Sorry, folks. I migrained out today. (Headache seems to be fading now.) So how about an open thread? And a VIDEO SHOWDOWN? Vote for your favorite below!
VOTE! Unlike the real elections last week, there is no wrong choice here, and the results will not cause you to curl up in a fetal position on your bed for a week!
[socialpoll id=”2401686″]
Don’t fall for this scam, Mammotheers — this is a trick question!
Clearly, both videos are the best!
Can’t live without kitties — or we humans get the Black Plague.
Can’t live without oceans or sunsets — or we humans, uhhh, don’t wanna think about it.
In summary, David, I’m glad to hear that the migraine is easing. I hope that you’re at 100 percent very soon!
ETA: The ocean at sunset is a scene of Baker Beach, the San Francisco nude beach. I was there (once). Oh yeah.
Ouch, not a great showing for vid #1 so far.
That’s because it’s 10 hours and doesn’t have cats.
@Jack, oh I hear ya. I’m firmly in the adorable-large-felines-with-incredibly-apt names camp. I just kind of feel bad for vid #1 for being so completely routed, even though it is inanimate and cannot know how it is performing in this competition.
This thing is rigged! I voted for both videos!
#AUDITTHISEFFINVOTE
ETA: Oops, never mind. *Slinks away quietly*
The only people that voted for both are just doing it out of pity for the ocean one.
OT: Anyone heard of Dunc’s AlgoMusic?
Kitties or beach?
I vote both.
http://youtu.be/DePFiF-nNoE
ETA: Kitty swims with puppas.
I’ll just leave this lion around.
I wondered where this image came from.
Big Cat Rescue is great. They are a gift to this planet.
Fun fact: Snow Leopards are not soft 🙁 but Lynx are crazy soft!
Lynx wins obvs…
Songs drop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHfLWvYs-2s
(chill beat)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ-OqqR3P5U
(best song in a game fulla awesome songs)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEoAMOpNny8
(the whole new album is fantastic)
Big Kitties in Boxes. It’s fun, cute and doesn’t make me seasick.
Wow, you guys are fast! I’m only three hours into the beach video so far. Will vote when I’ve seen both videos!
I didn’t watch the videos. I just voted for the kitties based on the first frame or whatever it is that shows up without pushing play. Typical uninformed voter, here.
I had already seen the kitty video, and voted for it on the basis that no damn natural phenomenon was gonna be awesomer than that.
Oh, and the other day at work I finally got to meet the cat I’ve been in love with ever since I saw his name in our records. The name? Bob Stripe! For some reason, to me that’s the best cat name ever, and the cat lives up to it: he’s a sixteen-pound-plus behemoth, not fat but huge, with a torn ear from when he used to go outside. I doubt he had much to worry about from predators; I suspect he ate predators. Not the friendliest cat, but Bob Stripe does not have to be friendly. If he does not devour you, you should be grateful.
And his name keeps running through my head with backing music by Wang Chung: Everybody Bob Stripe tonight!
@IP
I’d already seen the beach at sunset in person. So I watched only nine hours of that, and then I watched the whole cat video. Then I voted.
Easy peasey.
Story from Swedish news – a case study in misogyny Nice Guy TM style.
CN: harassment, stalking
A 70 year old man has been convicted of harassing a woman for more than 40 years!
The two had only met in person once, in the early 1970s when the woman accepted a request for one dance. Afterwards, they parted ways and never saw each other again. However, the man somehow managed to figure out where she lived, and he started to send her letters. Sample of things he wrote:
“You wouldn’t regret it if you were to choose me”
“This letter is a marriage proposal.”
“This is serious. If you won’t do as I tell you, you’ve shown yourself to be immature and childish.”
“We’ve always liked each other, haven’t we?”
“I would love to get in contact with you. Do you have any suggestions, sexy?”
“You’ve ruined women for me. I can’t find anyone who’s good enough!”
“When do you want me to come pick you up and bring you to my place? ANSWER ME.”
The woman, who is now in her 60s, has never replied to any of these letters. She’s simply collected them so that she could build a case against the harasser. At one point (it’s not clear exactly when) she filed a police report, but the investigation didn’t go anywhere. While the investigation was active, the man sent another letter saying:
“I think you should retract your statement to the police. You need to humble yourself to me. You know I’m right.”
Afterwards, the harassment just continued exactly as before.
“Why are you afraid? You can move in with me and I’ll save you, and then you won’t need to be afraid anymore. These are love letters, not threats! I’m sending you marriage proposals!”
“I’m retired now, just so you know. I know you’re older now too, but we don’t need to talk about that!”
“Hey slut, how are you? I’m doing great!”
Over the years, the woman has moved several times but her stalker always found her new address. After receiving seven letters between March and June this year, the woman reported the harassment again. This time he was convicted of sexual harassment. When asked why he kept sending so many letters, he claimed that since he never got any reply he assumed the letters hadn’t reached the woman.
His explanation as to why he kept trying to contact the woman despite having been reported to the police, he said:
“I don’t know. I guess it was a bad idea. It just happened. I just felt like I wanted to do it.”
In the end, the man was fined about $850, and the woman was awarded $550 in damages.
The message is, of course, that if you stalk and harass a woman for her entire adult life, you will receive a minor fine.
@Imaginary Petal
Wait but this is Sweden, so he wasn’t locked up for life and done god-knows-what-awful-things as a punishment?!
Has that so reliable-and-well-sourced professor of law lied to us!? :O
@Skiriki
Seems like it! I guess if he had ever gotten into an elevator with the woman, it would’ve been a different story.
IP, that’s bloody awful. And I bet it won’t be long until the letters start up again
I have not been persistently stalked for 40 years, but I have had a man say something sort of similar to this to me once. His fiancée had died 3 or 4 years prior, and he’d decided he didn’t want to be with anyone else.* Then he met me. “You’re the first and only woman I could ever be with, after her.” Implication being, you are obligated to sex me up, because otherwise I won’t get to have sex, and that’s unacceptable.
*At least that was his claim. For all I know, he said this to every pair of breasts he met.
Sounds like my sister’s ex, Viscaria. The whole “Love at first sight” and “I’ll never be with anyone ever again mope mope sad sad” gives me the creepies.
(And the angries, because he was also sharing photos of himself out at parties on facebork at the time, and yeah, he didn’t look so unable-to-feel-anything-but-endless-pain there…)
Love at first sight = I think looks are the only part of a woman that matter.
@David
Migraines are the worst. I wanted to say I really appreciate this blog. Without it, I don’t think I would understand the shitstorm that’s happening right now with Trump or how deep the neo-nazi sentiment goes on the right. Thank you so much for everything.