expert...

yeah.... probably won't be finishing tonight, but can't resist a preliminary poke at it. :)

yeah...

hey everyone

hey raggedy

hows the puzzle working out for u guys so far?

it's an expert, but it doesn't look like terrible

kind of progressing steady

(I just started so...)

good to hear

I have a couple, but it's not going fast :)

kind of stuck after 8

got 9 filled in myself, but now i'm stuck too

guessing is AWESOME*

messing up is even better

almost as much fun as filling in tons of greens

too much for me tonight. Good luck, folks :)

gnight

how many did you get, raggedy?

before i messed up?

*before realizing that i messed up

did you?

ya, i had to start over, but i had all but maybe 7 or 8 of them

ouch

moe, i cant remember which moe u r, but yes that did hurt especially considering the fact that i should be asleep

good luck with it tomorrow :)

ty, been working on all that stuff for hw and what not for around 7 or 8 hrs today

man, i can't find *anything* to eliminate now

some people claim to be able to do these expert ones without guessing, and i'd love to see the tricks they use

me too :)

i think they're bluffing :)

hard sudoku is glorified guesswork. which is why they're really dumb and I really ought not to commit so much time to them.

so be it. i've made my guess.

the guesswork is certainly easier with checkpoints

I guess so...

where do you stand now, raggedy?

Way to pun, Lawfully.

not good

going to go for guess now...

running out of focus...

i hear ya

Unsolvable with 2 left.

This puzzle and yesterday's were designed to make me want to kill.

ouch

whoops

done

was yesterday that bad? I don't remember it that way...

congrats, raggedy

any trick to recommend?

I don't know, I decided I'd rather drive off a bridge than try to solve a sudoku for another hour, so I quit. I think I'm getting there on this one too.

ty, took going both ways on one guess, hence the restart, other than that its just normal stuff

moe, u still there?

i do it systematically, with the lowest number on the first box in the top row

hrm, which just seems to have failed, after filling in most of the grid :(

welcome to sudoku

i have to say, i kind of hate today's puzzle

done, with just one guess

lucky guess :)

andy, i'm here - barely

done...didn't guess per say, but I can not say why I felt something had not to be something...so I guess it was a guess

I can talk myself into a circle pretty well

the center box seems to be the pivot point

i got the center early on, it doesn't seem to have helped a lot

just tried to find a slot with just 2 possibilities and most impact and started with one... and I guess I was really lucky...

never had to stop after deciding on that... :)

thats usually what i do law, im off to bed

gnight all

night

gnight...

80 minutes on a sudoku. No luck. I quit.

so by tracing down the consequences of the choice between 4&7 in the top box, the rest worked itself out.

ugh.

i've never guessed on a puzzle before, is it normal to have to on an expert puzzle? i've only tried harder ones like these a few times.

I find that if I have the patience to sit there long enough, I can almost always figure things out without guessing

That said, on experts, I often lose patience, give up and guess :)

excellent. oh, i liked your first message better :\

wheres the logic in guessing? that doesn't seem challenging.

shoot

*chuckle* Usually, I only guess if I've gone an hour without making progress through logic ;)

then it seems i'll just have to accept the idea of guessing eventually :)

Depends on how stubborn you are and how much free time you have, I guess ;)

The problem is, not everyone finds fun in challenging puzzles. With that said, guessing bores me.

after the last 30 minutes, i may just stick with my oh so stimulating 2 minute puzzles.

Do you use paint SCV?

i do.. not sure if anyones around. i forgot about this for a bit :\

I'm trying to complete this one without paint.

Whew, one guess and it all fell into place....

couple of miss routed goes but got there in the end. One guess seems to be the standard

hi all

HI

.

Done, without the guessing.

well done, its a bit tricky this one

I didn't want to resort to paint, but I decided that I needed to break my handicap if I wished not to lose sleep, which is for the weak, which modifies my state of being perfectly.

paint?

Shift and alt keys for green and red.

ahh. It'd be very impressive to do an expert with no greens

right

using greens is to help with memory, not logic. Doesn't make you a better player to not use greens

maybe

You're right, but I'm not sure it doesn't make you a better player, I'd say if one person can do it without greens and another with, the one without could reasonably be said to be better

gotta run

better memory

The key term in my statement included the word handicap. Night.

Good afternoon all

very difficylt...

Perhaps not having a telephone conversation at the same time will help :)

grin

I wonder if being able to rotate the grin 90 degrees would help spot things...

Anything at all that would help would be an improvement. I am stuck.

*tries rotating the grid*

expert is about right!

Yeah, I feel like a beginner right now.

defintely, I think it is brute force time

well can you send some my way peter?

I think I need greens.

I'm using greens! LOL

only managed to place 8 numbers!

I have 9. Sad, isn't it.

pitiful

8? You're one up on me ;-)

Not that I can see them through all the green mess

ooh, ive placed 9 so far. ;)

All stuck at the same brick wall. At least the company is good.

First one after vacation, it's nice to see such a green scenery :)

hahaha

Now I can't sleep, wonderful.

Light at the end of the tunnel... and now I hope I won't come across any pink before getting there

all that green and red mess will do that to a person

my one lucky guess and completed it hahahaha. OK not the way I like to finish these puzzles but I just thoght sod it and yippee done!

Wow, that was really challenging. Done too.

Have a nice day :)

Think i forgot my somewhere during vacation, can't seem to get hang of this...

+brain :)

Oooh

Haven't seen an "expert" puzzle in a while

*WHEW*
got through it, but had to make a guess...

That bad, huh?

a screaming child is really distracting I have to say!

yep, pretty bad

arghhh

lol, I feel your pain. ;)

ooo, ooo, I got a number, that's 8 now ;-)

haha. I'm using greens and I'm only up to 11 right now.

17 numbers

done

sadly, I resorted to guessing

woo, easy

is this one possible without guessing?

In theory, all f them are possible without guessing.

it's a nice theory

the last few experts have all been solveable

the first few dr god posted required guessing tho

i just need to know which advanced tactic to use

strauzzle: switch back and forth between looking for collisions and singles. most of the time those two techniques will get you through, but occasionally you have pairs that don't want to be solved till very late in the puzzle

just finished, thanks. it was my mistake; had an extra possibility marked. *whoops*

you also need to figure pairs into collisions if you have two squares that are side by side, and both can only be 6 or 7, then no other squares along the same line can be.

good luck everyone.

i am not looking forward to this

ooh, an expert!

grendei - i'm not familiar with the term "collisions" - you mean row/block or column/block intersections, I wonder?

this one is _rough_. the scanraid solver almost exclusively used evil strategies

Ugh. I still only have 9.

me too. bet they're the same ones! :)

taking a break for a bit

hello

This is not the best puzzle for a monday

monday monday

babble was unbelievably easy so i guess this balances the day out

Wow! Just found an amazing site: http://www.sudokusolver.co.uk/

there is another great sudoku solver

who knows the one hurshy means? :) someone out there does, i can feel it

is it just me or are the easy ones always on the weekends?

just you

however, it is easily checked, just go back and look at the archives.

I won't offer any proof to my theory. :)

that is very unscientific of you

nah, just lazy

laziness is unscientific. don't you know the old saying, "the lazye scientiste never gets ye nobel prize"

well, gotta go make lunch. will have to come back to this one later.

hmmm, tough crowd.

fine then, i shall sing.

you see that stone fell through my pocket...and that lock of hair blew away with the wind. if you chance to meet upon either, well, you know where they've been. but don't pick them up or try to find me, they're much happier to be on their own. beauty like that knows no home...

iiiiiiiiiiiiiit's supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious, if you say it loud enough you'll always sound precocious, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

hmm, yes, i did think babble was suspiciously easy... now i pay for it!

heidy ho krys

howdy!

babble was so easy, i blinked and i had 93, so i made myself get to 100 without the stats panel

usually i just look at stats panel after half

you're fr more disciplined than i. :)

you're fr more disciplined than i. "_

far more, i meant

you have to find some way to make the puzzle go slower otherwise what would you do all day?

somehow i don't have that problem, running out of ways to fill my day!

how's summer vacation been for you now that you're back from your trip?

good. actually i have got a lot of stuff done.

working on a cat behavior problem though.

uh-oh that could take a LOT of energy!

no just...outsmarting

BB gun ..

well...actually...not outsmarting...more like trying desperately to please the cat

water pistol

tor!

jk

no, not that kind of problem

tired of being snubbed? our cat is such a princess...

it involves going in places other than litterbox. 6 years old and suddenly this.

did you take it to the vet? sometimes suddenly forgetting litter-box training is cus of health issues

so i have got a mini ionic breeze to put by the boxes to help reduce odor, i've moved it further from the food, i've got new boxes.

no, it started when i was real busy this winter and didn't keep it clean enough. i can see why someone would have got annoyed. but now i can't seem to convince her that it IS clean now

her annual checkup is coming up so if i haven't got it to stop by then i'll certainly talk to the vet then.

good heavens, i've created a forest.

ah, i understand the problem. i'm forever trying to convince three-year-olds there's no problem where they think there is one

ohhh...kids are MUCH harder than cats.

there was a waterstain on their ceiling. every night at bedtime, they freaked out about that. finally their mom got someone to paint it white

lol, when i was a teenager, one day i felt my room did not smell quite fresh enough. so i swiped some deodorant onto the ceiling, figuring it wouldn't show cause both were white. wrong. the mark is still there 12 years later.

hehe, my younger sister once got into my brothers deoderant and covered his basketball with it. he was not happy

ewww, no

i am cold

ok got fleece and socks.

cold here too - painting the exterior of the house, so all the windows are open

what color?

"lemongrass" kind of light olive.

right now it's lemony yellow

looking forward to a change

intriguing

how many numbers have you placed?

9!

excellent, that should mean i can place at least one more then

i've been stuck at nine for a long long time

i'd give an oreo to be stuck at nine

ooh! i like oreos

who doesn't?

if it's any help, i have two digits placed in the top third, five digits in the middle third, and two digits in the bottom third

ah, see i only have one in the bottom third

hi

thats exactly where i am

hmm i have 10, neat

i am brought low in shame

which likely means one is wrong

intersections... it's all about intersections, it seems

krys, in the bottom, a 9 and a what?

2

oh, duh

how did i miss that. i know how, it's that i can't see the trees for the forest.

:)

ok, for all of us who are stuck at nine - there's a lot of thiings that can be removed because of block/row or block/column intersections, and after that i think you need a comprehensive chain

i hate those

yeah.

i concur with all of the above...er...below

hey how bout that! i'm stuck too

so now that we're here... i would love tips about how to start looking for a comprehensive/forcing chain. usually this is where i feel like i have to resort to guessing

or "the elaborate game of what-if"

that is what it is, krys, sadly.

i like to choose a 50-50, but then often they don't get me far

really? how disappointing

i'm printing out a few copies of where i'm at so i can play with it a bit on paper

i mark a trail of my chain in red

i started with row4 col6 and it's going not badly

i was thinking row 7 col 4

well that one is in my chain now, that may mean it will work just as well

course my chain could also be the wrong guess!

how do you make a red number?

alt-click

thanks

i just got a conflict in my chain, so i know what R7C4 is. yay.

i have no conflicts yet

oop there's one

this is lovely

i hope i haven't oopsted

hi all

hi ho

how is it today?

easy

forcing chain needed wethinks

aw yul

i think so

are you going w/o forcing chains?

what's forcing chain?

damn it, those make it really hard

without greens. but i didn't finished yet, may be there is a trap at the end :)

it's when you guess and see where the guess leads to, if there is a contradiction then your guess was wrong

Stephanie: think guessing, except you keep track of different possibilities until you get to an impossible solution

a focing chain is a series of reasoning steps "if this were a 4, then that must be a 8, which means that can't be an 8" etc until you get to a conflict, proving your initial assumption was wrong

YUL, good heavens. well, i didn't really try to think very long before i went to the greens and the chain.

*tries to console herself*

i have to finish first, to make sure...

well, i'm finished.

but i do hate marking and forcing chains. i like to do it all in my head. however sometimes i get impatient.

nice one, hurshy!

yes after the one i got from the forcing chain, it all went like dominoes

can you imagine how high a cat could jump on the moon? assuming it could get over its utter terror and confusion.

"that's one small pounce for a cat, one giant leap for kittenkind"

can't wait to hear yul's results *dances with anticipation*

it's a kitten invasion; we will be overcome by cuteness

Done... that one was nasty

and you, arturion? forcing chain?

uh oh.. i screwed up somwehere - no solutions

will start over later

even during my forcing chain i had to think a bunch

which is good of course, otherwise i would feel cheap

all blank *sigh* bbl

yuuuuuuuuuuuul, give us an update, luv

not good. mad a mistake. sorry, i spoke too soon

Wow. Got it.

GL all.

twin what about you? forcing chain or no?

ah well yul, at least you gave it the old college try

my survey is not meeting with much success.

i zacksidentally sprayed my knee with swiffer solution this morning and it smells all swiffery

I haven't used forcing chains

those who have finished have taken off, and the rest of us are still stuck :)

ut I've only just started :P

i have to mark now, tought...

yeah, atalante, wait 'til you get nine digits placd and stare at it for another fifteen minutes..

but i ask them to answer my survey right when they finish, i don't know why they can't answer before taking off

maybe if you offered a $10 off coupon or something...

ata did you finish babble? wasn't it super easy?

$10 off what?

i don't know, i just know that when i get surveys in the mail that have a dollar bill or a coupon or somethign tucked inside i'm more likely to do it

not *hugely* easy!

but i don't have a business, i don't have anything to give coupons for

really? i thought it was one of the easiest ever. second only to that one we had not long ago with the O's

good for you :P

i could give coupons for personalized songs written by hurshy...

:P yourself

i think my brain just works better today bc i sprayed my knee with swiffer solution. i may have to make it part of my morning routine.

a swiffer a day helps you work rest and play

all those lovely chemicals...

hey cute!

lol

did that used to be a jingle for something else? it sounds familiar

Mars bars - here at least!

yeah i think here it was snickers

no no, maybe milky way, since that is what is equivalent to your mars bar

yeah, then it rhymes, milky way day

that's what it was

really? then our milky way is different to your milky way!

what's in your milky way?

uh oh I have 9 numbers

whippy fluffy stuff

*evil laugh*

JUST whippy fluffy stuff?

that's like our 3 musketeers then.

yup. with choc around it

yes!

our milky way has the whippy fluffy stuff with caramel

and our mars bar...what IS in our mars bar, i don't know if i've had one, they aren't very popular

milky way ice cream bars are way good

mars bars are so sickly sweet they are impossible to eat 99% of the time, but the other 1% they are *perfect*

you brits are just wimps, we eat milky way all the time :)

everything is sweeter in america!

did i tell you about the mini-supermarket i saw? i thought, isn't that just... a market?

hee hee - not exact inverse functions, I guess

but still a rah-ther silly thing to call a tore

store

ok, I'm off to paint for a while before tackling all the rest of the numbers!

oh did anyone watch inspector lewis on mystery last night?

there was such a funny joke about a plaque in some pub or something that said "heisenberg may have eaten here"

and then later lewis asked the professor who'd told it, "that heisenberg joke... uncertainty principle, right?" and the professor goes, "i'm not sure"

HA!

very classy!

it gave me quite the chuckles

there was this whole hamlet parallel going on, too, it was neat

oops, just accidentally started over instead of returning to checkpoint. oh well, probably won't hurt me.

on the contrary, you have now caused your grid to run with scissors

ah well, off with me now

Hmm, I figured with 8 hours of sleep and breakfast in me, that more of these numbers would fall into place!

But no such luck...

finally

hello

...

...

!!!

man, my board is completely hosed. i don't know how this happened. now i have to start all over.

jeebus! by far the hardest puzzle I've encountered here or anywhere to date

nah, one of the experts we had before was worse. but maybe that's cause i was mad about forcing chains then.

i have now moved through all the stages of grief and reached acceptance

I thought I'd clean up my archives before I tackle todays...

hiya hursh!!

I may have missed that one then (not being registered and all, I can't go back to check things out). This one though... good grief... I was reduced to solving by brute force guesswork

okay, the accidental restart has not turned out well. I think I have less numbers filled in than before.

hurshy, are you talking about the july 18 expert? that one was tough, fo sho

I think 7/18 was rated "hard"

hmm..maybe I don't see things the way they really are

i'd love to see experts that, instead of requiring guesswork, used different formats like jigsaws or something

guessing is just monotonous

esp. when the guessing leads nowhere

I'm not sure that this requires guessing - I was just out of strategies and getting frustrated

cue "this one's easy - I did it with no greens or checkpoints" members

sorry, but those people annoy me

Ш вшв ше! цшер дщпшс!

you've never seen that here?

oops

I did it! was what I said

done. made a somewhat guess but it was correct

hokie - I just ignore them...I work on the grids at my own slow little pace until it's been conquered... 8 )

Peed doesn't matter ... it's the journey that counts ;-)

narr: I don't even see you in the box before now, so obviously I wasn't talking about you personally (unless you usually do that)

Speed even

Adr - i thought maybe you had to use the 'loo'

i go away and chatter breaks out

Yea the Journey to the Loo thats important!

i was not talking about 7/18, but one much longer ago. i think it was the very first expert on the site.

quick, everybody shhh

hursh...I was wondering if you'd left...I said a hullo awhile back & got no response 8 (

i went over to babble auntie, cause it was so quiet here

ah...I am (shhhh) doing this a a mini-break in my work day...

have you been following stidmama's story??

*ok i'll whisper*

nope, have missed it, suppose i'll catch up sometime on babanon

I'm quite enthralled with the story....I have these wonderful images in my head....

well no spoilers now

I'd never dream of it!!

i'm cold. see y'all later!

bye

stay warm...see ya later!

phew finished, took a few retrys tho, and had to guess

congrats Adr...I shall tackle today's after I finish the archive I'm working on...have a nice evening!!

Thanx and you all enjoy the rest of the day

bye all...I'll be back (hopefully) later to tackle today's expert!! good luck....

go

there goes helen again

:)

hiya hurshy!

hi helen

hey hursh - were you informed of your new post in nut's administration?

i keep meaning to leave my computer

hmm, what? no!

what post have i got?

lol- no you don't, you love your computer, you could never leave it - it might jump off a bridge if you left it, it sure would be brokenhearted

lol helen, i only meant, you know, temporarily.

but what is my post??

nut is going to make a run for president & we are all going to be in her cabinet/administration - someone nominated you to head the cia, but for some odd reason

your post has something to do with chocolate -you must make some mean chocolate

hmmm, interesting

what does chocolate have to do with the cia?

i thought it was funny - cause the cia sounds right up your alley

is it going to become the Chocolate Intelligence Agency?

no, nothing to do with the cia - completely separate position

LOL -huh

oh so i lost the cia nomination

that could only be an improvement :)

yes - i believe yours was a direct nut appointment

ok, i WILL be in charge of cups and ice! i mean, chocolate.

you think we have an obesity problem now, you just wait til i'm Minister of Chocolate

ok - you leave your computer & i am going to sudoku - i had to restart yesterday as nancy drew talk threw me completely off

ROFLMAO !!!!!!

ok bye byeeeeee

cups & ice - I LOVE IT !!!!!!

bye

you do get the friends reference then?

yup

episode

ok good :) laters!

great episode - later

great episode - later

great episode - later

great episode - later

FINALLY GOT IT AFTER SEVERAL GUESSES. NO LOGICAL WAY TO SOLVE THIS ONE, UNFORTUNATELY. GOOD LUCK TO ALL.

hello again

hey yul - how r u doing on today's grid?

oh, btwrt, i had to stat over second time. i had a break and now i am doing it a bit :). what about you?

i just started it ... but it looks gruesome ;)

i think it is, lol

i am going to mark up greens and look into 2/7 combo in the middle

i'm just starting marking up areas where there are only two possibles of a number ...

i see...

not getting anywhere ;)

i have to finish cooking, laters

big ben strikes 12

back again

hey

5 points well earnt.

good fo babbler!

thanks. : ) I was worried as last week's expert nearly finished me!

lol

once bitten, twice shy and all that. :s

i had a very hard time with it too

I got this one first guess. Let me know if you want me to share.

thanks. i'm trying to solve 2/7 cell in the middle now.

ok. well I'm just having some tea and updating my icons, so I'll be here a little while. Give me a shout if you need. : )

thanks :)

7 could not be there!!!

hehe

still at it i see yul

hey hursh : )

hey babs :)

babbler, you know me pretty well in an internetish sort of way. what do you think would be an ideal career for me?

o yes. and making mistakes. have to stop chatting and concentrate harder

lol! easy. teacher!! :D

are you only saying that cause you know i'm already in that field?

no. you suit your career perfectly. why do you ask? are you looking for a change of scene?

well it isn't a career... yet... i've only tutored, and this past year taught 2 classes. and it looks like i can't teach much this coming year (long story). but i thought i should, you know, step back and consider lots of ideas. was just pondering law school. took a sample of LSAT questions, found it quite easy.

yeah, I could see you doing law. My sister is a lawyer, I don't know if you remember me mentioning.

i don't remember. the only thing is, i worry about going into all that debt. i know lawyers make lots of money, but i've never been very good at working really hard for lots of hours, and what if i am miserable working and just have to in order to pay back loans?

Well, I don't know about the States, but my sister had to work VERY hard earning not very much for a very long time before she saw anything good. It's mega hard work, and she doesn't have much time for socialising. Doesn't always pay either. It's an average salary until you rise in a company. And promotion takes forever.

what kind of law does your sister do? what are her hours like? how long did it take to pay off loans? does she like her work?

my sister is in family law. So that's divorce, that sort of thing.

it might be a little better in the states, esp if i go to a top school, which i think i probably could.

hours = all day and all evening.

it took her years to pay off her loans. I don't even know if she has yet or not. She's been working for a number of years now, and is about to be promoted.

it's just unfortunate, if you would like a certain type of work, but it isn't possible to do that type of work without working ridiculous hours.

and if we have too many lawyers and lawsuits, how come they all need to work so much?

it's definitely not a line of work you can do 9-5 and leave at the office and enjoy an evening. There is NO work / life balance, as far as I can see.

does she work for a large company, in a city? i wonder if it is different in small private practices in suburban areas.

but what about a support role in law? would that appeal to you?

she works in Manchester, which is the UK's second largest city. or something like that. I don't know if it's a large or small company.

i don't know. the trouble is it is so hard to have an idea of what day-to-day life with a certain job is like.

oh, it's not a small private practice. so it must be a big company.

the only way to get an idea is to volunteer for a week or so and do something like a 'work placement'. Another way to get an idea is to do a short course.

and i feel like... i just don't know what's out there. i've heard of lawyers, so i think of that option. but people seem to have so many different kinds of jobs, and i don't know how to think about which ones might be good for me, other than teaching.

i always feel like you have a big advantage in that respect if you go into teaching because you had years to see what teachers do whilst you were a student! :)

Have you heard of a book called What Colour Is My Parachute? (or Your Parachute, I forget).

yeah, my dad read that

I started it, (I found it too long), but just the few exercises I did gave me a clearer idea of my strengths and weaknesses.

i just took a career test online yesterday but you have to pay for the full report.

you can get is 2nd hand off amazon or something. mine's an old one from a charity shop.

don't pay!! LOL!

*mutter mutter I'm a miser mutter mutter* ;D

i know a lot of my strengths and weaknesses, i just don't know what jobs suit those. i need something that says, with these strengths, you would be good at this or this or this.

want to know how I 'see' you?

yes, love to

yeah, that book will help you get a better idea of what careers suit what strengths / weaknesses.

ok - I see you as firm, clear, honest, logical, clear-thinking, stick to the facts. Like a scientist but without specialising in any particular field. I don't see you as fuzzy wuzzy arty farty. (like me! lol!)

this is true.

so something like training would suit you, if you're not teaching.

what about home-schooling? I bet there are parents crying out for people like you.

you could be self-employed and charge your own rates.

i thought the idea of home schooling was the parents wanted to teach the kids themselves.

oh yeah. but are all parents up-to-speed on all subjects. I bet not many could teach calculus. And I bet you can easy peasy.

In fact, I know you can teach calculus.

part of my problem is, the way other people see me, and maybe the way i am objectively, is pretty different from how i see myself.

hmmm, yup, and there lies the rub. How do you see yourself? Not how I see you?

therefore, i am not very good at selling myself. that's why i was able to work here easily - they hired my husband, who CAN sell himself, then they saw for themselves what i was like.

i see myself as pathetic, easily depressed, scared of confrontation...

a lot of women are the same. women tend not to be so pushy.

oh hursh!! :( (((hugs))), I totally forgot you suffer from depression. Sorry.

scared of confrontation?? you pulling my leg?? you confronted Mikey when he was trying to get Bex on IM. I backed you up. Remember? You really impressed me that day.

well the meds are helping a good deal. but it's still scary to think of putting myself in situations where i might get depressed and be stuck in the situations.

well...confrontation on the internet is easier than in real life. and if i am 100% convinced i am right and it is necessary, i don't mind it even in real life. but i HATE when people are just in bad moods and mean to you for no reason. i can never stand up for myself in those sorts of situations.

people being mean hurts me so much.

Well, I'm with you there. I'm learning to be quiet about that and letting people have their moods. (as I can be moody and hormonal too). If you can confront when you know you're right, you are leagues ahead of a lot of people.

i'm slowly getting stronger. but i'm kind of 7 years behind on life. i wish i could take who i am now and go back 7 years.

hey, you and me both! lol! I guess we'll just have to draw a line and start from today. : )

maybe teaching IS the thing for me...it's just, one always thinks, what are the odds that i just stumbled into the right thing? so one doesn't think the existing thing can be the right thing.

you'll get stronger and stronger, you know that, don't you?

i hope so

do you enjoy teaching? or go so far as to say you love it?

i like it. i think i love it when the students are motivated.

when you were a kid, were you one of those who would teach your friends, explain stuff, when they got stuck?

yes i loved that

sign of a natural teacher. : )

if you widen the scope, to include all forms of teaching, including training, and I don't know what else, maybe you'll come across something you can do next year? Still using your skills and natural abilities.

rather than look elsewhere randomly, I mean.

you don't have to, I'm just throwing ideas around.

yes the main thing is just not to be scared of stuff and embrace things. see...i just found this article online yesterday about how if your parents didn't enjoy their careers, then it deters you from imagining yourself enjoying a career and exploring what you might like, and you can easily just drift along and assume you won't like anything.

it described me scarily well.

what's the link? do you have it handy?

hang on let me find

http://mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=d
oc&id=9102

how do you think it describes you accurately? (I just skimmed it, haven't read it properly yet)

not the first bit so much, but when you get down to the second part, the part that starts "There is another type of career person..."

it describes me about not knowing what you might want to do, and the parent/child stuff.

you didn't daydream of doing anything "when you grew up"?

well see the part where it talks about parents interfering bc they didn't approve? i wanted to work at disneyland... my mom didn't think that was very impressive

snap! me too. I identify with that bit strongly too.

i thought of teaching a lot but always assumed it was bc of what i said before, it was the only job i saw people doing, really, so it was the only thing i felt like i could understand and picture what it would be like.

confuses you about what you want to do, doesn't it? cos you want approval, but at the same time, you want to enjoy what you're doing. Except the joy part seems to be largely absent.

but maybe it's more than that, maybe it really is the right thing for me.

I think I understand where you're coming from now. You want find what YOU want to do.

yes, but it is hard to know! :)

I know what you mean! lol!

Try that book as a starting point.

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

i think i will. but i already feel better about things. it is good to know someone else has some of the same issues.

and you have time on your side, (believe it or not). So take some time and invest it in yourself.

yes, it's good to see it well described in an article too. Thanks for that.

yw :)

u ppl talk way too formally

weeeeeeeeeee

we're grown ups.

fo shizzle

yo whatup bab dawg?

im 32

who you calling dawg?? } I

(lol!)

well here's the thing bengals, sometimes i talk formally, and sometimes i don't. i'm flexible. i have different moods. i like this.

I type in full as I type about 90 words a minute and this is quicker for me.

babbler and i were engaging in a serious and stimulating discussion, for which a degree of formality was not unsuitable.

yup. I was helping a friend, and it would have been inappropriate to be informal.

not that I think in txt spk anyway.

and in fact, when you observe that i am speaking formally, my rebellious instincts drive me to continue just to ANNOY THE HECK OUT OF YOU

I hate txt spk.

Your grammar is so much better than mine. *sigh*.

eh, 'sok babs :)

your capitalization and punctuation far outstrip mine (online at least)

oooh, taaa! : D

really? my punctuation is ok? I worry about that. I worry I'm forgetting all the rules.

well i just hardly use any :)

I think I do it automatically. But sometimes I can't be bothered.

hmm, i think i scared bengals away. :(

lol! we had too much brain power!

no it was the yelling

come on, bengals! where are ya?

it was rude of me

oh yeah, you did, didn't you?

nah, I don't think it was rude.

well it was funny to me, but it could conceivably be considered rude on the receiving end

anyway, bengals interrupted us.

Yes, it was funny to me too.

hopefully bengals merely finds us too boring to talk too, in which case i needn't feel badly.

oops

oops what?

any super duper clues, H?

this is what happens when you try to hold 2 conversations at once, your o's suddenly double themselves

sure thing hokie, you want any in particular or shall i pick one out for you? i know which one i got from my forcing chain that helped me

finally finished. it would helped, if i could mark reds on my machine. off to dr god with request...

why can't you do reds?

why can't you mark reds? mac?

yayy! I was just thinking about you! congratulations! : )

ooh, you pick :)

I can mark reds on my mac

Dr G has a mac. I'm sure reds work on Macs.

i have intel mac pro. it does not have button to mark reds. i tryed thm all :)

you don't have an Alt key on intel mac pro?

ok, r4c6 is the number of colonies in the original US times the number of gabor sisters minus the number of pennies in a quarter divided by the number you've rolled if you rolled "snake eyes".

look at me, i'm so brave, i said the sn word.

of couse i do but it not marking reds. not apple or control or function either :(

hmm..I'm getting a fraction. maybe I should just quit & go to bed.

wow, that's not lucky, yul. Hope you get it sorted.

did i get the wrong number of gabor sisters?

eva, magda, and zsazsa, right?

I thought there was just Eva & Zsa Zsa

i hope dr god will help me :)

Oh, did not know Magda.

let me recalculate

yul, maybe you can control it in your own settings, like you can mouse button functions

well hokie, my source is balki on "perfect strangers" so i could be wrong.

LOL, well at least now I get your drift & it is one of the 2 numbers I had.

quick googling shows there was a Magda Gabor! why would I doubt Balki?

well, he was saying them as the names of the three meposian muses or something

but i assumed they all corresponded

time for me to say goodnight. laters hursh, laters everybody. : )

night babs, thanks again :)

good night!

WOW it's 3:30 over there, good heavens

yup. early for me. ; )

apparently, it is an intel mac / firefox no reds problem. will use safari tomorrow. have a good night everybody.

night yul, night all, i'm taking off too

'night. and thanks, I'm almost done.

yay hokie!

good night hurshy. i had to go through 1 very long forsing chain at the end

alright, done. this one was so easy. ;-) good night, y'all!

it wasn't easy.... but done!