In regards to watermelon and feta, I made this salad a few weeks ago, and it was divine. http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2008/07/chopped-vegetable-watermelon-and-feta-salad/ House of Pies, back where I grew up, serves a pie called Bayou Goo pie that . . . well, here's the description from the webpage. "A pecan crust with a layer of sweet cream cheese,then a layer of vanilla custard swirled with chocolate chunks and topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings"

My grandmother calls that Chipped Beef on Toast, and. . .I rather like it. I've heard military folk call it "Shit on a shingle" though.

While I'm thinking on this, I looked up Eton Mess. I've decided to bake some meringue tonight so I can make this later this week. That is all I have to say.

Are you apart of Ravelry? https://www.ravelry.com/account/login There might be someone on there who's having/had a similar problem, as well, and/or might have suggestions on doctor's to visit who are more. .. craft savy. Last question based on my totally non-medical school knowledge, but are you doing other range of motion exercises?

Sarah, it's a mixture of both. Um, CJMR, I don't know, but after I injured my back when I was a ballet student, I had to brow beat a couple doctors because the didn't understand that I was having trouble jumping on one foot. The response was "why do you need to do that?" Including the sports doctor.

Froborr, Hrm. .. I'd say it depends on the modalities used. Do you have a link? My mom's an occupational therapist, and I can ask her.

Wysteria, Depends on the desired outcome. Take crochet. From a recreational therapy standpoint, it's about the . . . well, recreating. It's about the calming effect, and you doing something you enjoy, and using that to help you interact with other people or creating a soothing aura for yourself. From an occupational therapy standpoint it's about fine motor control of your hands, and the ability to mentally focus on the repeating nature of the craft and possibly the mental capacity to process the pattern, should you be doing more then just a single crocheted square.

Chris, Lemme see if I can explain it. Think of "occupation" in occupational as referring to tasks, not work. So, what an occupational therapist does is work with the patient on various skills, not unlike a physical therapist, but with a different modality. AH, think of it this way. Let's say you have a hand injury. A physical therapist will do exercises with you to recover strength and dexerity. An occupational therapist will work with you to make sure you're able to tie your shoes and comb your hair and turn door handles, etc.

Leum, I worked as an Occupational Therapy technician on a psychiatric ward for a while, and it's one of the most fascinating and cool jobs I've ever had. For one, there was the constant interaction with patients, and having worked in a rehab/acute care setting, I found I liked the variety that the psych unit had, both in staff and in patient care. Another thing that was REALLY awesome is that we had been transitioning from more long term to acute, so many of our art projects weren't designed for someone with a three day stay. SO, the therapist and I decided to have a bunch of projects that were in varying stages of being done, which meant I learned how to warp a loom, and pour slip molds (so that we'd have some already fired and ready to be glazed). I will fully admit that I found a bunch of unopened oil paints that no one was using and we couldn't use, since we didn't have a well ventilated area and got to take them home. One of the sad things was that the Head Nurse of the unit saw no difference between occupational therapy and recreational therapy, and tried leaning on the doctors to get us transfered to another unit, and thus make clinic just a rest area with ADL equipment.

@Froborr, Do you remember how said author pulled this off? I mean, it's pretty rare in the general population, and tends to have a lot of other issues that go a long with it, including unexplained amnesia regarding the other personalities. I getting really stuck in the idea that a nightclub subculture could arise from that. @Anamardoll Thanks!

"in which "multiples" were an accepted subculture with their own nightclubs and such, and there was a woman who found dating "singletons" boring so she tried to fake being a multiple, but then she had surgery to induce multiplicity, but she went back to being a singleton after a few months, so she went back to trying to fake it" I. . . have no clue how to process this. I mean. . . Let me ask this question. When we say multiples verses singleton, are we talking dissociative identity disorder or something else? Googling multiple and singleton isn't really helping.

1) This goes with Big Bang Theory and Firedrake's comments on "geek." I don't like how OCD has become this "thing" in American culture and basically means this odd cross between "Don't touch my stuff" and "I refuse to use public bathrooms." The best example I have of OCD was when I was in college, I took a course that mixed art and Jungian pyschology, I think. I remember one woman wrote a children's storybook about getting ready for bed with OCD (which she had). Among other things, it included five trips to the bathroom, just in case. 2) I stopped watching House when he went to a mental hospital, and the portrayal of both the hospital. House would have been in an acute care setting which is VERY different from the long term care that they showed AND I'm getting sick of this One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest/Girl Interrupted view of mental health professionals. 3) I was pleasantly surprised with the musical Next to Normal, and it's treatment of the mental health professionals, ECT and (I can only sorta guess) bipolar disorder. They did up the dramatic factor of ECT. While amnesia is a complication, the type of amnesia the main character suffers was kinda over the top, but dramatic license and all. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_to_Normal

TRiG, What kind of cloth bag? Everyone else, I've been finding I like it in spurts. Like, ok, the first part about Issac Newton and his little friend . . . at first I was LOVING IT, and then it took me a week to get through the last 100 pages. Then Jack showed up. REALLY COOL! Then Jack and Co split up and it's getting into . . . ugh territory again. For the record, I've liked long drawn out series. Well, some. I love Tad Williams Otherland series, but got tired of the Wheel of Time halfway through Fires of Heaven.

Hrm. I'm not sure a towel would help. Right now, what's happening is that the corners are getting crushed, which is causing parts of the cover to get frayed. The other problem is that if the series isn't worth it, I'm tempted to just say to hell with it and not worry and give it back to my friend

Two questions. 1) Has anyone here read Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle? I'm halfway through the first book and it's taken me ALL SUMMER and I don't know if I have the will to go on if it's not going to get a plot or something soon. 2) I'm borrowing the book, and when it's in my bag, the edges get kinda smooshed (it's a hardback, btw), anyone have any tips/suggestions to help avoid this?

Does someone have a link or something to explain the transhumanism trigger warning? That's something I having a hard time wrapping my brain around. Feel free to reach me at oceanfyre at hotmail dot com if that would be easier/less spoons/less triggering, etc.

Oh, one request: I don't know if anyone here is color blind, but in case some people are, would it be difficult to make the yellow card and red card graphics be different shapes as well? What sort of color-blindness are you referring to? I'm color-blind, and what it means for the majority of people with color-blindness is that it's hard to distinguish between certain colors (for example, when I play Peggle, I can't tell some of the pegs apart). In this case, you'd be looking at red/green color blindness (not to be confused with the Red-Green Show), or blue/yellow. Since there is no red/yellow color blindness, there shouldn't be a problem. (there's a VERY SMALL portion of the population with a more. . .monochromatic vision, but even in that case, you learn to distinguish by shades, tones and tints. Actually, I can see a lot of colors and STILL had to do that to pass my color theory course in college)

Kit's blog was an interesting read, because I've been viewing the term "mommy porn" as a recognition that mothers CAN have an interest in sex, and the reason why there's no "daddy porn" is because porn tends to be geared towards men of all ages. Kinda like how there's no "white history month" since most of the history, that gets studied, of Europe and America tends revolve around white people. Of course that DOES bring up the idea of things being labelled differently towards men and women, which is reminding me of an article I recently read (and got into an argument over) that labelled Bronies and creepy and slightly pedophilic, since it's grown men enjoying a show geared towards girls. There's a connection there, but I need to flesh it out more.

There's a big difference between being in the vicinity of a parent who's struggling and a parent who does nothing. For example, last year, a friend and I went to see Tangled. It was around 9pm, and a family brought their children who looked to be about 6 or 7. The kids kicked the back of the seats (which resonated down to us) and both the parents and the kids talked for the first 20 minutes of the movie. I say twenty because I politely asked the family, twice, to please keep it down, and then finally got the manager, who threatened to throw the family out. Another time, I went to see a French horror film, and the family behind me brought their child who couldn't read, and thus were reading the subtitles to him, the entire time. These instances are a minority of the time, but they stick out, and, at least in my experience, are becoming more and more commonplace. AND should you say something, EVEN politely, quite often you get people flying off the handle. Actually, lemme put it this way. I was talking to a friend of mine about Nice Guys vs nice guys, because I was having some trouble, since I've been a wallflower who's had difficulty expressing myself, and have taken much of the Nice Guy discussions to a personal level. My friend said that I might be getting hurt by the person not reciprocating, but I'm not taking it to an egotistical selfish emotional level. Same thing here. The anger is being directed towards what seems like a rise in egotistical parents who do things like bring 5 year olds into Saw movies at 10 pm, as opposed to parents struggling with modern day life. Unfortunately, it can come across as anger towards all parents.

Keeping chickens! That's kind of a weird blend of privileges I think this might be a regional thing. Where I grew up (Texas) having chickens meant you either lived in a rural setting, or were poor, or both. It's only since I've moved to NYC that I've seen chickens become a "thing."

"Yes, OMG, that's my alma mater too!" All hail to thee, our Houston University!!! Very cool! I actually was one of the few people to stay on campus and lived in Taub Hall. I ended up majoring in Art History.

Truth is Life, Do you live in Houston? I grew up there and went to school at UH! As for foods, I tend to associate the South with deviled eggs and iced tea. I also miss kolaches, since no one up in NYC has ever heard of them. Tamales sometimes have associations with poor hispanics, though that might be because of the REALLY AWFUL and off color joke my friend tells. What I find funny is that I feel like mayo has associations with soooo many cultures, without really recognizing the overlap.

REAL ramen (etymology uncertain. there's a few mandarin words it could have come from) is served as a soup, various kinds of broth, with veggies floating in, and often some kind of tofu or fish cake, and sliced hard boiled egg. Here's a pic. http://www.rasamalaysia.com/uploaded_images/miso_ramen/ramen3_s.jpg I'm not sure what the cups cost (The main brand in the states is called Cup'o'Noodles. I miss their sign in Times Square. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4A28MeZFjiU/T66BhObXJhI/AAAAAAAABns/SB369mU4v3g/s1600/Cup%2BNoodle.jpg The packets, you can usually buy 2 for a dollar or something. What I do is mix the packet with Worchestershire sauce and soy sauce and a touch of the noodle water. Drain the noodles and coat them. If I'm feeling fancy, I'll throw in some scrambled egg.

I despised rom coms before and during my Nice Guy phase (and still despise most of them now, albeit for very different reasons) Not what I was saying, but as I said above, I'm having trouble getting a well formed thought out.

Hrm. I didn't mean to say that it's All Rob Reiner's Fault*, but more that there's a long history of The Overlooked Sidekick/Nice Guy Who Doesn't Like Other People Touching "His" Things.** I'm having trouble concentrating today, so looking over it, yeah, I didn't really explain it the way it sounded in my head. *Rob Reiner, for those who don't know, directed When Harry Met Sally . . . **This comes from the movie Moulin Rouge, from the scene where the Duke, who had been kind of bumbling and befuddled shows a VERY VERY dark possessive side of his personality.