Hell yes. I cannot resist a good falafel sandwich with all the trimmings. Hummus is the only reason I regret selling my KitchenAid stand mixer, but a stick blender works OK (I know you can buy it in a store, but I require massive quantities of the stuff). I'm unsure of where the line is drawn between middle east/near east/eastern-mediterranean foods, but IMHO there's plenty of overlap. And goat's milk is very good, too. Of course, like literally everybody on the planet, including vegans, the meat of lamb is to be eaten with vigor and loud gusto. Raw while the lamb's heart is still beating, if necessary.
TNP will choose between a gyros sandwich, and a faladel sandwich. And will explain why. In detail. Explicit detail.
Yes, not too long ago. A masterpiece of clarity in the vernacular, in a brief form, which I don't believe Fitzgerald ever came close to matching in his other novels.
TNP takes a very dim view of so-called "transhumanists" who think that a technological singularity is coming relatively soon during which the acceleration of machine learning and generally "smart" AI will produce utterly unforeseeable effects. More or less, I think that's their point.
No, I can't say I take a dim view. I don't think I'm in a position to take a view at all. Could happen, I suppose. World changing things tend to happen without being predicted, though, I think.
TNP thinks chocolate chip cookies make other cookies pretty much redundant.
(Oh, and thanks for the kind words about my cold, guys, it's pretty much better.)
No, I actually prefer ginger cookies to chocolate chip. I've even been known to request my wife's famous ginger drops rather than cake for my birthday.
TNP has been to a birthday party in the past month.
Sort of. I pounded the table at the break room for a co-worker last week over coffee, and gave an extra large shout-out to another one in the past few weeks. I think my father's birthday was sometime in the last month, but there wasn't any big get-together, that I know of. I know I left a voice-mail and it was much appreciated, and we spoke on the phone.
TNP is pretty convinced that in life, you have to make your own parties and do the inviting yourself. Otherwise, nothing ever gets done.
(ETA chocker-chip cookies rule! there is no other option!)
Tcheh. Yeah. I'm thinking about mowing some lawns and it ain't the kind of lawns you're thinking about. I'm talking about, as an enticement, asking this woman to shave my crotch with a safety razor.
You know, in case she thinks asking her out to have some beers after work isn't forward enough.
TNP wouldn't really trade his or her social life for anything else. Nice balance, or whatever.
C'mon. No. It would be a pretty sensible small investment, though, to buy a lottery ticket for a buck or few or something every week. Somebody has to win, I guess, and the risk is quite small. No, it never occurred to me, and I associate games of chance with some really pitiable people playing Keno and video poker at the local dive bars. As opposed to the sensible people who just sit at the bar and drink cheap beers, I guess.
TNP has actually, literally thrown a book at somebody.
No, but I once had a book thrown at me (a dictionary, by a high school English teacher, in mock-frustration when I correctly defined a word he was sure I wouldn't know).
TNP has a good book within arm's reach at this very moment.
Yep. Blackburn, de Rïjke, Venema, Modal Logic. Julia Kristeva, Soleil noir : dépression et mélancolie. And some others, but those are what interest me right now.
TNP is pretty good at making a very loud, sharp whistle when necessary, but aims to improve his or her technique, for it is useful.
Nope. Currently my phone is at that sweet size spot where it's big enough to pinch-browse the web, but small enough that I'm not inclined to play Gin Rummy or Backgammon on it, or use any of some cool slide-rule emulators. I got computers for that, or maybe a very small tablet at most least small size.
TNP is inclined to choose between (i) drowning any person who says the phrase "Use your words" to him or her (ii) listening to
play with The Headhunters feauring Herbie Hancock on record/disc/tape/FLAC/whatever (iii) listening to 1970s-era Elton John. Explain why.
I would never drown anybody for what they said, I don't particularly care for Mike Clark, and I can't go wrong with option iii - "Island Girl" (1975) to be precise. Love it!:
I've never heard it on purpose, so, by default, I say "it's OK, but I can't stand the title." ETA OK, now I heard the first few bars. Fucking A goddamned right I can't stand it. Yeah, I've heard it before, and, while I'm not a scholar of Elton John's corpus, pretty much everything about that tune I hate. Fucking disco beat, limp, trite piano work, over-compressed mixing, vocals layered upon vocals, upon vocals. No. Sorry, true believers, but that is not the kind of sugar papa likes.
TNP has an amusing story about contacting a friend from the past, primarily to ask him or her a question about one of his or her specialized domains of knowledge.
Last edited by Jizzelbin; 04 Jun 2019 at 06:43 PM.
That's true: I mean, it's just one of those things you put on your CV, and "team loyalty" seems to me more than a bit odd. Not into branding my emotions with the imprimatur of some temple of reseatch, when what counts is who and what and at what specific time was able to perform their work and be accomodated by administrators with their teaching schedules, sabbaticals, and so forth.
TNP has about equal parts respect and dismissiveness of the work administrators do. In whatever field.
No. I've never ever had a box of tissues in any place I've lived. Dozens of handkerchiefs, though: strong, and doesn't leave stray bits of paper if you have some facial stubble. Fuck germs, they're clean enough and I don't let other people put their disgusting snot in them.
TNP is now thinking or has ever thought of keeping some wet-wipes in the bathroom. For cleaning your ass, let's not kid ourselves.
Yes. Upon waking, I found one of the large tendons in my right ankle is much worse when walking, despite (i) me not having yet looked up the physiology of the foot yet (ii) sleeping for ten hours. OTOH, it is kind of amusing, I guess, to walk with a pronounced Ygor-style limp for even the shortest of distances. Amusing in a painful and irritating way, but still amusing. And I can spend the next week teetotalling in case any authority person starts sticking their big snouts in my business and suspects I've got some drunkard-style difficulties in walking.
TNP has very few, if any, errands to run or chores to do this weekend and is extremely happy about it.
No, although being friends with someone who lives there currently, it's a good vacation destination, should I ever get a chance.
TNP likes softshell crabs, but thinks digging into even very good, fresh crabs is not really worth the effort and would rather just open a can of tuna.
Yeah. I wouldn't take them raw (if that's a way people eat them) but despite them seeming inherently unclean, some nice clams casino or any of the other uses are just fine. In fact, kind of fun, especially as part of a communal dining thing.
TNP has had the chance to look at various medical illustrations of the tendons of the foot and lower leg. Spoiler alert: not too dissimilar in structure from the way the hands are structured.
Oh, without question. I don't much about physiology in any given species, but since last I checked, being a human, I'm more familiar with its inner systems than other mammals. Pure self-interest. People rightfully point often to the structure of the human brain and the CNS, but the complexity of "lower" systems is perhaps best describe as incredibly well-regulated, and somehow, for all its complexity, capable of understanding.
TNP is good at drawing/sketchings things from the natural world. If not, TNP feels kind of inadequate about his or her rudimentary abilities.
TNP can think of, and will name, another game that is pretty simple but that he or she just refuses to learn. If TNP has reasons, that would be amusing, but it's not required to supply such.
False. I don't love the game, but I like it well enough.
TNP thinks cribbage is one of the stupidest games ever invented, but still plays it to pass the time. Sort of the card game equivalent of twiddling one's thumbs, IOW.