Phaedrus

Kinda, sorta.... but I don't actually keep track of it all that much. Although I think I've always been quite bad at the whole rep points/noms/thanks thing. One thing I have found that stops me using it: if you thank/nominate posts you're dishing out rep points, and if you do this too much then you hit the limit on how many times you can give out rep points in a time period, which prevents commenting on posts. And I like commenting on posts, which means that quite often I'll intend to go back and thank people later, and forget... I think that before it existed, people were using the Nominate button to fulfill the same function that the Thanks button now does better. I think that really good posts will still get a lot of nominations, but there will be far fewer with just one or two because they'll tend to get thanked instead.

Today I learned that I've absolutely had it with winter. Seriously, snow. Just fuck off now, please?

And what do we do on Saturday night? Elton John - Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting)

Yes, absolutely. It's got nothing to to with the point of the story. I suppose her rates may well be in the public domain, but I have to wonder why she decided to share her monthly budget with a journalist. Obviously it's her life and she can do what she likes with it, but... it seems odd.

Gaaaah! Enough with damn Mondays! It's nearly... The Rolling Stones - Ruby Tuesday

Thanks, all! And congratulations to my friends NJ and Gabriella!

You may have missed the bacon vodka, but you can still get bacon beer. From an Ottawa brewer, no less! Look for Aporkalypse Now. It's actually much nicer than you'd expect.

Apples originally came from Kazakhstan (around Almaty, for those who care). You will now think of Borat every time you see one. No, thank me later...

You can take Monday and... The Boomtown Rats - Tell me Why I Don't Like Mondays

So what did they do with you? Did you survive? Hope you had an awesome birthday, anyway!

Must admit, I don't tend to go back to places. The lure of the unexplored always beats the familiar... Having said that... I really loved Vietnam. Beautiful country, fascinating history, friendly people.

To be honest... whatever day you pick will be good for some people and not for others. And the same goes for days vs evenings. I'd be inclined to just pick what's best for you. Better yet might be to vary the days and times you're available on our side of the river, although not having a regular schedule may also have its downsides. You can't win :) And having said all that, your side of the river really isn't all that far, and it'd totally be worth the trip...

The whole Oscar Pistorius thing. It's tragic, but really... what on earth is going on there? And then the lead detective gets hauled off the case because he's up for attempted murder himself... really, you couldn't make it up...

Just clicking through that... the one thing that really gets me is how damn happy they all look. It's really nice to see pics of normal looking people who seem to be having a good time, rather than the usual airbrushed pouty-looking trying-to-be-seductive thing that you see so much of...

Any questions? No? Good. Carry on!

I have to say, I have problems with the whole concept of this thread, as it implies that there might be less annoying pop-ups. I'm pretty sure those don't exist :) But I haven't seen one for a long time. +8 (or whatever we're at now) on pop-up blockers. And I'll have to think of a suitable salutation for you smug Mac people... :)

Too much sashimi. Je ne regrette rien.... yet.

I learned that wheat-beer made with grapefruit juice is... way nicer than it has any right to be!

Some discussion of email issues in this thread, too, if you haven't already seen it. I've been trying out Google Apps for business since then (h/t Backrubman)... and yes, it's very good. Whatever else you may say about them, Google really understand the importance of making the user interface simple, and how to do it. I have a domain hosted elsewhere, but having my email run through Google will cost somewhat less than $5/month when I start paying. And the bonus of actually paying for the service is that you don't get ads, and - I think - Google doesn't mine your email for data about you (we just have to trust them on that, I guess...). That's the one thing that has always made me nervous about Google... they probably know far too much about me.

Well, you're not absolutely required to. You can sit in a cell for as long as you like :) But yes, your broader point is correct: customs/immigration agents generally have MUCH greater powers to search and detain on their own authority (ie without judicial oversight) than the police. The problem is that when you cross a border, there's a point where you've left one country but you haven't yet been admitted to another, and at that point there's not much law at all...

I suspect this may not be the case. Sure, those of us who are here regularly and read the board will know... but there's a lot of people who aren't, or don't. Case in point: how often do we see threads started by a SP who's just had one guy too many who not only hasn't read the "new to this" threads, but is clearly also lacking in either common sense or common courtesy (or both)? It strikes me that a lot of people don't have the patience to do the legwork before they jump in. And even B&S providers who are widely known as such seem to get enough business to survive, at least for a while.