Isn't that what paper bags are for? Oh, well. At least we can appreciate living in a country where we can go out without being required to cover every inch of our skin… including our eyes… it'd be pretty bad if the beleif system in our country decreed that human skin is too holy to look at, so we'd all have to completely cover up in huge robes or something…

One mystery I'd like to figure out about women. They tell me they're going for the “natural” look, then they go about putting several hundred gigatons of makeup. I thought the word “natural” when it comes to appearance meant something that's unaltered and unchanged. Must be a lady thing…

Ugh… I can't sleep. Weedwhackers and leafblowers on outside. Dogs barking… and a couple of cats fighting right outside my window… well… before I threw an old slipper at them. I like to sleep on my day off too except I've been told I'm on call today. Lovely…

I guess I'll go and cook something for lunch now. I'd make spaghetti, but all I've got for pasta is elbow macaroni. I guess I'll use that for now.

seventy2
Naw, i'm up at offutt, trying to crosstrain. They keep finding silly excuses not to let me go. I just found out about the new requirements on friday. (i think literally right before i made the post.)

I've been trying to get at this a couple years, and i've passed the previous versions, but everytime i'm really close they just up the standards. Just gotta work a little harder is all.

Too bad you're not at Lackland, because they just implemented a specialized training program designed for people looking to do pararescue. The beauty of it too is that although it's mostly for Airmen, they are letting anyone who has base access take the training as well which is really cool and they're custom tailoring the workouts to individuals needs. Not, sure if they have anything like that where you're at, but it's something new where I'm at that wasn't available before to help with the training before they take the tests. Anyway, good luck and here's the link to the article about the training if you're interested. http://www2.mysanantonio.com/lackland_talespinner/Talespinner_05_27_11.pdf

darth_paul
Too bad you're not at Lackland, because they just implemented a specialized training program designed for people looking to do pararescue.

I would literally kill to have that option. There are a few other options out there with retired Spec ops people running training camps, but they're charging premium dollar for the opportunity. On top of that, i'd have to take leave for it.

I just wake up early every morning, and skip out of work whenever i can, so i can get/stay in shape. At the same time, i have a year to train do to stupid afpc being stupid. also, my shoulder's injured so it won't hurt to have this year off.
—–

Ally, were you really a sniper in a tower?!

Lonnehart
They tell me they're going for the “natural” look, then they go about putting several hundred gigatons of makeup. I thought the word “natural” when it comes to appearance meant something that's unaltered and unchanged.

Ugh, I just wrote out a huge long intellegent response for this quote, but Drunkduck decided it hated me and said: “NO POSTING FOR U, MS. FOOLSANDVIKINGS!”

So yes, I'll just do the short version:

Basically, the “Natural” look is supposedly wearing make up in such a way that it looks like you're not wearing makeup, which is a bit stupid, because that's the whole idea of wearing makeup in the first place. :/

I'm rather insecure about it all, you'd have to pay me a sugnificant amount of money to get me to walk around with no makeup, I can't leave the house without a layer of foundation as thick as four pieces of paper slapped onto my face to cover up things I don't wish the world to see. I do this because I'd rather not be judged by my peers.

The only time I've ever worn makeup was for dance recitals(you kind of have to when you're onstage). I shower and brush my hair every day, that's it. I guess I just never saw the point, I'm not really sure.

I wouldn't wear it so often if my friends and family didn't point things out like, “WOW, you've got HUGE bags under you eyes” or “LOL LOOK AT YOUR SCABBY PIMPLES, AHAHA,” Or my personal favourite: “You look like shit today.”

OnlyFoolsAndVikings
I wouldn't wear it so often if my friends and family didn't point things out like, “WOW, you've got HUGE bags under your eyes” or “LOL LOOK AT YOUR SCABBY PIMPLES, AHAHA,” Or my personal favourite: “You look like shit today.”

: O I think you need better friends.

Oh, trust me, I'm well aware of the need >.< But they're just being teenage girls, and coupled with being born and bred Aussies from the sticks, means that saying things without thinking is rather natural to them.

I find myself doing it too.

Wow… another person I can visit if I ever decide to take the several thousand mile trip directly south (I'm pretty much in the same time zone as Sydney).

I guess makeup is something you grow up with. My niece wears very little makeup. She's pretty confident in herself. Some women put on a lot of makup very well. But most times I've seen it very poorly done… to the point that they look like zombies (and they're not even in a zombie film!!!)…

I guess I'll be having fun tomorrow. I'll be attending her graduation. That girl's almost like a daughter to me (and probably the closest I'll ever get to having a child). Makes me fondly remember the times I found myself saddled with her when her mother was first time and inexperienced… And I'll admit… her and her sister's relationship are the inspiration for Magiversity's main character and her sister's relationships… except the story focuses on the younger sister (Minna) and they both have the same father (whose fate no one knows of).

I really need to stop watching Doctor Ashens' vids. I keep laughing at them. Especially Ashen's “Retro Games” Tech Dump. Just search that on YouTube and start from 3:00. I guess I've got a sadistic streak in me because I keep chuckling at Ashen's reaction to the poor Vole committing suicide…

seventy2
Ally, were you really a sniper in a tower?!

Yes. And before you ask the next question, no, I never shot anybody. Standing on the walk of a forty foot tower armed with an M-14 assualt rifle generally tends to keep inmates from charging that fence. Inmates have a surprising sense of self preservation.

But I have worked in a cellblock riot before, that was something else. Military grade tear gas and one swat team versus 124 convicts…it was crazy.

I don't like to ask the kill question in public. except for the insane, it's not really a fun topic, or even an appropriate one in all but a few cases. I just thought it was cool you got to be a sniper.



We really do have a wide range of people on these boards.

My apologies for jumping a bit too quickly on that one, it seems like everyone asks me that as soon as they learn what I used to do. And I've often had the same thought about these forums, it's a real grab bag of characters!

It's understandable, i've noticed that people without jobs where that's a possibility, seem to be most curious about it.

c-c-c-c-combo Breaker!!!!

OK, now that I've gotten my Exam back for Art, and… Uuuuugghhhh…. Once again, I wonder why I'm doing art… Oh yeah, I can hold a pencil and draw stuff, and of course, that's not enough. I hate sitting down and analysing artworks. I can never find any “meaning” in them. Its a spiral of rocks that mae a comment on society about the progression of time using natural materials which was apparently was SO obvious, anyone could get it, I looked at the picture for the exam and thought: “Look, some rocks.”

Seriously, I HATE those types of essay and exam questions about artworks. I always do shit because I look at an artwork and see NO meaning, unless its obvious, like a Giant sign in it that says: “FREE TIBET” and then I'll be like “It's about freeing Tibet!”

OnlyFoolsAndVikings
Seriously, I HATE those types of essay and exam questions about artworks. I always do shit because I look at an artwork and see NO meaning, unless its obvious, like a Giant sign in it that says: “FREE TIBET” and then I'll be like “It's about freeing Tibet!”

I'm convinced the point of that stuff is how well you can make shit up. Like “oooo the swirling purple and red hue give the mental image of a crushed butterfly… which symbolizes the artists will to work during the great depression”.

I mean in English we read these crappy stories about an old lady who sleeps next to dead husbands corpse, and then you make something up about how a lamp that is mentioned two times symbolizes her abusive father. Big fat A.

I remember looking at an art piece called “The Scream” (I think that's what it was called) and all I could think of was that the man's world was about to end in a very horrific way…

Art is a weird thing… the same picture meaning different things to different people. Such as a picture of a supernova going off… it means the death of an entire civilization to one person but to another it might mean the birth of a civilization…

Somehow I'm glad… we're no longer obsessed with chickens. :)

—

Ugh… can't play Phantasy Star Portable 2 while my pervert cousin is visiting. I created a character in the game and gave her clothing resembling what looks like a schoolgirl uniform; the same one her NPC partner is wearing, but different colors. The clothes and the weapon of choice I gave her… the whip… is making him watch the game over my shoulder, drooling. eww… maybe later I'll use my camera to take a pic of the character in my PSP… hmmm…

Lonnehart
Art is a weird thing… the same picture meaning different things to different people

EXACTLY, its a very subjective thing, which is why I think essays and exams about it are stupid, beacuse everyone has a different idea about what something means to them. I look at Jackson Polleck's artworks(for example) and go: “Wow, um, where's the talent in this? Its just paint splatter!” Where as someone else will say: “Its a great artwork that really sums up the post modern era!”

Same with grading artworks, I don't know about anywhere else, but here in Oz we have to do a Major Work for art in year 12, which is supposed to be your biggest and bestest work that you've been doing all year. Then its shipped off to the markers who decide what grade it should be given. I see heaps of artworks that are in Band 6 (the highest grade, think of it as an A) and to me it looks like it took the person four minutes to whip up. Where as other works that I find simply stunning are placed in Band 3 or 4. I don't know how they decide what grade something gets if everyone has a different opinion.

Skullbie
I'm convinced the point of that stuff is how well you can make shit up. Like “oooo the swirling purple and red hue give the mental image of a crushed butterfly… which symbolizes the artists will to work during the great depression”.

Pretty much, except I tried that a few times and they were like: “NO, THAT WAS WRONG, WRONG, ALL WRONG.” Works far better in English.

Ally Haert
I've had two jobs so far that have required an initial physical exam and continual physical checkups. The first was a sniper position in a gaurd tower at a local prison. We also had to pass bi-yearly psychological screening. That was a very high stress job and now that I'm out of it, I'd never go back.

Really? My sister was a prison guard at max for several years, she hated it immensely. She said the inmates were easy to deal with (creepy and disturbing as they sometimes were), it was all the other guards and their good ol' boys-ing and the politics and fucked up corruption stuff that drove her crazy. She's been watching Oz and she laughs at the inmate drama stuff but she's always saying how the guard stuff is pretty true, and that horrible redhead guard woman apparently “Oh GOD I knew so many women JUST LIKE HER it was TERRIBLE”

I have so many crazy stories from that job. I hated nearly every second of it, too. The inmates spent all day thinking up crazy new ways to screw with the guards, it always kept me on edge. As with jobs in similar fields, my position allowed for absolutely no errors. There was always this looming stress that I'd make one small mistake. I could never really make friends with my co-workers, either. They were all in the same demanding position I was. I'd seen them throw each other under the bus too many times, just to save their own jobs.

It was like the perfect storm for stress.

I think prison guards are some of the biggest unsung heroes in our nation. When a police officer goes to work, he might meet a convict or he might meet a civilian. Either way he has a gun on his hip and resources at his beck and call. But when a prison guard walks his beat, he knows for a fact that %100 of the people he works with are convicted felons, and he won't be strolling around with a gun on his hip. And nine times out of ten the inmates will outnumber that guard twenty to one.

Man, talking about all of this is bringing it back. I worked as a foot guard in a bunkhouse for nine months before I finally got that sniper position I was trying for. After I got put up in the towers the job settled down a whole bunch, but those first nine months on the ground were crazy. I can say with absolute certainty that no two days were the same on that job.

ayesinback
ANYWAY - perhaps I might be able to reciprocate and provide a tidbit of learning. Generally, the runts of the litter are the smallest of the litter. Are your sisters so much larger than you? Perhaps you wish to re-phrase?

Hmm… In my culture, the term “runt of a litter” (or the translation of it, at very least) is interchangeable between the smallest/weakest offspring of an animal that has multiple babies at once and the youngest child amongst human siblings (since the youngest child tends to be the smallest, at least until they're all grown up).

I simply assumed that the same applied to the English language.

As for me being an actual runt, then no, I suppose I'm not. I am the tallest of my immediate family (counting parents, siblings and their children (not sure about all of my cousins, aunts and uncles; I have a whole lot of cousins, aunts and uncles)) although I understand that both my great grandfathers from my mother's side were pretty frigging huge.

Thank goodness you got out of that job, Haert. I doubt I could handle working in a prison as a guard. Makes me appreciate my own job a lot more. Being a security officer at a condo lets me relax quite a lot… despite walking all night under the night sky keeping things nice and quiet.

Watched a lot of old 80's commercials on Youtube out of feeling nostalgic. Now I wish I hadn't. Especially after watching the old commercials for Transformers and various video games. What in the heck was I thinking when I watched these commercial as a child, thinking that I could have fun in the worlds they depicted?!? I'm starting to realize that I may NOT be the only child who grew up in the 80s whose mind has been warped by the media…

Heh… and way back then, since I couldn't afford to buy Transformers toys for myself (that little Bumblebee toy was $30 and I never got an allowance) I had to make my own… using an exacto knife, toothpicks, and the styrofoam blocks you often found cushioning stuff inside boxes…

Lonnehart
One mystery I'd like to figure out about women. They tell me they're going for the “natural” look, then they go about putting several hundred gigatons of makeup. I thought the word “natural” when it comes to appearance meant something that's unaltered and unchanged. Must be a lady thing…

I'm late to the party and all, but I thought that the difference wasn't ever between “natural” and “altered,” it's between “natural” and “cheap.”

Basically, you want to wear makeup that accentuates the way you look without overdoing it to the point that you look trashy. Thus it's natural!
—
Ehehehe, I caught the bouquet at Niccea's wedding! Demonstrating an excellent ability to jump in heels. Really, I should put that on my resume.

did you dunk on shaq?
——–

just a cooking tip: when you marinate meat in wine, the fatty part stores the wine completely. Please don't eat and drive.

Ochitsukanai
I'm late to the party and all, but I thought that the difference wasn't ever between “natural” and “altered,” it's between “natural” and “cheap.”

Basically, you want to wear makeup that accentuates the way you look without overdoing it to the point that you look trashy. Thus it's natural!
—
Ehehehe, I caught the bouquet at Niccea's wedding! Demonstrating an excellent ability to jump in heels. Really, I should put that on my resume.

I guess the “trashy” look is what I've been spotting when I see a woman with enough makeup on her face to put concrete to shame…

So you've caught the bouquet? Nice catch. I'd go with the “how about we get married NOW!” joke except your boyfriend would probably put you YOUR high heels and stomp me to death with them. And I'm probably too old for most women anyway…

In all seriousness though, isn't there some kind of myth that if you catch the bride's wedding bouquet you'll become the next woman to be married?

Ochitsukanai
Ehehehe, I caught the bouquet at Niccea's wedding! Demonstrating an excellent ability to jump in heels. Really, I should put that on my resume.

Congratulations on a feat of sheer athleticism! The balance! The timing! The careful elbow placement! AND WITH HEELS!! Why the Dancing with the Stars judges would all give an automatic 10!

Madam, you Deserve to be the next married, but only if that's what floats your boat.

There's a thread over in the debates that asks whether marriage (I'm paraphrasing) is the be all and end all. It's a good question.

—

@Professor re runts - I saw how you tower over Roku. It just seemed impossible that you could have sisters that would outsize you. Thanks for the clarification.

—

This weekend has been like a scene from Destry Rides Again: “I set ‘em up, and you knock ’em down (repeat) THIS is gettin monotonous”.
I keep thinking I've finished the paperwork for some stuff, some serious stuff, and as soon as I get it sent off, there's two more to take its place.

Or maybe it's like that scene in Brazil where Robert De Niro's character becomes no more.

Heh… well, progressed a little more in my programming. Programming in Darkbasic Pro by the way… downloadable for free (but you can't sell any games you make with it ‘til you buy the license, I think). Anyways…

Finding the angle between two points is surpisingly easy. All I need are the 2D coordinates of both the shooter and the target. Nice if you want to have an enemy (such as turrets) aiming at your character as they fire.

I’m also trying to figure out how to make something cirle around a point in space (such as your player's ship). Math has never been my strong point. In fact, it's my weakest subject!!! And here's the formula I'm trying to figure out…

XPos# = CenterX# + RadiusX# * Sin(Ang#)
YPos# = CenterY# + RadiusY# * Cos(Ang#)

Anyone care to explain what Sin and Cos are? X_!

Don't take my word for it, I'm pretty shit at maths too, but from memory, Sin and Cos have lots to do with working out the angles in triangles. There's Tan as well, you use it for figuring out the Hypotenuse (the longest bit of a triangle) The adjacent Angle and the Opposite Angle.

SOH CAH TOA

Sin, Opposite, Hypotenuse.
Cos, Adjacent, Hypotenuse.
Tan, Opposite, Adjacent.

That's the only thing I remember from maths, and I hope it… helped… though I doubt it did. I only remember it beacuse my teacher was a short little man who liked to scream: "SOH CAH TOA!!!!!!" At the top of his lungs at really inappropriate times and we'd all have to say what it means.

————–

Decided to take up etching in Art, I'm not doing the proper etching method sadly, no acid baths or copper plates for me :( just using plastic and sharp tools, but this is gonna be fuuuunnn. I'll have to load a print up here when I'm done.

Oh and I haven't drawn any more comics because I was too busy watching re-runs of ‘Allo ’Allo, Blackadder and Fawlty Towers…


I regret nothing!!

ayesinback
I saw how you tower over Roku. It just seemed impossible that you could have sisters that would outsize you. Thanks for the clarification.

Well yeah, but over here I'm still the “runt”. My sisters may occasionally bring it up as a form of sarcastic joke since I happen to be taller then all of them.

OnlyFoolsAndVikings
Oh and I haven't drawn any more comics because I was too busy watching re-runs of ‘Allo ’Allo, Blackadder and Fawlty Towers…

Oh my god. One of my friends would fly over to Australia right now and propose to you in person, if he ever read this post of yours. He loves those shows and many others that I bet you watch as well.

Can't blame either of you, though. They're awesome shows.

OnlyFoolsAndVikings
Don't take my word for it, I'm pretty shit at maths too, but from memory, Sin and Cos have lots to do with working out the angles in triangles. There's Tan as well, you use it for figuring out the Hypotenuse (the longest bit of a triangle) The adjacent Angle and the Opposite Angle.

SOH CAH TOA

Sin, Opposite, Hypotenuse.
Cos, Adjacent, Hypotenuse.
Tan, Opposite, Adjacent.

That's the only thing I remember from maths, and I hope it… helped… though I doubt it did. I only remember it beacuse my teacher was a short little man who liked to scream: "SOH CAH TOA!!!!!!" At the top of his lungs at really inappropriate times and we'd all have to say what it means.

I remember reading somewhere how you can use triangles when determining the radius of circles… or something like that. It's nice to know how formulas work in 2D space so I can place objects anyplace on screen that I want. There are other functions that let me choose what angle I want to point the sprite in and which way I want them to go.

OnlyFoolsAndVikings
just using plastic and sharp tools

Um….


*quietly moves as far away from anyone holding sharp pointy objects… has been poked too many times by his own pencils today…*


—–

Ugh… it's taking quite a bit of time to empty my digital camera with an 8 gb SD card. I need to empty the space because my niece's graduation is in a few hours and I'd like to have as much space as possible to record the event. Got quite a few rechargable batteries to boot as well. Well… at least I hope 3 pairs of AAs are enough…

Product Placement
Oh my god. One of my friends would fly over to Australia right now and propose to you in person, if he ever read this post of yours. He loves those shows and many others that I bet you watch as well.

Blackadder is awesome, its my favourite show. I'd marry your friend too if I could afford a trip to Iceland and wasn't too distracted by the glaciers and the prosepct of tiny hairy ponies running around.

“I believe they were orange.”
“Well, grey IS the tradtional colur, your majesty…”
"I think they were Oraaaange!“
”…Alright, there were these… magnificent Orange Elephants…"


And yes, you better back away Lonnehart *waves Etching tool threateningly.*