There's not enough bitching

[Carthrat]

There is an actual answer to that question, but do you want it? It's a sad tale (and I will need to go get someone to repeat it for me so I can repeat it back).

[Yuthirin]

This is the slowest work day EVER. No calls. No walk-ins. No successful cold calls. Seriously.

[Sinom Bre]

How long are you going to be laid up from this, anyway? Hell of a way to dampen your coming home party.

No freaking idea. Haven't met with the surgeon yet.

* Sinom Bre offers the use of his rusty spork for the after-procedure procedure. ^__^

BTW, are you up and about yet, Iddy?

[Iron Dragoon]

How long are you going to be laid up from this, anyway? Hell of a way to dampen your coming home party.

No freaking idea. Haven't met with the surgeon yet.

* Sinom Bre offers the use of his rusty spork for the after-procedure procedure. ^__^

BTW, are you up and about yet, Iddy?

Mostly. I'm walking pretty well and I can sorta bend over and stretch now. Bandages should come off here in 3-4 more days.

[Dracos]

I got a slight fever.  Hope it goes away tomorrow.

[Music-chan]

Turns out our internet provider doesn't serve the area we're moving to.  Time to find a new one. >.<

[Arakawa]

Sometimes, literally weeks after I look at something, I suddenly realize I was actually pissed off as all hell at it (without noticing at the time).

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=379064095 (note: iTunes U)

I got about ten minutes into the first lecture before quitting in what I thought was boredom and what I now realize is disgust.

I could literally write a volume about what is wrong with this picture, but let's start with the fact that when they teach an introductory course on justice, they start by having people contemplate the possibility that it can sometimes be laudable and moral to push a fat man into the path of a streetcar.

In answer to your question, Professor Sandel, if you push the fat man in front of the streetcar to save a bunch of other people, regardless of how moral (or not) the action might be considered by a Harvard professor of ethics, the fact that you did this out of the blue in the middle of Boston rather than in a war zone will mean that anyone remotely sane will immediately peg you as a sociopath and not want to associate with you.

Really. What the hell, Harvard?

(Sorry, that was vitriol. I actually have to force myself to share this, since I figure it's better to express the feeling rather than repress it and have it stew away unacknowledged inside my unconscious. I've been doing the latter far too often, I think...)

[Jon]

Ah, trolley problems. They are a splendid example of thought experiments which have absolutely nothing to do with the real world.

[Arakawa]

I misread "trolley problems" as "trolling problems".

Which, now that I think about it, is incredibly apt. Because it's basically trolling.

It (intentionally or unintentionally) goes for the jugular, so to speak, and attacks an unexamined point in most people's moral compass. That's why starting with it is so dishonest. It's perfectly fine to attack this kind of conundrum much later, after you have the intellectual ammunition not to feel completely overwhelmed. (Personally, I had to go into the nuances of the difference between everyday life and a war zone, and why societies tend to instill people with strong inhibitions against violence, and why on most days, when there isn't a contrived trolley accident or a total war going on, this is a good thing.)

But done right at the beginning like this, it just leaves the students feeling helpless (further accentuated by how people in the crowd are called upon to stand up and deliver stammering, monosyllabic replies, which the professor uniformly dismisses as all being "equally valid", and thus equally useless), and therefore vulnerable to having some fallacy shoved into their minds further down the road.

The more cynical part of me suggests that this is indeed intended to create an opening to shove some propaganda into their minds, which is a thoroughly depressing but perhaps accurate thought. It makes me want to go back into that course (with thick, rubber gloves this time), and figure out exactly what they could be selling.

[Jon]

I'm well aware there are dark places in my soul. I try not to dwell on them too much, but I acknowledge there's good reasons I shouldn't have a power like Haruhi's. (Thankfully, not something I have to worry about much.)

But there is something I don't know how to deal with. My brain has gotten its hands on an idea for what would basically be my equivalent of the "OH JOHN RINGO NO" material, and for obvious reasons it's a little hard to ignore. It wouldn't be about being a darker and edgier version of Captain America -- that's Ringo's kink, not mine -- but it's still not something I'm comfortable sharing the details of, even with you guys.

The thought tends to recur; I can usually put it out of my mind for a while, but it's surprisingly hard to forget an idea once you've thought of it.

[Brian]

You're not the only one to be there, Jon.

We all have those moments.  And those ideas that do stick around for a while....

In my experience, it'll pass.

[Anastasia]

People who use the phrase 'cliffy' instead of cliffhanger need to be summarily fucking smacked.

[Jon]

That's a waste of a good smack.

[Yuthirin]

I just spent three hours listening so a full-grown wealthy man defend his decision not to bathe and why his wife and children are wrong for abandoning him. He hasn't bathed with soap and water since May 13th of 1991, btw.

I CAN TASTE THE SMELL. IN MY MOUTH. OH GOD. IT'S EVERYWHERE.

[Brian]

Yuth, you live a charmed, and magical life, meeting characters more bizzare than any anime or manga could ever generate.

You should become a writer; translate these experiences into text.