from 3 Hür-El

We have similar taste in coleslaw. Whenever I make burgers or something similar somebody has to stop by KFC and pick up a large side of coleslaw (about six servings?). When I go, I enjoy testing the staff. It's a two-part test. Asking "For here or 'to go'?" is an instant fail, but the ones who pass that (only about fifty percent, sadly) often still flunk out on part two: asking me if I need a spoon.

Happy Rez Day, Lil!

I meant besides that.

This might not fit the expectations of someone asking for cake, but it is by far my favorite variety. I don't think there's a better use for a cast iron skillet. Voila—pineapple upside-down cake. Happy Monday.

Balls. Columbus did what no European navigator had ever done. He left the coast behind and kept going, because he believed that a landmass was out there close enough for sailing distance and he had the guts to go find it. He had to navigate with compass, logs (look up nautical speed measuring and find out why they call it 'knots', if you're interested) and other primitive aids; it was over 200 years before the invention of the sextant. Despite all that, he managed to figure where he'd sailed accurately enough so that on his return trip he first sighted the coast of Europe less than a hundred miles north of his departure point, for which he was aiming. In the US every schoolchild knows all that stuff about India/Indians (or at least they did when I was one); that is what I meant with the 'size of the earth' comment. If you'd like to buff up your knowledge I recommend "Admiral of the Ocean Sea" by Samuel Eliot Morison. It's still in print; I see it on Amazon. I'd offer to loan my copy but I don't trust you not to mark it up.

This is an opinion that I've run across many times, and I think it is to some extent true but by no means universal. I'd bet there were at one time (maybe not so much now) more histories of the American Civil War by southerners than northerners. The trick with history is to read a lot of it and don't ever stop. People are always learning new things and making new observations. That's what historians do if they're worth a damn. As for judging our predecessors by current standards, I'm against it. I judge the people I find in history by who they were in their own time. I get irritated, for instance, with things like the currently very prevalent Columbus bashing trend. Yeah, Columbus was a total racist and yes he was a religious zealot. BUT SO WAS EVERYONE ELSE IN HIS TIMELINE AND SOCIETY. He'd been immersed in that since birth, one can hardly blame him for it. He was also much too interested in personal profit for my taste, and of course he was dead wrong about the size of the earth. But with all that, what he did was a tremendous achievement, and he was without doubt one of the greatest sailors of all time.

Not historically accurate, you say? Who'da thunk it? Perhaps a recreation of the inspiration for that famous painting will be more your style. ;-)