CritterKeeper

Vegemite is one of those foods that I really must try some time, just because I've heard such strong opinions on it through the years, good and bad. Sure, those that find it disgusting have been more vocal and/or more numerous, but I'd still like to decide for myself!

Wish I could just jaunt over and check them over for you. There's so many different things that it could be, the only way you're likely to know (assuming no necropsy) is if some of the survivors start showing signs of sequellae to infection. For example, if, when they start walking, one or more of them is very wobbly with a tremor, cerebellar hypoplasia, then we'd strongly suspect momma-cat caught panleukopenia while pregnant. I'm sorry for your loss, and wish I could do something to help.

Glad to hear things have been going well today! May you have many more productive days and fun windings-down.

Bruce Springsteen singing "Fifty-Seven Channels and Nothing On"

I have the Africam live feed from the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Center running, showing a pair of baby rhinos orphaned by poachers, Little Gertjie and Matimba. Little G just shook his head, and I could *hear* the sound of his ears flapping! Live, from halfway around the world! The modern world is amazing and makes me happy!

Yeah, I know how to get the hover text, I just didn't realize there was any to be looking for.

There's hover text? I read on an iPad.

We just had a snowstorm! Okay, granted it was warm enough to not stick very well, but the snow was falling thickly enough to impair visibility and slow traffic during evening rush hour. And there is *some* snow on the grass and on cars. Computer says it's 30°F right now, betting that makes for some black ice after all the rain and melted snow.

I get the feeling she's developing a more ecological view of things, maybe even a connection to her bugs of the sort B has with her dogs. I'm only starting Tangle 6.1, though, so I could be mistaken. (Please don't spoil it either way.)

Saturday morning cartoons! (Are they still a thing?)

And yet, there's still so much of it out here....

Suicide doesn't require courage. Suicide means leaving everyone else to deal with the aftermath of your actions. It's chosen by people who just can't deal with their lives any more, whether due to pain, depression, fear, or grinding abuse. It's a way out, not a way to face and overcome. It's living that takes courage.

You are that "someone" for me, and my day off just got eaten by that series!

Ever get into one of those discussions about superpowers? "If you could either fly or turn invisible, which would you choose?" Most of the time, when invisibility is discussed, it doesn't take very long before the idea of sneaking into locker rooms or following women home comes up. For some men, spying on women for their own gratification is not exactly an abhorrant idea, and most men who would never do so themselves have been in enough discussions with men who would that it's easy for them imagine someone taking it out of the realm of fantasy and actually trying to spy on women in real life. Add in the cultural idea that having external genitals of the opposite sex in the same locker room will somehow overcome all self-control and cause men to commit rape or sexual assault (eg be seen as an excuse for it) and you have a lot of people who would reject the option of anyone pre-op being allowed to share facilities with those born into their gender.

I've seen a few people come in, not say anything after I greet them, and then leave again, but that's kind of par for the course for chat rooms. Make sure that you say hello to everyone when you enter the chat room. If you have the volume on, the chat room plays a doorbell sound when someone enters, and a different sound whenever a line is entered. Sometimes I'll be in the office after hours to finish charts and do research, so I'll go in the chat room and leave it open in another tab, waiting for someone to come in. If I happen to get up from my desk for a minute, I might miss a drive-by. If it's me being quiet, try checking back in a couple of minutes in case I was off getting a chart or in the bathroom or something. :-) I get the impression a lot of people only go into the chat room if they see someone else is already there, hence my going in and hanging out alone when I can. Several people have come in and chatted, hitting the five-person limit a few times (makes me wonder what happens when a sixth person tries to join), but it isn't a constant thing. Seems like someone has to be willing to be a little patient and be that first person present who gives the room the little red number to lure others in.

No Canon Cannon, so I'm betting it isn't. Still, Dan's been known to change his mind while a story is in process....

Do we know how much Nanase knows about what happened in the cave with Susan and Jerry? Like, how one of her close friends nearly went nuts, saved only by a Serenity spell? Or how strongly Jerry condemned the Immortals who recruited them?

Depends on your definition of "close". If we're assuming Moperville is about where Naperville is, you'd still have to go northwest around Lake Michigan and north through Wisconsin and Minnesota, or south around Lake Michigan, then east through Indiana and then north or east through Michigan. I suppose you could also go south then east through Indiana, then continue east through Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York to get to Niagara Falls. Either way, it's quite a trip! Edit to add: Checked the mapping sites, going east to Detroit and then south into Canada seems to be the shortest route, at around five and a half to six-and-change hours, which is less than I thought. The same site says it's about five hours from Amsterdam to Paris. If you don't take that shortcut, and go north the way most people think of going to Canada, it's more like nine to eleven hours, equivalent to going from the Netherlands to Italy.

50,000 burana-bots singing O Fortuna

Isn't that the same thinking Jerry got mad at Les Immortals about? There are grown-up already around who could be called in! Susan is only 18 and still in high school, too young to drink, too young to rent a car, and mostly untrained; she definitely shouldn't be the first choice to go after the monsters!

"I got squished!"

We've had that many people a few times. Sometimes some great conversations, although my sleep schedule may suffer from how late people stay up....

I wonder if Grace has ever tried Myst, or the Sims games? Or mystery games like the Nancy Drew series? And don't say there's no plot to the Sims, there are several ways to play with a goal in mind, newer versions include plenty of challenges, and there are separate games with even more plot, like Castaways.

Yup, seems like an awful lot of monsters in an awful short time. Moperville just got a lot scarier. Magus was the first to come to mind, or rather, his Puppetmaster Aberration ally.

You're picturing *much* bigger areas than I was! I figured the high-magic zone didn't extend beyond Moperville yet, maybe not even much more than the center of town, or at most it was only just starting to extend beyond the boundaries. If Moperville is similar enough to Naperville, then there are other suburbs surrounding it and the affected area will continue to include more and more people. If, on the other hand, Moperville is more like a downstate town, like Champaign, then it will expand to include the whole city but beyond that it will cover low-population areas.