YET *EVEN* MORE things that made you happy today!

[James Harrison]

Anyone who wants my new suitcase, has to get past me. 



My precious....

[Banfili]

Shall just wave the 'ONE RING' in front of his face ...!

Junior nephew has finally put his passport application in, so no more fear of him being left forlorn in the airport terminal while I take to the skies!!

[Caledonian]

;earning really is fun if you do so voluntary! teaching myself some Manx, because it's the only gaelic language I can find courses for online.

[Siliconous Skumins]

My mother's house has been included in a book of 'local grand houses of the Victorian age' produced by the local history group. I already knew this as it was me who took the picture and did some research on the house and other identical Victorian 'villas' built either side.

What made me happy was attending the book launch and finding that 90% of the information about these particular houses was all my own work (uncredited though), and meeting the four authors of the book who thanked me for the research, and invited me to join up and help the group. 
They were grateful of the "hard work and time" I had "obviously spent in researching the history" of these buildings and their occupants over the years.... I didn't want to tell them it only took me a couple of hours to produce! (I'm just really good at finding information).



On a side note, during my research I also solved a long standing mystery about the history behind a somewhat famous Edwardian Children's Author, Poet and Lyricist known as "Miss Queenie Scott-Hopper" - many have been searching for her background and where she lived etc. I was able to complete the full history from her birth to her death by suicide (and her reason for doing so). There are a number of websites and forums that discuss the life of this person, I need to write this up as a complete article and post it around those websites, as currently I'm the only one with the complete picture...

[Major Vincent Smith]

Blimey Siliconous, I knew you were good but I didn't know you were that good! 

Hmm, Detective Skumins. Has an odd sort of ring...

[Mercury Wells]

;earning really is fun if you do so voluntary! teaching myself some Manx, because it's the only gaelic language I can find courses for online.

The Isle of Mann is a very beautiful place visit.

[Cora Courcelle]

;earning really is fun if you do so voluntary! teaching myself some Manx, because it's the only gaelic language I can find courses for online.

Trouble is, I don't think there are that many manx speakers left, so you may end up talking to yourself.  It's certainly a beautiful place though, quiet and peaceful - unless you're there for TT week.  I have many happy childhood holiday memories of I.o.M.

[Caledonian]

;earning really is fun if you do so voluntary! teaching myself some Manx, because it's the only gaelic language I can find courses for online.

Trouble is, I don't think there are that many manx speakers left, so you may end up talking to yourself.  It's certainly a beautiful place though, quiet and peaceful - unless you're there for TT week.  I have many happy childhood holiday memories of I.o.M.

Manx is officially a dead language, as it's last native speaker passed away in the beginning of this century. The government is trying to bring it back in a manx heritage project that teaches the language to children in school and  this is also why there's courses in manx for free online.
Manx is similar to Scottish and Irish Gaelic, but manx is often seen as easier because it was documented by English speakers, so it uses Englishlike letter to pronunciation rules.  i'm hoping to use manx as a stepping stone to later learn other Gaelic languages.
Ta Gaelg eche?

I've seen images of the island, and i sure hope to visit it one day! It seems like an interesting, beautiful island with a rich history and culture....

[Cora Courcelle]

Ta Gaelg eche?

I'm guessing this means 'Do you speak/understand Manx'? which kind of gives you the answer.  No, alas, but I remember hearing some songs and hymns being sung in it and it sounded very beautiful.

[Mme. Ratchet]

Started cleaning my Nepalese Gahendra today!

[Caledonian]

Ta Gaelg eche?

I'm guessing this means 'Do you speak/understand Manx'? which kind of gives you the answer.  No, alas, but I remember hearing some songs and hymns being sung in it and it sounded very beautiful.

it literally means "is there any Manx on you"
I do love the sound of the language too...
I'm using this site
http://learnmanx.com/

[Cora Courcelle]

Ta Gaelg eche?

I'm guessing this means 'Do you speak/understand Manx'? which kind of gives you the answer.  No, alas, but I remember hearing some songs and hymns being sung in it and it sounded very beautiful.

it literally means "is there any Manx on you"
I do love the sound of the language too...
I'm using this site
http://learnmanx.com/

I don't have much of a gift for languages but this does look interesting.

[Caledonian]

Ta Gaelg eche?

I'm guessing this means 'Do you speak/understand Manx'? which kind of gives you the answer.  No, alas, but I remember hearing some songs and hymns being sung in it and it sounded very beautiful.

it literally means "is there any Manx on you"
I do love the sound of the language too...
I'm using this site
http://learnmanx.com/

I don't have much of a gift for languages but this does look interesting.

I'm not very good with languages either, but I noticed these audio files are great help...and I've wanted to learn gaelic for long now.

[rovingjack]

The arrival of two books that collect most of the stories of Cordwainer Smith. I'd marked them for ordering some time back, when I discovered the name of a story that struck me as one of the most imaginative works I read as a young teen and was unable to find the story again for more than a decade. When I learned it, I did a search for it and found the author, and then found collections of his works existed. a couple years ago I searched again and found them on amazon. One of them was priced at $43 for the paperback.

Recently they were both listed for much less and I got both of them for about $18 total including shipping. I look forward to seeing the creative science fiction visions of this writer.

[Banfili]

Siliconous (if I may be so bold), are/were you by chance a librarian, or "just" a really skilful researcher?

[rovingjack]

I had a brainstorm about test results in medical situations that let me shut up a nagging anxiety attack in my mind. I keep having panic attacks about undetected lyme disease. We did an antibody test that came back negative, but the test returns false negatives 40% of the time. So there is that nagging fear that I have a progressing illness going on. Even worse were a very few tiny signs of bright spots in in brain imaging which had me wonder if this was a beachhead of neurological infection by the parasite.

But see I had a test run by the neurologist a while back that would show nerve inflammation that came back negative, and one for chronic arthritis, and a recent test by the GI doctor looking for signs that my inflammatory bowl disease is actively flairing, and the test is also a good marker for chronic infections. All came back clear.

So by themselves these test say I don't have things like sarcoidosis, arthritis, active IBD flairs, pnemonia or menigitis ect. But together they pretty much say no Lyme, and put together with the Lyme antibody test I can say "nope, we know I'm clean." anytime somebody suggest I have it or my panic attacks strike.

It's a great feeling knowing you can shut down irrational fears before they disrupt your sleep of day.

[James Harrison]

The Luggage has arrived.

[Cora Courcelle]

The Luggage has arrived.

Did it walk in on lots of little feet? (And if it did, has it eaten anyone yet?)

[James Harrison]

It has agoraphobia- came in a large box that it was reluctant to leave!- and must be on a diet as it put up a fight when I first tried to open it. 

[Cora Courcelle]

It has agoraphobia- came in a large box that it was reluctant to leave!- and must be on a diet as it put up a fight when I first tried to open it. 

Obviously just a bit shy.  Tell it it's marvellous a few times and gain its trust!

[Siliconous Skumins]

Siliconous (if I may be so bold), are/were you by chance a librarian, or "just" a really skilful researcher?

Nope - not a librarian or anything like that.

My brain works in a slightly different way to most people, I'm good at being able to look at something and figure out how it works, I can "MacGyver" a fix to most things, and I'm in the top 10% of the population for pattern recognition (tested during a dyslexia test - I have dyscalculia). Attention to small details and recognizing patterns / trends in information, all adds up to useful skills when researching. 

Plus my close friends and family think I may have mild Aspergers, though I've never been tested. Would explain a few things though!  I can get really engrossed in what I'm doing, and can easily spend tens of hours doing a task without a break. I've done more than 36 hours straight without sleep, while looking for some hard to find info on the internet.

[Keith_Beef]

;earning really is fun if you do so voluntary! teaching myself some Manx, because it's the only gaelic language I can find courses for online.

Look again, there is plenty of material for learning Welsh and Breton on the web, and both of those (especially Welsh) are definitely living languages.

I remember visiting north Wales about twelve years ago, and teenagers were hanging about on street corners speaking Welsh to each other. Breton, on the other hand, seems to be mostly spoken by old people and recent enthusiasts. Still a living language, but not as "alive and kicking" as Welsh is.

[Banfili]

Siliconous (if I may be so bold), are/were you by chance a librarian, or "just" a really skilful researcher?

Nope - not a librarian or anything like that.

Very similar to my good self. I have had a late adult diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (Asperger is no longer a differential diagnosis, just part of the spectrum), of which one former school acquaintance observed when informed by a third party, "Well, that explains everything"!

[Banfili]

Agoraphobic homicidal luggage - maybe it's feet hurt? If it won't come out of it's box it's going to get awfully hungry - mind your fingers!

[rovingjack]

Agoraphobic homicidal luggage - maybe it's feet hurt? If it won't come out of it's box it's going to get awfully hungry - mind your fingers!

look for a thorn in it's foot, you never know, it worked for the mouse and the lion.