Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

Misc. comments 66

2024-05-02T13:11:09Z

Misc. comments 66: ( terminology, the river Thames, recipes and ingredients, family trees, classifying fruit, covid precautions, learning math, subscription prices, reasons for blogging )
( covid vaccination and masking )

minoanmiss was talking about kids at the place she works trying to get out of math class. amaebi talked about her son's math classes, and I wrote:

Reading this comment, I think part of why I came out of high school still liking math may be the teachers, and another part may be the slightly odd curriculum they were using. It was the "experimental" math track per my high school, and "unified" according to the university that promoted it; we got a lot of the standard material, up to calculus, but also propositional logic (in eighth grade), Cartesian geometry (instead of Euclidean), and combinatorics. The school also had a "regular" math sequence, and students who found experimental too difficult (or, I would guess, whose parents thought it was too weird) could move into those classes, which also led to calculus).

In response to brithistorian wondering about weird magazine prescription costs:

My guess, beyond late stage capitalism being weird, is that they're somehow still selling advertising to companies based on the number of people who are reading, or at least getting, the print edition.

If so, it benefits them to be sending out more paper copies, even to people who read the digital version and will throw the paper magazines away without opening them. It sounds like the prices of daily newspapers increased when they were selling fewer ads. What I paid at the newsstand in the morning was about enough to cover the paper and printing costs, and the reporters' and editors' salaries, the fees for syndicated comics and columnists, and any profits all were paid for by advertising.

It's not quite "if you aren't the customer, you're the product," but it's a little bit in that direction. At one point, my daily English-language newspaper options in New York included several that cost about 50 cents, plus two free papers given out at subway and railroad station entrances, and the Wall Street Journal and Women's Wear Daily.

finch was talking about "why do I blog anyway?" and I said:

Part of why I post here is for my own later reference, which includes both things I hope will be interesting to others, and minutiae of stuff like starting on new meds. I made a bunch of posts early in the pandemic because I could feel time just slipping away, then.

My posts here are also about talking to people, which is sometimes conversation and sometimes "here is information I think you might find useful.".

There's a pinned post at the top of my Dreamwidth account page, which says this is [partly] an online substitute for a paper journal, and also invites new readers to introduce themselves.

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misc. comments 65

2022-11-09T22:06:54Z

More comments I've posted elsewhere and want to keep: ( queer, LGBTQ culture, generational changes, covid and the 'new normal', place names, daylight saving time )

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misc. comments 64

2021-08-10T20:08:43Z

More comments I've left on other people's posts: ( migration, genealogy, pandemic restrictions, physical therapy, subways )

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misc. comments 63

2020-07-16T12:47:00Z

Once again, these are comments on other people's posts, most but not all of them here on Dreamwidth:

( anthropomorphic silliness, non-gendered language, 'phase', worrying about COVID19, DW meta )

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Miscellaneous comments 62

2019-10-30T19:09:37Z

More comments I posted elsewhere in the last several months: ( relationships to books, bagels, gardening, minimum wage, intersectionality, what we overlook and why, ancestry and the complexities of immigration )

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Miscellaneous comments 61

2019-02-22T22:23:08Z

More comments from other journals etc.: ( meta, snow preparations, moving, stretching and exercise, pronouns not based on gender )

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Miscellaneous comments 60

2018-12-04T02:33:25Z

And now for something completely different: more comments reposted from elsewhere (including but not only other Dreamwidth journals)

( an interestingly phrased question, old technology I use , 'the twentieth century,' being out as queer and poly, non-gendered relationship term to include 'aunt' and 'uncle, white women and white privilege' )

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miscellanueous comments 59

2018-08-28T01:07:23Z

Here's another batch of comments I made on other journals etc.: ( 'five years ago,' some natter about how Cattitude and I cook, expectations about behavior and the ambiguity of 'should,' 'ultralight' packing, tea, artificial intelligence', feeding ducks and other birds )

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Misc comments 58

2018-02-21T13:32:12Z

More comments I'm reposting from elsewhere: ( not liking Christmas celebrations, what is nonfiction?, when I'll look things up for people, whether we actually change our conclusions based on new data, reading old sf, food preferences )

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misc. comments 57

2017-11-07T00:18:52Z

More comments I posted to other people's journals and blogs and wanted to save: ( 'but family', removing statues of abhorrent historical figures, whether to post about the news, body positivity, reactions to being shouted at, Spanish as I was taught it )

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misc. comments 56

2017-06-24T12:17:50Z

More comments reposted from elsewhere: ( 'ideal company,' choices of issues for activism, who to trust about health questions, representation in fiction, airplane windows )

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Misc. comments 55

2016-12-28T18:28:49Z

Misc. comments 55: ( how I use LJ/DW, convention panels, tattoos, gender, human uniqueness, intrusive questions, self-image, geology )

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Misc comments 54

2016-07-10T12:53:54Z

Misc comments 54 (from two years ago, but apparently never posted): ( memories, lists of books, new york city )

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Misc. comments 53

2013-11-13T19:33:18Z

More comments I've posted elsewhere: ( describing appearance, money as gift, unusual experiences, famous ancestors )

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Misc. comments 52

2012-09-21T22:46:20Z

More comments to other people: ( appetite after exercise, what 'preference' means, tracking exercise numbers, whether posting is an obligation )

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Misc. comments 51

2012-01-29T00:01:06Z

More comments from elsewhere: ( gender (twice), collecting rivers, 'guilty pleasure,' critics and book reviews )

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Misc. comments 50

2011-09-17T02:31:59Z

More saved comments: ( what books we like, Gethen, culling book collections, paying attention, shapes of online discussion )

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Misc. comments 49

2011-06-30T01:51:16Z

More saved comments, this time from Dreamwidth, LiveJournal, and Tor.com: ( disability, bodies, discrimination, politics, differences of opinion, ways of reading, energy )

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Misc comments 48

2010-09-10T17:06:31Z

Here's another collected comment post, written over a longer period than usual:

( skimming fiction, changing tastes, things that aren't moral issues, when to risk confrontation )

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Misc. comments 47

2010-06-06T02:42:21Z

More comments saved from other people's journals and blogs: ( reviewing books, different meanings of 'sanity', likes and dislikes, what 'sapiosexual' means, Goldberry and Tom Bombadil, 'safe space' )

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Misc. comments 46

2010-01-10T03:03:44Z

More saved comments: ( poetry and structure, comfort food, warnings for disturbing content, the distinctions languages make, reading and rereading, 'guilty' pleasures )

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Misc. comments 45

2009-08-17T23:11:32Z

More comments saved, this time from LJ and Making Light (crossposting to DW): ( appetite, home. shoes and gender, education, giving and accepting help )

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Misc. comments 44 (cross-posted from LJ)

2009-07-03T11:08:03Z

These include stuff from DW, and this will be cross-posted. ( resistance to change, obligations--and lack thereof, choice of terminology, gender, 'natural' )

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