Information is power

[james_davis_nicoll]

As a token of appreciation for me doing the legowrk while the exgf recovers, she got me a spiffy new drink container (of a brand recommended here but which I forget just now). It's about 1000 ml and has provided me with an interesting bit of information: every time I pick it up to have a drink, I consume 4 ounces. This would explain why I find most glasses annoyingly puny.

Comments

[lisatheriveter.livejournal.com]

Dude. Anonymous got all that from a post about WATER BOTTLES?! I'd hate to see what happens when you post about your cats.

I enjoy reading your interesting asides posts. They are footnotes to my day, and I dearly love footnotes.

[(Anonymous)]

It's dreadfully AOL, I know, but I wanted to second this. In fact, James, there are some people around there who prefer those asides to long and serious analysis of the percentage of water on Titan...

Ewa Pawelec, Poland

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

There must be some way to combine them...

"I don't know how many people have ever had to suit an outdoor cat up in their little heated jackets, booties and air-bottles so they can relieve themselves outside. In fact, I would guess that this is close to zero because most people will be able to envision what the consequence of "liquid urine + 100 K" means, particularly in combination with a not especially patient cat who does not appreciate being frozen to the ground by a concrete-hard slab of solid pee-ice.

At that, it's better than the time we found out why hot urine and methane ice make a bad combination. The resulting steam explosion sent shards of solidified piss over a surprisingly large radius and very curiously, the people who design titan-suits don't seem to have taken into account the possibility that their product will have to stand up to a gail of lethally pointed fragments of urine."

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Bravo!

[disassembly_rsn]

*ponders*

How much context does J. Random Reader need to understand 'I found a nifty new water bottle', anyway?

[brooksmoses]

Apparently J. Random Reader subscribes to the school of critiquing that believes that, in order to properly understand the symbology and meaning in a work, one must interpret the text within in the context of everything that's ever been known about who the author is and what they think and what influenced them. Otherwise, it's completely impossible to have a reasonable idea whether or not the niftiness of the water bottle symbolizes a belated reaction to chronic dehydration in his early teen years, or is merely a Freudian symbol of wishing to deny the loss of the mother-baby relationship.

[(Anonymous)]

LOL - you make me realize something important that got lost in my own defensive reactions. Sometimes whim is just a whim. And in *my* interminable search for meaning in everything, I'm aghast to realize how meaningless such a search is. In the end I'm glad that James finds happiness sharing whatever it is he wishes to share, and if it doesn't resonate with me, well, it's no skin off my back nor does it reflect poorly on James. It just IS.

This insight is worth a lot to me. Thank you for inspiring it.