Overnight Open Thread - Boredom Edition

50 Things Every 18-Year-Old Should Know

Well this list is more general principles and advice than specific skills. Though I would add to the mix being able to change a tire without assistance and general first aid plus CPR. You may not need these skills very often but when you do, you'll probably need them very badly.

Oh and learn to type. If I had known how much of my later life would be spent pecking at a keyboard, I would have skipped computer programming in high school and taken typing instead.

9) College is a lot more work than high school and your job will be a lot more work than college was.

10) Start looking for a new job BEFORE you quit your old job.

16) If you're not happy with the job market, the government, or the schools in your area, remember that you can always move to another city or another state. Lots of Americans do just that every year.

17) "I wish that I had known to check the oil in my vehicles and to have changed it regularly. It would have saved a lot of money that I spent on repairs -- directly due to my lack of changing the oil per the mechanic." -- Ann H.

34) If you get into a business deal with someone who goes to unusual lengths to convince you of how honest or Christian they are, watch your wallet and make sure you have an iron clad contract. They "doth protest too much."

35) "You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." - Jim Rohn

39) Nobody owes you a living.

40) You are not a victim.

Conservative Myths About 2008
There's a certain amount of retconning going on among unhappy conservatives that 1) McCain was somehow forced on the GOP by the RINO establishment and 2) McCain lost because conservatives stayed at home. Neither one of these is true and re-imagining the past to make them so is really a sign of on-going wishcasting about the future.

Their thesis is that McCain was forced on the Republican electorate by the leaders of the party but then he went on to lose the election because conservatives were demoralized and didn't turn out. As Medved shows, the Republican establishment didn't want McCain and would have preferred Giuliani, Thompson, or Romney to McCain. Those candidates didn't measure up.

Because of the much larger overall turnout in 2008, this meant that far more self-identified conservatives (44,627,000) showed up at the polls for the McCain-Obama battle than in the prior duel between Mr. Bush and John Kerry (41,571,000).

The reason McCain lost was because he lost the moderates in the middle. They went overwhelmingly for Obama.

Yet Another Reason Not to Fund UNESCO

Last week, international media reported that Syria – in the midst of bloody repression and conflict – had been elected to two human rights committees of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization).

UNESCO is the agency that recognized Palestinian statehood last month by allowing the Palestinian delegation to assume full membership–triggering an immediate withdrawal of UNESCO funding from the U.S. Congress.

The Ultralight Rifle Fishing Rod

Weighing in at just under a pound, the .22 caliber single-shot bolt-action rifle is not only light and easy to carry, but the use of aluminum and carbon fiber make it weather resistant too.

...The rifle breaks down into two main components in just a couple of seconds, making it easier to stash in a backpack. And with the addition of a reel screwed onto the pistol grip, and a rod that extends from the stock, you've got yourself another survival tool in the same $425 package.

15 Songs You Know, But Not Their Names
Woo hoo I scored a solid 10 out of 15 - mostly because I had to take Intro to Classical Music twice in college. The D I got the first time around was due to procrastination and a woman but mostly procrastination.

Really Awkward Fan Fiction
You can give someone pre-done characters and a filled out milieu but you just can't make them write decently. I shudder to even imagine what Twilight fanfic is like.

Why Musicians Aren't Taken Seriously Part MMLXXIV
Due to fears of spreading Mad Cow Disease the sales of certain animal tissues are now controlled and that could lead to a phase out of using beef gut for violin and cello strings.

Internationally acclaimed musicians using gut-string instruments include Viktoria Mullova, the London-based, Russian-born violinist. She said the end of the use of gut strings would be “terrible”.

“We wouldn’t be able to play music any more. I wouldn’t be able to play Bach, and we can’t live without Bach,” she added.

6 Terrifying Things Nobody Tells You About Donating Sperm

To a young guy with not much money, sperm donation seems too good to be true. It pays well (as we've pointed out before) and requires you to do nothing more than what you'd be doing anyway. And if you happen to help a childless couple along the way, that's just icing on the cake.

Having actually been a sperm donor, I can say that you had better be prepared for a long haul. There are a lot of (horrifying) hoops to jump through, and then sperm banks expect you to masturbate like ... well, like it's your job.

And it's not an easy one.

The Yahoo AoSHQ group. You know the way.

Tonight's post brought to you by HST and Bill Murray:

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posted by Maetenloch at 09:51 PM

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