Tag: questions

In which I don’t know the rules

On By Luther M. SilerIn life2 Comments

How long do you have to feed the local stray before it’s your cat?

What are these?

On By Luther M. SilerIn Uncategorized4 Comments

Current best guess is wind turbine blades, but hell if I know. I took this yesterday.

Advice requested

On By Luther M. SilerIn Uncategorized5 Comments

Ironically, I just snarked on Twitter about an article on how millennials are shit at DYI. Nonetheless:

I’m putting the new pool ladder together. Anybody have a better idea than needle-nose pliers on how to tighten those nuts? The bolt is smooth on the outside so I can’t go at it from there and no wrench on Earth will fit inside the plastic.

Writing question for y’all

On By Luther M. SilerIn Writing3 Comments

WordPress should have some sort of built-in poll functionality.

https://twitter.com/nfinitefreetime/status/1132707100390580225

Feel free to reply here or on Twitter and expand on any thoughts you might have.

Quick question for the readers

On By Luther M. SilerIn Reading15 Comments

I have not seen The King and I in many years, and I have fond memories of it– not quite at the point where I really have anything memorized, mind you, but I think about it more often than I think about a lot of things. At any rate, I have a puzzlement for y’all.

Those of you who are readers, and especially those of you who enjoy speculative fiction of some stripe or another: how good are you at ignoring bad and/or problematic aspects of a work and concentrating on the bits that you like? This may sound a bit more serious than I want it to; I’m not necessarily talking about anything like, oh, the racist and sexist elements of The King and I that will likely get on my nerves much more now than they did when I last watched it, probably two decades ago now, but more like a book with propulsive writing, interesting characters, and a plot that makes no Goddamn sense at all. Or, say, a science fiction novel that gets a lot of basic science stuff wrong, but not in a handwaves-it-away sort of sense, just gets it wrong. This is probably going to be something that’s going to be hard to answer in a general sense, but is there something (poor characterization, for example) that you’re generally able to put aside, or is there something that will always throw you out of a book that you’re reading even if you’re otherwise enjoying it without the troublesome part?

I will provide more context if I decide that the book I’m reading right now deserves a full review, but for right now I’m just curious.

(Snow day, again, today. We had an ice storm last night, and I woke up to a two-hour delay that became a full cancel just as I was getting ready to leave to take the boy to school. He had school. I did not. Video games and comic books all day for the win.)

Two very important questions

On By Luther M. SilerIn Parenting, Politics16 Comments

Please, wherever you see this, I’m begging for as many answers as I can get– either here, Facebook, on Twitter, wherever you happen to be able to find me.

  1. Are there any Republicans running for office in your district or your state who are using bipartisanship or “both sides are to blame” type rhetoric and explicitly declining to identify themselves as Republicans?
  2. For parents: did you keep your kids’ baby teeth?  If so, what did you do with them, and do you still have them?

Very different questions, I guess.  I NEED ANSWERS!

In lieu of anything else to say

On By Luther M. SilerIn life4 Comments

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I haven’t been getting a ton of comments lately, so I’m kinda hoping everybody pitches in for this one, since as an atheist I’m not really qualified to comment on it.  Help me out, I’m confused.

A spot of context, in case you don’t recall: the local AAA baseball team is the South Bend Cubs.  I have been to a couple of games but I can’t name a single player.  (Actually, I can’t name a single active baseball player at any level, but that’s not entirely relevant.)

There is a church near my home that I drive by every day on my way to and from work.  Hell, it’s on a main thoroughfare, so I probably drive past it something like 70% of the time I leave my house.  And there’s a big sign out in front of the church– wood, attached to what appear to be 12 x 12 beams, so they intend for it to be at least semi permanent– that declares the place the “church home” of the South Bend Cubs, including using their logo, which something makes me doubt they got permission for.  The sign specifically names two players and their numbers; I don’t know if any more than those two attend that church and I’m not sure that two players really constitute an official team endorsement either.

So here’s the question: there have to be some at least moderately religious people who read this blog.  Assuming you were already Catholic, is there any universe where this sort of “rub elbows with very minor local celebrities” advertisement might entice you to check a church out?  And, as a secondary question, am I right in feeling that calling these two players out and yelling HEY THIS IS WHERE YOU CAN FIND THESE GUYS ON SUNDAY MORNING to literally everyone who drives by is kind of rude?

Just checking

On By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy4 Comments

Ever wake up, like, an hour and 40 minutes before you’re actually supposed to wake up, and wake up completely refreshed and ready to start the day, and think to yourself If I go back to bed right now, I’m going to be late to work?

…yeah.