What's on your mind?

[.Mikha'el.]

Gryffendor

For example, currently observing Shabbat (in my own personal way though).

May I ask what you mean by that?

 

[bèlla]

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[bèlla]

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[CodyFaith]

May I ask what you mean by that?

Sure, it means I'm resting without following the letter of the law so to speak. An observant Orthodox Jew as you know follows a list of 39 things they do not do on Shabbat. And while I believe those things to be good and true, I don't believe the nature of Shabbat is to simply legalistically avoid things. I believe the Law is good and does not burden, but instead relieves burdens. And so I do not follow a list. Instead, I rest, I rejoice. I eat the best food I have, wear good clothes. I read scripture, I take it easy on school work and focus on less intensive things. I avoid going to the gym, and instead do so earlier on Friday and later on Saturday. I put off major cleaning until it's over. I take a walk on Saturday, or go see a movie, or do other things that make me happy. I socialize, I laugh. I avoid debate or negativity. I avoid cooking unless necessary, avoid streinous things unless necessary. I do these things not because I have to, and not because I "want" to in the sense that I don't enjoy it that much but want to "please God"... no, I know the God of Israel is God and is my savior and set apart and blessed this day, so I just enjoy what he's given me... to me the Sabbath is just like taking a bite in your favorite fruit... eating that is not a chore, nor a burden, but something you genuinely look forward to and are happy experiencing.
And I believe this is what Jesus was trying to teach the people about the Sabbath, and about the Law itself, the entire time. If I had to worry about whether my tearing open a banana was a "no" on the Sabbath or not, and so had to make the conscious choice to avoid ripping open a banana on Shabbat even though I really wanted one, I would not truly be delighting in the Sabbath personally and just lying to myself.

But to each their own, if someone disagrees.

 

[.Mikha'el.]

Oh ok. Fair enough.

 

[bèlla]

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[kittysbecute]

I had a Harry Potter moment after reading Knight's post.

Okay everyone... let's have it. What house were you sorted in?

Gryffindor, but I wanted a second house too so I made a second pottermore account and got gryffindor again... so I deleted it and tried again and got Ravenclaw.

So I’m mostly Gryffindor and partly Ravenclaw.

 

[bèlla]

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[Citanul]

That's actually probably complete BS that you heard, Miss Multi (it was on TV, after all). I sincerely doubt there is any scientific basis for a correlation between marital status and length of life at all - each path certainly has its natural advantages and disadvantages; I would not worry about that for a second.

I think it's entirely possible that somebody did a study looking at the average lifespans of married people vs unmarried people (which they probably used instead of "celibate" as asking a question related to celibacy might be going a bit too far) and found that married people lived longer on average. But speaking as someone who analyses data for a living, you should never take something like that simply on face value.

In fact, there are a bunch of questions which immediately come to mind:

• What was the difference? If, for example, married people lived to 75 and unmarried to 74 that's unlikely to be statistically significant.
  
• Is the same for both genders? Even though it's a perhaps a bit of a stereotype, it's not reasonable to think that unmarried men might not eat as healthily and engage in riskier behaviour than married men. So that could be affecting the average.
• What was the age range of the sample? I think the average age of marriage is somewhere in the late 20s, so if they're including people who died in their 20s in the study then those people are more likely to have not been married, bringing down the unmarried average lifespan.
• And even if those things have been satisfactorily addressed, measuring lifespans doesn't explain why married people happen live longer on average. I already suggested why married men might live longer than unmarried men, so if unmarried people do the same sorts of things as married people then there's no reason for them not to enjoy a long life.

 

[Multifavs]

Snow!

 

[SarahsKnight]

Snow!

No snow .... Just freezing wind here and perpetually grey sky. Not the best of days for walking back and forth outside to get the laundry done.

But how strangely appropriate the climate might have been for a chance encounter with the cute neighbor living next to me if she had been out doing the laundry as well (it's easy to hear the coming and going of all of my neighbors on this floor - doors shutting are pretty loud in my ears, personally ). Could have been romantic, possibly? ^-^

 

[SarahsKnight]

That reminds me, @Multifavs, when I see the canine mascot Bromine hanging about on Albemarle grounds where I work, I will try to remember to grab a picture of her for you. She's pretty tame, and naturally I tend to see her a lot lying down near the outpost where you buy lunch during the day shifts ... hoping for a handout, I am sure.

That dog needs to start working for her food around here. My idea personally was solely for my benefit as the worker in the particular section of the lab that I take care of, of course; train Bromine to deliver the samples of finished product down the street to Security for me so my work doesn't get interrupted for ten minutes having to make the trip personally. Just put it in a basket around her neck and tell her where to go.

 

[Multifavs]

That reminds me, @Multifavs, when I see the canine mascot Bromine hanging about on Albemarle grounds where I work, I will try to remember to grab a picture of her for you.

Oh there's a canine mascot there? I'd love to see a picture of her. ^-^

She's pretty tame, and naturally I tend to see her a lot lying down near the outpost where you buy lunch during the day shifts ... hoping for a handout, I am sure.

That dog needs to start working for her food around here. My idea personally was solely for my benefit as the worker in the particular section of the lab that I take care of, of course; train Bromine to deliver the samples of finished product down the street to Security for me so my work doesn't get interrupted for ten minutes having to make the trip personally. Just put it in a basket around her neck and tell her where to go.

Hahaha.

 

[SarahsKnight]

Oh there's a canine mascot there? I'd love to see a picture of her. ^-^

Yeah, you probably don't remember since I first mentioned her (or maybe it was Miss Swords&Sunflowers who took note of that post back then and not you - miss that girl like crazy, by the way ) three months or so ago when I first saw Bromine wandering about and wondered aloud on here how it was that any animal perpetually hangs around on the premises and doesn't get immediately driven away by the constant smell of various chemicals in the air. And everyone in the lab told me that it was actually a dog who lives onsite and is kept fed by a few workers, and they named her Bromine, after the name of the element that is the primary ingredient of the products that we make (the person working in the room next to mine has to handle pure liquid bromine as part of her daily tasks, I believe - it's quite dangerous by itself and I am glad to have been put in the section of the lab that isn't concerned with it).

 

[SarahsKnight]

Oh there's a canine mascot there? I'd love to see a picture of her. ^-^

I know it is against company policy in most places to take pictures of anywhere on site so as to possibly reveal company secrets to prying eyes on the Internet, but ... pretty sure it'll be fine so long as it is just of the dog. I mean, what does she reveal? Nothing any outsider wouldn't already know about Albemarle, that bromine is the basis of what we make.

 

[SarahsKnight]

Also, just discovered this song, apparently made last year by Arianna Grande in response to some particular tragedies she had to deal with in 2018. This is one of those rare times you will see me be totally willing to give props to a pop music song when I know they are deserved.

I thought the constant use of the word "breathin' " during the chorus kind of takes away from it. repetitive lyrics are hardly ever a good thing, and certainly not imaginative, but, Arianna's amazing vocals and the melody itself more than carry that downside through. And it at least is meaningful.

 

[Multifavs]

Finally got around to writing a prologue for the Metroid series I completed! I'm typing it now and will make an epilogue before long also.

Remember the Bible verses about "building one another up"? Well, I can see these verses reflected in everyone here. We've all worked to build one another up.

 

[Rigatoni]

Got some great shots of the super, wolf, blood moon eclipse tonight:

 

[Multifavs]

I could do another pixel art stream or just make some pixel art/custom emoticons today, but I don't know if I'm in the mood. There's always another day if I'm not.

 

[SarahsKnight]

I just want to say, thinking about how I noted how much garbage there was strewn along the side of the highway on my way to work the other day ...

I HATE LITTERING.

It may seem like such a small infraction in comparison to other evils in the world, but, it's just so senseless. I mean, you'll contribute to the wreckage of our environment - no matter how minute in its potential consequences in the grand scheme of things - just so you don't have to go through the nonexistent inconvenience of having to go through the effort of waiting until you get home and carrying your trash in hand into the house and throwing it away in the proper waste container? How hard is it, people?

I saw ridiculous amounts of litter in many areas of Houston along the sides of the road that I frequented all the time, and I was kind of thinking I might get away from that spectacle by moving back to a smaller town, but no. At least in one area of Magnolia, here it is: a mile-long stretch of garbage uglying the greenery along the sides of the highway. Why? No reason. Just pure don't-give-a-crap-ery. Because it's just too hard for some folk to wait to throw out their trash until they get home.

You know what? Next day I have off, I'm going there and gathering it all up. I wouldn't exactly, seriously call myself a tree hugger, but someone has got to care enough to do it. It'll be a pain, I guess, but, whatever. This planet's already ugly enough as it is in too many places without this much littering.