Constructive criticism for the conference host(s)...

No, really, it's okay. I can take it.

I for one think you are doing a great job, wer! Good topics and good conversation. Isn't that what goes best with a well-prepared meal?

nudity goes well with a well prepared meal!

Which could, I suppose, stimulate conversation as well...

of some sort anyway!

I don't know...couldn't all the giggling and snorting pose a potential choking hazard?

*chortle*

(and I don't think the Heimlich maneuver was intended as a sex postion...)

but it just might work!

ok

Sorry it that was more than you wanted to know, Suzanne... the sensuality of food sometimes overcomes a few of us, and we get lost on tangents... Hope we haven't scared you off.

Re response 6: Couldn't all the choking and snotring present a potential giggling hazard?

Re response 6: Couldn't all the choking and snorting present a potential giggling hazard?

Snort, giggle and choke at the same time? Sounds more like a potential killer to me!

Or all that choking might produce quite the snotring. I really should proofread, shouldn't I?...

HA-HA!!! You warm the heart of my cockles. OOPS!!!!

Actual, serious question: What's a cockle? I've heard of cockleshells, but I don't think there are any in your heart. Well, not in mine, anyway... :-)

Well now, Tommy, don't blush, but a cockle is that little object forming the centre part of your . . . kitchen. It's a stove.

stoveshells???

No, those are different cockles - Irish cockles, like from the sea. Cockle is also another word for 'fold'. No, you don't cockle a piece of paper, but that's where the heart's cockle comes from. Shit, THAT'S the one Tommy meant?? Sorry, but it's damned hard to concentrate on decent things. I know you'll understand . . .

Well, web users, how is the new look? Do you like, dislike, or not care?

like... but it takes longer to load on this forsaken machine!!! (thanks WER for beautifying this virtual community!)

applauding visciously!

What a visual treat!

Hey, baby! Glad you're back... so you like?

Yeah, it's really bitchin'!! *smile*

how about restaurants and genx?

Restaurants I like, genx I haven't been to since I got back from vacation. I saw how many new messages there were there and started having chest pains. This internet thing is like a part-time job!

and i dunno how to give a massage to a chest. i mean it's pretty difficult. and delicate and stuff. i wouldn't even ever wanna try. i'm afraid. it's pretty risky. all those things are things to consider. bing bing bing lotsa strange sounds to hear around here, though i'll just go do that and i'll be running along now

I'm dying to know what your favorite cookbook is, Jim...

Autumn, please don't die. your life wants to live as much as we all want it to. we want it all the way over the brim....in deluges. your life swivels our office chairs. your life pokes its head in our door and slips us the sly grin. your life walks in among the olive trees, moving in silent passion with the moon your life tells stories in the dark in between forks of heat lightning. your life makes hoot owls call and tugboats crawl for a closer, longer time with you. your life takes the leper angels by the hand, gets them into their pajamas and has them jiggling and wiggling through the wildest joyful smiles they ever knew. your life takes us into the rain and up go the Umbrellas of Cherbourg and we don't get wet, we just get soaked in the evocative way your singing voice summons to us to look over the sheer cliffs and take off and fly in our dreams your life is purty, and purty big (it blocks the road so we have to stop and go off the beaten track where we find you again over there, sittin', chewin' on a straw, lettin' us have one a yer dry throaty cackles). your life rakes and shovels the gunk outa our minds. your life, no matter where it happens to be, always knows the best place to go to, to take a poop. your life knows how to treat gentle creatures to a date out at the dirt track. your life kisses awake what surges up from down under, and we don't know how long it's been buried there, but we sure hear the thunder. your life listens when a toothless woman cries through her despair, you hold her hands in yours as she softens her glare. your life wonders about things when they go wrong, but by the time they feel your presence, they're already singin' yer song. your life sidesteps incredible accidents and long indecisions along the way of the intuitive journey. your life is the one that can write a thank-you note at an inconsolable hour, coaxing the external soul to come inside and feel the power. your life hears Picasso snoring in his sleep, so you lay down beside him and with yours you tickle his feet. your life opens up my favorite cookbook, Bean Soups To Eat At Operas, and just reads and reads from the most nutritious recipes it's got.

(speechless)

That happens.

So, what do I needs to do to spiffen this place up again? Make it a world-class destination and all, don't you know...

Take pictures of some of your culinary creations, and post them for us to drool over.

I, um, don't have the right equipment...

YOU DON'T HAVE A CAMERA??

(just a quickie to see if this thing is gonna let me post...)

It DID. What's wrong?

apparently nothing with this topic...

Well, the spring has such a life of its own, the problem was probably hormonal...

could very well be...

Without a doubt. Or maybe it was one of the gremlins hiding in the system.

Staggering! You're just such so FULL of insight!

Other people have told me that I was full of it before. And I've been told that I was full of other things, but never insight. I thank you for your choice of words. As far as Insight goes, however, this is something else. Living with the computers that run this web site, I can tell you that these are the most tempermental machines I've seen in a long time.

Thank goodness these aren't the computers that run the website, those babies are sitting downtown in the Colorado building running BSDI UNIX and have been for many years. This www machine is a bit tempermental about dates, but we continue to baby it, and access and barton along. Amazing how they run year in and year out unattended, unlike the Windows boxes in this house. I'll be doing some motherboard and other upgrades to the systems here to get them more reliable. In fact, we may go to Windows Terminal Server so they all can take advantage of a single high speed server.

why must you tease me so?

It's fun!!!

I love male bonding!!

Matter of fact, I'm kind of partial to it myself.

Now, why would that be?

Kind of a guy thing, I suppose. Now don't get me wrong, Riette, I'm not one of those nuts, that goes out beating each other on the chest, and howling at the trees, not yet anyway. Actually howling at the trees sounds rather attractive, I think I'll try that.

I can just about handle that. As long as you don't wee on them!

On the tree, no, behind the tree, maybe

Oh, well, you're not so big after all then, are you? I mean if you can hide your equipment behind a tree and all - NOT that size matters!

HA HAAA HA! Have you ever seen a Redwood tree? Have you ever seen a Sequoiah tree? We have trees over here, that are so big that they cut a tunnel through, for cars to drive through.

Do you often go to where they cut tunnels through Redwood and Sequoiah trees for a wee? People, I don't know this guy, really!

All right Riette!! Got me. I did not think of that. Oh well. GOOD ONE!!

No, I mean, let it not be for me to say where you relief yourself; a habit's a habit, and yours is one mighty peculiar one!

Riette, If I'm to travel 1600km every time I need to piss, I'm going to need a really fast plane.

HA-HA!!!!!!!!!!! I always find it more practical to just sit behind the car's wheel - nobody thinks of looking there.

That is true, Riette. But doesn't the car get to smelling funny after a while?

NO! Not IN the car! Behind the front or rear wheel furthest from the road! On the OUTSIDE!

Riette! Gotcha!!! Ha HAA HAAA!

At least now you know, and won't be shocked when it happens.

Riette, you would have to do something really outlandish to shock me.

I've noticed!

Ha HA HAA! OH Riette, what can you mean?

�giggle� Oh, you KNOW, Tim!

OH THAT!! OK Riette.

Yeah, THAT! I just thought of something. If you're 2 meters tall - what size shoe do you wear, Tim??

This is the European size: 49 , Riette, I had to mention that I was using Euro Measure because in the US It's a 14.

Holy Holy!! Hey, I could just use one of your slippers as a boat!

Riette, you probably could. But then there isn't much you can't do.

I can't bake bread!

Sure you can Riette, It's simple, I'll show you how.

Thank you. What I can't figure out is how to get it to grow big like that. It doesn't work the same way as some other things, does it? Because I knead and knead and knead, and NOTHING happens!

Riette, after knead and knead, let it sit for about an hour in a warm moist environment.

But I only want it to raise, not to spit at me!

Riette, we used to put our bread into a steam cabinet set for 90F. That is about 31C

Oh, THAT'S how you meant it! And where am I supposed to find a steam cabinet, young man??

Riette: close the door to your bath. Turn the shower on hot for 10 min. Shut the shower off. Put the bread in the bathroom, and close the door.

Excellent substitution, Tim.

Thank you, I learned to cook on a wood stove, where all you had to do to get bread to rise, was put the bread pan in a pan of water, and place it in the warming closet, leaving the door partially open. Now we got all these gadgets, there's no warming closet on the stove anymore, and nobody knows how to do anything. I also miss the hot water reservoir. Nothing like it for a Quick cup of hot chocolate.

I learned to cook on a campfire...never have adjusted to electric for cooking.

Are you serious, Wer?? You cook on these gas stoves with the big blue flame? Those things make no sense to me at all.

Yep, I be serious...electric is too hard to judge what's going on...

I find that with electric, you have almost no control over heat.

k, i haven't been here in a looooooong time, so tell me, how long has the new stuff been up? it looks great!!

I found it yesterday morning when I first went in to check for new posts and to put more recipes in the Spring Cookbook. It was done around 6am Hawaiian time Really gorgeous, huh?! I want something new for Geo now!!! It looks so sterile in there now compared with this! Great job!!! *smile*

Truly delicious.

Not a crit. wer 'o land, what was that cool search engine url again?

http://www.bananaslug.com/

i think i'm low on the intelligence rating on my biorythm...what's this for? we can search for weird things that google misses?

nope, it adds random keywords to the ones you input to provide (hopefully) results you might have missed otherwise

maybe i have to try it instead of asking questions.....

ok, i put in "tack collectors" and this is what it decided my additional word should be: Results for: tack collectors Random seed word: echo now let me ask you sumtin' DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE?

what fun would that be?

as you can see by my last response, it makes no sense to me......

so how does "it" decide what additional information needs to be added to my original search?

if it made sense to you, you wouldn't need it as you'd redefine your own searches

I don't know the algorythm(sp?) it uses, just its lists of seed words which it lists on the main page

i guess.......interesting though....the websites it brought up had nothing to do with what i was looking for! those subjects on the side are the algorythms? (i didn't explore much, can you tell?)

nope, subsets of the random word lists

Oh the possibilities! I tried volcano eruption and got measuring because I chose the Current words news as my category of choice. It works. However echo with seeds is very off the wall. They have no "science" choice. They need one.

so i need to find the correct category off to the left when doing my search?

for the volcanoes, I tried lots of stuff including the new agey topics and your results will vary - it is kinda funny doing it that way.