paul wheaton

Susan Holvenstot wrote:Hi, I'd love to come to this event, am travelling with my back pack by train and bus, from Mexico.  And its not looking easy to get to Missoula. So I'm asking -   could I get a ride with someone? I can get to Portland by mid afternoon, or Seattle anytime, any day.
Getting to Spokane puts me in at midnight, and to Missoula is 10 pm. Neither is my choice.
I'm older, female, and long time permaculture advocate livmg on Vancouver Island.
Any offers???   Thanks Susan cvec17@hotmail.com

There is bus service to missoula.

I think ash if flying in.  Not sure about bea.  

Time for the panel people to get online!

has anybody tried washing clothes with only baking soda?

Only salt?

Here is where I am at now:

about a third of the time, water only

about a third of the time, a quarter of the laundry detergent that is recommended

about a third of the time, a splash of apple cider vinegar


I never mix detergent and apple cider vinegar because the detergent does its magic through the power of alkalinity.  And the apple cider vinegar does its magic through the power of acidity.  Mixing them would cancel their powers.  


Mathing this out, this means that I am currently using a twelfth of the detergent that other people are using.   I have been using oasis brand laundry detergent because it is safe for feeding to plants.  Recently some people suggested it might not be safe for plants.   I like the idea of finding something better.  Something shelf stable.


I feel like if my clothes might have a lot of oils or greases on them, then it is detergent day.  If anything might be stinky, then it is vinegar day.  


I suspect that I wash my clothes more than the average person.  Or, at least i wash t-shirts and undies more.  I ride a fresh t and fresh undies every day.  I end up tossing in a small load of laundry once a week.  I mention this because my overalls might rack up a bunch of stuff, but they go for a ride in the wash about once a month.  


Soapnuts and other saponin based solutions are nice.  But I feel like they are not shelf stable. Make soapy water and keep it in the fridge.  It lasts about a week.  I suppose if somebody has a series of cups on their washer for "wash" instead of "rinse" you could choose to put soap nuts in there.  Some people leave the soap nuts in with the clothes during the wash and rinse cycles - i don't wanna do that.  


I like the vinegar path.  I might even swap it out for citric acid.  Or maybe do both, and swap back and forth from time to time.  

But today I like the idea of talking about emulsifiers, or possibly surfactants.  Things to get oils and greases out of clothes.  Something better than the oasis brand stuff.  

This morning I woke up to find that somebody was angry about the way the site is configured.  To ensure my obedience to their will, they suggested I am a "tin pot dictator".  

I asked google what it means.

A "tin-pot dictator" is a derogatory term for a petty, insignificant, or minor authoritarian ruler with little real power or political credibility, yet who possesses delusions of grandeur and behaves in a tyrannical manner. Often used to describe leaders in small or developing nations, these rulers are seen as inferior and unimpressive.

I like it.  I guess I should add this to all my stationery.  I added it to my signature.

I made a little web site with a little forum to talk about the things i wanna talk about the way i wanna talk about them.  Simple.  I pay the bills.  

And a lot of lovely people have come and supported this path.  Really nice!   I get to choose a lot of things because I pay the bills.  

I promise to be petty.

Being insignificant makes me sound thinner than i am.  Nice.

minor authoritarian ruler with little real power or political credibility

I suck at politics.  That's cool.  

As for power:  my last two kickstarters did poorly - so that shows that i don't have a lot of power.

delusions of grandeur

Mr. Rogers told me it is good to pretend.

behaves in a tyrannical manner.

This just sounds like fun!

Often used to describe leaders in small or developing nations, these rulers are seen as inferior and unimpressive.

A whole nation?  I guess I always just though of this place as "me and my buds" combined with me paying the bills, so I get to decide on some stuff.

With a nation, people have built homes and stuff.  They depend on their leaders to not fuck up.   With a site on the internet, people can just go to a different site or walk away from the internet entirely.

But, what the hell ...    tin pot dictator sounds like a good time.

paul wheaton wrote:Somebody wrote to the email river (gir bot) and raven brought it to my attention:

Hello Paul,

I started to listen to one of your podcasts, but the language was so shocking and dirty that I heard less than five minutes.  For this reason, I have not even tried to listen to any others of your podcasts, I have not bought some of the DVDs I was interested in, and would not feel I could attend any of your events.   I can’t afford to pay my hard-earned money for things I wouldn’t want to hear.

Now I am receiving e-mails with swearing in them.  I am a lady and am finding it necessary to become more demanding about treated as such since common courtesy seems to be quickly disappearing in this country.  I have come to the conclusion that if people aren’t embarrassed to use bad language, I shouldn’t need to feel embarrassed to tell them it offends me.

I must suggest that you clean up your language, or I will find it necessary to say farewell.

I apologize that this is short and blunt. I could spend several hours trying to find the exactly right wording, but I don’t have the time right now.

I need to thank people that choose to fear words to this degree.  If everybody was cool with the full beauty of the english language, the divine works of robin williams would be 30% less funny.  So I do deeply appreciate the offended people so that I can laugh 30% louder.

And that's why I giggled a little when I locked this account.

Rereading some of this thread ...

First, I seem to recall Margaret Thatcher once stating "Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't".


But more importantly, the person complaining is a shamer.  Shaming others is powerful to get your way, so they do it often.  I'm glad they do it.  Not only because of the robin williams factor mentioned above, but because they wave their shamer flag and we can spot fuckwits quickly.  Then, as we grow and build our community, it has fewer fuckwits.

paul wheaton wrote:

paul wheaton wrote:A new monthly record!

      11,684,533 visits!

that was november.

december:  12,609,023


january


      17,175,586 visits!

And now February


      21,291,300 visits!

I think the thing I am advocating is that you are part of a group that does all this stuff 40 hours a week, then you are doing it.  And without the group, you might end up not doing it.

The "gardening gardeners" model is something where, I think, people end up being 20x more productive.  Not only because of the collective schedule, but because of the powerful knowledge exchange.  

On your own, you would need 20x the gumption to come close.  And in the group it all becomes easier.

Mark Brunnr wrote:Within the 'What's Pie', 'Build Up Your Pie' blurb, it mentions earning pie by getting enough apples. Didn't that option go away several years back? Or is there a one-time threshold of apples that gets you pie that this refers to, rather than getting pie for every X apples?

I'm not sure, but i think the current system is that when people get 20 apples, they get one slice of pie.  But they don't get any more apple based pie freebies after that.  

Maybe folks can confirm that this is the way things are working now?