life hard. want refund

Okay, distrubing moment of the weekend. Fell asleep at 7 PM. Woke up? 8 this morning.

*sad* I am getting old. I am only surprised amireal didn't send a worried email. *g* She now worries if she does not see me for twenty-four hours, I am dying in the hosptial.

Okay, question. For SGA/SG1 people. Can Ancients bring people back from the dead?

Unrelated but relevant:

1.) Obsessively playing sudoku does not, in fact, making fic editing go by faster.

2.) I forgot how much I hate editing even when I love reading the betas beyond all words.

3.) I want a pony.



I have a meeting on Monday evening that is making me tense. It's kind of the reason I've been tense and jumpy all week. It *could* be really really good, or it could be really really bad; it's a toss up. It's education-relatedish and frustrating and gah. It's--kind of. Hmm.

I have a choice. One of them is to formally deny all my education post-high school and start fresh. That's losing somethign close to 100 hours (I'm three core classes (10-11 hours) and an additional 18 hours non-core off from graduation). The other is--uncomfortable and possibly impossible. Monday I'm trying to introduce an option three, which is expensive and kind of inconvenient but doable.

I can do inconvenient.

I'm tempted by the formal denial one if for no other reason than it'll simply things. And this time through I know which classes that no amount of studying will make me good at. But I'd lose my GPA, which is about 3.0 and I kind of like it.

Need *nap*. I really feel like this entire encouragement by manager to finish my degree? Was totally a mistake. He finishes his masters and suddenly he is all about getting me off my ass. Bastard.



To round this out.

1.) I will forever be amused by the people talking about the evils of illegal immigration who I have *seen* picking up day labor on a daily basis. Seriously. That's just funny.

2.) I am always deeply amused by people who whine about how welfare is destroying American while receiving Medicaid and CHIP cards.

3.) Double that for the people that cleverly move all their considerable assets into trusts (and I'm talking about people in the one million area) so they can get Medicaid for nursing home care.

4.) Anyone, anyone, who calls in to explain how all those evil people are getting food stamps and don't deserve it nearly as much as they do. And their taxes support it! (this is most fun with people where I'm reading their case history and noting they've only held jobs that keep them not only below the income tax limit but also manage to continue to receive benefits.)

Sometimes, my job is very strange.

ETA: Going garage saleing and Barnes-and-Nobling, hopefully will have Martha Wells' Entanglement so I have guaranteed good reading for the plane on Friday. THEY HAD BETTER.

Comments

[mir8lle.livejournal.com]

For SGA/SG1 people. Can Ancients bring people back from the dead?

I vote no. If they could, they would have no need to freeze people all willy nilly and leave them in stasis chambers for unsuspecting explorers to trip over every other episode or so.

[glammetalkitten.livejournal.com]

Okay, question. For SGA/SG1 people. Can Ancients bring people back from the dead?

They can certainly heal those right on the edge of death....in 6x04 of SG-1 (Frozen) the Ancient that was found ini Antarctica healed the expedition members who were dying from the plague.

Not that I am sure that helps in any way, shape or form :S

[torakowalski.livejournal.com]

Can Ancients bring people back from the dead?

Well, the Ori can so I'm guessing the Ancients must be equally able to. But I'm not sure they would...

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

Okay, distrubing moment of the weekend. Fell asleep at 7 PM. Woke up? 8 this morning.

This has started happening to me at the end of almost any day I don't take a time-release Concerta. (aside: Did You Know[tm] that methy-whosis, the active ingredient in most stimulant ADD medications, was originally prescribed for narcolepsy, that disorder of falling asleep involuntarily? I think it's meant to keep people awake involuntarily; I know it works on me until the not-so-wee hours of the morning if I take it after 10am) If I'm not getting a 10-12 hour nap, then I'm getting power naps all during a weekend day that I dont take it after a particularly trying week.

Okay, question. For SGA/SG1 people. Can Ancients bring people back from the dead?

Unresearched answer: In theory, yes. The Ascended Ancients have been presented as pretty much all powerful. In t SGA ep "Epiphany," people actively working toward Ascension developed supernatural abilities of healing (the kid) and precognition (the half-Ascended virgin, Tir? I'm not so good with the names;) so it can be inferred that full Ascension brings the whole thing full circle, and the laws of science as we understand them do not apply.

In practice? To the best of my recollection, we've only seen people come back who were known to have Ascended, usually with help from Oma, who is currently a little busy fighting Anubis back. (aside: I wonder which one painted their face white/black, and which black white? [hearts] Trek)

I have a plot bunny in which a mirror universe with a Mary Sued Oma (is that even possible?) starts shoving people through a quantum mirror who are dead in whatever target universe she's dialed up as the originating universe crumbled under the assault of the threat du jour, resulting in a disheveled Janet Fraser, Kowalski and Captain Charlie/Tyler O'Nie(l)l getting deposited on the gateroom floor, shortly followed by that universe's recently descended (and, of course, butt nekkid) Daniel Jackson. Developments keep stalling after that (for some reason) but the point is that the dead can be replaced from alternate universes.

Then there are sarcophagi. Goa'uld steal all of their tech, so sarchophagi, with their death-defying properties, look good for stemming from Ancient tech. Could there be a prototype in Atlantis or in an as yet undiscovered lab in our galaxy? Enquiring minds want to know! I'm not sure if that would count as the Ancients bringing someone back, but it would be close.

If there were a straight dead-to-alive transaction perpetrated by an Ancient, it would in my opinion (a) need to be a really ancient Ancient with lots of practice and not some twit who'd Ascended just for the occasion, as Daniel was demonstrably taking some time to "learn the ropes," and (b) need to be an Ancient with enough of an investment in the dead to seriously Not Care what the Others would do to him/her. Not one of them has gotten away with anything, and I do mean bupkis, if the Others have taken a notion to give a rat's ass. (Orlon, Chaya Sue, and eventually Oma all got taken out of the game one way or another.)

So, having gone to bed at 11:30 last night and awakened this morning at, um, 11:30, I feel the need for breakfast.

[joolz01.livejournal.com]

justalurkr has my answer. First of all, yes, I bet they can bring people back from the dead, no problem. Except they aren't allowed to.

But then, Sarcophagi = possible Ancient tech, or certainly known by them = bringing people from the dead through tech, without direct intervention on the part of the Ancient = perhaps they could get away with it by dropping a sarc in front of someone at a propitious moment.

Many possibilities, there... :)

[cynonymous.livejournal.com]

Didn't SG1 find the object that the sarcophagi was based on in that two-parter where Daniel and Dr. Lee are kidnapped by Central American guerrillas? It was an open cube thingy and it brought one of them back to life (repeatedly) after he'd been shot dead? I just can't remember if the exposition Daniel gave on it said it was Ancient or from somewhere else.

[bkwyrm.livejournal.com]

There is a woman I know who lives on SSA and student loans and food stamps, who complains extensively about the welfare state. Because people work the system! They don't get jobs! They expect the government to just take care of them!
Hmmmmmyeah.

[amireal.livejournal.com]

WHAT?? LIKE IT'S NEVER HAPPENED!

One moment I think "Wait, I has not seen Jenn in a while" and the next I am getting an IM from Madelyn talking about hospitals and drugs. THIS HAS HAPPENED TWICE!

God. Trauma I tell you! TRAUMA!

Also? Last night I was too busy being sick and tired to do the "isn't Jenn supposed to be online?" math. *sad*

As for the ancients--- I wouldn't put it past them to, if really needed, slip back in time to right before the person died, and snap them up and heal them and bring them forward.

With all the nasty time implications that includes. Though who knows, maybe they can create bodies and such, might be easier than creating life.

As one who let nearly two decades lapse between BA and start of still-unfinished MBA

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

I can do inconvenient.

I salute working moms with educational goals everywhere. Y'all'r completely nuts, (and I mean bugfuck of nuts) and I salute you a lot. Observing from the outside, "inconvenient" is the nicest adjective one can assign to the pursuit of higher education by the gainfully employed parent, irrespective of the starting position of post-high school credits.

That said, and disclaiming all-knowingness on the basis of having completed a bachelor's on the Bank of Mom and Dad, then let whatever number of years lapse that leaves me 37, and then gotten 12 credit hours toward an MBA which may or may not be all that helpful in my current, technically oriented career, let me say this:

Before melding 100 hours into inconvenience, please do a thorough review of what you'd have to test out of, prove you already knew, or present as already taken, considering their might be a "use by" date on classes already completed. I boinged into Managerial Accounting thinking that some 20-year old high school math was going to get me through (after all, accounting is just arithmatic and I made it to Trig, right? C student, but it was Trig) and omiGOD I could not have been more wrong.

On the other hand you have a driven supportive boss, which alone is worth its weight in rubies, and employers of all types seem just entranced by the piece of paper. I ask you, what does International Relations (Cold War vintage, no less, though I am still only 37) have to do with wireless network support? Approximately $2500 to $4000 more per year in salary, apparently.

Whatever you wind up doing, I say go for the gold, especially if it's on someone else's dime.

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

life hard. want refund.

Perhaps it's like avocados -- wait a bit and see if it softens and becomes palatable?

[deadlychameleon.livejournal.com]

Heh. I suggest not denying all previous academic experience. Trust me. You don't want to have to take Bio 100 over again. It sounds like you're about one semester at full time, one semester at part time from being done. That's doable. It'll suck, no doubt, but it's doable. I'm sure you'll run into this, but financially, it may be better to go two semesters full time. You get more aid. I also don't know too much about schools where you are, but community college was way better in Nevada then the state school was. Closer, cheaper, and I generally got better professors, for some reason.

[ltlj.livejournal.com]

I don't think they could bring someone back if the person had been dead for any length of time. I think if they caught them right as they were dying, or had the recently dead body to heal in whatever their version of the Goa'uld sarcophagus was (because the Goa'uld stole all their technology, so that had to come from the Ancients) they could do it. But if the person had been dead long enough that the body was decomposed, or if they didn't have the body, I don't think they could do it. If the person was ascended, of course, they could de-ascend them easily, because they've shown that that process re-creates the body you had when you ascended.

Though with Ascendants probably anything is possible.

I think if non-ascended Ancients could bring people back to life, they would have been doing it to each other and wouldn't have had problems with the Wraith, or the plague that killed them in the Milky Way.

I hope you find the book! :crossing fingers:

[giogio.livejournal.com]

Re 1-4: I agree in as much as it's hypocritical to object to other people getting what you yourself are getting. On the other hand, I'm greatly in favor of playing the system if you have to, since I have filthy European attitudes about certain things, such as that both health care and education should be rights rather than privileges.

When I've analyzed acquaintances' finances in the past to determine ways to get them to a place where they will not struggle indefinitely, I have often recommended that they drop themselves below whatever income level is necessary to qualify for full benefits such as indigenous county health care, food stamps, BOG fee waivers, full financial aid, etc., in the short term, to allow them to get to a financially more stable place. Because I very much believe that the system should be available not only for fostering subsistence living, but also for allowing people to move to stability, and if that takes playing the system, then so be it.

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

I think if you live in a country committed to making health care and education rights and are taxed accordingly, there's not much to do but play the system, as it is most likely taking most of the money you need to get ahead.

I'm not sure what the US is committed to, but it's sure as hell not what I'd call universal health care or an education that makes a difference. It's like, "Okay, if you're starving, we'll feed you," with a highly elastic definition of starving, and "Okay, we'll make sure you can read, write and cypher," with an even more elastic definition of literacy, which usually does not appear to include math literacy, (else how would the federal government get some of these budget proposals through and continue getting re-elected?) or "Okay, we can't turn you away from the single most expensive form of health care (the emergency room) for lack of insurance," but people wanting to do better than buttered rice, getting a broken leg set or balancing their check book can freakin' whistle for it, because somehow they're paid just enough to pop for not starving, barely reading, not limping around on an unset leg, while being taxed to pay for ...all that.

I'm sure there's an iron law of wages or some other capitalist "ideal" in play here, but in the end? We have our own effed up system to work, and I can't really bring myself to judge anyone who does it.

[giogio.livejournal.com]

Ah, I was speaking specifically of playing the system in the US, since the countries that have nationalized health care and education and are taxing accordingly, generally makes these things available with less effort (though sometimes you still need to do battle).

(Also, I think it's a bit of a misnomer to call it "taxed accordingly" because a) the delta in effective tax rates isn't that great, and b) your actual expenditures are the same, if not more, in the US, it's just that we don't call those extra expenditures "taxes". Give you a concrete example: my little sister lives and works in Germany, in a comparable position at a comparable company and gets paid about the same as I do. We're both single. My effective tax rate in the US is about 35%, hers in Germany is about 45%. That 10% difference is very easily nullified by the fact that she does not have copays or employee contributions to her health insurance, no prescription costs, better state disability coverage, better equivalent of Social Security, a fully vested company retirement plan, better vacation/sick benefits, union representation, 6 months termination notice, better state unemployment insurance if she does get terminated, and is currently pursuing a p/t MBA program at a public (free) university.)

But that aside, I think my point is that if you get a choice between earning min wage, which essentially means (here in Cali) you'd take home about $1050 a month (gross pay = $1240/month), and you have no benefits, it might make more sense for you to reduce your hours to where you hit the qualification line for benefits. For instance, if your net pay/month is 1050 you can't afford paying $200+ for health insurance. In Sacramento County, IIRC, you can qualify for free county health care (which is actually quite good since it's provided by the UC Davis Medical Center) if your gross pay is less than $1200/month. Food stamp benefits, subsidized housing benefits, free transportation passes (we have a decent(ish) light-rail/bus system), etc. all have very arbitrary income thresholds/calculation formulae as well. So in the end, you'd be making out far better if you earn just enough to stay below the thresholds that get you all those benefits than you would if you exceeded them by $40/month as in the hypothetical health care example above.

The ideal solution, of course, would be to fix the system and get rid of arbitrary thresholds and instead evaluate each person's real needs individually, but it'll be a cold day in hell before that happens, thus the playing the system part.

Ah, I think I see

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

And, yes. It does make sense to reduce hours in those circumstances.

Evaluating case by case? Are you applying logic to this? Haven't you been warned about that? ;)

Also, where do we sign up to move to Germany?

Re: Ah, I think I see

[giogio.livejournal.com]

*sigh* Yes the same logic I'm applying when I argue that the first step to stamping out a hell of a lot of social problems and poverty-driven crime would be to legalize, regulate and tax prostitution and drugs--I know it'll never happen because there are whole industries built around the illegality of them, but it's the only logical solution.

And I believe Germany is quite well-disposed toward immigration of educated, Westernized people these days--something to do with declining birth rates :)

Re: Ah, I think I see

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

Heh. You have shameless libertarian leanings, I see. Prohibition having worked [set SARCASM=ON] so very well, [set SARCASM=OFF] I can't argue with that, either. (Also, "licensed companions" are one of my favorite parts of Nora Roberts (writing as JD Robb)'s In Death series. Legalize, regulate, tax, and train them.

Unfortunately, I can't help Germany with their birthrate issues. Aside from the fact that aqui se habla espanol, I'm also generously allowing other women to have all of my children. The cats have refused to share my attentions, and I'm sure the other girls are much better at that motherhood thing.

Re: Ah, I think I see

[giogio.livejournal.com]

*blinkblinkblink*

I always thought I was some weird socialist-existentialist-anarchist crossbreeding experiment gone awry when they added too many analytical functions :p

Re: Ah, I think I see

[orange852.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah. But "libertarian" takes less time to say. Everything I know about it I learned from a book called "Libertarianism," but the one before that was "Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do," which I think sums up the philosophy better.

Am v. drunk now on one and one half ounces of lemon rum and should stop (a) posting and (b) surfing the iTunes store. I'm going to be wondering where all of this music came from tomorrow...

night!

oh, and...

[orange852.livejournal.com]

I also seemed to be signed in under my other personality. orange852 is usually more reasonable and grown up than justalurkr, but she also drinks a lot and spoils her cats.

[risha]

That's of course assuming that the system has the money at the moment to allow you to play it.

My father recently separated from my step-mother, and now is living on his own on just his Social Security Disability. (Fortunately it was amicable and she's still keeping him on her medical insurance, because I doubt that he'd be able to manage on just Medicaid.) When we talked on the phone on Friday, he told me that everyone had told him to apply for housing assistance - they'd cover half of his rent, and right now he's just barely getting enough money to both pay his bills and eat for the month. Sure enough, he more than qualified. But then they told him that there's a two and a half year waiting list.

*bitter*

[alicettlg.livejournal.com]

you're starving

I'm sorry but that terminology is not acceptable, the current politically correct term is "very low food security".

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/15/AR2006111501621.html

After all, there couldn't possibly be any hungry people in America, right? Just as only guilty people get arrested, right????

[facepalm]

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

I can't even imagine what I was thinking! [scribbles "very low food security" 100x on the chalkboard]

Thank you for the link, by the way. I would never otherwise have believed you weren't making that up. George Orwell missed a couple of nuances in 1984, clearly.

Re: [facepalm]

[alicettlg.livejournal.com]

You're welcome - my jaw dropped when I heard about it awhile back, I could just see some Washington neocon thinking, "gee this hunger problem is a pita, I know! We'll call it something else and then we can say there is no hunger problem!"

gah.

"very low food security"

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

...makes me think of Lucy Van Pelt in "Peanuts" holding out her hand for "five cents, please" to help people with with their insecurities.

Doesn't "very low food security" sound more like a personal problem than "hunger" or "starvation," or am I being unnecessarily cynical?

Re: "very low food security"

[alicettlg.livejournal.com]

You silly girl, there is no such thing as unnecessarily cynical here in rosy Bush-land.

Lucy - LOL! Yes, right up her alley!

oops

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

while being taxed to pay for ...all that.

I actually meant to say "all that, and invading people." Invading people is Very Important, you know.

[pentapus.livejournal.com]

Hey, if you don't find Entanglement? I have it. In proximity. If you need it.

[akacat]

For SGA/SG1 people. Can Ancients bring people back from the dead?

They can, but it's not pretty.


I'd guess that the ascended are capable of bringing (unascended) people back from the dead. They just don't, because they don't want to be smacked down.

I doubt that pre-ascended ancients could. Although the level of their technology should have given them a larger window for successfully reviving the freshly-dead.

[lillian13.livejournal.com]

The Lakeline Mall B&N didn't have Entanglement in stock, but they are ordering it for me and I'll have it in a few days.

And I have to agree with the hold your nose and do the last two semesters brigade. A friend recently finished her accounting degree at St. Edwards, and she is (now) single with a kid. So it's very annoying, but it's doable. (Especially if you can take your clases at St. Edwards or Concordia, who, unlike UT, seem to have a wide variety of evening classes available.)

As to Ancients raising the dead--they might be able to, but there's no way in hell I'd trust the technology. It would probably do some random D&D spell-thing and turn you into a newt. Who throws fireballs.

[tienriu.livejournal.com]

Okay, question. For SGA/SG1 people. Can Ancients bring people back from the dead?

Yes.

Oma Desala does for one of her disciples (season 3/4 SG-1?) and then to Daniel Jackson in season 5 and 8 (possibly 7, can't quite remember). Admitedly, Oma Desala's approach was to ascend them but it's just a side-step from what the Ori and their Priors do (season 9) when they bring Vala back from the dead.

Also Rodney, in pre-ascended form, brought Radek back from the dead (well healed his body and restarted his heart, in some shows having your heart stop doesn't count as dead).

[cynonymous.livejournal.com]

Okay, question. For SGA/SG1 people. Can Ancients bring people back from the dead?
If the cube thingy that Daniel and Dr. Lee found in Central America was Ancient technology, or Goauld built based on Ancient technology, then yes. Does anyone remember specifically what they said the origin of it was? I think the explanation was that Goauld sarcophagi were based on it, and SG1 needed it to build the weapon to kill the super-soldiers etc. etc.

If it was Ancient, then even unascended Ancients had the ability (through technology) to bring back the dead. Unfortunately, it seemed to bring the guy in that episode back as a mindless zombie, but you can't have everything.

[cynonymous.livejournal.com]

Here's the summary from Gateworld:

Jacob tells the team that the technology used to create such a creature is a very old device created by the Ancients and discovered by the Goa'uld thousands of years ago. The Goa'uld Telchak used the device to develop the first sarcophagus, which can heal wounds and even raise the dead. Anubis sought the powerful device (before he ascended), and went to war with Telchak -- but never managed to find it. But after he joined the Ancients on a higher plane of existence, Daniel concludes, he wouldn't need it -- he would have learned how to build his own.
So it looks like the answer is "yes." The Ancients could bring people back from the dead, even before they ascended.

[yarngeek.livejournal.com]

Yup! The sarcophogus technology came from them; there was an episode in SG1 S7 where Daniel found the prototype, which was fueling the Fountain of Youth myth and made zombies at close range (because humans are just enough different from Ancients that we zombify instead of coming back properly, I think. I don't think I saw the second half of that episode).

... I did not realize that I remembered that much about that episode. Huh.

[djinanna.livejournal.com]

Have a pinto pony. And Viggo.

[wrenlet.livejournal.com]

Double that for the people that cleverly move all their considerable assets into trusts (and I'm talking about people in the one million area) so they can get Medicaid for nursing home care.

*rage stomp rage* You know I deal with accounting CPE and I SWEAR every time I have to deal with one of the courses that lays out these "strategies," I lose a year off my life to Sheer. Blinding. Rage.

All of the four are sucktastic in the extreme, but it's #3 that's going to send me to an early grave. (That, and shit like deductions on business taxes for BRIBES THEY PAY in certain foreign countries.)

[djinanna.livejournal.com]

I was wandering around the Internet and saw THIS (http://rosebudminiatures.bravehost.com/). And I couldn't help wondering, do you really want a pony, or do you want one of these adorable miniature horses? I've seen pictures of them even smaller than these, as well as rumors they can be housebroken. And ... so cute.

[fyrdrakken]

Easier to take care of, and yes they can be brought into the house. Blasted expensive to buy, though...