Fencing Gear
Finally, after about 6 months of having taken up sabre fencing, I’ve finally gotten around to buying myself a set of gear, instead of using my instructor’s spares.
So now I’m wondering: does carrying my sword on the subway count as “carrying a concealed weapon”? Could I get in trouble for it? The sword isn’t as sharp as a knife, but I could still probably do some serious damage with it if I really wanted to. And the blade is more than four inches long, which a quick google suggests is the cutoff between “utilitarian knife” and “weapon” in New York.
I’m not really worried about this, since I assume there’s some provision for sporting equipment. But I am curious.
Musing | Comment (0)Tooth Fairy
Man, I’ve been getting absolutely socked by comment spam lately. Of course, I don’t let you, my devoted readers, see it–I moderate all comments. But I’ve gone from one or two a day to dozens, and my filters aren’t helping a lot.
Anyway, what I’m here to post about: Who was the first parent who thought of the Tooth Fairy? Who was the first one who said, “hey, kid, that part of your body that just fell out? Just put it under your pillow and you’ll get some cash tomorrow.” What a weird concept.
Meta, Musing | Comment (0)Popsicle Sticks
Why do I have a little baggie of popsicle sticks in my desk? Or miniature tongue depressors, or something. It’s a sealed baggie, at that. I’m baffled.
Musing | Comment (0)Nuke Dream
I had a dream the other night where a nuclear bomb went off nearby. I wasn’t close enough to be vaporized by it, but I saw the mushroom cloud and knew I had to escape.
I wonder if it was tied to these thunderstorms we’ve been having the past few days? I can easily imagine myself asleep, hearing a massive thunder clap (like the one I just heard) and turning it, in a dream, into a bomb going off.
Musing | Comment (0)Dime Value
Did you ever notice that the US dime doesn’t say anywhere on it how much it’s worth? It just says “One Dime”. If you don’t know how much a dime is, that adds no information.
Come to think of it, none of the coins in my pockets have actual numerical representations of how much they’re worth on them, but the penny says “One Cent” and the quarter says “Quarter Dollar”, so those are a little easier, at least.
Most of the foreign coins I’ve handled have clear numbers on them showing how much they’re worth (and thank goodness, when I go to places like Thailand where I would never be able to puzzle out the numbers otherwise). I wonder if our coins confuse foreign visitors?
Musing | Comment (0)Funny visual effect
My whole department is moving to another floor, and I’m packing up my crap today. Part of that is pulling things off of my walls. I just pulled down a couple of pieces of paper that had normally been right at the edge of my field of vision when I was looking at my computer screen. It’s just a blank white wall where the sheets used to be.
And it’s the funniest thing: now, when I look at my computer screen, I feel like there’s a little blind spot in my vision where those sheets used to be. I have to look over at the wall to remind my eyes that it’s not a blind spot, it’s just a white wall. It feels really weird.
Musing, Work | Comment (0)Time-Travel Murder?
Imagine there’s a guy you really don’t like. So you travel back in time and prevent his parents from having sex on the particular night he was conceived. They end up having some other child, but not him.
Are you guilty of murder?
What if they don’t end up having some other child, does that make it any different?
Musing | Comment (0)