Where are you? What is your geographic location?  How do you know?

Right now I have a sore tooth.  It bothers me. I am aware of it.
If I didn't have a sore tooth would my sore tooth still exist?
If I put a drop of oil of clove on my sore tooth would it still
exist?  Would I still have a sore tooth even if I didn't feel it?
Does a sore tooth have existence other than my perception of it?

109 responses total.

I am in my dining room.  If I spill my milk, it will flow down into Allen 
Creek and proceed, mostly underground, to the Huron River, from when it 
will flow into Lake Erie, across Niagra Falls, to Lake Onterio, and down 
the Saint Lawrance, past Montreal, and out to the Atlantic Ocean.

I am sitting in my chair facing slightly south of west.  If I spit very 
hard, I'll probably hit Los Angelos.

I'm in my dining room also.  However, I differ from Jan in that I'm facing
slightly east of south.  If I stay in this chair for another 3 hours the sun
will be coming in the south window and making it difficult to see the screen.

I am approximately at UTM 17T 0275772 4680655, plus or minus a couple of
meters.

I am in my tiny living room:  My terminal is atop an desktop made for using
a pair of filing cabinets as support.  I face an bland, plaster wall that has
cobwebs, cracks and framed pictures.  Behind me, south.  The sun is shining,
but it will never touch me unless it is low on the horizon.  Only dimming
sunlight seems to exist for me.

I'm in the basement of the Union, in the computer lab.  The windows are
covered so I have no idea if it is light or day.  There are 3 doors into here:
one from an elevator that has stops outside and at the upper floors, and 2
from the basement.  I am facing south.

I am in the 3rd from the last row of computers, on the far left hand.  Right
in front of me is a door, and another row of computers.  There's a guy there,
in the second computer from the far left, with headphones on that he is
singing to.  That's the only sound in here besides keystrokes.

I'm becoming very jealous of the guy with the headphones.  I may start singing
with him soon, if I know the song.

i am facing slightly east of north, hunched over a laptop which
sits on a too-short stool in the livingroom. i wish i were in in my
basement slouched up to my 21" monitor sted this 15" lcd screen.
  
i know i'm here because the carpet feels fuzzy 'neath my bare feet.
\.

I'm in my bedroom at my computer desk, which is in a corner next to my bed.
I'm facing north, and the bedroom door is in my left peripheral view.  Two
windows are to the north and east of me.

        I* am facing south, below ground level, In a basement whose carpet was
 extracted last Thursday. to the west is an open unlit door with a floor of
concrete. The east wall of the basement has two doors, neither of which are
opened.

        Waitahminute, one of the Beanie Babies just grabbed a cold beer without
asking...

I'm in Syracuse NY, facing northwards.  Behind the monitor is a bulliten 
board with miscellaneous stuff tacked to it.  To my east exists a 
window, looking out over Ostrom Avenue.

i sit in a chair that hasn't enough cushion to keep away lower back pains and
soreness of the ass. my laptop sits upon a 60's retro table that someone threw
away. it has a leaf that folds open if you pull the table from each end. there
are only 2 of us sitting here but the table stays extended, as is it such a
fine table that it should be fully exposed. it also provides extra room for
the portable 1980's tv/radio i found so's i could watch the tube while i type
this, but i'm not. the sun is setting and was blinding me until a couple of
minutes ago when the big Chase Bank building jumped in front of it. so i
assume i'm facing westish. if i lean really far to my left i will catch a
glimpse of the manhattan bridge and the absense of the WTC. if it was night
i would see the 2 beams of light, which for me are only one. i'm pretty sure
i exist because i'm pretty sure some guy in some air traffic control building
somewhere sends a plane directly over my building once or twice every night
as it descends for the airport. i am both flattered and distrubed. there is
a speaker mounted on a high shelf that is southwest of me. it's playing music
that's being broadcasted from NJ on 91.1 FM. the woman who lives behind the
window in the building behind mine that i am facing seems to prefer white
bras. she has a very cute cat that is lucky because her owner has put a
birdfeeder outside the window for her entertainment, and i enjoy watching the
cat watch the birds. hopefully the glare will be gone soon. mr man just went
to get a cookie. he's dipping it in his coffee, which i have never seen him
do before. if he throws it hard enough it will hit the wall and fall to the
floor.

I am infront of my web cam,looking forward to get  reply at desa678@yahoo.com
with an offer for a video chat

I am sitting in a large tent with my laplink satilite laptop running from
zercon battries thatweigh less than 2 pounds and keep me running for 48 hours
a charge, then solar panels extend to recharge in less than 2 hours and I'm
back in action again, I came here to find some solace from the hum drum of
daily life in the suburbs and all it's confusion. This place is located far
from any city and requires a boat and later a rented mule to get to.
I find my way out every five days for supplies and return again as money is
no object and I like it here amoung the dense forrest cover unless it's rainey
as it has been the last three days. My tent door faces due west so I can watch
the sunset GPS don't lie much..

i think i am here, therefore i am here.  somebody had to say it.

I think I think therefore I think I am I think.

Ah.  an existentialist item.  Hmm.  If all this isn't real, will I 
wake up and, if so, where will I be?  Also, how can I be sure, once I 
wake up, that I'm not still dreaming?  Isn't there a possibility that 
I'll miss the dream life if it turns out to be false?  

Please, No one wake me up.  I like my screwed up, pointless life.

I am in my bedroom on the second floor of my house in Southgate, facing
north.  My existence is debateable.

I am in the southwest corner of my living room, facing northeast.

Rane, were did you get a map marked in that coordinate system?  I'd like to
have one.

All current topo maps now have UTM coordinates. It is also a coordinate
option in even cheap GPS receivers. I read my coordinates from a Garmin 40.
(UTM, or Universal Transverse Mercator, provides a map coordinate system
of 1 km x 1 km squares, more accurate than the printing accuracy of the
map - and at most a couple of meters off. It is MUCH more convenient than
latitude and longitude for reading or finding locations on maps. topozone.com
has topo maps with UTM coordinates.)

Thanks.  I hadn't known that UTM had gotten into wide usage; I consider(ed)
it a specialty item.

Why does it matter if I exist or not?  I'm affecting you, aren't I?

I AM in Deadwood Oregon, on the side of a mnotain, facing east my back
to the vast Pacific Ocean, 9,000 ft mountains in front of me.  I sit on
my bed in front of my desktop computer, on that I am typing on, and my notebook
computer, off.  I know I exist because life isn't too bad here.

I am in Yakima, Washington, living about a block from Yakima Valley 
Community College.  I am in a little one-bedroom apartment in a 
complex called "South Park" and I chuckle at the similar name to that 
famous cartoon on Comedy Central.

I am ill and wonder if beady was really damn bored.  I am sitting in 
front of a Compaq Presario with an XP system, not really giving a 
flying fuck about anyone's opinion on that recent OS, because, for 
right now, it works Pretty Damn Good and I am neither a computer tech 
professional nor do I spend enough time to really, really care; I'd 
buy some Macs, too, if I were rich.

At the same time, I ponder a more carefree life.  Although I enjoy 
technology, I do find my classical guitar to be a relaxing and soulful 
comfort.  Sometimes simple pleasures are the best, but so many of my 
daydreams have been shattered and I am sad, wondering if the world 
really does have a place for an idealist and a proverbial cygnet like 
me.

I refrain from describing more of my surroundings because I am tired 
and much of it is mundane.  I sneeze as I finished that last sentence, 
and it hurts, because of this damn grippe or flu or cold or whatever 
it is.  I wonder about the etmology of the word "cold," in that 
context, because it doesn't really have any connection to what it 
means in others.

I'm sitting in front of this screen, drinking coffee, and listening to the
sound of my husband's fingers tapping his computer keyboard.  There are
frequent pauses when a second clicking sound, that of his fork meeting his
breakfast plate, are heard.  Soon, as usual, he will leave his study and
stop to give me a good morning kiss.

Life is good.

I'm in the corner bedroom, sitting at a maple desk which my father bought
for me when I was a child.  I am facing northeast, because this house is
oriented about 45 degrees from the usual N/S/E/W.  In most houses, one
might speak of the "northeast corner" or "north side", but our house has a
"north corner" and "northeast side".

This house was built in 1953, by the same builder who built most of the
ones around it.  Technically, the house will be historic next year, by
virtue of being 50 years old (not that this will make any difference to
anyone).  It is a typical ranch house, one story, with a low-pitched,
side-gable roof; it has cedar shingle siding, with part of the front faced
in brick.

I forget the lot number, but the house is in Barnard Heights No. 2
subdivision, in Section 31 of Ann Arbor Township, which is Township 2
South, Range 6 West of the Michigan Meridian, if I'm not mistaken.  It's
part of the vast surveying system of this part of the country which was
mandated by the Northwest Ordinance in 1787.

My street -- Stadium Boulevard -- used to be Michigan Highway 17,
according to a 1937 road map I happen to have.  Now, it is just an Ann
Arbor city street. 

Like Jan, I'm in the Allen Creek watershed, but only on the very edge of
it.  The boundary between Allen and Mallet's Creek watershed is just past
our next-door neighbor's house.  The ground generally slopes down in all
directions from here.  I think I'm at about 1000 feet above sea level, but
I haven't looked at those numbers lately.  The houses on the street behind
ours are probably 8-10 feet lower in elevation than we are.  The houses
across the street (in the Mallet's Creek watershed) are lower, too. 

Within 50 feet of where I sit, there are three mature trees: a Norway
maple, a sugar maple, and a bird cherry.  Within 500 feet of where I sit,
I think the majority of the mature trees are maples.

Almost certainly, if we drilled a well here, the ground water we would
find is contaminated with 1,4-dioxane.  Or, if it's not now, it will be in
a matter of a year or so as the plume spreads to the south and east from
the former Gelman plant on Wagner Road.

I'm also in Precinct 4 of Ward 4 of the City of Ann Arbor, Washtenaw
County, Michigan. This part of the precinct is also in the 4th county
commission District (which I represent), the 53rd state rep district
(represented by Chris Kolb, the only openly gay member of the Michigan
legislature), the 18th State Senate district (represented by Alma Wheeler
Smith), and the 13th congressional district (represented by Lynn Rivers). 
Also, the 4th Ward is represented on the Ann Arbor city council by Steve
Hartwell and Marcia Higgins.  Higgins is a Republican; all the others are
Democrats.

Judicially, I'm in the territory of the 15th District Court, the 22nd
Circuit Court, the 4th Court of Appeals district.  At the federal level,
we're in the Eatern District of Michigan, and the 6th Circuit of the U.S.
Court of Appeals.

I don't remember the census tract and block numbers offhand, but the 2000
census showed the population of my block to be amazingly polyglot, with
large numbers of black, white, Asian, Hispanic, and multiple-race
individuals. 

I'm are in the sector of the city which has Monday trash collection.  I'm
in the Detroit Edison and Michigan Consolidated Gas service areas.  Though
we try not to have any dealings with Ameritech, from a local phone service
standpoint I'm in the Ann Arbor wire center of the 734 area code.

        polygon's house is the reverse image of my house.  However, 
I am in the dinning room/living room, at the dinning table with the
computer (temporaryily) on the edge of it such that I face into the
kitchen.  That would be facing mostly east.  To my right, south is
the TV set on the other side of the room.  Playing The Beatles 
Yellow Submarine at the moment.  Between us, is the good computer,
making a CD for me.  This one, the IBM PS/2, 386 25Mhz with 4meg RAM,
has been doing the $100 function of connecting me to Grex for the 
past two or three years.
        The creek behind me is Mullet's Creek(?).  It would take a
good 4 to 6 feet for it to overflow it's upper bank.  My house is
a good 6 to 8 foot rise above that level.
        I am in the middle of a job search.  I would prefer to 
be at the end of job search.  Certainly hope it is not the 
mid-point.

I am at work right now sitting in the middle of a windowless cube farm. 
I dont know which direction I am facing but I think it might be south. 
It doesnt really matter though as there are no windows. I have a 
calendar with pictures of Venice, Italy that is directly in front of 
me, I have the monitor off to the side a bit. I guess because I 
actually spend more time looking at my pictures of Venice. I bought 
that calendar because I have been to Venice and I would like to go 
back. I thought I might be able to this year but I have decided to get 
a new roof for my house. 

I wish I were writing this from home because I really love my house and 
I would love to be able to tell you all how I was writing this from 
such and such room with the sun gleaming in but then I remember that if 
I were at home writing this, I would be in my walk-in-closet/office 
that I have in the basement. It has a window but it faces north and 
there are bushes in front of it so there never is any sun gleaming in.

I cant write this from home anyways. I dont have a phone jack in the 
basement so the computer is cut off from the world. I do have an old 
notebook and I can call grex from upstairs but the cord is short so I 
have to type while standing in the kitchen which isnt all that fun. I 
do have an area that could be made into a small desk in the kitchen but 
then I would have to move all the cookbooks and the cat food dish 
(which cant go on the floor because of evil cat-food stealing dogs). 

The obvious solution to this would be to install a phone jack in the 
basement but I dont know how to do that and I am too lazy anyway. Maybe 
I will get tired of no phone and call Ameritech to install a jack. That 
will cost me more money than it is worth though. I guess I just dont 
see it as any big deal that I cant put my computer online. 

Does Michigan 17 now continue north along Washtenaw to Huron?  I cannot recall
seeing signs for it beyond Tuomy Hills.  But, again, this may be selective
recall.

You should be able to get materials from Radio Shack to let you extend your
current phone cord so that you can sit at the computer upstairs, and maybe
even drill a very small hole through the floor to run a cord downstairs. 
Email us if you want some free suggestions how to install your own phone
wiring, from Jim.  

Maybe I'll start an item on home phone wiring.  Or maybe not.  I like my
distribution panel, but that may not be the solution for everyone.

I am on the north side of ann arbor, in my livingroom next to the kitchen.

I meant to add that:  I'm in the basement, facing west, with the televsion
to the south.

Re 27.  Michigan 17 now ends at US-23.

East of there, it is Washtenaw going into Ypsilanti.

West of there, per the 1937 map, it ran along Washtenaw until Tuomy Hills,
and along Stadium and Maple to Jackson Road, which was then US-12.

I'm sitting at my desk in my study, facing east, on the 2nd floor,
above the kitchen.  If I turn my head 45 degrees to the left, I
can look out of the east-facing window and see the big tree that
presumably will be in leaf in a few weeks.

        Cybercafe.  Having that blissful moment of no-stress before work. 
Facing west.  Typing on a computer with an overly small monitor running KDE
and Red Hat.  Wishing there were more plants here.

Re #28 Thanks for the offer but it really isnt that big of a deal for 
now. I think I might actually have a book about it. I think I will go 
to radio shack though because buying a longer cord for a few bucks so I 
can sit at the table seems to be the best solution. 

I'm at work at Domino's Farms.  I have a window; it's across a hallway 
but there are no obstructions between it and my desk.  It overlooks a 
shipping dock.  My back is to the window, but I do have a window.

Of course, that's as I type this (and will be as I hit the "Post" 
button in Backtalk to post this).  By the time you read this, I could 
be speeding south on US-23 or US-12, or on one of the many backroads I 
use to get from place to place.  Or I could have gotten home, to my 
apartment in Tecumseh, and be on Grex again, overlooking the really 
nice, scenic wooded view from my bedroom window and reading or 
responding in another item.  With the hours kept by bdh3, if he is the 
reader, I may well be in bed, either asleep or trying to be.  I 
wouldn't know.

From the room where I work I can see the wall next door, with two windows and
five meters, and also a bit of snow on their driveway.  From the kitchen we
see only the 6' fence of the neighbor's yard, plus the exterior stairway they
are currently building to replace the almost identical one that they took down
after buying the house about five years ago and converting from 2 to 1-family.
The previous owner had just replaced that stairway with a new one to sell the
house with.  We wonder whether they expect to sell it as a 2-family again,
having converted from Cape Cod 1.5 story to a full 2-story and had two kids.
We know about the kids because we can hear them through the solid fence.  Not
the sort of people that stick around in this central neighborhood.  They built
the fence 2' inside their property line so that the weed trees on their
property would not be their problem.

I'm sitting in a curiously padded chair, with slightly too much curvature
build into the lower back area and another curve at the top of the back,
which rolls my shoulders forward, bows my neck slightly.  Oddly, if I slouch
down about six inches, the chair becomes much more comfortable, except that
the excessive lumbar curve still makes me feel like I'm going to regret
sitting in this chair later.  Around me lurk the looming shadows of several
unfinished projects, whispering vague threats of future ignominy.  Their
voices seem uncertain, though.  In front of me, slightly above eye level, is a 
patch of drywall bare of office-eggshell paint, whence I removed some months
ago the darkly funny husk of a wildly inaccurate project timeline.  The 
window faces west, and will become a burden in an hour or so, as this 
particular room rises to a temperature slightly higher than the rest of 
the office building and the setting sun hides my monitor screens.

 re #38: 

 > I'm sitting in a curiously padded chair...

 Near-obligatory Simpsons quote --
 Burns: "That's to correct your posture.  Soon you will have a mighty hump!"

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss