This is gonna be the thread where we talk about stuff

I have returned, but its only because I wanted Professor Utonium to have closure and finish that pea

your the peas knees

Exams are half way over (for me)!!! Horray!

Wooooo I finally got the physical films of my MRIs

I've never had cross-sections of my body photographed before so I was rather disappointed when I wasn't given them at the first follow-up appointment

Did they reveal the alien symbiote living deep in your body?

If you meant the ovarian cyst I'm going to have to get surgically removed at some point before it eventually starts fucking with my fertility, which could qualify as "alien" considering it's caused by specialized tissues not being where they're supposed to, then

Yeah. Sure.

post #666
time to post devils


(please don't take this as a hint that i'm going to update soon, i'm not)

Congrats on your diabolical milestone.

I've been kind of absent for a while, would you guys mind telling me what's been going on around these parts? What you've been up to and all that.

Today I learnt that in New Hampshire, there's a law that says if your town has less than 100 registered voters you can close the (presidential primary) polls once you know everyone's voted.

Several places (Dixville North, Hart's Location, Millsfield) have several dozen registered voters each, so everyone shows up at the polling location at midnight, casts their vote, and then results are announced sometimes a couple of minutes after midnight.

all registered voters in Dixville Notch gather and are counted before the balloting takes place. The "Ballot Room" of the Balsams Hotel resort serves as the polling place; this room features separate voting booths for each citizen. The town residents also vote each cycle at a town meeting whether or not they will continue the tradition.

The tradition was first organized by prominent Dixville Notch resident Neil Tillotson (1898 – 17 October 2001), who was traditionally the first voter; he would reportedly hold his ballot over the ballot box while watching his wristwatch. At the moment of midnight, Tillotson would drop the ballot into the ballot box and the rest of the town's residents would follow suit.

Since Tillotson's death from pneumonia in 2001 at the age of 102, the first voter has been chosen by random ballot beforehand.

This is actually adorable and I love it????

E: a twitter with high-quality dogpix

Wait but if they announce their results does that mean they can affect other counties' votes? Also how does a town only have nine voters; are there just lots of babies or something o_o

Dixville Notch's population in the 2010 census was 12, so 3 babies. Maybes.

And as for influence, I mean, this is literally the 2nd state out of 50 doing the polls (the first was Iowa), so by that argument you should make every state vote at the same time so you don't get disproportionally-white early-primary states setting the tone for the race when they're not even demographically representative of the other 48.

Of course that would a) make a shred of goddamn sense and b) deprive the sense of pride these early states get for being First In The Nation™ to go to the polls (often for completely arbitrary reasons).

Always for completely arbitrary reasons*

Iowa basically doesn't matter at all on a national level for the majority of the time, being low in population, size, and wealth, but...

In 1972, the revised Democratic rules coming out of the 1968 debacle required that notice be given of caucuses and primaries that would select party delegates. Prior to that, party bosses could schedule primaries without telling anyone. But the new rules required a 30-day requirement. Iowa’s system has four parts — the caucus, then the county convention, then the congressional district conventions, then the state conventions — so, to give a 30-day notice for all of them, Iowa had to start advertising early.The second part, the state convention, is normally held in June. In 1972, they looked and found there were no available hotel rooms in Des Moines on the planned weekend. So they pushed the convention back. And that meant they had to push the caucuses back. And that’s how they ended up in January, in front of New Hampshire. It was not a plan, and in 1972, it made no difference. Edmund Muskie spent about a day there. But in 1976, Jimmy Carter’s campaign noticed Iowa was first and decided to invest some time. He ultimately came in second to uncommitted, but his win got him attention, and ultimately helped him get to the White House.

Iowa’s two parties realized very early on that this was advantageous, so they agreed to hold their caucuses on the same day. And then they wrote into Iowa law that the caucuses must be the first event. New Hampshire’s laws say they have to be the first primary, which is what lets Iowa stay in front. But both say they’ll go as early as they have to go.

[E]very cycle we have this question of whether somebody will try and leapfrog or jump ahead and that’s how we get frontloading. The national parties try to penalize those who do that. [In 2012], for instance, Florida [only got] half of its delegates because it violated the rules by trying to go early. So the system stays in stasis through a combination of Iowa and New Hampshire jealously guarding their privileges and the national parties penalizing anyone who tried to change the status quo.

I think even most Americans don't realize how stupid, complicated, and resistant to change our system is. I firmly believe at this point the primary reason Iowa wants to stay first is just the money the attention brings, given that the Iowa results are a pretty poor predictor of how the overall race will go.

Wait so it's a gentlestates' agreement that Iowa can't stop apportioning delegates via the debacular obtuseness that is the caucus+convention system, because conducting a primary would step on NH's toes? I did read the thing about booked-out hotel rooms being the chief reason the entire rigmarole was pushed forward, but didn't realise it secondarily fucks things up if Iowa stops caucuses.

America's election system is kind of a complete joke, but at least we managed to get some good dog pics out of it.

goin on a plane tomorrow to visit gen
been feeling nonstop anxious about the airport process for the last week
i bought my tickets, i have a phone, i have the few phone numbers i need, i have my luggage almost entirely packed (last minute things being my phone and junk). my carry-on bag might be too big if they count the straps?? what if they mix something up and don't give me my ticket?? what if, what if, what if.

i know the visit will be super great and fun but first i have to get there.

thank you!
I think I've gotten everything ready that i need? so I'm not super nervous anymore. The last thing is that my dad- oh shoot i forgot to talk about that
my dad started his cancer radiation therapy on the 8th. Every weekday at 2 PM he has to go to the clinic. It seems to be going well enough for him so far...
well, my flight's at 5 PM, and it takes about... 45 minutes to get to the airport? and dad gets back from his treatments a little before 3, so... we don't have a ton of time to spare. It's probably still plenty enough time to get to the airport and get me into the waiting area in time and junk, though.

Well, time to log out. Seeyaaaaaa!

g0m traveled through twitter and tumblr to magically appear in my facebook feed today.

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Isn't literally everyone on this site a millennial?

Depending on your exact definition of the time period, Dragon Fogel might not be, and it's also feasible but unlikely that there could be a young teen on the forum from whatever the as-yet unnamed generation after that is (although the time periods for that are even more loosely defined).

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good for them

I am at the fuzzy border between Gen X and Millenial.

when is akumu and fogel going to make dadgle time

Let's be honest here, the most likely project for me and Akumu to collaborate on would be some kind of ridiculous puzzle that we would then inflict on you all.

the puzzle to unlock the Ultimate Dad Joke