sumi, I hope everything it's OK, and it's just a neighbor not paying attention to their breakfast or something.
In re superstitions - if you can't find a piece of wood to knock on, your head is an acceptable substitute.
Does the "knock on wood" superstition have anything to do with Christianity and the wood Jesus' cross was made of? Some people here say that it does, and therefore there are some religious people who try not to knock-on-wood, because of the religious connotations.
8:30 am meeting on a Friday? DO. NOT. WANT.
Um, will it at least be over early?
It will be over at 9, which is (un?)fortunate, because I have a 9-10am meeting after that.
Good heavens I'm looking forward to Happy Hour already.
Animals that begin with "n"?
Did anyone say "norwhal" yet?
I read somewhere, sometime, that the "knock on wood" was something to do with alerting or placating the spirits that live in wood ... so pagan, pre-Christrian.
So, I was just sitting in my chair, leaning back, when the chair just continued to lean further and further back. Sorta' like I was falling backwards, but a little slower than falling. It leaned all the way back (more than 90 degrees) until the headrest hit the floor.
Diagnosis: Metal fatigue led to the metal that holds the chair up to tear away, allowing the remaining metal to fold over....
the "knock on wood" was something to do with alerting or placating the spirits that live in wood ... so pagan, pre-Christrian.
Thanks! That's interesting.
tom, so you didn't fall down or anything, right?
Good heavens I'm looking forward to Happy Hour already.
You deserve an extra-special-fun weekend.
Animals that begin with "n"?
Nilly. What? I'm neither a vegetable nor a mineral.
tom, so you didn't fall down or anything, right?
Nope. It was slow enough that I could reach over and try to stop it. Which didn't work anyway. So I ended up on the floor on my back, on top of a broken chair....
Nilly, is your computer treating you any better?
The stupid. It burns (scroll down - you'll know it when you see it). sigh.
is your computer treating you any better?
Better than your chair, thanks for asking.
I managed to convince it that all the files there are actually, you know, there. It only took half the night.
Then I left that and went to writing the abstract. It's technologically-easier in the sense that *I* am the one who needs to provide all the content in that part of the work - actual writing, what-I-wanna-say, with real thoughts and structure and the like. In this part, I myself am the only one I can whine about.
I'll probably let the computer think long and hard about the way he behaved, for the whole shabbat, so that then I get back to it after it ends, I hope it behaves. Then again, I already supplied myself with some more of the best chocolate chips cookies in the world, because, well, I can't say I trust it any more. I'll definitely work really slowly and try to not-wake-up-the-inner-demon once I try to convince it to compile again.