Bold, blood… in any case, visible and actually there, dagnabit!
Using blood as ink only produces red letters in bad books and movies, anyway. 3D, it becomes dark brown real fast.
(Aside – I wasn’t picking on the spelling!)
Whatever color, your soul is still sold! 
Up, caffeinated, off to work.
Hey, kai!
Hired only, dear; I’m a consultant, remember? It’s like being a whore, but with your clothes on.
Morning all - up and caffeinating. Hey kai, good to see you! Glad you are enjoying your birthday, SpecialOne even if it is a work day.
What’s the fun in that…? 
Happy birthday, Special One!
Busy weekend has just ended, this morning I had to call in at the doc’s for a repeat prescription so it was tea-break time by the time I eventually got to the office. That’s a good way to start the day, right?
I have a bunch of idiot queries from students to answer, one of whom is getting to be a pain in the arse because he keeps asking things that are set out quite clearly in his student handbooks. Every email I send him starts with the words “As detailed clearly on page X of your handbook…”
Saturday I made some mince tarts for the office but I’m not bringing them in until tomrrow - it’s December tomorrow and that is quite early enough to be thinking about hexmas food. Tonight it’s my turn to cook dinner and I have to make some cake for Fat Club on Tuesday so I will be busy again when I get home. Honestly, it feels like I come to work for a rest!
Japanese. I do have it as a font choice on the Mac, but no idea which characters to put together to create those words.
eta: now you can impress your friends on their birthdays
Not that she’s posted in the MMP in a long time, but it’s also Anaamika’s birthday today so
Otenjobi Omidetto Gozaimas, 'Mika.
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffienatin’. YAWN
Howdy kai! Do come back and tell all!
Dotty of course it is acceptable to add stuff. That’s what recipes are for after all. IMO a recipe is a “suggestion” of how to make sump’n. One can and should always tweak to one’s taste.
BooFae I suppose an email with the subject “RTFH” would not be acceptable for this student?
Oh and in case she shows up…
<AHEM> CLEARING THROAT <AHEM>
**
HAAAPPPYYY BIIIRRRTTTHHHDDDAAAYYY TOOOOOO YOUUUUUU!!!
HAAAPPPYYY BIIIRRRTTTHHHDDDAAAYYY TOOOOOO YOUUUUUU!!!
HAAAPPPYYY BIIIRRRTTTHHHDDDAAAYYY DEEEAAARRR MMMIIIKKKAAA!!!
HAAAPPPYYY BIIIRRRTTTHHHDDDAAAYYY TOOOOOO YOUUUUUU!!!
**
Blue on White was chosen purposely!
Hope you’re amused by this!!!
What was that language Rosie was talking???
Well, pseudo work day for me. Little has no school today, but I have SO MUCH to do!! :eek:
BooFae, oh boy would I like some of your mince tarts! You mentioned that you’d made up the mincemeat last year - is that -real- mincemeat?! I almost wish I were in your office tomorrow! LOL
Ahem, sorry for the slight mincemeat hi-jack.
Not unless I explained to him what “RTFH” meant!
Happy birthday, meeks!
Tell him the term is mentioned at some point in the handbook and is very important to learn so he must read every single word to completely understand the meaning of “RTFH”. He’ll either “RTFH” or email you back asking “what’s the handbook?”
I am going to grill a pork tenderloin for dindin. Also, I shall prepare steamed asparagus, grilled new potatoes, rolls and a ‘nanner puddin’ for dessert. Now that should get me “appreciated”!
Happy Birthday, Noonie! 
Hi Pie! How’s your dad?
See?!
Pie – seconding Ivory’s question; how’s your dad?
I thought so
Well, if by “amused” you mean “embarrassed to the point of running and hiding…” :o
Yeah, it’s very much appreciated!
I’ll join in saying Happy Birthday, Meeks! (although I’m pretty sure she isn’t reading the MMP any more. Worth trying, though!)
Swampy, you are of course quite right. It may be the only way to get him to read the handbook before he asks his next idiot question.
At the very front of said handbook, it tells them how the exam is structured. There are three sections - one section contains compulsory true/false questions, one section has short-answer questions of which they must attempt two out of three, and the third is a compulsory paper critique.
His first question was fair and not unreasonable - do they have to pass each section of the exam individually or is it an overall pass mark? The answer is that it’s an overall mark, it is possible to fail on one question but to gain a pass because your other questions gave you a decent mark when all are considered together.
Then he wanted to know what the pass mark was. Errr…we have a standard pass mark for written exams, it’s exactly the same as the pass marks for exams in years 1 and 2. Note that I get these students when they are in their third year out of a five-year course.
Having established that he needs 50% to pass and he can gain this as an overall mark, I thought he’d go away happy. No, he decided to ask that since the true/false section offered the possibility of reaching 50% simply by guessing, was the pass mark for this section higher than the others? Errr…which part of “standard 50% pass mark” was unclear?
I think I should start work on a handbook entitled “Epidemiological Methods for Dummies” in readiness for next year’s cohort.
Herbs, yes it is real home-made mincemeat that I made last year. It has lasted well, that must be down to the amount of brandy I put in there. And I still have three jars left!
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happy birthday, nooner![/sub][/center]
My weekend was spent in more or less a fair approximation of a waking coma. The cold hasn’t relented one bit – if anything it’s progressed – and then there was that whole infection thing. That, at least, has been reduced considerably such that my face almost looks normal again. I’ve been diligently taking the antibiotics course every 6 hours as instructed (give or take, since I had to take it an hour early before bed as I wasn’t staying up 'til 1 to do so, and an hour late this morning 'cos I wasn’t getting up at 6. But it’s all good. As long as my body is getting it, I don’t think it’s going to complain about a little bend in the schedule.
Still nervous about Thursday’s dental visit though. I’m not looking forward to it.
On the positive end though we managed to score an OEM copy of Windows 7 dirt cheap to replace the copy of 64-bit Windows XP that we got not-so-cheap and which doesn’t work worth a damn (lots of driver issues), so my wife’s system will finally work properly. I also got another one of the same video cards I already have because mine is flaky. I got that dirt cheap ($280 for a $600 card) because I held off on committing to buy from the guy, and he ended up repeatedly dropping the price 'til I couldn’t say no. Online, and when the seller is motivated by the need to do Christmas shopping, it seems haggling can become a function of time instead of persuasiveness.
Not that I can really afford any of these things right now, but it was one of those situations where we also couldn’t afford not to. Fortunately almost all of our Christmas shopping is out of the way, which is good for everything but the credit card bills that will ensue.
Off to another work day…