Chatterday! Open Thread.

sealion without rear flippersThis is our weekly Chatterday! open thread. Use this open thread to talk amongst yourselves: feel free to share a link, have a vent, or spread some joy.

What have you been reading or watching lately (remembering spoiler warnings)? What are you proud of this week? What’s made your teeth itch? What’s going on in your part of the world? Feel free to add your own images. (Anna insists that these should only be of ponies, but I insist that very small primates, camelids, critters from the weasel family, smooching giraffes, and cupcakes are also acceptable.) Just whack in a bare link to a webpage, please – admin needs to deal with the HTML code side of things.

Today’s chatterday backcloth comes via the Denver Post: “Disabled sea lion pup recovering at Denver Zoo“. Bismarck, who has no rear flippers, is orphaned and was rescued was rescued by the Pacific Marine Mammal Center.

22 thoughts on “Chatterday! Open Thread.

  1. Nothing quite like working retail the weekend before Christmas, especially when you fail at stress management and your medical conditions are aggravated by it. Fun times!

    Yeah not really.

    I’m just glad I’m not working tomorrow.

  2. One of the many people assigned to deal with my assorted crazinesses thinks I am on the autistic spectrum.

    I disagree and think I have more than enough labels to be going on with anyway.

    She has referred me for an assessment. Does anyone know what I should expect to happen? ( I live in the UK)

  3. I will have to go see Bismarck! The Denver Zoo has a pretty great sea lion program–they really work with them to keep them happy and learning new things. He looks like a cutie, and he’s obviously going to be a big guy when he grows up.

    The comments on the Denver Post article are kind of O_o, though.

  4. The comments on the Denver Post article are kind of O_o, though.

    Yeah. Before I saw Bismark I never realised I was capable of swimming in a pool at the zoo and catching fish. Such an inspiration!

  5. @sanabituranima I can’t help with the assessment, sorry, but do you know why they thought that. I find so often some traits/disorders that commonly exist with autism are thought to actually be symptoms of autism – people often assume that about my sensory processing disorder, when I’m pretty sure I’m not on the autistic spectrum.

  6. The semester is finally over – I’ve got two B+s and one A, still waiting on two more.

    I’m at home with my puppies, my mom, and my sister.

    We got a Christmas tree last night (normally we don’t wait that long and little sis has been home a week) and it’s got lights on it and the angel on top and some ornaments. It also attacked my mom and sister, allergic reaction to Christmas tree FTL.

    I was smart – I took Dixie on a walk to avoid the yelling and stress. It felt good – we saw a squirrel! Unfortunately, as I was nearing home, the pain popped up. No, I didn’t miss you, go away.

    In the world of aggravation – my school or the city or Herenton (why not blame him) decided to strip and repave the major road through campus during finals week. I came back on Sunday and only one third was paved. The rest was bumpy – hell for wheels. All I could think about was the difficulty anybody in a scooter would have.

    But they paved the road. The next day, they painted the lanes.

    What they had not painted by Thursday at noon was the effing crosswalk! First they hurt those in wheelchairs/scooters (or, sarcasm, if you can’t care about those lazy losers, people on bikes! /end sarcasm) and then everyone crossing the road.

    They couldn’t wait one week? *headdesk*

    Also, this week has been just bad, painwise. Usually in the evening. Monday night was the worst – I was gasping for breath and terrified and barely distracted by Jon Stewart and Stephen. What makes Monday night so *special* is that it took a long time to fall asleep (after 1). So I’m finally painfree and asleep, and what happens? The fire alarm goes off at 4 and we stand outside for 45 minutes in the cold. It took me about an hour to get back to sleep – in pain, back again!

    My final for Arabic was at 8 am. I almost got hit by a car on the way to class, I was so foggy and groggy and sore. Oh, and because of the pain, I didn’t study well enough. So I wrote “I’m sorry I can’t think” in French and then more detail in English, before sending the prof an e-mail. I don’t want an incomplete, I don’t want to redo it, just give me the zero, I’ll take my first C.

    Pain is no fun, but now I’ve got puppies and no noisy people all over campus and the dorm. Well, my sister, but she’s working, sleeping, or at her friend’s.

    And Wednesday was a good day – I walked a mile or so and went present shopping for mom and sis. (At the bookstore, I got 6 books. 5 for me, one for mom. Oops.) (Why is it good? The previous 4 semesters, I walked over there all the time. This semester, not so much. These last two months? Really not so much. So happy about that and today’s neighborhood exploration.)

  7. Had one of those frustrating elevator dreams this AM. Brand new five-story-high pretty brick apartment blocks, with three-story integral public library branch. The elevator only went between library floors on the hour from 1pm to 6pm; all other times it travelled horizontally.

    dreams are weird.

    Arachnejericho is doing a wonderful series about representations of PTSD in Science Fiction over at Tor.com, and mindful of triggering issues. I’m impressed by her willingness to come out in a very public milieu to challenge PTSD when it’s used as a handy club to inflict interesting bruises on your character in order to watch them heal (or not).

    http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=searchByTag&tag=PTSD

    Her home blog is Spontaneous Derivation
    http://www.spontaneousderivation.com/
    where she talks of many things, and lovingly documents bento boxes (nom nom nom).

  8. People in the future are so mean – my sister called me from school and was like, “I’m in the future! My school is better than yours!” (She’s one hour ahead of us.)

    The freakiest bit of time travel happened in our house. Hold onto your hats, this gets weird.

    We had one TV hooked up to the local cable in the living room. And another (now dead and gone) TV just on the antenna system (oh, we’re also traveling *back* in time) in my mom’s room down the hall. And a baseball game on! And go! 30 second delay on the cable so my mom knew everything!

    Also, more futuristic TV nonsense – my TV in the dorm is a few seconds behind my mom’s. So we talk during Jeopardy commercials – “OH this guy won!” says Mom. “Grr,” says Kaitlyn.

    Time travel is dangerous, and when you add in the internet? I think becoming your own grandfather is the least of your worries. Yes, even for the women.

    Welcome to world of… tomorrow!!! Man, time for some Futurama jollies! Merry Xmas! Stay at home on Christmas Eve, even in the FYOOOTURE!!!

    (Silliness about me – yes, I was worried the world would end on 1/1/2000. Just a tad. So when it was officially 1/1/2000 in upside down land, I breathed a sigh of relief.)

  9. I’m at my mom’s right now and my kitteh, Lucy, keeps taking ornaments off of the tree.
    pic: http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/7624/picture064m.jpg

    cat stealing ornaments

    Also I have some cupcake pictures to link for you, lauredhel.
    This is a vegan strawberry shortcake cupcake from Sticky Fingers Bakery in DC. http://twitpic.com/tnu33

    strawberry cupcake

    This is a vegan s’mores cupcake from the same bakery. http://twitpic.com/tntf7

    vegan smores cupcake

    They also have some vegan gluten-free food at Sticky Fingers if you’re into that/have allergies. I brought a cupcake for my friend and he really liked it.

  10. There’s about six inches of snow in my city, which is a lot for the Netherlands. I heard last Thursday the northen provinces had about eight inches of snow. I like snow when I don’t have to go places, but it is horrible for cane use.

    @ sanabituranima: the assessment may vary considerably depending on the professional you see, but the first part will most likely consist of a screening like the Simon Baron-Cohen “autism quotient” test. You can actually take this test online at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html. It is not supposed to diagnose ASD, but a low score can be used to rule it out. If you do score high on this test, further interviews, observation and/or psychological testing may be done. Your parents or someone else who knew you from childhood may also be asked to provide information about your development, or you may be asked to recall it yourself from memory. But don’t get worried if bringing a parent/family member is problematic for you: this willonly be used as the very last part of your diagnostic assessment, and if a professional coerces you to bring someone you don’t feel comfortable with, you can always refuse.

  11. Yeah, I loved the fact that it was snowing until I had to leave the house. Then we finally got to the train station only to discover that there were no trains coming or going from our town at all :S. For some reason they couldn’t just put that info about the trains online even though it had been that way for hours already. Then we had to get back. I’m not very coordinated/balanced etc, I fall easily, it was a lot of effort and it triggered backpain for today. That was pretty much all I could do, physically, for today, which is a shame, not that I wasn’t counting on that to happen, but I thought I’d, you know, have something to show for it, like the in-law family supper we were supposed to have. I imagine I even had a relatively easy time of it, making it to the trainstation. For some reason our town only clears roads for cars of snow, not footpaths or bicyclepaths. Not even any sand or whatever to make sure it’s at least not slippery.

    On the upside, the snow did make nice noises and I saw a lot of snowmen.

  12. I’m a regular lurker on a horse-related forum, and there is a ton of racism/sexist/ableism/etc fail going on there pretty much all the time, which is why I don’t post much any more. So when I saw this comment:
    “My favorite is “handicapped” parkers who drive a freaking F350! If you can climb into a truck that damm big your ass can walk from a reguler spot.”
    in a thread about people who park their vehicles poorly, I felt shitty and I almost didn’t read the rest of the thread, for fear that it would be full of people agreeing with him. But to my surprise, he was immediately corrected by several people with disabilities and people who have friends and family members with disabilities who drive big trucks and feel much more comfortable getting in and out of big trucks than they do small cars. And then (biggest surprise of all) he apologized for his comment and thanked everyone for educating him.

    Woohoooooo!

  13. Mcfly – that is awesome! (What followed, not the original comment.)

    I’m not talking to anybody with snow. It’s just above freezing here but it’s soooooo cold. We’ve got the fire going and *sigh* the heater on. (“The internet works in any room.” sez mom. “I feel sick,” sez me.”)

    The humidity is high enough that we won’t shock the crap out of ourselves every few seconds (and a makeshift one in the form of the teapot on the stove) but no rain (“ice-skating” on the sidewalks) and no snow! And my poor sister is working outside at Sonic! Tip your carhops! (Now she won’t be mad. If she ever comes here.)

    I don’t have anywhere to go… wait… doctor appointment on Tuesday and we have to walk far to get to the office/car… okay.. no snow til I’m home on Tuesday. The world does revolve around me, right?

    Dixie keeps licking Wickett. Only Wickett. He doesn’t like it, but he is 10 pounds of hair and she is 50 pounds of Chow mix. He does what she likes. None of the reasons online match, unless Dixie – who’s been fixed since it was possible to fix her as a puppy – decided she was his mother. They both have curly tails. We’re booked on Maury for a maternity test. *nods* (Oh no the sillies aren’t gone!)

    Kat – cute cat, for a cat. /silly, dog pride. We couldn’t hang anything near edible on the bottom foot of the tree… we still can’t. And they knock the other ornaments down. Well, we shouldn’t have put the trees and all those presents in the way of the window! We are so mean to the dogs. I mean, Mikey has to sit on Mom’s lap on a heated blanket instead of… um… well I’m in the room too and we all know how mean I am to him!

    All right, it’s been a few weeks, but the cat pic means it’s war.

    Mikey –
    small fuzzy dog with curly hair lies on a flowered couch, burrowed in several blankets

    (That is an old blanket with lots of holes. I forget if I did that to him or if I merely covered him with the blanket and that’s how he got out. I think mom got rid of the blanket. Moms are always after “old” “disintegrated” things. That’s why you do your own laundry!)

    Wickett –

    small black dog with alert eyes, wearing a colored bandana around its neck, sits in a white wire bike basket. from behind, an arm reaches forward to put the dog's head.

    He’s in the bike basket. That would be my chest and hand. He looks so cute.

    Dixie –

    large dog with golden fur sprawls on a flowered couch and piles of pillows

    Yup, big butt stuck on the old couch. She’s tiny, ya see. A lap dog.

    Cats. Seals. Bah!

    Dogs are more Christmassy – they’ll let you put a santa hat or reindeer horns on them and you won’t lose a pint of blood!
    .-= Kaitlyn´s last blog ..School wrap-up and nonsense =-.

  14. Or you can have a friend use paint/photoshop to put a santa hat on for you!

    Wickett –

    A photoshopped image of a black dog wearing a Santa hat, touched up to look like a painting.

    On the trampoline, fall leaves in the background. Jaunty little MS Paint hat on.

    Dixie –

    A large golden dog with a happy expression and a Santa hat.

    Outside against winter grass.

    Mikey –

    A small tawny dog with a Santa hat on against a bright blue background.

    Just against a blue background.

  15. Haha! Cute! Here’s my little dude Oliver in his Christmas bowtie – no photoshop required, he’s a total clotheshorse. My roommate bought our dogs matching bowties this year.

    A cute white poople-like puppy wearing a black bowtie

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