noma
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Let's see. I have friends coming to stay for a few days, so I tidied up and did some laundry. I have great plans to show them the big city : cool neighbourhoods, the theatre, the beaches, sushi. I needed to pick up an air mattress for my girlfriend's daughter to sleep on, so I went out to the store.

While pushing my cart through the aisles, my phone rang. It was my sister. She paused before she spoke, and my heart stopped. Before she could even say hello, I asked "What's wrong?" I was right; it was bad news. My mom had had a heart attack. Two, in fact. And at that point, no one could give us a prognosis. (Let me interupt myself to say this has a happy ending, considering how bad it could have been.)

After having a bit of a breakdown in front of about a dozen Walmart shoppers, I made it back to my car and back to my house in one piece. Unfortunately, my husband is out of town and unreachable. At the moment, he's somewhere in the slums of India and not due back until April 3rd. So when I walked in the door, I was a cliche ; I'd start doing one thing and then start something else, unable to make a decision. While staring at my half empty overnight bag, it finally occurred to me to call someone. It is amazing how clarity can suddenly strike : things you think are important become trivial. It is also amazing what friends are capable of. In less than an hour I was in my car and on my way to the hospital. My mother lives 3 hours away. I have two dogs, two cats, two friends on their way to town and a business to run, so this was pretty incredible.

While on the road, the phone rang again. A different sister this time. (I have three.) Mom is going to be fine, she told me. She never lost consciousness; she never arrested. These are all good things apparently. The doctors had identified a clot but assured her that there was no immediate danger. Mom was resting comfortably and was not going to die on us. At this point, my sister didn't think it would be a good idea for all of us to descend upon our mother like a plague of mourners. It would probably upset Mom more than it would help her; if we all walked in, she'd be certain she was dying. After some discussion, I reluctantly agreed. I know my mother pretty well and I know my sister was right. But. Well. It's my mother. However. My sister is right. So we agreed that only two of us would be there at a time. One to keep an eye on Mom and one to look after my mother's dogs. Knowing my mom, she's probably more worried about how her dogs are feeling than her daughters. (I'm kidding. I think.)

I turned around, with the agreement that she would give me hourly updates, send my mother my love and let her know I'd be there in a few days. With my mother this would probably reassure her more than my actually being there. She'll know she's going to be all right if I'm not rushing up right away. But still, it doesn't sit right. I shall deal with that. So, a few more phone calls to get everyone who stepped up to stand down and I was back at home.

Many friends offered to come over and keep me company but I didn't want to put anyone out. (As my best friend would say, I'm so WASP, which is funny since that's pretty much the only thing I'm not.) So now at the end of my day, I sat on my couch, trusting, hoping, knowing that my mom is probably going to be fine, but still worried and feeling like a wrung out dish towel, and wishing I had taken someone up on the offer of company. (I may yet.) So I thought, well, why not? While we can't say any of us are really friends, you all know me in a way, and it is a place I can talk about my day. And honestly, writing it all out here has been very cathartic. So thanks.

I hope I haven't killed the thread. It's a great one for more than one reason.

So my day pretty much sucked, though it could have been much much worse. And the phone just rang. (Really.) One of my girlfriends knew I was just being polite and is on her way over, regardless of what I said. I love my friends.

So what did you do today?

NiroZ
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Woke up at 8, got up at 9 (I do love Tuesdays, even though they're not as good as Wednesdays), sort studied and messed about until 12, then learnt what a independent variable, dependent variable and other fascinating statistical things were.

Then I went to my developmental psychology tut and discussed spanking. (oh, isn't uni kinky?) Turns out the jury is still out on whether spanking is ok. Provided that it is controlled and disciplined, and doesn't become a battle of control or a way of expressing your frustration/stress there's not much anybody can say against it. Although time out is supposed to be better, but I haven't seen the stats for it.

Now I've got 150 pages of a textbook to read, and then study 250 pages for a quiz on thursday. Can't wait.

Mouse
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Well, it turns out I was fairly right about my new game (Hellgate: London) - it's quite addictive. It's a kind-of cross between a FPS and an RPG so you get to blow crap up in an very satisfying manner.

I'm making an effort not to get too addicted to it and taking the DVD out after each play session so that I actually have to actively do something before starting to play.

On a totally different note - today I had to take my cat to the vet for on of her vaccinations and a check up. Turns out she's gained weight and now has to lose it again. The vet has recommended a good weight-loss type cat food, unfortunately you can't just buy it from a supermarket so it's about twice the price I normally pay for cat food. Oh well, I'd rather pay more for cat food now, than have to deal with feline diabetes.

I have also been reminded all over again just how much she hates her cat crate. She will protest vocally about being put in it, and try to figure out how to get out of it. Then when you're not very far away from home, she'll poo. And it stinks. She always manages to save up enough cat poo for trips in the crate. It does mean that the vet never has to get me to manually take a fecal sample though - they just take it out of the crate when I get there.

That's pretty much all I did today, What did you do today?

TripleM
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NiroZ wrote:
Turns out the jury is still out on whether spanking is ok. Provided that it is controlled and disciplined, and doesn't become a battle of control or a way of expressing your frustration/stress there's not much anybody can say against it.

.. unless you live in New Zealand, where it was controversially banned not too long ago.

NiroZ
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Yeah, there's about 10 or so countries that have banned it. I don't think its a particularly bad thing provided the parents are instructed with other correctional techniques. It certainly makes it easier to identify abuse, although there hasn't been much proof as to it reducing abuse.

Blondbeard
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I'm very pleased to live in a country were it's banned. To me it represents a "teach by humiliation", and I don't like it one bit.

NiroZ
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Blondbeard wrote:
I'm very pleased to live in a country were it's banned. To me it represents a "teach by humiliation", and I don't like it one bit.

I can understand many objections to spanking, such as being hypocritical to the teaching of non violence. But humiliating? Most punishment is humiliating full stop. And the studies have clearly shown that punishment is far better for children than laissez fair parenting, which is so bad that it can actually be considered child abuse through neglect.
Oh, you mean public spanking. Yeah, that really isn't recommended.

Blondbeard
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I do not necesarrily mean public spanking. I would certanly find it humiliating if someone with absolute power over me decided that I neaded a beating. I just remembered how my aunt once told about how humiliating it had been the only time she had been beaten. It didn't hurt, but it was humiliating.

agaricus5
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I thought today would be quiet for me; it's the end of term, I've got no major responsibilities and I'm merely waiting to move out of my room and go home.

[soapbox] It turns out, though, that I would make an exciting discovery (at least for me): I am now a published author in two scientific journals! Whoo! [/soapbox]

I'm so excited, I have to admit I can't concentrate on anything properly.

What did you do today?

____________________________
Resident Medic/Mycologist

12th Archivist
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agaricus5 wrote:
I'm so excited, I have to admit I can't concentrate on anything properly.

non self induced ADD
who knew

____________________________
It was going well until it exploded.
~Scott Manley

Check out the DROD Wikia project here!

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[Last edited by 12th Archivist at 03-18-2009 11:10 PM]

agaricus5
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12th Archivist wrote:

agaricus5 wrote:
I'm so excited, I have to admit I can't concentrate on anything properly.

non self induced ADD
who knew

I am going to take this post in the spirit of the Survivor game, but just for the record, I would like to point out that the hyphen should most accurately be between "non" and "self".

I don't usually have a problem with focusing my attention on something (otherwise the writing of said papers would have been impossible); the excitement I described stemmed from my discovery being somewhat unexpected.

____________________________
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12th Archivist
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You're right, there should be a hyphen between "non" and "self". However, I believe that a hyphen is considered punctuation, and in this post, I decided not to use any punctuation at all for my three posts.

I probably should have mentioned that I didn't believe that your excitement explosion was permanent. I am glad you managed to get author status for those journals. I can understand that you'd be excited about that.

Since I found absolutely nothing wrong with Agaricus5's post, I decided to mod it back up. Who modded him down and for what reason?

____________________________
It was going well until it exploded.
~Scott Manley

Check out the DROD Wikia project here!

Dischorran
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Wasn't me.

Congrats on the publications! I'm still waiting on my own first author manuscript, currently under peer review at [journal classified].

____________________________

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[Last edited by Dischorran at 03-21-2009 02:56 AM : Desurvivorification]

12th Archivist
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thn mayb i should pay mor attntion to what th board has to say about stuff bcaus othrwis th gam mightv bn lost but bcuas i say this thing stupidly i just wish i had a banananana

____________________________
It was going well until it exploded.
~Scott Manley

Check out the DROD Wikia project here!

CuriousShyRabbit
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So, this morning I woke up early and I couldn't figure out why. Waking up at 8 after going to bed at 5 wasn't quite enough sleep to refresh analytical reasoning abilities. I vaguely remember thinking something about unusual noises. After unsuccessful attempts to go back to sleep, I got up and went outside. My neighbor, a photographer, was in front of my house, snapping away. "Shhhhh...," she said, "There's four turkeys on your roof." I turned around, looked up, and sure enough, there were four turkeys on the roof.

Then I gave up and went to work, and did normal work stuff. Answered students' questions in office hours, gave two lectures, supervised a lab experiment, handed back exams, talked to students who might have to repeat the class, talked to another instructor about what to do this evening in a class we're team teaching, graded another stack of exams... and I think I've done enough for today now.

noma
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Today passed in the same way as yesterday: cooking for my mother and keeping her spirits up. It's great to have her right here where I can look after her.

On Wednesday she was ambulanced from the hospital she was at up north, to a hospital here in the city to have an angiogram. While they were doing that procedure, the doctor inserted stents into two arteries that were 90% blocked. We were told that she would be released at 6:30 the next morning. Well, hospitals may rush you out the door, but at least here in Canada it doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

I know it seems counter-intuitive, but my mother is in better health now -- after a heart attack -- than she was before. Or at least she will be once she is recovered. And she's doing great. So today has been a good day.

What did you do today?

UrAvgAzn
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I like this thread idea.

I'm going to share some of my events from the past week though, as to explain why I haven't posted in a few days.

- So I've been buried in schoolwork recently. We've just approached the tangent, sine, and cosine ratios in geometry. It's not too hard of a section, as opposed to the geometric mean chapter which took a bit more effort to comprehend (came close to failing the chapter test on that). A western civilization chapter test on the Enlightenment and American Revolution is coming up soon. Study, study, study. Also aced a biology vocab quiz today.
- We've started reading poetry in english, I have to write six poems for a project due next month. I'll share those here when they're finished.
- Sprained my ankle at taekwondo yesterday.. I would have considered it fun, getting to use the school elevator and get out of classes five minutes earlier. But since I have the 2009 MA State Championships in taekwondo coming up, it's a whole different story. I'm taking every extra procedure suggested to ensure the quick recovery of my ankle. Fifteen days left to heal!
- Picked up the guitar last week. Learning basic major and minor chords (I've been working on my voice as well, Elfstone!), and its going well so far. The concept of the Barre chords still elude me though, I never get the sound of the strings to resonate.
- Began taking flute lessons after my band teacher said I should exercise my talent for the instrument. Those are going well so far, my sound is improving greatly. While I'm on the topic of band, we're taking a three-day trip to Philadelphia at the beginning of May. It should be fun, we're stopping at Six Flags and the aquarium! Too bad I'm not a big fan of rollercoasters.
- My piano skills have been slacking. After I had to quit lessons two years ago, I wouldn't want to lose the six straight years of dedicated practice before that. I'm starting to get those back into shape.
- Woke up at 2 in the morning today.. I have no idea why. Was kinda hungry, so I tried to cook breakfast half-asleep, and that did NOT go well. Always make sure you're fully awake while attempting to cook. Of course, it could've been my skills (or lack thereof) as a cook that may have contributed to my fail as well.
- I'm learning French!

What did you do today?

____________________________
"The leaf, still green, must someday fall.
Such grief, such joy, to live at all."
- T.A. Barron, The Lost Years of Merlin

Someone Else
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I just got back from playing ping-pong paintball with my youth group, a game where you take 2 liter pop bottles and attach a PVC tube to the end. Then you put ping pong balls in and whack the bottle to make them shoot out. I got at least 5 welts on my right arm, and a dozen more on the rest of my body. Needless to say, it was about the best youth event I've been to in a while.

What did you do today?

Syntax
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Today, I escaped the city.

The parapet, the thought of dawn, breaks
My eyes awake, the sullen wall.
The train pulls in, a bustle there, a hurried suit
"Too late sir", the train departs

Another time for me perhaps

Today, of all, decision made, crystal
Clear the busy tracks...
As glass reflects, neon light, office space
An empty break... Returning train

Not I, today, another day, the day I chose my day alone

Of grass, the trees, the foreign air
Breeze of childhood dreams
Clear, warm rain, and all I cared
Today I escaped, the sun - no empty glare

Today, I escaped the city

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[Last edited by Syntax at 05-09-2009 10:57 PM]

Mouse
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Syntax, I just have to say wow - that is an amazing poem.

Also reading back through this thread - can someone please tell what a WASP is?

That's what I did today - was amazed by a poem, wondered what a WASP was, played some DROD, and played with LEGO.

Busy day! What did you do?

slimm tom
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I played in a volleyball tournament. We got to the finals, but sadly we lost the last game.

Then I got home, played some DROD, and now I'm going to do some other important stuff.

What did you do?

noma
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Mouse wrote:
Also reading back through this thread - can someone please tell what a WASP is?

WASP - often stereotyped as keeping a tight lid on their emotions.

Syntax
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Mouse wrote:
Syntax, I just have to say wow - that is an amazing poem.

Thankyou... I'm very glad you enjoyed it.

TripleM
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(I'm cheating a little here, since this is about Sunday rather than today, but I never had a chance to post it then.)

11:30pm (the night before): Go to bed, and set my alarm for 4:42am as I'm participating in an online programming contest.

12:30am: Wake up, and see my clock says it's only 12:30. Gr, why is it that every time I'm waking up early I can't sleep properly because I'm expecting to wake up?

4:42am: Alarm goes off. I get my computer and turn it on, ready to compete. WHAT? My computer says its 1:30am. I go out to the kitchen to check another clock. It's 1:30am. I'm half asleep, and wondering how on earth my clock changed when it was fine at 11:30 and fine at 12:30. I reset my clock to the real time, reset my alarm, and try to get back to sleep. Twice I get up just because I'm worried I've set my clock wrong and I'll miss the contest.

4:42am: Alarm goes off. This time it's for real. Contest starts at 5. I feel like I'm doing quite well, and then discover that one tiny little bug has caused me to go from 12th to 140 somethingth, and only the top 120 get through to the next round. GAH.

6:40am: Turn off my computer, and try to get a couple more hours sleep. No can do, my head is still buzzing and I'm annoyed about my mistake.

8:30am: Give up with trying to sleep, and get up. Have breakfast, feel annoyed at making a mistake. Go to church.

2pm: Head out to a preseason soccer practice for my team that I play in/manage. Only 6 people turn up which is annoying, but we have fun.

5pm: Watch our rugby league team have an awesome come from behind win.

9:30pm: Give up trying to stay awake and go to bed, rather early for someone who normally goes to bed around midnight.

Seriously, I still have no idea how my clock changed. And I didn't dream it.

What did you do today?

NiroZ
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Had a Q&A session with some people from the church of latter day saints, AKA mormons. I have a lot of respect for the missionary standing up the front being grilled by a bunch of atheists, even if he avoided the more difficult questions, including the dilemma that left him with the choice of saying that mental illness is false or god doesn't give everybody what they can handle, thus isn't a fair god.

Then went to the pub, then watched monty python the holy grail. It gains a whole new significance when everbody knows the words off by heart, plus there was a socialist in the room cheering on the peasant. Good times. Then I slept, woke up just before my lecture by pure luck in that someone decided to call me just before it was on. Listened to the introduction on statistical distribution.

Then I checked my emails, found that the owner of the blog I had whinged about had responded, and that I was indeed jumping to conclusions. Then I came here.

zex20913
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That guy sounds like a hyphen addict. Or is it a hyphanatic?



____________________________

Kwakstur
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I tried thinking about what agaricus5 said, and "self induced" is not necessarily a compound adjective.

If you say that "something was self induced", "self" is an adverb. It is very similar to the word "not," another adverb that precedes the adjective/verb it modifies. Because it's an adverb, "non" can't even apply to it. You would have to say "something is not self induced."

BUT, if you say "a self-induced thing" (which is what 12th Archivist said), it does take a hyphen, because I believe that is a compound adjective. And the logical inverse is "a non-self-induced thing", as Nuntar said.

____________________________
Also known as ExpHP everywhere else.

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[Last edited by Kwakstur at 03-26-2009 10:54 PM]

Lamkin
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Kwakstur wrote:
You would have to say "something is not self induced."

I (politely) disagree and would jam that hyphen back in there. Judges?

noma
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(Crap. I hit "edit" instead of "post reply" and accidently removed my original post. An attempt to re-create and shorten it follows.)

There is a rule and here it is: all adjective or noun compounds beginning with "self", except selfish and selfless, require a hyphen. To be clear: the "self" in the phrase "something is self-induced" is part of the phrase modifying "something", not "was", and therefore is not an adverb, but part of a phrasal adjective.

So that covers adjective and noun compounds containing the word "self", but what about verb compounds? Generally, verb compounds don't require a hyphen. Nevertheless, self-verb compounds make for awkward and sometimes ridiculous sentence construction. Consider the sentence, "He self educated himself." Well, who else would he be self-educating? And no-one, except perhaps an ex-President who shall remain nameless, would say, "He self inflicted a wound in his foot," instead of, "He shot himself in the foot." I suppose one could say, "He self inflicted the wound," or "He self manages his funds," but these still sound clumsy to me, and, since other compounds using "self" are hyphenated, I would still use a hyphen with the verb compound.

Today I replied to a post about grammar. What did you do today?

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[Last edited by noma at 03-27-2009 03:16 AM]

Kwakstur
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Figured I'd ask google, and at least one of the top three results agrees with me. I'm not sure if the author has the same reasoning I did, but he does list "-induced" as a special case.

Modifiers. Some prefixes (e.g., "high-", "low-," "single," or "double-") and suffixes (e.g., "-dependent," "-independent," "-enriched" "-induced," or "-treated") receive hyphens only when they are used with a second adjective that modifies a noun. However, if this is not the case, then there is a space between the words. For example:

We performed a double-blind test; the test we used was double blind.

The test results were concentration dependent; the concentration-dependent results were recorded.

However, I also looked in my Fourth Edition Webster's New World College Dictionary and found "self-induced" listed along with several dozen more similar "self" compound terms, every single one of which is hyphenated.

It's tough to argue with Webster, but then again, "self induced" as two separate, unhyphenated words wouldn't be listed in the first place, would it?



____________________________
Also known as ExpHP everywhere else.

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[Last edited by Kwakstur at 03-27-2009 02:38 AM]