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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Hell: Park this
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rolyn
Shipmate
# 16840
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Chorister:
I'm rather late coming to this thread, but when I read the OP I immediately thought 'My God, that girl's got balls'.
I often get the feeling that our "Breaker of men's constitutions" has in fact got several sets of balls ......
probably hanging up in the garden shed like dried onions . ![[Devil]](graemlins/devil.gif)
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Change is the only certainty of existence
Posts: 3206 | From: U.K. | Registered: Dec 2011
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
You're shitting me. YOU'RE SHITTING ME.
OK, which one of you is an undercover Cracked.com hack?
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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comet
Snowball in Hell
# 10353
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Posted
they didn't return my calls. ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
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Evil Dragon Lady, Breaker of Men's Constitutions
"It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.” -Calvin
Posts: 17024 | From: halfway between Seduction and Peril | Registered: Sep 2005
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comet
Snowball in Hell
# 10353
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by rolyn:
quote:
Originally posted by Chorister:
I'm rather late coming to this thread, but when I read the OP I immediately thought 'My God, that girl's got balls'.
I often get the feeling that our "Breaker of men's constitutions" has in fact got several sets of balls ......
probably hanging up in the garden shed like dried onions .
I'm really quite charming in person. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
(I string them together and make necklaces)
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Evil Dragon Lady, Breaker of Men's Constitutions
"It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.” -Calvin
Posts: 17024 | From: halfway between Seduction and Peril | Registered: Sep 2005
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
Better Be careful, comet, or you'll incur the wrath of the Hellhosts with that kind of bantering.
Oh, wait...
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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rolyn
Shipmate
# 16840
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by comet:
(I string them together and make necklaces)
No need to ask what you'd use as a pendant .
All the happy years spent my partner has curiously taught me the workings of the female mind with regards to 10 things to do with the male gentitals ---- detached .
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Change is the only certainty of existence
Posts: 3206 | From: U.K. | Registered: Dec 2011
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
Going back a bit, I have a pair of Victorian china figures, a dairymaid and a young man holding jugs, and she's in blue, and he's in pink.
On books, and comic fantasy, I read Robert Rankin for a while, and he is not so female friendly as Pratchett. I finally recognised that his women seemed to have wandered in from a McGill postcard after I described them to myself as flat. (He also failed by describing Brentford streets with an absence of anyone not white.)
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Jane R
Shipmate
# 331
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Posted
<fantasy tangent> Have you tried any by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Penny? I quite like his female characters. Heroic fantasy meets steampunk, with giant insects.
Posts: 3958 | From: Jorvik | Registered: May 2001
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Ann
Curious
# 94
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Posted
Elizabeth Moon's Serrano and Vatta series have strong female characters. Anne McCaffrey's Dragon books, Talents books and Ship books, in fact most of her books have strong female characters; although they also have romantic liasons, the females are not then eclipsed.. Sheri S Tepper's another author and Ken's mentioned Ursula leGuin.
And back to parallel parking!
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Ann
Posts: 3271 | From: IO 91 PI | Registered: May 2001
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Garasu
Shipmate
# 17152
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Posted
If we're doing female characters in fantasy literature... Tanya Huff? Barbara Hambly? Guy Gavriel Kay? Katherine Kurtz?
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"Could I believe in the doctrine without believing in the deity?". - Modesitt, L. E., Jr., 1943- Imager.
Posts: 889 | From: Surrey Heath (England) | Registered: Jun 2012
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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
quote:
Garasu: If we're doing female characters in fantasy literature... Tanya Huff? Barbara Hambly? Guy Gavriel Kay? Katherine Kurtz?
Can they parallel park?
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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
Posts: 9474 | From: Brazil / Africa | Registered: Aug 2002
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Spiffy
Ship's WonderSheep
# 5267
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Posted
I've been on vacation. I come back to find this thread. I find it charming considering I have been spending a lot of my time on Tumblr lately dealing with trans-erasing radical feminists.
(And I shall add to the list of female fantasy characters October Daye, Verity Price, and Georgia "George" Mason who technically is horror but who I want to be when I grow up)
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Looking for a simple solution to all life's problems? We are proud to present obstinate denial. Accept no substitute. Accept nothing.
--Night Vale Radio Twitter Account
Posts: 10281 | From: Beervana | Registered: Dec 2003
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Garasu:
If we're doing female characters in fantasy literature... Tanya Huff? Barbara Hambly? Guy Gavriel Kay? Katherine Kurtz?
Barbara Hambly, is a fairly amusing one to mention. My favourite character of hers is a Black Man. And, well, she is no black nor male.
Though I am not completely qualified to judge, I think she does a fair job.
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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luvanddaisies
the'fun'in'fundie'™
# 5761
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Spiffy:
... dealing with trans-erasing radical feminists.
Tiny bit intrigued...
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"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." (Mark Twain)
Posts: 3711 | From: all at sea. | Registered: Apr 2004
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orfeo
Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878
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Posted
You know, folks, if you want to continue listing favourite authors there might be a cosy place elsewhere on the Ship you can do it.* The enslaved souls down here are starting to daydream and consequently they're not rowing as hard as usual. Why do you think the Ship's been so unsteady lately?
*Although even elsewhere, try not to turn it into a linkfest.
[ 22. September 2013, 01:05: Message edited by: orfeo ]
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Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.
Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jane R:
<fantasy tangent> Have you tried any by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Penny? I quite like his female characters. Heroic fantasy meets steampunk, with giant insects.
I haven't seen him around. Will look.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
And back to parking - I don't understand reversing into parking spaces in car parks. (As distinct from parallel parking.) It makes it difficult to load the boot (trunk), especially if the space is against a wall.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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luvanddaisies
the'fun'in'fundie'™
# 5761
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Posted
My driving instructor told me that's how it should be done because it's easier to see when you come out, and you're less likely to doink into a person or a car that you've missed seeing if you join the main thoroughfare forwards. He told me that those who go into spaces forwards are just lazy and inconsiderate.
I don't care, really.
I have a driving license that I wasted hours and lots of money on, and I had a car that I wasted a bit of money on too and was relieved to get rid of. I hate driving, I'm shit at it (not because I'm female, but because I'm a crap driver, and probably would be if I was a bloke), and the more I drove the more I hated it (contrary to all the people who kept whittering on that the more I drove the more I'd like it and it would all be wovewy and nice).
I don't think anyone like me who's too crap to pass their test the first time should be allowed to retake the test (unless they can prove they actually *need* a car, they qualify for a blue-badge for example) - there're too many cars on the road and if they did that and introduced automatic once-and-for-all disqualification for any driving offence like speeding or texting or whatever, with additional consequences for people that manage to damage other people by hitting them with a moving metal box, it'd reduce car numbers and force the government to improve pubic transport, and it would have the pleasing side-effect of reminding the hard-of-thinking that driving is a privilege and not a right.
I also know, however, that very few people agree with the above, and that it's never going to happen.
Doesn't mean I'm going to stop thinking it though.
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"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." (Mark Twain)
Posts: 3711 | From: all at sea. | Registered: Apr 2004
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by luvanddaisies:
My driving instructor told me that's how it should be done because it's easier to see when you come out, and you're less likely to doink into a person or a car that you've missed seeing if you join the main thoroughfare forwards. He told me that those who go into spaces forwards are just lazy and inconsiderate.
I don't care, really.
He would. Did you ask him how often, per Penny S, he loads shopping into the boot?
quote:
I have a driving license that I wasted hours and lots of money on, and I had a car that I wasted a bit of money on too and was relieved to get rid of. I hate driving, I'm shit at it (not because I'm female, but because I'm a crap driver, and probably would be if I was a bloke), and the more I drove the more I hated it (contrary to all the people who kept whittering on that the more I drove the more I'd like it and it would all be wovewy and nice).
I can't drive on medical grounds but it's a blessing (to everyone) because there are Bad Driving Genes on my Dad's side of the family. Dear Aunt T who learned to drive in her forties, mostly to help people at church, was probably the worst driver in West London for a decade. I'd be no better and I'm impatient too! Consider it my contribution to road safety.
quote:
I don't think anyone like me who's too crap to pass their test the first time should be allowed to retake the test (unless they can prove they actually *need* a car, they qualify for a blue-badge for example) - there're too many cars on the road and if they did that and introduced automatic once-and-for-all disqualification for any driving offence like speeding or texting or whatever, with additional consequences for people that manage to damage other people by hitting them with a moving metal box, it'd reduce car numbers and force the government to improve pubic transport, and it would have the pleasing side-effect of reminding the hard-of-thinking that driving is a privilege and not a right.
I'm seriously in favour of some elementary psychometric testing to weed out people who simply aren't suited to driving a car. Car control isn't the problem; the issue is contention for space on the roads with thousands of others, few of whom can read any other driver's mind. I wouldn't make it a lifetime thing, but allow people a test and a retest, then a five year break.
quote:
I also know, however, that very few people agree with the above, and that it's never going to happen.
Doesn't mean I'm going to stop thinking it though.
They can disagree all they like, but there are too many on the road who shouldn't be. Worse still a few bus and lorry drivers are amongst them.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Penny S:
And back to parking - I don't understand reversing into parking spaces in car parks. (As distinct from parallel parking.) It makes it difficult to load the boot (trunk), especially if the space is against a wall.
I always do this. I really, really hate having to back out of a parking space in a supermarket car park. I would far rather take ages trying to reverse in so I could drive straight out when done and not knock anyone down or graze their cars as I tried to back out. (Parking sensors help a lot here.)
As for access to loading the boot, it does depend on the size of your car I suppose; mine is a small one so no problem getting round the back to load stuff.
quote:
From Sioni Sais:
I'm seriously in favour of some elementary psychometric testing to weed out people who simply aren't suited to driving a car. Car control isn't the problem; the issue is contention for space on the roads with thousands of others, few of whom can read any other driver's mind. I wouldn't make it a lifetime thing, but allow people a test and a retest, then a five year break.
I totally agree with this. (Is it really necessary to zoom past and overtake in a supermarket car park, especially when pedestrians are trying to cross on the zebra crossing?) The money raised would pay off the National Debt in no time.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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RooK
1 of 6
# 1852
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Penny S:
And back to parking - I don't understand reversing into parking spaces in car parks. (As distinct from parallel parking.) It makes it difficult to load the boot (trunk), especially if the space is against a wall.
- As noted above, it's a defensive driving thing. You can easily see that a spot is empty before you reverse into it, but visibility backing out is often very poor. And parking lots have lots of annoying bipedal monkeys mingling with the cars.
It is from the same school of thought as stopping in queue with a healthy gap in front, then after the car behind you has also stopped rolling forward to give yourself more room from them as well. Which is meant to slightly improve circumstances in case of rear-end collisions.
- Due to the magic of geometry, it is actually easier to back into a spot next to a wall. It is the exact reason why fork lifts are rear-steer.
- The best cars have the storage in the front anyway.
Posts: 15274 | From: Portland, Oregon, USA, Earth | Registered: Nov 2001
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by RooK:
It is from the same school of thought as stopping in queue with a healthy gap in front, then after the car behind you has also stopped rolling forward to give yourself more room from them as well. Which is meant to slightly improve circumstances in case of rear-end collisions.
Please come to California and teach people how to drive. Because in Silicon Valley, leaving a gap in between yourself and the next car is an indication that you are weak and submissive and are begging someone to shoehorn themselves in the five feet you've left for bumper space.
Yeah, I know it should be more than five feet, but read what I just wrote.
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
I've never had any problems with reversing into pedestrians, shopping trolleys (and try getting one of those round the back between the adjacent parked cars) or other cars. Only if the neighbouring vehicles are vans is visibility too limited. I have had some irritation from waiting for people who spend a lot of time reversing in and out of spaces while parking. (I've nothing against people who can do it doing it. And there are some places round car parks which really need reversing into.)
I don't reverse into my garage, either. I can't see the stuff around the car clearly. (Bike, garden tools, wheelbarrow - things I don't want near my paintwork.) Even with the mirrors adjusted.
This thread is encouraging me to find somewhere to practice, though. Where there is no risk of damaging anyone else's car. Or irritating someone who's waiting to get past.
I have no problems reversing for yards along steep and wiggly country lanes when the man coming towards me is incapable of reversing to the passing space he has just passed. I remember with profound gratitude the farmer near Minehead who actually did do so. And with anger the man who forced me to reverse about half a mile through cabbage fields (that was before I had powered mirrors). It is not always men, round here there are some women in SUVs who can't reverse, or go near the hedges. But it is mostly men. I have seen one force a police car to reverse all the way down one nearby hill. And another force the local special schools minibus to do the same. (For those not in the UK, the Highway Code enshrines in law that vehicles going up hills have right of way. One wouldn't insist faced with a supermarket delivery van...)
And what is particularly infuriating is the way they keep on coming like the British in the Gulf of Mexico, which is very pressurising as they put bumper up to bumper (fender).
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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the giant cheeseburger
Shipmate
# 10942
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Penny S:
And back to parking - I don't understand reversing into parking spaces in car parks. (As distinct from parallel parking.) It makes it difficult to load the boot (trunk), especially if the space is against a wall.
You shouldn't be encouraging crap car park design by continuing to patronise shopping centres which have a wall at the back of parking spaces. A good parking bay has a painted footpath reserve at the back, with plenty of space allowing a trolley to be pulled up for loading into the boot. That's the main reason I reverse into parking spaces, because I don't like to be standing out in the firing line while loading/unloading from the boot.
The few places which were properly planned and have 45° angle parking are the only times I drive in forwards, you get the best compromise with easier manoeuvring for both arriving and departing, less chance of facing the consequences of somebody else's incompetence, and you're less exposed when loading/unloading - even if you don't have a front-loading penis substitute from Stuttgart like RooK ![[Snigger]](graemlins/snigger.gif)
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If I give a homeopathy advocate a really huge punch in the face, can the injury be cured by giving them another really small punch in the face?
Posts: 4834 | From: Adelaide, South Australia. | Registered: Jan 2006
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by the giant cheeseburger:
quote:
Originally posted by Penny S:
And back to parking - I don't understand reversing into parking spaces in car parks. (As distinct from parallel parking.) It makes it difficult to load the boot (trunk), especially if the space is against a wall.
You shouldn't be encouraging crap car park design by continuing to patronise shopping centres which have a wall at the back of parking spaces. A good parking bay has a painted footpath reserve at the back, with plenty of space allowing a trolley to be pulled up for loading into the boot. That's the main reason I reverse into parking spaces, because I don't like to be standing out in the firing line while loading/unloading from the boot.
There's a lot of spare land in Australia compared to most of the UK. I don't think I've seen a supermarket car park like you describe here, although I've seen some like that in France. If we could get the trolley where you describe I'm sure people would.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Porridge
Shipmate
# 15405
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Posted
@ Kelly Alves:
Some years ago, I had occasion to drive from central New England to a small private college in Yonkers/Bronxville NY several times a year. The Cross-Bronx Expressway, whenever I traversed it, was bumper-to-bumper traffic at 70 mph. I think I have acquired permanent PTSD as a result.
@ Penny S:
My garage "empties" into a nice, pacific parking lot (well, pacific when not simmering with half-drunk, half-high, half-crazy homeless people seeking help from the office next door to my apartment).
The parking lot, however, "empties" into a busy,
heavily-parked street. You can't see what's coming either way. I always back into my garage.
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Spiggott: Everything I've ever told you is a lie, including that.
Moon: Including what?
Spiggott: That everything I've ever told you is a lie.
Moon: That's not true!
Posts: 3925 | From: Upper right corner | Registered: Jan 2010
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orfeo
Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878
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Posted
My father reverses into car parks when we go to the theatre. He doesn't do it at any other time, so it has nothing to do with notions of safety. It's because he thinks he can get out faster when lots of people are leaving at once.
This is just one of many little manifestations of my father's determination not to linger in the outside world. A lot of these little manifestations give the rest of the family the shits.
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Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.
Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008
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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
The appartment where I live now has a parking space under the building reserved for me. On one side of my car is a wall, on the other side is another car, and in front of my space is a concrete column.
I can get in by parking in reverse, making a curve to avoid the column. I miss it by about a quarter of an inch. If I would park forward, I'm quite sure that I wouldn't be able to get out.
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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
Posts: 9474 | From: Brazil / Africa | Registered: Aug 2002
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RooK
1 of 6
# 1852
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Posted
In fairness, there are some perfectly-adequate front-loading penis substitutes from Maranello.
Posts: 15274 | From: Portland, Oregon, USA, Earth | Registered: Nov 2001
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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
I thought the whole idea of a penis substitute was to unload.
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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
Posts: 9474 | From: Brazil / Africa | Registered: Aug 2002
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Penny S:
I've never had any problems with reversing into pedestrians, shopping trolleys (and try getting one of those round the back between the adjacent parked cars) or other cars. Only if the neighbouring vehicles are vans is visibility too limited. I have had some irritation from waiting for people who spend a lot of time reversing in and out of spaces while parking. (I've nothing against people who can do it doing it. And there are some places round car parks which really need reversing into.)
I don't reverse into my garage, either. I can't see the stuff around the car clearly. (Bike, garden tools, wheelbarrow - things I don't want near my paintwork.) Even with the mirrors adjusted.
This thread is encouraging me to find somewhere to practice, though. Where there is no risk of damaging anyone else's car. Or irritating someone who's waiting to get past.
I have no problems reversing for yards along steep and wiggly country lanes when the man coming towards me is incapable of reversing to the passing space he has just passed. I remember with profound gratitude the farmer near Minehead who actually did do so. And with anger the man who forced me to reverse about half a mile through cabbage fields (that was before I had powered mirrors). It is not always men, round here there are some women in SUVs who can't reverse, or go near the hedges. But it is mostly men. I have seen one force a police car to reverse all the way down one nearby hill. And another force the local special schools minibus to do the same. (For those not in the UK, the Highway Code enshrines in law that vehicles going up hills have right of way. One wouldn't insist faced with a supermarket delivery van...)
And what is particularly infuriating is the way they keep on coming like the British in the Gulf of Mexico, which is very pressurising as they put bumper up to bumper (fender).
The problem with parking forwards is it means you have to reverse out - and that's where the danger comes in. It means you're reversing from your driveway into the public road. It means your back end is on the pavement where people walk before you can really see it properly.
This is why you should reverse in - so that when you are pulling out into the road, across the pavement, you have proper visibility.
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
I do know about the problem of reversing out onto roads, but it does not apply with regard to my garage.
In the past, I reversed from my garage into a private area used only by occupants of 6 flats. This was only a problem when the neighbour running a hate campaign came out to his car as I got into mine, and then waited, sometimes for up to 5 minutes, before reversing past my garage. I woud not have been able to see him if I had reversed in, either. In order to reverse in, I would have had to carry out a fiddly manoeuvre which would have involved going to and fro his front door and kitchen window, while he watched me from the kitchen, and then complained about me encroaching on his property. It was bad enough when he and his partner made a point of parking right up to the boundary line of my garage, one against the neighbouring one, the other opposite, with a gap about a car's width plus a half car between. Reversing in would have been impossible. Anyway, after reversing out, I could then turn to get out onto the road forwards.
In my current home, the garage debouches onto an apron between me and a private road with very little traffic or pedestrians, who are always visible. Most of my neighbours go in nose first.
When we lived in Dover, we had a steep drive up to the garage, about a storey's height from road level, and reversing up it would have been impossible. Again, the road was not busy, so reversing out was not a problem, and everyone did it.
I don't know what I would do with a property on a busy road - I have seen people reverse out. The alternative is to hold everyone up while getting into position to reverse in, which, at busy times, is not going to be well received. Or put in a reversing pad in the front of the house.
This morning, you will be pleased to read, I have initiated a practice reversing into parking spaces programme, the car park being nearly empty, so I could do it without doing it between cars. I then saw a woman doing it with great aplomb, into what was obviously her favourite space, next to a flower border, onto which she trod, and with an empty space next door. Only problem was, if there had been a car there, she would have hit it, as she passed through the space. I would not have hit a car, but would have had to adjust position, as I did, to be perfectly between the white lines. At that car park, at a supermarket but with other local users, there were some reversed-in cars, but most had gone in forwards.
I then went to the local mall. Here I parked towards a wall, as had nearly all the other cars in that rank. I had a good look at the other cars, and noticed a very odd pattern. Opposite the rank against the wall was a double rank, with another double rank behind it, so three roadways involved. (There were more ranks, but they were unused.) The vast majority of the cars all faced the same way, so apparently it went nose in by the wall, reverse in opposite, nose in behind them, reverse in opposite, and then nose in again. I did see one car reverse in. But I have a suspicion that what had happened was that a large number of the cars had driven in forwards, and then through into the nose out position in the other rank. If approximately equal numbers went in forwards and in reverse, I would have expected them to be randomly arranged in the ranks.
And did you notice the last paragraph?
[ 23. September 2013, 12:52: Message edited by: Penny S ]
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jane R:
<fantasy tangent> Have you tried any by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Penny? I quite like his female characters. Heroic fantasy meets steampunk, with giant insects.
Spotted him in Waterstone's. Am I right in deducing from the covers that his strong females do it by being warriors? I got fed up with Eowyn types some time ago.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Antisocial Alto
Shipmate
# 13810
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Penny S:
Spotted him in Waterstone's. Am I right in deducing from the covers that his strong females do it by being warriors? I got fed up with Eowyn types some time ago.
I just finished "The Dragon's Path" by Daniel Abraham- one of his lead characters is a teenage girl whose superpower is finance. (She's an orphan raised by bankers.)
Posts: 601 | From: United States | Registered: Jun 2008
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comet
Snowball in Hell
# 10353
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Posted
shaddap about the fucking fantasy novels already. jesus. way to suck the life out of a discussion.
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Evil Dragon Lady, Breaker of Men's Constitutions
"It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.” -Calvin
Posts: 17024 | From: halfway between Seduction and Peril | Registered: Sep 2005
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
Parking in car parks, nose in or reversing. Results of a survey of the Waitrose car park in Longfield Kent UK. During the time of the survey there were some changes in occupation which were not tracked.
Nose in 40
Reversed 23
All but one of the cars which I saw arrive went in forwards. The one which reversed was driven by a man I regarded as elderly, who was not agile - nor was his wife. In a car park with open sided spaces, he chose to go in between two cars, despite needing to access rear doors before leaving the car. They had gone when I came out after a short shop (about 20 mins) and one more car arrived and definitely reversed in.
The bald figures above mask some peculiarities. One rank, against a fence, had 6 definitely reversed, 5 nose in. This was furthest from the shop, but near to other businesses, and I am wondering if it is people who work nearby and arrive when the car park is nearly empty and want to leave quickly.
Another rank, backed by one with 7 forward parkers and 3 reversed, had 2 forward, and 8 reversed - but I think they had probably driven through from the other rank. I counted them as reversed, though. As with the mall, the distribution was not random. With all the other ranks, it was.
One more rank could be accessed from either side. I read it as 6 forward and 3 reversed, but it could easily have been the other way round, and was impossible to discern.
I think driving in forwards is normal, except for special circumstances (such as the allocated spce with a pillar above). Today, I drove in forwards to one of my two favourite spots, at the end of a rank close to the way out, where I need to reverse only a little, with extra care for all the customers on their way back to their cars and the cars on their way out. The other spot is the one facing it, which has to be reversed into, to go in face on would be impossible. Again, more care with regard to pedestrians and cars leaving is needed.
Hell call on the drivers who, having driven into the set of spaces facing into the one way section of the car park (either by reversing or head on through the ranks) then go the wrong way and drive without stopping across the path of those entering the correct way, thinking it's OK if they smile sweetly.
[ 24. September 2013, 10:34: Message edited by: Penny S ]
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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orfeo
Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878
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Posted
You know, the new government here is cutting funding from studies like this. I regret that we can't shut you down because we didn't give you any money.
Also, you've failed to indicate the gender of most of the drivers, which means this little study is pretty useless for the ORIGINAL topic of the thread. Nor have you told us which SciFi books they were reading as they left the vehicles.
[ 24. September 2013, 12:44: Message edited by: orfeo ]
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Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.
Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008
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quetzalcoatl
Shipmate
# 16740
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Rosa Winkel:
quote:
Originally posted by luvanddaisies:
quote:
Originally posted by Spiffy:
... dealing with trans-erasing radical feminists.
Tiny bit intrigued...
I can't talk for Spiffy or about whatever is happening in the US, but in GB there's a form of feminism that is openly transphobic.
It's an interesting debate, as it involves key ideas about sex and gender. Thus, the transphobic people (well, some of them) have a physicalist view of sex, but not gender, hence a trans woman cannot be a woman. The trans affirmative people are leaning towards social construction of sex as well as gender - hence, if you feel like a woman, you are a woman.
It's also territorial, I suppose, as some feminists are really saying to trans women, hey, get off our patch, cos you're a man, with his dick cut off (the vitriol gets much worse than that).
But I find the affirmative view very interesting, as it is extending the social construction idea beyond gender to sex, if you follow me, sex meaning male and female, gender meaning masculine and feminine. The terminology has become very confused, as many people use 'gender' to mean 'sex' now.
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I can't talk to you today; I talked to two people yesterday.
Posts: 9878 | From: UK | Registered: Oct 2011
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
The Highway Code is quite clear: reversing onto a road from a driveway is not advised; the same goes for reversing from a minor to a major road.
What this means in practice is that if you are hit by another vehicle as you reverse onto a road you, not the car hitting you, will be deemed to be at fault.
You should be able to drive backwards using only your rear view and side mirrors: IME a lot of the trouble some have going backwards is caused by the practice of making a song-and-dance of looking over their shoulder, removing seat-belt, etc. Wise-up! Its driving, just backwards.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
It is necessary to update yesterday's survey slightly. The rank where nearly everyone had reversed in was nearly all the other way round, so my hypothesis about who the drivers were was not correct. And the space I regard as not possible to go head first into was occupied by someone who had. This would require either a) driving towards the exit, reversing down the roadway between the ranks and then going in forward, b) driving down the roadway to where there were a lot of empty spaces, doing a three point turn, and then returning to go in forwards, or c) driving in through the bollarded off end of the roadway at the entrance, and going the wrong way to arrive at the space. Quite pointless, as then they had to reverse out down the roadway in order to go forwards out of the exit, when otherwise they could drive out forwards without any fancy manoeuvering at all. I didn't see the gender of the driver.
I reversed into a space with a car on only one side. No adjustment required.
I watch junctions and drives with much more care.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by comet:
shaddap about the fucking fantasy novels already. jesus. way to suck the life out of a discussion.
Fantasy novels are more interesting than car parking.
Cars? I can't remember when I was last in one.
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
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comet
Snowball in Hell
# 10353
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Posted
how silly of me to forget that your isolated lifestyle should be applied to all the rest of us across the world who don't happen to live in a tightly packed city with public transportation.
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Evil Dragon Lady, Breaker of Men's Constitutions
"It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.” -Calvin
Posts: 17024 | From: halfway between Seduction and Peril | Registered: Sep 2005
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QLib
Bad Example
# 43
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by quetzalcoatl:
It's an interesting debate, as it involves key ideas about sex and gender. Thus, the transphobic people (well, some of them) have a physicalist view of sex, but not gender, hence a trans woman cannot be a woman. The trans affirmative people are leaning towards social construction of sex as well as gender - hence, if you feel like a woman, you are a woman.
I don't think that those who deny the reality of transgender are denying the social construction of gender, they're saying: Not only were you born fe/male, but you were also raised as fe/male, even if you felt somehow inside that you were other. The 'social construction of gender' does not simply mean that people are whatever they feel they are.
In fact, arguably the boot is on the other foot - most transgender people are arguing, as I understand it, from an essentialist perspective - they believe thery were always essentially female (or male), despite both physical characteristics and upbringing. It is this essentialist view which is, I think, what some feminists are hostile to. And, personally, I think they have a point, though I would describe myself as an agnostic on this topic: I would never want to go so far as to argue that a transgender person is not "really" the gender they have become/adopted/reverted to/revealed. The transgender people I've met have been interesting, complex, intelligent people, people I can respect. That doesn't mean I have to agree with their understanding of the phenomenon of gender.
Ultimately, I would like to think that most feminists would accept that there are many different ways of being female or male.
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Tradition is the handing down of the flame, not the worship of the ashes Gustav Mahler.
Posts: 8913 | From: Page 28 | Registered: May 2001
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quetzalcoatl
Shipmate
# 16740
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Posted
QLib
I see you are using 'gender' to refer to what I call 'sex identity'. I find the discussion then becomes very confused, but then what do you use to refer to gender, i.e. masculinity and femininity, which are a separate category from sex identity?
I would say that trans women have changed sex, male to female. Whether they have changed gender is a separate issue, but they may have.
Thus the social construction of gender traditionally referred to notions of masculine and feminine identity, but not sex identity.
Your point about essentialism is interesting, but I can't really follow the rest because of the terminological confusion. It has increased because of the term 'transgender', which I would say is not about gender.
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I can't talk to you today; I talked to two people yesterday.
Posts: 9878 | From: UK | Registered: Oct 2011
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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
quote:
Penny S: As with the mall, the distribution was not random.
What do yo mean by that?
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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
Posts: 9474 | From: Brazil / Africa | Registered: Aug 2002
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QLib
Bad Example
# 43
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Posted
quetzalcoatl - I think the confusion is in the phenomenon. If you have an XY chromosome arrangement and are dressed and educated as masculine, but feel feminine, then your sex is male, but what is your gender? If you then have a 'sex change' operation and live out your perceived femininity, then it would seem you have changed your gender, as well as your sex, even though you are still XY. But that raises a whole load of questions about what gender is (and, to a lesser extent, what sex is).
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Tradition is the handing down of the flame, not the worship of the ashes Gustav Mahler.
Posts: 8913 | From: Page 28 | Registered: May 2001
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quetzalcoatl
Shipmate
# 16740
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Posted
QLib
Yes, I think one problem is that the term 'gender' has been changing in meaning, or at least, usage. I used to be in a 'gender studies group', a long time ago, I am sorry to say.
Anyway, we used to demarcate 'sex' as male/female, often then termed a biological difference; and 'gender' as masculine/feminine, often then termed cultural.
Of course, it was the latter which was seen as socially constructed, since people (well, some people) seem able to vary their gender at will. That is, I can be very macho to some people, and less so to others.
But today 'gender' is often being used to mean 'sex identity'.
Well, there is nothing I can do about it, but I wonder how far this will produce confusion.
I agree with you that transgender is itself complicated and blurs various boundaries. This may be one reason that it arouses so much angst, since people tend to like boundaries and feel safe behind them.
I can see both points of view - the transphobic person who doesn't want trans women in the women's toilets, and the trans woman, who is struggling to establish her identity, in the face of all this controversy.
I think the most radical theorists, such as Judith Butler, used to argue that sex identity itself, was socially constructed. This struck many people as quite bizarre, but maybe there is something in it. 'The sexed body is culturally conditioned', and so on.
There seem to be a number of different essentialisms - fascinating, but alas, space does not permit too much discussion.
Well, Butler posed an interesting question - is being a man or woman an aspect of biology or part of a 'regulative discourse'? One obvious reply is both!
[ 26. September 2013, 09:04: Message edited by: quetzalcoatl ]
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I can't talk to you today; I talked to two people yesterday.
Posts: 9878 | From: UK | Registered: Oct 2011
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:
quote:
Penny S: As with the mall, the distribution was not random.
What do yo mean by that?
Most of the cars in a particular rank were facing the same way. Elsewhere, there was no pattern to the distribution of those facing in or out. I am inclined to the conclusion that there was something about the rank where the cars mostly faced the same way which encouraged that, and did not exist in the other ranks. Except the one at the supermarket on Tuesday, which I had thought might be occupied by a different group of people, but which on Wednesday and today had gone to being higgledy piggledy. The ones where it was possible to drive forward through into the further rank, thus looking as if reversed in to, or the single rank, where the route of access could not be determined, remain apparently non-random.
In the private carpark next to the supermarket, all cars have reversed in. They have to drive out via the entrance road to the supermarket carpark, crossing the string of cars going in, and reversing would obviously be tricky.
This is getting silly. This morning I actually started to plan spending an hour watching arrivals and departures and recording by gender and on a map.
Basically, most drivers go in forwards. The gender of the drivers is mixed. I have seen both men and women go in forwards, and both men and women go in backwards. In terms of manoeuvres, both ways use the same number of turns, except in a few places where the layout of the carpark imposes extras.
The other thing I have noticed is that in most vehicles, the driver is equidistant from the front and the back of the vehicle, so visibility is not that different whichever way they are moving on the way out, providing that they take adequate care.
Unlike the woman who started reversing when I was already moving out of the space opposite her.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
I'm using "turns" to mean a change of direction. As in reversing in uses a one-point turn and no turn on the way out, and driving in forwards uses no turn on the way in and a one-point turn on the way out.
I'm still waiting for a man to comment on why so few men find it possible, even with the aid of powered side mirrors, to reverse up single track lanes between hedges when they are so superior in reversing in car parks. It's not hard. I can do it.
[ 26. September 2013, 11:56: Message edited by: Penny S ]
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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