HALLELUJAH!

*Gospel Choir*
"What what don't copy that...don't copy that.."

Yay for Open Thread! Quick question, I noticed a few threads back that people use a site or extension or something to let them know when their comments on consumerist and other sites using the Gawker system get reply's. What is it and how do you use it lol, I looked back at my profile and noticed a lot of replies that wen't unanswered by me. :P

My favorite Swayze movie is ROAD HOUSE. Second favorite is Youngblood. [Bonus: In Youngblood, you can see a young Keanu Reeves try to pull off a french-canadian accent. Simply awesome.]

I'm a man, so my DNA doesn't allow me to mention that movie that is about filthy dancing. You know, the one that women like...

@rickhamilton620: There's a feature within Consumerist that can track that. Look in your "profile" section.

Wheeeeee open thread!!!

I'm stoked for the weekend. Also: I just saw the coolest presentation ever. About lasers and whales. But not in a bad way.

Sorry for the late Open Thread, folks. I've been sick the last few days and the dog had to come in and bark at me, saying, "Yo, Laura! Open Thread time! Woof!"

In related news, I am dog-sitting a very delightful but very needly canine who misses his parents and doesn't understand the concept of "working from home." He doesn't understand why I can't keep one hand scratching his ears at all times.

@katstermonster: Did they use the laser to cut up the whales into perfectly sized steak?

@Laura Northrup: *needy

@pecan 3.14159265: Eureka! I found it! It's apparently called Tawker!

weekend project #1: going to make "don't copy that floppy" into a ringtone.

OK, now for my question:
A few months ago, i had one of my headlight casings replaced due to a wreck. Now i have one clear and shiny headlight, and one gross, foggy one. I know that i can go buy a new headlight case ($250) but i'm not crazy about doing that - I got a quote from a local guy that specializes in auto body repair and paint, $40 to "resurface" 2 headlights. I know that the car originated up north, so some of the fogginess might be corrosion from salt... Is $40 for a pair a decent deal, or am i getting ripped off? (i'm going to try to get him to give me a discount, since i don't really want him screwing with the headlight that already looks fine)

@pecan 3.14159265: Are you sure? I don' think so.

It's been over a week since I've been auditioning here, and I'm about ready to conclude that I'm just not interesting or witty enough for consumerist.

*le sigh*

another illusion, shattered.

@MostlyHarmless: I swear there was one, cause I was tooling around in the profile section a few weeks ago and I remember considering doing something like that, and then realizing that I didn't want to get more e-mail.

@rickhamilton620: I use Bunedoggle:

[bunedoggle.com]

Just put in your nick and email address and it sends your the notices.

@katstermonster: Did the whales have lasers on their heads?

I'd been having a great week, we get to leave work early today and I'll have a new roomba waiting at home for me. weeee.

But then 2 hours ago I got a call from my mom. The short version is one of my sisters had the piss beat out of her and her entire apartment trashed by her (now ex-) leechy ass of a boyfriend. She's safe staying with my mom and doing OK now, but I'm livid, and I'm too far away to do much to help her. No one deserves abuse like that (or abuse at all).

@MostlyHarmless: I see, hopefully they will be able to integrate this functionality when they move off of Gawker's commenting platform later on.-It's one of the few things Weblogs Inc's system actually gets right. :p

@Laura Northrup: Ah, it's okay. Btw...needly canine.

@gStein: I don't know much about cars, only common sense. Can you take the foggy one off and try cleaning it?

@Laura Northrup: Aww poor you.. Get well soon :)

And as for the dog.. I had a dog AND a cat I was petsitting for a few months, and they seriously had issues with personal space. Needless to say my "me times" were very very awkward.

That apart, I also got a mild vaccine dose on how it feels to be a single parent, when both of them started wheezing and coughing late in the night.

(Nothing serious, the cat had swallowed its own tail, and the dog had over eaten.)

@MostlyHarmless: How do you go about mistaking one's own tail for food and nomming on it?

@Ratty: Yow. That really does suck, but good for her for getting out ASAP.

Weekend Project: Working on that elusive Consumerist Bingo Online app. Not being a web programmer means I have to learn all the pesky stuff from PHP to jQuery to CSS. But it's cool. It is a great learning experience. I'll hopefully get a basic version going soon, so I can invite some of you for a closed beta first.

(Feel free to offer help ;) )

@pecan 3.14159265: i tried using a plastic polish, but the lens feels physically pitted - i'm considering just going over to the guy's place and having him look at it to tell me if he could even fix it. worst case scenario is he can't help, and i continue driving the car as-is (it's purely a cosmetic thing, and worth $40 for me)

@pecan 3.14159265: It didnt exactly do THAT. It just swallowed a hairball. And it had a nice furry tail, so thats what I used to call it.

@rickhamilton620: if you tend to change your username around bunedoggle won't work for you. i found that out the hard way

@Yoko Broke Up The Beatles: my favorite Swayze moment has to be the Chippendale's sketch from SNL.

@Ratty: Holy hell.
I'm at least a half a day's flying time from any of my family and hate that I can't be there sometimes. It truly does suck.

I hope your sister continues to do well.. and I hope nothing but the worst, sharp, pointy, painful things for the ex.

@pecan 3.14159265: my current foster kitten suddenly discovered last night that for all these weeks a scary furry black snakelike thing has been following him and he had to catch it and kill it. that didn't work out too well. there was nomming and then a lot of confusion. fortunately that tired him out for the night

Please, for the sake of what's left of my sanity, tell me that someone else looked at that picture above, and heard Burgess Meredith's voice saying:

And the best thing, the very best thing of all, is there's time now... there's all the time I need and all the time I want. Time, time, time. There's time enough at last.

@floraposte: Thanks, yeah, she lives close to my mom... I am glad she left.

@veg-o-matic: I'm in another country or I'd be with her right now making damn sure the police were hauling him away.

@gStein: Places like Harbor Freight sell polishing kits, but I'm guessing if you factor int he materials, equipment needed, time it would take and what would happen if you mess up, $40 is a good price.

[www.harborfreight.com]

@catastrophegirl: Heh heh heh. Though you can always update bunedoggle when you change it.

@pecan 3.14159265: I'm guessing it was a long hair. Sometimes the last two inches of tail is nothing but fur and under fur.

@Laura Northrup: Remember, in a dogs mind, everything is "forever". You pet them, they think it will go on forever, and think you will never pet them again once you stop.

@MostlyHarmless: Nope. That would be horrible.

@pecan 3.14159265: Nope. That would be awesome.

Short, simple explanation: they're studying why humpback whales are great swimmers, specifically why they have bumps on the leading edges of their flippers, which are hypothesized to give them greater control and the ability to turn quickly. The experiment involves making fake fins and running a sugar water solution over them. Only this sugar water solution is special and it fluoresces when exposed to UV laser, so you can study some cool stuff about the boundary layer close to the fin, which they haven't been able to do previously.

SO. AWESOME. If I hadn't put so much time into my project already and my advisor didn't buy us beer all the time, I'd be tempted to detect to Clarkson right now.

@Laura Northrup: Speaking of which, how acceptable is link spamming? (I bet not very).

Theres something I'd like a few people on here to see, but dont want to do a "ZOMG Check this out!! Make M0N3Y from home! The Secret!!! C1@lis! (not iPod)." either.

@catastrophegirl: @MostlyHarmless: LOL! I'm not hip enough to change my username much. Heck, I just added an avatar days ago and i've been registered since 07 *embarrassed* :p

i am being very very glad that the random driver's license checkpoint cop was in a good mood today. i don't usually even take that route, just bad luck stopping at the gas station.
my vehicle inspection is expired because i need a new sensor that's going to be between $200-$500 and my car won't pass inspection without it.
they had a whole line of cars and people waiting for taxis or rides because of expired licenses so i guess he was in a good mood due to meeting quota

@gStein: Amazon will sell you a headlight polishing kit for $14.56, but you need a drill (just for spinning, not for making holes) and time to do it. $40 seems pretty reasonable.

@MostlyHarmless: i have enough trouble finding the time to just read the articles lately. swamped at work, and at home i HAVE to play with the poor little foster kitten.

In the process of moving, I found some unopened deodorant from what appears to be 2005. Googling seems to indicate that it does expire, but that there would be a printed expiration date somewhere on it. I don't see one. What googling does not tell me is how far out these expiration dates tend to be. I'd hate to toss it out if it's still good, so is 4 year old right guard going to work?

@katstermonster: Defect*

My prof never bought me beer. I might sue him for that.

@MostlyHarmless: I know nothing about any of those things. But enjoy! :) I'll be studying for qualifying examinations and dreaming about that far-off thing called graduation. And also drinking a lot.

@MostlyHarmless: Whoooops, clearly my typing is not up to par today.

We buy him a lot of beer, too, so I guess we're even. It's not such a bad deal, though.

@Mecha-Shiva: Use it. If it stinks, toss it. If it does not stop you from stinking, take a bath and then toss it.

@Laura Northrup: My roommate has a dog that is okay but not really my type (too small, too fluffy), but she's dog-sitting the neighbor's Shih Tzu this week. And I want to kill the stupid thing (but won't, I promise). The stupid thing is yappy and obnoxious and fat and spends all her time trying to play-fight with my roommates not-very-cooperative dog. I'm going to scream, I swear. It's up in the kitchen yapping like crazy right now. Long story short: I hope the dog you're sitting is nothing like this one.

@katstermonster: (btw if you notice some random person following you on twitter recently that would be me)

@Ratty: Wow, I'm so sorry. I've had a few friends date crazy and verbally abusive guys, but thankfully none of them progressed to physical abuse (that I know of). I hope she presses charges and the asshole gets everything he deserves...and then some. If he's anywhere near CT, I'll go beat the living piss out of him myself

The other day I had a sloppy joe for dinner.
I feel so terrible about it.

1) That meal was literally ground beef and bread. That's not healthy at ALL.
2) I can't even begin to fathom how much HFCS I consumed in one meal.

But good gods, it was soooooooo good.