Watched Divergent last night fully expecting to laugh and sneer in disdain the whole time. Once I let go of my criticism over the premise that human "factions" in this film were being treated as metaphorical subspecies, distinct and immutable, with Divergent individuals being a kind of homo superior, once I let that go, I actually enjoyed the film.
Maze Runner, Divergent, Hunger Games... So much ham-fisted emphasis on separatism. I know the function of art is to comment on culture, but I start to wonder at what point the art is no longer commenting on the things the zeitgeist is concerned with and instead starts to create the things the zeitgeist is concerned with. I got to the part where they first enter the lunar base and turned it off. I do not like this kind of buffoon comedy in the least.
Nor do I. I have a friend who is constantly dressing her yellow lab in outfits and taking doggie selfies to post on facebook. We live in Puerto Rico, isn't it bad enough he has a fur coat that he can't take off and now you want to put clothing on him?
Hey, @Steerpike , remember when I mentioned this? The case made Yahoo! News. Feels weird to see it on the net like that. http://news.yahoo.com/18-accused-billion-dollar-puerto-rico-drug-ring-173329162.html
Merry Christmas, Wayfarers! (Assuming it's still Christmas in your part of the world. ) If you don't really celebrate Christmas, or it's over, then good morning and have a wonderful day!
I hope everyone's enjoying the holidays! (provided you live in a part of the world where Christmas or a celebration akin to that is being celebrated) It's still hard to believe I have been able to do whatever I want for the past three days and that it's going to be like this until January 5th. The only downside is that it's so cold outside I don't really get to enjoy all that snowyness, but oh well, I'll be well acquainted with it in a week when I'm trying to bike to work. So I'll stay in, eat chocolate, write, watch movies, and play SNES games. 8)
Travel tips from my sister during a month-long business trip to Oxford: 1. Don't throw your clothes carefree into a designated laundry bag throughout the week- only bag the clothes that are particularly in need of washing, such as underwear, workout clothes, pajamas, etc. 2. Always pay a visit to the laundrette ahead of time. This will make your experience more bearable, especially when you've lugged two grocery bags full of clothes for several blocks. 3. Don't wait till late Sunday afternoon to do laundry, just in case issues arise which prevent you from doing it. 4. Don't be shocked when you learn that the cost is just over $6 to do one load. 5. Don't be surprised when you learn that the coin distribution has to be exact for each load:3 one-pound coins, 2 20-pence coins, and 1 50-pence coin (which are labeled on the machine as a "straight six"). 6. Don't be disheartened if you ask for a straight six at the nearby grocery store and are told that they're not allowed to give out change for the laundrette. 7. Don't be annoyed if the smallest detergent at the grocery store is a 630 ml jug of Colour Gel for $5. 8. Decide which articles of clothing really need to be washed at this point and get crackin' with the Colour Gel in the bathroom sink of your hotel room. 9. Be thankful that the towel rack is heated and that socks and underwear hang nicely on each rung for drying. 10. Be thankful that the closet is especially warm- this makes drying larger items more efficient. 11. Vow to further investigate the so-called "laundry service" that the hotel suggests. 12. When you feel like you're about to cry, just remember that these are "first world problems" and focus on all the great things about this trip. 13. Plus, your entire hotel room now smells like lavender. I should say that she loves England and wants to move there if a hinted-at job transfer is offered (though she was surprised by the high cost of living compared to the US). p.s. Can anyone explain the reason for the 'straight-six'? We get along great here with all quarters.
@stevesh I washed my clothes in the hotel room (good ole handwashing) 'cause I wanted to avoid the laundry hassle. The hotel (run of the mill Holiday Inn) offered the service, but since I don't travel with clothes made of the most impossible, demanding fabrics, I got by all right. The good thing about already living in a country with insanely high living costs is that it takes a lot for me to get shocked when I go to the UK.
This will be a problems for me if I were to ever leave Puerto Rico. Once you adjust to the idea of buying locally, the cost of living here is miniscule. Petrol is expensive and since its cost is directly tied to electricity production, electric is also expensive compared to the States, but other than that life here is super inexpensive.
Is it possible for a US ex-pat to make a living there, or is it pretty much 'bring your income with you'? What's your opinion on US statehood?
If buying locally you mean a product produced locally... Nope, even that costs more than imported stuff over here.
If by U.S. ex-pat you are also implying non-Spanish-speaking, the answer is yes, but you would be limited to the San Juan, Condado, Metro area. Outside of that space you will find the language and cultural divide daunting. I know lots of ex-pats through my job. They all live in Isla Verde, which is the ex-pat hub in San Juan. Statehood? I don't really have an opinion. Most PR's who want it are under the impression that statehood would bring a magical improvement in island economy and infrastructure, two things that are sorely needed. The reality is that suddenly being a state will bring neither benefit. I don't worry about PR's status with the U.S. I worry about our lack of infrastructure and overly impassioned, non-rational, way of addressing governmental issues. I worry that the insularity of PR would make statehood an emasculating blow to the local culture. I worry that there is an un-talk-about-able cultural drive to take handouts that will make statehood look more like a curse than a blessing were it to actually come. The largest employer in PR is the government. An island that's 35 miles X 100 miles is divided into 78 municipalities (counties), each with its government complex and retinue and entourage and bureaucracy. Puerto Rico currently costs the U.S. more to run than the entire state of California and we are about 1000 square miles SMALLER than the county of Los Angeles. I could go on and on about PR's problems. Statehood could be a resolution for many of these troubles, but the people here will see the remedy as a radical amputation. I worry most about what's going to happen here once Cuba opens and that tremendous opportunity really catches steam. ETA: I guess I do have an opinion after all.
Really? Wow. Maybe it's because I live in the country. I can walk from one end of my street to the other end and just from the local farmers and growers I can come home with nearly a complete trip's worth of groceries. Meat, veg, fruit eggs, the works. And I have my own stuff that I grow and share and trade from my land. Of course, you're limited to what's in season and who has recently slaughtered what.
There're probably a few reasons for the priceyness of local goods; you pay a lot for the land, equipment, workforce, even transportation from the country to the city, and the harvest isn't all that magnificent in size because summers are short and greenhouses aren't cheap either. My mom lives in the country (a small farm), though, so she can grow a lot herself. I do try to support local farmers as much as I can though. Their products are of higher quality, plus there's the ethical side of things as well.
*Playing Saints Row the Third* *Watching Netflix* *Doing Laundry* Oh no, I'm finding it very easy to sit down and write. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got...um...research to do that...ah...requires...um...a Wii U...
I'm very sedentary. Sitting down is something I do a great deal, and it's the second-easiest part of my day. (The easiest is lying down and going to sleep.) By habit, I pop up Scrivener whenever I sit down and whatever I'm currently working on is right there. I browse this forum and when I have no new alerts, I switch to Scrivener and bang out a few more paragraphs. I'm not doing that much today, because it's Sunday and football games are on.
I had reason to see this little clip from Buck Rogers the other day. I actually remember this episode from when it originally aired. Somehow it didn't make me cringe then the way it does now. If the disco boogey isn't bad enough, wait until 00:55 for attack of the giant copstache. http://www.boreme.com/posting.php?id=12947#.VJyVUKAEAA
