Still alive. Just a busy day.
I have been using the same Oral-B toothbrushes for the past two weeks. I like to replace my toothbrushes frequently, and when I do, I just buy a three pack or whatever is on sale, open them all at once, and then throw them all out at the same time and open 2-3 new ones a month later. It’s probably wasteful that way, but something about a clean new toothbrush just makes me happy.
At any rate, I’ve been using the same pack of toothbrushes for two weeks, and just thirty seconds ago I discovered that they are the battery powered kind that vibrate when you turn them on. I discovered this while I was brushing my teeth, mind you, and I must have just adjusted my grip differently and turned the damned thing on. At any rate, it FREAKED ME THE FUCK OUT and I simultaneously screamed jumped spit the thing out and got toothpaste foam everywhere.
No injuries, so that was a plus.
raven
You somehow missed an entire thread devoted to stupid injuries last night. You would have smoked it.
scav
What a cheapskate am I: I somehow expect I’d notice the probable price difference between a manual and a battery-powered toothbrush. The thrills I have missed out on.
khead
Just got booted from Grumbines Political Moshpit on FB because I took on the proprietor over a Chelsea Clinton post. The guy was suggesting that Chelsea was afflicted by affluenza. Fuck that dude.
PhoenixRising
No injuries? I’m…disappointed. That was a target rich environment.
Rand Careaga
I am reminded of an old joke about a man returning a chainsaw to the hardware store, complaining about its poor performance (“Jesus! What’s that noise?”).
Corner Stone
What? No, seriously. What?
Felonius Monk
Probably not a bad idea to read the label. Fortunately, it was a toothbrush and not a Slim Jim or a salted dick.
gene108
Posted this in the thread below, but it is more appropriate here:
Watching Tron and it is quite amazing how incredibly advanced people felt computers were in the early 1980’s.
With War Games and even Superman III the idea we had the computing power to create AI’s capable of running the world might have been Sci-Fi, but it is derives from the general feeling at the time that we had crossed a technological threshold and were very highly advanced; rather than being at the primitive beginning of personal / portable computing age.
ETA: Sometime in the last 15 years, the notion we are at the apex of computing has fallen by the wayside and we’ve accepted we’re just a couple of years away from technological obsolescence. Even in the 1990’s there were the occasional asides to our awesome computing power saving the day, such as in Independence Day. That trope really has been let go.
ThresherK
After the illness (shared by both members of our household) we pitched our toothbrushes. They were of indeterminate, not-too-new age anyway. THey’re soaked in hot water and then put away for various crummy cleaning.
The idea of discarding a toothbrush during a respiratory illness is something that makes me feel like I’m doing my bit to not re-spread whateever’s going around. But is it a genuine preventative, or am I just in thrall to the marketing power of Big Dentifrice?
John W.
Gods and fishes! That was a close call! Given your mastery of disastery.
amk
I know jack reacher, you ain’t no jack reacher.
gene108
These are the kind I’ve been using for a year or two now. It’s sort of a compromise between my budget and the people, like my dentist, who keep telling me to get an electric toothbrush. I’ve tried a couple, but the replacement heads are just too damn expensive for whatever benefit they are supposed to confer.
I like flipping the switch and have the little toothbrush motor kick in.
When I travel and use just ordinary toothbrushes, I see my fingers trying to turn on the manual brush and realize it doesn’t turn on.
David Koch
Rafael Cruz didn’t disclose secret $1,000,000.00 million dollar loan from Goldman Sachs on federal reports while running against government bailout of goldman.
hahahahhahahhahahhahahhahahaahhh!
¿Jeb ? knows he’s lost but he’s gonna leak every piece of dirt they found and take every one down with him
Snarki, child of Loki
Youtube or it didn’t happen.
jl
Cole needs to hone his toothbrush survival skills for when the BJ sovereign citizen militia liberates whatever patches of national forest are around there. Probably better, liberate some historical site in a neighboring state where the locals feel oppressed.
Because the only care packages I am mailing will be carefully wrapped compostable bags kitchen slop, for use in the militia homestead gardens. No toothbrushes, since they are too steep.
Baud
@amk:
I finally saw the movie. It sucked.
Suzanne
@ThresherK: It’s a genuine good practice. I once re-infected myself with strep because I didn’t do it. It sucked.
I got to hear my boss talk about how Obama is sooooo divisive and such an uncompromising monster today. Then I got to hear about how two-working-parent families are just materialistic and how every family can totally make it work on one salary, how parents shouldn’t pay for their kids’ college, and fuck poor people because “not everyone needs to go to college”. If I ever hear that from an old white dude with a college degree again, I may explode. I rebutted this politely, but I am still angry and GODDAMN I NEED THE POWERBALL.
I would pay off all the Balloon Juicers’ mortgages and student loans. Except for that one person who’s a dick.
Baud
@David Koch:
A couple of Nelson hahas from me as well.
David Koch
Meanwhile Washington Post runs op-ed saying Cruz is ineligible to be president because of his Canadian birth.
Cruz is panicking and saying Trump shouldn’t be president cuz he has “new york values”.
Gosh, I hope Cruz doesn’t owe money to some new yorkers like goldman sachs.
dr. bloor
Steve must wake up every morning with the lyrics of Once in a Lifetime going through his head.
Suzanne
@David Koch: This actually kinda makes me like Jeb a bit more. Burn the motherfucker down.
Baud
@Suzanne:
Ha!
(That’s not me, right?)
Mike J
Do Canadians have to obey US election law?
Mnemosyne
Fun question from Goodwill Librarian on Facebook:
Suzanne
@Baud: No, I love you. CUDDLEZ!!!!
amk
@Baud: And you liked the books?
Suzanne
@Baud: I would also buy John some new end tables.
Baud
@amk:
Some are better than others, but it’s easy, mindless reading.
raven
@Mnemosyne: The last book I read was “Forward My Brave Boys: A History of the 11th Tennessee Infantry”. Now I’m reading “Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South”.
Drunkenhausfrau
I was hoping you sent the bag of dicks to the idiots in Oregon. You, or TBogg.
David Koch
Matthews hammered Cruz tonight, calling him an “Canadian anchor baby”, “foreign born”: “born abroad” and “a strict and clear violation” of “the requirement of the Founding Fathers.”
Ahh, it’s true, revenge is a dish best served cold.
Rich Webb
Oral-B Action toothbrushes? Those things are awesome and relatively cheap. Get a couple packs of the replacement heads and you’ll have happy happy teeth!
gene108
@Mike J:
Maybe Heidi just got a salary advance from her employer…Goldman Sachs…and then had it deducted from the pay or bonuses or whatever…
Baud
@Suzanne:
Oh yay! I worry sometimes. You have to step on a lot of toes in seeking higher office.
Baud
@David Koch: It’s so awesome.
dr. bloor
@David Koch:
Goldman Sachs doesn’t give a flying fuck. A million bucks falls out of Blankfein’s pockets every time he takes a dump in the Royal Washroom, and most of them live in Jersey anyways.
David Koch
@Suzanne: exactly. all the Bushs have been horrible in office and are personally terrible people, but they have always hired sharp oppo investigators.
Baud
The best thing about Cruz birtherism is that, if the stench sticks, it disqualifies him from seeking the presidency forever.
amk
@Baud: He is just a shiftless, violent, pathological murderer.
Baud
@amk: Your point being…?
amk
@Baud: he sucks, both in movie and book versions.
GregB
How soon before Ted declares himself a victim of racism?
Baud
@amk: He’s not baby-sitting my non-existent kids. Lots of stories feature anti-heroes.
David Koch
@dr. bloor: oh, of course. but the home schoolers and jesus freaks in Real Muerca™ aren’t gonna like their fake Muercan, phony baptist being in debt to “those people” (ie “the money lenders”)
amk
@GregB: that would be the sweet schadenfreude moment.
trollhattan
@ThresherK:
We have a UV sterilizer I sometimes remember to use when I’ve been sick. It should kill everything daid.
jl
@amk:
” Baud: He is just a shiftless, violent, pathological murderer. ”
Uh oh. Problems for the Baud campaign?
True or not, it’s ‘out there’ now, and as a responsible commenter, I need to repeat it as often as possible.
Prescott Cactus
@gene108: We will soon have autonomous, self driving cars. No more taxi or Uber drivers. No more body shop repairman. 50K of people who won’t get killed on our highways.
Yeah it will take time to get the early 70’s Pinto’s off the road, but it will happen.
Mnemosyne
@raven:
So you’d either be stuck fighting the Civil War or be in sports. I guess it depends on how you feel about those fates.
I just finished reading a romance novel, so I would have to live in a world without antibiotics or civil rights, but I would have a rich husband who’s great in bed to make up for it, so it might balance out.
gene108
@Mnemosyne:
Spy School or in other words I’m an adolescent training to be a spy at a secret spy school run by the CIA.
I didn’t mean to read it, but I was at my brother’s for Christmas and someone handed it to me. Thought it was meant for me, so I opened it. The cover looked very unadult and I started reading it and the writing wass very simple. Then I asked who gave it to me and it turns out it was meant for my 8 year old niece. I read it over the weekend anyway.
Entertaining read. I can see kids getting hooked trying to figure out who done it.
JPL
@Baud: I thought the same thing. Fortunately, my mortgage is small so it would not take more than .00005 of her winnings. That is if she brings home 800 million.
We’re all friends here .. right! lol
Baud
@jl: Being associated with a shiftless, violent, pathological murderer could only help my campaign. Gives the whole Baud! aura an edge in the minds of the voters.
amk
@jl: yeah, baud just lost my vote. who knows what other dark secrets he has.
JPL
@Suzanne: That would be the best purchase ever…
joel hanes
@Suzanne:
I NEED THE POWERBALL
Sounds to me as if you need either a new boss who isn’t a shithead, or a new job entirely.
Imposing that kind of bullshit lecture on subordinates starts at unprofessional, but tends to worsen with time.
Baud
@amk:
All of them, Katie.
jl
@Baud: OK, now we are into gaffe territory, which is even worse.
Mnemosyne
@Suzanne:
It’s nice to work in an office with a bunch of liberals. We all sat down together and watched Obama’s inauguration. It’s not like that everywhere, even in urban California, so I appreciate it.
Roger Moore
@gene108:
People have thought we’re on the brink of AI for a long time. It seems to me that IBM’s Watson and similar things may actually be getting closer, but the big lesson is that it’s much, much easier to design a program/machine that’s great at solving a single problem than it is to try for general intelligence.
Suzanne
@Baud: Cruz birtherism is so unbelievably funny. But I hope there’s no ruling until after he wins the nomination. Oh how hilarious will it be. Wingnut heads = BOOM.
JPL
@Mike J: Hopefully, that one ends his run. He was running on a self funded campaign and lied. I’m shocked….just shocked.
Baud
@jl: Gaffes are good. Remember when John Kerry “gaffed” and Syria gave up all of its chemical weapons. Boy, the administration really had egg on its face. At least that’s what the media told me.
Bobby D
Cole, you are a “unique” individual. The fact that the damn things weigh 10x what a normal toothbrush weighs, with a handle that’s 4x the diameter, and cost 5x as much didn’t strike you as strange? I have used those same cheapy OB electrics for years as my traveler and office brush.
Have you ever had your well water tested for lead, arsenic, or LSD? Because I’m running out of other possible explanations. “I fogot to pack muh pants”, “Whar’d at damn musturd get off to anyhow?”
Holding back from inbred WV jokes is getting harder with each episode.
John G Cole: Heart of gold, head of pudding.
Kazanir
If it makes you feel any better John, I had one of those for like 2 years before I realized that it could turn on. Don’t judge me.
Emma
Why aren’t you using your life as the basis for a comic novel? Or a disaster movie?
raven
@Mnemosyne: Reading books about the Civil War make you want to do anything BUT be in the Civil War. The intersection of race and sports, that’s another thing!
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
Hmm. The last book I read was 1491. I have no idea what that would mean for my life.
scav
@Mnemosyne: Um, either destined to be techniques of wine tasting and viniculture in general or publishing in Reformation Germany. Perhaps non-fiction was excluded?
ETA: luckily I only skimmed the book on Hardy Geraniums.
Mnemosyne
@Bobby D:
ADHD. A friend of his told him so a few years ago, but I don’t think he ever got tested.
I could tell that my Ritalin had worn off when I spent 10 minutes wandering around my office looking for a stack of papers that were sitting on my desk the whole time, so that’s how I know.
raven
@Mnemosyne: Hunters in a farmer’s world.
gene108
@Roger Moore:
That’s true.
At some level computers are just glorified hammers. Very good at doing something we are not as good at without the tool, such as banging nails into a wall.
Anyway, I was just mostly struck about how self-assured people were that the tech of the 1980’s was so advanced it warranted that kind of speculation, with regards to computers taking over the world.
It was a recurring theme in several very successful movies 30-35 years ago.
You don’t see that as a theme in many modern movies, though our computing power is much more advanced.
Lord Baldrick
@Bobby D: I think Mr. Cole was using the Oral-B model that is electric but looks very much like a manual, with two buttons for on/off that blend into mid-handle.
Would be exciting to post pix when he brushes Steve.
amk
@Baud: Please proceed, govnor.
Mnemosyne
@scav:
I think it’s mostly designed for fiction, but we could count your nonfiction as living as either a vintner or a printer in Reformation Germany. There are worse fates.
Though I think it’s supposed to be the last book you read for fun, not for work or an academic assignment, so that’s where YMMV.
Prescott Cactus
@trollhattan: ” We have a UV sterilizer ”
We use the dishwasher. There are 2 rechargeable batteries in the handle that can be replaced if you do the youtube search. No soldering, needed, just a wire cutter.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
It can have its downsides. I do occasionally get tired of listening to my boss’s tirades about the perfidy of the Republicans.
jl
@Roger Moore: The advances seem to be in predictive data mining very large data bases, and computing speed. What really new algorithms have been found beyond maximization, curve fitting, and classification/search techniques, just applied to more sophisticated settings, like decision trees for chess? Do you know of anything?
I think Marvin Minsky once surmised that once these standard algorithms got complicated enough and enougn of them layered on top of each other, with more data, intelligence would emerge.
Maybe so, I guess we will see. If that is the case, then we need to find out how to program interest and motivation to work on one problem, or do on thing, rather than another.
Edit: what interests me about Minsky’s surmise, is that he had (or has? I don’t keep up with the philosophizing on this) no ideas on radically new approaches to problems solving, just more of the same, piled on top of each other, and eventually something that humans would recognize as intelligence would emerge.
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
Living in pre-Columbian America, I assume. Not too bad as long as you avoid the Aztecs.
PhoenixRising
@Drunkenhausfrau: While we’re on the bag of dicks that was sent to Yokel Haram…Am I the only one who wasted 2 minutes loading that video only to think, ‘Jesus, that was a lot of money to spend on a prank?’
An entire bag of dildos will set you back a pretty penny, is all I’m saying. I guess quality wasn’t a concern but there has to be a floor on price.
…wait, I think I’ve said too much.
Baud
@Roger Moore:
And so you come here?
scav
@Mnemosyne: Those were for fun. So a life dedicated to printing and wine presses Ho!
Mnemosyne
@raven:
I definitely spend a lot of time hunting — hunting for my keys, hunting for the TV remote, hunting for my knitting needles…
jl
@Mnemosyne:
” living as either a vintner or a printer in Reformation Germany. There are worse fates. ”
Ha. Not me. I would write or print the wrong thing and then get persecuted as a heretic.
jl
@Baud: Reading about the perfidy of Baud, and wondering how he stays in the race with campaign skill worse than Jeb? is a nice break.
Edit: BJ also offers the pure evil of HRC, and the malicious bad joke of Sanders.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@PhoenixRising: I think the bag of dicks were candy. I didn’t send them because I would have sent two different flavors: sea salt and rosemary, and also pink Himalayan salt.
Mnemosyne
@jl:
Sort of along those lines, and it’s probably a spoiler for those reading the “Wolf Hall” series, but I had forgotten that Thomas Cromwell was executed for heresy, not treason. This was shortly before Henry married Katherine Howard, who was from a prominent Catholic family.
Now the focus on Cromwell’s interest in the Reformation makes sense.
Mnemosyne
@PhoenixRising:
You could send dick-shaped pasta for a lot less. I wonder how hungry they would need to get before they would be willing to eat it.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
I don’t know. The book also spends a lot of time on all the horrible things that happened to the Indians shortly after contact, so I might be dying of horrible diseases.
Then there’s also the question of what counts as “the last book you read”. Is it the last book you completed, or the book you were reading most recently? Because if it’s the book I was reading most recently, my life it would be either The Bread Exchange or Practical Electrical Wiring, which would lead to very different modern lifestyles.
ThresherK
@Mnemosyne: Send them the XXL size; they’ll starve.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
There’s way better snark and pet stories here.
Pogonip
@dr. bloor: Events like this are why Steve spends so much time atop that cat tree, elevated (he hopes) safely out of the danger zone.
I tremble to think what destruction could result from an electric toothbrush–or even a regular toothbrush–in the hands of John Cole.
Gravenstone
@Suzanne:
Would it help if I said I was sorry?
jl
@Suzanne:
” I would pay off all the Balloon Juicers’ mortgages and student loans. Except for that one person who’s a dick. ”
If you won the powerball, would you make me whole on my lottery losses? I have the tickets!
Though, actually, I did buy two powerball numbers this morning. I can’t remember the last time I bought a lottery ticket. But I suddenly had the urge to join the crowd. I thought my daydreams of great wealth would be a little more fun, maybe, since gosh golly now they just have to come true. But, naw, they were about the same as usual.
NotMax
Forsooth, a tooth sleuth!
seaboogie
@Suzanne:
I think of you whenever John posts a photo of the critters and the fabu ’90’s end tables. I’m thinking something either Craftsman, or mid-century modern – so suitably masculine. At least he’s not using a cable spool as a coffee table.
Also – sorry that your boss is such a dick.
Gvg
@Mnemosyne: I have found this device called Fofa find one find all. Little tags with buttons you can attach to keys, remotes check books and other things you can’t find in the morning and have to find to go to work on time. Push a button on one and the other items will beep at you. 6 buttons, 6 items or you can program 36 with double numbers. I only need 2. My keys and checkbook wallet. Saves a lot of frustrated feeling that I feel is a waste of my life. The batteries last about 6 months and the speakers seem to die after about a year n half but I buy new ones cause they aren’t that expensive and I hate that feeling when I can’t find my keys.
Mnemosyne
@Gvg:
In a lot of ways, I feel like we’re living in a golden age for people with ADHD. I can pay just about every bill online — the same day, even. I can check my balance online before I make a stupid purchase. I can use the tiny computer in my pocket to beep and remind me of appointments and other important stuff. I can call people from the car when I’m running late and reach them at the place they’re waiting for me. For me, the increased convenience outweighs the increased distractions.
Drunkenhausfrau
@PhoenixRising: I actually wondered how much it all cost… And the shipping. There was also a giant schlong sent… Does that fit in a priority mail box? Inquiring minds want to know.
Prescott Cactus
@Drunkenhausfrau: Does that fit in a priority mail box?
If it fits, it ships or so they say.
Jay Noble
Back in the 90’s, I bought a used Chevy Sprint (Suzuki) with manual transmission to replace an ailing land yacht. When I opened the hood and discovered I had only 3 cylinders no matter how I counted them, I decided I’d better check out the acceleration and speed and get used to stick again on some vacant county highway before venturing out on the Interstate. 1shift2shift3shift4. Sounds like banshees under the hood but I got the puppy up to 65 mph! and promptly got pulled over and ticketed for speeding. As I was sitting there contemplating my crime, I happened to look down at the gear shift knob. And there, very faintly shining in that afternoon light was the number 5. Sure helped in quieting those banshees on the drive home.
Debbie(aussie)
@Suzanne: I am so sorry your day sucked. may tomorrow be better. How goes your current work project? Past the ‘why do I have to have signs at the exit points?’.
does that sharing include us ‘mainly lurkers’? We just paid off our half of mortgage (bought a house with our son & d-in-l). But a little extra spending money might be nice.
chopper
@Mnemosyne:
this question makes a lot less sense when you have a two year old.
Suzanne
@seaboogie: I can support mid-century or some genuine American farmhouse antiques. Or actual modern (not Eurotrash semi-disposable.) Or Shaker, or really anything that is quality. The ones he has look like the ones in my furnished student apartment in 2000 that were designed to be barfed on.
I had suggested some Eames tables a few months back, but the clowns here said that they need a drawer AND a lower shelf, in addition to the tabletop. How much clutter do y’all have?! Throw that shit out.
Satby
@Mnemosyne: sigh. Seriously, I just finished reading Nickled and Dimed. And that is my life. Now I feel like I just had a hex put on me.
Suzanne
@Debbie(aussie): I didn’t win. Juicers still have to pay their own damn bills. Sorry.
NotMax
@Suzanne, et al
Wanna scope out some fantabulous furniture?
Coming up at 4:45 a.m. (Eastern) on TCM is The Lady Is Willing, a lesser but fluffy comedy with Marlene Dietrich and Fred MacMurray.
Check out shots of her character’s apartment, done in glitzy over the top design.
Living room – Library – Bathroom
Denali
I thought I would call myself when I lost my phone in my daughter’s apartment, but calls were blocked.
The beagle nosed it under the refrigerator. Arrgh.
Denali
One of the last books I read The Man in the High Castle by Philip Dick, would have me living in America after the Nazis won World War II. Not a nice thought even if they kept the roads and bridges in good shape.
Paul in KY
@Prescott Cactus: I can see a whole lot of freeeedommmmers who will be agin a car that they can’t drive themselves.
Paul in KY
@gene108: I just finished one about 12th Century England, so I’d be fucked.
JustRuss
If it were anyone but Cole, I’d call BS. Instead, I’ll just sigh and shake my head. Good thing he has lots of critters to look after him.