Chiff and Fipple Forums

Speaking of 4:00 a.m. . . . My cat keeps waking me up at about 4:00 a.m. lately, but in a mysterious way. I don't hear her meowing, she's not clawing at me or stepping on me or pacing to wake me up. But I wake up at 4:00, and there she is, right beside me on the bed and staring down at me from more ...

Also, random linguistic curiosity...you say people are from 'away' too? It's a common saying in my current home in Maine (and I sort of assumed it was a Maine-only expression), but never in New Hampshire. I wonder where one demarcates the 'away' line... "From away...!" In college and a wh...

Ridley Scott is supposed to be making the movie version of Blood Meridian, but I gather it's in development hell. I sort of hope it stays there. I'm trying to wrap my head around a filmed version of something that springs up so much from the language of the book. (I'd probably go see it anyway, tho...

So what should be next in my queue? Pretty Horses? Have you read "Blood Meridian"? That's a great one (don't know about audiobooks, though; I've never tried one except for poetry compilations, to hear poets read their own work). Or you can try "Outer Dark" for a sort of existent...

Are you sure it's your hard drive making the whining noise? The fans inside computers that keep everything cool can get mighty noisy when working hard, and can sound pretty much like a jet getting ready to take off. It can be especially bad if the fans are worn; sometimes swapping them out for a new...

Had a pertinent conversation just this weekend with an old college friend: I did my undergrad work from '88 - '92, and entered college with a typewriter; if I needed a computer, I went to the computer lab at school. I finally bought a Mac Classic (I think) for my senior year: it didn't have a hard d...

------ That is amazing. Do you ever go to her egg dying party? I went years and years ago in Pt Richmond and have not gone again because of how far I live. The weekends are for lazing about Inverness. However, I'm pondering going this year..! So Wasabi likes you. She drew blood on me. I don't blame...

My Friend's Cutie... Playing my blackbird for my friend's white bird. She's the cutie pie, not me! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7R7hf-muwY Talk about small worlds -- you're a friend of BC's too! I occasionally bird-sit for Hamachi and Wasabi when our friend goes off to see another solar eclipse,...

So yesterday, I drove from my home in Oakland to San Francisco to attend the big orchid exposition that was held there over the weekend (and arrived an hour later than I thought I had -- damnable Daylight Savings Time!). Those of you who know San Francisco probably know how difficult it can be to fi...

Just a note that you may want to remove the posted details of Mr. Wilkes' contact information above, or garble them somehow, so that the poor fellow isn't suddenly overwhelmed with spam and telemarketing calls when the info-harvesting bots sweep over this page. Internet hooligans!

How about some adventure with a bit of romance, and good literary merit to boot? I'd have fallen all over myself in delight if I'd discovered the Aubrey/Maturin books by Patrick O'Brian at 17. Heck, I fell all over myself in delight when I found them in my late twenties. I still pick them up from ti...

Where do we carry that stuff? Often, we don't. (Or I don't.) I have my wallet, which contains my credit cards, cash, insurance cards. Cell phone and keys in my pants pockets or coat pocket. Didn't know people wrote checks anymore :wink: ; my checkbook is at home, and I write exactly one check per mo...

It would really be more practical to be on saltwater where it is really deep. You go *onto* the water, zombie goes *into* the water . . . shark's in the water. Shark bites zombie (or zombie bites shark). Now there's a zombie shark , which certainly *can* swim. And is hungry. "Farewell and adie...

The story doesn't really give an indication that the sighting is "confirmed" in any real sense, so I'm skeptical. I've been out with people who've mistaken bears, bobcats, dogs, coyotes, and even deer for a supposed "mountain lion" when hiking in an area where warning signs are p...

Good. I will attempt to explain to him. But what's the deal with the NASA alloy? Would it actually not feel hot while burning? I don't think so. Your kid may be confused about insulating/conducting properties. If a spaceship is swathed in metal, it's not because it burns cool, it's because it prote...